UNA-UK Annual Conference 2006: Messages of support

From the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan

"I am delighted to convey my best wishes to this annual conference of the United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

More than six decades after both our institutions were created, UNA-UK is one of the United Nations' most dynamic civil society partners. Thanks to your work over the past year, many people in this country have grasped the message of my report In Larger Freedom, issued ahead of the World Summit at UN Headquarters in New York last September. And today, you meet as representatives of Member States and the staff of the Secretariat work to implement the outcome of that gathering.

The World Summit was a milestone in the history of the United Nations. While world leaders did not achieve everything we might have hoped for, they did agree on progress across a broad front. They recognised that development, security and human rights are not only important in their own right, but also reinforce - indeed, depend on -- each other. They reaffirmed an unambiguous resolve to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. And on one crucial issue - the responsibility to protect - the Summit achieved a breakthrough: all Member States expressed their will to act collectively, through the Security Council, when a population is threatened with genocide, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity.

Important steps have also been taken since the Summit. Member States have created a new Peacebuilding Commission, to better manage the difficult transition from war to peace. They established a Central Emergency Response Fund to help the victims of humanitarian disasters. A Democracy Fund has been launched to strengthen institutions and ensure that people can exercise their democratic rights. Most recently, the General Assembly created a new Human Rights Council, a historic step that will enable us to restore the Organization's credibility in this key area. For my part, I have placed before the membership a new set of proposals for an overhaul of the Organization's management. Building on previous rounds of reform, my goal is a more transparent, accountable and effective instrument of service to humankind. Our success in advancing this agenda of renewal will depend not only on Government representatives and international officials. It will rest on voters, consumers, civil society groups and concerned men and women of all ages, in rich and poor countries alike, thinking and acting as global citizens -- understanding the need for all peoples to seize common opportunities and defend against shared threats. That, after all, is the essence of effective multilateralism. In that spirit, I am delighted to send you my best wishes for a successful conference."

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From the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Tony Blair MP

"It gives me great pleasure to send you a message for your Annual Conference.

Let me first express my appreciation for all the hard work of UNA-UK in support for the UN.

I was pleased that the Government and UNA-UK were able to work together so closely over the past year. This began with the public debates on the Secretary-General’s ‘In Larger Freedom’ Report, which gave us the opportunity to hear directly the views of UNA members, other civil society organisations and the general public. This was extremely valuable as we shaped our approach to last September’s 2005 World Summit.

Our collaboration continued with the events to mark the 60 th Anniversary of the United Nations. These included a reception hosted by the Foreign Secretary to commemorate the signature of the UN Charter, and the Methodist Central Hall event with Kofi Annan to remember the first UN General Assembly and Security Council meetings. Both events underlined the Government’s strong support for an effective and efficient United Nations at the centre of the multilateral system.

At Central Hall, Kofi Annan outlined his view that only global solutions would solve global problems, whether they be poverty, nuclear proliferation, climate change, terrorism, HIV/AIDS, human trafficking or genocide. I fully agree with him. The UN remains the primary mechanism for tackling the inter-related challenges of development, security and human rights.

Last September’s World Summit was an important step forward for the UN. It delivered an essential package of reforms and commitments. The agreements on development and climate change reflected several important Gleneagles and EU commitments. These included the need to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and to address the special needs of Africa. The endorsement of the Responsibility to Protect concept - the first time that the international community has agreed collectively to protect vulnerable populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing – was an important advance.

In other areas, the challenge ahead is implemenetation. The agreement to establish the Peacebuilding Commission will close and institutional gap in the UN’s conflict architecture and will assist countries emerging from conflct. We now need to make it work. I very much welcome the agreement to establish a new Human Rights Council, to replace the ineffective Commission for Human Rights. The negotiations to establish the Council have been difficult. But the key now is to ensure we will have an effective UN body, able to uphold and protect our universal human rights.

Another key challenge this year is management reform. I support Kofi Annan’s efforts to ensure the United Nations is better managed. We will work with other Member States to implement his proposals.

I also believe that Kofi Annan’s new System-wide Coherence Panel – on which Gordon Brown will participate – has potential to make a real difference to the UN’s development work on the ground. We want the panel to be ambitious when it reports later this year.

If fully implemented, the reforms agreed at the World Summit will result in a UN better equipped to address the huge challenges the world faces today - be they in Africa, Iraq or Afghanistan; or on terrorism, disaster relief, poverty, HIV/AIDS or climate change.

