SPEAKERS IN ASSEMBLY DEBATE ADDRESS DISARMAMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS, DEVELOPMENT AND GENDER ISSUES

Press Release
GA/9768

SPEAKERS IN ASSEMBLY DEBATE ADDRESS DISARMAMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS, DEVELOPMENT AND GENDER ISSUES

After the end of the cold war, there was no longer any justification for maintaining nuclear arsenals, if there ever had been a valid justification, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Kenya, Bonaya Adhi Godana, told the fifty-fifth regular session of the General Assembly this afternoon as it met to continue its general debate.

The Government of Kenya was disappointed that the Conference on Disarmament had not undertaken any substantive work, he said. The lack of progress was due to the reluctance of key nuclear-weapon States to submit themselves to negotiate in good faith, despite their obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Also addressing the issue of disarmament, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Ural Latypov, said his country, committed to a nuclear-weapon free world, had put forward an initiative to establish a nuclear-weapon free space in Central and Eastern Europe. Preservation of and respect for the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was a logical basis for the maintenance of international stability. Its violation could result in an extremely dangerous disruption of the established set of interdependent agreements.

The ideas of democracy and respect for human rights could play a key role in the twenty-first century, he said. Yet, to make that goal attainable, it was essential not to use those principles to discriminate against people and punish unwelcome States. There was a certain involvement of the United Nations in the efforts to establish a “club of countries of advanced democracy” on the basis of some random criteria. It was inadmissible, he said, that the idea of a forum of new or restored democracies approved within the Organization should lead to the separation of peoples into teachers and students.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland, Wladyslaw Bartoszewsky, said that the international community needed to organize itself around the question of its further development, and it was with that goal that the Government of Poland, along with the Governments of Chile, India, Republic of Korea and the United States, among others, had decided to initiate broader international collaboration in the cause of consolidation and promotion of democracy in the world.

General Assembly Plenary - 1a - Press Release GA/9768 17th Meeting (PM) 15 September 2000

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria, announced an initiative taken by all women Ministers for Foreign Affairs present at the opening of the General Assembly: the launch of an appeal to energize the fight against the global scourge of HIV/AIDS, which was increasingly affecting women and girls. Efforts to counter the HIV/AIDS pandemic had to be multi- faceted, she said. They had to encompass access to adequate medical care, drugs and social protection.

As Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), she re-emphasized the human dimension in that Organization’s work. It had focused on a number of abhorrent facets of civil unrest, such as children in armed conflict, the proliferation of small arms and trafficking in human beings, in particular women and girls.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Solomon Islands, Danny Philip, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Saint Lucia, George Odlum, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, Juan Esteban Aguirre Martinez, also addressed the Assembly.

The representatives of Uganda and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea spoke as well.

The representatives of Iran and the United Arab Emirates spoke in right of reply.

The Assembly will meet again tomorrow, Saturday, 16 September, at 10 a.m. to continue its general debate.

General Assembly Plenary - 3 - Press Release GA/9768 17th Meeting (PM) 15 September 2000

Assembly Work Programme

The General Assembly met this afternoon to continue its general debate. Statements were expected to be made by representatives of Solomon Islands, Uganda, Saint Lucia, Kenya, Belarus, Austria, Paraguay, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Poland.

Statements

DANNY PHILIP, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Solomon Islands, said that conflict prevention should be the cornerstone of collective security in the twenty-first century. Peace and democratic stability were critical preconditions for economic growth and sustainable development. The ethnic crisis in his country had challenged national peace, security and stability. It had resulted in loss of human lives and properties, the closure of all key industries in the economy and the displacement of more than 30,000 people. Challenges to the security and stability of small island developing States were increasingly beyond their capacity to contain. The support of the international community and the United Nations was imperative.

Restoring law and order was the number one priority for his Government, he said. A ceasefire agreement had been signed in August, and a National Monitoring Council had been established to oversee its implementation. To sustain long-term peace, Solomon Islands would need the cooperation of its development partners to rebuild the economy and foster a development path that created employment, ensured fair distribution of national resources and wealth, and accommodated the diverse cultural traditions.

He said the economic vulnerability and ecological fragility of small island developing States must be an integral basis for decisions on development cooperation with those States. Such cooperation should focus on better trading opportunities, including market access, capacity-building, and adaptation and mitigation programmes to address climate change and sea-level rise. The international community must mobilize resources to implement the Secretary- General’s recommendations on bridging the digital divide between developed and developing countries.

Greater flexibility and understanding should be demonstrated towards those who were striving to become new permanent members of the Security Council, including Germany and Japan, he said. A similar attitude should be shown towards the reconfiguration of the United Nations regional groups to reflect present-day realities and to accommodate those Member States, including Australia and New Zealand, who wished to be placed in their most appropriate regional or geopolitical group. The United Nations must be inclusive and universal. A case in point was the reunification of China, which would foster greater stability in world affairs and effectively shoulder the activities of the Organization.

