Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

ACHIEVING SOLIDARITY AND EQUITY
Pera Wells, Secretary-General, World Federation of United Nations 
Associations
Today we are the beneficiaries and the trustees of the willingness of people from all 
walks of life to recognize that the world that we live in needs a global institution – the 
United Nations. This is where we can sit down and talk to each other about difficult or 
controversial issues in a constructive way, and in so doing affirm our common humanity.
In the event on Our Common Humanity, participants spoke from their diverse 
perspectives as technologists, civil society leaders, doctors, business people, athletes and 
students. They offered insights, from their personal experiences, of learning how to 
become global citizens by acting out of the values of empathy, compassion and a 
commitment to justice. They all emphasized the need to nourish online global networks 
that connect people, and particularly young people, in all regions of the world, enabling 
them to express their ideas and feelings and to share their experiences.
Whether through playing sport, teaching illiterate people in the Amazon how to use 
digital technology, delivering health care to people in remote villages or going into 
business with new partners, the processes of building trust and the willingness to 
cooperate for mutual benefits is most effective when all the participants are alive to their 
shared common humanity and feeling of solidarity with those who are vulnerable.
More and more media workers are exploring the realities of the human experience of war 
and suffering, giving voice to the powerless and impoverished and bringing to us all a 
deeper understanding of what happens to people, like you and me, when they fall victims 
to disaster.

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110 | Our Common Humanity in the Information Age 
The title of Mr. Watai Takeharu’s film “Little Birds”, about the war in Iraq, conveys the 
idea that the children who are killed in the war, don’t die, but become little birds in the 
sky…..flying free and away from suffering. It is impossible not to feel the pain of the 
children and grief of the families who have found consolation in this image.
The World Federation of United Nations Associations has been dedicated to promoting 
support for the values and principles enshrined in the UN Charter. Our President, Dr 
Hans Blix, believes that the United Nations is needed now more than ever. He is 
committed to enabling people everywhere to understand how the United Nations is 
responding to the threats that are truly global and that affect us all.
It is worth recalling the plea of Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and Joseph Rotblat:
“There lies before us, if we choose, continued prosperity in happiness, knowledge and 
wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We 
appeal as human beings, to human beings. Remember your humanity and forget the 
rest.”