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| Putin sez terrorism is main threat to human rights |
| 2005-09-16 |
| Terrorism is the main threat to human rights and development, and the UN Security Council must be at the center of global efforts to fight it, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday in his address to a United Nations summit. But governments alone are not enough to counter the threat, Putin said. Religious and civic groups as well as media, cultural and humanitarian organizations must all play a role, he said. Speaking on the second day of the summit, Putin said that despite many heated discussions and bitter disagreements, the United Nations has always symbolized the civilized world's will "to prevent new devastating wars and the revival of barbaric ideologies advocating violence, aggression and racial superiority." "I am convinced that today terrorism poses the main threat to human rights and freedoms as well as to the sustainable development of states and people," Putin said. "That is why it is the United Nations and its Security Council must be the main center for coordinating international cooperation in the fight against terrorism as the ideological successor of Nazism." Moscow has used its permanent seat on the UN Security Council to promote its view that a conflict in Chechnya is an internal matter driven by terrorists, while Chechen rebels describe themselves as striving for a separate Chechen state. Western governments have in the past accused Russia of human rights violations in its harsh crackdowns on the region. In negotiations on a package of UN reforms to be adopted at the close of the three-day summit, Russia was instrumental in postponing key decisions on how a new UN Human Rights Council would operate, a move that critics said would undermine efforts to strengthen UN human rights enforcement. The summit was meant to focus on UN reform and world poverty 60 years after the founding of the UN, but the fight against terrorism has become a central focus. Several leaders have used their allotted five-minute speeches to dwell on the new challenges that fight presents, while attacks in Beslan, New York, London, Baghdad and elsewhere have been mentioned frequently. Putin said the UN needed to adapt to meet those new goals, but he spoke far more favorably about the world body than some of his predecessors at the rostrum. "If member countries want the United Nations to be respected and effective, they should begin by making sure it is worthy of respect," U.S. President George W. Bush told the summit on Wednesday. "The United Nations should live up to its name," British Prime Minister Tony Blair added. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had set the tone on Wednesday, when he said bitter differences between member states had blocked many crucial UN reforms and that nations must act boldly to restore the world body's credibility. Coming into the summit, diplomats had to dilute a document on goals for tackling rights abuses, terrorism and UN reform because they could not settle their disputes. One of the big disappointments was that the document did not include a definition of terrorism as Annan had wanted, though it includes a promise to work on a comprehensive treaty against terrorism in the coming months. Addressing the summit that he called a year ago in hopes of winning approval for an ambitious blueprint to modernize the UN on its 60th anniversary, Annan told more than 150 presidents, prime ministers and kings that "a good start" had been made with the document. But he also said leaders must "be frank with each other, and the peoples of the United Nations. We have not yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reform that I and many others believe is required." The summit began a week after investigators criticized alleged corruption and UN mismanagement of the oil-for-food program in Iraq, and on a day when more than 160 people died in attacks in Baghdad -- a harsh reminder of the fight against terrorism that was highlighted in Bush's speech. A key goal of the summit is to take action to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight targets meant to reduce global poverty and disease by 2015. The leader of the Netherlands challenged other rich nations to join the handful of countries that had committed to meeting the millennium goal of setting aside 0.7 percent of their gross national product for overseas development aid. The United States strongly opposes the target. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said there was only a slim chance of meeting the millennium goals. "The shortfalls are serious. Nothing less than an extra 50 to 60 billion [dollars] must be raised every year" to achieve the millennium goals, he told the UN World Summit. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 "But governments alone are not enough to counter the threat, Putin said. Religious and civic groups as well as media, cultural and humanitarian organizations must all play a role, he said." Translation: It's time for the Russian government to take control of all religious and civic groups as well as media, cultural and humanitarian organizations. Everything will be fixed within 5 years. |
| Posted by: Hyper 2005-09-16 16:13 |
| #4 Authoritarian governments are the main threat to human rights. I would think the Russians should know this as well as anyone. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2005-09-16 09:23 |
| #3 Putin means terrorism is main threat to russian rights. The rest of us are just brutal occupiers oppressing the rights of muslims everywhere. This guy says one thing out of one side of his mouth and a completely different thing out of the other. Commie bastard! |
| Posted by: Graviter Gluns1970 2005-09-16 08:26 |
| #2 Putty = rodent |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-09-16 02:37 |
| #1 Iff he's like AL SHARPTON, whom accused the Fed of initiating a policy of genocide ags NO's mostly black left-behinds; and now JESSE JACKSON, whom argues ags ANY PRIVATIZATION of the NO's resue and re-development effort, PUTIN-babe is liley trying hard NOT to say that the USA and Radical Islam are mistakenly engaging in the wrong forms of NATIONAL-GLOBAL SOCIALISM!? Amerika's decentalized, Rightism-based "FASCIST" [Socialist] system , aka Federalism, is wrong, and so is Radical Islam's Faith/God-based SOcialism - ITS NOT STALINISM OR COMMUNISM, ITS "CENTRALISM", "SYSTEMIC UNIFICATION", and "INTEGRATION", ....etc. All the Lefties want is more Regulation, more and bigger FEDERAL Government, and more [Federal]Government-led Welfarism, and Amerika ruled or governed from afar and via an extra-National form of [global] public authority/governance, that all - geez louizzze, Beaver and Maryann!? AMERIKA CAN'T BE GOVERNED BY AMERIKANS, BY FOR AND THE NAME OF AMERIKANS, BECAUSE BILL MAHER > AMERICANS ARE NOT GOOD IN ANYTHING. HOW DARE AMERICA BE A PROSPEROUS, EXPANDING HYPERPOWER WHEN THERE ARE FAILED SOCIALISTS, DESPOTS, WARLORDS, POWER WHORES AND CRIMINAL-CRATS OUT THERE STARVING BY TRYING TO TAKE BY FORCE, DECEPTION, TAXES AND NON-CONSENT WHAT DOESN'T AND NEVER DID BELONG TO THEM, D**** YOU!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-09-16 01:05 |