RALPH OCHAN (Uganda), said events in Africa and, particularly instability in the Great Lakes region, continued to be of the utmost concern. The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo posed a major threat to the stability of the region. The conflict had its origins in the massive violation of the human and democratic rights of the peoples during the long reign of dictators in a number of countries. Uganda had worked with progressive forces to help the Congolese people to free themselves from Mobutu Sese Seko. That was why Ugandan troops had been in the Democratic Republic in 1997.

When a new regime came to power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda had signed a protocol of cooperation under which Ugandan and Congolese security forces would cooperate to contain the menace caused by armed groups organized by the remnants of Uganda’s former dictators who were operating from Congolese territory. Within a very short time, however, the Democratic Republic had chosen to form an alliance with the very people who posed a threat to Uganda’s security and to turn its back on its internal allies. A number of African countries had found themselves sucked into the conflict. Those countries soon saw the folly of armed confrontation and chose to end it through negotiations, resulting in the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement.

Unfortunately, the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo had done everything possible to block the implementation of several aspects of the Agreement. He appealed to that Government to reconsider its position and choose the path of dialogue with both its internal and external opponents and abandon the path of military confrontation.

Significant reduction in poverty could be achieved through sustained and broad-based income growth, he said. In most developing countries, that could be effectively done through modernization of the agricultural sector. A high level of external debt had negatively affected the economies of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and despite decades of liberalization, most industrialized countries still maintained protectionist measures in their markets. The difficulty in achieving positive development results in Africa had been further complicated by the severity of its AIDS crisis. He called upon the international community to lend concrete support to Africa’s own efforts to realize the objectives of the African Renaissance.

GEORGE W. ODLUM, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Saint Lucia, said that during the last century, the disparities between and within nations had widened; poverty, ill health, illiteracy and hunger increased worldwide; and the world’s ecosystem had rapidly deteriorated. To counteract those trends and attain a meaningful transformation in the world system, he called upon the United Nations to assume a vanguard role in supporting development, advancing human security and promoting global responsibility.

He said Saint Lucia had entrusted the United Nations with its hopes of peace, security and development. The Organization had, however, passed that trust on to a few dominant powers and corporations. Human security could not be fostered simply through peacekeeping operations and humanitarian missions –- there must be a global drive to empower people. That empowerment must take place through “the elimination of the adverse conditions that cause the incapacitation of the human spirit and the imprisonment of the imagination”.

Within the context of a globalized world, sovereignty was fast becoming an endangered species. Systemic imbalances and inequities in the global economy and the institutions that governed it were the greatest threat to world peace and democracy. That situation was unsustainable and explosive.

The holistic nature of development, he said, must take precedence over the palliative of poverty eradication. International cooperation in development should be achieved through meeting the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), debt cancellation, special and differential treatment on a contractual basis for developing countries and adequate financial support for the Organization’s development programmes. The United Nations must demonstrate leadership of democracy if it was to be a foundation for peace and prosperity in the new millennium. All Member States must be able to participate in matters of peace, security and the global economy to give real meaning to democracy and governance. He concluded by declaring Saint Lucia’s unequivocal belief that the United Nations should zero in on development as a radical instrument for eradicating poverty and war.

BONAYA ADHI GODANA, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Kenya, said the proliferation of conflicts in Africa continued to pose serious threats to peace, security and stability. Conflicts had a negative impact on the continent’s development capacity and continued to undermine efforts to improve the living standards of the people of Africa. The need for cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations in peacekeeping and peace- building was critical, he said.

The recent unfortunate experience in Sierra Leone called for a review of peacekeeping operations particularly with regard to safety, commissioning and deployment of troops, he said. The decision by the Security Council to authorize the establishment of an international court to try those responsible for atrocities committed in the civil war in Sierra Leone was welcome. It should signal to the rebels that the international community would not tolerate acts against humanity.

The Government of Kenya was disappointed that the Conference on Disarmament had not undertaken any substantive work, he said. The lack of progress was due to the reluctance of key nuclear-weapon States to submit themselves to negotiate in good faith, despite their obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. After the end of the cold war, there was no longer any justification for maintaining a nuclear arsenal, if there ever was a valid justification.

A consequence of conflict and the proliferation of illicit small arms had been the massive movement of refugees across boundaries, putting a heavy strain on the scarce resources of receiving countries like Kenya, he said. Kenya was in the process of finalizing a refugee bill that would provide refugees with a better legal framework in which to exercise their rights. The Government’s effort was also geared towards enhancing public awareness of human rights and freedoms. He added that the rise in transnational networks of crime, narcotics, money laundering and terrorism was a matter of concern.

