Let me first associate
myself with the statement of my colleague, the Finnish
Minister for Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the European
Union.
Let me also, Mr. President, congratulate you on your
election. Denmark's relations with Namibia and with you
personally go back to long before your country's
independence. I am therefore particularly gratified to see
you in this position.
In my statement today, I should like to dwell upon the
responsibility of the international community, including, of
course, the United Nations, for human security and
development. We live in an ever more globalized world.
Almost every day we are confronted with new challenges
that must be met. Distance or ignorance of events no longer
provides a sense of security.
Close international cooperation is needed to meet the
challenges. But paradoxically, although the challenges are
global, policy-making and institutions still remain
predominantly national in focus and scope.
Increasingly we see internal conflicts and blatant
violations of human rights and humanitarian law pose a
special and serious kind of threat. Terrorism, drug-
trafficking and international crime also thrive in a
globalized world.
The international community must possess the means
and display the resolve to confront such challenges. Our
fundamental concerns about human security and human
development cannot be met only in a domestic context.
I should like to illustrate these concerns, first, in
relation to the Kosovo and East Timor crises and, secondly,
with regard to international development cooperation.
Kosovo and East Timor raised serious questions with
regard to the classic concepts of State sovereignty, the
respect for human rights and the non-use of force in
international relations. How do these concepts interrelate?
How do they relate to our concern for human security?
And what does the interrelationship mean for the role and
responsibility of the United Nations and for the Security
Council?
The first point to be made is that the international
community cannot be idle in the face of gross and
systematic violations of human rights. Nor can we stand
idly by if the United Nations and its representatives, who
have assisted a people in exercising its right to self-
determination, are trampled on.
International law finds itself at a crossroads. We
have spent the last 50 years developing an impressive
body of human rights law, applicable in time of peace as
well as during armed conflict, starting with the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Indeed, there is no shortage
of rules. What is lacking is effective implementation of
existing rules, in the very last resort through the use of
force.
We must now aim at enforcement in order to
provide assistance, regardless of frontiers, to the victims
of human rights violations. We must show resolve in
promoting respect for the rule of law and for the
institutions called upon to uphold the rule of law. A broad
spectrum of actions is available; the choice of action must
depend on the problem we face. The thorny question is
whether and when to use military force in the face of an
emerging humanitarian catastrophe, such as a planned
ethnic cleansing or downright genocide.
It cannot be emphasized too often that a negotiated
settlement must remain the primary and ultimate goal of
any conflict solution. If, however, all attempts at securing
a peaceful solution fail or are brushed aside, the question
of whether to use force in one form or another arises.
This brings the United Nations Security Council to the
forefront. The Council has the primary responsibility for
maintaining international peace and security. It has carried
out its functions as foreseen in the United Nations Charter
in a much more effective and innovative way since the
end of the cold war. I am referring, in particular, to the
conflicts in relation to Iraq, Bosnia, Haiti, and Albania. A
main challenge for the Security Council remains that of
reacting effectively against gross and systematic violations
of human rights conducted against an entire population.
36

The Council has interpreted its competence under
Chapter VII of the Charter to cover humanitarian situations
that shock the conscience of mankind. This augurs well for
the victims of brutal oppression and ill for the dictators of
today. Oppressors of whole peoples, mass murderers and
ethnic cleansers can no longer invoke the shield of national
sovereignty. Nor can they expect impunity. The
international community has a responsibility to act in the
face of a humanitarian tragedy such as the one we
witnessed in Kosovo and the one we are witnessing in East
Timor.
Unfortunately, the Council was not able to live up to
its responsibilities concerning the ethnic cleansing in
Kosovo. Should the paralysis of the Council lead to blind
acceptance? No; the international community could not
stand idly by and watch, while the principle of State
sovereignty was misused in Kosovo to violate international
humanitarian law.
In this serious situation the decision to launch the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization campaign was legitimate
and justified. It opened the way to a political solution,
bringing the United Nations back into a central role.
In East Timor we were faced with widespread,
organized atrocities against a civilian population exercising
its right to self-determination. In addition, the risk of total
disregard for the United Nations was looming. Fortunately,
the Security Council was not paralysed. Pressure from the
international community brought about action. An
agreement was reached to deploy a multinational force.
We welcome this development.
We urge the Indonesian Government to cooperate fully
with the multinational force. In the meantime, the
Indonesian Government remains responsible for the security
of the population. It must make it possible for the
humanitarian organizations to provide assistance for the
large number of displaced persons in East Timor.
We all share the responsibility for enabling the
international community to address these issues and for
enabling the United Nations to act. Where force has to be
resorted to, we have to look to countries possessing that
capability. In practical terms, this means that we often have
to rely upon countries and organizations in the region.
The Security Council must do its utmost to live up to
its primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace,
security and humanitarian decency — a primary
responsibility that all the Member States have vested in
the Security Council in accordance with Article 24 of the
Charter.
