ENGLISH SPEECH ANGELINA JOLIE What We Stand For English Subtitles
We are here in memory of Sergio Vieira de
Mello and the 21 other men and women, most
of them UN workers, who died with him in the
bombing of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad
in August 2003.
We remember all those who died, to acknowledge
each valuable life cut short, and the families
who share, even today, in their sacrifice.
We also remember them for the power of the
example they set: brave individuals from 11
different countries, working to help Iraqi
people, at the direction of the United Nations
Security Council, and on behalf of us all.
This is sometimes forgotten: that in serving
under the UN flag they died in our names,
as our representatives.
At their head was Sergio Vieira de Mello,
a man of extraordinary grace and ability,
as so many who knew him testify.
A man who gave 30 years to the United Nations,
rising from a field officer to High Commissioner
for Human Rights and Special Representative
to Iraq.
From Bangladesh and Bosnia to South Sudan
to East Timor, he spent the majority of his
career in the field, working alongside people
forced from their homes by war, and assisting
them with his skill as a diplomat and negotiator.
Perhaps the greatest testament to his contribution,
is how much his advice would be valued today.
As the Syrian conflict enters its seventh
year, as we live through the gravest refugee
crisis since the founding of the United Nations,
as 20 million people are on the brink of death
from starvation in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan
and northeast Nigeria, I cannot imagine that
there is anyone in the leadership of the United
Nations who would not welcome the opportunity
to consult Sergio, or send him into the field
once more.
He is truly missed, even today.
It is humbling for me to speak tonight in
the presence of members of Sergio’s family
and his former colleagues.
I never knew Sergio, but I have stood before
the plaque in the place where he died.
I felt profound sadness at the fact that the
conflict in Iraq – the source of so much
Iraqi suffering to this day - had claimed
the lives of men and women whose only intention
was to try and improve a desperate situation.
But I also saw clearly the value and nobility
of a life spent in service of others.
Sergio was a man who never turned down an
assignment, no matter how difficult and dangerous
- or as others have put it, was “handed
one impossible task after another”.
He was a man, to borrow the words of Thomas
Paine, whose country was the world, and whose
religion was to do good.
He will always remain a hero and inspiration
to all who follow in his footsteps.
The UN’s work did not end there, in the
rubble of the Canal Hotel, 14 years ago.
Hundreds of UN staff have served, and continue
to, serve in Iraq, as they do from Afghanistan
to Somalia, because the task of building peace
and security can never be abandoned, no matter
how bleak the situation.
My thoughts on Sergio’s life and legacy
derive from my 16 years with UNHCR, the Agency
he spent so much of his career serving and
representing.
But I also speak as a citizen of my country
– the United States.
I believe all of us who work with the UN preserve
this duality.
The United Nations is not a country, it is
a place where we come together as nations
and people to try to resolve our differences
and unite in common action.
As a citizen, I find myself looking out on
a global environment that seems more troubling
and uncertain than at any time in my lifetime.
I imagine many of you may feel the same.
We are grappling with a level of conflict
and insecurity that seems to exceed our will
and capabilities: with more refugees than
ever before, and new wars erupting on top
of existing conflicts, some already lasting
decades.
We see a rising tide of nationalism, masquerading
as patriotism, and the re-emergence of policies
encouraging fear and hatred of others.
We see some politicians elected partly on
the basis of dismissing international institutions
and agreements, as if our countries have not
benefited from cooperation, but actually been
harmed by it.
We hear some leaders talking as if some of
our proudest achievements are in fact our
biggest liabilities – whether it is the
tradition of successfully integrating refugees
into our societies, or the institutions and
treaties we have built rooted in laws and
human rights.
We see nations that played a proud role in
the founding of the International Criminal
Court withdrawing from it, on the one hand,
and on the other, we see arrest warrants for
alleged war crimes issued but not implemented,
and other crimes ignored altogether.
We see a country like South Sudan ushered
by the international community into independence,
then largely abandoned – not by the UN agencies
and NGOs – but effectively abandoned, without
the massive support they needed to make a
success of sovereignty.
And we see resolutions and laws on the protection
of civilians and the use of chemical weapons,
for instance, flouted repeatedly, in some
cases under the cover of Security Council
vetoes, as in Syria.
Many of these things are not new – but taken
together – and in the absence of strong
international leadership, they are deeply
worrying.
When we consider all this and more, as citizens,
what is our answer?
Do we, as some would encourage us to think,
turn our backs on the world, and hope we can
wait for storms to pass?
Or do we strengthen our commitment to diplomacy
and to the United Nations?
I strongly believe there is only one choice,
demanded by reason as well as by conscience,
which is the hard work of diplomacy and negotiation
and reform of the UN.
This is not to say that that is any way an
easy road.
And there are reasons people feel insecure
today.
The level of conflict and lack of solutions
combined with the fear of terrorism; the reality
that globalization has bought vast benefits
to some but worsened the lot of others; the
sense of a disconnect between citizens and
governments, or in some countries the lack
of governance; the overall feeling that for
all our gains in technology and connectedness,
we are less in control of forces shaping our
lives – all these factors and more have
contributed to a sense of a world out of balance,
and there are no easy answers.
And despite the millions of people who have
lifted themselves out of poverty in our lifetimes,
the difference between the lives of those
of us born in wealthy, democratic societies
and those born into the slums and refugee
camps of the world is a profound injustice.
We see it and we know it to be wrong, at a
simple human level.
