It is a great pleasure for me to
address the General Assembly under the presidency of
a fellow citizen of our Caribbean Community. Allow
me to extend our warmest congratulations and good
wishes to you, Sir, as you discharge the functions of
your high office.
I offer our esteemed Secretary-General our
appreciation for his astute and steadfast leadership in
these times of great challenge to the Organization. I
would also like to pay tribute to his dedicated staff,
many of whom have lost their lives in service to the
United Nations.
In 1953, the people of Guyana were allowed for
the first time to exercise their democratic franchise
under universal adult suffrage to elect the Government
of their choice. Today, 50 years later, my country has
learned, through the painful experience of misrule and
mismanagement, the vital importance of democracy to
our future as a nation. We recognize that to foster
development, reduce poverty and safeguard human
dignity, democracy must be allowed to grow and take
root. Having laid the basic foundation for good
governance through free and fair elections, we now
face the task of building a more prosperous and just
society.
4

To that end, my Government has embarked on a
process of consultation and collaboration with all
sectors of our population, including political parties,
the private sector and non-governmental organizations.
Through the recent reform of the Constitution,
provisions have been made to enhance fiscal
transparency, provide greater inclusiveness and
guarantee the fundamental rights of our people. Those
measures include six independent commissions on
human rights, ethnic relations, women and gender
equity, indigenous peoples, the rights of the child and
public procurement.
Moreover, in an effort to foster greater social
cohesion in Guyana, we recently invited the United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism to visit and
engage the various sectors of Guyanese society so that
the international community can be informed of the
broad perspectives of our multicultural society and of
the several measures which the Government has put in
place to promote interracial harmony.
In further consolidation of the democratic
process, my Government has embarked upon a
programme to reform the justice and security systems
in our society by building capacity for the prevention,
investigation and resolution of crime and for the
improvement of the administration of justice. Much has
been accomplished in that area, but much more remains
to be done.
At the same time, we have taken several
development initiatives that will ultimately lead to a
better life for all our people. Among them are the
national development strategy and the poverty
reduction strategy. We have worked hard to provide
better housing, health and education facilities for our
people and have managed to make signal progress in
reducing poverty. And by stimulating investment, we
are creating new opportunities for development. We
now look to the future with the renewed hope that we
will be able to overcome the many challenges to our
political, economic and social progress.
However, in the face of a persistent debt burden,
drastically reduced development assistance and ever
present protectionist barriers, and in the prevailing
climate of international tension and uncertainty, many
developing countries, Guyana included, are made more
vulnerable, and prospects for growth are severely
impaired. The failure of the recently concluded Cancun
Conference does not make us sanguine about the
future. The international community is now hardly
likely to reach the Millennium Declaration targets that
were set by this Assembly three years ago.
The fate of nations, especially of those as small
as ours, lies not in our hands alone. The process of
globalization has made us acutely aware of the need for
greater interdependence and international cooperation
if we are to survive the many threats to our welfare.
That interdependence is the basis for multilateralism
and for the United Nations.
The Charter of the Organization reflects our
collective commitment to cooperate to promote peace
and development. However, we have yet to fully
honour that commitment. Regrettably, the world in
which we live now, while placing a high premium on
democracy at the national level, fails to live up to that
ideal in the international councils that shape our
common destiny. We are concerned at that double
standard, as the aspirations of humankind for peace,
security and development cannot be fulfilled without
the effective participation of all States in global affairs.
Especially disconcerting is the practice by some
countries and international financial institutions to rely
on anecdotal or partial information   often from
questionable sources   to assess the performance of a
given country. Needless to say, that can be very
damaging to the particular economy concerned, as it
effectively deters further aid and investment. Similarly,
we are concerned by the inordinate delay in the release
of development funds. The Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries Debt Initiative, which was conceived as a
means of assisting seriously indebted poor countries,
has been unconscionably delayed. Meanwhile, the poor
of our countries must face continuing hardship and
suffering. They cannot be held hostage for much longer.
The success of international cooperation, and
indeed of the United Nations system, will be determined
by how well they respond to the interests and concerns of
not only the powerful but also the powerless, and not
only of the rich but, most urgently, of the poor. If truth
be told, their record thus far leaves much to be desired.
It is therefore imperative that a credible and effective
system of global governance be established as quickly
as possible. That will require a more fundamental
reform of the United Nations, and indeed of the entire
multilateral system, than we have seen so far.
After several crises in the decade of the 1990s,
there was a strong call for reform of the international
5

financial architecture to provide greater macroeconomic
stability. The urgency of the campaign appears to have
diminished, however, even though the threat of further
calamity remains. Attempts to strengthen the role of
the United Nations in the development process now lag
behind, denying our countries a greater say in the
decision-making process pertaining to issues that affect
our welfare. Nor have we been able to develop an
effective security system to protect countries,
particularly the weak and small, from encroachments
on their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Our world continues to be subject to a wide array
of threats to international peace and security. We
recently witnessed a series of terrible human tragedies.
Many thousands have died as a result. If there is one
lesson to be learned, it is that violence accomplishes
nothing. Only through dialogue and negotiation,
bolstered by social justice, can lasting solutions to
those problems be found. It is therefore imperative that
the United Nations, the multilateral Organization to
which we all belong, be strengthened to effectively
promote peace and development.
It is time that the United Nations Security
Council, which has the primary responsibility under the
Charter for international peace and security, be made
more representative of the wider international
community. The Council must be expanded, and the
role of developing countries in that body appropriately
strengthened. To that end, Guyana is prepared to
support the candidacies of Brazil, India and an African
country for permanent seats on the Council, as well as
a suitable number of non-permanent seats for other
developing countries. That expansion will no doubt
enable it to better cope with the challenges that
conflicts, both old and new, pose to global peace and
development.
Neither the many speeches that we make nor the
several strategies that we occasionally devise in the
hope of building global peace and development will
ever accomplish much unless they are followed up by
appropriate action. Sad to say, our frequent
declarations of intent are not matched by deeds, a
failure that can be explained only by the lack of serious
purpose on the part of many Member States. We have
yet to transcend selfish national interests to reach a
higher plane of interdependence and multilateralism. I
urge the international community to rethink its policies
and to seriously consider the advantages of a more
balanced and equitable system of relations.
The world in which we now live calls for greater
international solidarity and cooperation, not less. We
must therefore ensure that those ideals are at the
forefront of our deliberations at the General Assembly
and that we take practical steps to ensure and
strengthen our common home, the United Nations.


First of all, I would like
to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the
presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth
session and to express gratitude to Mr. Jan Kavan for
his work as the President during the fifty-seventh
session.
This year has been hard for the United Nations.
The events surrounding Iraq have revealed weak links
in the system of international security. Not for the first
time, the Security Council, owing to disagreements
among its members, was unable to ensure the
implementation of its resolutions and to react
adequately to the situation.
Those disagreements continue to have a critical
influence on the activity of the Security Council with
regard to both Iraq and other crises and conflicts. It is
clear that existing United Nations mechanisms do not
meet the requirements of our time, and it is necessary
28

to reform the United Nations, including the Security
Council, which reflects the reality of half a century
ago.
Azerbaijan supports the well-known reform
proposals of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in
particular with regard to the expansion of the
membership of the Security Council, and counts on the
goodwill of the permanent members of the Council
with regard to the revision of its mechanisms, in
particular the right of veto.
We hope that the international community will
now be able to consolidate its efforts to restore and
strengthen a united and indivisible Iraq and to establish
democracy based on the free will of all of the Iraqi
people. Our country, which is ready to take part in this
process, has begun to contribute to the strengthening of
security and stability in Iraq.
The terrorist act against the United Nations
Headquarters in Baghdad shocked the entire
international community. The death of Sergio Vieira de
Mello and his colleagues was a tragic loss for the
Organization and all of us. What happened in Baghdad
once again showed how vulnerable we are in the face
of terror and convinced us that terrorists are capable of
committing any crime. The only response should be an
uncompromising commitment to fight against anyone
who resorts to terrorism, no matter what goals are used
as a cover. Selectivity and double standards have no
place in this respect.
Our country, which has fallen victim to the
aggression, occupation and terror unleashed by
Armenia, has for years been fighting terrorism on its
own. Our appeals to the international community to
unite its efforts in combating terrorism went unheeded.
The alarm went off only after 11 September 2001.
Success in the fight against terrorism cannot be
achieved without eradicating the underlying roots and
eliminating the factors that create a favourable
environment for its dissemination. On the other hand, it
is not possible to resolve conflicts throughout the
world, including in the southern Caucasus, under
conditions of continuing terrorism or of support for it
at the State level.
We have to keep in mind that terrorist groups,
created and developed by separatist and extremist
forces, are usually based in illegally controlled
territories, in the so-called grey zones that emerge as a
result of acts of armed separatism and external
aggression. One such uncontrolled grey zone is
Nagorny Karabakh and other regions of the Republic of
Azerbaijan, occupied by Armenian military forces.
While carrying out the comprehensive struggle
against terror and resolving conflicts on the basis of
principles and norms of international law, the
international community should decisively resort to
force. That is the only effective way of restoring justice
and ensuring the rule of law.
The delegation of Azerbaijan has repeatedly
drawn the attention of the international community
from this high rostrum to the ongoing conflict between
Armenia and Azerbaijan. Ten years have elapsed since
the Security Council adopted four resolutions
demanding the immediate, complete and unconditional
withdrawal of the Armenian occupying forces from the
Azerbaijani territories. However, Armenia continues to
challenge the international community by ignoring
those decisions, whereas the Security Council and the
Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) do not undertake any
adequate measures in that regard.
Azerbaijan has on many occasions declared its
commitment to the peaceful settlement of the conflict
on the basis of norms and principles of international
law. We are determined to continue with our efforts in
this direction, and we count on the active participation
of the international community. Azerbaijan will never
accept a settlement on the basis of the so-called
existing realities and will not cede a single inch of its
land. Azerbaijan's patience is not limitless, and no one
should try to take advantage of it. Responsibility for
the deadlock in the settlement lies with the aggressor
Armenia, and not with the victim of aggression,
Azerbaijan. The passive position of an observer taken
by the international community can only aggravate that
deadlock.
Only after Armenia evacuates all the Azerbaijani
territories and thus creates a basis for the peaceful
settlement of the conflict can Armenia count on normal
inter-State relations and cooperation with Azerbaijan.
By rejecting our constructive proposals, based on the
observance of international law, Armenia is
demonstrating its genuine intention to seize and annex
Azerbaijani territories.
Armenia's authorities continue to profess the
ideology of aggressive nationalism, militarism,
29

