Douglass Cassel:

¶ 1         Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us at this conference on Reforming the United Nations and the Use of Force for Security and Human Rights.

¶ 2         My name is Doug Cassel. I am the Director of the Center for International Human Rights here at Northwestern University School of Law.

¶ 3         We are honored by the presence of the Consul General of Canada, Ann Charles, who is seated in the middle; to her left is the Consul General of the United Kingdom, Andrew Seaton. To his left, the Consul General of Mexico, Carlos Manuel Sada Solana; and to his left, the Consul General of France, Richard Barbeyron. We are distinctly honored that each of the Consuls here in Chicago has agreed to co-sponsor the conference, and we are delighted by their presence.

¶ 4         We also have here two ambassadors who will be speaking on panels later. Ambassador Gilbert Laurin, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations, was able to make it in on one of the few flights from New York yesterday that was not canceled; likewise, Ambassador Feisal Istrabadi, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations, will be speaking on later panels. We are hopeful that additional speakers and diplomats will arrive during the course of the day.

¶ 5         With that I would like to pass the podium to the Dean of Northwestern University School of Law, Dean David Van Zandt.

David Van Zandt:^*

¶ 6         Thank you, Doug, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to snowy Chicago. I hope your travels were good.

¶ 7         I do want to first of all start out by thanking the dignitaries and diplomats who are here with us today.

¶ 8         I would also like to thank Professor Doug Cassel, the director of our Center for International Human Rights, which is part of our Bluhm Legal Clinic, and in particular I would like to thank the students on the editorial board of the Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights who played a big role in pulling this all together and helping to organize it.

¶ 9         And finally the faculty of law at the Catholic University of Leuven, who is our partner in many other programs. I want to thank them for helping to organize today's conference.

¶ 10         We also have a couple of other sponsors. In addition to the Consul Generals that Doug has just introduced, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations is a sponsor as well as the United Nations Association of the United States, the Greater Chicago Chapter.

¶ 11         Thank you very much for your support. And finally I want to welcome and thank you, our keynote speaker, Sir David Hannay, and also all of our panel participants.

¶ 12         We are delighted and honored to host the Fourth Annual Transatlantic Dialogue here at Northwestern Law.

¶ 13         The topic of this year's conference, Reforming the United Nations, is a timely topic of great interest at the Law School.

¶ 14         International relations in law have always been important at Northwestern Law and expanding our international focus is one of the goals of our strategic plan. We are accomplishing that goal in several ways, whether it is by discussing at international conferences, such as this one, changes such as globalization, technological advances and increased competitive opportunities, or by increasing the number of international students in our student body here at Northwestern Law.

¶ 15         We tell all of our students that we will prepare them for this exciting new world where international lawyers drive significant political and economic changes as they open markets, put investment capital to new uses, and challenge human rights abuses throughout the world.

¶ 16         Northwestern Law has historically been a pioneer in comparative law and international public law, and more recently, we have been building in the area of international human rights.

¶ 17         With respect to the latter in 1998, the Center for International Human Rights became part of our Bluhm Legal Clinic with Doug Cassel as the director.

¶ 18         In that Center, the faculty and students work together to carry out teaching, research, public and professional education, and provide technical assistance and address international issues in the human rights area. Some of the topics on which the Center has been leading debates include the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, terrorism and the prosecution of terrorist suspects, the United States death penalty, economic rights, humanitarian interventions, and political asylum cases.

¶ 19         Under the auspices of the Center, students have investigated cases and have had summer internships in Guatemala, Indonesia, and at the UN Human Rights Center in Geneva.

¶ 20         The year 1998 was also the first year our students participated in our international team projects course. Through our International Team Project Program, several hundred students have now studied and traveled to South Africa, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, and Chile, and this year at the end of March for two weeks during spring break, about 150 students will travel to China, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, Panama, Tanzania, and Thailand.

¶ 21         Also, we have increased the size of our international student population with our unique two-year J.D. for foreign-trained lawyers.

¶ 22         This year international students made up about fifteen percent of our entire student body and they are fully integrated with our J.D. and J.D.-MBA students.