The Council's permanent members should apply the
veto only in matters of vital importance, taking into
account their unique responsibility for the interests of the
United Nations as a whole. And they should state on what
grounds they consider such a situation to be present.
The Secretary-General has said,
“any armed intervention is itself a result of the
failure of prevention”. (A/54/PV.4)
I agree with the Secretary-General that conflict prevention
and resolution must be given the highest possible priority
in international relations. It should be carried out on the
basis of a common resolve to secure human rights for all.
The United Nations constitutes a needed and valuable tool
to this end.
Conflict resolution must, of course, not become only
a question of the use of force. Let me point to two
important aspects of the post-conflict situation. First,
those who are responsible for war crimes and crimes
against humanity must be brought to justice. The creation
of the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and
Rwanda were important first steps towards establishing an
effective international legal order based upon democratic
values and the rule of law. The work of the tribunals has
underlined the need for a permanent international criminal
court designed to bring to justice those who have
committed crimes of the most heinous kind. The
prospects for lasting peace and reconciliation are severely
undermined if war criminals and the like remain at large.
The historic adoption last year in Rome of a statute
for a permanent international criminal court is a landmark
contribution to restoring the rule of law and ending
impunity. Although not perfect, the Rome Statute
provides a satisfactory basis for an effective and credible
court. We urge all States to ratify the Statute as early as
possible in order to put this historic building block in
place. Denmark intends to ratify in the spring of the year
2000.
Secondly, post-conflict assistance must be provided
to the societies split by civil strife or war. Denmark is
ready to do its part. With respect to the western Balkans,
we initially provided assistance to refugees and for their
safe return. Now we are gradually turning to assistance in
37

reconstruction and rebuilding of both physical and social
infrastructure. A plan of action for Denmark's support in
this respect has been drawn up. The plan expects Danish
funds in the order of $100 million dollars to be used in the
region in 1999 and around $120 million dollars in the year
2000.
The reconstruction of Kosovo is important. It includes
the establishment of a well-functioning civil administration.
The United Nations family and many non-governmental
organizations are undertaking important tasks which deserve
our full support. All parties must strive to heal the wounds
of conflict.
International relations and international cooperation are
not based on a one-issue agenda. Certain issues may grab
and almost monopolize the headlines for a while. In Europe
we have to deal with the Balkans. But we must not neglect
the other important issues on the international agenda, in
particular international development cooperation and the
struggle for the eradication of poverty.
In a world where a third of the population of
developing countries earns less than $1 per day, where 30
per cent of all children under five in those countries are
underweight, where 14 per cent of the population will not
attain the age of 40, where financial crisis has led to a
major setback in poverty reduction — in such a world
development cooperation must remain an integral part of
the effort of the international community to promote and
protect human security and human development.
The international community must acknowledge its
share of the responsibility for making the opportunities of
globalization available to all. Globalization must not
become identical with protected and selective prosperity.
Eradication of poverty is an essential goal in its own
right. Furthermore, poverty is an important cause of
conflict. And again, violent conflict may undo the results of
decades of development. Development cooperation,
therefore, constitutes an effective crisis-prevention effort for
the long term.
International development cooperation must be based
on the fulfilment as soon as possible of the agreed target of
0.7 per cent of gross domestic product for official
development assistance and on implementing the decisions
of the big United Nations conferences of recent years with
regard to human and social development, eradication of
poverty, sustainable development and gender equality. The
follow-up conferences to the Beijing conference and, in the
year 2000, to the Copenhagen summit are important
events requiring our full attention.
Denmark stands by these commitments. We will
continue our policy of contributing 1 per cent of our gross
national product to official development assistance.
Poverty reduction is the prime goal of our development
cooperation programmes. In addition, we are providing
funding to help address global problems in the field of the
environment as well as peacekeeping and conflict
prevention. These grants will grow in the coming years,
reaching half of 1 per cent of gross domestic product by
the year 2005, thus bringing Denmark's total contribution
to international assistance to 1.5 per cent of gross
domestic product.
Creating an enabling environment for development
is a challenge, first of all for developing countries
themselves. Reforms cannot be imposed from the outside.
If they are to succeed, local ownership and local roots are
essential. Official development assistance has an essential
role to play in helping the poorest countries, particularly
in Africa. Official development assistance also assists in
building up the sectors that do not attract private
investment: health, education, the social sectors and
capacity-building in general. In this way, countries may
also, eventually, become able to attract private investment
and to avail themselves of the opportunities of
international trade.
In this context, it is deplorable to see official
development assistance reaching its lowest point ever.
Honouring the commitments of official development
assistance entered into internationally by industrialized
countries has become a question of credibility. It is also
a question of the effectiveness of the multilateral system.
The United Nations system cannot perform the tasks we
ask of it if we deny it the necessary means. The
downward trend of official development assistance must
be reversed and a higher share should be multilateral.
