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London, 29 November 2001
The British Museum




HUMAN RIGHTS AND GLOBAL CIVILISATION


2nd Annual BP Lecture
by
Mary Robinson,
United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights


Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honour to have been invited to deliver the 2nd annual BP Lecture here at the British Museum. It is always a pleasure to visit this renowned institution and discover something new about the histories of the world's cultures - the world's vernaculars - through the collections in the Museum's care.
Nelson Mandela remarked during his lecture here a year ago that by bringing together works of art from all parts of the world - works which have influenced and interacted with each other across the centuries - the Museum reminds us that we are all part of a larger whole. May I pay my own personal tribute to him as a friend and ally of human rights and a great support to me in this job. Last year he willingly agreed to be patron of a vision declaration on tolerance and diversity which we launched as part of the preparations for the World Conference against Racism, and which reminded us of our common membership in "the one human family".
Even as we celebrate the diversity of human expression, we are also invariably drawn towards the familiar - towards home. I am very impressed by the Museum's exhibits from my native Ireland. The Londesborough Brooch, for example, is typical of the finest Irish work of the eighth century. Combining Celtic, Germanic and classical elements, it is but one example of how the best of human creation not only draws on the roots of local traditions, but on interaction with other cultures.
The importance of cultural interaction and shared learning was what UN Member States had in mind last year when they proclaimed 2001 the "International Year of Dialogue among Civilisations" . They signalled the need for greater understanding and mutual respect in achieving the primary and interrelated objectives of the United Nations - peace, human development, human rights and the strengthening of international law.
No one could have imagined a year ago just how urgent that dialogue would be today. One of the many lessons we are learning since the horrific events of 11 September is that great gulfs of understanding exist between the world's cultures, religions and civilisations. Commentary on recent events gives the impression that we are witnessing the clash of civilisations foretold by Samuel Huntington. This, however, is not the case. Amartya Sen has, in a recent article, termed the categorisation of the people of the world by civilisation as "crude and inconsistent", ignoring other ways of seeing people, linked to politics, language, literature, class, occupation of other affiliations. "Each of us has many features in our self-conception. Our religion, important as it may be, cannot be an all-engulfing identity. Even a shared poverty can be a source of solidarity across the borders... The main hope of harmony lies not in any imagined uniformity, but in the plurality of our identities, which cut across each other and work against sharp divisions into impenetrable civilisational camps". As he concludes, "the robbing of our plural identities not only reduces us; it impoverishes the world".
Global Poverty and Global Civilisation
Yet there is another issue, perhaps even more divisive and threatening to global sustainability, than conflicts between cultures. I am often asked: "what do you think is the worst problem in human rights in our world today? " I reply "extreme poverty " . Extreme poverty means a denial of the exercise of all human rights and undermines the dignity and worth of the individual. And yet, even in situations of extreme poverty, the human spirit triumphs in fighting back.
Earlier this month, while in India, I was invited to visit a small project in the worst slum in New Delhi. The conditions were appalling, and the place was known for drug dealing, violence and trafficking in children. I met local men and women - mainly women - who were supported by an NGO called STOP in providing three things: some education for the children, basic health care, and a small income from making candles.
As I listened, I was struck by their caring for each other and for the many orphaned children, by their determination not to be moved by some slum clearance scheme, and by the sense of community in such terrible squalor. When I came out of the small room they used as a centre, I was told the children wanted to sing for me. About 50 of them had gathered in the narrow, pot-holed street and they sang in Hindi “We Shall Overcome”. They held the note and I found it difficult to hold back the tears.
Extreme poverty is the life long experience of millions and millions of people in our world today. The numbers are growing. What reflection does this cast on what we call our civilisation at the beginning of the 21st century? Recently the President of the World Bank in discussing world poverty said:
"Poverty remains a global problem of huge proportions. Of the world's 6 billion people, 2.8 billion live on less than US$ 2 per day, and 1.2 billion live on less than 1 dollar a day. Six infants of every 100 do not see their first birthday and 8 do not survive to their fifth. Of those who do reach school age, 9 boys in 100 and 14 girls do not go to primary school".

If we are speaking of global civilisation, we must accept that it has not yet emerged. If it is defined, as I shall argue, in part by its commitment to certain values - including the elimination of statistics such as these - we have a long way to go. But at the least, we know in which direction we must go.
This is not to say that we do not face a challenge in seeking to avoid the eventuality of a clash. Although we are exposed to 'the other', do we yet fully understand and respect that other? And what of the millions of people, who want nothing to do with the violence of 11 September, yet feel left behind by the modern world, or without a voice in shaping a future that reflects on their lives? What can we do to improve our knowledge and understanding of one another? How can we gain a more profound awareness of our common destiny?

