Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations
interplay of private interests and forces. States must assume more responsibility for the pursuit of peace and justice. Greater equality in levels of development, measured traditionally or using indicators more sensitive to social and political conditions, would place more countries in a position to participate in the management of global affairs. This assertion is not based on naive optimism or the assumption of universal benevolence among peoples and their Governments. Simply put, countries and Governments less plagued by disorder and poverty and blessed with intangibles such as hope, respect from others, and a sense of their own worth and dignity have a greater capacity and are more likely to contribute to the building and maintenance of a harmonious world community. The various aspects of international justice are connected. Second, links exist not only between the reduction in inequalities in levels of development and increased respect for the territorial and political integrity of each nation, but also between internationaljustice, so understood, and social justice. Issues of intracountry and intercountry inequality are related first through the prevailing ideas on economic organization and development. Policies and practices relating to market deregulation, free trade and domestic market protection, competition, labour costs and labour standards, systems of taxation, and tax exemptions and tax havens, for example, have a direct impact on various forms of equity and equality at both the national and international levels. Generally, the "rules of the game" established for international transactions strongly influence domestic conditions and the distribution of the fruits of economic activity. Currently, the freedom of action enjoyed by a few major public and corporate powers to set the rules of the game is paralleled by the relative impotence of a majority of lesser actors, including most of the Member States of the United Nations. This constituted a recurrent theme within the Forum. For a large number of countries, the reduction or prevention of inequalities and inequities at home would be greatly facilitated or even effected by a reduction in inequalities and inequities at the international and global levels. Certain features of the present world political economy, including those generally viewed as positive, such as the relatively free global movement of individuals with valued managerial or technical abilities, create or contribute to domestic imbalances and inequalities. In this example, the international-domestic link was established through the emergence of a transnational market for certain skills. This market affects national patterns of salary and income distribution owing not only to the crossborder movement of labour but also to the fact that there are talented individuals from developing countries who decide not to move abroad but are nevertheless in a better bargaining position because their skills are in demand elsewhere. This relatively new phenomenon of increased inequality among groups across national borders-characterized by a degree of homogeneity at both the top and