Last year we
took stock of half a century of United Nations history. The
rock we are pushing up the hill like Sisyphus always seems
to roll back a little. We must not be discouraged by this. It
remains our responsibility to do what we solemnly
reaffirmed on the fiftieth anniversary of the world
Organization: maintain peace and to help people who are
suffering from want and poverty.
You, Mr. President, have issued a warning to us all for
this fifty-first General Assembly. We must look beyond our
national borders, and think and act accordingly. After
making those anniversary promises, let us not fall back into
the old routine and rituals. The vision of a more peaceful
and more equitable world must not be lost.
The world Organization must continue to be the
world’s conscience. For who else other than this forum is
to keep watch to prevent murder and torture, to ensure that
refugees have the basic necessities of life and that our
children are protected and cared for?
The world is grossly unjust. From the moment of birth
millions of people have hardly any chance of living in
conditions worthy of humankind. No one can turn away
from this; it concerns us all. No country, no region and
no group of States can bear all of the world’s burdens and
troubles alone. All, even the strongest among us, need
solidarity, need the help of others. How can terrorism, for
instance, a cancer of our time, be stopped without
international cooperation?
Developments over the past 10 years have shown
there is no cause for resignation. There can be
progress — provided we pool our resources and act
together. That is the lesson of Bosnia, of South Africa
and of the Middle East, and of the historic achievements
in the field of disarmament in recent years. Every child
that is saved from death in Rwanda or Burundi, every
refugee able to return to his native village in Bosnia,
every rainforest area we can preserve, must strengthen our
hope. The one world requires us to act as one.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a free election has been
held for the first time after four terrible years of war. It
has provided a crucial foundation for the country’s
recovery. Joint institutions must now be created without
delay. The future members of the three-person presidency
should meet in Sarajevo before the end of September.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) had a very difficult task supervising the
election in Bosnia. That organization’s scope for action
must be increased at the Lisbon Summit in December this
year. The OSCE remains an indispensable pillar of the
new peaceful order for Europe, which we believe to be
necessary now that the iron curtain has come down.
The forces working for peace in the region are
themselves not strong enough; there is still no self-
sustaining stability. In Bosnia and Herzegovina there can
be no permanent international police force — even the
60,000 troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), of the United Nations and of all the other
countries cannot guarantee peace on the ground — but I
think that for a limited time that country continues to
require a “fire brigade”. This presupposes a fresh mandate
from the Security Council.
Germany is willing to provide a military
contribution. By admitting more than 320,000 war
refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany has
practised human solidarity. We also have more than
130,000 Yugoslav nationals, most of them from Kosovo,
who have to return to their native regions. This is a heavy
burden for us, including in financial terms. But we gave
7

temporary protection and shelter to these people on
humanitarian grounds, and we will not be found wanting in
this respect now that their repatriation is becoming possible.
Europe has been torn by fratricidal wars for centuries.
The current peaceful unification of that continent is a
message of hope for the whole world. The first of our
central and eastern European neighbours will soon belong
to the Euro-Atlantic institutions.
My country Germany owes its unity to the confidence
which the world placed in our policy of reconciliation and
good neighbourliness. In our eyes that implies a duty:
together with France, we will remain the motor of European
Union.
Addressing the Assembly in 1989, my predecessor
Hans-Dietrich Genscher extended a hand to Poland. Today
I turn to our Czech neighbours in particular and say that the
German-Czech declaration will be adopted shortly. Czechs
and Germans can look confidently to a common European
future.
The Russian people too must be winners in the process
of European unification. The special partnership which
NATO is seeking with Russia is of central importance for
peace and security in Europe. And that is why we want as
quickly as possible to draft the fundamentals of a charter
between NATO and Russia, as I suggested in Carcassonne
18 months ago at a meeting of the European Union foreign
ministers. Our offer stands. Russia should help shape
Europe’s future as an equal partner. That large and
important country must be given a place in Europe
commensurate with its size and importance.
Part of the European Union’s peace message is that
we Europeans stand for a policy of international
cooperation among equals, and for a global partnership for
development and the environment in the twenty-first
century. New opportunities for such a partnership derive
from the globalization of industry and technology. Never
have so many people experienced so much progress as in
the past 10 years. In the year 2020, if the present trend
continues, the 15 countries with the largest gross national
products will include nine of today’s developing countries.
The recipe is free markets, democracy, reliability of
the judicial system, and integration into the global
economy. This kind of good governance was rewarded with
$150 billion of private direct investment in 1995.
However, 90 per cent of that investment has gone to
only 12 countries, and the gap between the poor and the
rest of the world continues to widen. The World Summit
for Social Development put the number of poor people at
1.3 billion, nearly a quarter of the entire human race. This
calls for action from both sides, help from the community
of nations and self-help on the part of the countries
concerned. The one is the precondition for the other.
This evening I am having another meeting with my
African colleagues. I take a very keen interest in the
future of Europe’s vast neighbouring continent. We
should not see only Africa’s negative side but the hopeful
signs as well, and there are such signs. Democratization
is progressing, as shown by the fact that elections have
taken place or are scheduled in 17 countries this year.
Average economic growth has outpaced population
growth for the first time in many years. Life expectancy
has increased by more than 25 per cent since 1960, and
ever more children are going to school.
Germany supports Africa’s integration into the world
economy and the development of its own capabilities. The
United Nations New Agenda for the Development of
Africa in the 1990s is a sound foundation for these
efforts. The Secretary-General’s United Nations System-
wide Initiative on Africa should likewise be used by all
concerned as a basis for joint action.
However, much remains to be done. The ghastly
events in Rwanda must not be repeated in Burundi. On
the other hand, the United Nations should not be the
organization of first resort in every conflict situation. It
cannot solve every problem. Hence, the regional
organizations must assume a larger measure of
responsibility.
The Organization of African Unity, like the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has
matured to a degree that commands respect. Germany,
with one eye on Burundi, has to date provided one
million deutsche mark in support of that organization’s
conflict prevention mechanism. High hopes have been
placed in the efforts of Julius Nyerere. The proposed
conference on the Great Lakes region has the support of
Germany and the European Union.
Germany will remain a good partner and friend to
the nations of Africa. That will also be my message at the
forthcoming second European Union-Southern African
Development Community (SADC) ministerial meeting in
Windhoek. The regionalization process in Africa is an
8

