United Nations secretary general Mr Kofi Annan has said the peace process in the North is a source of inspiration to the rest of the world.
The Secretary General to the United Nations Mr. Kofi Annan, at the meeting of the National Forum on Europe, at Dublin Castle, last week. Photo: Eric Luke
Mr Annan made his comments in a speech he delivered at the University of Ulster's Magee Campus in Derry.
"For some years now, you have been spared the large-scale violence and terror that used to disfigure your beautiful part of the country and seemed to blight its future.
"Your efforts to create a better world for your children have been a source of inspiration and hope to people in many other countries. If the world is to learn lessons about how to manage the transition from troubles and violence to peace, surely it can learn some of them from you," he said.
The subject of Mr Annan's lecture was how outsiders could best contribute to the process of building peace in war-torn societies.
He said the role of the UN had changed over the years from just keeping the peace to engaging in conflict resolution, tackling the root causes of violence.
"In the last 15 years or so, the United Nations has developed a considerable body of experience of managing and resolving conflict as well as of peace building but we should acknowledge that our record has been mixed.
Mr kofi Annan, Secretary General to the United Nations
"Among the successes I would mention particularly Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, El Salvador, Eastern Slavonia, Guatemala and East Timor." Mr Annan accepted there had been failures in Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Angola.
"I do not think it coincidental that, in the case of the failures, there was no peace to keep or peace agreements proved fragile because the underlying causes of conflict had not been resolved. We have learned useful lessons from both our successes and failures and are doing our best to put those lessons into practice," he said.