Nobel Laureate Betty Williams started her speech to a peace forum at the U.N. headquarters Thursday with perhaps the last thing the audience would expect her to say.

From left: H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations; Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative; and Ms. Betty Williams, 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate. Credit: Minh Le/IPS

She urged them to stop glorifying working for peace.

“We could sit all day here and glorify it, but it’s not a thing that should be glorified,” she said. “It’s a thing that should be done in reality, every single day of our lives.”

Williams, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for promoting a peaceful society, believes that each person, as a global citizen, has a role to play in bringing peace to the world.

“We can’t say ‘I don’t have to do it. Let them do it.’ Every child that dies in our world from conditions of malnutrition, from disease, from war, we are all guilty. As a human family, we are all guilty,” she said.

Her sentiment for global solidarity and responsibility was echoed by many others at the forum, where diplomats, educators and peace activists gathered to discuss the topic of “Global Citizenship and the Future of the U.N.”

The Feb. 20 event, sponsored by the U.N. Alliance of Civilisations and organised by Soka Gakkai International (SGI), Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency and the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, also saw the launch of “A Forum for Peace: Daisaku Ikeda’s Proposals to the U.N.”

The book is a collection of 30 years of annual peace proposals by Buddhist thinker Ikeda, whose recommendations for global change and for the U.N. are seen as words of wisdom by Williams and other speakers at the forum.

“This is the book that really needs to be read by all of us,” said Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former under-secretary-general and high representative.

“No human being in the world history has written so consistently and so substantively about the work of the U.N.,” he said, adding that many of Ikeda’s proposals, including the empowerment of women and young people in creating peace, have been reflected in the way the global body operates.

Ikeda’s concept of the “Culture of Peace,” Chowdhury said, is essential to make the world a secure place for future generations, by promoting peace through dialogue and nonviolence.

Global citizenship

In his remarks sent to the forum, Ikeda said he has “repeatedly stressed the importance of fostering an awareness of our role and responsibility as global citizens,” which he considers the spiritual basis for countries to resolve conflicts and the source of hope for the future of the U.N.

He then called for a brand new programme of education specifically for global citizenship to be promoted by the U.N.

Education, Ikeda said, needs to deepen understanding of challenges facing humankind and promote a shared pledge among all people “not to seek one’s happiness and prosperity at the expense of others.”

In 2012, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched “Education First,” an initiative aiming to get every child into school, increase education quality and foster global citizenship.

According to the U.N., it is not enough to only produce students who can read, write and count, but they also need to learn how to “think and act for the dignity of fellow human beings.” The problem with the current education system is that the values of peace, human rights, respect, cultural diversity and justice are not often embedded and emphasised in the ethos of schools.

William Gaudelli, associate professor of social studies and education at Teachers College, said in order to have a new generation of global citizens, first it is necessary to have teachers who are more open to and more thoughtful about the world.

The concept of global citizenship, he said, is not a novelty and in fact can be traced back to the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes, who described himself as “a citizen of the world”.

Gaudelli said while it may seem a “crazy” idea now to ask people who live in “neatly divided countries” to think of themselves as global citizens, the world really needs to come together to solve ongoing problems.

“There are so many challenges, from infectious diseases, small arms trading, human trafficking, global warming, animal extinction and the list grows,” he said, calling for all members of the global society to truly listen to and learn from others, rather than waiting for “an opening to talk.”

Role of the U.N.

Olivier Urbain, who edited the book, said he was impressed by Ikeda’s firm belief in the power of ordinary people and his trust in the potential of solidarity.

He also noted that Ikeda’s promotion for a world without war does not stop with abolishing actual nuclear warheads, but it also deals with the mentality behind the fact that the world still have these weapons.

“It’s not possible to build one’s happiness on the misery of another human being. The same thing with countries: it is not possible to build true lasting national security on the misery and terror of other countries that are so terrified by the weapon,” he said.