element of hope. The outstanding example is southern
Africa with the SADC. That region must become a
locomotive for the whole continent.
One neighbouring region whose fate touches Europe
is the Middle East. That is also the main reason for our
strong commitment in the whole Middle East region. For
historical reasons, Germany has a special relationship with
Israel; that remains unshakable. Bilaterally and through the
European Union we are the most important donor for the
Palestinians. Germany will maintain that commitment. I
confirmed this in my recent meetings with Israeli Foreign
Minister Levy and with President Yasser Arafat in Bonn.
Terrorists should not be given any chance to block the
path to peace. The sealing off of Gaza and the West Bank
must be eased and discontinued as soon as possible. That
is our common endeavour. The struggle against terrorism
must remain at the top of the international agenda. I
urgently appeal to all concerned to resume the peace
process without delay. There is no alternative.
It has been estimated that the world’s population will
number about 10 billion in 2030. For their sake, for the
sake of our children and grandchildren, we must take steps
today to ensure that the Earth remains habitable. Peace and
human dignity, economic progress and protection of the
natural foundations of life are inseparable. Without social
justice, without any vision for the world’s economic
progress, we shall not be able to break the vicious circle of
poverty, environmental destruction and population
explosion.
We have no time to lose. Every second three babies
are born, and every year the world’s population increases
by nearly 100 million. All of them need food, clothing,
schools and a home. Every minute about 12 acres of
tropical rain forest are lost, an area the size of 40 football
pitches.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry warned that the human race
had not inherited the Earth from its fathers but had
borrowed it from its children. We became acutely aware of
this at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. North and
South, East and West, are struggling to survive together in
spaceship Earth, whose blue protective shield is becoming
increasingly fragile.
Our task now is to convert that environmental
awareness into environmental action. The year 1997 will be
crucial for such action. The special session of the General
Assembly devoted to environment and development must
chart the course for the next millennium in order to
restore the balance between man, nature and the economy.
Germany’s industrial community has voluntarily
undertaken to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by
20 per cent by the year 2005. Since 1990, Germany has
reduced those emissions by nearly 13 per cent and
thereby has led the way for the rest of the world.
We are contributing 312 million deutsche mark to
the pilot programme to protect Brazil’s tropical forests.
That represents 60 per cent of the total contributions
made so far. We appeal to the community of nations to
become more heavily involved in this programme. We
can only succeed together or fail together.
At the 1997 climate conference in Japan we must
achieve the objective agreed upon in Berlin 12 months
ago: the adoption of a substantive and binding protocol to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the recent Geneva
conference, the great majority of nations came out in
favour of specific targets and time limits. This is
encouraging.
I wish to thank all members once again for
supporting our efforts to have the secretariat of the
Framework Convention on Climate Change established in
Bonn. May I also ask members to support our proposal
that the secretariat of the Framework Convention to
Combat Desertification likewise be located in Bonn, as it
has to cooperate closely with the climate secretariat. The
United Nations will find that living and working
conditions in our country are good.
The Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development rightly makes people the focal point of all
efforts. We must continue to concentrate on combating
poverty and providing basic and vocational education.
Even if that is not the kind of subject that makes
headlines, it is and will remain, together with
peacekeeping, one of our principal tasks.
Equal opportunities for women must not remain
mere theory.
Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time
has come, is a saying that applies to human dignity and
human rights. The fall of the Berlin Wall showed that the
people’s pursuit of freedom and personal happiness is, in
the long run, stronger than any dictatorship. That is why
the worldwide defence of human rights will likewise not
be in vain.
It all boils down to something quite natural: that we
treat one another as humans and that we do not inflict upon
others what we would not like to have inflicted upon
ourselves. Murderers and torturers must not be allowed to
sleep peacefully. Mladic´ and Karadzic´, and all for whom
arrest warrants have been issued, deserve to be brought
before the International Tribunal in The Hague. Germany
calls for the early convening of a conference to establish an
international criminal court.
There is a core of human rights that are common to us
all and that are universally valid. This fact received
international confirmation at the Vienna Conference on
Human Rights. There can and should be no withdrawal
from that position.
With the East-West confrontation now consigned to
the past, intercultural dialogue assumes ever-greater
significance. Close to 2.5 million Muslims are living in
Germany. If only for this reason, it is of special importance
to develop greater mutual understanding between
Christianity and Islam.
A subject very close to my heart, as former Minister
of Justice, is the protection of our children, the weakest
members of society. Universal Children’s Day was
observed on 20 September. Its motto: “Children have
rights”. What do those rights look like in reality? Every day
35,000 children die of hunger. Twelve million children do
not live beyond the age of 5. Two million are forced into
prostitution. Two hundred thousand children around the
world are used as soldiers in war. Millions of them are used
as cheap labour.
The Stockholm conference on sexual abuse of children
has awakened world opinion, and I should like to thank the
Swedish Government for having hosted and organized this
conference, which shocked us all into action. The atrocious
way many of our children are being treated is a disgrace —
a disgrace — to our civilization. The Stockholm Plan of
Action must be followed by global action. This we owe to
our children. And I should like to make it very clear that
anyone who violates the weakest members of society —
children, that is — deserves to be outlawed by society.
Peace is not everything, but without peace everything
is nothing. These words originate from the time when East
and West faced each other armed to the teeth. In the
meantime the nightmare of a nuclear inferno has been
dispelled. Yesterday’s signing of the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was another momentous step in
this process, I believe, after half a century of international
debate and protest against nuclear testing.
In expressing my thanks to Australia I appeal to all
nations to ratify the Treaty as soon as possible. Since the
end of the Second World War upwards of 2,000 nuclear
tests have been carried out. We now have the chance to
put a stop to them once and for all. Anyone who rejects
something good because they will only accept something
perfect should be mindful of their responsibility to future
generations. We cannot force the atomic genie back into
the bottle, but we owe it to our children and
grandchildren to tame it — at least to tame it.
The total abolition of all chemical weapons is of
similar consequence. The Chemical Weapons Convention
must enter into force next spring. All nations, and
especially those with the largest stockpiles of such
weapons, must meet their tremendous responsibility and
ratify the Convention as soon as possible.
I should also like to touch upon an issue that I take
a very personal, keen interest in, and that is a totally
different kind of mass-destruction weapon: anti-personnel
mines. I travelled to Mozambique and Cambodia and took
a look at the situation there. Hundreds of millions of such
anti-personnel mines are still in the ground. Year in, year
out they kill and maim 20,000 people and make entire
regions permanently uninhabitable. These treacherous
tools of murder must be banned.
Germany has completely renounced anti-personnel
mines and imposed a unilateral, open-ended ban on
exports. Residual stocks are to be destroyed by the end of
1997. In my Seven-Point Programme of Action I have
proposed a number of measures to maintain the
momentum generated in Geneva. My main objective —
because I think the motto should be “first things first” —
is to improve the efficiency of mine clearance. We will
attend a conference in Canada very soon which deals with
the political aspects of this issue, trying to ban land-
mines. But we should also at the same time try to
concentrate on improving the efficiency of mine
clearance, that is, testing and using mechanical clearance
equipment. We quickly need machinery that can be mass-
produced in order to remove this plague without harming
people. I do not know whether anyone here has watched
a mine-clearance operation. It is done by people and can
be compared to trying to remove a sand-dune with a
spoon. I think it is incredible that highly developed
10

nations such as ours and many others are not able to
produce a piece of machinery for a large-scale de-mining
operation. I want to focus the technical knowledge that we
have to make this matter progress as quickly as possible.
If we want to win peace, we must not only consider
conflict prevention; we must also pay greater attention to
the situation after the termination of military hostilities.
Peace-building was the subject of the international
conference that we sponsored in Berlin in July. That
conference produced a number of interesting and tangible
results, which we are making available to all Member
States in the form of a report. Together with other countries
we intend to submit to members during this session of the
General Assembly a draft resolution on peace consolidation
through practical steps towards disarmament. Whether in
Bosnia, Rwanda or Angola, all previous efforts will prove
in vain unless we can prevent a resurgence of violence.
Most of the burden is borne by the 26,000 or so Blue
Helmets and civilian personnel making up the peacekeeping
missions, as well as by the countless courageous staff of
non-governmental organizations who are doing their job all
over the world under difficult conditions. Speaking here in
the United Nations, I should like to express my sincere
thanks to the non-governmental organizations. We are
proud of them.
In our resolution marking the fiftieth anniversary of
the United Nations, we solemnly undertook to pass on to
the next millennium a United Nations organization equipped
and financed to perform its tasks. The greatest political
significance attaches to reform of the Security Council, in
whose work we have been closely involved over the last
two years. This, the principal guardian of world peace, still
bears the countenance of the year 1945, but it now needs a
new one for the year 2000. It is a question of enhancing
that body’s legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness. After
a three-year debate the time has come to put the various
elements together and start the restructuring process, to now
get things done after having analysed what can be done.
We are pleased that a large number of Member States are
in favour of a permanent seat for Germany on the Security
Council. I really believe that the time is approaching when
the General Assembly will have to decide.
What continues to require our immediate attention is
the financial crisis. The Organization’s rationalization and
reform are indispensable and urgent. A glance at the books
is enough to tell us that. The regular United Nations budget
shows zero growth. The Secretariat has lost more than
1,000 posts, and further reductions will follow next year.
So much has already been achieved.
I therefore take this opportunity to thank the
Secretary-General and his staff, who, both at headquarters
and in the field, continue to achieve outstanding results
despite the reductions in their numbers and the constant
lack of funds. I should like to thank them very warmly.
I wish to add another word if I may. The United
Nations, in its actions and decisions, can be only as
strong as its Members allow it to be. People tend to
overlook that fact so readily when they criticize this
Organization. I stress this point because I think that the
outside world has a distorted image of the United Nations.
The United Nations is us, the Member States. We can
only achieve what we want to achieve together.
I am afraid that I must repeat that we will have to
save and rationalize further still. The need for reform is
no justification for refusing to pay contributions, however.
Moreover, special rights also imply special duties. The
German-American philosopher Hans Jonas said that
responsibility is the most important principle of the new
age. Let us act in accordance with that principle.