Many poor countries are crippled with debt
hampering their development. We therefore welcome the
proposals to improve the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
Debt (HIPC) Initiative. We are, however, disappointed by
the lack of progress in financing the Initiative. We appeal
to the major donor countries to live up to their
responsibilities following the debt declaration of the
Cologne summit.
Besides aid, not instead of aid, developing countries
need trade. In the forthcoming new global trade round,
38

every effort must be made to ensure better market access
for developing countries and to enhance their real capacity
to take part in international trade.
The pursuit of human security and human development
are not two independent paths. They are interrelated.
Without economic and social development, it makes no
sense to talk about human security. Where security does not
exist, there will be no sustainable development. When
violent conflict erupts, the results of decades of
development may be undone in a very short time. We must
uphold the importance of both concerns and we must
emphasize that they are a national as well as an
international responsibility.
We thus face a major challenge at the threshold of the
next millennium — a challenge we should give proper
attention to at the Millennium Assembly next year.


I should like to
take this opportunity to congratulate you, Sir, on your well-
deserved election to the presidency of the fifty-fourth
session of the General Assembly and to convey to you, on
behalf of the people and Government of Guinea, my
warmest congratulations. I am convinced that our Assembly
stands to gain a great deal from your leadership and from
your wealth of experience.
I would like also to pay tribute to your predecessor,
Mr. Didier Opertti of Uruguay, for his commendable efforts
to advance the process of the reform of our Organization.
Finally, allow me to convey my sincere
congratulations and words of encouragement to Mr. Kofi
Annan, who, since taking the helm of our Organization, has
worked tirelessly to make of it a catalyst and a unique
framework for nations to work together. We share that
conviction and would like to assure him of our unflagging
support in that respect.
The present-day world is characterized by a rapid
evolution that has taken the form of profound political,
economic and social changes. Those changes have had an
impact on peace, international security and development.
The quest for peace and for a new and more
equitable international order has become the major
concern of our age. The United Nations cannot insulate
itself from these changes. Its effectiveness will depend on
its ability to re-adapt itself to today's realities.
The reform of the United Nations, the maintenance
of international peace and security, disarmament, the fight
against poverty and the strengthening of international
cooperation — all of these matters will require our
attention and energy in the third millennium.
I am certain, therefore, that the Assembly will agree
that the events taking place today clearly show the need
to reform the United Nations.
All the arguments favour such a change as a means
of strengthening the United Nations system and
democratizing its main bodies, particular the Security
Council, to make it into an authentic tool in the service
peace and development for all. Our position on these
issues is in accordance with that of the African Group as

set forth at the thirty-fifth summit of the Organization of
African Unity (OAU) in Algiers. The new make-up of the
Security Council must fully reflect present-day realities
through the equitable geographic representation of every
region of the world.
The increasing number of conflicts is undermining the
foundations of international peace and security and
dangerously compromising the development efforts of our
States. In this respect, I am sure the Assembly agrees that
there can be no development without a consistent political
commitment on the part of our States to peace and
disarmament. That is why my delegation believes that any
sign of indifference or silence on the part of the
international community when confronted with the spectre
of violence and the use of weapons of mass destruction can
prove fatal for international peace and security.
As in the past, the Republic of Guinea can neither
remain silent nor conceal its concern with regard to the
increasing number of areas of tension and conflict
throughout the world, particularly in Africa. Indeed, more
than two thirds of the items currently on the agenda of the
Security Council relate to critical situations in Africa.
However, despite these difficult circumstances, our
continent has courageously taken its destiny into its own
hands by creating, under the auspices of the OAU, a
Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and
Resolution. With the assistance of the United Nations, this
mechanism should be able to play a major role in
maintaining peace on the continent.
Africa needs international cooperation if it is to make
this instrument fully effective, given the breadth and
complexity of the task that it must undertake. For some 10
years, West Africa has been particularly tested by the
fratricidal wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau.
They have had very serious consequences for those
countries, which have become fields of desolation and
whose reconstruction will require the assistance of the
international community for a long time to come.
In this context, particular attention should be paid to
the unfortunate young people in those countries. Tens of
thousands of adolescents have been dragged into those
wars, and now they are skilled only at fighting. It is
essential to provide for and ensure their economic and
social integration so as to prevent them from becoming
easy prey to the warlords who are laying waste to the
region.
The consequences of the conflicts and tensions in the
neighbouring countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and
Guinea-Bissau have affected Guinea in many ways and
significantly impeded the achievement of its development
targets. My country has provided asylum to several
hundred thousands of refugees, whose presence in our
land has had a very serious impact on its economy,
environment and security. The impact of the refugees and
the burden they represent for the country in general, and
for the host populations in particular, have been
enormous, making Guinea one of the leading countries of
asylum in the world, since the high proportion of refugees
makes up more than one tenth of its population.
This situation has affected the ability of the
Government to achieve its priority development objectives
because of the tremendous unforeseen expenses that
Guinea has had to bear and will continue to have to bear
in order to restore peace, security and stability in the
subregion, together with the other States members of the
Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS).
