One life is worth another: a second wind for the United Nations and civil society.

• Author: Barrat, Patrice

IN ORDER FOR THE UNITED NATIONS to instill or revive a sense of its legitimacy among the peoples of the world, it must be guided by the very simple notion that one life is worth another--that the life of an Arab has the same value as that of an Israeli, the life of an African is equal to that of an American, or the life of an Indian is equal to that of a European. One of the greatest struggles the United Nations faces is the confusion between its decisions and actual capabilities on the one hand, and the actions and gestures of the "international community" on the other. The Charter of the United Nations and UN resolutions mean little if what prevails in the end is the law of the strongest or the richest.

At a time when the world seems to be facing life and death issues--ecological, security, religious and economic--the greatest challenge of the United Nations is perhaps not the reforming of its rules and procedures, but more of the universal, symbolic significance of its raison d'etre. The United Nations lacks the desire to speak directly to the hearts and minds of the peoples, to move beyond Governments with their cynicism, beyond corporations with their irresponsibility and beyond religions with their instrumentalism. Yet the "sacred" UN texts themselves contain the means to mobilize the entire planet; we need only to refer to the passage in the UN Charter that says "to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations, large and small".

Abraham Lincoln was able to put an end to the civil war by "reinventing" the American Constitution to make it more egalitarian. His Gettysburg address on 19 November 1863 created a new vision for the whole nation, including former slaves, with the few right words at the right moment: "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that 'all men are created equal'."

Of course, exegetes will say that Lincoln was deliberately exaggerating, but it was the inspiration that carried the day. We should be able to dream of a UN Secretary-General who can liberate himself from the political pressure exerted by its Member States and who can ensure that every person in every part of the world feels that he or she is a beneficiary of truly equal rights. That would indeed be a dream. By pursuing this dream, however, the United...