separatism and terrorism and to doom their people to
the deepest crisis. In a society where territorial
expansion and the search for external enemies are
instilled as a national idea, democracy and pluralism
cannot take root. It should be realized in Armenia that
the present situation of its conflict with Azerbaijan will
not only fail to resolve but will also certainly aggravate
its own serious internal social and economic problems.
It is with a sense of regret that one has to
acknowledge that inaction by the international
community leads to the strengthened self-confidence of
Armenia in pursuing its destructive policy. Both the
OSCE Minsk Group and the Security Council have
backed off in the face of illegitimate force, thus calling
into question the seriousness of their intentions and
continuity of their actions.
Appeasement of the aggressor seriously
undermines the whole system of international security,
which is based on the inviolability of principles and
norms of international law. That attitude has on many
occasions taken a heavy toll on the international
community.
We appeal to the Security Council to carry out the
necessary measures in order to ensure the
implementation of the above-mentioned four
resolutions, and we expect that decisive steps will be
taken to stop criminal and aggressive actions in the
occupied territories and on the line of engagement, as
well as to push the occupying forces to unconditionally,
immediately and completely evacuate the seized
Azerbaijani territories.
The conflict has deprived almost one million
Azerbaijanis of roofs over their heads. It is clear that
the forthcoming winter will again become another hard
test for the refugees and the internally displaced
persons, hundreds of thousand of whom continue to
live in tent camps. The Government of Azerbaijan,
using its limited resources, spares no effort to mitigate
their suffering. Recently, the President of the Republic
of Azerbaijan by decree allocated more than $70
million to the construction of housing for refugees.
While we highly appreciate the assistance of the
international community, we nevertheless are worried
by its decreasing scale. We urge the relevant United
Nations agencies and donor countries, as well as non-
governmental organizations, to boost their attention to
the problems of the forcefully displaced Azerbaijani
population and to respond adequately to their needs. As
for the long-term resolution of this problem, it lies, of
course, in the settlement of the conflict between
Armenia and Azerbaijan and in the return of the
refugees and internally displaced persons to their
homes.
The conflict has also severely damaged the
economy of Azerbaijan. However, having mobilized
our domestic resources, we managed to overcome
serious social-economic crises and to move towards
stabilization and development. Economic reform
policies and the oil strategy elaborated and being
implemented under the leadership of the President of
Azerbaijan, His Excellency Mr. Heydar Aliyev, have
already yielded concrete results. These reforms have
led to macroeconomic stability and high economic
growth rates.
The promotion of the market economy and
entrepreneurship increased the share of the private
sector of the economy to 73 per cent. Figures on
foreign direct investment per capita show that
Azerbaijan is one of the leaders among the countries
with economies in transition. On average, the annual
economic growth rate is between 8 per cent and 10 per
cent.
The implementation of large-scale transregional
projects on development and transportation of
hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian Sea to the world
market and the diversification of transport corridors,
initiated by Azerbaijan, have opened new prospects for
the social and economic development of countries
along the East-West corridor, aimed at the restoration
of the historic Silk Road.
This progress would be impossible without
internal political stability, which has created the
prerequisites and conditions for implementing radical
political reforms and the development of democratic
society. Today, Azerbaijani democracy stands at the
edge of its next test of maturity and firmness. On
October 15, the elections for President of the Republic
will be held in Azerbaijan. The legislative basis for
conducting genuinely free and fair elections has been
established in the country. The recently adopted
Election Code was widely discussed at the local and
international levels, and it meets the highest
international standards. Numerous international
observers of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and
other international organizations, as well as local
observers, will follow the presidential elections.
30

The triumph of democracy, social progress and
sustainable development on a global scale are
impossible unless the problems of poverty and sharp
disproportion in economic performance across different
countries and regions are resolved. In that regard, the
implementation of the Millennium Development Goals
is extremely important. Combating poverty
presupposes close interaction between developed and
developing countries.
Regrettably, there is still no breakthrough in that
regard. Developed States should pay more attention to
the problems of the countries with economies in
transition. Experience proves that narrow-minded
interests frequently prevail, and thus deadlocks emerge
in the negotiation process. Azerbaijan believes that
enlargement of parties to the multilateral trade system,
as well as granting the provisions of special and
differential treatment in the World Trade Organization
(WTO) to both developing countries and countries with
economies in transition, will contribute to the
successful global integration of the latter.
We are firmly convinced of the need to develop a
dialogue among civilizations and cultures. Only
through dialogue and good will shall we defeat mistrust
and confrontation, and unify our forces in addressing
common threats and challenges.
In conclusion, allow me once again to reiterate
Azerbaijan's strong adherence to its political course,
aimed at building a strong democratic State with a
market economy, and our genuine willingness and
desire to effectively contribute to peace and
international security.


Allow me to extend to
you, Sir, our sincere congratulations on your election
as President of the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth
session. You may rest assured of my delegation’s full
support in the discharge of your important
responsibilities.
It is my painful duty to pay, along with so many
of us, a tribute to the memory of Sergio Vieira de
Mello and his associates, who sacrificed their lives for
the people of Iraq in the service of peace and the
United Nations. Our heart goes out to the families of
the victims of that cowardly terrorist act.
The world was shocked and saddened when a
most respected colleague, and a close friend of mine,
the late Anna Lindh, the Swedish Foreign Minister, fell
victim to a senseless act of crime in Stockholm. Her
vision of the world and her deep commitment to the
principles and purposes of the United Nations will
continue to be a source of inspiration to all of us.
4

Hungary aligned itself with the statement
delivered by the presidency of the European Union
during the general debate and fully supports it.
We live in a world of great opportunities and
serious challenges. It is in this context that global
problems require global and concerted solutions. To
that effect, we must use the potentials of the United
Nations to make the best use of opportunities at hand.
In that respect, maintaining or restoring peace and
stability, non-proliferation, development and human
rights are in the focus of attention of the international
community. International terrorism, the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction, grave armed internal
conflicts, poverty and illegal migration constitute
enormous challenges to all of us.
Hungary remains strongly committed to
multilateral institutions. We are firmly convinced that
the United Nations can and should play a major role in
meeting the multifaceted and ever growing challenges
of our contemporary world. We, for our part, are deeply
devoted to assisting that role. Along with our partners
in the European Union, we are more than prepared to
strengthen the United Nations as a unique instrument
of a strong multilateral system to tackle global and
regional issues for the sake of a safer and more secure
world. We will spare no effort to take an active part in
maintaining peace and security, enhancing the non-
proliferation regimes, protecting and promoting human
rights and fundamental freedoms, and establishing
international standards.
The global fight against international terrorism
must remain a major priority of the United Nations. In
this context, we support the full and effective
implementation of the relevant Security Council
resolutions. Hungary is keenly interested in widening
the scope of multilateral instruments in the fight
against terrorism.
After the success of the coalition forces in
bringing freedom and the opportunities of democracy
in Iraq, we have to turn our attention to the
reconstruction and development of that long-suffering
country. Hungary is strongly committed to supporting
the Iraqi people. Our fellow Hungarians are serving
with the coalition forces. We will also attend the
donors conference in Madrid later this fall.
We are closely following developments regarding
the United Nations assumption of an ever-increasing
role in Iraq. I would like to stress that the United
Nations has to assume its share of the work both in
restoring the sovereignty of Iraq and in the
reconstruction process. I believe that our Organization,
with ample experience elsewhere, can play a
significant role in the establishment of democratic
institutions, the rule of law, respect for human rights
and election-monitoring. We are studying intensively
our possible contributions to this process. For the time
being, though, our priority must be the stabilization of
the security situation in Iraq and the normalization of
day-to-day life.
Hungary is deeply concerned by the grave and
deteriorating situation in the Middle East. We believe
that the implementation of the road map is the only
framework for reaching a political settlement. An
effective and credible monitoring mechanism is of
critical importance to that effect. The Quartet should
carry on with its mission in the peace process. We call
upon both the Israeli Government and the Palestinian
Authority to dedicate all their efforts to the full and
unconditional implementation of the road map.
The security situation in Afghanistan remains
fragile. The Government of Afghanistan deserves our
assistance and attention. Terrorist acts and illicit drug-
trafficking are causes for serious concern. I am
confident that, with the unwavering support of the
international community, Afghanistan will soon be a
better place for the Afghan people.
The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,
together with the means of their delivery, is a growing
and serious threat to international peace and security.
The danger of nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons in the hands of terrorist groups and States —
which are a menace to our world — represents new
major security challenges, against which we must act
together in a resolute manner, both regionally and
globally.
Earlier this year, the European Union (EU)
adopted a very important and far-reaching Declaration
on Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Hungary will work hard with its partners in the EU
towards the effective implementation of that new
instrument and of the recently agreed EU Action Plan.
In the current world security environment, the
Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
(NPT) needs to be reinforced. We call on the States
remaining outside the NPT to accede to it
5