Despite the support of the international community
in the face of these crises and conflicts that are
convulsing our continent, it is regrettable to note the
discriminatory way in which Africa is treated in dealing
with the refugee problem. We should like here to
welcome the gratifying initiative of the United Nations to
make the Republic of Guinea the focal point of stability
in the subregion.
In this connection, a solidarity conference to
strengthen Guinea's stability and efforts for sustainable
development will soon be held in Brussels. My country,
which has high expectations of that meeting, would like
to appeal to all donors to increase their support for the
efforts of the Government of Guinea to deal with the
socio-economic consequences of the massive presence of
refugees in our territory.
I should like to reiterate to the Secretary-General,
Mr. Kofi Annan, the sincere gratitude of the people of
Guinea for his recent visit to our country, and I am
pleased to be able solemnly to pay tribute to his personal
action to mobilize the international community for the
benefit of Guinea.
The subregion of West Africa is not the only one
that has suffered from war. We remain deeply concerned
by the fratricidal struggles that are convulsing Central
Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo and Angola; those conflicts continue to be at the
forefront of the international political scene. While
deploring the situation, which is a threat to the stability of
our continent, I should like here to call on all the parties
concerned to give a chance to the negotiation and mediation
efforts under way in various places so that those crises can
be overcome. I congratulate the United Nations and the
Organization of African Unity and encourage them to
pursue their initiatives and concrete actions aimed at
restoring peace in those countries.
Today more than ever, the Middle East needs peace
and security. Such a peace can be built only with mutual
confidence and the desire to live together, with respect for
the rights and the dignity of all the peoples of the region.
That is why we welcome the recent developments in the
Middle East, particularly in Israel. The hopes that have
been raised should not be dashed.
In Yugoslavia, the advent of peace requires tolerance
and respect for the territorial integrity and the right to
coexistence of all the various parts of that nation. The
establishment of a true State based on the rule of law is the
only way of guaranteeing the reconstruction of the country,
with the assistance of the international community.
Another subject of major concern to Africa is that of
economic matters and international cooperation. Here we
must acknowledge that efforts to date have not yielded the
results we had hoped for in meeting the needs and
aspirations of our peoples. An in-depth, comprehensive,
proactive approach to development problems, as defined at
the Second Tokyo International Conference on African
Development, deserves the support and assistance of the
international community. Unfortunately, one of the essential
elements of such cooperation — the North-South dialogue
so eagerly sought by our countries — remains at an
impasse. All the while, disparities between the rich
countries of the North and the underdeveloped countries of
the South have grown. The arbitrary fixing of prices for
commodities and manufactured goods by the North reduces
to the point of futility the measures that have been proposed
to alleviate the burden of external-debt servicing.
The system of trade too is based on discrimination.
Under the banner of liberalization and free competition,
globalization has had the effect of eroding or even
eliminating preferences providing our commodities with
access to the markets of the North. It is vital to establish
timetables for adaptation and for the provision of alternative
compensation so that our countries can maximize their
potential as participants in world trade. Further, because of
the importance of the fight against poverty in developing
countries, we call upon donor countries to redouble their
efforts to reach the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national
product for official development assistance.
Turning to the crucial question of debt, it is now our
firm conviction that no economic-recovery programme
can have the hoped-for results without a favourable
approach to the backlog of debt burdening African
countries, particularly the most heavily indebted among
them. While my delegation welcomes the recent decisions
taken by the Group of Eight at Cologne, we are
nonetheless concerned that efforts need to be made to
produce a lasting resolution of the debt question. Debt
continues to swallow up the bulk of the resources of poor
countries, particularly those in Africa, whose earnings are
diminishing daily in spite of the great sacrifices made by
our peoples with the adoption of structural adjustment
measures.
We therefore call for the convening of an
international conference on the external debt of Africa
with a view to finding a final solution to this problem;
this would revitalize our ever more fragile economies. I
wish in that connection to say that my country is now
engaged in ongoing dialogue with the Paris Club of
Industrial Country Creditors, the relevant Consultative
Group, and the donor community with a view to
significant rescheduling of our external debt.
Turning to the question of human rights and
democracy, my Government believes that the eradication
of poverty, social inequality and ignorance is a
prerequisite for the promotion of human rights. Even
though we are living through a difficult situation, my
country remains deeply committed to democratic values
and fundamental freedoms and has created all the
necessary institutions for a State based on law; the proper
functioning of these will contribute to our political
stability.
We have been witness to the gradual emergence of
a sense of hope, common destiny and a new partnership
among nations. Such a world vision, however, should not
to cloak our profound concern at a time when humanity
is preparing to cross the threshold of the third
millennium. The international community must do
everything in its power to bring about the triumph of
hope, even if threats to the very existence of the world
persist. If it is to shoulder these responsibilities to the full,
the international community has no choice but to help the
United Nations adapt to the major changes under way in
3

the world and must play its proper role in that world. More
than ever before, mankind must understand that it bears
responsibility for its own future.
