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Distinguished Dean, Prof. Andrea Bartoli,
Esteemed graduands,
Members of the academic community,
Parents, caretakers and friends.
I am so thrilled to join you on this auspicious ceremony. I feel honoured and greatly humbled to
address this illustrious group of Faculty members and esteemed graduates.
Distinguished Dean, Professor Andrea
Bartoli, please accept my sincere gratitude for your kind invitation and grand opportunity
to be among the learned and prospective diplomats.
To the esteemed graduands, I would like to
congratulate you for achieving this great milestone in your lives. You have put
so much effort and dedication to your studies; and today, those efforts have paid
off, marvellously.
I would also like to congratulate all who have
contributed to your success - your families, lecturers and friends; without
forgetting, of course, the leadership of your great School and Seton Hall
University community at large. Your collective endeavours have made this
School, one of the prestigious academic centres in the field of diplomacy and
international relations – one that is revered world over.
With these academic accomplishments, you
have a unique opportunity to uphold the reputation, inter alia, by putting to good use, the skills and knowledge that you
have acquired, which are very relevant and rare assets in the complex world we
live in today.
Esteemed Graduands,
2015 is an important year for you, because
of this academic triumph. Likewise, it is an important year for all the world’s
citizens because of the major events that will take place at the world stage. These
include the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the adoption of
the United Nations Charter at the San Francisco Conference in June 1945. The
United Nations Charter was established with the hope of saving succeeding
generations from the scourge of war; with a goal of advancing fundamental human
rights and life of dignity for all; and for the purpose of promoting social
progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.
The commemoration affords us a rare
opportunity to reaffirm these fundamental values and principles, which have
guided and inspired generations for many years. It is an opportunity to take
stock and address the challenges that are undermining our collective resolve to
achieve a just, peaceful and prosperous world for all. I hope that you will
find a good way to get involved and be part of this historic milestone.
I wish to expound
a little on these challenges, touching upon all the three pillars of the
Charter.
Maintenance of
International Peace and Security
While nations have succeeded in averting a
Third World War, they have failed to stop intra and inter-state armed
conflicts, with their attendant ramifications on civilians, infrastructure and
the environment. From Liberia to Libya, Syria to Somalia, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo to Eritrea, Ukraine to Sudan, Georgia to Kashmir,
Palestine to Vietnam –armed conflicts have and continue to cause wanton
suffering, with overall death toll surpassing 50 million.
We need to do more to honour the promise
of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war. We must deploy all
the tools at our disposal, including the pacific settlement of disputes to prevent
and resolve conflicts. And we must work collectively to rebuild shattered communities,
empowering them to take full control of their destiny and avoid a relapse to
conflicts. Likewise, there is a great need to reform the United Nations
Security Council, the primary organ responsible for the maintenance of
international peace and security, to make it more reflective of the
contemporary geopolitical realities.
We must also foster greater cooperation
between the United Nations and the regional and sub-regional mechanisms, as
envisaged in Chapter VIII of the Charter. Regional organizations are closer to
the epicentre of conflicts, thus offer the best chance of preventing and
resolving them. As the first Executive Secretary of the International
Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) I oversaw the implementation of
the Pact on Security, Stability and Development, whose goal is to create
conditions for security, stability and development in one of the world’s most
volatile regions. It is the region that experienced one the worst wars and
atrocities against humanity, the genocide and influx of refugees and internally
displaced people. The ICGLR is a clear
testimony of the commitment of our leaders and peoples to put an end to these
atrocities and declared “never again to genocide”. Apart from ICGLR there are
other sub-regional mechanisms such as the East Africa Community that are contributing
to the maintenance of regional and international peace and security based on
key principles of ownership (of problems and key to solutions), prevention and partnerships.
Those who are following the new and sad developments in Burundi (constitutional
crisis and clinging to power) will attest to the rapid response of the regional
leaders to address the situation in Burundi to avert escalating violence and
bloodshed following the attempted coup.
The implementation of the Peace, Security
and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the
region, and the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) are but two
additional success stories for Africa and the world at large. These mechanisms
would benefit a great deal from enhanced international cooperation and
assistance.
Nevertheless and suffice it to say that we
are living at the times of broken trust, fragile relations and insecurity. The security challenges are a permanent fixture in today’s world. Lately,
the threat from armed non-state actors has been on the rise and terrorism remains a major challenge world
wide. The ISIS, the Boko Haram(in Nigeria) Al-Shabab
insurgency in Somalia and neighbouring countries, have caused displacement,
bloodshed, abduction of innocent children, destruction and general insecurity
in the whole world with no easy solutions in sight.
Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms
Esteemed
Graduands, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me now turn to the second pillar of
the Charter, namely human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
adopted in 1948 inspired many colonized people to strive for independence and
realize their inalienable right to self-determination. Tanzania was among those
countries, achieving its independence in December 1961, thus becoming the 104th
member of the United Nations. Today, the UN membership stands at 193 countries,
from 51 in 1945.