That inequality is contributing to instability,
conflict and migration as well as to the sense
that the international system serves the few
at the expense of the many.
But again, what is our answer, as citizens?
Do we withdraw from the world where before
we felt a responsibility to be part of solutions?
I am a proud American and I am an internationalist.
I believe anyone committed to human rights
is an internationalist.
It means seeing the world with a sense of
fairness and humility, and recognizing our
own humanity in the struggles of others.
It stems from love of one’s country, but
not at the expense of others - from patriotism,
but not from narrow nationalism.
It includes the view that success isn’t
being better or greater than others, but finding
your place in a world where others succeed
too.
And that a strong nation, like a strong person,
helps others to rise up and be independent.
It is the spirit that made possible the creation
of the UN, out of the rubble and ruin and
60 million dead of World War Two; so that
even before the task of defeating Nazism was
complete, that generation of wartime leaders
was forging the United Nations.
If governments and leaders are not keeping
that flame of internationalism alive today,
then we as citizens must.
The challenge is how to restore that sense
of balance and hopefulness in our countries,
while not sacrificing all we have learnt about
the value and necessity of internationalism.
Because a world in which we turn our back
on our global responsibilities will be a world
that produces greater insecurity, violence
and danger for us and for our children.
This is not a clash between idealism and realism.
It is the recognition that there is no shortcut
to peace and security, and no substitute for
the long, painstaking effort to end conflicts,
expand human rights and strengthen the rule
of law.
We have to challenge the idea that the strongest
leaders are those most willing to dismiss
human rights on the grounds of national interest.
The strongest leaders are those who are capable
of pursuing both.
Having strong values and the will to act upon
them doesn’t weaken our borders or our militaries
– it is their essential foundation.
None of this is to say that the UN is perfect.
Of course, it is not.
I have never met a field officer who has not
railed against its shortcomings, as I imagine
Sergio did in his darkest moments.
He, like all of us, wanted a UN that was more
decisive, less bureaucratic, and that lived
up to its standards.
But he never said it was pointless.
He never threw in the towel.
The UN is an imperfect organization because
we are imperfect.
It is not separate from us.
Our decisions, particularly those made by
the Security Council, have played a part in
creating the landscape we are dealing with
today.
We should always remember why the UN was formed,
and what it is for, and take that responsibility
seriously.
We have to recognize the damage we do when
we undermine the UN or use it selectively
- or not at all - or when we rely on aid to
do the job of diplomacy, or give the UN impossible
tasks and then underfund it.
For example today, there is not a single humanitarian
appeal anywhere in the world that is funded
by even half of what is required.
In fact it is worse than that.
Appeals for countries on the brink of famine
today are 17%, 7%, and 5% funded, for example.
Of course, emergency aid is not the long-term
answer.
No one prefers that kind of aid.
Not citizens of donor countries.
Not governments.
Not refugees.
They do not want to be dependent.
It would be far better to be able to invest
all our funds in infrastructure and schools
and trade and enterprises.
But let’s be clear, emergency aid has to
continue because many states cannot or will
not protect the rights of citizens around
the world.
It is what we spend in countries where we
have no diplomacy or our diplomacy is not
working.
Until we do better at preventing and reducing
conflict, we are doomed to be in a cycle of
having to help feed or shelter people when
societies collapse.
As another legendary UN leader, who was also
killed in the line of duty, Dag Hammerskold,
said “Everything will be all right – you
know when?
When people, just people, stop thinking of
the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction
and see it as a drawing they made themselves”.
The UN can only change if governments change
their policies.
And if we as citizens ask our governments
to do that.
It is moving, if you think about it: We are
the future generations envisaged in the UN
Charter.
When our grandparents resolved to “spare
future generations the scourge of war”,
as written in the Charter, they were thinking
of us.
But as well as dreaming of our safety they
also left us a responsibility.
President Roosevelt, addressing the US Congress
in January 1945, six months before the end
of Second World War, said this:
“In the field of foreign policy, we propose
to stand together with the United Nations
not for the war alone but for the victory
for which the war is fought”.
He went on:
“The firm foundation can be built- and it
will be built.
But the continuance and assurance of a living
peace must, in the long run, be the work of
the people themselves.”
Today, we have to ask ourselves, are we living
up to that mission?
They gave us that start.
What have we done with it?
It is clear to me that we have made huge strides.
But our agreements and institutions are only
as strong as our will to uphold them today.
And if we do not, for whatever reason, we
bequeath a darker and more unstable world
to all those who come after us.
It is not for this that previous generations
shed blood and worked so hard on behalf of
all of us.
The memory of those who came before us holds
us true to our ideals.
Resting unchanging in time, they remind us
of who we are and what we stand for.
They give us hope to stay in the fight, as
Sergio did, until his last breath.
14 years since his death, there is a stronger
need than ever before for us to stay true
to the ideals and purposes of the United Nations.
That is what I hope his memory holds us to
today.
We can’t all be Sergios.
But I hope all of us can determine that we
shall be a generation that renews its commitment
to “unite our strength to maintain international
peace and security”, and “to promote social
progress and better standards of life in larger
freedom.”
But in the final analysis, even if we do not,
even if that level of vision eludes us and
we continue to simply manage rather than to
try to overcome our generation’s challenges,
we have to keep working determinedly and patiently.
And you can be certain, as you do, that you
follow the example of one of the UN’s finest
sons: and that to do even a little of his
good, to apply ourselves to the work he left
unfinished, in whatever way we can, is a worthy
task for any one of us.
Thank you