SECRETARY-GENERAL ASKS DISARMAMENT BOARD TO EXPLORE SECURITY CHALLENGES OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, RE-EVALUATE UNITED NATIONS ROLE
Press Release
SG/SM/6252
SECRETARY-GENERAL ASKS DISARMAMENT BOARD TO EXPLORE SECURITY CHALLENGES OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, RE-EVALUATE UNITED NATIONS ROLE
19970610 ADVANCE TEXTFollowing is the statement by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters at Headquarters today:
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to New York for this twenty-ninth session of the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.
First, my greetings to those who have served on the Board for a number of years. I thank you for the work that you have done for the United Nations and for your continuing collaboration with the Board.
Second, a warm welcome to those who are new to the Board. I thank you for having accepted my invitation to join the Advisory Board and for finding time in your busy schedules to attend this session.
As you know, this Board is unique for several reasons. It consists of eminent individuals, who have been appointed in their personal capacities. They have been selected because of their expertise, either in the area of disarmament and arms control or in the wider field of international security. All of you, therefore, are here as individuals distinguished as thinkers and as experienced policy advisers.
Together, I believe, you form an excellent independent think-tank, to which we can look for expert advice on the role of the Organization in disarmament.
The fact that you serve in your personal capacities, rather than as representatives of your governments or regions will, I believe, enable the exchange of views to be as free as possible. So I hope that each of you will feel able to enrich the discussions with your deep knowledge of the unique security concerns and disarmament needs and experiences of your different regions and subregions.
I attach great importance to the vital function performed by the Board as the Board of Trustees overseeing the valuable work of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). The UNIDIR is the sole autonomous institution within the framework of the United Nations undertaking independent research on disarmament and international security issues. As such, it is the United Nations link in a chain of university and other security research institutions that underpin intergovernmental disarmament negotiations, deliberations and activities.
During this session, I shall ask you to explore the security challenges that lie ahead in the twenty-first century; to examine ways in which disarmament and arms control, at all levels of cooperation - international, regional and subregional - can meet those challenges; and, most important, to re-evaluate the role of the Organization in achieving the overarching goal of an international system in which security and stability for all will prevail.
On assuming the office of Secretary-General, I made a major commitment to re-evaluate the Organization's entire operations. Today the United Nations, like any complex system which has been in operation for 52 years, is in need of an overhaul. The United Nations has had remarkable successes, but the effort I am undertaking is aimed at transforming it into a more effective and efficient instrument of the world community for the next millennium.
This effort is much more than a streamlining or downsizing exercise. It is much more about realignment and readjustment of the Organization to the rapidly changing needs and requirements of the coming age. You can help me in this task.
In March, I announced a first set of management and organizational measures within the Secretariat. At a special meeting of the General Assembly on 16 July, I intend to put forward proposals for longer-term measures needing intergovernmental consideration.
I have said that I intend to group the work of the Organization into four principal areas. Disarmament falls within that of "peace and security".
A profound transformation in our concept of the security of States is under way. I consider it to be one of the most remarkable developments of the second half of this century.
The notion of making a nation's boundaries secure through military over- preparedness has changed dramatically, as borders themselves have become more porous and as economies have become globalized. Yes, States will continue to protect their citizens with weapons; this will remain the case for the foreseeable future. But building State security has also come to mean building vibrant democracies -- societies founded on justice and
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respect for law and human rights, prosperous economies and healthy environments.
This transformation in the vision of security, and the fundamental changes in the international security structure since the end of the cold war, have had and will continue to have a direct impact on the role of the United Nations in disarmament.
The United Nations work in this area must evolve too. The work of the United Nations in the field of disarmament and the maintenance of peace and security -- an important part of our Charter mandate -- must evolve with the process of change itself.
Disarmament has had a great and direct impact on lives all over the planet, and the United Nations has made a direct contribution to it. The signing of the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, negotiated in the Conference on Disarmament and endorsed by the General Assembly, has increased the momentum towards nuclear disarmament. It is a boon to the security of all humankind. The African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone -- which the United Nations helped to negotiate -- removed, at a stroke, the nuclear threat from an entire continent.
There have been many other advances made by multilateral disarmament in recent years. They include the reinforcement of the nuclear non-proliferation regime through the legally binding permanent extension of the Non- Proliferation Treaty; the consolidation of the ban against chemical weapons by the entry into force of the convention and the inauguration of its verification organization; and strengthening the prohibition against biological weapons, by preparing for a verification mechanism for that Convention.
These are positive steps forward for the global community and for the United Nations Organization, which was and remains closely involved with those agreements.
As I have indicated, the international security situation is changing. The machinery of multilateral disarmament, like the United Nations itself, has no time to rest on the laurels of past success at this critical time of reappraisal. There are new challenges to be faced and new roles to assume.
For example, how can the Organization help to consolidate the multilateral achievements of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction? How, for example, can it promote greater cooperation among Member States and the United Nations system to deal with threats of nuclear terrorism arising from unauthorized or illegal possession or handling of weapons-grade nuclear material?
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Thought might be given to the role of the United Nations in cooperating with the newly established implementation and verification organizations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, or others that may follow. For instance, the General Assembly adopted a resolution in May that requests me to enter into an agreement with the newly established Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to regulate a relationship between the two organizations. This, I believe, points to new directions in greater cohesiveness in the efforts of United Nations and related agencies towards disarmament.
Thought might also be given to the arrangements being set out in the draft convention under negotiation by the Governments of the Ottawa process for a total ban on anti-personnel land-mines. They envisage a variety of roles for the United Nations. They include work in the technical area of mine clearance, a proposal that the United Nations should become the central point for the collection of information among States parties, and a proposal for the setting-up of the first conference of States parties and the review procedures.
The potential for conflict remains alarmingly high in some regions. Action at the operational level can make an important contribution to disarmament. More use can be made of the tools of preventive diplomacy and such practical disarmament measures as regional and subregional disarmament and arms control agreements and confidence-building measures, moratoriums on small arms transfers and subregional registers of relevant weapons.
The arms control experience gained by the coordinated United Nations inter-agency effort in peace-building in Mali has now been extended to other West African States. It has been enlightening and educational for the countries concerned, and for the United Nations. We should see how this type of activity could be applied to other subregions.
The Governmental Expert Panel on Small Arms is doing pioneering work on a new subject for multilateral consideration. Its report will be presented to the next Assembly. It will contain recommendations for the future work of the United Nations in this area.
Disarmament is a vital part of the mission and the mandate of the United Nations. We were needed in this field in the past, and we will be needed even more in the future. But as in everything the Organization does, we have to think afresh, prepare for change and be ready for reform.
The first and ongoing task is to identify the new challenges to international peace and security, then to define what steps governments and the intergovernmental bodies can take, and to define how the United Nations should prompt, encourage and facilitate governmental action. And after that,
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the path to which I have committed the United Nations - that of re-evaluation and reform -- will help in redefining the roles and responsibilities that the Organization can feasibly and realistically perform in the area of disarmament, and the shape of the structure and resources needed to implement them.
I am gratified that many of you, above and beyond your participation in this Board, have collaborated in a variety of important ways with the United Nations system on disarmament and security questions.
I am charging you with a larger task than in the past for your work this week. I look forward to hearing, very soon, your views on matters of overriding urgency for the Organization. Next month, I shall be reporting on reform to the General Assembly. I can assure you that I shall bear your views in mind as I consider the question of United Nations reform in the field of disarmament and international security.
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