Despite the augmentation of the
international human rights regime, and the 1993 reaffirmation that human rights
are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated, millions of
people continue to be denied their fundamental human rights, including the
right to development. These include the people of Palestine and Western Sahara
whose right to self-determination has been denied for almost half a century.
We must do more to promote human rights at
all levels – mainstreaming them in all our interventions, be it social,
economic, political or environmental. States must uphold their fundamental duty
of protecting and safeguarding the rights of their citizens, especially the most
vulnerable, including women, children and migrants. It is also important to strengthen
national, regional and international mechanisms for suppressing impunity.
Sustainable
Development and Inclusive Economic Growth
Dear
Graduands,
The third and final pillar relates to
development. I would like to link this pillar with the second important event
to take place this year, namely the adoption of the post-2015 development
agenda at the Summit to be held at the United Nations in September.
Clearly, much has been done in the 70
years of UN existence, in the area of development but there is still more to be
done to ensure a life of dignity for all. At independence, Tanzania declared a
war against three chronic maladies, namely poverty, illiteracy and disease. The
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000, focused, inter alia, on these three.
With the deadline for the implementation
of the MDGs, fast approaching, extreme poverty has been halved, but is far from
being eradicated; literacy rates have increased, albeit more than 774 million adults worldwide still cannot read or
write – two thirds of them being women and girls; and the burden of both
communicable and non-communicable diseases is weighing heavily on most
developing countries. The post-2015
development agenda, with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its
integral part, provides us a unique opportunity to scale-up our interventions
in this regard.
As a matter of fact, it provides an
opportunity to widen the scope, by addressing the social, economic and
environmental challenges in an integrated manner. Civil society, the scientific
community and the private sector have an important role to play in the
formulation and implementation of the agenda.
It is important to note that this
universal and transformative agenda would require effective means of
implementation, finances, technology, capacity-building and trade facilitation.
It would also require strengthened international cooperation, in line with the
principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”. I encourage you to
take interest in this topical issue and participate, in whatever way possible,
to promote it, at home, at work, at the University, and at the social gatherings,
as appropriate.
Esteemed graduands,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The third and final event, I should like
to highlight today is the Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris in
December 2015. All nations and peoples of the world should be interested in the
outcome of this Conference, namely an international legally binding instrument
on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
Climate change is real and its impact is
felt in all continents and oceans of the world. The melting of glaciers, the rising
sea levels, the extinction of some species and the extreme weather conditions is
a wake-up call to all humanity. The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change attributes the global warming to anthropogenic emissions of
green house gases, which are the highest in history. We are constantly reminded
that climate change has the potential of undermining our collective endeavours
for achieving a life of dignity for all. It is imperative therefore that we
must Act Now, before it is too late.
Tanzania has been playing a critical role
in the climate change negotiations leading to Paris. It is also making several
interventions at national level to address this phenomenon. We are aware
however that, like all other global challenges, climate change cannot be
addressed unilaterally. International cooperation is indispensable in this
regard, including but not limited to the capitalization of the Green Climate
Fund.
Dear
Graduands,
These are but few challenges facing the
world today. I am sure that, in the course of your studies, you have covered
many other challenges, ranging from terrorism and violent extremism to
proliferation of both small arms and light weapons and weapons of mass
destruction. But I must remind you that knowledge of these challenges is merely
the first step in a process of finding solutions. The second important step is
a thorough diagnosis of these challenges and the careful selection of remedial
measures. The third step involves the actual resolution of the challenge – creating
conditions for preventing its recurrence. The final step entails monitoring and
review, as necessary.
The academic experience has exposed you to
the first two steps. The life beyond academics will expose you to the remainder.
To succeed in your endeavours you will need to uphold the following three
qualities: first, emotional and cognitive intelligence; second, ability to lead
and work cooperatively (remember, alone you will run fast, but together you
will run far); and third, adaptability and resilience. Add these to your skills
set, and you shall conquer all.
Lastly but not least, you need to adapt to the
ever changing and complicated world of international relations. For the
international environment you confront today is very dynamic and change driven.
And therefore you ought to adapt to these changes that are “both qualitative
and quantitative, in the scope of issues and the framework of actors.” (President Benjamin Mkapa).
Diplomacy is about relations and interactions, people to people
relations, government to government relations and business relations as
important in achieving the common goals and objectives. As a representative of
my country to the United States, my main duty has been to promote and
strengthen these relations between our two countries and peoples to greater
heights for mutual benefit. I have seen the milestone achievements in this
endeavour- the High level visits, the growing trade and investments and
Tanzania as a destination of choice are just a testimony.
You will all be deployed in various areas
and institutions. Build good relations, be humble and passionate in all what
you do and will be achievers and prosper to greater heights. I started my
career from the humble beginning and have risen through ranks and file. As
announced here by Prof. Courtney Smith( the master of ceremony), I have now
reached the pinnacle of the diplomatic and civil service posts following my
recent appointment to the helm of the Tanzania Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as
Permanent Secretary. With hard work and dedication nothing is insurmountable.
I wish you all the best in your future
endeavours.
Thanks for
your kind attention and May God Bless you All!
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