¶ 23         We have also established important relationships with schools around the world, such as the University of Leuven, Tel Aviv University, and the Free University of America. Finally, we have developed Executive LLM programs in Seoul and Madrid in which more experienced lawyers have the opportunity to earn an LLM from Northwestern without leaving their homes because our faculty members travel to them to teach.

¶ 24         Northwestern Law students take an interest in all these activities. They are very active and one reason programs such as this are so successful year after year.

¶ 25         If you would like more, International Law Week organized by our students in the International Law Society at the Law School will start on April 4^th.

¶ 26         I hope you enjoy the conference today, and if you have a chance, please look around the Law School. Do not go too far out into Chicago; it is still a little snowy. But visit our library and talk to our students. It is right next door, and you are all welcome to spend some time with us. So again, welcome to everyone.

Douglass Cassel:

¶ 27         Consul General Anne Charles from Canada.

Anne Charles:^**

¶ 28         Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, Dean Van Zandt, Mr. David Hannay, Consuls General.

¶ 29         I am very pleased to be part of this conference on reforming the United Nations' use of force to safeguard international security and human rights. No doubt the coming months will be a stimulating time for those involved and interested in the UN system.

¶ 30         Canada plans to be actively involved in the evolution of the UN's future. We will work to make changes we think are necessary, because Canada values having an effective rules-based multilateral system that creates a safer world for us all.

¶ 31         I am very pleased that this conference is being held in the US Midwest. Too often in the heartland, the perception of the United Nations has been deliberations only. Personally, I have been very fortunate to have witnessed firsthand the activities of the UN bodies from UNICEF to the World Food Program, to UNAIDS and UN peacekeeping in Angola.

¶ 32         During my postings abroad, I have seen the tireless efforts made by UN workers to bring food, shelter, and aid to those in need. Ironically, one of the outcomes of the terrible tsunami is to concretely demonstrate to the world the ability of the organization that the developed world has not often seen or appreciated.

¶ 33         While the UN continues to evolve as an organization, we in Canada continue to value its existence.

¶ 34         During the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the last world war and the creation of the UN, broadening the awareness and the support of the UN system and its worth are the most effective means to secure its foundation.

¶ 35         To all those involved in making today possible and such a success, my heartfelt congratulations. Thank you.

Richard Barbeyron:^***

¶ 36         Yes. Good morning. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished speakers and guests, dear colleagues and friends.

¶ 37         It is an honor for the Consulate General of France in Chicago to be one of the co-sponsors of this great conference on the United Nations organized by the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law and its director Doug Cassel, an old friend of the French community here, together with our Belgian friends of the Catholic University of Leuven.

¶ 38         I just arrived in Chicago two days ago. Previously, I was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is a great emerging country very much involved in the process of reforming the United Nations, knocking with good reasons on the Security Council's door.

¶ 39         The UN was founded almost sixty years ago by a group of free nations led by the United States. We owe a lot to the US for this legacy started by President Wilson after World War I and achieved after World War II with President Roosevelt.

¶ 40         Nowadays, the UN is so essential that a world without it is unthinkable. The UN is more than ever the most appropriate place to address the tremendous challenges ahead from security to sustainable development. It gives a unique and essential legitimacy to actions undertaken by the international community.

¶ 41         France's strong commitment to improve the UN is well known. We very much appreciate the reforms already undertaken by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. We believe that it is about time to take the next step by reforming the Security Council in two main directions:

¶ 42         First, by improving the way the Security Council deals with threats on peace and security. We also agree here on the need for better implementation of the Security Council's recommendations. To this end, based on the experience in Iraq in 2003, France proposes to create a permanent team of UN inspectors to improve the control of nuclear proliferation and other illegal production of weapons of mass destruction.

¶ 43         There is also a need for professionals who are able to carefully watch human rights all over the world and can alert the UN before the surge of a crisis. Peacekeeping and peacemaking operations could be more efficient if better coordinated and based on previous experiences.

¶ 44         Secondly, by welcoming new members, permanent or not, within the Security Council, the world is no longer bipolar. Today's world is multipolar and the Security Council definitely must reflect this reality to keep its legitimacy.

