The Emir tells UN the world needs ‘social’ as well as ‘political’ peace
NEW YORK • Lasting and effective safety and peace in the “one global village” can only be achieved through charting a new course, the Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has told the United Nations in New York.
Only through “positive peace” and providing “parallel and equal opportunities to one world” and shedding the shackles of underdevelopment can an effective solution be found.
In a powerful speech to the UN General Assembly yesterday, The Emir told delegates that lasting peace no longer meant the “eliminating the threat of arms” and working towards “social peace” as well as “political peace”.
H H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned addressing the UNESCO meeting on Education Financing in New York yesterday. (Maher Attar)
The Emir said although there had not been a world war in more than 60 years, previous modes of brokering coalitions between nations can no longer be relied upon in this globalised world.
“While it is true that humanity has not known a global war in the last 60 years, it is also true that peace in those last 60 years has remained elusive for it was a peace marred by conflicts on all continents and in all territories,” the Emir told delegates.
“We have also come to the conclusion that in a world where barriers of distances and time have vanished, achieving peace requires establishing and promoting economic and social justice among peoples, and this is what constitutes positive peace.”
Earlier this year, the Emir presided over the landmark peace talks between the brawling factions in Lebanon.
Qatar is also leading an Arab League panel to work with the African Union and United Nations to sponsor peace talks in Sudan's Darfur region.
It is in this context that the Emir told delegates at the sitting of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly that promoting economic and social justice amongst the population was a way towards peace.
“We have also come to the conclusion that in a world where barriers of distances and time have vanished, achieving peace requires establishing and promoting economic and social justice among peoples, and this is what constitutes positive peace,” The Emir told the UN general assembly participants.
“Mr. President, if the principles of the UN Charter have established the political rights of nations on the basis of international law, the right of their peoples to social justice must be based on the idea of development.”
The Emir said: “the realities of today''s world require a different approach, for peace cannot be achieved through conflict between powers, agreement between empires, or coexistence among blocs, and not even through positive neutrality. The alternative to those three options is our new choice, namely positive peace, the era of international law that ensures political rights, and the era of development that provides parallel and equal opportunities to one world that cannot head into the future hindered by the injustices of politics or the blinded by the darkness of underdevelopment,” the Emir said.
Later this year Qatar will play host to the UN's Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development. The Emir said this was an opportunity for all involved to achieve lasting “social peace”.
“My country looks forward to an international cooperation that offers the broadest base possible for political as well as social peace,” he said.
“We hope that participation in the conference will be at the highest possible level, for the goal is ambitious and the purpose is vital for the safety and peace of the one human global village.”
The Pen
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