Leaders honor Mandela:
World leaders looked to Nelson Mandela’s legacy of championing peace, human rights and global cooperation but acknowledged the world is far from achieving his ideals as the UN General Assembly’s annual top-level meeting began Monday.
At a peace summit honoring the late South African leader, nations from around the world adopted a declaration recommitting to goals of building a peaceful, inclusive and fair world and “to revive the values for which Nelson Mandela stood” by emphasizing human dignity. At the same time, they worried that the idea of taking multinational action to solve major problems is facing increasing doubt.
“As leaders of this time, you have moral imperative and the ability to bring the death and destructions we witness on a daily basis to an end,” Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, told the heads of state and UN officials. She implored them to take on “egodriven” decision-makers, political dogma, greed and the arms industry. (AP)