unconditionally and to accept the nearly universal
norms of nuclear non-proliferation.
Revelations about large-scale nuclear
programmes and the failure to provide sufficient
explanations as to their purpose and nature have given
rise to legitimate concerns on the part of the
international community. There is a growing
recognition — shared by Hungary — that those
programmes imply serious proliferation risks as well.
We view the first follow-up meeting of the States
parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC),
held at Geneva in August this year, as encouraging.
The participants rightly focused on practical actions.
We look forward to seeing further progress in
strengthening national implementation of the BWC at
the next meeting, in November.
Hungary remains strongly committed to the
international protection and promotion of human rights
and of fundamental freedoms, including the rights of
minorities. The United Nations is the only universal
Organization dealing with worldwide standards-setting,
protecting human rights and addressing violations of
human rights in individual Member States. All those
efforts deserve our unqualified support.
Hungary continues to attach particular importance
to the protection of the rights of minorities. Regional
instruments aimed at improving the situation of
national and ethnic minorities have already been
adopted to that end without major difficulties. A
universal instrument on the rights of minorities has yet
to be elaborated. We believe that, given the necessary
political will on the part of Member States, the United
Nations will be able to fill that gap through an
international minority protection system. The more
effectively we act, the more beneficial the service that
we will be able to provide with respect to protecting
vulnerable minority groups through standards and
norms.
Hungary stands ready and is willing to join others
in redoubling our efforts with regard to strengthening
the United Nations system. Multilateral institutions are
in serious need of reform, if they are to live up to the
expectations of the fast-changing political and
economic landscape of our times. The United Nations
cannot be an exception to that.


Allow me at the
outset to congratulate the President on his election to
the presidency of this General Assembly. The role of
the President in providing overall leadership to the
Assembly is crucial and I am confident he will guide us
wisely through the complex tasks ahead of us.
A month from now, a group of young people will
gather at the University of Iceland to take part in a
model United Nations conference. It is good to see
such enthusiasm for the ideals of the United Nations
among young people — as well as a desire to
experiment with how the United Nations machinery
works in practice. But I wonder whether their model
will accurately reflect how our United Nations works. I
am concerned that, if it does, will it increase or dampen
their enthusiasm?
If they were to model the General Assembly, I
suspect that their model would contrast in a number of
ways with the real thing. Their agenda would be more
concise. They would concentrate on pure and more
immediate issues of urgency. They would have little
time for often-repeated resolutions whose relevance is
chiefly historical. They would not allow such items to
crowd out more immediate matters. They would
address the world as it is, not the world of yesteryear.
To be honest, I am worried that the more accurately their
United Nations model reflected the real thing, be it the
General Assembly or the Security Council, the more
difficult it would be to explain to those young idealists
our purpose and convince them of our effectiveness.
As already stated by my Danish colleague, on
behalf of the Nordic countries, I would very much like
to welcome the proposal of the Secretary-General to
establish a high-level panel of eminent personalities to
make recommendations on issues ranging from peace
and security to reform of United Nations structures.
The General Assembly has tremendous achievements
to its credit. It is, as we affirmed in our Millennium
Declaration, the chief deliberative policy-making and
representative organ of the United Nations. The
achievements of the General Assembly in international
norm-setting and in the establishment of an
international legal framework is undisputed. Its
potential is great but, as the young people at our United
Nations model would bluntly point out, it needs fixing.
If we believe the General Assembly is where
deliberation should be carried out, let us ensure that the
agenda and procedures allow debate and deliberation to
take place in an interactive manner. If we believe that it
is the chief policy-making body, let us ensure that it
develops policy, perhaps by linking debate more
closely with the decision-making process. Policy needs
to be followed-up; we need to do more on
implementation. My delegation will contribute actively
and constructively in the forthcoming deliberations on
reforms of the General Assembly during this session.
Our young people at the United Nations model
next month will in fact be modelling the Security
Council. I suspect that they will raise some questions
about the composition of that body. Iceland is seriously
27

concerned with the slow progress in the open-ended
working group. Though it provides, for the time being,
the appropriate forum for continued dialogue, Iceland
would welcome any additional initiatives to further
intensify the process towards satisfactory resolution of
this important matter.
The Icelandic position on the reform of the Security
Council is on record. It is essential that the membership of
the Council better reflect the membership of the United
Nations as a whole. At the same time, the efficiency of
the Council must be preserved. Further steps should be
taken to increase transparency in the decision-making
process, in order to build on the welcome steps already
taken by the Council.
Iceland supports an increase in both permanent and
non-permanent seats at the Council. New permanent
members should have the same rights and obligations as
the current permanent members. The veto right should
be restricted and an obligation to state the reason for its
use should be established, including why a permanent
member considers a matter to be of vital importance.
Iceland has, for the first time, put forward its
candidacy for membership of the Security Council for
the years 2009 and 2010. We see participation in the
Security Council as a logical expression of our
determination to fulfil our responsibilities within the
United Nations and contribute as an active member of
the international community.
The promotion and protection of human rights must
be a central concern of all United Nations activities. In
this regard, much more needs to be done to implement
our commitment regarding the rights of women and the
rights of the child. Iceland has signed the United
Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons and has enacted legislation
against trafficking in human beings. Iceland is working
against the trafficking of women through a common
campaign with the other Nordic countries and the
Baltic States. The Icelandic campaign will focus on
informing and increasing awareness among the public
about this issue.
We should be especially aware of the implications
for human rights of new threats and new policies. In
particular, we must ensure that fundamental human
rights are not violated in our counter-terrorist effort, as
has been underlined by the Secretary-General.
In Iraq, the United Nations itself has recently
been the target of two terrorist attacks. I would like to
use this opportunity to express the most sincere
condolences on behalf of the Icelandic Government to
the United Nations and the families of the United
Nations officials who lost their lives. I would also like
to wish those who were wounded full recovery.
The United Nations and the Security Council in
particular must address the issue of Iraq. Iceland, along
with many other Member States, is contributing to
Iraq’s reconstruction and will continue to do so. The
situation will demand all our resourcefulness and a
concerted effort at cooperation by all parties in the
Security Council to ensure that the people of Iraq are
assured the destiny they deserve. This destiny should
encompass peace and democracy, affording equal rights
and justice to all Iraqi citizens.
On terrorists, renewed efforts must be made to
reach an agreement on a universal definition during
this General Assembly. Such a definition would make
the fight against terrorists more effective.
It is estimated that close to 90 per cent of victims
in today’s armed conflicts are civilians, the majority of
whom are women and children. Women and girls
experience conflicts differently than men because of
their status in society. Their rights must be protected in
situations of armed conflict and we must ensure that
women play a central role in conflict prevention,
peacekeeping and peace-building. United Nations
Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) lays the
ground rules for this to happen and must be
implemented in all of its aspects.
It is our role to ensure that globalization benefits
all countries, not least through targeted development
cooperation. Sub-Saharan Africa will continue to be the
focus of our bilateral development cooperation while we
will also increase our contribution and involvement in
multilateral development cooperation, especially through
the United Nations Development Programme, the United
Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children’s
Fund, the United Nations Development Fund for
Women and the World Food Programme.
I just returned, like many others, from Cancún,
where we had difficult discussions on correcting the trade
rules so that developing countries can operate on a more
level playing field in world trade. This work is vital and
we must push on with it. With determination we can
break through the impasse that we reached in Cancún.
28

Iceland is one of the many island States in the
world whose well-being and development is crucially
affected by the state of the marine environment.
Sustainable harvesting of living marine resources is the
mainstay of our economy. Resolution 57/141, on
Oceans and the Law of the Sea, which was adopted
during our last session, provides for the establishment
of a regular process for the global reporting and
assessment of the state of the marine environment,
commonly referred to as Global Marine Assessment, a
concept that was initiated by Iceland in 1999.
An intergovernmental meeting should be
convened in 2004 to decide upon the modalities of this
process and negotiate an agreement between United
Nations agencies. It is our sincere hope that such a
meeting could turn out to be fruitful in the process of
the establishment of the Global Marine Assessment.
We must craft for ourselves a United Nations
which is task-oriented, representative, focused and
coordinated. I believe strongly that the United Nations
should not only be a place where we can talk about
what we want to do, it must also be the place and
instrument to get things done. We have taken note of
the Secretary-General’s call for changes in our
institution by 2005.
There are varying opinions on how the United
Nations should operate, but I believe there is a general
recognition that the United Nations is, and must
remain, the key forum in which we exercise our
collective responsibility. At the Millennium Summit,
heads of State and Government reaffirmed their faith in
the Organization and its Charter as indispensable
foundations of a more peaceful, prosperous and just
world. They defined our priorities for this century and
resolved to make the United Nations a more effective
instrument for pursuing all of these priorities. It is up
to us, the Member States, to make it possible for the
United Nations to realize these objectives.


