Message to tenth Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates

United Nations Nations Unies, The Secretary General

MESSAGE TO TENTH SUMMIT OF NOBEL PEACE LAUREATES

Berlin, 9 November 2009

Twenty years ago today a wall fell and the world watched in awe and in hope. The Berlin Wall had stood for decades as a graphic physical reminder of how mistrust and hatred can dominate relations between nations and peoples. The men and women celebrating its fall were rejoicing not just in the reunion of Germany and the end of the Cold War but the promise of a new era of freedom and optimism.

Where are their hopes today? In too many countries, and among too many communities, bigotry still triumphs over tolerance, contempt over respect, extremism over moderation. The shadows of fear pervade too much of our world.

Since the Berlin Wall fell, evil minds have engineered genocide in Rwanda, and massacres in Darfur and the Balkans. Terrorist atrocities have claimed the lives of thousands more. Behind the grim death toll lie the stories of individual men, women and children, each one denied their fundamental rights to life and freedom from fear by another’s hateful ideology.

The perpetrators of these heinous acts were not faceless bureaucracies but individual men and women. And ultimately, it is men and women who will provide a solution. United Nations humanitarian workers and peacekeepers, Nobel Peace laureates and selfless individuals all around the world can and do make a difference for good.

People such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Muhammad Yunus, Betty Williams and Máiread Corrigan-Maguire, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk shine a light of hope. So too does Zdravko Marjanovic, recently honoured in this city for working for reconciliation among Croats, Bosnians and Serbs. They are working to break down walls and build bridges. They are helping to fulfil the solemn pledge of the United Nations Charter for a world where we practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours.

On this anniversary I urge men and women everywhere to emulate their example. Let us reject the poison of hatred that persists in our world.

About

The Permanent Secretariat of Nobel Peace Laureates Summits derives from a new and more broadly based collaboration between the International Gorbachev Foundation and the City of Rome for realizing the World Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates. The Permanent Secretariat, based in Rome, is a non-profit association without political aims. As well as organizing the tasks of the Summit, the Secretariat monitors the activities of Nobel Peace Laureates, while promoting the adoption of the "Charter for a world without violence" and supporting the work of the Nobel.