Globalization posed enormous challenges to developing countries and Kenya was no exception, he said. He welcomed the initiative to protect weaker States from the adverse effects of globalization and urged the implementation of special and differential provisions in respect to developing and least developed countries. Vulnerability in Africa had been aggravated by the prevalence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. He called upon the international community to support efforts to find a cure for those diseases and stressed the need to ensure easy availability of existing drugs to those already afflicted.

BENITA FERRERO-WALDNER, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Austria, expressed her gratitude at this week’s decision by Austria’s European Union partners to lift the measures implemented on 31 January against Austria. In the last seven months, the United Nations had stood by Austria and they treasured that support. The United Nations had had confidence in their firm commitment to universal standards and values.

She said that as Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), she wished to outline a number of the Organization’s achievements this year. It had proved to be a flexible institution adjusting itself to the far-reaching changes in the political landscape of Europe after the fall of the “Iron Curtain”. In South East Europe, the work of the organization had focused on post-crisis rehabilitation, strengthening democracy, the rule of law and civil society. She re-emphasized the human dimension in the work of the OSCE. In the course of the year, it had focused its work on a number of abhorrent facets of civil unrest, such as children in armed conflict, the proliferation of small arms and trafficking in human beings, in particular women and girls. She highlighted the recent adoption of a comprehensive Action Plan for Gender Issues, which was committed to advance equality between women and men, and to protect the human rights of women and girls in the region.

She pointed out the initiative taken by all women Ministers for Foreign Affairs present at the opening of the General Assembly; the launch of an appeal to energize the fight against the global scourge of HIV/AIDS, which was increasingly affecting women and girls. Efforts to counter the HIV/AIDS pandemic had to be multifaceted. They had to encompass access to adequate medical care, drugs and social protection.

She said that in the strategic triangle with human security and human development, human rights were of a profoundly political significance for the direction to be taken in development. Efforts in that area needed a new momentum and should be provided with new energy and direction. Lately, civil society had pleaded for more political leadership in this field. The international community should be ready to respond and develop new structures of partnership with civil society and with the institutions already active in the field.

URAL LATYPOV, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belarus, said his country was committed to a nuclear-weapon free world and had put forward an initiative to establish a nuclear-weapon free space in Central and Eastern Europe. It was critical to maintain and consolidate the strategic global parity built in the 20th century. Preservation of and respect for the Anti- Ballistic Missile Treaty was a logical basis for the maintenance of international stability. Its violation could result in an extremely dangerous disruption of the established set of interdependent agreements.

Development of specific preventive measures for the elimination of root causes of potential conflicts should be in the focus of United Nations attention, he said. Activities of the Brahimi Panel of Experts alongside with the upcoming conference on illicit trade in small arms and light weapons were an important contribution. Further improvement in the working methods of the Security Council and reform of its membership on the basis of equitable geographic representation were imperative.

The tremendous benefits of globalization would be reduced to nothing unless there was a clear understanding of the need for the international community to learn the language of law. The slightest deviation from internationally accepted norms would inevitably carry an extreme danger not only for the violators, but for the entire international community itself, he said. Implementing the norms of international law at the national level should become a priority for the United Nations and its partners.

His country shared the apprehensions of many States over the environmental future of the planet, but continued to have an acute feeling of the ever diminishing interest by the international community in the Chernobyl disaster, the world’s largest technological catastrophe of the past century. Quoting his President he said, “Without realizing our joint responsibility for the preservation of the common human environment all discussions of a fair distribution of the benefits and the disadvantages of globalization would remain just shallow talk”.

The ideas of democracy and respect for human rights could play a key role in the 21st century, he said. Yet, to make that goal attainable, it was essential to relinquish the attempts to use those principles to discriminate against peoples and “punish” unwelcome States and governments. Regrettably, there was a certain involvement of the United Nations in the efforts to establish a “club of countries of advanced democracy” on the basis of some random criteria. It was inadmissible, he said, that the idea of a forum of new or restored democracies approved within the Organization should lead to the separation of peoples into teachers and students.

JUAN ESTEBAN AGUIRRE MARTINEZ, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, said that the Millennium Summit had been a useful opportunity for reflection upon the future of the United Nations. It was clear that the Organization needed to be strengthened to face the challenges of the future and to ensure democracy, trade flows and better dynamics in international relations. The turn of the millennium provided a unique vantage point for reflection. It was time to meditate on the good things the United Nations had achieved, the good things it had failed to do, what it had not done and what it had done wrong.

Reform of the Organization could no longer be postponed, he said. The United Nations had to accept the increasing role of civil society and globalization. The reorganization of the United Nations in terms of development must ensure that it could respond creatively and with flexibility in ensuring access to health care, sanitation, credit and technology. It must become a well- structured organization. This required the creation of a national atmosphere of dialogue to create consensus on the best way to achieve growth and meet the qualitative demands of society.

