Canada.com: Annan blasts unjust world economy, global disorder in speech to world leaders

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Canada.com: Annan blasts unjust world economy, global disorder in speech to world leaders

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Addressing world leaders for the last time as secretary general, Mr. Kofi Annan painted a grim picture Tuesday of an unjust world economy, global disorder and widespread contempt for human rights.

Mr. Annan, whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31, said the last decade had seen progress in development, security and the rule of law - the three great challenges he said humanity faced in his first address to the General Assembly in 1997.

But the secretary general said too many people are still exposed to brutal conflict, and he warned the fear of terrorism has increased a clash of civilizations and religions. Terrorism is being used as a pretext to abridge or abrogate human rights, and globalization risks driving richer and poorer peoples apart, he said. "The events of the last 10 years have not resolved, but sharpened, the three great challenges I spoke of - an unjust world economy, world disorder, and widespread contempt for human rights and the rule of law," Mr. Annan said. "As a result, we face a world whose divisions threaten the very notion of an international community, upon which this institution stands." For the biography of Mr. Kofi Annan go to http://www.un.org/News/ossg/sg/pages/sg_biography.html