Allow me at the outset, Sir, to congratulate you
on your election as President of the current session of the
General Assembly. I salute you in my capacity as Chairman
of the Non-Aligned Movement, which has found in your
background a close identity with the defence of the interests
of the developing countries. The same is true of the
Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who
honoured us with his attendance at the last Non-Aligned
Movement summit, held at Cartagena de Indias.
Over the past several years in Colombia, we have been
waging a difficult war against drug trafficking. In that
battle, judges, police officers, journalists and innocent
civilians have lost their lives: more than 20,000 people in
the last 10 years. In fact, last week in the southern part of
the country more than 50 soldiers of the Colombia army
who were destroying illicit crops and cocaine processing
laboratories in the jungle region were massacred by
guerrillas engaged in the defence of drug trafficking
interests. The mother of one of those murdered young
men — a 17-year-old soldier — asked me the following
day with tears in her eyes: “Why”?
Allow me today to try to answer that mother and all
those who have been victims of this war, not only in
Colombia, but around the world. Values, democracy and
national security are threatened. We are waging this war
to preserve and protect those values; to protect and
preserve our youth and our democratic form of
government; but above all to protect our national security.
No country in the world must ignore the battle against
drugs. This war is occurring today in every country,
owing to the broad power of powerful international
criminal and terrorist organizations which have extended
their tentacles over the entire planet.
Now that the cold war has ended, the United Nations
and the world must design and develop a strategy to put
an immediate end to the greatest threat to the world’s
security and stability today: the threat of drugs. It is an
epidemic that, more than any other war, can undermine
the value structure which supports the governability of
democratic systems.
As we prepare for the twenty-first century, I invite
all world leaders present or represented here today, to a
collective and above all sincere reflection on this

proposal, which Colombia presents with the moral authority
it has been granted, having been the nation which has
suffered most, which has invested most, and which has paid
the highest social and economic costs in this struggle
against drug trafficking.
In recent years, Colombia has spent 14 times more
resources fighting drug trafficking than what is invested
annually by the international community through the United
Nations system for the same purpose. Thanks to this
determined effort, Colombia has been able to avoid the
annual distribution throughout the world of more than
6 billion doses intended for drug users.
I, too, have been a victim of drug trafficking. Several
years ago I was the target of an assassination attempt that
almost cost me my life. I received 11 bullet wounds, and
still carry four bullets in my body. More recently I fell
victim to another assassination attempt, this time of a moral
nature. I was accused of having allowed money from a
cartel to infiltrate my campaign. Despite that, from the very
first day of my Administration we have worked
successfully to arrest the criminals and completely destroy
the powerful Cali cartel.
I thank God that I survived that assault too. The
Congress of the Republic of Colombia, which, under our
Constitution is the judge of the President, completely
exonerated me of all charges after a long trial that I
personally requested be held in public. Barely 48 hours ago,
before coming to the Assembly, I was the victim of yet
another attempt. Heroin was smuggled onto my aeroplane
in order to shame Colombia and its democratic
Government. This new attempt proved that the criminal
organizations have the power and the capability to penetrate
almost every institution in our society, anywhere in the
world. However, I stand here today, before this world
Assembly of democracy, with complete dignity because
nobody will stop me from presenting to the world
Colombia’s proposals to deal with the drug organizations.
I am speaking to the Assembly today bearing the
painful scars of those encounters. Similar scars are borne
by all Colombians who have been physically injured by
drug terrorism or morally wounded by international
misunderstanding. I am not here to complain; I am here to
propose a solution to this modern-day epidemic. I am
convinced that the world is losing the war against drugs.
The solution will have to be as global as the problem itself.
It will have to be as swift and irreversible as the damage
that drugs and crime are causing to the minds of the young
drug users of the world.
The achievements of Colombia and other countries
do not imply that the problem of drug trafficking has
been eradicated throughout the world. The drug problem
will be resolved only when all countries, without
exception and without hypocrisy, shoulder their own
responsibilities, which cannot be delegated to others.
To achieve this, we must set out the parameters for
a great anti-drug alliance, which include immediate and
decisive action. If we do not accomplish this, drug
trafficking, the most sinister transnational enterprise in the
world, whose resources equal $500 billion per year —
more than those of the world-wide petroleum industry —
will continue to corrupt and contaminate our peoples.
The statistics on international action to date are not
very encouraging. Drug use continues to increase under
the tolerant attitudes of some Governments, and the level
of drug seizures and confiscation barely exceeds 10 per
cent of the total of such drugs circulating in the world. In
the face of this demoralizing reality we have only two
alternatives: mutual recrimination, or cooperation. Either
we continue to criticize each other, or we work together.
Multilateral focus on the problem is the only alternative;
interventionism is not the way. The only end that
unilateral or interventionist measures achieve, as we have
seen recently, is to break mutual trust, weaken the ability
of Governments to take action, and open the way for the
consolidation of criminal organizations.
Colombia proposes an agenda of global action
against drugs, based on the principles of shared
responsibility, equality and an integrated approach: shared
responsibility, because we are all responsible for the
problem of ethical, political, social and economic
contamination produced by drug trafficking throughout
the world; equality, because no country should assume the
right to judge the conduct of another on a subject that
involves the responsibility of all on standards of
behaviour that are worldwide and collective; and
integration, because every phase of the process — from
agricultural production, to industrial processing, transport,
distribution, consumption, and money laundering — must
be addressed simultaneously, and with the same energy.
Colombia wants to be part of the solution. We do
not want to continue to be demonized by the world when,
in fact, we are victims, as all peoples are. The issues for
the global agenda against drugs are as follows: first, with
regard to the establishment of a social machinery for the
eradication of illegal crops, it is not enough to eradicate
2

such crops if we are not capable of offering alternative
solutions for small peasant farmers.
Colombia endorses the innovative proposal of French
President Jacques Chirac to create a mechanism to enable
the purchase of produce grown as alternatives for illegal
crops at prices that closely approximate those paid for coca,
opium poppies and marijuana. The establishment of this
mechanism should be accompanied by a commitment to
aerial and manual eradication over five years, which would
lead to the elimination of these illicit crops throughout the
world.
Secondly, we need controls on the trafficking of
chemical precursors and weapons, which are speeding drug
trafficking and the violence that it generates. The United
Nations system must define, within the framework of the
Vienna Convention, specific guidelines to regulate the pre-
shipment certification of chemical precursors to
drug-producing countries, and contribute to producing
effective systems to control arms sales to those same
destinations.
As regards a mandate to combat money laundering,
only decisive action against the profits generated by the
drug business can stop the recycling of these resources into
production and distribution centres. Eighty per cent of drug
trafficking money circulates through the economic and
financial channels of the industrialized nations. We need
much stricter controls on the banking system and on
industries whose smuggling of goods and services are being
used to launder this drug money.
We propose that the mandate of the European
agreement governing money laundering, investigation,
seizure and forfeiture of assets derived from drug
trafficking be extended to the global level. Concurrently, we
should expand globally those decisions reached at the
World Ministerial Conference on Organized Transnational
Crime held at Naples in 1994.
As regards a worldwide intelligence centre for
cooperation in operations against cartels and drug
trafficking networks, we believe that in dealing with
international crime which starts in one place, continues in
another and ends at the point of consumption, the combined
action of all countries is required to develop the necessary
intelligence and police operations to seize shipments,
dismantle networks and pursue domestic drug dealers and
distributors. Colombia proposes such an organization of a
worldwide intelligence centre against drugs. This centre
would coordinate the collection of evidence from every
police force in the world to fight the unified multinational
drug traffickers with an equally unified response.
As regards programmes which effectively curb
demand, statistics worryingly show that consumption is
growing, not declining, and that it is doing so in the most
vulnerable sectors of our society: among young people
and ethnic minorities. Unless we curb demand, the task of
fighting supply will be ineffective in achieving a
definitive solution to the problem.
One cannot place the entire burden of drug fighting
on drug-producing countries, which are the weakest link.
We are speaking of a market that must be controlled from
both sides. Starting with an agreement on the goals for
the reduction of consumption, we propose the adoption of
an integrated plan that includes prevention campaigns,
action by non-governmental organizations and public
health initiatives accompanied by stricter laws against the
distribution and consumption of illegal drugs.
Finally, we propose a world treaty of judicial
cooperation in the war against drugs and terrorism which
must have no frontiers. Recognizing the sovereign right
of every nation to apply justice in its own territory for
crimes committed within its boundaries, no nation should
agree to be used as a refuge or sanctuary for organized
crime. Judicial reciprocity and assistance in the exchange
of evidence, the criminalization and judicial seizure of
assets derived from drug trafficking and terrorism,
extradition and the creation of high-security prisons with
standards subject to international monitoring must be an
integral part of this strategy.
Without undermining bilateral or regional
agreements, these judicial cooperation agreements would
establish the basis for the eventual formation of an
international tribunal against organized crime. Signatory
countries would submit international criminals such as
arms dealers, drug traffickers, money launderers and
terrorists to the jurisdiction of this tribunal according to
the terms of their participation agreements.
Colombia proposes to this Assembly the formation
of a group of experts who would be charged with
developing a timetable and action plan for this proposed
global agenda for the war against drugs. An initial review
of the group’s progress could be made at the 1998 special
session of the General Assembly which has been
proposed by the Government of Mexico. The group of
experts should be formed in four months’ time, and
Colombia will be pleased to host its first meeting. I call
3

on world leaders to communicate to Colombia their
recommendations on how best to organize the work of this
group of experts.
The globalization of problems in today’s world is
taking place much faster than the globalization of solutions.
Terrorism, and drugs and arms trafficking do not respect
either national boundaries or barriers. Developing countries
have fewer opportunities and more limited resources to
confront the invasive power of these threats, in the face of
which there are neither weak nor strong, only victims.
I invoke the memory of those killed by these wars
which will also exist in the next century. I invoke our
children’s future, threatened by bombs, illegal drugs and
guns. I invoke the plain cause of the coexistence of the
world in order to commit ourselves to this formidable task
of blocking the path of organized crime which today
challenges our right to govern the world in peace. Finally,
I invoke the tears of all the mothers and youths of the
world who have been sacrificed in the fight against drugs
or through their use. May God illuminate our path that we
may continue this battle.