Despite conflicts and threats around the world, Urbain said there was “a tremendous sense of hope” when he read the book.

“As long as we have the space for personal creativity and solidarity, there is nothing that human beings cannot overcome,” he said.

Urbain said the U.N., therefore, needs to create channels and mechanisms for people’s voices to be heard and, in so doing, let itself be empowered by the people.

Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, High Representative for the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, said the peaceful and prosperous co-existence of peoples and nations is the cornerstone of the U.N. mission.

“We are bound together as the international community in the belief that despite different cultures, languages and religions, there are fundamental shared values and principles that underpin our humanity,” he said.

“We are bound together as the U.N. family because we recognise that it is through the celebration of our diversity, as well as through the promotion of tolerance and dispelling fears of the “other”, that we will build a more peaceful world,” he told the forum.

Even though it was clear that many speakers were believers in the U.N., they did not shy away from the fact that the global organisation is not perfect. That is why reforms and recommendations proposed by thinkers like Ikeda are important, they said.

“The U.N. is all that we have in our world to try and make it better,” said Williams. “I know that in certain areas it could do with a lot of improvements but give me one organisation in the world that is being run smoothly?”

“What could we do if we didn’t have this organisation? How much worse would it be?” she asked.

Cambodia’s garment industry is regularly plagued with strikes and protests. But when armed security forces opened fire on striking workers in the capital city of Phnom Penh on Jan. 3, killing five and injuring dozens, it suddenly became clear that this was not just another protest.

With the situation left unresolved since, advocacy groups are urging clothing brands to review their purchasing practices and take action to ultimately end low wages, which are at the root of the bloody demonstrations in Cambodia.“We need a system that is different from the current business-as-usual model where brands and retailers will shop around to different factories and say ‘who will make this shirt for two dollars’?" -- Liana Foxvog

“Workers are getting very angry,” Anannya Bhattacharjee of the New Delhi-based Asia Floor Wage Alliance, told IPS. “There is a lot of explosiveness. They do not want to tolerate the current situation of continuing poverty anymore.”

Statutory minimum wages determined by national governments and industries usually fall short of workers’ demands. In the case of Cambodia, the government first offered to raise monthly pay from 80 to 95 dollars, then to 100. Striking workers, however, insisted that the minimum level should be 160 dollars.

Asia Floor Wage, which has been campaigning for higher minimum wages across garment-producing countries in Asia, believes that if statutory minimum wages are not high enough, multinational companies need to be involved.

“Garment workers are producing for the whole global industry, so multinationals should pay the difference between statutory minimum wage and living wage,” Bhattacharjee said.

“This is not an unfair demand, but brands are still not agreeing to provide the money for it,” she said.

In fairness, major clothing brands did not stay silent after the crackdown in Cambodia.

The majority of Cambodia’s exports to the European Union (EU), over 89 percent, are textiles such as garments and shoes. Credit: Michelle Tolson/IPS

Companies including American Eagle Outfitters, Gap Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co. have sent an open letter to Cambodia’s government expressing their concerns over the recent violence. They also called for the government, manufacturers and trade unions to develop a regularly-scheduled wage review mechanism.

In a statement sent to IPS, Levi Strauss & Co. said it is “firmly committed to sourcing in Cambodia” and encourages peaceful resolution to end political unrest. Meanwhile, a spokesperson from Gap Inc. said the company strongly opposes any form of violence, calling for negotiations among stakeholders to peacefully resolve the dispute.

According to the Washington-based International Labour Rights Forum, while it is commendable that brands are willing to speak up, further steps must be taken.

“Brands and retailers need to agree to voluntarily pay higher prices for apparel products made in Cambodia and require the factories to therefore pay higher wages,” Liana Foxvog, communications director of the Forum, told IPS.

She said that over the past two decades, multinationals have spread their supply chains around the world, driving a “race to the bottom” among developing countries.

