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I want to express my personal thanks to President Havel, who
has organised this conference and is giving us the opportunity
to speak to the world from Prague. I think that this is really
a very important event, all the more so, as this forum takes place
at a moment which is immensely important for mankind.
If this conference had taken place before September 11, in my
opinion we would be discussing a lot of real institutional problems
that are on our agenda today. We would be discussing how international
institutions operate and the situation with human rights. I think
that it would include some of the topics that the previous speakers
touched upon - Mr. Weizacker, for instance, the inherent difficulties
of the UN’s structure and the ability of the UN to implement their
policy, which is based on human rights in the world. It would
also be very important to discuss in this context why the conference
on racism failed and why it proved impossible even to achieve
any serious outcome at this conference and why the level of misunderstanding
of the situation was so high.
I also think that it would be important to discuss why the institutions
in Europe and politicians try to speak about human rights so much,
while we continue to see so much of the so-called “realpolitik“,
which is perpendicular to what is termed call human-rights politics.
It would also be important to discuss why the parliamentary assembly
of Europe is so inefficient in such complicated and important
cases as the Chechen conflict in Russia and why its influence
is diminishing from month to month.
Speaking of institutions, we would also have to discuss the
main problem of an institutional approach to human rights, namely
the relationship between human rights policies and national states.
The crisis in this area is ever so obvious. Speaking specifically
of Russia I want to say that I think that one of the problems
is that national states and bureaucracies are sometimes creating
a false democracy, a quasi-democracy, a manageable democracy or
as we like to say in Russia – Potemkin´s villages. We would have
asked how to fight this. In my opinion these things are enormously
important, but now after September 11 we must change our approach
to the institutional issues a bit.
In my opinion terrorism in terms of substance is a challenge
to the concept of human rights. It is a challenge to that concept
which is the foundation of almost all European countries and nearly
half the entire world. War usually means that both sides are using
almost the same methods and tools against each other and this
is the pre-condition for victory. From my point of view, the events
we face today are absolutely different and I will explain what
I mean. Terrorists have no limitations, except for technical limitations,
while we are extremely restricted in our actions by our principles,
values, views and everything that we term human rights. We should
underline at this forum once again that the war with terrorism
is not an excuse for anyone to use it as an umbrella for anything
that would destroy humanity’s achievements in this field. Nobody
may be allowed to use this for purposes that are extremely far
from the real fight with terrorism and would! be aimed at suppressing
the political opposition or reaching any other political goals.
What I am saying at the moment is that if we don´t watch this
very carefully, we will soon see the first signs of such attempts.
The conclusion could be expressed in the following way: fighting
terrorism without compromising the basic values of human rights
in our countries and societies world-wide – this must be the main
goal and the main motto of international institutions at the moment.
But since we are facing such a serious situation in the world,
I think that it would certainly be important to also hold a practical
discussion about some important issues.
Today I have heard a discussion about the rich and poor states
and about the resulting problems. I don´t want to offend anybody
but I want to say that this thought is correct and banal at the
same time. I simply want to say that it will always be like this:
we will always have rich and poor. Hundreds of years ago we had
some poor people, although they were very different from today´s
poor. Three hundred years from now, I think, we will also have
this situation. This is the nature of mankind. I think it is simply
natural for us. It is not good or bad, it is a fact of human life,
some people are more capable, some people are less capable. Some
people are two metres tall, others are 1.60 m tall. So what can
we do about it? People are different. These differences have been
with us since the very beginning of civilisation.
Nevertheless, in connection with today’s discussions, I want
to say that there is a principle that must be accepted by everybody:
“There is no excuse – either religious, political or any other
– for killing innocent and disarmed people!“ This must be the
starting point for any discussion. It would be absolutely unproductive,
even counter-productive, to start explaining that there are poor
and rich people in the world and that this is the justification
for many developments. Yes many things have a justification, but
not the act of murder of innocent and disarmed people, that is
not possible at all! But what can we do at the moment – at this
forum, today – in order to have some impact? On one hand, to overcome
the terrorist outbreak and attacks and on the other hand to make
some impact and take some positive steps in human rights, which
is very much what this conference is about?
First of all I want to suggest that the Prague Declaration must
make a point about education. I think that the first thought that
comes to my mind in association with human rights and terrorism
concerns educational problems. As an economist I know my figures
and I am sure that the world has enough money to immediately start
education programmes everywhere around the globe. Education is
the shortest, most effective and most significant way of preventing
recent developments. It is possible to start thinking of this
even today, the money is ready, it is there and we must do it!
It is complicated, but then I don’t think that there are any easy
solutions. The argument saying that this would be complicated
is not really an argument at all, as there simply isn’t any easy
solution.
The second issue, which I think should be included in the declaration
of this forum, is a practical one, it is one of the ways that
this forum can help. It is the issue of starvation, the issue
of hunger, the food problem. I don’t mean just food aid, but a
food programme. I find it strange that humanitarian aid – food
aid - is only coming after the start of the war. From the point
of starvation there are many places like Afghanistan in the world.
Why should we wait with our aid until a war starts?
One more issue, which I think is very important\today. Even
discussion of the first two topics would help in the fight against
terrorism. Now I would like to touch upon yet another topic –last
but not least. I heard what I believe to be very good news from
our chairman – namely that there will be a meeting of religious
leaders in New York very soon which will discuss some issues like
this. First of all I want to say that I like New York very much
and that I agree with ex-President Clinton that it is a model
of people living together, even if they are of different religions,
races or whatever … However, I believe that such a conference
should take place in Amman, and not New York. It is that type
of day. I also think that one of the most important tools could
be theological solutions, theological conclusions and theological
explanations, which must back as soon as possible all the anti-terrorist
activities in the world. This must happen at a very high! level
of all confessions and the Islamic confession in particular. I
want to hear the things that His Royal Highness said here today.
I think that the people who have the highest position in Islam,
one of the greatest religions in the world, should again and again
explain at the highest level - together with others who are at
the same level in other religions – that killing people has nothing
to do with Islam and cannot be rewarded in any way or form – neither
today nor in a thousand years. This is extremely, extremely important
and if we really want to do something, we mustn’t close our eyes
to it. I think that this is something that is really related to
our discussions today.
Before I conclude I would like to point out to you that Afghanistan
is a country that has almost all its borders with countries that
are nuclear powers – Pakistan, India, China, Russia. Two other
nuclear powers – the United States and Britain – are taking part
in the military action against it. The recent events here and
also in the United States (I mean the anthrax situation – literally
the events of yesterday) demonstrate the situation in the world
. I think that it is time not only for discussion or only for
military action. I think that our forum here in Prague would be
most useful if we had some kind of practical agenda.
Thank you very much.
See also:
Acts
of Terror in the US
Grigory Yavlinsky
will participate in the international conference “Forum 2000”
Grigory
Yavlinsky proposes several measures to fight the reasons for terrorism
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