First of all, Sir, I wish to express our pleasure at seeing the
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Honduras — a country with
which we have long-standing and well-established ties of
friendship and with which we are currently working in the
Security Council — preside over this meeting. I would also
like through you to convey my Government's
congratulations to Ambassador Razali Ismail on his election
to the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-first
session.
This is a transitional period for the United Nations and
is therefore not devoid of complexities and uncertainty. Yet
we still have confidence in the ability of Member States
and in the privileged forum provided by this Organization
to develop new policies and management structures to deal
with the gamut of emerging international problems.
As this session of the General Assembly begins, we
once again renew our commitment to the principles and
purposes of the Charter, the living instrument essential to
the future work of this Organization. The United Nations is
an Organization which, through its nature, principles and
objectives, transcends any individual or national interests to
represent, instead, the interests of all.
Not even those who criticize the United Nations in the
hopes that they can weaken it or shrink its role have ever
been able to propose any better way for us to come
together to address the major problems of an increasingly
interdependent world. That is why we are convinced that,
far from becoming weaker, this Organization will be called
upon to play an increasingly important role in this new era
of globalization, in which cooperation is the only possible
option for a true international order.
International peace and security, free trade, social
development based on growth with equity, environmental
protection, democracy and human rights are the basic
components of the future work of our multilateral system.
These are the areas of action of our Organization to which
Chile attaches the highest priority and in which we will try,
within our means to make our greatest contribution.
It has often been said that the end of the super-Power
confrontation that characterized the first 50 years of the life
of this Organization makes it easier than ever to shape the
conditions for peace and stability. And yet, the challenges
of bipolar confrontation have been replaced by new ones
posed by the emergence of numerous local conflicts.
These are often characterized by mass violations of
human rights, uncontrolled population flows and
humanitarian emergencies that threaten the security of
individuals and States and eventually may affect the
international system as a whole.
Our participation in the work of the Security Council
is aimed at contributing our fair share to the maintenance
of international peace and security. We encourage
preventive diplomacy, consensus solutions, the
implementation of measures to contain conflicts, the
promotion of peaceful solutions through peace-keeping
operations, conciliation, good offices and, in particular,
the protection of affected populations and victims.
At the same time, it is indisputable that peace and
security are not simply the absence of tensions and
conflict between States. Harmony between people within
the same border has now become a fundamental factor in
international peace and security. Chile has suggested that
the Security Council should act in cases where there is a
real or potential risk of mass and systematic violations to
which the international community has reacted strongly
and when earlier mechanisms or bodies trying to resolve
the problem have been exhausted.
Recent measures adopted by the Council, such as
resolution 688 (1991) on protecting the Kurdish minority,
770 (1992) on providing assistance to victims of the
conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resolution 986 (1995)
on alleviating the burden of sanctions on the civilian Iraqi
population, are a few examples of a broader and more
progressive interpretation of what constitutes a threat to
peace and establish valuable precedents for helping the
Security Council to deal with these kinds of conflict.
These criteria also guided us in our active
participation on the question of Burundi, which led to the
adoption of resolution 1072 (1996) establishing
procedures for the various parties to the conflict to be
able to agree on a political path to a peaceful resolution
of their differences. We must continue to pay close
attention to developments in this situation. The
international community, the United Nations and the
Security Council cannot risk another tragedy like that of
Rwanda and must exhaust all possible means of averting
such a tragedy.
Today we would also like to express our great
concern at the serious crisis that has arisen in the last few
6
General Assembly 11th plenary meeting
Fifty-first session 26 September 1996
hours affecting the peace process in the Middle East, a
process we have supported from the outset. We urge the
parties to the conflict not to waste what has been built up
in the last few years and to resume dialogue within the
context of respect for agreements reached and for the
beliefs of the peoples involved.
Establishing stability requires clear commitment to
disarmament and arms control and limitation. My country
has played an active role in this area, as shown in the
recent ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention,
membership in the Conference on Disarmament, which
Chile had long aspired to, ratification of the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and our
unstinting support for nuclear-weapon-free zones.
Last Tuesday, 24 September 1996, I had the honour to
sign on behalf of my country the Comprehensive Nuclear-
Test-Ban Treaty. Just one year ago, this Assembly was
discussing the nuclear-weapon tests still being conducted in
the South Pacific and Asia. Today we are meeting to sign
a Treaty that eliminates those tests once and for all and is
the combined effort of almost all the countries in this
Assembly, including all the present nuclear-weapon States.
When the United Nations is criticized for its alleged
inefficiency I think we should also vaunt our successes.
These initiatives, along with progress in the area of
conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction,
help to create the right conditions for peace and security
and enable the international community to concentrate its
efforts and material resources on the development of
nations and environmental protection.
Peacekeeping operations are one of the most important
instruments of this system. Peacekeeping forces have to
strive for results in the framework of clear and well-defined
and legitimate mandates. Chile has participated in
peacekeeping operations in India, Pakistan, the Middle East,
Cambodia and Kuwait, and we are currently taking part in
the activities of the United Nations Special Commission
(UNSCOM) in Iraq.
However, there is no doubt that this mechanism needs
to be tailored to dealing with current political
circumstances. To this end, Chile is active in deliberations
on how to improve planning and rapid-reaction capacity to
deal with incipient conflicts. In all these aspects, a
multilateral approach, action that enjoys the consent of the
parties and financing through the Organization all help to
ensure success in our work. We hope to increase
significantly our contribution to operations such as the
ones I have just described.
A broad understanding of the maintenance of
international peace and security requires decisive action
in the area of social development, democracy and the
promotion of human rights. The world order of the next
century will need broader basic freedoms. The global
society of the next century is appearing as an open,
heterogenous one, rich in material potential and new
developments. What is needed now is to create conditions
to enable people and States to make the most of this new
setting, with increased access to the goods that are the
fruit of rapid technological development.
In this respect, the six recent world conferences and
summits on the environment and development, human
rights, population and development, women, social
development and, most recently, human settlements, have
all been geared towards promoting protection of the
individual and gradually creating a framework for social
rights.
One tangible result of these meetings, in the social
area, was the emergence of national coordinating bodies
to implement the agreements signed. But these efforts are
not enough, given the tragic reality of most of the less
developed peoples, which means that the United Nations
system must play an ever stronger role in the international
social area. We must speed up the process of
implementation within the context of the United Nations
and of the agreements that emerged from Rio de Janeiro,
Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing and Istanbul.
The first steps have now been taken within the
various bodies of the system, particularly in the Economic
and Social Council and its functional commissions. It is
encouraging that the Economic and Social Council bodies
dealing with sustainable development, women, social
development and population have adopted multi-year
agendas as a follow-up to the conferences.
Similarly, the agreements reached at the World
Summit for Social Development include the decision to
hold a special session of this Assembly in the year 2000
to assess the implementation of the agreements.
In this connection, Chile wishes to propose the
establishment of a working group of this Assembly that,
with that special session as its basis, can provide follow-
up to the six conferences, taking into account the Agenda
for Development, so that in the year 2000 the General
7
General Assembly 11th plenary meeting
Fifty-first session 26 September 1996
Assembly can take up a very wide-ranging and coordinated
assessment of the implementation of the commitments of
the 1990s and make the necessary recommendations for
future work.
In recent years Latin America has taken major steps
forward with regard to free trade. This Assembly has
already heard about progress in the Southern Cone
Common Market (MERCOSUR), Chile's recent accession
to that agreement and MERCOSUR’s decision to negotiate
similar agreements with the Andean Group and Mexico.
Taken alongside the progress made by other subregional
groups, such as the Central America Common Market
(CACM) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), these
achievements all go to show the new impetus in Latin
America for integration based on economic ideas that differ
from those of the past but that remain true to the political
will for unity that has always existed among our peoples.
However, none of these regional developments in
which Chile has been very active constitutes an alternative
to multilateralism. Chile continues to believe that a
multilateral system to establish standards and practices to
ensure free trade throughout the world, with clear
institutional machinery for negotiations and dispute
settlement, is the best option for the global economy and
for each of our countries.
For this reason we have always insisted that our
negotiations fit into the multilateral framework of the World
Trade Organization (WTO). Latin America wants to be
integrated so that it can become more of a part of the
global economy, not cut off from it. Our bilateral and
regional agreements are based on open regionalism. The
best proof that this is being put into practice is that during
this period of increased integration, external tariffs in the
countries of our region have also fallen considerably,
compared with those of the rest of the world.
One of the most promising developments of recent
years has been the strengthening of the multilateral trade
system through the establishment of the WTO. The
existence of a standing multilateral forum means that more
energy can be devoted to implementing the agreements
reached and provides an institutional framework for
continuous progress in negotiations and for opening up
world trade.
In this connection, Chile attaches great importance to
the follow-up meeting to the Uruguay Round, to be held in
Singapore in December 1996. This, the first biannual
meeting in the framework of the WTO, will be crucial in
determining how effective the new mechanism is.
In the last few years many regions and countries in
the world have made major progress towards broadening
and consolidating democracy and respect for human
rights. Latin America in particular has been experiencing
a rapid movement towards democracy that is
unprecedented in its history. This is accompanied by a
considerable increase in political dialogue and regional
coordination, evident mainly in the Rio Group, which has
been active and fruitful for 10 years now.
Far from making us complacent, this emphasizes our
concern that in many parts of the world there are still
situations of massive violation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms. Sometimes these situations relate
to the peace and security problems we mentioned earlier.
As democracies develop, the support given them by
the people depends more and more on their ability to
ensure stable, efficient and transparent governments. The
legitimacy of democratic governments is closely related
to their accountability, but in many countries there is still
corruption, inefficiency and insensitivity to social needs.
This erodes the legitimacy of democracy and highlights
its fragility.
The Government of our President, Eduardo Frei, has
made democratic governance the main subject of the sixth
summit of Ibero-American Heads of State and
Government, to be held in Chile in November 1996. To
this end, we have enjoyed the valuable cooperation of the
United Nations, through the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). We hope
that our Organization's work in this area will spread to
other regions in coming years.
One of the most dramatic changes for mankind in
the last few decades has been our awareness that nature
is fragile in the hands of man. There is a vulnerability in
nature we had not suspected until we saw the damage
done, much of it irreparable. And so there is a new
dimension to human responsibility to nature. The
possibility of altering life on our planet for the worse
means that our unbounded scientific and technological
power must be accompanied by a new principle: and that
is the idea of shared responsibility.
The work facing us is hard, but the path was already
laid out in 1992 at the Conference on Environment and
8
General Assembly 11th plenary meeting
Fifty-first session 26 September 1996
Development. In Rio de Janeiro there was agreement on
fundamental aspects. On the basis of the consensus, and the
commitments reached there, my country is prepared to
proceed. Since that Earth Summit, Chile has further
developed its environmental legislation. We have embraced
the principles of the Rio Declaration that we consider
fundamental, such as preventing environmental pollution,
cooperation and the primary responsibility of the polluter.
The State has accepted its obligation to adopt the most
suitable instruments for preventive environmental
management. But we also believe that society must be
given a leading role in protecting the environment, and to
this end various social actors must be more committed and
more responsible.
My Government thinks it is also important to stress
the political commitment of the world community to this
issue that is by nature international and in many respects
global. Hence, we attach great importance to the
functioning of the bodies set up and to the monitoring of
the agreements reached at the Earth Summit.
Developments in the international arena, the increasing
diversity of issues to be taken up and the number of actors
involved in the United Nations — all of this revitalizing the
reform process of our Organization essential in order to
adapt it to emerging realities and challenges. Integrated and
multidisciplinary focus must be given preference in dealing
with these problems. This constitutes the conceptual
framework of the Organization and a basis for the urgently
needed process of reform. This requires a very thorough
analysis of the content of our multilateral work, of the
Organization's agenda, of the functioning of
intergovernmental bodies, of our human and financial
resources and of the structure of the Secretariat. By doing
all that, we can carry out reforms that are more than
rhetoric, that will enable us to take up the challenges of the
next century with policies and organizations adapted to the
new reality.
Chile wishes to reiterate its appreciation for the work
being done by the Secretary-General in this area. In
difficult budgetary circumstances and facing a very difficult
political situation, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali has decisively
begun, within his purview, the process of reforming the
Organization.
We welcome all initiatives that can enhance the
efficiency of our Organization, reduce its bureaucratic
excesses or alleviate its financial problems. But we believe
that United Nations reform should not be mistakenly
identified with one single issue of administration or
budgetary efficiency. There is quite a contradiction
between saying that we need an Organization adapted to
the new challenges and focused on the next century, and
then reducing the practical debate simply to cost-cutting
and better control of resources. We have to enhance
administrative efficiency, but we must also appreciate
substantive effectiveness. Our objective should be to
strengthen the Organization as well as to streamline it.
Before concluding, I cannot fail to mention a
question of reform on this year's agenda that is more
urgent than it was in previous years. The plethora of
decisions taken by the Security Council has resulted in a
growing desire on the part of the other Members of the
United Nations to be more involved in Council decisions,
so as to strengthen its legitimacy and the political support
for its actions.
Improving the working methods of the Security
Council has opened up additional ways of enhancing its
credibility. There has been progress, but much remains to
be done, particularly in connection with consultations with
countries that contribute troops to peacekeeping
operations, consultations with countries neighbouring a
conflict area that might be affected, and third States that
are negatively affected by the application of sanctions.
A second determining factor of legitimacy and
political support for Council decisions relates to its
membership. In this connection, Chile believes it essential
to resolve once and for all the problems of increasing the
membership of the Security Council, which have
concerned the Assembly since 1992. We think there is a
broad base of agreement for allowing Germany and Japan
to become permanent members of the Council, and at the
same time for giving developing countries one permanent
seat per region, the occupants of which would be elected
at the regional level.
Also, in order to meet the need for representativity,
given the great increase in membership of the United
Nations in the last decade, the number of non-permanent
seats should be increased from 10 to 15, with appropriate
equitable geographical distribution. A membership of
twenty-five members would not undermine the
effectiveness of the Security Council but would enhance
the representativity of its actions.
However, we wish to emphasize that Chile is willing
to act with maximum flexibility here. This means we are
willing to consider other proposals by other Member
States that also seek to combine the two fundamental