The title I have chosen is “Human Rights and Global Civilisation”, and what I would like to do tonight is put before you an alternative to divisiveness and conflicts in our world. I would like to suggest that human rights hold out the possibility of a world in which the divides between North and South, rich and poor, secular and religious can be bridged. I am convinced it is possible. But bringing it about will require more dialogue, more political will, more resources, and more involvement from every part of society. In short, human rights can provide the ethical foundations of a more just, equitable and peaceful global civilisation. Three essential elements stand out in the development of this shared civilisation:
- unwavering commitment to the achievement in reality of all human rights as well as the full equality and non-discrimination agenda
- continuous and ever-deepening dialogue between peoples and nations in order to promote true understanding and respect
- and the development of new cross-national partnerships embracing all actors - governments, civil society, and business.
Global Civilisation
Last year, the largest ever public opinion poll was undertaken in preparation for the UN Millennium Assembly. It provided opportunities for the public to express their views on what should be the core priorities for the United Nations in the new century. The survey revealed that an overwhelming majority of people from all countries, from all backgrounds, ages and walks of life consider the protection of human rights to be the most important task for the United Nations. Significantly, the younger the respondents, the greater the importance assigned to this goal.
These views were echoed at the Millennium Summit, the largest gathering of world leaders in history. The final document from the Summit, the Millennium Declaration, states that the central challenge the community of nations faces today is to ensure that the irreversible reality of globalisation becomes a positive force for all the world's people. It recognises that globalisation offers great opportunities, but that at present its benefits are very unevenly shared and its costs are unevenly distributed, with developing countries and countries in transition facing special difficulties in responding to this central challenge.
What is encouraging is the Millennium Declaration's recognition that only through broad and sustained efforts to create a shared future, based upon our common humanity in all its diversity, can globalisation be made fully inclusive and equitable. It sets out a clear programme for action based on humanity's values of freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared responsibility.
What then is the nature of this global civilisation we seek?
In the lead-up to the Durban World Conference, the Secretary-General spoke of and stressed the link between the Dialogue on Civilisations and the World Conference. He too looked forward to a global civilisation that we would seek to defend and promote. He isolated a number of its elements:
"It is a civilisation defined by its insistence on universal human rights and freedoms, its tolerance of dissent, and its belief in the right of people everywhere to have a say in how they are governed. It is a civilisation based on the belief that diversity is something to be celebrated, not feared."
To be enriched by and respect the culture of the other, is not to abandon your own. Rather it protects the familiar from distortion through fear, through exaggeration, through ignorance. When we cease to define ourselves in opposition to an imagined 'other', we are freed from caricatured representations of ourselves.
Universality
A major fallacy of the past - that universal human rights are a western ideal only - is being refuted in our interdependent world. Developed and developing countries alike increasingly understand that the balanced approach to human rights, embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which places equal emphasis on all human rights - civil and political, economic, social and cultural and the right to development - makes sense. In the past, the example of civil and political rights being resisted in Eastern European states and elsewhere, while the Western countries espoused these rights (sometimes more in theory than practice), was offered as evidence against the universality of rights. But by the same token, discrimination and racism presented a major challenge to the western countries, and continue to do so. And everywhere, in developed and developing countries, there has been a continuing failure to fully accept the implications of economic, social and cultural rights.
The truth is that divisions and ranking of rights is artificial. When President Roosevelt spoke of the famous 'four freedoms', freedom from want stood equally alongside freedom from fear. Human rights will not be truly achieved until all accept economic, social and cultural rights as rights that deserve and require equal attention to civil and political rights and freedoms. This imperative was endorsed by over 170 states at the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, 1993:
"All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis". (Paragraph 5, Vienna Declaration)
Vienna also established a consensus on the linkage between human rights, development and democracy. These building blocks of a new future were confirmed in the Millennium Summit. Their collective role in peace is only now being explored. In a sense, nothing short of such a grand project could feed into the creation of a truly global civilisation respecting diversity.
Indeed what is behind anti-globalisation protests, if not cries against a system which to many is inaccessible, opaque, and somehow alien. The protestors can look to the international human rights framework for support. The end to discrimination is a core part of the human rights agenda. The lessening and elimination of the obscene disparities between rich and poor is part of the human rights agenda. And the claim to participate in decision- making is part of the human rights agenda.
Regional initiatives, such as the New Partnership for African Development, are essentially about balanced participation. The partnership is a pledge by African nations to take the responsibility of leadership, to speed up development and to consolidate democracy, good governance and sound economic management on the continent.
The role of the UN and of bilateral partners is to support this African led initiative. In support of the Partnership, my Office recently hosted a dialogue with African governments to assist them in developing the strategies needed to "promote democracy and human rights in their respective countries and regions, by developing standards of accountability, transparency and participative governance at the national and sub-national levels".
Equality, Non-Discrimination and Dialogue
Just three days after the close of the Durban World Conference, the appalling terrorist attacks on the United States took place. I have characterised those attacks as a crime against humanity, because of their scale and because they were primarily directed at a civilian population. There is no question but that many aftershocks of those horrendous acts have been felt in the international system. Indeed the full implications are not yet clear, and will take time to emerge.
I have a number of immediate concerns - for example the consequences for civil liberties in the manner of implementation by states of Security Council Resolution 1373 on terrorism, and the worsening environment for refugees and asylum seekers.
