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Kofi Annan Addresses United Nations

Aired November 10, 2001 - 09:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: We want to check in live now with the United Nations, where U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is addressing the General Assembly. President Bush will do so shortly.

Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: ... and seldom has the need for it been more widely understood.

When their families are under attack, it is in the common house that its members gather to decide what to do. Excellencies, from the very day after the tragedy, while you took action in your own countries and regions, your representatives here have been hard at work, first expressing their condemnation and resolve, then working out in detail how the world can protect itself.

The United Nations has been given -- has also been straining every nerve to bring relief to the suffering of people of Afghanistan and to help them reach agreement on a broad-based government. One is tempted to say that we must now focus all our energies on the struggle against terrorism and on directly related issues.

Yet if we should do so, we will be giving the terrorists a victory of the kind. Let us remember that none of the issues that faced us on September 10 has become less urgent. The number of people living on less than $1 a day has not decreased. The numbers dying of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other preventable diseases have not decreased. The factors that cause the desert to advance, biodiversity to be lost, and the earth's atmosphere to warm have not decreased.

And in many parts of the world afflicted by the scourge of war, innocent people have not ceased being murdered, mutilated, or dragged or driven from their homes.

In short, my friends, the agenda for peace, development, and human rights set for us in the Millennium Declaration is no less pressing, even if it has taken on new urgency.

SAVIDGE: And you're watching now as we listen to the U.N. secretary-general, President Bush arriving. He is expected to also address the General Assembly. It will be the first time that George W. Bush has addressed the U.N.

In the meantime, let's continue to listen to the U.N. secretary general.

ANNAN: ... clash between so-called civilizations based on the exaggeration of religious and cultural differences, or the global community, respecting diversity and rooted in universal values.

The latter must be our choice. But we can achieve it only if we bring real hope to the billions now trapped in poverty, conflict, and disease. And that is why the current meeting of the World Trade Organization is so important. Never was agreement among nations, rich and poor, on the rules the of international trading system so vitally needed.

But even more decisive will be the use that member states make of this organization in the years ahead. Let me recall some fundamental principles by which I believe our work must be guided.

First, the United Nations must always stand for the rule of law in international and domestic affairs.

Secondly, we must cherish our multilateral institutions and procedures and use them to full effect.

Thirdly, the United Nations must place people at the center of everything it does, enabling them to meet their needs and realize their full potential. That can only be achieved in a world of effective, accountable states which use sovereignty as a means to ensure the security of their peoples and to uphold, not violate, their rights.

Fourthly, all the actors of the international system must work together in pursuit of common goals. The United Nations should concentrate on those areas where it has comparative advantage. Where others have greater expertise and resources, it must seek to ensure that they apply them to the common needs of humanity. In other words...

SAVIDGE: Listening to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as he addresses the U.N. General Assembly before the opening of a global gathering that is taking place at the U.N. in New York.

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