Restoring the faith.

• Position: Excerpts from the speech of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annam - Transcript

"We must understand first of all that the crisis facing the United Nations is not one that can be dealt with by tinkering with the budget or using better cash management techniques. It is rather a political crisis - a crisis of faith in the Organization", observed Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on January 1997. Here are excerpts from that address:

One of America's earliest political lessons was that taught by Benjamin Franklin when he told the quarrelsome 13 colonies that if we don't hang together, we will surely hang separately. This was the insight which, after the horrors of the Second World War, led to the establishment of the United Nations, in great part through the efforts of American statesmen. Franklin's lesson applies all the more across the world today.

The world has changed. It is increasingly interdependent. This interdependence, which profoundly benefits the United States, is fostered by the United Nations, through agreements among its sovereign Member States.

The United Nations promotes the freedom of trade and markets. Other United Nations bodies fight epidemics, famine, poverty; protect human rights; promote the protection of the environment; help the advancement of women and the rights of children.

United Nations agencies also set the indispensable rules and standards for safe and efficient transport by air and by sea. It is because of United Nations rules that all pilots and air traffic controllers across the world have to speak English. Imagine what would happen if they didn't. A United Nations agency works to ensure respect for intellectual property rights throughout the world. Another United Nations body coordinates the allocation of radio frequencies; without this, the international airwaves would be drowned in discordant noise.

The institutions of the United Nations advance the respect and promotion of international law and norms. This includes measures against terrorism, drug-trafficking and transnational crime. These problems cross frontiers; so must their solutions.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees looks after some 45 million refugees and displaced persons worldwide. Without this essential institution, many countries would be destabilized by chaotic refugee flows.

And United Nations peace-keepers have in many cases prevented the escalation of conflicts and saved countless thousands of lives. They are helping to consolidate peace in such a...