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International panel to redraw limits of national sovereignty
An international commission has been set up to solve the most divisive problem facing the United Nations: how to reconcile the demands of state sovereignty and individual rights.
An international commission has been set up to solve the most divisive problem facing the United Nations: how to reconcile the demands of state sovereignty and individual rights.
The 10-member commission was set up on Thursday by Canada after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan challenged the UN General Assembly in a landmark speech one year ago to recognise that there are rights beyond borders.
Annan's speech, recalling the outside world's failure to halt the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, was warmly welcomed by western nations. But it stung third world countries which gave dire warning about risks of international gun-boat diplomacy.
Presenting members of International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said they faced the most difficult and divisive issue. But he recalled 10 years ago the Brundtland Commission had managed to reconcile two seemingly irreconcilable ideas, economic development and the protection of the environment.
The commission, led by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, had come up with a concept -- sustainable development -- that changed the way we think and the way we do business, Axworthy said. Australian former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, one of the commission's two co-chairmen, said the panel aims to produce a three-volume outcome at the end of a year's work.
“The first would be a report which would go to the UN General Assembly. The second would contain research,” he said the third would comprise The best of work done on this issue.
Bureau Report
The 10-member commission was set up on Thursday by Canada after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan challenged the UN General Assembly in a landmark speech one year ago to recognise that there are rights beyond borders.
Annan's speech, recalling the outside world's failure to halt the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, was warmly welcomed by western nations. But it stung third world countries which gave dire warning about risks of international gun-boat diplomacy.
Presenting members of International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said they faced the most difficult and divisive issue. But he recalled 10 years ago the Brundtland Commission had managed to reconcile two seemingly irreconcilable ideas, economic development and the protection of the environment.
The commission, led by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, had come up with a concept -- sustainable development -- that changed the way we think and the way we do business, Axworthy said. Australian former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, one of the commission's two co-chairmen, said the panel aims to produce a three-volume outcome at the end of a year's work.
“The first would be a report which would go to the UN General Assembly. The second would contain research,” he said the third would comprise The best of work done on this issue.
Bureau Report