UN General Assembly
1996

and constant vigilance in the promotion and protection of human rights are the guarantors of peace. International election observer missions are an important contribution to confidence-building. Malta has participated in this process, most recently in Palestine and Bosnia and Herzegovina. As much as action is instrumental, so is restraint. Emissions which pollute the environment; lumbering which depletes the rain forests; indiscriminate trawling which exhausts our fishstocks — even if disguised as economic imperatives — undermine efforts towards sustainable development. Malta looks forward to this Assembly’s 1997 special session to follow up and update the Rio achievements. We have strategies and action plans. Now is the time for dynamic engagement. Present and future generations demand that we use these instruments to combat drug trafficking, illicit arms transfers, money laundering and organized crime, which sap the life of the communities we built with so much effort. My Government is totally committed in this regard. Legislation adopted has strengthened the arm of the law in apprehending traffickers, halting the flow of drugs and confiscating illegal funds accrued. This determined policy