篇章翻译
The arrival of the new millennium is an occasionfor celebration and reflection.1The world didcelebrate as the clock struck midnight2 on NewYear's Eve, in one time zone after another, fromKiribati and Fiji westward around the globe toSamoa. People of all cultures joined in — not onlythose for whom the millennium might be thought tohave a special significance.
The Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of Giza were lit as brightly as Manger Square inBethlehem and St. Peter's Square in Rome.3 Tokyo, Jakarta and New Delhi joined Sydney, Moscow, Paris, New York, Rio de Janeiro and hundreds of other cities in hosting millennialfestivities. Children's faces reflected the candlelight from Spitsbergen in Norway to RobbenIsland in South Africa. For 24 hours the human family celebrated its unity through anunprecedented display of its rich diversity.
The Millennium Summit affords an opportunity for reflection. The General Assemblyconvened this gathering of Heads of State and Government to address the role of the UnitedNations in the twenty-first century. Both the occasion and the subject require us to step backfrom today's headlines and take a broader, longer-term view — of the state of the world and thechallenges it poses for this Organization.
There is much to be grateful for. Most people today can expect to live longer than theirparents, let alone their more remote ancestors. They are better nourished, enjoy better health, are better educated, and on the whole face more favorable economic prospects.
There are also many things to deplore, and to correct. The century just ended wasdisfigured, time and again, by ruthless conflict. Grinding poverty and striking inequalitypersist within and among countries even amidst unprecedented wealth. Diseases, old andnew, threaten to undo painstaking progress. Nature's life-sustaining services, on which ourspecies depends for its survival, are being seriously disrupted and degraded by our owneveryday activities.4 The world's people look to their leaders, when they gather at theMillennium Summit, to identify and act on the major challenges ahead.
The United Nations can succeed in helping to meet those challenges only if all of us feel arenewed sense of mission about our common endeavor.5 We need to remind ourselves why theUnited Nations exists — for what, and for whom. We also need to ask ourselves what kind ofUnited Nations the world's leaders are prepared to support, in deeds as well as words. Clearanswers are necessary to energize and focus the Organization's work in the decades ahead. It isthose answers that the Millennium Summit must provide.
Of course, the United Nations exists to serve its Member States. It is the only body of itskind with universal membership and comprehensive scope, and encompassing so manyareas of human endeavor.6 These features make it a uniquely useful forum — for sharinginformation, conducting negotiations, elaborating norms and voicing expectations, coordinatingthe behavior of states and other actors, and pursuing common plans of action. We must ensurethat the United Nations performs these functions as efficiently and effectively as possible.
The United Nations is more than a mere tool, however. As its Charter makes clear, theUnited Nations was intended to introduce new principles into international relations, making aqualitative difference to their day-to-day conduct. The Charter's very first Article defines ourpurposes: resolving disputes by peaceful means; devising cooperative solutions to economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems; and broadly encouraging behavior in conformitywith the principles of justice and international law. In other words, quite apart from whateverpractical tasks the United Nations is asked to perform, it has the avowed purpose oftransforming relations among states, and the methods by which the world's affairs aremanaged.
Nor is that all. For even though the United Nations is an organization of states, the Charteris written in the name of “we the peoples”. It reaffirms the dignity and worth of the humanperson, respect for human rights and the equal rights of men and women, and a commitmentto social progress as measured by better standards of life, in freedom from want and fearalike.7 Ultimately, then, the United Nations exists for, and must serve, the needs and hopes ofpeople everywhere.
For its first 45 years, the United Nations lived in the grip of the cold war, prevented fromfulfilling some of its core missions but discovering other critical tasks in that conflict'sshadow. For 10 years now, the United Nations has been buffeted by the tumultuous changes ofthe new era, doing good work in many instances but falling short in others. Now, the MillenniumSummit offers the world's leaders an unparalleled opportunity to reshape the United Nationswell into the twenty-first century, enabling it to make a real and measurable difference topeople's lives.
I respectfully submit the present report to Member States to facilitate their preparationsfor the Summit and to stimulate their subsequent deliberations at the Summit. The reportidentifies some of the pressing challenges faced by the world's people that fall within theUnited Nations ambit. It proposes a number of priorities for Member States to consider, and itrecommends several immediate steps that we can take at the Summit itself, to lift people'sspirits and improve their lives.
All these proposals are set in the context of globalization, which is transforming the worldas we enter the twenty-first century. In this new era, people's actions constantly—if oftenunwittingly—affect the lives of others living far away. Globalization offers great opportunities, but at present its benefits are very unevenly distributed while its costs are borne by all.
Thus the central challenge we face today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positiveforce for all the world's people, instead of leaving billions of them behind in squalor. Inclusiveglobalization must be built on the great enabling force of the market, but market forces alonewill not achieve it. It requires a broader effort to create a shared future, based upon ourcommon humanity in all its diversity.
That in turn requires that we think afresh about how we manage our joint activities and ourshared interests, for many challenges that we confront today are beyond the reach of any stateto meet on its own. At the national level we must govern better, and at the international levelwe must learn to govern better together. Effective states are essential for both tasks, andtheir capacity for both needs strengthening. We must also adapt international institutions, through which states govern together, to the realities of the new era.8 We must form coalitionsfor change, often with partners well beyond the precincts of officialdom.
No shift in the way we think or act can be more critical than this: we must put people atthe centre of everything we do. No calling is more noble, and no responsibility greater, thanthat of enabling men, women and children, in cities and villages around the world, to maketheir lives better. Only when that begins to happen will we know that globalization is indeedbecoming inclusive, allowing everyone to share its opportunities.
We must do more than talk about our future, however.9 We must start to create it, now. Let the Millennium Summit signal the renewed commitment of Member States to their UnitedNations, by agreeing on our common vision.10 Let the world's leaders prove their commitmentby acting on it as soon as they return home.