I am honoured to address
you for the first time on behalf of the State Union of
5

Serbia and Montenegro. The State Union of Serbia and
Montenegro was created in the interest of peace,
stability, the democratic right to freedom of choice and
moving quickly to a European track. We have assumed
the responsibility for a policy of non-compromise in
the Balkans. We have assumed the responsibility to
demonstrate that in the region that used to be burdened
with divisions and conflicts it is possible to work out
an agreement that will push us forward together.
We are certain that our lives can be better if all of
us in the region commit to that goal, if all of us in the
region look to the future and if all of us in the region
look to Europe and other people who share the same
goals. That is why we are sure that life can be better for
all peoples.
With this hope, we agree with all who perceive
terrorism as one of the greatest evils facing the world
today. We can defeat terrorism only if we all join
forces. That is why, for us, there is no alternative to
multilateralism, and the United Nations is the guarantor
for that, both today and tomorrow.
Terrorism is not a problem only for the rich
countries, as the Secretary-General said yesterday. It is
a problem for every man and every country, just as it is
a problem for parents who lost their children just
because they chose to swim in a river and belonged to a
different religion and nationality. We deplore the
deaths of those children, the same as we deplore the
terrorist attack in Baghdad, which caused the death of
innocent people, among them Sergio Vieira de Mello.
We condemn these deaths as all humane, civilized and
progressive people do. But that is not enough. We must
strive to ensure that such things happen no more.
The activities of the United Nations in Kosovo
demonstrate that with good intentions on all sides there
is hope for creating preconditions for dialogue, instead
of hatred and conflicts, so that people discuss and
resolve their problems instead of creating new ones.
We are glad that one of the crucial issues for the
stability of this region   that of Kosovo   is on the
threshold of dialogue, as we have called for.
We have been encouraged by the announcements
of representatives of the United Nations that the
dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina could start by
mid-October and that it has been supported within the
contact group. I hope that it will also be supported in
Pristina, as it is supported in Belgrade. In this
undertaking as well, the role of the United Nations and
its representative in Kosovo is extremely important.
For its part, Serbia and Montenegro will do its
utmost to ensure the success of the dialogue. This is an
opportunity that we must take advantage of, in the
interest of the European and democratic future of the
region. We have to be patient and persistent.
We are aware that we cannot change the past. But
we can do a great deal to improve our present and
future. We seek peace for all people left without their
homes. There are more than 650,000 of them in Serbia
and Montenegro, and we want them to live where they
believe they belong. I am sure that within the
framework of the tripartite agreement with Croatia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina we shall soon find a common
solution that will ultimately resolve that problem.
From our own recent experience we know a lot
about victims and suffering. That is why we call for an
end to violence in all parts of the world   in Baghdad
and Iraq, and the Middle East. We are convinced that
the international community and the United Nations,
primarily the Security Council, will find a way to
stabilization and to a life in peace and freedom for all
people. The human race has only one world to live in.
We in Serbia and Montenegro stand ready to contribute
to peace efforts through peace operations, to protect
peace and to defend each nation's right to a democratic
future.
Of course, we are primarily committed to the
stabilization of the situation in the region of the
Western Balkans, cooperation among the countries in
the region, the fight against organized crime and full
cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. No crime should
be left unpunished, and all perpetrators should be
brought to justice. Our goal is to join the process of
European integration as soon as possible, as well as the
Partnership for Peace. The Thessaloniki summit of the
European Union and the countries of the Western
Balkans defined clear goals. Serbia and Montenegro
will not let go of this chance for a European future. We
have a responsibility to create a better, more peaceful
and dignified life for generations to come.
That is an obligation not only for us in Serbia and
That is a motive and force keeping us together in the
United Nations to do all we can so that good may
prevail over evil, peace over conflicts, democracy over
dictatorship and economic prosperity over poverty. We
can do it together. This is not a utopia; it is a realistic
6

possibility which will be successful to the extent we
are able to work together. Serbia and Montenegro trusts
it can be done.


Let me first pay
tribute to the commitment and the courage of the
Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sergio
Vieira de Mello, and all the United Nations staff
members who lost their lives in the unprecedented
attack on United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. The
date of 19 August is engraved in the consciousness of
the international community and in the annals of the
United Nations. We were forced to face a fact that we
have not tackled with the necessary determination in
the past: the vulnerability of United Nations staff
worldwide. While legal protection can certainly not
prevent an attack such as the one of 19 August, we
must nevertheless provide the best possible protection
in this respect. We therefore hope that the General
Assembly will take the necessary measures to make the
23

United Nations Convention on the Safety of United
Nations and Associated Personnel more effective.
The process that led to this engagement of the
United Nations in Iraq constituted a major crisis for the
existing mechanisms dealing with threats to
international peace and security, first and foremost the
Security Council. This Organization is subject to and
dependent on the political will of its Members. Its
distinctive quality lies in the fact that it provides
legitimacy in accordance with international law. This
outstanding quality it must not lose, and we are all
challenged to stand up for this core function of the
United Nations, which is a good part of its raison d''tre
in today's world. The crisis the United Nations has
gone through in connection with the action taken
against Iraq will not be overcome simply by adopting a
pragmatic approach in dealing with the aftermath
thereof. We welcome the ongoing discussions in the
Security Council on a stronger and more meaningful
role of the United Nations in Iraq. At the same time,
there must also be a recognition that international law
continues to be the foundation for our actions in
dealing with problems of international peace and
security and that the rule of law needs to be applied
both at the national and at the international levels.
Like any other State, in particular small States,
Liechtenstein attaches the highest possible priority to
the rule of international law   expressed, inter alia, in
our commitment to the International Criminal Court
and international relations that are based on rules
derived from international legal standards. The United
Nations, as the core body for drafting and adopting
those standards, must continue to play its role in
defending and upholding them.
It is more obvious than ever that the Security
Council is facing a particular challenge in this respect.
While discussions in the media, in the academic world
and in think tanks after the military action against Iraq
invariably have focused on the theme of the need for
quick and effective Security Council reform, this sense
of urgency was lost on the Open-ended Working Group
on Security Council Reform   the very body that has
the competence to make decisions on such reform.
After 10 years of debate on this issue, we all appreciate
the difficulties attached to it, and they are indeed big.
However, these difficulties are not sufficient
justification for our failure to resolve an issue that
everybody agrees is a major obstacle to the effective
functioning of the Organization as a whole. It was
therefore rather disturbing to see the Open-ended
Working Group continue engaging in business as usual,
while the world   the world we are supposed to
represent, after all   unanimously called for effective
and comprehensive reform.
The composition of the Council is clearly a
reflection of a geopolitical reality that ceased to exist a
long time ago and enlargement thus continues to be an
indispensable element of a meaningful reform of the
Council. At the same time, there is also a clear need to
address other issues, such as the mechanisms for
decision-making and in particular the implementation
of Security Council resolutions   whether adopted
under Chapter VI or Chapter VII   and issues of
legality. We hope that the initiative the Secretary-
General presented last week will contribute to making
the main organ that is at the centre of the world's
attention a more effective and representative body.
While the work on Security Council reform has
been slow and unsatisfactory overall, it has
nevertheless produced some important and positive
results. The Council has opened up to the membership
as a whole and increasingly engaged in open debates,
both on thematic and on other issues of concern to the
membership as a whole. Liechtenstein welcomes this
development and has participated in many of those
debates.
This increased openness of the Council, however,
does not resolve the issue of its accountability. The
effectiveness and credibility of the Council will be
much enhanced if it bases its decision-making on a
dialogue with the States on whose behalf it acts. In the
recent past, the Council has made some decisions that
were controversial and others that were of
unprecedented reach. Some of the measures taken in
connection with financial sanctions impact directly on
the lives of individuals who have no means of bringing
their grievances stemming from such decisions to the
attention of the Council. Since the Council makes its
decisions on behalf of the entire membership and since
their implementation is mandatory for all Member
States, there should be ways for all Member States to
express the concerns they might have with regard to
such decisions. The appropriate body for such
discussions is obviously the General Assembly, the
only main organ of the organization of universal
membership.
24

