Within the Inter-Parliamentary Union debate on Parliamentary Accountability: Living up to People's Expectations, I wish to address the issue of co-operation for world and regional security and stability, as well as respect for all forms of sovereignty and independence of states.
The charter of the United Nations organisation emphasises a global vision of peace as the basis for development, with a special focus placed on fundamental human rights, the dignity and worth of the people, equal rights of women and men, and of nations large and small.
To this end the following are two essential purposes of the United Nations. The first is to maintain international peace and security and to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace and the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of peace. Collectively, countries agree to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, the settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of peace.
The second is to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian nature and to promote and encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all.
The plan in Chapter 8 of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg focused on Africa's call on the global community to help create an enabling environmental at regional, subregional and national level to promote peace and stability, economic growth, democracy and good governance.
The creation of an enabling environment cannot be the sole responsibility of a particular country; it must be shared jointly by the international community. Today's real borders are not between nations but between the powerful and the powerless, free and fettered, privileged and vulnerable. No walls can separate a humanitarian or human rights crisis in one part of the world from a national security crisis in another. Global effects such as economic recession, globalisation and natural disasters have created a world of interdependence and co-operation.
The successful countering of the common threats and challenges largely depends on the world's solidarity and concerted efforts. Peace, security and stability are essential conditions for sustainable development. Violent conflict is a threat, not only within the country where it happens, but far beyond.
Genocide begins with the killing of one person, not for what he or she has done, but because of who he or she is. A campaign of ethnic cleansing begins with one neighbour turning on another. Poverty begins when even one child is denied his or her fundamental right to education. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations. If different communities are to live together in peace, the world must give priority to what unites them - common humanity and a shared belief that human dignity and rights should be protected by law.
It is through multilateral institutions that states can hold each other to account. In order to achieve this objective, all multilateral institutions must be organised in a fair and democratic manner. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation, and the UN Security Council all need restructuring so all countries - powerful and weak nations - have an equal voice.
In recent years, regional organisations have developed a closer partnership with UN operations. This contributes to security and stability in regions and assists in ending conflicts as early as possible. Some regional countries share a culture, traditions, history and religion, which enables them to craft a proper intervention strategy.
Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the entire cleansing in the Balkans and Kosovo in 1995 and 1999, the international community began to seriously debate how best to effectively respond when a citizen's human rights are grossly and systematically violated. The issue at the heart of the matter was whether states have unconditional sovereignty over their affairs or whether the international community has the right to intervene militarily in a country for humanitarian purposes.
It was during this period in the 1990s, with incidents in Somalia, Rwanda, Srebrenica and Kosovo, that the discussions of a right to humanitarian intervention evolved into the concept of a responsibility to protect - to protect the individual. In this Millennium Report of 2000, the Secretary- General of the UN, His Excellency Mr Kofi Annan, recalled the failures of the UN Security Council to act in a decisive manner in Rwanda and Kosovo and put the following challenges to member states. He said:
If humanitarian intervention is indeed an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect every precept of our common humanity?
Following this Millennium Report, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, established by the Canadian government, issued a report titled "The Responsibility to Protect". The report found that sovereignty not only gave a state the right to control its affairs, it also conferred on the state primary responsibility for protecting the people within its borders.
It proposed that when a state fails to protect people, either through lack of ability or lack of willingness, the responsibility shifts to the broader international community. In the wake of threats to peace, security and stability, a new understanding of the concept of security is evolving. Once synonymous with the defence of territory from external attack, the requirements of security today have come to embrace the protection of communities and individuals from internal violence.
Any form of military intervention initiated under the premise of responsibility to protect must fulfil criteria in order to be justified as an extraordinary measure of intervention. These are: just cause, right intention, final resort, legitimate authority, proportional means and reasonable prospect.
The international community must broaden its view of what is meant by peace and security. Peace means much more than the absence of war. Human security can no longer be understood in purely military terms. Rather, it must encompass economic development, social justice, environmental protection, democratisation, disarmament and respect for human rights and the rule of law.
With warts and all, the UN organisation is an indispensable international authority and the irreplaceable forum for authorising international military enforcement. The general consensus of the UN member states on the Responsibility to Protect will go a long way in curbing human rights violations by states against their citizens under the guise of national sovereignty.
In conclusion, strengthening democracy and the protection of human rights carry the greatest legitimacy when the state providing the support comes across as an honest broker and genuine believer in them, both at home and abroad. Foreign policy coherence and a progressive development agenda thus go hand in hand. It is the job of parliaments to ensure that this happens, which means it is our responsibility as parliamentarians.
Lastly, the spaces for South Africa to advance these values are manifold. South Africa is currently a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council. It is a member of the G20 group of the world's strongest economies. It is a founding member of India-Brazil-South Africa, Ibsa, grouping. It is a regular participant in meetings at the UN and the AU, including the UN Human Rights Council and the African Union's Peace and Security Council.
South Africa plays a leading role in the SADC Parliamentary Forum and in debates regarding trade justice at the World Trade Organisation. The Secretariat for the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Nepad with its African Peer Review Mechanism, is based in South Africa, and so is the Pan-African Parliament.
The 17th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP 17, is going to be a very important conference for us in South Africa at the end of the year. This UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is going to take place in Durban at the end of 2011.
As a leading voice of the global south, and as a representative of the continent of Africa, it is vital that South Africa remains steadfast to the values of the African and UN charters by advancing the cause of justice and that of oppressed people near and far.
Former President Mandela's speech at the SADC summit in Blantyre in 1997 holds a key message for us. He said:
Our ... rebirth as we enter the new millennium depends as much as anything on each country and each regional grouping in the continent committing itself to the principles of democracy, respect for human rights and the basic tenets of good governance.
He continued:
Amongst SADC's basic principles are respect for the sovereignty of member states and noninterference in one another's internal affairs. This is the basis of good governance on the interstate level. But these considerations cannot blunt or totally override our common concern for democracy, human rights and good governance in all our constituent states.
At some point, therefore, we as a regional organisation must reflect on how we support the democratic process and respect for human rights. Can we continue to give comfort to member states whose actions go so diametrically against the values and principles we hold so dear and for which we struggled so long and so hard? I thank you. [Applause.]