Opening remarks by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at the Helsinki Conference on 8 September 2005

It is a great pleasure for me to speak here at the Helsinki Conference. I would like to thank the organisers of this conference and all the participants and stakeholders of the Helsinki Process for your invaluable contribution for better global governance. We all know that change for better does not come easy, but it can happen. Change for better in globalisation and global democracy require political will and commitment. The theme of this conference “Mobilising Political Will” is thus what we need.

We need also more and better multilateral action and coherence. This means equality and co-operation with big and small, rich and poor.

The world has become more interdependent and the division between national and international issues has become more vague. This means that lasting solutions to domestic problems often require change also at the international level.

Moral social responsibility has led to caring and introduction of the welfare state at the national level here in the north. We need to show this responsibility also at the global level. The current trends of globalisation are poorly suited for this.

These moral aspects of globalisation were very much at the core of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation, which my good friend and colleague President Mkapa of Tanzania and I had the honour of co-chairing together.

During our work in the commission, both the opponents and proponents of globalisation agreed that as a result of globalisation, people feel that their possibility to govern their lives is weakening. It was also easy to see that people living in different parts of the world experience globalisation in very different ways, despite the fact that there are ”winners” and ”losers” in all societies.

We had a large variety of views within our commission, but we managed to reach consensus on our report ”A Fair Globalization; Creating Opportunities for All”. The report deals with change: “change toward genuine dialogue, change toward a better future, change toward fair globalisation.” It could be said that the key issue of our commission is: “we need to focus on people and their needs.”

Taking into account the needs of people – within the limited resources of the nature - is one of the cornerstones of fair globalisation. It is astonishing how often the needs of people and their welfare are forgotten when discussing globalisation. Discussions mainly focus on economic deregulation, market access, and macroeconomic actions - all of which are important means for improving the welfare of people but not ends in themselves.

We also noticed that people everywhere want to be masters of their life. Thus employment – whether as a farmer, a paid worker or an entrepreneur – is something people desire. Employment is a key mean in eradication of poverty.

I think that it is time to pay more attention to social dimension of globalisation and to work together to try to make globalisation work more equally to the benefit of all people in the North as well as the South.

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Nation states are still the main actors in the international context. Their commitment to multilateralism and common values, as well as their awareness of the effect of their actions outside their borders, has a decisive influence on the nature and governance of globalisation. That is why I am happy to see here also so many representatives of governments.

If the key message of the World Commission was the need to focus on people, I think the key message of the Helsinki Process is that we can do so by creating problem-solving structures and mechanisms, which are more democratic and more inclusive. If we are to take full advantage of globalisation, we must also accept that the new international actors, which have arisen as a result of globalisation -NGOs, multinational business, and civic movements -, need to be included in international decision-making processes.

One majority group that is often ignored is women. Women are the majority in the world, not the minority. We cannot afford to ignore this resource. Women’s rights, prevention of violence against women and promoting gender equality are of vital importance in promoting human rights and development. Poverty and exclusion in globalisation so often wears the face of a woman. If the status of women is not improved, we cannot make progress in eradicating poverty either. Mainstreaming equality issues in all action is indeed a timely and urgent goal.

I hope that at this Conference, we can discuss ways of broadening participation in global decision-making from the traditional inter-state model, as well as ways of influencing the substance of these decisions. In other words, to create globalisation which is more attentive to the welfare of man and nature.

The concept for multi-stakeholder cooperation recommended by the Helsinki Group is, in my opinion, particularly well suited for doing just that. It offers a bridge across different opinions.

We have so far experiences mainly from national democracy. There are naturally many differences between democracy at the national level and democracy at the international level. Global democracy is an interesting but complicated issue, and because of its complexity, we must try harder and in various ways to realise multi-stakeholder governance at the global level. The Helsinki Process has successfully advanced discussion on global democracy, and I hope that advances in this matter could be achieved.

We are gathered here in Helsinki just one week before the UN Major Event in New York. One main theme in the Major Event is the Millennium Declaration, which outlines many goals for the international community and contains commitments that all nations have agreed to fulfil. What we, as leaders, must recognise is that we are still a long way from reaching those goals. As the chair of the Millennium Summit, I welcome the Helsinki Conference participants from all stakeholder groups to engage in discussion in good atmosphere, on an equal footing over the coming days. This is the way for the Helsinki Conference to provide some tools for turning our commitments into concrete action.

Helsinki Conference Opening Session (RealVideo format)