Secretary-General, Kofi Annan bids farewell to the U.S. and the U.N in Independence, MO
By Hazel A. Tamano
Featured in Winter 2006 issue
On December 11, 2006, Vanessa Ventresca, Assistant/Coordinator, and I had the opportunity to meet and greet the outgoing 7th Secretary- General, Kofi Annan during his closing farewell address at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, MO. Kofi Annan recalled President Truman’s important leadership in the founding of the United Nations. He called for the United States to return to Truman’s multilateralist foreign policies, and to follow Truman’s credo that “the responsibility of the great states is to serve and not dominate the peoples of the world”. Kofi Annan also pointed out that the United States must maintain its commitment to human rights, “including in the struggle against terrorism.
He drew upon five lessons learned during his 10 year service to the United Nations: 1) In today’s world, the security of every one of us is linked to that of everyone else; 2) We are not only all responsible for each other’s security, we are also, in some measure, responsible for each other’s welfare. Global solidarity is both necessary and possible; 3) Both security and development ultimately depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law; 4) Governments must be accountable for their actions in the international arena, as well as in the domestic one, and to a broad range of non-State actors in their international conduct; and 5) We can only do all these things by working together through a multilateral system, and by making the best possible use of the unique instrument bequeathed to us by Harry Truman and his contemporaries, namely the United Nations.
Kofi Annan outlined three major problems of “an unjust world economy, world disorder, and widespread contempt for human rights and the rule of law”, which he believes “have not resolved, but sharpened” during his time as Secretary-General. He also pointed to violence in Africa, and the Arab-Israeli conflict as two major issues warranting attention. He also stressed that member states have made a solemn pledge to protect their citizens. He leaves us with his message that more than ever today, Americans need a functioning global system through which the world’s people can face global challenges together. And in order to function more effectively, the system still cries out for far-sighted American leadership in the Truman tradition.
Vanessa Ventresca, left, and Hazel Tamano, right, attended U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s farewell address in Independence, Mo.
