At an official opening event for the 13th Crime Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Doha today, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed there could be no development without human rights or the rule of law.
"Our goal," Ban said, "is for the world to speak and to say with one clear voice, 'today was a better day than yesterday, and tomorrow will be better than today.'"
Noting crime's impact on development, the UN Secretary-General said that if the international community could remake the world in the image of justice and equality, "we will have been part of an extraordinary achievement for billions of people".