UN General Assembly
1998

but the last few months have shown that it is not capable of running it. The globalization of political life and civil society leads us to attempt to reach beyond national limitations to confront our problems. Liberalization has generated significant growth in trade and investments. It has also led to increased transparency between our different social systems. This transparency obliges us more than in the past to reflect upon our concepts of the rights of the individual and the need to defend them. However, access to the global economic village has not led to a concomitant strengthening of solidarity. The capacity of men and women to adapt has been severely put to the test. The grip of the logic of the marketplace on the individual seems to relegate him to a secondary role in the international system. Our societies should henceforth reconcile the often very divergent effects that globalization has on the individual and on the State â€” namely, unemployment, competition and financial speculation. The balance between the freedom of some and the rights of