UN General Assembly
1999

is important for us to remedy that situation through a balanced programme of contacts. The United Nations, and the presence of numerous delegations at United Nations Headquarters in New York and at Geneva, will doubtless provide us opportunities conducive to achieving that end. The United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report this year undertakes an in- depth analysis of the phenomenon of globalization. It clearly brings out the beneficial aspects and the opportunities provided by this process, while at the same time showing the negative consequences, which are very serious and worrying: instability in financial relations, high unemployment, an unsteady job market, the ravages of AIDS, the increasing inequalities between North and South, the extension of those inequalities to the field of knowledge and the constantly growing marginalization of a large number of developing countries. The political and social effects of these developments are no less worrying: increased impoverishment, new forms of crime and violence, increased migration, the destabilization of States and the growing number of conflicts. Faced with these issues, the States Members of this Organization have a major