In the name of human solidarity, the very fabric of
international cooperation, I call upon all members of this
great world family to make the United Nations a centre for
harmonizing the efforts of the nations of the world, united
in defence of our common destiny: a house in which all our
wills converge resolutely, looking towards the future, and
in which humanity can flourish and be united on the basis
of freedom, justice, peace and prosperity. Long live the
United Nations.


The Bahamas shares the
confidence that the international community has placed in
you, Sir, as the envoy of Namibia and of the continent of
Africa to preside over this fifty-fourth session of the
General Assembly, the last in this twentieth century. My
delegation congratulates you and pledges its full support as
you guide our deliberations at this critical juncture.
My delegation’s congratulations are also extended to
Mr. Didier Opertti, who represented our Latin American
and Caribbean region as President of the fifty-third session.
My delegation wishes to commend the Secretary-
General of the United Nations for his leadership of this
highly complex Organization on which rest the hopes and
aspirations of the world’s peoples and which is our best
prospect for a stable world.
I am pleased on this occasion to warmly welcome the
Kingdom of Tonga, the Republic of Kiribati and the
Republic of Nauru, the United Nations newest Member
States, to this community of nations. These countries add to
the growing number of small island developing States in the
United Nations and underscore the need for the
Organization to increase its efforts in support of this
important constituency.
The United Nations was created with a mandate to
work collectively for a better world, and since its
inception it has contributed to positive developments in
the global arena. However, significant challenges persist.
The agenda of the fifty-fourth session shows that even as
some progress has been made, we will continue at this
session to grapple with many of the thorny issues that
have preoccupied the international community over the
decades. At the same time, new challenges will have to
be addressed.
Recent events in Europe and elsewhere in the world,
spawned by internal conflict, have raised questions as to
whether States fractured by ethnic, religious and other
strife could build national identities to span these divides.
At the same time, they remind us that the greatest care
must be taken in making exceptions to the general
principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of
other States. The Bahamas believes that this principle
remains an important safeguard for international peace
and security.
The Bahamas accepts that internal conflicts create
situations in which the Security Council should act, in
accordance with the Charter. However, we believe that
whenever the United Nations responds to internal
conflicts and threats to regional stability, it must do so
with one and the same degree of urgency, with adequate
resources and with consistency. It is with these
considerations in mind that the Bahamas supports United
Nations efforts to bring peace and stability to areas of
conflict in all regions of the world.
Recent United Nations peace initiatives give us hope
that long-standing and seemingly intractable problems
may have solutions. Indeed, the Bahamas is encouraged
by developments in the Middle East, particularly the
signing this month of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum.
We see these developments as having the potential to end
decades of conflict in that troubled region. If enlightened
self-interest were to prevail in long-standing conflicts
elsewhere in Africa, Asia and Latin America, they too
could be resolved. Global attention could then be turned
towards development and human betterment, as envisaged
in the Charter.
Globalization and trade liberalization are gaining
currency as means of promoting accelerated development
and opening opportunities to bridge the gap between rich
15

and poor. However, concerns are being expressed that the
rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its
dispute settlement mechanisms put the interests of the
strong ahead of the interests of the weak. Indeed, the
anticipated benefits of free trade give little comfort to
Caribbean States and farmers dependent as they are on
bananas for their foreign exchange earnings and their very
livelihood. Where preferential treatment is removed before
Caribbean countries can restructure their economies, severe
hardship results. We therefore believe that all concerned
must make an effort to find a solution to the banana
problem.
We see the new round of WTO negotiations scheduled
to begin in Seattle in November as an invaluable
opportunity for developing countries to have their concerns
incorporated into the discussions. The Bahamas is currently
giving consideration to acquiring observer status in the
WTO. It fully intends to follow the multilateral negotiating
process and to bring its concerns to the table, particularly
in the areas of trade in services and differential treatment
for small economies.
Growth in the economy of the Bahamas is in part
attributable to the services it offers as an offshore financial
centre. The Bahamas is concerned about the action taken
within the international community to inhibit or prevent the
use of offshore centres and to label them, impertinently, as
“harmful” tax jurisdictions. Furthermore, there is a tendency
to treat all offshore jurisdictions as a homogenous group,
which they are most definitely not.
The Bahamas had the opportunity to address the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
on harmful tax practices in August this year in Paris. We
emphasized there that strict regulations and appropriate
legislation, specifically formulated to counter money
laundering and other illegal activities, govern financial
institutions in the Bahamas. The Bahamas is committed to
working with all concerned to address these and related
issues.
In May this year, it was reported to our Parliament
that the economy of the Bahamas was experiencing a
period of dynamism. In 1998, our economy grew some 3
per cent, the unemployment rate was 7.8 per cent and net
foreign investment inflows amounted to $491 million. But
on 14 September 1999, hurricane Floyd struck the
Bahamas, and the entire archipelago felt its impact.
