Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(l) recognises 26 June 2015 as the 70th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter (Charter) at San Francisco;

(2) notes that:

(a) Australia was one of the 50 nations which signed the Charter that established the United Nations organisation;

(b) the United Nations came into being on 24 October 1945, a date that recognises each year as United Nations Day; and

(c) the signatories to the Charter agreed to:

  (i) save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind;

  (ii) 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;

  (iii) establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained; and

  (iv) promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom; and

  (v) achieve these ends, to:

  -practise tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours;

  -unite our strength to maintain international peace and security;

  -ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest; and

  -employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples; and

(3) calls on all Members and Senators in the Australian Parliament to celebrate the achievements of the United Nations over the last 70 years.

This motion recognises that, on 26 June 1945, Australia was one of the 50 nations which signed the charter which established the United Nations organisation. With the end of the Second World War, there was a sense of urgency across all nations that there needed to be a better way of resolving conflict, which, during the war, had destroyed the lives of millions of people across a number of continents. So we acknowledge the 70th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter. Every day the United Nations makes a positive difference for millions of people by vaccinating children, distributing food aid, sheltering refugees, deploying peacekeepers, protecting the environment, seeking a peaceful resolution of disputes, supporting democratic elections, gender equality, human rights and the rule of law.

The theme of this anniversary year is 'Strong UN. Better World'. I had the privilege, for about three months at the end of last year, to work directly with the Australian mission to the UN in New York working with the United Nations General Assembly and its various committees. That gave me a very keen appreciation of the fact that, while there is a lot to do to make sure that the UN is as efficient and effective as it can be, it is the best that we have globally and it would be unlikely to be cobbled together any time in the foreseeable future, if there were, for some miraculous reason, the dissolution or disappearance of the United Nations.

In particular, I want to commend the adoption of the resolution by the United Nations creating the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, which occurred just a few days ago, on 19 June 2015. On 19 June, we recognised the effort to boost the global fight against the horrors faced by women and girls in zones of conflict worldwide. The United Nations General Assembly has approved by consensus a new resolution to commemorate every 19 June as the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. This is a mark of the concern that the United Nations membership has for the evolution of warfare, where the most horrific crimes against women and girls are now more likely. In a statement made at the time, the President of the General Assembly, Sam Kutesa, who directed this resolution, said:

Together, we must prioritize prevention and response efforts, empower victims, provide comprehensive assistance and shift the stigma of shame from the victims of these crimes to those who commit them and condone them.

He also said:

Rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict constitute grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law …

Unfortunately, it is a growing way in which terrorists and failed states try to intimidate and bring about their own rule of law.

Young people in particular are suffering terrible atrocities. We cannot forget the kidnapped girls in Chibok, Nigeria, or the students killed in Kenya and Pakistan by extremists. Unfortunately, violent extremism is a growing and global threat. The Middle East is becoming more unstable. The prospects of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine are tragically becoming more distant. We are in the fifth year of a devastating crisis in Syria, with more than 220,000 people having been killed. In Yemen, more than 18 million people are caught up in a terrible conflict, with some 12 million people without food and shelter. There is terrible suffering of civilians, particularly women and girls.

In relation to the resolution to create annual recognition of the plight of women and girls in conflict, let me remind you that a particularly horrific situation exists in the Middle East conflicts, where, for example, ISIL is allegedly issuing a regulation setting out the prices to be paid for Yazidi and Christian girls. The amounts vary according to the age of the woman or girl. The promise of sexual access to women and girls has been used in ISIL propaganda materials as part of their recruitment strategy. An estimated 1,500 civilians may have been forced into sexual slavery. This is a most horrific circumstance, and the UN is going to be making sure its eradication is at the forefront of providing a better life for all. I commend this motion to the House.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. I thank the member for Murray for having moved this important motion. As a former UN staff member and the co-founder of the UN parliamentary group, of which I am now a deputy chair—and Dr Stone is the chair—I am very happy to second the motion.

