Each of these will be the subject of a detailed presentation in the morning plenary session and will be examined in depth in separate committees in the afternoon. This year the Symposium will be held partly in conjunction with the Second International Conference on Cross Cultural Business Ethics, organised by the Harrow School of Business of the University of Westminster and l Institut des Hautes Etudes Commerciales of Tunisia. It will be followed, as in previous years, by a meeting of Directors of Diplomatic Training Centres abroad and others involved in diplomatic training both to evaluate the Symposium and to discuss current and prospective training needs. The concept of sustainability has become fashionable in discussion of many subjects, especially economic growth, and development in the poorer countries. But nowhere has it assumed more importance than in environmental issues.
Nothing is more important to the management of interdependence than the rule of law internationally.
The progressive development of international law and its codification has been a prime purpose of the United Nations since the outset. Compliance, nonetheless, is still widely regarded as primarily a matter of conscience and will for individual governments. All six major human rights covenants have useful monitoring committees. Particularly since the creation of the United Nations in 1945, the management of international relations is accepted on every side as having an important ethical content, as enshrined in the UN Charter and in one of its earliest key instruments, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as in many subsequent agreements. These cover a very wide range of subjects, and are subscribed to by virtually every country.