elements that should guide our decision: recognition of the
new international realities and a legitimate desire for
representativity in the principal bodies of our system.
We wished to touch upon those issues that, in Chile’s
view, will be the Organization’s main tasks in the years to
come, with a view to establishing the framework of stability
and legitimacy necessary to achieve United Nations
objectives. Chile commits its firm support to this difficult
understanding, which will be attainable with the will and
participation of all members of the international community.


Please allow me to
congratulate the President and his country, Malaysia, on
his election to the presidency of the fifty-first session of
the General Assembly. We hold his many contributions to
the work of the United Nations in very high regard and
we are convinced that his wisdom will guide this session
of the General Assembly to a successful completion.
I also take advantage of this occasion to thank
Professor Diogo Freitas do Amaral of Portugal for his
wise and dignified leadership of the General Assembly at
its jubilee fiftieth session.
The first half-century of the United Nations has
elapsed and the General Assembly is meeting at a time of
great opportunities. Seldom has the United Nations
enjoyed such a high level of freedom from friction in the
relations among the major Powers of the world.
Moreover, our time is also one of profound and promising
change. Never before has the world been better equipped
to seize the opportunities of economic and technological
development for the benefit of all. The democratic
transformation which has taken place in large parts of the
world has substantially improved the quality of life and
added important opportunities for a large part of the
world’s population.
However, very serious problems persist. Poverty and
social disintegration, environmental degradation and new
forms of threat to international peace and security are
serious dangers to our common future. The fact that our
world is no longer threatened by cold war rivalries offers
little consolation if we think of the dangers which cast
their shadows on our path towards the future. The unique
opportunities of our time can be forfeited.
Never before has the time been so precious and the
need for effective global action so clear. The United
Nations must be able to adjust so as to become more
effective and more successful in addressing the challenges
at hand. The essence of the principal task before the
United Nations today can be captured in two words:
adjustment and modernization. The compelling need to
adjust and modernize the Organization should be guiding
its activities, in particular those aiming at its reform.
However, the United Nations experience of the
reform efforts of the past year has not been entirely
satisfactory. The progress of various working groups of
11

