Speech on poverty for Berlin

In 1945, with the smoke still clearing after the worst war in human history, the founders of the United Nations wrote Article 26 in the UN Charter which says and I quote “In order to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources, the Security Council shall be responsible for formulating, with the assistance of the Military Staff Committee referred to in Article 47, plans to be submitted to the Members of the United Nations for the establishment of a system for the regulation of armaments.”

This statement was part of a speech that my friend Dr. Oscar Arias, the current President of Costa Rica and the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, gave to the Security Council last November, 2008.

The wording of this article is no accident. Those people that survived the war knew what we all should know and act on which is that  spending on arms is a diversion of human and economic resources; in other words, a use that is not correct and in my opinion, immoral. As a minimum, the Charter asks us to accept that excessive military spending exacts tremendous cost around the world and diverts precious resources away from human need and suffering.

Unfortunately, the Security Council did not follow its own directives in the Charter.  Indeed, according to President Arias, the issue of establishing a system for the regulation of armaments has never been discussed in the Security Council since 1948.   Not once.

This is reflective, in my opinion, that there are not very many governments around the world that give more than lip service to this issue.

This is obvious to me when I went to Guatemala and worked with representatives of the Rigoberta Menchu Foundation, named after the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and worked with some of the Mayan communities in isolated parts of the Guatemalan highlands. The need for basic medical care was pronounced and I observed many children whose normally black hair was yellow and their skin was not healthy from malnutrition and drinking polluted water.

Consider these other relevant evidence that are caused by what I view as the result of excessive spending on armaments:

• Less than one percent of what the world spends on weapons every year is the amount needed for putting every child in school in the world.
• Around 10,000,000 children under the age of 5 die every year which is around 30,000 a day.
• 1 in 2 children in the world live in poverty.
• United States total expenditures on weapons equal the total amount spent on weapons of all other countries combined.

The United Nations and all its agencies and funds spend about $27 billion each year, or about $4 for each of the world’s inhabitants. This is a very small sum compared to most government budgets and it is just a tiny fraction of the world’s military spending. Yet for nearly two decades, the UN has faced a financial difficulties and it has been forced to cut back on important programs in all areas. Many member states have not paid their full dues and have cut their donations to the UN’s voluntary funds. As of May 31, 2009, members’ arrears to the Regular Budget topped $1282 million, of which the United States alone owed $857 million (67% of the regular budget arrears).

One of the most important ways to break through the wall of poverty is to support the completion of the Millennium Development Goals.  All member nations of the United Nations agreed back in 2000 to donate 0.7 percent of their Gross National Product so that eight goals could be achieved by 2015:

They are:

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
• Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Right now we are falling short by about $35 billion dollars a year!

As I represent the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Albert Schweitzer, I must close with a few relevant thoughts from this great humanitarian.  Although Schweitzer was a physician, an expert in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, a philosopher and a theologian, he felt that his most important contribution to society was through his philosophy of reverence for life.  From the German, I understand that this phrase translates better as awe or a sense of wonder for all life, plant animal, and human.  If we like Schweitzer recognized the wonder of all life, than it would be much harder, I think, to let people die of preventable diseases brought on by poverty due to excess military spending.

Schweitzer once said that everyone must work to live, but the purpose of life is to serve and show compassion and the will to help others.  Only then have we ourselves become true human beings.

Ending poverty should be a high priority of any compassionate person.   I would ask you to undertake the tremendous task of challenging the decisions that cause vast quantities of murderous weapons to be built and stockpiled while at the same time asking your governments to rededicate themselves to their promise to end poverty by 2015 through the Millennium Development Goals.  Anything less would be uncivilized, uncaring, and inconsistent with our values.  We must not tolerate, even when times are tough,  disposable people anywhere in the world.

Thank you.

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.