But I wish to emphasise that the anti-discrimination agenda of the World Conference against Racism has become even more crucial today than before 11 September. Fulfilling that agenda, the elimination of racism, discrimination and xenophobia, while deepening our mutual understanding through a continuing dialogue, must be the human rights movement's response to terror.
Whether on the individual or the international level, we must work together to provide this chance of getting to know the other. Positive steps are being taken. For example, last week in Madrid, a Conference took place in which the UK, together with representatives of 80 other states and many NGOs took part. It addressed the sensitive, but crucial subject of what our children learn at school about religious and other beliefs. It was a valuable addition to global dialogue and understanding, which I hope will be built on in the future.
Broadening the human rights coalition
This leads into the third element necessary for a global civilisation. Along with more opportunities for dialogue, we need more voices around the table. The Durban Conference emphasized the importance of voices from the margins-indigenous peoples, migrants, those of African descent, minorities such as the Roma and Kurds, refugees and asylum seekers. The many challenges to human rights will not be fully addressed without mobilising the energies of all parts of society. Working in coalitions of common cause is the only way we will make real progress on achieving the Millennium Declaration goals.
Today, under the leadership of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the United Nations is interacting vigorously with non-governmental organisations, foundations, academic and cultural institutions and, increasingly, with the business community.
The growing influence of the private sector in today's world has been a subject of much debate. Statistics help explain why. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates that there are now over 60,000 transnational corporations, compared with 37,000 in 1990. These transnational corporations have around 800,000 foreign affiliates, compared with some 170,000 foreign affiliates in 1990, and millions of suppliers and distributors operating along their supply chains.
At the current session of the UN General Assembly, a special agenda item entitled "Towards Global Partnerships" was included for the first time. The Assembly has recognised the need for increased efforts to enhance cooperation between the United Nations and all relevant partners, in particular the private sector.
The UN Global Compact initiative, which was formally launched in July of last year, is becoming an overall framework through which the UN is pursuing its engagement with the private sector.
The Compact calls on business leaders, trade unions and NGOs to join forces behind a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards and the environment. Allow me to outline briefly these three areas. With respect to human rights, corporations should ensure that they uphold and respect human rights as reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and are not themselves complicit in human rights abuses. In the area of labour standards, businesses should uphold freedom of association and collective bargaining and make sure that they are not employing under-age children or forced labor, either directly or indirectly, and that, in their hiring and firing policies they do not discriminate on grounds of race, creed, gender or ethnic origin. And in relation to the environment, companies should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges, promote greater environmental responsibility and encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
Several hundred companies, labour unions and civil society organisations are now engaged in the Compact, working together to make its principles part of the strategic vision and everyday practices of companies in all regions. The Global Compact is a voluntary initiative to promote good corporate citizenship. But I should stress that it is not, and must not be, a mere public relations exercise. A commitment to the Global Compact must lead to concrete actions in support of the core principles.
BP was one of the first companies to take on the Global Compact challenge. I think Lord Browne would agree that being a good corporate citizen is becoming a business necessity. I think he would also agree that being a good corporate citizen isn't easy.
Consider some of the difficult challenges companies face today:
- We expect that companies will engage in open dialogue and consultation with local communities and their representatives, non- governmental organisations and government at all levels to ensure that potential issues arising from operations are identified and the risks addressed. But what should we expect of a company when there are disagreements between local communities and the national government over the use of revenues or land?
- We expect that companies will ensure that there are no " unintended consequences" of their activities which may indirectly lead to human rights abuses. But what more should we expect companies to do than avoid such complicity and speak out against persistent and wide-spread human rights violations in countries where they operate?
- We expect companies to play a constructive role in sustainable development. But how far can we expect companies to go in taking on the role of ensuring access to education, to affordable health care, to a functioning judicial system? We have seen aspects of this debate recently around the issue of access to HIV/AIDS medicines in developing countries. Much work remains in finding the right balance between public and private interests.
There are no easy answers to any of these issues. But we do need to find the answers - together. It must be stressed that the United Nations does not ask or expect business to assume the responsibilities of government. It does ask businesses to act in a responsible way in their sphere of activities and join with government, civil society and international organisations in promoting respect for the core values of the Global Compact and in achieving the Millennium Declaration goals.
Conclusion
Let me conclude by posing a challenge. I would hope that part of our human journey is learning from the mistakes or shortcomings of those who have gone before, while attempting to secure something better for those who will follow. That is what the founders of the United Nations hoped to do more than half a century ago.
Human rights, when fully implemented, are truly revolutionary. In the promotion of equality - both material and in parity of esteem - and real dialogue involving all, we even now hold the tools to advance a global civilisation. It is a civilisation based on shared ethical values and one which potentially provides for lasting peace in our troubled world.
This challenge is for all - not merely governments, not merely the UN. Through the need for new alliances and the insistence on participation rights, implementation both requires and ensures a voice for the voiceless.
The just and peaceful future we seek may not be so far off. Allow me to end with the words of Vaclav Havel, taken from his open letter on 'The Power of the Powerless':
"For the real question is whether the brighter future is really always so distant. What if, on the contrary, it has been here for a long time already, and only our own blindness and weakness has prevented us from seeing it around us and within us, and kept us from developing it?"
Thank you.