the General Assembly has been slow, a fact to be noted
with concern. The present session of the General Assembly
and its general debate should provide fresh incentives and
energize the process of reform, which should proceed in a
coherent and balanced manner.
The process of downsizing the Secretariat, while being
welcome and necessary, should become part of a wider
change characterized by a clear definition of the priorities
of the United Nations and by an adequate allocation of its
human and material resources. Greater discipline must be
achieved in the financing of the United Nations. This
should be accompanied by a new, more balanced scale of
assessments. Furthermore, innovative forms of financing
should be devised, in particular in such domains as the
protection of environment and sustainable development.
Last but not least, there is, in several parts of the United
Nations, a need for structural change. The necessary
expansion and reform of the Security Council — which
includes reasonable enlargement — is a case in point. It is
obvious that the efforts at reform should go hand in hand
with the implementation of the basic tasks of the United
Nations.
The preservation of international peace and security is
the principal objective of the United Nations. One of the
areas of implementation of this objective that is constantly
gaining importance is cooperation between the United
Nations and regional organizations in the common efforts
for world peace. We see possibilities in different parts of
the world for the creation of durable security arrangements
based on regional organizations and their cooperation with
the United Nations.
We shall continue to support the efforts for
coordination and cooperation between the United Nations
and regional organizations through such methods as
increased consultation, diplomatic support, mutual
operational support and joint operations, in accordance with
Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations.
In Europe, the role of such regional organizations as
the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe is constantly growing. We welcome and support the
growing complementarity and cooperation between these
organizations and the United Nations.
Disarmament continues to be among the most
important areas in which the role of the United Nations is
fundamental. It can be said that, in recent years, the United
Nations has solidified its leading and coordinating role in
this area. The agreement on the non-proliferation of
nuclear weapons achieved last year and the conclusion of
the Chemical Weapons Convention are witness to that.
Slovenia welcomes the adoption of the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which
we signed yesterday. Slovenia took an active approach
from the very beginning to the CTBT negotiations. We
deeply believe that only strict implementation of the
Treaty can contribute to a safer world in the future.
The interaction between the Conference on
Disarmament and the relevant United Nations bodies has
intensified. We should strive to improve further the
disarmament machinery. In this context, we note with
regret that the project of expansion of the membership of
the Conference on Disarmament remains incomplete. We
continue to believe that all States willing and able to
contribute to international disarmament efforts should be
enabled to participate in the Conference on Disarmament
as full members. Slovenia wishes to be and is capable of
being among the members of the Conference.
Slovenia also supports activities of the international
community needed to limit and eventually eliminate the
use of inhumane and excessively injurious weapons —
including anti-personnel landmines — and is ready to take
an active part in these efforts.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the process of return to
normality has started. Less than a year ago, Slovenia
joined all the members of the international community in
expressing appreciation to the United States of America
and all others involved in the preparation of the Dayton
Agreement.
After many years of tragically futile exercises, the
moment has come for a decisive step towards real peace
in Bosnia and in the Balkans. The military action of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization gave credibility to the
written word and created conditions for a comprehensive
effort to rebuild Bosnia and Herzegovina economically,
politically and socially. In Slovenia, we welcomed the
holding of the presidential and parliamentarian elections
which took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 days ago
as a positive step forward and as a substantial
contribution to peace and stability in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Within the framework of post-conflict
management of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
there is a growing need to ensure economic reconstruction
and provide adequate economic aid. Slovenia is actively
participating in the international efforts for the economic
12

reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina and still hosts
many Bosnian refugees.
Slovenia is a young country that obtained United
Nations membership in May 1992. Over the past five years
of independence, Slovenia achieved positive results in the
process of political and economic transformation. Growing
cooperation with its neighbours and in the region enabled
Slovenia to reach a high degree of economic and political
stability. We strongly believe that such a policy is to be
observed as a contribution to the sustainable stability of the
region.
After a successful transformation, Slovenia is now
ready to take its share of responsibility not only for
regional arrangements, but also for international peace and
stability. That is why Slovenia seeks to become a Security
Council member for the 1998-1999 term: to participate
actively in the Council’s central role in developing an
effective system of global security at a time when the
Security Council faces significant challenges to international
peace and security. We firmly believe that Slovenia is able
to meet all expectations and to work with other member
States so as to make a full contribution to fulfilling the
demanding tasks of the Security Council.


On behalf of the Lithuanian
Government, allow me to warmly congratulate Mr. Razali
Ismail on his election as President of the General
Assembly at this session.
20

This session marks the fifth anniversary of the re-
entrance of Lithuania into the international community of
states. Five years ago, Lithuania was admitted to the United
Nations. At that time, the Organization, its Member States
and the peoples of the world saw the chance to seize
historic opportunities created by the new international
situation, with its promise of peace and stability.
The past five years leave no doubt that some of these
opportunities have been taken in a positive way. We have
seen that the highest levels of cooperation are possible, both
internationally and regionally. The destinies of different
peoples around the world have been linked as never before
by the globalization of the world economy and the
information superhighway.
But many cross-border issues, such as crime, drugs,
environmental pollution and terrorism, pose a major
challenge to us not only as individual nation-States, but as
a family of nations as well. These global challenges have
far-reaching implications for the world Organization.
Originally, the United Nations was entrusted with the
task of ensuring world harmony. Is it no less vital today to
maintain and promote this worldwide policy, as designed by
the founders of the United Nations? My answer is in the
positive.
For this reason, we need an Organization that can be
more responsive to the demands of Member States, and
Member States that act responsibly by setting realistic goals
and providing the resources needed for their
implementation.
During these past five years, Lithuania has progressed
politically and economically. Our relations with
neighbouring States are friendly and mutually beneficial,
thus ensuring a secure and stable environment in the region.
We are in the process of becoming integrated into European
and transatlantic structures. Negotiations on accession to the
World Trade Organization are well-advanced, ties with our
neighbours that are members of the Central European Free
Trade Agreement are gaining strength. The most valuable
cooperation is being advanced with Nordic countries, the
European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance. These
dimensions of cooperation have been fruitfully applied in
other structures as well. Cooperation with the European
Union on core United Nations issues — humanitarian
affairs, human rights, peacekeeping, structural and financial
reforms — and with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
in the Implementation Force mission is the best example.
We are striving to deepen and broaden this cooperation.
The global challenges before us require the
commitment of Member States to the goals enshrined in
the United Nations Charter and call for structural and
institutional reform of the Organization. We have begun
the reform aimed at streamlining the functions of the
United Nations and rendering its institutional structure
more effective and flexible to deal with tasks which
sometimes cannot be foreseen in advance. We must bear
in mind that the future Organization can be only as
effective as its Member States desire it to be.
First, it goes without saying that we must put the
United Nations on a sound financial footing and
strengthen its capacity to fulfil its vital tasks. We support
the proposals put forward by the European Union in this
regard. A realigned scale of assessments, annual revision
of the scale, phasing out the scheme of limits, lowering
the assessment floor and swift implementation of the
proposals in practice would be the tools to overcome the
financial crisis and would certainly be an incentive for
Members to regularize payments.
Lithuania remains committed to its financial
obligations to the Organization. We also reiterate our
fundamental belief that the scale of assessments must
reflect the capacity to pay. At a time when many
countries, Lithuania included, are undergoing budgetary
adjustments and reviews, sound management of the
resources of the United Nations takes on added
importance.
Secondly, we believe that the functioning of United
Nations decision-making bodies must be improved. The
Security Council makes decisions that are binding on all
Member States and influences the lives of millions. It is
thus essential to make the Council more representative of
the world as it is today. More specifically, Lithuania has
called for increasing the representational capacity of the
Security Council in both categories of membership. The
Government of Lithuania recognizes that developing
countries have a case for improving their representation.
We also recognize that some countries, such as Germany
and Japan, can make a special contribution and that they
are ready to assume special political, military and
financial responsibility as new permanent members. In
our view, due consideration should also be given to the
aspirations to an additional non-permanent seat of the
countries of Eastern Europe, whose numbers have tripled
in recent years. We hope for agreement on the reform of
the Security Council. Lithuania supports proposals to this
end and encourages stronger movement by States towards
negotiations on the implementation of reform.
21