When educating people about the United Nations,
we keep stumbling upon one issue: The need to explain
that the United Nations is not identical with the
Security Council. The fact that the Council is seized
with the most burning issues and the most pressing
international crises is only one part of the explanation
for this fact. The flip side which we must no longer
ignore is the increasingly futile struggle of the General
Assembly to play its rightful role in accordance with
the Charter of the United Nations. An overburdened
agenda, sterile debates, an overflow of documentation
and the routine adoption of resolutions, that are but a
rehash of past resolutions, have a combined devastating
effect on the relevance of this body.
The General Assembly is today paralysed to a
point that keeps it from dealing with the politically
crucial issues and from acting in a quick and flexible
manner. A good illustration is the resolution in which
the General Assembly condemned the attack on the
United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. Even though
everybody shared the shock and dismay about this
vicious attack, it took the General Assembly almost a
month to adopt the said resolution.
The current state of the Assembly sadly plays into
the hands of its detractors. Presiding over the General
Assembly is a very difficult task, Mr. President. If you
are able to lead this Assembly out of its established
routine of paying lip service to its own reform and if
you are able to initiate the radical reform this body so
desperately needs, you will have created a lasting
legacy, and we will support you.
Much has been said about the crisis in which the
United Nations finds itself after this difficult year.
However, every crisis is an opportunity, and I hope that
the Assembly will take up its work in this spirit. Very
rarely over the past few years has the public interest in
the United Nations been greater than it has over the
past 12 months. We must ensure that the peoples of the
world continue turning to the United Nations as the
place where established rules are upheld, new
challenges are tackled and effective and responsible
action is taken collectively.


I begin this speech with mixed emotions —
happiness over the election of our friend Julian Hunte
— Minister of our sister country in the Caribbean,
Saint Lucia — as President of this body; and pain,
because our United Nations lost one of its best people,
as did Brazil, an exemplary member of one of the
world’s soundest diplomatic systems. Sergio Vieira de
Mello died for peace and human rights, causes that
illuminated his life as a diplomat and a Brazilian.
There are other unfortunate examples from other
times. We lost Anna Lindh, Swedish Minister for Foreign
Affairs, and daughter of the one of the countries most
closely linked to social justice, who was educated in
the Nordic tradition of social advancement and
commitment to peace and democracy. Years earlier,
another Swede — Olaf Palme — died, a man of peace and
good will, to whom the international community bade
farewell with the song of Chilean Violeta Parra, Gracias a
la vida, as a tribute to his struggles on behalf of the
persecuted, the disenfranchised and the impoverished.
At the beginning of the 1960s, while on a peace
mission, United Nations Secretary-General Dag
Hammarskjöld, also from Sweden, died in what was
apparently an accident, amid the tangled, political
turbulence in a Congo assailed by its enemies at home,
as well as international factors that were depriving its
sovereign leadership of vital oxygen. Still earlier,
Count Folke Bernadotte — also Swedish — was a
victim of terrorism while on a peace mission for the
United Nations in Jerusalem. Even before that, at the
end of the Second World War, Swedish diplomat Raoul
Wallenberg, who, from Budapest, opened the way to
freedom for Jews who were being persecuted by Nazi
barbarity, disappeared without a trace.
It seems that nothing has changed. Social
injustice goes on forever. Conflicts repeat themselves.
The protagonists of historic change are physically
eliminated or morally destroyed. The advocacy of
violence is dragging us towards terrorism and war.
Inspired by the values of social justice,
democracy and peace, on behalf of the President of the

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Fr'as,
I wish to reaffirm our support for the United Nations
from a position that is critical yet unambiguous and
totally consistent with its loftiest goals. These same
values inspire us in Venezuela, a country that prided
itself on being the richest and most democratic nation in
Latin America, but that squandered its privileged
historical opportunities and fell into a process of ethnical
and social decay that has brought us close to the abyss.
As a result, we had to assume a profound process of
transformation towards peace and democracy.
The sectors affected by the democratic
transformation have resorted to force to frustrate this
commitment of the majority. They have resorted to
military coup, oil sabotage, financial panic and media
terrorism. Thank God that they failed, but they still
caused much damage.
The provisions of a Constitution approved by the
people in a referendum that expands the basis of
democracy in a social State founded on law, and which
is truly our country plan for all, have generated violent
and anti-democratic opposition. Opening the way to
participatory democracy and to an economy that is free,
yet not anarchic, and that protects private freedoms
without bowing to the almighty market, has stirred up
the most egoistic and insensitive sector of our country
and of the international community — the neoliberals.
On this subject, His Holiness Pope Paul VI, in his
encyclical Populorum Progressio, of March 1967, said
“This unchecked liberalism leads to dictatorship
rightly denounced by Pius XI as producing ‘the
international imperialism of money’. One cannot
condemn such abuses too strongly by solemnly
recalling once again that the economy is at the
service of man.”
Entrepreneurs who took no risks, protected by a
colluding Government under a captive market, who did
not compete and who evaded taxation promoted a
conspiracy against the legitimate Government of
Venezuela, allied with international sectors that had
been past beneficiaries.
Now, therefore, our democracy, threatened
unsuccessfully by certain Venezuelan media magnates,
invites members of the international community to see
for themselves in Venezuela the strength of our society
and the immense civil liberties available in our country,
including the broadest freedom of expression in our
entire hemisphere. We will welcome witnesses to come
to Venezuela and watch our television, read our
newspapers, interview the owners of the private media,
listen to commentators and news anchors, and draw
their own conclusions. We need them to familiarize
themselves with the most hidden threat against
democracy: the media dictatorship, a mirror of the
culture of violence and mediocrity.
Our process of social change in peace and
democracy was interrupted by an assault against
legality by the media and their hypnotized followers. In
scarcely three days, during their ephemeral de facto
Government, all democratic institutions were
abolished, before people and soldiers in the streets
restored normalcy. Today, we aspire to peace and
reconciliation among Venezuelans. In our democracy,
there is room and hope for everyone.
We want also peace for our sister Colombia and
in Northern Ireland, in the Balkans, between Jews and
Palestinians and throughout the world. Peace is also the
aspiration of the Members of the United Nations, but
there will not be lasting peace without social justice; there
will not be stable democracies without social justice; and
freedom will be a fraud without social justice.
We congratulate the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi
Annan, on his balanced and firm guidance of the
Organization at the very difficult time that the world is
passing through and on his wise and heartfelt message
to this democratic Assembly.
This year, our activities in the General Assembly are
overclouded by the attack on the United Nations
headquarters in Baghdad, where so many faithful servants
of the Organization lost their lives, by the aftermath of
the war and the tense situation existing in the Middle East
and by the alarming world poverty indices, a scenario that
leads us to profound reflection and demands that we
strengthen the Organization’s capacity to respond.
Venezuela’s action has been aimed at restoring
and promoting multilateralism as a means and a
blueprint for the shaping of a more democratic world.
Unilateralism is monochromatic, worn out, oppressive
and authoritarian; multilateralism is polychromatic,
animated, tolerant and democratic. In that conviction, we
assumed the responsibility of chairing the Group of 77
last year and the Group of 15, whose summit meeting we
will hold next year in my country. There are mechanisms
through which the developing world is expressing its
multilateral voice and its aspirations to the universal
common good and to international social justice.
37