Significant damage was done to the environment,
infrastructure and property. The full implications for the
economy of our country of the relief, recovery and
reconstruction efforts have yet to be calculated.
What happened in the Bahamas underscores the
continuing validity of the Barbados Programme of Action
for the Sustainable Development of Small Island
Developing States, adopted in 1994. We cannot help but
emphasize — as so many States did at the recently
concluded twenty-second special session — how
imperative it therefore remains for the Barbados
Programme of Action to be implemented. It is in this
context that we urge renewed commitment on the part of
all to the search for consensus on the draft resolution on
the recognition of the Caribbean Sea as a special area in
the context of sustainable development.
Together with our Caribbean Community sister
States, the Bahamas has made known our concern
regarding the transhipment of nuclear and hazardous
waste through the Caribbean Sea. Yet these shipments
continue. We reiterate our wish to see these shipments
stopped: they constitute the gravest risk to the fragility of
our marine environment and our economies.
The significant number of reviews issued recently or
expected in the coming months, of the outcomes of
United Nations Conferences on small island developing
States, population and development, social development
and women, attest to the efforts of the United Nations to
meet its economic and social obligations under the
Charter. The Bahamas confidently expects that these
reviews will all confirm that renewed political will and
action are required to meet the goals we set, at a high
level, in Barbados, Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing.
Let me comment briefly on our continuing efforts to
maintain the momentum for gender equality, a subject
which will be taken up in the five-year Beijing review.
Women worldwide continue to break through glass
ceilings. In the Bahamas, for example, women have made
significant strides in Parliament, the judiciary, public
service and business and service organizations. However,
the Bahamas is cognizant that there are still serious
challenges to women’s equality. We are particularly
concerned about the traffic in human beings,
predominantly women and children. The Bahamas intends
to continue its active support, both nationally and
internationally, for efforts to help women realize their
legal rights, attain economic empowerment and rise above
poverty. It is our hope, therefore, that the Beijing review
will result in strategies to further engage the international
community in support of the world’s women.
16

The Bahamas supports the growing consensus on
human rights, which focuses on principles and values
including democracy, good governance and the rule of law.
We also believe that United Nations Member States should
honour the human rights commitments they have made.
The Republic of Haiti is a fledgling democracy
courageously facing significant political, economic and
social challenges. These myriad challenges have resulted in
a sustained influx of illegal immigration from Haiti into the
Bahamas. Together with other illegal immigration,
particularly from other countries in the Caribbean region,
illegal Haitian immigration continues to be a burden to the
socio-economic structures of the Bahamas. We therefore
have a vested interest in the stabilization of Haiti’s
democratic institutions and economy. The Bahamas
participated in a Caribbean Community mission to Haiti in
July of this year; that mission reviewed with the Haitian
Government its preparedness for elections. In so doing, we
signalled our support for the process of free and fair
elections in Haiti. We also fully support the efforts of the
Economic and Social Council and of the General Assembly
for Haiti’s reconstruction and for the strengthening and
furtherance of its democracy.
Last year, at the twentieth special session of the
General Assembly, on the world drug problem, the
international community adopted a new and detailed
programme of measures to enhance the effectiveness of
national, regional and international drug control activities.
Member States must now implement the programme,
particularly by meeting the targets set in the special
session’s concluding documents. For the United Nations
International Drug Control Programme to carry out its
mandate, adequate resources must be allocated to it.
Drug trafficking into and through the Bahamas is a
major threat to our socio-economic development. A
significant proportion of the national budget continues to be
spent on drug law enforcement. I wish to emphasize that
even though we do so at the expense of vital national
programmes, the Bahamas will not relent in its efforts to
overcome the serious challenges posed by drug trafficking
and related criminality. We are particularly concerned about
the traffic in illicit firearms, which appears to be working
in tandem with the drug trade. Further, with the increase in
firearms comes an increase in violent crime committed with
those firearms. We continue to urge greater efforts to
control the illicit manufacture of and trafficking in firearms,
including the ratification and implementation of relevant
international conventions.
The failure to achieve general and complete
disarmament means that serious threats to international
peace and security persist. The production and stockpiling
of chemical, biological and other weapons of mass
destruction exacerbate this situation. The Convention on
the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and
Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their
Destruction, to which the Bahamas is a party, has been a
key success in recent disarmament initiatives. The
Convention demonstrates what can be achieved when
there is unity of purpose in the field of disarmament.
In a constantly changing global environment, United
Nations reform must continue to be a priority to ensure
that the Organization remains relevant to the role
envisaged for it under the Charter. Negotiations on the
multifaceted objective of Security Council reform have
moved at a frustratingly slow pace. It is clear that the
Council must be reformed, and that one of the main
objectives must be its enlargement. This has the support
of the Bahamas. However, in determining criteria for
expanded membership of the Council, consideration must
be given to a mechanism for all Members to enjoy the
privilege of serving thereon.