In terms of a comprehensive reform of the United
Nations system, any such reform is likely to fail if there is
no clear vision of its objectives and of the strategies for
pursuing them. A stark reassessment of the mission and
mandates is included in the United Nations medium-term
plan for 1998-2001. We consider it to be a good basis for
debate on the enhancement of the United Nations and for
strengthening its capacity to face new emerging challenges.
Lithuania, striving to make its contribution to
international cooperation in the maintenance of security and
stability, is determined to continue to improve the skills of
its peacekeepers, civilian police monitors and military
observers and will offer them to the United Nations in the
service of peacekeeping operations. Lithuania, in
cooperation with Estonia and Latvia, and also with Poland,
is advancing the development of joint peacekeeping units,
an exercise which in itself is a testimony to ultimate
understanding and cooperation between countries.
The costs and scope of United Nations peacekeeping
operations have proliferated dramatically since 1990. One
of the best ways to reduce this proliferation, and more
particularly to prevent human suffering, is to implement
many of the proposals put forward by the Secretary-General
in his “An Agenda for Peace”, especially in terms of
resolving disputes before violence breaks out.
United Nations intervention too often comes too
slowly and too late under very difficult circumstances.
Lacking resources, the Secretary-General is sometimes
expected to maintain peace where there is no will to
maintain peace. We feel that the emphasis needs to be
placed on strengthening the United Nations system’s
preventive capacity. We may need to adopt the
multidimensional approach to the concept of security,
mobilize the United Nations system in order to prevent
existing disputes from escalating into conflict, and attack
the problem at its very roots.
Lithuania welcomes measures to strengthen the United
Nations administrative structures in charge of peacekeeping
operations. The experience of the past few years leads us to
believe that we need to explore non-traditional approaches
to conflict prevention and resolution, including the
Organization’s rapid response capability. While the demand
in this domain still seems to be more than the United
Nations is equipped for, the burden-sharing of peacekeeping
with other regional organizations has to prevent the eruption
of a severe crisis. The complexity of the maintenance of
peace and security should not be solely a United Nations
enterprise. In Europe, we have the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, which operates in
accordance with agreed principles and is engaged in
activities to help parties to resolve disputes without
recourse to fighting.
Lithuania believes that any strategy for preventing
armed conflicts also involves pursuing tangible
disarmament objectives, especially in the areas of nuclear
non-proliferation and the control of conventional arms.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty now
ready for signature can be considered one of the historic
decisions of this decade. Today, I signed the Treaty on
behalf of the Republic of Lithuania. I believe this tangible
achievement of humankind should fuel international
efforts to take further effective measures towards nuclear
disarmament.
A major challenge immediately ahead is the
maintenance of multilateral disarmament and non-
proliferation efforts. We must find a key to freeze the
production and development of weapons of mass
destruction. The adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear-
Test-Ban Treaty should set the tone for the disarmament
process which will be accompanied by the Convention on
the Prohibition of the Development, Production,
Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their
Destruction. We must cope with new nuclear challenges,
such as nuclear leakage, smuggling of fissile materials,
failures in nuclear-custody systems and the potential
threat of nuclear terrorism.
Moreover, the dangerously widespread use of
conventional weapons undermines all attempts at the
peaceful solution to conflicts. Sometimes, as in the case
of land-mines, the deadly consequences persist for many
years, causing human suffering and resulting in enormous
costs. The growing support for banning the production of
and trade in anti-personnel land-mines is one way to
correct this problem.
Peace and development are closely linked and
development is a multifaceted process. Revitalization of
the United Nations in economic, social and related fields,
and interaction between the United Nations and other
multilateral development institutions, including the
Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade
Organization, should be addressed to better structure the
Organization for serving peoples’ development needs.
Sustainable development must be based on participatory
democracy and respect for human rights.
22

Democratization must take hold inside a State and
should extend to the international community. The process
of democratization cannot be separated from the protection
of human rights. We will continue to support United
Nations programmes aimed at promoting a democratic
culture and at consolidating new or re-established
democracies.
Humanitarian assistance efforts face the challenge of
responding to humanitarian crises that have increased both
in number and complexity. United Nations programmes
could complement other initiatives already in place and
should be expanded in those fields where collective action
is required, such as in comprehensive reconstruction and
rehabilitation of war-ravaged areas.
Although the merits of the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in facilitating
solutions to acute migration problems are evident, some
tendencies are cause for concern. The international
community needs updated approaches in resolution and
prevention policy. The Conference on Refugees and
Migrants in the Commonwealth of Independent States and
neighbouring countries, held in Geneva in May 1996, was
a step towards action on a regional level. We hope that
countries will adhere to the Programme of Action, in
particular those provisions concerning illegal migration.
We are in favour of strengthening mechanisms to
monitor and protect human rights, especially in conflict
situations. When these rights are seriously violated despite
all efforts to the contrary, we are in favour of turning to
judicial recourse. For this reason, we support the creation
of an international criminal court for the adjudication of all
human rights violations, wherever they may occur.
One of the greatest challenges stymieing the efforts of
the international community to ensure sustainable
development and democracy is transnational crime. This
often takes the form of illicit sales of arms and drugs, illicit
trafficking in people, child prostitution and other crimes. No
single country is able to cope with well-organized and well-
financed criminal structures. We deem that efficient anti-
money-laundering measures can be among the best tools to
undermine the economic roots of the criminal world.
The window of opportunity for greater international
cooperation is wider than at any time since 1945. We must
seize the moment if international cooperation is to take a
decisive step forward. A reformed and streamlined United
Nations, concentrating on the tasks entrusted to it in the
Charter, can make considerable progress towards fulfilling
the high expectations we place in it today.


The course of history appears to unwind rapidly
and with it, events occur, pass or recede into time,
imbuing the lives of our societies with the dual sensation
of dizzying progress and desperately slow evolution. It is
essential for people to live in harmony and to face, with
a feeling of unity, goodwill and sharing, the great
challenges which they could not overcome alone. That is
why we are gathered here. We believe that, without each
other, we are weak and vulnerable and that, in order to
live better, it is essential that we be able to share and
work together.
Upon reflection, however, it becomes more and more
clear that some of the countries that are developing more
rapidly, thanks to the advantages of technological and
scientific progress, are losing interest in those still
struggling to survive and still facing economic difficulties,
food shortages and problems of health and education. To
all this can be added other, equally serious evils: the
effects of drugs, alcoholism, criminal behaviour and
prostitution in all its forms.
In our international forums we often speak of
security, of action to combat international terrorism and
of the war on organized crime. Just recently, we were
talking about working together against paedophilia. These
are such horrible, painful things, but unfortunately so
characteristic of our times.
So how can we not strongly condemn these attacks
on human security and dignity? But it is even more
important that our rejection of these crimes affecting the
world be felt with the same degree of intensity, regardless
of the country where they are committed — especially
18

when some countries lack the means to combat the crimes.
Should not the spirit of solidarity imply a concern for the
well-being and security of all the inhabitants of the world?
Should not each and every nation shed its selfish,
hypocritical attitudes?
By not seeing further than our own interests, we treat
others as our lowly tools. And yet we are well aware that
feelings of frustration and injustice are the source of so
much violence which so frequently plunges the world into
mourning and makes people fear for their security.
Therefore, if we want to world to develop harmoniously,
we must break the bonds of this indolent selfishness in
which people see everything around them through the prism
of self-satisfaction.
If the existence of the United Nations is now
threatened and if serious problems are undermining it and
weakening the international community, it is precisely
because the strongest partners will not agree to adopt the
rules that govern any family, in which everyone’s opinions
are heard and discussed and the strong support and help the
weak.
Instead, what do we observe? The most-favoured
nations seem to carry little about and refuse resolutely to
address the realities handicapping the developing countries.
Calculations, assessments, criteria are separated into
categories, mechanically, as if nations and peoples can be
reduced to mere statistics. It must be said that the generous
efforts of some rich countries, while helping developing
countries, also benefit, one way or another, directly and
indirectly, the stingiest countries.
Are we still seeking justice, equality and sustainable
development throughout the world? In any case, the image
the world projects of itself does not reflect these ideals, but
rather two poles spinning further and further apart: the pole
of wealth and the pole of poverty. It’s not that there has
been a lack of international meetings, at the highest levels,
to try to find more effective solutions to reduce the level of
poverty, increase the equity of trade and so forth. But it
seems that, with each meeting, these problems get worse.
The firm ground of progress is crumbling under the
feet of the developing countries and their future — given
their current relations with the Powers holding the reins of
the global economy — seems quite uncertain. This is
especially true for the small island developing States like
the Seychelles, whose only resources are the precarious
revenues of tourism, which is subject to so many
vicissitudes, and fishing. Their meagre resources, pumped
into a network of tremendous competition, require them
to make titanic efforts. Like many other countries whose
territories were long exploited by a great Power and then
suffered the repercussions of being suddenly abandoned
without compensation, the Seychelles’ economy is even
more vulnerable than it was before being buffeted by this
phenomenon.
As they do every year, many speakers have
underscored the importance of preserving the environment
in the context of sustainable development. The President
of the United States himself underscored this fact:
(spoke in English)
“Our planet is safer because of our common efforts
to close Chernobyl, to address the challenges of
climate change, to protect the world’s forests and
oceans. Now we must uphold our duty as custodians
of our environment so that our children will inherit
an even healthier planet.” (Official Records of the
General Assembly, Fifty-first Session, Plenary
Meetings, 6th meeting, p. 14)
(spoke in French)
And, at the annual meeting of the Bretton Woods
institutions, United States Vice-President Albert Gore Jr.
also made this point.
(spoke in English)
“But it also means giving greater attention to
broad issues that I firmly believe must shape and
inform everything we do in our quest for equitable
and sustainable global prosperity. The first of these
is a commitment to sustainable development and our
environment. We now know with perfect clarity that
economic development and growth cannot ignore
ecological realities. We know that investments that
genuinely reduce poverty in an equitable and
enduring way are investments that take their
environmental implications fully into account. Not
only is such an approach consistent with our
development objectives, but it will also be much
more cost effective. Win-win situations are not
always available, but this is one of them and it is
available.”
(spoke in French)
19