I wish you every success at the Conference, and in your 61 st year."

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From the Leader of the Conservative Party, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP

"Thank you for your kind invitation to become an Honorary President of the United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I am delighted to accept.

Your organisation makes a unique contribution to the debate in this country on the reform and strengthening of the United Nations to meet the needs of the 21 st century.

With the extraordinary changes taking place across the world, we need the strength the United Nations brings in helping to solve the multitude of challenges confronting us. Through its work on issues like the UN Millennium Development Goals, the UNA-UK has a vital role to play.

The values on which the United Nations was founded endure and are as relevant today as they were sixty years ago. It is our duty to protect them.

Two of the policy groups I have established have particular relevance to your work. The Policy Group on National and International Security for example will look specifically at the role of international institutions and UN reform. And our Globalisation and Global Poverty Group will study the benefits and impacts of globalised free trade, and examine the interactions between trade, sustainability and the relief of global poverty.

I would urge all members of UNA-UK to visit the websites of these groups (www.globalpovertychallenege.com and www.oursecuritychallenge.com), and we welcome their views.

I look forward to working with you in the years to come."

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From the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, the Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell MP

"I am delighted to serve as an honorary president of the UN Association of the UK and to be able to send a message of support to its annual conference.

The United Nations Association of the United Kingdom plays a crucial role in supporting and enhancing the work of the United Nations system as a whole. UNA-UK helps embed the values and the spirit of the UN in our civic society beyond the normal co-operation between governments. The association is on the front line in promoting respect for multilateralism and informing multilateral processes.

The UNA-UK has a key role to play in the practical work of the United Nations and of Britain’s role within the UN system, a role which it has for 61 years performed with distinction.

I wish you every success in the coming year."

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From the United Nations Association of Sri Lanka

"Friendly greetings to you all from the President and members of the United Nations Association in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

In 1948 Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as she was then called, received political independence from Great Britain and immediately joined the Commonwealth of Nations. Thus Ceylon became one of its earliest members and is therefore today one of the most senior members of the Commonwealth.

The UN of Ceylon was founded in 1950, five years even before the country became the sixty-fifth Member-State of the United Nations, in the second batch of admissions since the founding of the UN in 1945.

In September 1951 a representative of the then (National) Committee of Management, Kumaran Fernando, who is one of the original Founder Members of the UNA of Ceylon, visited Great Britain and called at the then National Office of UNA-UK at No 25 Charles Street. Mr C W Judd was the Secretary at that time. Mr Fernando was most cordially received and warmly welcomed by Mr Hugh Walker, Assistant Secretary, and his wife Betty who also worked in the then UNA Office.

Among the many other he met during his visit to Great Britain was John A F Ennals, the First Secretary-General of the WFUNA whom he was to meet again in London on a third visit.

In making contact with UNA-UK Mr Fernando opened a line of communication and established relations for the first time by the UNA of Ceylon with a sister UNA. It was fitting that it should have been UNA-UK. It was also in 1951 that the UNA of Ceylon obtained membership as a National affiliate with WUNA, the fifty-fifth anniversary of this admission is also being observed by us this year.

Mr Fernando remained in the United Kingdom until January 1952 when he returned to Ceylon. During his stay Mr Walker and the Reverend James Cartman (Warden of the Ceylon Student’s Hostel in London) arranged for him to meet and speak at a small gathering of UNA-UK branches in a few parts of the country to which he travelled.

Since the, Mr Fernando has paid two more informal goodwill visits to UNA-UK – in 1985 and 1987. During one of these visits, he attended the UNA-UK Annual Conference in the company of Mr Algar Reed. He also paid a courtesy call on your Executive Director at the National Office in 1992 while on a private visit to Britain and was warmly received and entertained.

Mr Fernando is the current Secretary-General of the UNA of Sri Lanka.

We are proud and happy to mark that memorable occasion fifty five years later which no doubt UNA-UK will share with us. For some years now the Association has also maintained a dialogue with the UNA-UK’s North-Western Region (a member of which, Fiona Gow, who is also on the UNA-UK Board, and recently paid a visit to us in Sri Lanka) and with the South London branch as well as to which we sent a goodwill delegate twice within the space of five years.

Please accept out best wishes for the success of your deliberations. May the warm and friendly relations that have existed between our two sister Associations grow and glow both within the Council of WFUNA and those of the Organisation of Commonwealth UNAs, in which we and UNA-UK played the lead roles when it commenced operations as a Group. Ahead, there will be many occasions for us to work together in a common cause."