Historical developments since 1945 require that
we have a more democratic and more representative
Security Council. We must strengthen the General
Assembly given its democratic and participatory nature.
We want the Economic and Social Council to be the
powerful organ that it has not been allowed to be.
The Charter of the United Nations cannot be
tailored to suit unilateral conveniences. War is not a
romantic adventure that brings us to a happy ending in
which the superheroes defeat the villains. Sometimes,
war turns into a death trap that causes harsher suffering
than the suffering that, in theory, it intends to alleviate.
Sometimes, it brings other wars, more violence and
more terrorism.
Use of force by the State should not be
undertaken at the discretion of those who happen to be
interested at the time. The responsibility of the
Organization’s Members is collective, as the
international security that we want to protect and
guarantee must be. We all desire a better world for
future generations, and why not for ourselves? We are
all protagonists in this world drama; hegemonies
appear archaic and authoritarian. Our objective is a
strengthened, universal and democratic Organization.
A year ago in this Hall, we condemned the
abominable terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, in
which we lost thousands of citizens of the United
States and of other countries. That sudden holocaust
was perhaps the product of religious fundamentalism,
but it is unjust to single out the believers of one faith
for acts of extremist minorities when other minorities
of believers have also committed crimes against
humanity in the name of the Lord. Terrorism destroys
human lives, both of innocents and of combatants; it
torments family members, friends and peoples. There is
no good terrorism, not in the name of an ethnicity or of
a nationality; not in the name of justice or of freedom;
not in the name of God.
Four days ago, on behalf of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela, I deposited the ratification
instruments of the International Convention for the
Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, the International
Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of
Terrorism and the Optional Protocol to the Convention
on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of
children in armed conflicts. Yesterday, the Venezuelan
Parliament made the Inter-American Convention
against Terrorism a law of the Republic. We hope that
the ratification procedure will be completed within the
Organization of American States as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, we must continue the frontal assault
on the most widespread and destructive forms of
terrorism: poverty and social exclusion. The developing
world is suffering from hunger, poverty and exclusion
caused by an unjust economic system enveloped in the
practices of savage neo-liberalism and in the globalized
economy with an unfair scheme of commercial trade
that generates unemployment, exploitation, inequality
and resentment. It is a system that attacks the dignity of
the human person. Its leaders are not accustomed to
speaking of social justice in their statements.
One initiative that the President of Venezuela has
undertaken to fight poverty is the creation of an
international humanitarian fund that we proposed at the
International Conference on Financing for Development,
held at Monterrey; at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, held at Johannesburg; and once again in
the General Assembly. The fund is designed to be a
consistent and innovative source for financing non-
refundable resources coming from the reduction of
military expenditures and money confiscated as a result
of narco-trafficking and corruption. It will be an
effective formula of international assistance to generate
opportunities for economic and social progress in
countries excluded from traditional financing schemes.
Converging proposals make us optimistic in the light of
this type of initiative.
I conclude with a quotation from His Holiness
John Paul II in 1994:
“The world longs for peace and has a
desperate need of peace. Yet wars, conflicts,
increasing violence and situations of social unrest
and endemic poverty continue to reap innocent
victims and to cause divisions between
individuals and peoples. At times peace appears a
truly unattainable goal! In a climate made cold by
indifference and occasionally poisoned by hatred,
how can one hope for the dawn of an era of
peace, which only feelings of solidarity and of
love can usher in?”
That is how all Members of the Organization should
concentrate our efforts to find the necessary means that
will enable us to ensure peace and democracy at home
and in the international community, availing ourselves
of the best antidote to violence: social justice.


I should like first of all
to join earlier speakers in congratulating you, Sir, The
Honourable Julian Robert Hunte, Minister for External
Affairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation of Saint
Lucia, on your election as President of the General
Assembly and to wish you every success as you carry
out your duties. I would also like to extend our
appreciation to Mr. Jan Kavan for the very efficient
way in which he organized the work of the fifty-
seventh session of the General Assembly.
We would like at the outset to express our
profound condolences to the whole family of the
United Nations for the loss of Sergio Vieira de Mello, a
brave and able diplomat, and the other United Nations
personnel who died as a result of the deadly attack
against the United Nations premises in Baghdad.
I would like to take this opportunity to outline the
position of Uzbekistan on the key issues on the agenda
of this forum. As is well known, since the events of 11
September 2001, the world has been on the verge of a
fundamental transformation caused by new challenges
and threats to security in many regions of our planet.
This harsh reality unequivocally increases the
responsibility of the United Nations as a unique
international institution whose role cannot be
substituted by anyone or anything. It also increases the
responsibility of each and every nation to preserve
peace and stability in countering threats to modern
civilization such as international terrorism, extremism,
and the ever-growing illegal drug trade.
Given our immediate proximity to Afghanistan,
we, the nations of Central Asia, know at first hand
what these threats are and what they can bring to the
world, if timely steps are not taken to prevent and
eliminate them at their very core. In this context, it is
difficult to overestimate the significance of the actions
of the international anti-terrorist coalition led by the
United States of America and of the International
Security Assistance Force, which are doing so much to
12

revive and restore peace and stability in long-suffering
Afghanistan.
In the meantime, despite the prerequisites for a
full-scale peace process in Afghanistan and sustained
development of the region, the peace in the country is
still fragile. We believe that the resources of the
international community, major international
organizations and donor nations, as well as the
capabilities of neighbouring countries, should be more
intensely engaged, as they are essential to post-conflict
reconstruction.
Afghanistan should become a harmoniously
integrated part of Central Asia, and this will positively
contribute to the enhancement of stability and security
in the country and region. In view of the exceptional
importance of the socio-economic rehabilitation of
Afghanistan, Uzbekistan is rendering assistance to the
Afghan people in the reconstruction of damaged roads
and the construction of new ones, as well as supplying
electricity to the northern provinces of Afghanistan.
Uzbek specialists have built eight large bridges along
the road from Mazari Sharif to Kabul. Uzbekistan is
also delivering humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
More than 1 million tonnes of humanitarian cargo have
been shipped through our country’s territory. We will
continue to cooperate with international organizations,
foremost with the United Nations, in this regard.
The lessons learned in recent years have
confirmed that overcoming the consequences of
terrorism and extremism is more difficult than their
timely prevention. Moreover, the aggressive drive of
terrorists to acquire weapons of mass destruction has
become a new reality. The international community
should confront these far-reaching plans using an
effective and streamlined system of measures to
prevent access by terrorists to arms, new technologies,
and dual-use material.
Uzbekistan welcomes the progress made in the
development of legal instruments aimed at combating
international terrorism. Tangible results, however, can
be achieved only by creating a global system of
comprehensive cooperation. That is why we support
the work of the Security Council Counter-Terrorism
Committee. We are confident that the regional anti-
terrorism centre of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, established to collaborate with other
similar centres, will prove to be an important
component of the global anti-terrorist system.
To combat the threat of international terrorism
and extremism, it is important to confront the hotbeds
all over the world of extremism and the dissemination
of the ideology of fanatical ideologies. Despite current
measures to isolate them, these centres still possess
substantial financial resources and the capacity to
influence the hearts and minds of young people and
mobilize them for their far-reaching objectives. In
addition to the measures being implemented today, it
would be desirable to establish a special United
Nations programme to promote education and
awareness among young people and develop in them a
strong aversion to extremist ideology.
Uzbekistan maintains that the United Nations can
and must play a more significant role in resolving the
most urgent issues of today’s world. For this purpose,
first and foremost, United Nations programmes must
become more concrete and effective so that they can
better target the real needs of regions. In this regard, I
would like to present the following views.
First, Uzbekistan unequivocally supports further
development of regional integration and considers the
Organization of Central Asian Cooperation (OCAC) as
a crucial mechanism of multilateral collaboration
among the States of the region. We consider the
Organization’s economic component, as well as the
establishment of water, energy, transport and
communication consortia within its framework, as a
priority.
The need to overcome the isolation of the region
in terms of transport and communication is of utmost
importance among the objectives vital for sustainable
development of the Central Asian States. In this
context, I would particularly like to draw Members’
attention to the multilateral initiative to establish a
trans-Afghan transport corridor, which would provide
landlocked nations that encounter difficulties in
accessing world markets with new access to seaports.
Undoubtedly, the implementation of this project would
boost trade and economic ties and fundamentally
change geopolitical and economic realities in the
region.
We believe it is high time for relevant United
Nations agencies, above all the United Nations
Development Programme, United Nations Industrial
Development Organization and the Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, to develop
programmes aimed at increasing the volume of aid to
13

the region’s States and Afghanistan for the purpose of
developing transport infrastructure and providing real
support in communications projects.
Secondly, Uzbekistan calls for strict compliance
by all nations with a global nuclear non-proliferation
regime. Today, in our view, the significance of the
initiative of Uzbekistan and other countries of the
region to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in
Central Asia has become paramount. We greatly
appreciate the efforts of Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
and the United Nations Department for Disarmament
Affairs in supporting the expert group, which is
currently working on a draft treaty.
The establishment of the zone is nearly complete,
and, to legitimize it, Uzbekistan calls on all permanent
Security Council members to develop a consolidated
position with the region’s States on the provisions of
the draft treaty and its protocol.
Thirdly, Central Asia is facing a wide-scale
assault by international drug cartels, which are using
the destructive power of international terrorism to
protect drug routes. Under these conditions, there is a
need for concerted efforts and effective international
programmes under the auspices of the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime.
We believe that the establishment in Tashkent of
the regional information and coordination centre to
combat transboundary crime, proposed by President
Islam Karimov during the visit of Secretary-General to
Uzbekistan last October, could become a tangible
contribution by the United Nations. We count on the
support of the United Nations and donor countries in
making this initiative a reality.
Today, the United Nations faces the need to adapt
its mechanisms to the realities of the new world,
which, we think, is dependent upon the prompt
completion of the process of reform of the
Organization. There is an urgent need to reorganize the
Security Council so that it reflects current realities. An
expanded Security Council should include both
developed and developing nations. We reiterate our call
for inclusion of Germany and Japan in the Security
Council as permanent members.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the
principally new approaches taken by the United
Nations to the realities and prospects of Central Asia
will ultimately meet the fundamental interests of the
entire world community. I am confident that this
session will give new momentum to the joint efforts of
Member States to counter the threats and challenges of
global and regional security.


