Annan, Bush call for action on disarmament, rights, terror at UN summit News
Annan, Bush call for action on disarmament, rights, terror at UN summit

[JURIST] Addressing the opening session of the UN's 2005 World Summit [official website] Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile], US President George Bush and other world leaders appealed for global action to prevent conflict, protect human rights and suppress terror. Speaking to the 60th anniversary session of the General Assembly, Annan expressed hope that all nations would act together [AP report] to meet the challenges of the new century, which he said included "peacemaking, nation-building, democratization and responding to natural or man-made disasters." He called the draft summit outcome document [PDF text], approved late Tuesday [JURIST report] "a good start," but noted that it was not the sweeping structural reform that he had proposed. In particular, Annan criticized the failure to reach an agreement on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, saying

Twice this year — at the NPT review conference, and now at this Summit — we have allowed posturing to get in the way of results. This is inexcusable. Weapons of mass destruction pose a grave danger to us all, particularly in a world threatened by terrorists with global ambitions and no inhibitions.

Read the full text of Annan's speech.

President Bush in his remarks [PDF text] called on the United Nations to be free of corruption [AFP report] and directly questioned the UN's practice of placing countries with bad human rights records on the Commission on Human Rights [official website]. He also called on UN member states to complete a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that would clearly state, in the preferred American formulation, that "the targeting and deliberate killing by terrorists of civilians and non-combatants cannot be justified or legitimized by any cause or grievance". A previously-proposed UN formulation had omitted the words "by terrorists", which US UN Ambassador John Bolton objected to [PDF letter] on grounds that it "does not address military activities that are appropriately governed by international humanitarian law.". AP has more. Additional prepared remarks, and a live webcast of the summit, are available here from the UN.

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