National consensus must be the basis for international consensus, he said. A renewed United Nations had to be the guarantor of the well-being of all the world’s citizens, and ensure their personal growth and quality of life. His Government was concerned about the delay on the decision of the future composition of the Security Council. The Council must be more equitable, representative and politically balanced. It was of crucial importance to involve both developed and developing countries in the work of the Security Council. Furthermore, his Government supported the idea of the reforms including provisions for a gradual elimination of the veto right of permanent members.

International relations had gained a new dimension as a result of the revolution in communications, he said. He stressed that all people must share the benefits of scientific advances. Decades of development assistance had not succeeded in eradicating poverty; however, this must not serve as a pretext for reducing assistance nor increasing conditionality. Paraguay granted high priority to the preservation of the environment and implemented the standards of Agenda 21. Of major concern was the world’s unsustainable use of water and he called upon the international community to give this issue its due attention.

LI HYONG CHOL (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) said the common aspiration of the world’s people for the 21st century was that it be a century of independence, peace and development. For genuine peace and prosperity to occur, the sovereignty of all countries must be respected.

He said the Korean nation was responsible for Korea’s reunification question. Its reunification could only be achieved independently by the concerted efforts of Koreans in the north and the south, as set out in the North-South Joint Declaration. Independent reunification would surely lead to a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula and would contribute to peace and security in Northeast Asia.

The most serious challenge posed in international relations at present was the emergence of the concept of humanitarian intervention, he said. The United Nations was based on the principle of sovereign equality. He noted that the United Nations Charter enshrined the principle of respect for sovereignty and non- interference in internal affairs as a cornerstone of international relations.

Turning to the nuclear disarmament process, he said the role of the United Nations in that area should be enhanced, rather than being left to the major nuclear weapon States. He added that the Organization should be democratized through reform of its structure, specifically the Security Council, which monopolized decision-making on critical issues.

WLADYSLAW BARTOSZEWSKI, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland, said that the traumatic experiences of his nation had made the Poles exceptionally aware of the value of peace; they saw themselves as full and active members of the global family of nations. A further source of security and confidence was that Poland had become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and was forging closer ties with the European Union.

The international community needed to organize itself around the question of its further development, he said. It was with that purpose that the Government of Poland, along with the Governments of Chile, India, Republic of Korea, Mali, United States and the Czech Republic, had decided to initiate broader international collaboration in the cause of consolidation and promotion of democracy in the world.

He said that, imbued with the belief that democracy should be no less a legitimate subject of international debate and cooperation than the other great issues of the times, Poland had embarked, in conjunction with a number of other States, on an international conference in June this year --“Towards a Community of Democracies”. The participants in the conference had adopted the Warsaw Declaration, in which they reaffirmed their commitment to a catalogue of democratic values and standards. The key question was what could be done to advance this cause in the framework of and through the United Nations.

He said that the central issue of successive international agendas was security. Fuller involvement by the United Nations in the security sphere required determined continuation of reform of the Organization in the field, starting with a practical redefinition of the role of the Security Council that would extend its purview to non-traditional threats to international security. The Council must respond more decisively to signs of budding conflict or humanitarian disasters The Kosovo drama could have been avoided if the Security Council members had displayed sufficient imagination and resolve at the right time. The Brahimi report’s recommendations should be adopted, and greater emphasis should be put on the question of cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, he added.

What was also needed, he said, was a new approach to development. One of the key challenges facing the international community in the twenty-first century was poverty reduction, especially in the least developed countries. If globalization was to be harnessed to development and poverty reduction, more was needed that just better coordination between the organizations active in the socio-economic sphere. It was also necessary to stop perceiving development and poverty reduction solely as technical problems To attack them there had to be a coherent policy that compromised not only financial and technical assistance, but also substantive measures in the sphere of education, culture, good governance the rule of law, and democratic institutions.

Right of Reply

SHAHROUK SHAKERIAN (Iran), speaking in right of reply in response to a statement made by the United Arab Emirates earlier in the day, said he rejected the claim raised against the territorial integrity of Iran. The assertions made were unacceptable. The Iranian position on the three Iranian islands was very clear and there was no need to elaborate on it. His Government was prepared to discuss the issue, based on the 1971 Understanding, in good faith with the United Arab Emirates.

Mr. AL-HASSAN (United Arab Emirates), responding in right of reply to Iran’s statement, said that he hoped that his neighbours and brothers in Iran would translate their words into action. It was indeed regrettable that Iran’s appeal last year for a dialogue among civilizations had not been translated on the ground between the two countries.

He said that 10 years ago, the United Arab Emirates had launched a similar appeal for both countries to reach an agreement through “serious and creative action”, but Iran had so far not responded. Moreover, Iran had not responded to the appeal of the tripartite committee of Gulf States to establish a machinery for dialogue. That committee had also not been not allowed to visit Iran.

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