And yet, many of our countries, although their survival
depends on the entire world preserving the environment,
find themselves left by the wayside when certain great
Powers — having no further need of the hospitality of their
shores for their military or other installations — light-
heartedly depart, leaving behind them a trail of debris and
other things and leaving it up to the countries themselves to
do the rest. As for the damages and costs — let’s not talk
about them.
As for the reforms of the institutions of the United
Nations system, the Seychelles is in favour of all proposals
aimed at improving the representation of the smaller States
in our work. We believe that the international community
must hear our voices, understand us and deal with the
specifics of our situation. Furthermore, to be more
objective, the assessment criteria now being massively
applied to all the developing countries, which require more
focused attention, should be re-examined in the light of the
vulnerability index. The index is too easily ignored, but is
nonetheless very important in the establishment of the
objective data defining the profile of any given country.
The fashion for what is commonly called “democracy”
is sweeping the surface of the earth, and one of the
principal criteria which the developed countries —
democracy’s self-appointed guarantors — use for deciding
eligibility for development assistance is the establishment
of a democratic system. Shouldn’t that respectable
institution, democracy, be manifest within the Organization
itself when it elects a competent and honest leader in whom
to duly vest its authority? In seeking to impose its logic by
one way or another, in seeking to make its choice the
majority’s choice, we are far from honouring the principle
on which democracy is founded: majority rule. In other
words, for a matter such as the renewal of the mandate of
the United Nations Secretary-General, we should better
gauge the pros and cons, leaving aside those which may
seem a little too individualistic. We must be able to accept,
particularly if qualifications justify it, the choice of the
majority of the Members of this eminently democratic
institution: the United Nations.
To conclude, I express my best wishes for greater
concord in the future of the United Nations, which
represents the voice and the will of the peoples of the
world, so that the endeavour to which so much effort and
generosity has been devoted may produce decisions and
actions that will create for all the children, women and men
of the Earth a way of life in which relations become more
humane and thus more conducive to the advent of a
harmonious global society.


At the outset, allow me,
Sir, to convey to you and to this Assembly the greetings
and congratulations of the Peruvian people, as well as
their best wishes and hopes for the future.
Peru is a country that has successfully dealt with its
domestic contradictions, and which is looking with vision
and determination towards the broad new horizons of
international activity. A careful review of what has been
achieved to date reveals that much remains to be done;
but it also shows that we are following the right course in
addressing the demands of our times.
However, it would be superficial to use this
Assembly, whose central theme is the reform of the
United Nations, to recapitulate the events of the past year.
We must wake up to the outcome of a long historical
process that has accelerated markedly over the last quarter
of a century and established around the world a network
of international organizations that today exceed the
number of States. We must also wake up to a fortunate
new development: the individual human being has
acquired a position of cardinal importance in the
international system.
The organizations established by States to satisfy
international, human and regional needs, have acquired a
permanent character and have created new systems of
international relations. When we speak today of reforming
the United Nations, no one fails to acknowledge that new
mechanisms are required to promote greater development
and economic and social stability in the world, and to
face current and future conflicts between and within
States.
There is discussion of the possibility of creating a
new economic council and a new social council, as well
as expanding and strengthening the Security Council. At
the same time, the need has emerged to transform and
rationalize the United Nations system, together with the
imperative of resolving the Organization’s financial crisis.
But in order to carry out those reforms, we need to have
a clear-sighted appreciation of the international scene and
to adapt the Organization to that reality, so that we can
achieve a fruitful and forward-looking perspective. It is
necessary for States, in the framework of the United
Nations system, to overcome their traditional activities
and jointly engage in tasks to deal with those new
realities so as to achieve broader representation and
functionality, with the possibility of future growth.
13

When the United Nations was founded in 1945, at the
end of the Second World War, international relations were
different from today. The end of the cold war and the
realities of regional integration have made necessary a new
vision of the relationship between State sovereignty and the
supra-national realities of the international system. Huge
social and economic challenges make it necessary for us to
persevere in pursuing the purposes and principles of the
Charter, to strengthen diplomatic action, and not to
succumb to arbitrary interpretations of international legality,
which undermine the indispensable primacy of international
law.
Today the inadequacy of the nation State is more
evident than ever, and the appreciation of supranational
structures is more widespread than in the past. We discard
the simplistic visions of pure internationalism, but we
uphold the validity, of the entities that are active today
alongside or above State sovereignty. The vitality of the
Andean Common Market, the Southern Cone Common
Market (MERCOSUR) and the European Union shows us
a future of common and vigorous legal international
arrangements. We are facing the definitive crisis of
nationalism, if not of full legal competence of the nation
State. International law today appears as the only
framework of standards with which to face the new
realities.
There can be no doubt that the nuclear reality was one
of the factors that transformed the traditional concept of the
nation State. The ability to foresee its results has made the
decision to accept war more exceptional, and non-atomic
armies have adhered to broader, supranational military
organizations. Atomic weapons have abolished the
impermeability of the nation State.
We are likewise faced with a crisis of the very
concept of borders. Traditionally, empires thought of
themselves only in terms of being an extension of their
borders. Today borders are not an obstacle to integration.
However, this does not imply that we are building a
universal State, a global “cosmocracy”. There are natural
limits to the territorial applicability of laws, and it is true
that the concentration of power has unbreachable limits,
beyond which it cannot go. Accordingly, history has so far
not led us to a universal State, but rather to a freer
structure, a complex political pluralism with a common
general foundation of representative democracy, individual
liberties and economic freedom. We are facing new,
functionally limited supra-statal powers, with different
arrangements that differ in scope and intensity and that are
superimposed upon the system of State borders.
The modern theory of the State forged by
Machiavelli and Bodin, the concept of the State as an
absolute power that excludes any other power, is today
fading. For more than 20 years States have recognized
forces superior to themselves. The idea of the unlimited
sovereign State has broken down; the linchpin of the
whole theory of the modern State has broken down.
Today sovereignty continues to exist, but not as unlimited
political power, but rather as full constitutional legal
competence. That seventeenth-century concept that
inspired the Peace of Westphalia, cuius regio eius religio
— that each State should have a religion — has been left
behind. This is more apparent than ever at the end of the
cold war, when the secular beliefs that confronted the
world have been discarded. Today the cohesion of human
societies is governed by universal concepts.
The new reality leads us to assert that State
sovereignty has already been made subject to international
law — and, it can be said, to natural law — thus negating
the theoretical legitimacy of the State that was born with
the modern age. This in no way means that there is no
longer a need for patriotism, the concept of fatherland or
national histories. It means, instead, that the myth of the
nationalist State has collapsed.
In a truly human breakthrough and not a purely
technological one, all moral values today are reduced to
their personal roots. Today, neither Governments nor the
governed can shirk the ethical imperatives that rule
equally over their public and private conduct. This is due
both to the process just outlined and to a wholly new and
far-reaching technological revolution in mass
communications.
The law of nations was at first a principle of
commercial intercourse. It later came to apply to only one
kind of actor: the nation State. Today, an open functional
regionalism is bringing about far-reaching changes that
are swiftly altering the existing order, and the United
Nations would be ill-advised to disregard that new reality
in strengthening the Security Council and reforming its
institutions.
This is the cornerstone upon which the United
Nations should be re-founded, now that the circumstances
of power which governed its life at the close of the
Second World War and during the cold war have been
overcome. We should not lose sight of the fact that,
although the act of consent that forged this new, open,
functional regionalism was the work of the nation State,
today that regionalism is already a supranational reality
14

that has taken on a life of its own and is spreading around
the world. Inter-statal balances of power are giving way to
regional balances of power that are not concentrated in a
single focal point of power and that are more decentralized
and more rational.
The future will be one in which an international
system with freer and more flexible structures will be based
on the freedom of man as an individual, as a person. This
obliges States, within the framework of the United Nations
system, to go beyond their traditional activities and jointly
engage in management activities in the Organization based
on the new cultural, economic and geographical reality
made up of broad functional regional areas. I say once
again: this is the keystone of the foundation of the new
edifice of the United Nations.
I have come here to reiterate the commitment of Peru
and of the Peruvian people to the United Nations, but also
to warn that the new realities that must not be ignored.
Those realities have guided the policy of President Alberto
Fujimori and are the inspiration for his Government’s
far-reaching and successful reform. Peru, in its continental
relations, today bases its foreign policy upon the principles
of open functional regionalism and strives to link the
Pacific with the Atlantic through supranational
arrangements.
Rooted in its rich Latin-American heritage, my country
sees its future in continental terms, drawing upon Latin
America’s important contribution in the area of integration,
international law and mechanisms for peace and security.
Accordingly, we are convinced that organizational changes
in the United Nations should be based on those same
principles.