By Lyudmila Palamar.
On the 19th of May president of The Hague Institute for Global Justice, Dr. Abiodun Williams officially announced a commencement of a unique series of lectures that will be given by former Dutch prime ministers in the following months. This set of discussions on global justice was started with an in-depth speech of a Dutch leader, politician and diplomat Dries van Agt.
Former Dutch prime minister discussed fundamental topics such as codification of international law, global governance, overpopulation, deforestation, climate change and nuclear weapons. Among other claims on international affairs, special attention was paid to reasons why the UN should face profound reformation and the importance of absolute rule of international law. “World Government is the Only Answer to Global Crises,” Mr. van Agt said. The ex-prime-minister also expressed his deep concern about environmental challenges and the “habitability of our planet Earth on the long term”.
Afterwards, Mr. van Agt’s talk received warm acceptance and a number of questions from the audience. Guests of the conversation reacted both offline during the Q&A session after the talk and online via social networks. During the discussion, Dries van Agt was asked about controversial issues such as the future of EU, the role of the U.S. in international political processes, and possible scenarios of interaction with non-governmental actors such as ISIS. Guests also commented the event online on Twitter. “Great lecture on Global Justice by former PM Dries van Agt at The Hague Institute today.” – tweeted the Irish embassy.
The first conversation of Premier Perspectives definitely left the guests of the event with something to think about. In the coming weeks the audience will have an opportunity to get familiar with reflections on global justice from other prominent Dutch politicians. The list of former Prime Ministers to appear includes Ruud Lubbers, who will be speaking on the 4th of June, and Professor Jan Peter Balkenende, who will be speaking on the 17th of June.