The parliament will mark the 70th anniversary of the signing of the UN charter with a special ceremony on Thursday. Australia of course played a key role in the founding of the UN. Prime Minister John Curtin, one of my predecessors in the federal seat of Fremantle, before his untimely death in July 1945, championed the new international peacemaking organisation which would become the United Nations. In his last major parliamentary speech, on 28 February 1945, Curtin said:

If we are to concert with other peoples of good will in order to have a better world, there must be some pooling of sovereignty, some association of this country with other countries, and some agreement, which, when made, should be kept … There is a price that the world must pay for peace; there is a price that it must pay for collective security. I shall not attempt to specify the price, but it does mean less nationalism, less selfishness, less race ambition. Does it not mean also some consideration for others and a willingness to share with them a world which is, after all, good enough to give each of us a place in it, if only all of us will observe reason and goodwill towards one another?

Australia was fortunate that the Minister for External Affairs responsible for inaugurating national foreign policy was, according to Gareth Evans, 'Australia's first genuine internationalist'. Dr HV Evatt—'Doc' Evatt—played a crucial role in the negotiation of the UN Charter. He argued that the prime purpose of the UN should be to provide collective security for all nations by setting in place procedures to achieve speedy, peaceful conflict resolution and to promote economic and social justice. He advocated unstintingly the rights and opportunities of smaller countries through his work to raise the status of the UN General Assembly; to restrict the dominance of the permanent five members of the Security Council; and to expand the goals of the UN Economic and Social Council.

Evatt's support for decolonisation led to the incorporation of a trusteeship clause in the UN Charter. He succeeded in strengthening the functions of the assembly by securing agreement that its powers include all matters within the scope of the charter unless they are already on the council's agenda, and by widening the UN's economic and social goals to include promoting higher standards of living, full employment and economic and social progress as well as universal respect for human rights. In recognition of the significance of Evatt's contribution Australia was elected as one of the first non-permanent members of the Security Council. Evatt was also elected as the third chair of the UN General Assembly, a position he was occupying at the time of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Another formidable Australian force in establishing the UN and the visibility of women in the international arena was Jessie Street. She was the sole woman on the Australian delegation to the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945. With other women, she was instrumental in having a permanent Commission on the Status of Women established within the United Nations, separate from the Human Rights Commission. Jessie was its first vice president. As such she was closely involved with the drafting of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. She and her CSW colleagues were successful in changing the first draft of the declaration, which had opened with the statement, 'All men are brothers', and referred to the rights of 'man'. Jessie always said, 'if you don't refer expressly to women, they will be excluded from rights'. Hence, the 'brotherhood' opening was dropped. In its place, Article 1 begins: 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.'

Jessie Street strongly believed in the UN as an instrument of peace but she was also keenly aware that the UN is only as good as the states, the governments which are its members, allow it to be. The tragic failings sometimes attributed to the UN, such as Srebrenica and Rwanda, can usually be traced back to intransigence, action or inaction on the part of one or more powerful member states.

Standing up to powerful member states may well have cost the second Secretary-General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjold, his life. Hammarskjold was mysteriously killed in a plane crash in the Congo in September 1961. New evidence presented in a book by Susan Williams titled Who Killed Hammarskjold: The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa, has led to the establishment by the UN of an independent panel of experts to investigate Hammarskjold's death. I hope it will lead to some belated justice for this brilliant and courageous man.

In the meantime, on this special 70th anniversary of the UN Charter, I would like to quote the inspirational words Dag Hammarskjold said to UN staff just nine days before he was killed:

It is false pride to register and to boast to the world about the importance of one's work, but it is false humility, and finally just as destructive, not to recognise and recognise with gratitude that one's work has a sense. Let us avoid the second fallacy as carefully as the first, and let us work in the conviction that our work has a meaning beyond the narrow individual and has meant something for humankind.

Debate adjourned.