“We have seen low wages, repression of freedom of association as well as poor working conditions,” Foxvog said.

“We need a system that is different from the current business-as-usual model where brands and retailers will shop around to different factories and say who will make this shirt for two dollars. If a factory won’t, they can find a factory that will.

“As a result we still have a sweatshop economy in 2014,” she said.

The solution to the problem, she said, is to have all brands and retailers develop long-term relationships with suppliers so they have more control in the working conditions offshore.

“We need workers to once and for all have a fair living wage and will no longer have to face hunger and mass fainting,” she said. “We know companies can pay more.”

No end in sight

One month after the killings of strikers, there is still no end in sight for the crisis.

Human Rights Watch released an urgent statement on February 3, demanding the Cambodian government to ensure that garment factories stop intimidating and threatening workers seeking to form unions and assert their labour rights.

Last week, the U.N. International Labour Organisation (ILO) said it was “deeply disturbed” by the continuing violence in Cambodia. The agency also reiterated its earlier call for the government to launch an independent inquiry into the repression of strikers.

Cambodia’s economy is dependent on the garment industry, which employs half a million workers and accounts for almost all of the nation’s exports.

According to the ILO, the country just topped five billion dollars worth of garment exports last year for the first time.

The garment industry is also very important because its workers, most of whom are women, not only support themselves but also send remittances to their families.

Jill Tucker, manager of ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia, a Phnom Penh-based project that monitors the garment industry in the country, said working conditions have been declining since 2010, even though not every factory is a sweatshop.

As developing countries try to be competitive, wages have been set “artificially low” for a long time, unable to keep up with increasing consumer prices, Tucker told IPS.

And unlike other garment-producing countries where factories are not concentrated in big cities, Cambodia only has one main manufacturing hub: its capital city. Workers as a result have to pay very high living costs to stay near where they work.

“If Cambodian workers were satisfied with their job and felt that the pay and the working conditions were adequate, probably we would not see quite so much unrest,” she said.

“The current system of consumers owning cheap, disposable clothes in very high volume cannot sustain itself economically or environmentally. We have maybe 10 years left of cheap clothing.”

Consumer guilt

Professor Benjamin Powell, director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, told IPS that consumers should not feel guilty when they buy low-cost products made in developing countries.

The term “sweatshop”, he argued, has negative connotations even though it is sometimes the best available opportunity to workers, which can lead to economic development and, at the end, better wages and working conditions.

While Cambodia successfully slashed the national poverty ratio from 50 percent in 2007 to 20 percent today, it is still listed by the World Bank as a “low-income” economy.

The country of 7.1 million people has a per capita income rate of 880 dollars. That compares to Hong Kong’s 36,560 dollars, according to World Bank data.

Asia Floor Wage’s Bhattacharjee is hopeful that developing countries such as Bangladesh and Cambodia would soon progress to the next economic level. But for that to happen, the issue of low wages has to be dealt with.

Garment-producing countries need to take wage completely out of the competition and start competing instead on logistics or raw material supplies, she said.

As broader protests continue to sweep Phnom Penh streets, the strikes of garment workers have become more politically charged.

But Bhattacharjee said she never doubted the real motive behind what the workers are fighting for.

She said strikers may have multiple reasons for protesting, including political demands for a democratic society and for fundamental human rights, but there is “a very clear economic demand here.”

“They want a higher wage,” she said. “That’s how it all began.”

The scale and spread of humanitarian needs in the Philippines two months after Super Typhoon Haiyan is still “daunting,” the United Nations relief chief said Thursday, urging for more support for long-term recovery efforts.

“Donors, humanitarian agencies, and most of all, the people of the Philippines have achieved a huge amount in the past two months, but the delivery and reach of aid remains uneven,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said in a statement from the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“I am particularly concerned that just 20 per cent of funding has been secured to provide tools and materials so that people can rebuild their homes,” she said, noting that the rainy season is approaching fast in the Southeast Asian nation.

Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on November 8 2013 killing nearly 6,000 people.  Around 4.1 million people were displaced during the crisis.

Amos said electricity supplies are currently unreliable in many parts of the affected areas and there are also shortages of learning spaces and materials for schools, which reopened last week.

The U.N. launched a one-year Strategic Response Plan for nearly $800 million dollars in mid-December in support of the government’s relief plan, which amounts to a total of $8.17 billion over four years. The U.N. appeal alone was only 30 per cent funded at the time, but pledges are now around 42 per cent, data from the global organisation showed.

“During the next few months, the humanitarian community will focus on ensuring a smooth transition from urgent assistance to long term recovery and rehabilitation efforts,” Amos said. “We count on the continued support of donors for this work.”

The U.N. has been calling for the international community to increase support for the Philippines over the past two months.

During his visit to Manila in December, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon once again pledged support to the nation’s recovery strategy to help millions of people rebuild their lives.

“We must not allow this to be another forgotten crisis,” he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a new law in Nigeria that further criminalises same-sex unions to be reviewed, saying its wide range of offences is in breach of fundamental human rights.

Everyone is entitled to enjoy the same basic rights and live a life of worth and dignity without discrimination, Ban said in a statement released Wednesday, warning that the law may fuel prejudice and violence.

The new legislation, signed by President Goodluck Jonathan earlier this month, includes a provision for a 14-year prison term for those who enter into a same sex union, and a ten-year prison term for anyone who supports or witnesses such unions.

“The U.N. stands ready to assist Nigeria in any way to bring about constructive dialogue and change on this matter,” Ban added.

The global organisation has been appealing for the complete and universal decriminalisation of homosexuality, still a criminal offence in more than 70 countries as of December.

Ban’s latest concerns echoed those expressed Tuesday by High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who described the anti-homosexuality law as “draconian.”

“Rarely have I seen a piece of legislation that in so few paragraphs directly violates so many basic, universal human rights,” Pillay said in a statement issued by her office, OHCHR.

“Rights to privacy and non-discrimination, rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, rights to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention: this law undermines all of them,” she said.

Pillay said even before, consensual same-sex relationship had been criminalised in Nigeria, but the new law made “an already-bad situation much worse” for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people.

“It turns anyone who takes part in, witnesses or helps organise a same sex marriage into a criminal. It punishes people for displaying any affection in public towards someone of the same sex,” she said.

Also on Tuesday, the Joint U. N. Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the U. N. backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said that the new law could prevent access to essential HIV services for LGBT people who may be at high risk of infection.

“The provisions of the law could lead to increased homophobia, discrimination, denial of HIV services and violence based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. It could also be used against organisations working to provide HIV prevention and treatment services to LGBT people,” UNAIDS said in a statement, also released Tuesday.

Nigeria has the second largest HIV epidemic globally, with an estimated 3.4 million people living with HIV in 2012, UNAIDS data showed.

The United Nations refugee agency has cautioned Australian authorities about potential breaches of international obligations following reports of asylum-seeker boats being forced back to Indonesia.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been seeking details about recent media reports of the Australian navy forcing boats, presumed to be carrying asylum-seekers, back to Indonesian waters, the agency’s spokesperson Adrian Edwards said in briefing notes released 10^th January.

The agency said it was also looking into reports on Australia’s plans to buy and provide vessels for future pushbacks, calling such practices “potentially dangerous.”

It recommended that efforts be made to strengthen regional cooperation on the basis of solidarity and responsibility sharing when dealing with asylum issues.

“UNHCR would be concerned by any policy or practice that involved pushing asylum-seeker boats back at sea without a proper consideration of individual needs for protection,” Edwards said, noting that such approaches would potentially place Australia in breach of Refugee Convention and other international law obligations.

The comments came amid a series of media reports that asylum-seeker boats had been forcibly returned to Indonesia.

