The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, indirectly criticised the US and proclaimed a new role for the UN as "the conscience of the world" yesterday, during celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In the first speech given by a UN secretary-general to the French National Assembly, Mr Annan said this year's Iraq crises had shown that the UN could play a balancing role. While regional organisations should be involved in peacekeeping, "any military intervention by the international community must be subject to the approval of the Security Council".
The words were a reminder to the US and Britain which said they would strike immediately if Iraq again failed to co-operate with UN weapons inspectors. "Some are tempted" to act without the Security Council's consent, Mr Annan warned. This "would create an unfortunate precedent and put into question the first article of the UN charter" regarding collective measures.
"We would not be far from a return to the system of spheres of influence founded on the specific interests of states rather than the principle of shared responsibility," he added.
Like Mrs Mary Robinson at the opening ceremonies on Monday, Mr Annan read his speech in French. The National Assembly, a usually unruly body, listened reverently and gave him a standing ovation. The Dalai Lama, Mr Annan's Swedish wife and 150 ambassadors watched from the balconies.
Earlier yesterday the Tibetan spiritual leader made a veiled criticism of China, which has occupied his country since 1951. "Some governments have contended that the standards of human rights laid down in the Universal Declaration are those advocated by the West and do not apply to Asia and other parts of the Third World," he said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry reproached the French government for inviting the Dalai Lama to the commemorations, alluding to his "separatist activities". The Dalai Lama was invited to yesterday's lunch for Nobel Peace Prize-winners only after French newspapers criticised its initial failure to do so.
Since the end of the Cold War, Mr Annan said, "conflicts of a new type have spread: they no longer oppose two rival states, but different ethnic, religious or social groups within a single state." If the UN was to define the future international order, he added, it must find global responses to global questions. Human rights abuses "feed fanaticism, nationalism and terrorism, which are so often the seeds of conflict".
Mr Annan's French audience almost purred when he linked globalisation and the brilliance of French civilisation. "Unfortunately, globalisation . . . tends to erase identities, make them uniform," he said. "Given the extraordinary cultural richness of France, and all that you bring to the intellectual heritage of mankind, you are right to be concerned and to do everything you can to avoid the emergence of a sadly homogeneous world."
The UN, he promised, "fully supports the efforts France is making to give a new, vital impetus to the wider Francophone world". The National Assembly applauded loudly.