On behalf of
the Government of the Republic of San Marino, let me
congratulate Mr. Julian Hunte on his election to the
presidency of the fifty-eighth session of the General
Assembly. His election brings us great satisfaction
since he also represents a small country, Saint Lucia,
like ours.
I also wish to express my country’s appreciation
for the fruitful work and remarkable abilities of former
Assembly President Jan Kavan. It has been a privilege
for us to cooperate with him.
I cannot start my speech without mentioning the
cowardly attacks on the United Nations offices in
Baghdad, which took a heavy toll of lives including
that of Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative
of the United Nations Secretary-General in Iraq.
On behalf of the Government and people of San
Marino, I take this opportunity to reiterate our most
sincere condolences to the Secretary-General and the
families of the victims. Furthermore, we would like to
express our deep appreciation to the United Nations for
the fundamental role it is playing in Iraq during this
difficult transition period for the Iraqi people. The
necessary conditions for social and economic
development will be established only through security
and stability, independence and democracy, the rule of
law and respect for human rights.
In light of the above, I wish to express the hope
that the transitional Iraqi Governing Council,
welcomed and supported by the Security Council, may
operate efficiently so that Iraq can fully enjoy its right
to self-determination, its own sovereignty and establish
a democratic and representative Government,
internationally recognized and able to guarantee the
conditions necessary for the country’s reconstruction.
We also hope that the United Nations may further
strengthen its active humanitarian and civil role in
favour of the Iraqi population, so as to contribute to the
rebirth of that nation through democracy and
development. We hope that all countries cooperating in
Iraq to improve security and order, under the aegis of
the United States of America, after assuring a decisive
contribution to the liberation of the country from the
previous regime, will reach an agreement with this
Organization.
To this end, the drafting of a new Security
Council resolution, the outcome of a lively debate that
is going on now, would be a major political and
diplomatic achievement. It would definitely pave the
way to democracy and progress in Iraq and embody the
will of many different Governments under the aegis of
the United Nations.
29

In line with its tradition of solidarity, and as
demonstrated in recent years through its support of
humanitarian projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Kosovo, the Middle East and in several African
countries, often in the context of ad hoc programmes
and United Nations special missions, my country will
be pleased to contribute to the reconstruction process in
Iraq. For the achievement of this objective, the
forthcoming conference on the reconstruction of Iraq is
particularly interesting.
The tragic, painful and unforgettable events of 11
September 2001 have also marked the proliferation of
international terrorism and the escalation of terrorist
attacks.
Today’s gathering in this important forum is a
clear indication of our country’s position and its
significance is increased by the universal character of
this meeting.
The creation of the United Nations nearly 60
years ago, at the end of Second World War, attested to
a unanimous desire for lasting peace and justice. I
believe that at the beginning of the third millennium it
is the responsibility of the Organization to reflect
effectively the will of States to fulfil that original
commitment and keep its original spirit alive through
dialogue, mediation and cooperation. Conscious of this,
San Marino reaffirms its decision to reject all forms of
terrorism and to contribute fully to its defeat, as
testified to by the Republic’s accession to several
international instruments of the United Nations and
European organizations.
Likewise, San Marino has promptly followed up on
Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) and will continue
to monitor terrorism at the national level, as can be noted
by the implementation of the guidelines to combat the
phenomenon of terrorism and its related aspects.
Unfortunately, it is evident that terrorism, aside
from being inspired by fanaticism and fundamentalism,
is too often linked to underdevelopment and injustice;
their victims can, in turn, become instruments of
violence and oppression. However, terrorism can also
be countered through the active support of international
cooperation programmes to overcome disparities,
poverty, discrimination, the violation of the rights of
individuals and peoples, a total absence of opportunities,
and, as a result, hopelessness, in particular among the
young, who are the future of mankind.
Our collective efforts to restore favourable
conditions for dialogue and mutual acceptance must
not be weakened by the growing concern of persistent,
serious obstacles to the road map for peace in the
Middle East, where negotiations and agreements are
being jeopardized by renewed terrorist attacks, hatred
and retaliation. We are convinced that the Israeli and
Palestinian peoples must be ensured the indisputable
right to live freely in their own territory, where they
can exercise their full sovereignty in security and peace.
The success of the globalization process under
way will ultimately depend on achieving peace and
development for all. Within the framework of effective
global cooperation, the role played by San Marino is
inextricably linked to its tradition of freedom,
independence and democracy. Those principles, which
have characterized the Republic’s 1700 years of existence,
continue to inspire its international policy today.
In 1854 San Marino became the first European
country to ban the death penalty. My country believes
that this issue, which is so important and topical, must
remain a top priority for the General Assembly, even
though it is not on the agenda for this session.
In the field of human rights, the ethics of
diversity requires the acceptance of the human
condition. In that spirit, San Marino has followed with
special attention the negotiations within the working
group for the drafting of an international convention on
the rights of persons with disabilities.
San Marino continues to pay great attention to the
follow-up given to initiatives on HIV/AIDS being
carried out by the United Nations and to the search for
adequate responses so as to prevent the spread of new
epidemics such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS). San Marino is also following with great
interest the work of the working group for the drafting
of an international convention against the reproductive
cloning of human beings, spurred by the conviction
that the cloning of human beings is an immoral and
inhuman degeneration of biotechnological development
and that such an abhorrent practice would be contrary
to human dignity. The important ethical and moral
implications of this issue cannot be separated from
purely scientific questions. We hope that the United
Nations will continue to strive for the protection of the
fundamental rights of human beings.
Additionally, in the area of human rights, San
Marino recently extended a standing invitation to the
30

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights to visit the Republic whenever
necessary in order better to carry out its mandate.
I wish to recall that San Marino was the first
Western European country to ratify the Statute of the
International Criminal Court, confident that the Court
would satisfy the widespread desire for justice and put
an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the most
serious crimes against the international community as a
whole. Let me also express our best wishes to the
Court, which is composed of authoritative judges, and
convey our hope that it will now be able to work in
accordance with the objectives of justice, security and
peace on which it is based. We are confident its work
will be fruitful and that it will always act independently
and impartially.
All the objectives set out in the Millennium
Declaration could be achieved if an additional $50 billion
per year were granted for development assistance, at a
time when global military expenditures total $850 billion.
We also wish to express our appreciation for the positive
achievements of United Nations peacekeeping missions
deployed to many areas of the world afflicted by
conflicts. Such results should encourage Governments
to increase their support for those missions, which
promote lasting, sustainable peace and the re-
establishment of democracy and the rule of law.
San Marino will continue to participate in joint
action for the total elimination of anti-personnel mines.
In that context, San Marino urges countries that have
not yet done so to accede to the Ottawa Convention.
The tenth anniversary of the International Year of
the Family in 2004 will provide further incentive to
reflect on and analyse the living conditions of our
populations, paying particular attention to children, the
elderly and the most vulnerable in our societies. Such
groups deserve greater consideration from society.
Society must promote effective projects for education,
solidarity and adequate support.
Only a few days ago, the United Nations
Committee on the Rights of the Child reviewed San
Marino’s initial report on its implementation of the
provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child. The relevant measures now in force will soon be
supplemented by new ones in support of the family.
In underlining the validity of the reform
programme started by the Secretary-General, we deem
it necessary to continue efforts to reform the General
Assembly, which is the most representative body of our
Organization. Indeed, the Assembly should enjoy
greater authority. We hope that agreement can also be
reached on Security Council reform, and San Marino
reiterates its support for the inclusion of a larger
number of non-permanent members, in order to make
the Council more representative and democratic.
Let me stress once again my country’s
appreciation for and commitment to activities carried
out by the United Nations in building a world of peace,
solidarity and development.
It is in that spirit that this morning I signed three
important international instruments: the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,
recently adopted at the fifty-sixth Assembly of the World
Health Organization and the Second Optional Protocol to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, aimed at abolishing the death penalty.
We need to continue our action at the international
level despite all the difficulties and tensions that exist,
bearing in mind that our joint efforts are essential to
finding a solution to the emergencies and concerns of
today. Bringing about the necessary changes, we will
be able to reconfirm the validity of the basic principles
of this Organization. We will responsibly set the
conditions for our future and thus meet the
expectations of our peoples and our hearts.
While expressing my best wishes to you, Mr
President, to the Secretary-General and to all United
Nations officers, as well as to all Member States. I
assure them that San Marino will be at their side in
meeting all of these challenges.


