60th Anniversary of the United Nations |
60 is the retirement age for diplomats and some other valuable public servants – many people think that it is too early. Whether the 60th anniversary celebrations for the UN are a retirement party or the prelude to a new chapter of usefulness is a question which everyone in this Cathedral, especially the young, has a stake in answering.
The lessons we have read, breathe a sense of urgency and passion. “I, the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit.” The UN was founded sixty years with a sense of urgency and passion informed by the devastation wrought by World War II. The Charter launched in the name of “we the peoples” expresses loftier ambitions than those which informed the pre-war League of Nations. The Charter is innovative and is explicitly concerned with the rights of individual citizens to humane and equal treatment under the law. “In the Charter,” said Clement Attlee welcoming ministers to the first UN General Assembly in London, “we see the freedom of the individual in the state as an essential complement to the freedom of the state in the world community of nations.”
The 78 tons of paper in San Francisco which went into the final drafting of the Charter and the statutes of the International Court of Justice produced a document of great moral resonance. As well as affirming universal human rights, it broke new ground in the detail of its provisions for the collective use of force. It also drew an explicit connection between peace and material well being.
As Churchill said in his March 1946 speech in Fulton Missouri [a speech better remembered today for its reference to the Iron Curtain], “the temple of peace” was designed but not yet built. It remained he said to ensure “that its work is fruitful, that it is a reality and not a sham, that it is a force for action and not merely a frothing of words, that it is a true temple of peace in which the shields of many nations can some day be hung, and not merely a cockpit in a Tower of Babel.”
Today we give thanks for all those who have struggled to make a reality of the noble design of sixty years ago, we give thanks for many of those gathered in this Cathedral who have served under the UN flag and worn the blue beret.
No one could doubt the relevance today of the ideals which inspired the architects of the UN. The post war generation has been presented with two symbols which reveal the choice confronting all those who are alive now. The symbols are the cloud and the globe. The mushroom cloud is also sixty years old. It stands for the human capacity to bring unparalleled destruction upon the earth. The globe is the other symbol, sapphire blue and beautiful, seen for the first time in its wholeness as human beings penetrated outer space. The symbol of the globe stands for our one world, our common planetary home upon which all life on earth depends. We are meant as Paul says to “live in harmony with one another”.
Former President Clinton put it like this in his message to the Global Initiative that he launched last month – “our mission in this new century is clear. For good or ill we live in an interdependent world. We can’t escape one another. Therefore we have to spend our lives building a global community of shared responsibilities, shared values, shared benefits.”
Anniversaries like this one are opportunities to review the way we have come and to reconnect with the vision and to redirect our energies. We should do this as Paul again says, “rejoicing in hope”, because pessimism is the luxury of rich people with plenty of time. From a growing partnership between the Diocese of London with communities in Mozambique and Angola, I share the experience with many of you that the way to re-energise commitment and hope is to spend some time in an African village, poor in material resources but rich in spirit and above all hope.
President Clinton again, “In my life now, I am obsessed with only two things: I don’t want anybody to die before their time and I don’t want to see good people spend their energies without making a difference…you can change the reality of human history by systematic action.”
As we look at the story of the UN over the past sixty years everybody would acknowledge that it has been difficult to reconcile the emphasis that the Charter places on universal human rights and the insistence on the principle of non- intervention in the affairs of sovereign states. We see a contemporary example of this agonising dilemma in the suffering of the people of Darfur.
It has also sometimes been difficult for the UN as an organisation with such close connections with governments to relate positively to voluntary and commercial agencies, which are both such significant actors in the contemporary world. I think for example of the effectiveness of independent organisations like Amnesty International in realising one of the aims of the Charter in holding governments to account for their human rights record.
At the same time, the UN operates in a world in which the density and variety of alternative international dialogues greatly exceeds any thing that the architects of the organisation could have envisaged. In these circumstances it does not help any organisation if its lovers are uncritical or its critics unloving. As Lord Ashdown said, “no one can doubt the need for reform of the UN.”
There is no shortage of passion and urgency, I believe, among “we the peoples”. The day before the London bombs, Kofi Annan and Gordon Brown met together in this Cathedral to discuss the Millennium Development Goals. The response from a large cross section of predominantly youthful Londoners from every conceivable culture and religion represented in this world in a city was overwhelming – so much so that we had to close the doors when the queue for admission still stretched all the way to the underground station.
“We the peoples” should not always be demanding that governments and our political leaders bear the whole burden of leadership in this area. Governments in the 21st century must balance the reality of diminished sovereignty with a sense of nationhood that is if anything increasingly lively. As we confront the great challenges of our time, the alleviation of global poverty, the implications of climate change, the pressures and opportunities of global economic interdependence and realising the potential of faith and religion for reconciliation rather than mayhem, every one of us is called to be active as citizens in enlarging the room for our political leaders to act and holding them to account if they do not act.
I believe that religious leaders in particular have not with honourable exceptions risen to the challenge of our time with sufficient passion or urgency. In contrast to the efforts of scientists and many business interests world wide the global religious network is fragmented and underdeveloped. The initiative of the previous Pope in summoning a gathering of leaders of the world’s faith communities
to Assisi to pray for world peace shows what can be done with determined leadership. It is an example which we need to follow since mere appeals to ethical fraternity without the energy of faith do not seem to generate the dynamic for change which is required.
Soon we are going to bind ourselves afresh to some of the ideals which animated the architects of the UN in an act of dedication and commitment to the future. Please God we shall do so in a serious, joyful and hopeful spirit which all in this Cathedral can share. In the words of Paul, “Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Amen. Amen.
