Speeches

Statements by Senior

Embassy Officials

Ambassador Richard H. Jones Remarks
American International School Model United Nations
Sunday, February 17, 2008, 9:00AM.

Good Morning!  I am delighted to help welcome you all to this eighth annual session of TIME-MUN.  Today you embark on a journey that will ask you to look at the world from a different perspective.

For the next three days, you are no longer high school students.  Instead, you are delegates to the United Nations representing governments striving to come to grips with some of today’s most pressing issues.  From climate change and nuclear proliferation to disease, poverty, political instability and violence, our world faces new and emerging challenges.  

Your roles, as UN delegates, have never been more important.  As political crises and social and environmental problems spread across geographical and political borders, international organizations are increasingly vital.  World leaders and citizens alike look to the UN to help find solutions and resolve conflicts.

Global warming does not discriminate between polluting nations and non-polluting ones.   This month, the effects of a rogue French banker’s unauthorized dealings further roiled world financial markets already shaken by the sub-prime mortgage crisis.  The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a threat to countries throughout the Middle East and beyond.   Such problems can best be tackled within the framework of international cooperation.  

The United Nations is best known as a platform for dialogue among nations.  However, the institution also works closely behind the scenes every day with other international organizations, both governmental, and non governmental.   Such public-private partnerships are increasingly effective in promoting economic growth and human rights. 

It’s no surprise then that this year’s TIME-MUN theme, which is “the synergy of public-private partnerships in tackling global problems”, stresses the importance of universal involvement and personal initiative.  Just as no one country can solve the world’s problems no single organization holds the key either. 

An excellent example of this type of partnership can be found in the diamond industry.  In 2000, the UN published a report detailing the disastrous effects of the diamond industry in Sierra Leone, a poor country in West Africa.  Workers labored in unsafe and unhealthy conditions, and profits from the diamond trade promoted political instability and violence.  As with many complicated problems, there was plenty of blame to go around, from the government of Sierra Leone, for not enforcing labor safety standards, to European countries who were permissive with import and export regulations, to DeBeers, the world’s largest diamond company, for profiting from gross labor violations and pervasive violence.  Israel, as the world’s hub for processing diamonds, faced similar allegations.

The UN began a process, in collaboration with the diamond industry, diamond trading nations -- such as Israel--, and civil society organizations to develop a certification process to document and ensure that a diamond’s origin was not a UN designated conflict zone, such as Sierra Leone.  This effort culminated in the Kimberly Certification Process, adopted at the end of 2002, which is currently implemented by 74 countries.  The Israelis among you should take pride in the knowledge that Israel was the first country to implement this process.   

Today, the Kimberly Certification Program covers 99% of the world’s diamond production. It has stemmed the flow of conflict diamonds and helped stabilize fragile diamond producing countries.  The dramatic results of this program could not have been achieved without strong, active cooperation between the public and private sectors.

Here in this region, another new initiative seeks to create a similar synergy of public and private efforts. The US-Palestinian Public-Private Partnership is a newly created program being led by the Aspen Institute and the American Task Force for Palestine at the request of President Bush and Secretary of State Rice.  This program focuses on creating economic opportunities for the Palestinian people and helping to prepare Palestinian youth for the responsibilities of citizenship and good governance.  American businesses and non-profit organizations are working with Palestinian entrepreneurs and officials of the Palestinian Authority to promote these goals by establishing youth centers and providing training and work opportunities. 

Government action is important, but is no substitute for a strong and vibrant private sector.  Private investment will be essential for the creation of a dynamic Palestinian economy that satisfies the needs of the Palestinian people, and I believe that this Partnership holds great promise for not only strengthening the Palestinian economy but also for promoting regional peace and security.

Private companies are also cooperating with governments and contributing to world stability and peace by playing an important role in enforcing UNSC sanctions, including those against Iran.  Governmental agencies share information with financial institutions about the banks and front companies Iran uses to advance its nuclear program.  As a result, many important private banks around the world have voluntarily restricted their dealings with Iran or closed suspicious bank accounts helping to thwart the financing of nuclear proliferation.  The participation of private sector financial institutions in supporting the UN sanctions has amplified their effect in a way that governments alone could never have achieved.

One of the most important lessons that can be learned from these examples of private-public cooperation is that individuals can make a difference.   Of course it goes without saying that individuals are involved when private corporations and government officials reach out to work together on a project promoting the common interest.  However, private individuals acting on their own as civic-minded citizens can play an important role as well.   In the case of conflict diamonds, pressure from consumer groups provided further incentives for private companies to work towards improving social conditions in their business practices.

Several other examples of such personal private initiative were highlighted just this past week in a ceremony sponsored by the US Center for Citizen Diplomacy in Des Moines, Iowa.  In the United States, the concept of the citizen diplomat goes back at least as far as Benjamin Franklin, who took the story of our nascent republic to an intrigued Europe.

But it was not until the mid-20th century, when America became increasingly concerned about the competition for minds posed by communism that the idea really began to bloom.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower put it center stage by holding a "summit on citizen diplomacy" in 1956. "If only people will get together, then so eventually will nations," Eisenhower said.

Among those honored last week were: a young woman from New Jersey whose student-run organization works to improve the lives of young people in Rwanda while also developing American students' understanding of Africa; a Montana mountain climber whose chance stay in a remote Pakistani village led to construction of a school -and a life dedicated to expanding education in Central Asia; and an Iraqi-born businessman promoting Arab understanding of America and opportunities for Arab-Americans.

Your participation in the Model UN program can be your first step in becoming citizen diplomats.  In taking part in this week’s event, you have already demonstrated your curiosity about other nations, their state of affairs, their ambitions and the challenges they face.  I hope that three days from now you will be even more interested in world affairs and will have gained some tools that will help you have an impact on your future world.

The solutions to many of the world’s problems depend upon our ability to understand other people’s perspectives and our willingness to work together towards finding and implementing viable win-win solutions.  I hope that your participation here over the next three days also helps persuade you to remain involved in this quest.  If there’s anything that my experience as an official diplomat over the past thirty years has taught me, it’s that the world needs active global citizens like you.  

Thank you and have a great three days!