Ms. Hilde F. Johnson, Minister of International Development and Human Rights

The Oslo Meeting on Ethical Values in International Relations

Holmenkollen Park Hotel, Oslo 24 - 25 June 1999

Ladies and gentlemen,

“Grub first, then ethics”, is a much quoted aphorism of Bertolt Brecht. The economist and Nobel Prize Laureate, Amartya Sen, often cites this in his talks on the relationship between food and freedom, between poverty and conflict.

“Grub first, then ethics”. This is a thought-provoking idea as we sit here at the dinner table.

Ethics may be felt to be a luxury when a man is starving, when the only thing on his mind is the struggle to survive, to feed his family, to keep alive.

But this division is artificial, argues Amartya Sen. The provision of food is a core issue in social ethics, since all other functions of human life depend on the ability to find enough to eat. The freedom to lead a decent life, including freedom from hunger, from avoidable illness, from premature mortality, is dependent on having enough to eat.

Why do I say this in an introduction to a dinner speech?

Because I want to point out that hunger is caused by poverty, and poverty is one of the most urgent global ethical challenges facing the world today.

I am not stressing this only because I am minister of international development and human rights. My concern is related to the fact that in addition to causing hunger, poverty is in many cases one of the main causes of violent conflicts.

In other words, poverty may lead to war. And war is the result of lack of ethical values in international relations.

Thus any discussion of ethical values must address what I regard as the most urgent challenge for us all: poverty. Poverty affects one quarter of the world’s population. Most of those who are affected are women and children.

Poverty constitutes a massive violation of human rights.

Poverty threatens the lives of individuals.

What are we going to do about this?

I would like to quote Bono, the lead singer of the Irish band U2, who is now taking part in the Jubilee 2000 Coalition’s Drop the Debt Campaign: “… the [poor] people don’t want crumbs from the table. They don’t want charity. They want to be at the table”.

Enjoying one’s human rights does not mean begging for crumbs, but being at the table, taking part, participating, contributing, deciding, feeling secure.

But if we are to do this, we must take issue with another factor that is preventing people from being at the table, from feeling secure. This is corruption.

Corruption is stealing from the poorest, and it makes the rich even richer.

Corruption undermines human development. It undermines the rule of law. It saps the roots of democracy. It breaks down confidence and weakens people’s sense of responsibility and morality.

Corruption is politically, economically and socially irresponsible, and it is morally reprehensible. This is unacceptable. Corruption must be fought. This is why we need common ethical values in our globalized world.

We have a moral duty to ensure that fewer of our fellow human beings live under degrading conditions. This is not only a question of our own interests. It is a matter of common interests.

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Ladies and gentlemen,

This has been a day of stimulating discussions on what I – on what we all – consider to be one of the most important elements in modern politics.

Ethical values can be regarded as something abstract and utopian, and perhaps difficult to grasp. But your valuable contributions today demonstrate that ethical values have their place in a debate on international relations.

Ethical values are essential to all aspects of politics.
Ethical values are part of politics. They shape the choices we make, they constitute the basis for our decisions.
Ethics are politics. In principle and in practice. In the field.

Fortunately, there is growing international awareness of the role of ethical values in politics. The discussion today has dealt with these questions, such as which ethical values are common to the international community, and how they matter in international relations.

What could be more fundamental to people’s lives than basic ethical values such as human dignity and the rights of the individual human being?

Efforts to promote human development and respect for human rights are rooted in a fundamental belief in human dignity. Each individual has the same inherent worth. The overriding aim of many governments’ work is to build a world where every human being is guaranteed the right to life, to live in peace and to have his or her basic needs fulfilled.

These are also universal human rights. Because the quest for human development and the pursuit of human rights are one and the same.

Because here there is a common platform of ethical values.

My experience of Africa – where I grew up and where I later finished my studies in social anthropology – has convinced me that the dignity of human beings depends not only on civil and political rights, but also on economic, cultural and social rights. And that these rights are dependent on each other.

Some claim that promoting ethical values has a price. No, it does not. At least not in dollars. Margaret Thatcher once said in a television interview that: “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well…”.

Her point is a good one, but for my part, I do not entirely agree. Money does not create good intentions.

Being a good Samaritan is a way of behaving, a way of thinking, an attitude.

Being a good Samaritan is about ethical values. Yours and mine. This does not depend on affluence – it depends on our willingness to share. On our sense of responsibility.

John Kenneth Galbraith, author of The Affluent Society, made a stimulating contribution to the 1998 Human Development Report published by the UNDP. He commented on the global poverty problem: “The problem is not economics; it goes back to a far deeper part of human nature. The fortunate individuals and fortunate countries enjoy their well-being without the burden of conscience, without a troublesome sense of responsibility.”

Galbraith is calling for a greater sense of common responsibility.

This common sense of responsibility is expressed in the Charter of the United Nations. Its preamble emphasizes that we are determined “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. It says that we are determined to do so, we are determined to protect, to care, to save, to give shelter and to give a voice to the next generation.

Indeed, in the Charter respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is an objective in its own right. It is also a key to concrete action. Respect for universal human rights leads to peace and human development. For the benefit of all, because it is based on a set of common ethical values. A common platform.

At this point in human history we have a real opportunity to use the universality of human rights as a spur to concerted action for peace, justice and human development. To prevent violent conflicts and to fight poverty. Then perhaps ”Grub first, then ethics” will no longer apply.

We have a universal platform of ethical values that should lead to globalisation of accountability. Because we all have a moral obligation to care - and to share.

And now I would like to invite you all to join me in a toast to the success of today’s meeting.