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| Boutros Boutros-Ghali |
The
leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of
Law is deeply concerned over the utter alacrity with which the world of our
time is losing to cosmic world in an uncontrollable speed, our few and
irreplaceable thinkers who are endowed with great potentials to steadily make
our world a pride place for earthly living; particularly in the area of coherence,
convergence and intercourse between living things (humans, plants, animals and
other living species) and environment. The humans in living world generally are
composed of thinkers and tinkerers.
Of greatest
of the two are thinkers, whose outputs or products or potentials
are derived from research and creative thinking; which in turn, are transformed
into discoveries and inventions. While discoveries through
research bring hidden natural endowments into formal existence for human usage
and consumption, inventions are brought about through mental creation of things
that never existed, for the purpose of societal advancement and development.
Thinkers are also creators of industrial societies and communities; while
tinkerers create and sustain primordialist and turbulent ones.
It is an
incontestable reality that research powers the world. The world is steadily in
fervent need of change through discovery and invention of new things. Thinkers
are traditionally hidden away in laboratories, libraries, offices, thick
forests, underwater, space and archives assisting God in their natural
capacities as small gods in making our world a best place of
living. They also periodically mingle on the city streets, unrecognized by
others; with surging tides of everyday life. These individuals tirelessly toil
and work; discovering facts that will make the world of today different from
world of yesterday and tomorrow and world of tomorrow greater than world of
today.
Sadly, the
cosmic world is steadily taking toll on these social creators and the earthly
world at large by speedily expropriating these priceless human resources of
irreplaceable proportion. One of these enigmatic thinkers of our time sadly
transmitted to cosmic world is Prof Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Boutros
Boutros-Ghali De Thinker); a professor of international law and
international relations from the Cairo University; and former Secretary General
of the United Nations. Late Prof Boutros-Ghali was born on 14th of
November 1922 and died on 16th of February 2016 at the age of 94. He
was the grandson of Boutros Ghali; former prime minister of Egypt, from
1908-1910, who was assassinated in office 1910. Late Prof Boutros Boutros-Ghali
was fathered by Yusuf Boutros-Ghali.
He was a vice
minister in the government of Muhammad Hosni El-Sayed Mubarak, who ruled Egypt
from 1981 to 2011. Late Prof Boutros-Ghali was appointed the sixth Secretary
General of the United Nations from 1st of January 1992 to 31st
of December 1996. He also hailed from Asyut tribe in Egypt and was born into
Coptic (orthodox) Christian family. His tribe (Asyut) is the oldest Christian
community in Africa; having embraced Christianity between 43AD and 64AD, few
decades after the death of Jesus Christ. Their conversion to Christianity was
effected through missionary ingenuity of Coptic Saint Mark De Evangelist, the
first Christian crusader in Africa, who later became the Coptic Pope of
Alexandria in Egypt.
One of the
few dark spots of Prof Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s era as the UN Secretary General
was the Rwandan Genocide of April-July 1994 in which over one million Tutsis
and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in less than four months. The eruption of
the genocide was largely blamed on non-heeding of early warning signals by
relevant European powers including Germany and Belgium, which colonized the
country as well as double standards and other political, economic and
diplomatic interests of relevant foreign and regional powers including Congo DR
and Uganda.
The two most
celebrated and innovative developments that took place when Prof Boutros
Boutros-Ghali was the United Nations Secretary General were the development by
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) concept of Human Security; developed
in 1994; and Prof Boutros-Ghali’s seminal piece, called “An Agenda for
Peace”; published in 1992. The two innovative developments were in
response to the destructive effects of the end of the cold war, which gave a
spiral rise to Intra State or internal violent armed conflicts. The two
developments critically sought to move the world attention from culture of
warfare and violence to culture of sustainable peace (agenda for peace) and
critical investments in human development (human security); using food
security, political security, physical security, community security, economic
security, environment security and health security.