During the past weekend, Australia’s ABC quoted Indonesian police as saying that a second boat had been forced back to Indonesia by the Australian navy, shortly after the first case made the news around Christmas.

UNHCR has repeatedly expressed its concerns since Australia adopted strict asylum policies last year, including the transfer of asylum-seekers to Nauru and Papua New Guinea for processing.

In November, the agency found that the asylum-seekers transferred from Australia to processing centres were living in arbitrary detention and in conditions that did not meet international standards.

Australia is expected to accept around 9,000 UNHCR-referred refugees within a broader humanitarian intake of 20,000 in 2013-14, the agency’s data showed. In 2012-13, the country increased its annual humanitarian intake from 13,750 to 20,000.

A variety of deliberate attacks by terrorists and insurgents killed 58 persons working for the United Nations last year, a steep increase from previous years, new figures from the world body’s union showed Wednesday.

According to the Staff Union’s Standing Committee for the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service, 33 peacekeepers and 25 civilian staffers and contactors lost their lives in 2013. In 2012, 37 U.N. personnel were killed in the line of duty.  In 2011, the figure was 36.

Working for the U.N. became “more dangerous” last year, the union concluded, noting that the highest number of casualties occurred in attacks targeting colleagues in South Sudan, Somalia and in the Darfur region of Sudan.

In particular, the most fatal assault was an ambush that killed 12 people associated with the U.N. Mission in South Sudan on April 9 in Jonglei State. Other attacks were in Mogadishu and Darfur, with eight deaths each.

The union also said that abductions of U.N. personnel continued throughout the year, mostly in relation to the conflict in Syria. Safety has long been an issue for U.N. peacekeepers and associated personnel.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report last October that U.N. personnel had encountered a variety of threats not previously seen in the history of the organisation. “Direct attacks against the U.N. are a distressing phenomenon that has developed over the last decade and these attacks are becoming more intense and more sophisticated,” he said.

According to the U.N., the increasing asymmetrical nature of global conflicts together with the frequent use of improvised explosive devices and suicide bombings plays a critical role in increasing security threats.

Ban in October also called for more accountability, appealing to member states for their support in bringing to justice perpetrators of crimes and acts of violence against U.N. and humanitarian personnel.

The United Nations’ human rights office has said it was alarmed by Cambodia’s police crackdown on protesters, and urged authorities to exercise restraint, following the deaths of several striking garment workers last week.

The Cambodian authorities need to launch a “prompt and thorough investigation” to ensure accountability of members of security forces who used excessive force, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), Rupert Colville, said in a statement released Tuesday.

“We are following the situation in Cambodia with serious concern and are deeply alarmed by the disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials in responding to demonstrations,” he said, noting that policing of demonstrations must comply with international human rights obligations.

Five people were killed January 3 when security forces opened fire on striking garment workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital and largest city. An additional 20 were injured.

The Southeast Asian country is a garment production hub, providing clothing for international brands including Adidas, Gap Inc. and H&M.

According to OHCHR, the striking workers pressing for higher wages have added fuel to political demonstrations organised since July by the opposition party to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

International union groups, including IndustriALL Global Union and the International Trade Union Confederation, have also protested the repression of worker strikes by Cambodia security forces. They said the employees had been demonstrating “peacefully” demanding a minimum wage of up to US$160 per month for their work.

Also on Tuesday, the OHCHR announced that the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Surya P. Subedi, will carry out an official visit to the country from January 12 to 17.

“My upcoming mission is part of my ongoing assessment of the situation of human rights in Cambodia,” Subedi said, noting that he will also be examining the progress made towards establishing an independent human rights institution.

The Special Rapporteur undertakes regular visits to Cambodia and reports annually to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

In his latest report, he urged the Cambodian Government “to speed up the process of promised reform of state institutions responsible for protecting and promoting human rights and to accelerate the process of democratisation of the country so that the benefits of economic growth can be shared equitably by all in the country.”