For more than 60 years, the United Nations has served the peoples of the world as an instrument for conflict-resolution, peace-keeping and sustainable development as well as for global dialogue and norm-setting.   Documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, provide global ethical norms and guidelines.

Now, more than anytime since the formation of the United Nations, the peoples of the world are facing complex and interconnected crises. We face severe challenges regarding the supply of energy, water, and food. We meet other challenges in the fields of health and demography, climate change, resource depletion and ecosystem devastation.

A central function of the United Nations is to provide global norms. It is within the United Nations system that world leaders should come together to work out norms and guidelines for equitable and sustainable solutions to the crises that the world is facing. The financial order of the world needs to be reformed. It must be like a blood circulation providing nourishment and vigor to all parts of the world. Measures need to be taken to shift resources to meet urgent common global tasks like the protection of the climate and the development of poor countries. The global military expenditures, estimated to be $1.47 trillion, are wildly excessive and must be drastically reduced worldwide.

The Cold War is over and there will be no war between civilizations and cultures. The accelerating interdependence of states and regions calls for security through cooperation – not through arms and deterrence.

It is time to decide on the outlawing of all weapons of mass destruction and to reach agreements taking us toward this goal.  It must not be overlooked that small caliber weapons are the weapons of mass destruction in daily use.

The World Federation of United Nations Associations brings together people from around the world who are committed to strengthening support for the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter and to improve the use of this institution that we have in common.   On this United Nations Day 2008, I call upon you all to celebrate the achievements of the United Nations and to give critical and creative thought to the future of our role as a peoples’ movement in support of the United Nations.