Let me congratulate you, Sir,
on your election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at its fifty-eighth session. I am confident that
your leadership as well as your vast political and
diplomatic experience will successfully carry us
through this session. We extend to your predecessor, Mr.
Jan Kavan, our sincere appreciation for the excellent
manner in which he guided the work of the General
Assembly at its fifty-seventh session, which just ended.
Our meeting today is overshadowed by the death
of Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and
of 22 other United Nations workers, who were killed in
the line of duty in Baghdad on 19 August 2003.
I join my colleagues in extending my personal
condolences and those of my Government and of the
people of Zimbabwe to Secretary-General Kofi Annan
and the bereaved families. Against this tragedy and the
inauspicious developments in Iraq, we cannot allow
ourselves to treat this session as merely routine. At the
heart of the tragedy in that nation is the unprecedented
assault on the ethic and function of multilateralism in
world affairs represented by the Security Council, the
only guarantor of global peace, order and security.
Some powerful Western nations, led by the
Government of the United States of America and the
Government of Britain, went into a war of unclear
objectives in the face of clear opposition from the rest
of the world, and, as we now know, with clear
opposition from their own people as well.
It was and remains an unjust, illegitimate war —
unjust to the extent that it was founded and prosecuted
on false words; illegitimate to the extent that it was not
sanctioned by the United Nations and has transformed
itself into an effective occupation of a sovereign
people.
There can never be world peace under conditions
of foreign invasion and occupation. There can never be
world security and order when naked power suspends,
and substitutes with unilateralism, the hallowed
principle of multilateralism, on the basis of which we
have made, kept, preserved and expanded peace since
the Second World War. We tell the General Assembly
that as a people from a continent that has suffered a
similar fate in recent history; indeed, as a people who
had to overthrow foreign imperial occupation through
costly struggles.
2

It is a strange logic that the Iraqis pay for a bad
president, a bad government and a bad war by
occupation and loss of their sovereignty. Let us state
here quite clearly to both Britain and the United States
that the Iraqi people must have the sovereign right to
determine the affairs of their country restored
immediately. Like all peoples of the world, their love
for freedom and self-rule is just as strong and just as
deep as their hatred for bad leadership and bad
government. Like all peoples of the world, they are
unwilling to be occupied and governed by a foreign
coalition, however willing and powerful it may be. No
people want that, and we of Africa know it.
We must reject the present road map of naked
unilateralism for consent-oriented statecraft in world
affairs. What is the future of the world without the
United Nations? We hope the coalition that willingly
went to war with Iraq without Security Council
sanction is now willing to admit that defeating others is
not always the same as winning peace and that wars are
ended not by proclamations, but by just settlements.
Indeed, we hope that they have learned from their
costly mistakes and are willing to let the United
Nations reassert its authority in the broader search for
peace and security in Iraq.
If we are to overcome crises that could result in
calamitous wars and social breakdowns, and to achieve
peace and stability with justice, we need humane global
governance under the leadership of the United Nations,
as distinct from a unilateral global state and
government. Only that type of governance can make
and build peace, and indeed keep peace for mankind.
Let it not be said that Zimbabwe enjoys
criticizing the United States and Britain for the sake of
criticism. Our criticisms are founded on sound,
fundamental principles. Let it not be forgotten that
Zimbabwe was in the chair when the Security Council
authorized the first Gulf War. We stood firmly then by
the United Nations and the countries, including the
United States and Britain, that removed Iraq from
Kuwait. We did so on the basis that expansionism and
occupation of a sovereign country and people cannot be
right, can never be just and warranted under any
circumstances. We admired the deployment of power to
just ends, under the auspices of the United Nations. It
is the absence of the same ingredients that explains our
indignation and our sharp censure of the so-called
coalition of the willing that does not seem to recognize
that both the Iraqis and the world are unwilling to
sanction the means employed and the end achieved.
The inadequacies of existing international
institutions in dealing with present challenges is a sad
testimony to their flawed foundational conceptions
amidst changing circumstances. We have anachronistic
institutions relying too comfortably on traditional
norms to address new challenges. Decades after the
defeat of Nazi Germany, does the world still need to
rely on a system founded on the principle of rewarding
the allied Powers for defeating Nazi Germany and
thereby bringing post-world war peace?
At its foundation, the United Nations collective
system allowed two classes of response. If a minor
Power committed aggression and there was unanimity
among the five permanent members of the Security
Council, a collective response could follow. However,
if a permanent member was opposed to such action it
could use its veto. In historical terms, that approach
represents the institutionalization of a particular form
of world order, namely, the immediate post-1945 world
order, which sought to reward and empower the allied
Powers as the only competent stewards of world peace.
But the world has changed a great deal since then. Just
as many new nations have emerged since then, the
allied Powers have also evolved in ways that easily
make them actors of injustice, and therefore threats to
world peace. Global power is now unipolar.
The reality today is that we cannot treat the
United Nations system as given. The institutional
arrangements in place were relevant only for a
specified period, and must inevitably be adapted,
transformed or even radically modified as material
circumstances have changed and prevailing meanings,
practices and purposes have been challenged by new
inter-subjective voices. In today’s unipolar world, what
can the Security Council do to one of its permanent
members whose actions threaten world peace?
At a time when citizens everywhere are pressing
for a greater say in national governance, it is
imperative for us as heads of State and Government to
seek, in turn, a fairer representation through the
democratization of multilateral organizations such as
the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions and
the World Trade Organization. What is good for the
goose must surely be good for the gander. The present
autocracy in global governance must be challenged
stoutly so that all nations, big or small, have an equal
3

say and equal power in the way in which we govern
world affairs.
The Security Council just has to democratize, and
that means re-examining its composition and the way
in which power is distributed, and therefore exercised,
within that crucial body. I am happy that the Secretary-
General’s current report entitled “Implementation of
the United Nations Millennium Declaration”, is in
agreement with our concerns that
“The composition of the Security Council —
unchanged in its essentials since 1945 — seems
at odds with the geopolitical realities of the
twenty-first century.” [A/58/323, para. 96]
In the light of that stark reality, it is evident that the
decisions of the Security Council, which have a decisive
impact on events in the real world, increasingly lack
legitimacy in the eyes of the developing world.
Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, popularly known as the World Bank,
whose raison d’être was to provide assistance to the
developing world, have succumbed to the whims and
caprices of the major Powers. The Bretton Woods
institutions, in their current form and practice, are
designed to deny developing countries the capacity to
chart their independent developmental path. The
extraneous conditionalities of the Bretton Woods
institutions, imposed by the powerful countries for the
qualification or disqualification of beneficiaries, are
intended to further the national interests of the big
Powers and to justify wanton interference in the affairs
of small nations.
Is it not a baffling irony that a small country like
Zimbabwe, which, after it responded positively to a
distress call by a neighbour suffering aggression —
even by United Nations reckoning — was deemed
ineligible to access IMF and World Bank funding for
the very reason of having gone to the rescue of that
neighbour? One hopes that the new, recent realization
by the World Bank that land reforms are at the heart of
poverty eradication mark the beginning of a new
outlook on its part.
Notwithstanding that determined and resolute
attempt at frustrating our land-reform programme, the
fast-track phase through which we reasserted our
sovereign right over our land as a principal resource is
largely concluded, and is now yielding tangible
benefits to the vast majority of our people. There is a
new sense of empowerment, yielding a happy sense of
ownership, which has brought thousands upon thousands
of hitherto marginalized families back into the economic
mainstream. Zimbabwe’s National Economic Revival
Programme gives clear priority to agriculture as the
engine for economic revival and growth. We are
forging ahead on the basis of our own efforts and
support from nations of good will. We are determined to
move on and succeed. A land review committee recently
set up by my Government to assess the whole reform
programme has now submitted its findings, which will
help us in mapping the way forward to achieve
sustainable development in the agricultural sector, in
line with the criteria and objectives we set ourselves.
In the area of world trade, Zimbabwe believes in
a multilateral trading system that serves well all
members of the trading nations. It is therefore a matter
of some grave regret that the developing countries of
the South and those of the developed North could not
reconcile their differences, and thus rendered
inconclusive the Cancún mid-term review of the World
Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Development
Agenda. We in the South were right to reject the
so-called new issues that the North insisted be
negotiated first. We urge the North to engage in honest
negotiations and to desist from trying to use the WTO
forum for hegemonic ends.
Zimbabwe and other countries in the subregion
continue to grapple with the effects of the HIV/AIDS
scourge. To combat the epidemic, my Government has
declared HIV/AIDS a national emergency. We have
embarked on a national programme of prevention, the
highlight of which consists of mass mobilization to
deepen awareness and understanding of the disease. As
a result of that campaign, our infection rate in the
sexually active 15 to 49 age group has come down
from 35 per cent to 24 per cent. Through our national
efforts, the AIDS levy has to date raised $8 billion.
That money is being distributed through a
decentralized structure that ensures accessibility right
down to the village level. We call upon the
international community to complement our efforts.
The situation in the Middle East remains grave
and troubled. A conflict that is quite costly on both
sides of the divide continues unabated, with the only
response from the international community coming by
way of episodic judgements that maldistribute blame
on the basis of individual national interests. Especially
4

wrong is the belief that settlement can come only through
ostracizing and even eliminating the leadership of the
Palestinian people. Assassinations and extrajudicial
killings must be rejected as a formula for peace.
Zimbabwe welcomes the measures adopted by the
Security Council aimed at strengthening the peace process
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are
encouraged by the increase, under a Chapter VII mandate,
of the force levels of the United Nations Organization
Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as
well as by the imposition of a 12-month arms embargo
over areas in the troubled eastern part of the Congo.
We also urge the international community to rally
behind the peace initiative of the Economic Community
of West African States aimed at bringing peace to Liberia.
The transition to peace in Liberia has confirmed that, with
international goodwill and support, African solutions to
African problems are possible. To strengthen the peace
process, we call upon the international community to
address the humanitarian crisis facing the Liberian
people as a result of a debilitating civil war.
My country remains committed to playing a
positive role in peacekeeping efforts carried out under
the auspices of the United Nations. Indeed, we have so
far played our part fully and magnificently.