Annan : ‘new mindset’ at UN involving not just governments but people

[AGENDA21]

Davos, Switzerland: Only if the United Nations engages with the world’s peoples as well as their governments can it be useful to humanity in this century, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a plenary session of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, today.

“In 1999 when I came here and called for a ‘global compact’ between the United Nations and the private sector, many of my colleagues in the Secretariat – and many representatives of member States – would hardly have been more shocked if I had proposed a compact with the devil.

“It is that mindset that I have been seeking to change throughout my time in office – the mindset that sees international relations as nothing more than relations between the States and the United Nations as little more than a trade union for governments.”

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