If the United Nations does not attempt to chart a course for the world's people in the first decades of the new millennium, who will?

From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict and promoting democracy.

If the United Nations does not attempt to chart a course for the world's people in the first decades of the new millennium, who will?

New threats make no distinction between races, nations or regions. A new insecurity has entered every mind, regardless of wealth or status.

The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being.

More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that, my friends, is why we have the United Nations.