The biggest gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates in history agreed on a declaration yesterday aimed at ending wars in the 21st century. They said disarmament and the establishment of an international criminal court were crucial parts of the solution.
The laureates, including Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and South African anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, are in Oslo for the 100th anniversary of the peace prize. Also present was Mr David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, and Mr John Hume of the SDLP.
Ms Cora Weiss, president of the International Peace Bureau, said the declaration, which followed four days of talks on terrorism, poverty and injustice, would be released today.
She said the statement called for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction; the reduction and control of conventional weapons and small arms; and adherence to human rights. It also urged the world community to address the causes of violence, she said.
The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the UN today. Last night in Oslo he said that "it seems almost indecent to be accepting a prize for peace when peace and security are still denied to so many people."
And he warned that a Security Council resolution backing strikes on Afghanistan did not automatically authorise further attacks on other countries, cautioning the US not to carry its war on terrorism to Iraq. He asserted that the battle against terrorists would be lost unless waged by all countries acting in concert.
A German human rights group claimed yesterday that Mr Annan should not win this year's Nobel Peace Prize as he failed to prevent massacres in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, said yesterday that the global fight against racism was more important than ever since the September 11th attacks.
In a message marking Human Rights Day, she said it had been a "challenging and sobering" year for human rights. "The hope that the turn of the millennium would signal a new era of respect for fundamental freedoms seems like a distant memory now," she added.