¶ 45         France advocates the creation of five new permanent members and four new nonpermanent ones. Regarding the five new permanent members, we strongly believe that Germany, our friend and one of the most generous supporters of the UN, is entitled to join the council, as well as Japan, and we have the same conviction toward India, Brazil, and an African power still to be determined.

¶ 46         Regarding the four new nonpermanent members, we think they should be offered to Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

¶ 47         In a nutshell, these are our views based on our constant principles. France strongly believes in the necessity of international rights. We support the UN and its Security Council as the source of international legitimacy. I suppose you share this core principle but maybe with a different approach.

¶ 48         I have no doubt the discussions today and tomorrow will be very interesting. Enjoy the conference. Thank you and vive les Nations Unies.

Carlos Manuel Sada Solana:^*****

¶ 49         Buenos días. I am delighted to be here today. Thank you, Mr. Van Zandt, for hosting and organizing this event, Douglass, a tremendous, enthusiastic organizer and responsible for the success of this event, and Mr. Hannay and your colleagues.

¶ 50         Today, we have a splendid panel of discussions, and I am deeply convinced that their analysis will turn into a thoughtful and a very practical contribution to the improvement and the enhancement of the United Nations. I would only like to underline that in Mexico the need for change and reform of the United Nations has turned into a subject of public concern, something that is part of daily life in the press and on the public agenda in general.

¶ 51         That is why the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, proposed the creation of a Group of Friends for the Reform of the United Nations¹ which last week convened in Mexico City for its fifth meeting to continue its endeavors in promoting the reform of the United Nations and to examine its future activities in light of the report of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change.²

¶ 52         Prior to that, in early January, at our annual meeting of Ambassadors and Consul Generals in Mexico City, the subject of the role of Mexico in the reform of the United Nations was of a very special relevance that we discussed from all the different perspectives in the agenda of our Mexican foreign policy.

¶ 53         Mexico's position on this revolves basically around the importance of the enhancement of the United Nations' prevention capabilities and a larger core of nations having better representation in its constitutional bodies - a higher profile for economic and social development, as well as international cooperation as elements of a preventive approach to collective security.

¶ 54         Given the challenges and importance of the task, we can be sure that the series of discussions and panels that will take place between today and tomorrow are the best demonstration of the great human and intellectual chapter that we have to undertake - the assignment of our lifetime, a comprehensive reform of the United Nations.

Andrew Seaton:^*****

¶ 55         Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Andrew Seaton, British Consul General here in the Midwest.

¶ 56         One of the penalties of the alphabetic system of deciding is that I come last. One of the penalties of that is everything that I was going to say has already been said by my colleagues. So I must admit I am slightly tempted by the thought to say, "Well, what he said," or "what she said," so I will keep my remarks brief.

¶ 57         First, I would like to offer my congratulations to Northwestern University and to the Catholic University of Leuven for organizing this important and timely conference.

¶ 58         The British Government is a very strong supporter of the UN. We are a major financial contributor to the UN, to its associated bodies and programs. We are very actively involved in the UN's deliberations, whether in New York or Geneva or elsewhere. We are among the, if not the, biggest supplier of troops to UN peacekeeping operations around the world.

¶ 59         Being a supporter of the UN does not mean accepting the UN as it is. Being a supporter of the UN means looking at ways of reforming and changing the UN to make it operate as effectively as it can.

¶ 60         Therefore, we have also been heavily engaged in the current debate on how best to reform and change the UN so that it works as well as it can in the service of the world and that debate involves some difficult choices.

¶ 61         That debate also is not a debate that can just happen within the UN. Nor is it a debate that can just happen between governments.

¶ 62         There needs to be a wider public debate in all our countries to ensure that the UN serves us as well as it can, and that is why we were particularly pleased to support this conference as an important part of the contribution to that debate about the future of the UN, a debate which perhaps is of particular relevance here in the US and here in the Midwest.

¶ 63         So thanks to your organizers for organizing this. We are very happy to support this conference and very best wishes for the next two days. Thank you.

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