The Bahamas welcomes the General Assembly’s
decision to convene a millennium summit at the
beginning of the Millennium Assembly. We share the
view that the summit should not be just a
commemoration, but should also be substantive. The
Bahamas wishes to reflect briefly on what the summit’s
approach might include. We see the summit not as a
forum for a restatement of lofty ideals or of the practical
initiatives that were the outcomes of past international
conferences. The millennium summit must be used as a
catalyst that would build, especially, on the outcomes of
those conferences to produce a revitalized international
agenda for the twenty-first century. That agenda should
take into account the accomplishments of the United
Nations system as a whole in the areas of economic and
social development as well as peace and security, and it
should be realistic. From this last perspective, it is the
continued position of the Bahamas that the question of
refugees, for example, should not continue to be divorced
from the broader question of illegal migration.
Under the revitalized agenda, the United Nations
would have improved partnerships with other regional and
international organizations. Such partnerships with
organizations including the Commonwealth, the
Organization of American States and the Caribbean
17

Community would further the coordination of solutions to
problems of a global nature.
The United Nations cannot do what we ask of it unless
it is provided with the necessary resources. The common
values we share, and our determination to find solutions to
the world’s problems, should give us the political will to
build on what the United Nations has accomplished to date.
Thus, the Organization must be assured of funding on a
reliable, predictable and timely basis to carry out the
mandates entrusted to it by its Member States.
The broad range of problems and issues on the United
Nations agenda cannot be solved without investment in
multilateralism and partnerships. It is our responsibility to
make the United Nations a highly effective organization
fully capable of responding to the security, political,
economic and social challenges of the twenty-first century.
The Bahamas pledges its full commitment to play its part
in United Nations efforts to secure a better future for all.


Permit
me first to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the
office of President of the General Assembly at its fifty-
fourth session. I am fully confident that your experience
and skills will bring the work of this session to a
successful conclusion. Please permit me also to express
my deep appreciation and gratitude to your predecessor,
Mr. Didier Opertti, for his magnificent and distinguished
stewardship, which made a success of the last session.
I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the
Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his wise
leadership and outstanding work towards realizing and
emphasizing the goals and principles of the United
Nations and his tireless efforts to achieve peace, security
and stability in the world.
In the last few months of the second millennium,
and as we bid farewell to it and await the dawning of the
third millennium, this session of the General Assembly
takes place at an important historic and symbolic moment,
a moment of mixed emotions. We look back and see that
mankind has achieved great things despite the serious
suffering and pain that have marked the twentieth century.
We look forward with great hope to entering a new era in
which we shall build a more humanitarian world, in
which nations will be able to live in true partnership, with
a sense of belonging to this planet, in a more just and
harmonious way. We shall have an enhanced ability to
cope collectively with the major challenges that confront
us and to respond to changes that require a long-range
global vision. This will increase our ability to provide
answers and solutions to the difficult questions and issues
that face us.
This historic moment is of particular importance in
the life of Jordan, which was engulfed by grief a few
months ago, when it was deprived of its great leader, the
late King Hussein Ibn Talal — may God bless his soul.
He had succeeded in turning Jordan from a small country
with limited resources into an oasis of peace and stability
in a region beset by disturbances and wars. This country
has just begun a new era under the leadership of King
Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein. His Majesty has assumed the
responsibility for continuing, with renewed vigour, to lead
Jordan to progress and prosperity, as we look forward to
ushering in the new century. He is committed also to
Jordan’s continuing to make its important and essential
contribution to the building of peace in the Middle East
and to continuing to contribute generously at the
international level. He strongly believes, as Jordan’s
leaders have always believed, that our country belongs to
30

this international family. Jordan is committed to the Charter
of the United Nations and to the principles of international
law.
Our late leader was a unique international leader, with
an unflinching belief in the role of the United Nations and
in the peaceful settlement of disputes. He expressed his
belief in these principles by working all his life to bring
about a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle
East based on international legitimacy. He did this out of
his strong belief in human dignity, in people’s right to live
free from all forms of injustice and despotism, and out of
an awareness that human life is too precious to be wasted
in confrontations and wars. Human beings have the right to
lead free and dignified lives, channelling all their resources
and energies towards achieving economic and social
development and participating in building a prosperous and
secure future for the generations to come.
The life of our great leader who is, alas, no more, is
the story of the building of modern Jordan. His exceptional
contributions in the international arena were also a rare
example of what can be achieved by a historic leader who
believes in high moral principles and supreme virtues.
Jordanians felt a deep sense of pride and appreciation when
they saw the whole world — leaders and common people
alike — standing side by side with them, sharing their grief
at the loss of the creator of their renaissance and their
modern State. They also felt a deep sense of trust and
confidence in the strength and durability of their
constitutional and institutional structures, which were built
by the late leader of their country and have ensured a stable
and successful beginning to the era of King Abdullah II Bin
Al Hussein, in a way that has won the appreciation and
respect of the world.