Prof Boutros
Boutros-Ghali’s Agenda for Peace is also referred as Peace
Building; which he defined as “actions to identify and support
structures which will tend to strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid a
relapse into conflict as well as rebuilding institutions and infrastructures
torn apart by civil war and strife and tackling the deepest causes of conflict:
economic despair, social injustice and political oppression”. The
concept of Peace Building has since been expanded to include: peacemaking,
peacekeeping, peace enforcement and conflict prevention/management. Under the
auspices of the United Nations, these are referred as “peace enforcement
operations”. The Peace Building, as a multidimensional approach; has further
been escalated to include totality of efforts aimed at building strong and
sustainable political institutions powered by human rights, rule of law and
justice reforms, democratic pluralism, political inclusion and tolerance and
good governance so as to ensure sustainable peace or absence of personal
and structural violence.
Another sad
reminder of the demise of Boutros Boutros-Ghali De Thinker is the
age-long of persecution of the Asyut Coptic Christians by the present and
successive governments in Egypt as well as by radical non-State actors or
radical Islamic movements. The Asyut Coptic or Orthodox Christians are the
first and oldest Christians in Africa; having embraced Christianity as far back
as between 43AD and 64AD through the missionary ingenuity of coptic Saint
Mark De Evangelist. The Egypt’s Asyut Coptic Christians have
consistently faced extermination and persecutions, leading to over 2million of
them escaping and living in US, Canada, UK, Australia, etc. Many have been
forcefully converted to Islam including 50,000 Asyut graduates who were
forcefully converted to Islam between 1988 and 1990. The Asyut Christian
population in Egypt is presently estimated at 6million of about 8% of the
Egyptian population. Those who have refused to be converted to Islam are
steadily made to face acute marginalization and alienation in Egypt till date.
Though Boutros Boutros-Ghali De Thinker died at the
celebrated age of 94, but his type ought not to die because they are hardly come
by in centuries. The Agenda for Peace and the Human
Security developed under his tenure at the United Nations are two most
striking achievements of the UN in recent times. The two documents are
pacesetters capable of moving the world away from the use of violence in
settlement of intra and inter State conflicts to use of peaceful means for
resolving such deadly disputes. They are also geared towards ensuring utmost
care and provision of basic or fundamental human needs to human living
population and preservation of environment during enduring culture of peace and
absence of war. The two innovative developments are comparatively the greatest
reforms carried out at the United Nations since 1945.
We call for
immortalization of Boutros Boutros-Ghali De Thinker by the
authorities of the United Nations. The best way to immortalize late Prof
Boutros Boutros-Ghali by his home State of Egypt is to prohibit or outlaw all
forms of State sanctioned religious discrimination and persecution against his
Asyut tribe or population and ensure that they are protected at all times
against radical Islamic groups and individuals impeding on their rights to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion. They must also be allowed
unhindered access to the country’s public services, resources and offices in
accordance with the United Nations Covenants on Civil & Political Rights
and the Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, which Egypt signed and
ratified.
Globally,
Prof Boutros Boutros-Ghali should be immortalized by member-States of the UN
and existing 591 armed opposition groups (armed non-State actors) around the
world; by eschewing violence and embracing peace as the most effective
mechanism for resolving individuals and groups’ disputes and conflicts. The political
office holders in Africa who have turbulently and violently turned themselves
into life and brutal dictators and despots must immortalize Prof Boutros
Boutros-Ghali and his epochal “Agenda for Peace” by quitting their life hold on
political office and power. The leaders of Zimbabwe, Angola, Equatorial Guinea,
Cameroon, Gambia, Rwanda, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Republic,
Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Sudan, Comoros, Algeria and Chad who are Africa’s
longest serving dictators must bow out in honour of late Prof Boutros
Boutros-Ghali and his “Agenda for Peace”.
Other African leaders like Retired Gen Muhammadu Buhari who have adopted “economic despair, social injustice and political oppression” against their nationals, wholly or in part; must reverse such barbarous policies in honour of one of the Africa’s greatest minds of the 20th and 21st centuries; late Prof Boutros Boutros-Ghali. African Continent must be rid of dictatorship, personal and structural violence which cumulatively breed mass poverty, under-development, unemployment, diseases, malnutrition, famine, drought and deadly and violent conflicts.
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
Mobile Line: +2348034186332
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