Chinese Ambassador: World Peace Key to Poverty Eradication
To safeguard world peace and establish a favorable external environment is essential for eradicating poverty and advancing the cause of protection of women, said Chinese Ambassador Qiao Zonghuai in Geneva on July 9.
"Warfare is the source of all evils. It not only causes casualties, but also squanders considerable amount of money and brings the society backward," Qiao said when delivering a speech at the high-level segment of the 1999 substantive meeting of the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
He said that the war staged not long ago in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is one typical example confirming that women are usually the most direct victims of war and armed conflicts.
"War makes them homeless, deprives them of their family members, and more seriously, reduces them into poverty and their right to subsistence," Qiao pointed out.
He stressed that a peaceful environment is the most fundamental safeguard for advancing the cause of women and eradicating poverty. Responsible nations or country blocs should never, with their strong forces, bully the weaker, nor use or threaten to use forces to destroy world peace."Only under such circumstances could favorable conditions be established for the international efforts to advance the cause of women and eradicate poverty," Qiao said.
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