SECRETARY-GENERAL LAUDS ROLE OF SMALL COUNTRIES IN WORK OF UNITED NATIONS, NOTING CRUCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Press Release
SG/SM/6639
SECRETARY-GENERAL LAUDS ROLE OF SMALL COUNTRIES IN WORK OF UNITED NATIONS, NOTING CRUCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
19980715 Address in Uruguay Cites Peacekeeping, Human Rights, Disarmament, Environment, Reform of World OrganizationThis is the text of an address today by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to a joint meeting of the Uruguayan Parliament in Montevideo:
It gives me great pleasure to be making this official visit to Uruguay, a founding Member of the United Nations and an active player in the Organization's global mission of peace, development and human rights. I am especially grateful for this opportunity to join you here in the Uruguayan Parliament. This is a place where some of the country's most important business is carried out. A place where the elected representatives of the Uruguayan people come together for dialogue and debate. From this Parliament emanate the laws of the land: laws affecting peoples' livelihoods and living conditions; their health and homes, the well-being of their children, their very freedoms.
Parliamentarians thus carry tremendous responsibilities. More than anyone else, you must give voice to the Uruguayan peoples' struggles and aspirations. You must ensure that the concerns of all sectors of society, but especially the poor, the marginalized and the vulnerable, are part of the national debate. In short, as the embodiment of Uruguayan values, you are a key institutional bridge between the State and civil society.
Today your role is more pivotal than ever. With globalization and economic liberalization, States confront the challenge of keeping pace with rapid change, maintaining competitiveness and building viable economies. And since most of today's major problems -- from environmental degradation to drug trafficking -- have an international dimension, nations must cooperate with each other more extensively than in the past. Parliamentarians, elected by teachers, doctors and the corner grocer, have also become the all-important link between the local and the global.
It is easy for small nations to feel daunted by the global forces at work in our lives today. The cumulative effect of the globalization of trade, finance, labour and communications may seem to be as powerful as a force of nature, as inevitable as the ocean tides, or as unpredictable as the path of a tornado.
Large countries with enormous labour forces, abundant natural resources, arsenals of high-tech weaponry and fleets of expert technicians and negotiators may seem to have all the advantages. Small nations may feel so diminished alongside bigger Powers that they fear being out-gunned and out-raced in the global economic sweepstakes, which is often portrayed -- incorrectly -- as a zero-sum game. Small nations may conclude that they have little or no role to play internationally, and that they should somehow stay away from the fray, see to their own needs and leave the playing field to those countries who are going to get their way anyway.
I would like to sound the strongest possible note to the contrary. My long experience at the United Nations has shown me that the small States of the world -- Uruguay among them -- are more than capable of holding their own. I would even go so far as to say that their contributions are the very glue of progressive international cooperation for the common good.
Consider United Nations peacekeeping. The power to authorize such operations rests with the Security Council. It is common, when thinking of the Council, to think only of the five permanent members. But we should never forget that nine votes are required to adopt a resolution. Therein lies an opportunity for the Council's non-permanent members to shape a mission's mandate and goals. Today among the 10 non-permanent members of the Council are small States from all continents, including Costa Rica from the Latin American region.
The presence of small States in matters relating to international peace and security is particularly striking when one looks at the make-up of peacekeeping operations. For it is above all others countries such as Denmark, Fiji and Nepal who are consistently among the stalwart nations ready to contribute troops, police and observers and to take other steps to improve our overall readiness. I am pleased to count Uruguay among this proud group. Uruguayan personnel are currently stationed around the globe, in Angola, Georgia, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslavia, Western Sahara, along the Iraq- Kuwait border and along the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir.
Uruguay is also among the nations that have entered into stand-by arrangements for peacekeeping so that the United Nations is better prepared to respond when crisis erupts. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Uruguay for this act of peace and to this Parliament for its role in supporting the country's sustained commitment to the principle and practice of collective security.
The exceptional contributions of small States also extend to the United Nations regular budget. Here, too, the big Powers may seem to be the only important players, with the top eight contributors accounting for nearly three quarters of the budget. But quite a different picture emerges when one considers the regular budget and United Nations system funding in per capita
- 3 - Press Release SG/SM/6639 15 July 1998
terms: small nations again show their mettle and their will. Andorra and the Netherlands; Dominica and Cameroon; Seychelles, Finland and the United Arab Emirates: these and others give well out of proportion to their size.
Indeed, name the issue, and I can point to a small State playing a central and innovative role: Reform of the United Nations? Austria served as co-chair of the working group of the General Assembly that examined the chronic financial difficulties experienced by the Organization. Human rights? Ireland has given the United Nations a new High Commissioner for Human Rights, former President Mary Robinson, a well-known expert who has brought new dynamism to the field. The environment? The small island developing nations of the world, which are especially vulnerable to natural disasters and the impact of climate change through rising sea levels, are on the front-lines of our work for sustainable development. They may be small islands, but big issues are involved, with implications for all of us. Disarmament? Norway was a driving force behind the international coalition that brought about the adoption of a convention banning the production, sale or use of anti-personnel landmines.
United States President John F. Kennedy was among those who recognized and appreciated the creativity and energies of the world's smaller nations. Speaking in Ireland in 1963, he said, "The most enduring literature of the world came from little nations. The heroic deeds that thrill humanity through generations were the deeds of little nations fighting for their freedom." But in expressing his admiration, President Kennedy also stressed the need for small nations to take part in the great project of international cooperation. "Small nations", he said, "can and must help build a world peace. They, too, as we all are, are dependent on the United Nations for security, for an equal chance to be heard, for progress towards a world made safe for diversity ... Great Powers have their responsibilities and their burdens, but the smaller nations of the world must fulfil their obligations as well."
What we need more than ever today is a fundamental compact between small nations and large -- in effect, the entire community of nations. Such a compact must be based on a clear acknowledgement of our mutual interest and common fate, and on a commitment to do our utmost at all times to come together across the various lines that divide, be they economic or ethnic, cultural or confessional. Interdependence means just that: not only that what we do affects each other, but that we must truly be able to depend on each other.
Increasingly, all countries face the same challenges. Some threats are overt, such as terrorism, pandemics and the proliferation of arms. Others are insidious, such as climate change, drug-trafficking and money-laundering. All of them transcend borders; they are what I call "problems without passports". No country, no matter how big or powerful, can ward them off alone or address them in isolation. If this is our reality, then the importance of small nations is clear. We cannot do without you. We need you.
- 4 - Press Release SG/SM/6639 15 July 1998
I have a vision of a United Nations where Uruguay and all other nations come together in common cause: for the environment, for human rights, for development, justice and more. The Organization continues to offer a way forward, a pragmatic way to address global problems in comprehensive fashion, based on the universal ideals found in the Charter. Not least among those ideals, among the very first words of the preamble, is "the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small".
At a moment when global conditions offer unprecedented prospects for peace and prosperity, I am committed to ensuring that the United Nations can play its part. But I need your help in this endeavour. Over the course of half a century, Uruguayans and their partners around the world have built and nurtured a system of international cooperation -- a United Nations that is not perfect, but which has served the world well. Now is the time to strengthen that system still further. With your continued involvement, I have every hope and confidence that we can achieve the goals we share and hold dear.
* *** *