[Dr. Pandor is the present Chancellor of Nelson Mandela University and Chairman of the Board of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and the former Minister of International Cooperation and Relations for the Republic of South Africa]
Good morning and good afternoon in the various regions from which the guests join us. I think Helga Zepp-LaRouche has very extensively set out the complex geopolitical context that confronts us today and the context in which we make the call to action to young people who are joining this international conference.
I wish to just go back a bit to history and recall that today, 18th July, is marked worldwide as International Nelson Mandela Day, recalling the historic request made in 2009 by President Nelson Mandela of South Africa when he retired from active philanthropy and public life, aged at that time over 90. He asked the globe to work harder at doing good for others, and stressed the urgent need to combat poverty and inequality. President Mandela requested that all of us, all of humanity, should not celebrate his birthday, July 18. Rather, he asked that we should devote just 67 minutes of that day to do good for others. This is happening through works of charity of millions across the world today on 18th July. He concluded his message to the world by saying, “It is in your hands to end poverty and inequality.” This is the call to action we make to young people and all who join us today.
I know that many young people have taken up this legacy mandate by working in non-governmental organizations and various organs of civil society, focused on combating the impacts of climate change, combating land degradation, and combating violence against women, as well as being vocal in protest at the injustice of the genocide we see in Palestine by the apartheid Israel government. Young people in a range of civil formations in Africa, in Asia, in Europe and the Americas, are fully aware of the dangers posed by the present geopolitical reality. The wars that we see in Europe, wars that we see in Africa, the war in the Middle East region, all of these pose a threat to all humanity and require decisive coordinated cooperation from all of us across the globe.
We need to encourage young people to unite in efforts to persuade global leaders to turn away from war and autocracy, and to commit to peace, development and social justice. As these conflicts and wars carry on, the poor become even poorer, the marginalized are marginalized even further, the hungry starve. If we do not act, the situation becomes worse and eventually even those who enjoy high levels of privilege and wealth will be impacted upon.
So what we are calling for is greater attention to peace, to development opportunities, and to the promotion and achievement of social justice. We are calling on the world to give greater attention to Africa’s development agenda, Agenda 2063. As you all know, as these wars carry on, increasing resources are diverted from international development funding into military expenditure. So war detracts from a focus on development, from a focus on ending poverty. We need to demand a renewed and fortified international law architecture, one that addresses the needs of justice of all, and not the interests of the privileged.
Today, we see an onslaught on the International Criminal Court by countries that had for many years been focusing the International Criminal Court on African leaders, and inadequately focusing its work on the injustices they commit, on the horrors that they visit upon poor nations. Today, when the eye of the ICC finally turns equally to Israel and to leaders in Europe who are warmongers, suddenly America wishes to destroy the International Criminal Court. This is an abuse of international law. It’s a reflection of a double standard attitude toward international law instruments. And we should object to this while we strive to uphold multilateralism and to strengthen international organizations and international law.
Thirdly, we should demand shared collaboration for knowledge production and innovation. Many of you listening today would recall what happened in the context of COVID-19, where countries that developed a vaccine against COVID-19 in its early weeks refused to share that innovation and that resource with poorer countries in the world. Africa had to struggle to get the first 100,000 vaccines; and it had no capability for vaccine production. As young people, we must end that inequality and ensure that knowledge and innovation are shared; that knowledge generating capacity is built throughout the world. So that when there is Ebola, it does not affect just one corner of the world and threaten the globe, but that we respond to it adequately as the global community.
We must fight for young people to enjoy greater access to education and to skills development. Too many young people are walking the streets. They have no career, no education, no skills, no opportunity for training. That must come to an end. And the world should unite in building these opportunities for young people. Today, in the most developed parts of the world, the population is majority aged. It is no longer a population of youth. We have a population of seniors. What do we do with education institutions in those countries in order to support developing countries to have greater access to education and skills, institutions and opportunity? We need a shared collaboration on education and skills to ensure that we build a knowledge-driven future population that will use ideas; that will use its intellectual capacity to develop the world, rather than resorting to war in order to resolve problems.
Fifthly, we cannot continue with a situation in which Africa is primarily an exporter of its rich mineral wealth and does not have the industrial capacity to develop and beneficiate its mineral resources on the continent and thus increase productive and manufacturing capability. We must turn that around and ensure that we build industrial and productive capacity, factories, manufacturing institutions, so that the African continent can add value to its own wealth and export products that are value-added and that generate wealth for Africa and for Africans. If we do not do this, we will forever have an Africa that is lagging behind and this is the greatest injustice that the world is doing to humanity.
We must also put resources into increasing food security. Millions of families, of children, of young people sleep each day without having had a single meal; and yet the world has millions of hectares that are available to land production and to agrarian development. We need to enhance food security. We must increase the ability to enjoy nutrition and to grow into young adults who can develop their countries.
We must increase cooperation on our responses to climate change. Conference after conference of parties on climate change on the Kyoto Protocol has promised funding for climate change responses; and yet year after year, no finance is made available. The danger of climate change is being seen by everyone today, and yet still the response is inadequate. Waste management is missing; and we have to ensure that there is greater responsiveness to protect the livelihoods of rural communities who are most impacted by the negative effects of climate change.
We must also ensure that young people have a voice. Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche and I are probably both over 60. There must be more young people, more young leaders speaking to us about how they see the world; and ideas that they have to change it fundamentally. And they need to learn the history and the politics that Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche set out for us all, and understand as they develop their perspective on what the world needs to do that they do so with a full understanding of the geopolitical context of the possible financial architecture, of the benefit of multilateralism of the strengthening of international institutions. With that intellectual background, they could then present us with ideas that would show us that indeed they understood Mr. Mandela when he said, “It is in your hands.”
And dear young people who are joining us today, it is in your hands to return the world to a global agenda of peace, development and social justice. And I look forward to hearing your ideas on how you intend to honor President Mandela by doing exactly this. Thank you very much for this opportunity.