Jordanians are rallying today behind their King and
marching behind him on the road to realizing their hopes
and aspirations. Jordan is beginning, under the leadership of
King Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein, a new era with a firm
commitment to following the same course that has
distinguished and will continue to distinguish Jordanian
policy at both the domestic and international levels.
Over the past few months, Jordan has continued its
efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East.
This process had suffered over the past three years from
foot-dragging leading to effective deadlock, all of which
severely tested the confidence of the peoples of the region
in the peace process as a whole. The result of last May’s
parliamentary elections in Israel gave rise to new hopes of
reviving this process and putting it back on track. The
positive developments of the past few weeks show that
the region stands now before a second historic
opportunity to achieve peace on all tracks. We sincerely
hope that the leaders of the region will seize this
opportunity, live up to the expectations and aspirations of
their peoples and not hesitate to take the bold decisions
needed to bring the negotiations to fruition.
The question of Palestine has been and will continue
to be at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the
Middle East crisis. The establishment of peace in the
region therefore requires, first and foremost, that a just
solution should be reached to this question — a solution
with which the peoples of the region will be satisfied and
which they will if need be defend. Jordan has been calling
throughout the past year for the Wye River Memorandum,
which was arrived at with the unprecedented involvement
and assistance of the late King Hussein, to be
implemented. We have been consistently aware of the
impact that implementation of the Memorandum would
have on reactivating the peace process on all tracks, on
establishing confidence and a spirit of partnership
between the Palestinian and Israeli leaderships, and on re-
establishing confidence in the peace process amongst the
peoples of the region. The signing of the Sharm el-Sheikh
Memorandum has enhanced the prospects for
implementing the Wye River Memorandum in a way that
we hope will advance the final status negotiations
between the Palestinians and the Israelis so that a
settlement may be reached that would ensure that the
Palestinian people realize their right to self-determination,
including their right to establish an independent State on
their national territory, with Al-Quds al-Sharif — Holy
Jerusalem — as its capital.
As King Abdullah II has emphasized, Jordan will
continue to provide support for a successful conclusion of
the negotiations. We are directly interested in their
success because the issues on the agenda relate to our
national interest, particularly the issues of the refugees,
the borders and Jerusalem. Over the past 50 years, Jordan,
more than any other party, has shouldered the burden of
the refugee problem. This has put immense pressures on
Jordan’s resources and economy, particularly given that
every reduction in the services provided by the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East (UNRWA) has placed additional burdens
on Jordan. Direct expenditures by the Government of
Jordan on services provided to the refugees in 1998
reached 4.75 times the amount spent by UNRWA on such
services. Total expenditures incurred by the Government
of Jordan equal the entire budget that UNRWA spends on
31

refugees in all its areas of operations throughout the Middle
East. Jordan calls on the international community not to
allow any reductions in the role of UNRWA or in its
programmes until the refugee question has been resolved in
accordance with international legitimacy — which would
lead to the closing of this file in its entirety once and for
all. Jordan also calls on the donor countries to continue
their support for UNRWA to enable it to continue to
discharge its responsibilities.
With regard to the peace process on other tracks,
Jordan believes that a comprehensive solution is a
prerequisite for the establishment of peace in the region.
Without such a solution, no settlement can be assured of
durability. Jordan therefore strongly supports the efforts to
reactivate negotiations on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks.
It supports the demand by Syria and Lebanon that
negotiations should be resumed from the point at which
they stopped. The Jordanian leadership will spare no effort
to help bring about a breakthrough in negotiations on both
tracks.
Hopes have been rising over the past few weeks that
this can be achieved, particularly in view of Syria’s
reaffirmation of its full commitment to work for the
establishment of peace and of its concern for reviving the
peace process and bringing it to its desired goal: the
achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive
settlement. There have also been a number of positive
indicators from the Syrian Government and the Israeli
Government has said that it is convinced of the crucial
importance of reaching a peace agreement with Syria.
While looking forward to these positive developments with
great hopes, the peoples of the region earnestly desire that
this historic opportunity should not be missed and that the
efforts made will succeed in reaching a settlement whereby
Syria and Lebanon will have their legitimate rights restored
through Israel’s withdrawal from the Syrian Arab Golan
Heights and from southern Lebanon in implementation of
Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and
425 (1978).
The peoples of the Middle East region have suffered
unprecedented hardships because of the failure to reach a
comprehensive, just and lasting peaceful settlement. Vast
resources have been squandered on a useless arms race that
failed to provide security for any of the parties. Today the
peoples of the region look forward to real progress in the
peace process — progress that will help create a climate
conducive to an end to the arms race and to convincing the
various parties that peace is the only option capable of
providing security for all. It will also convince them to
make the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass
destruction. This requires a commitment from all parties
to accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons and to ratify the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
The issues of refugees, economic disparities and
water, as well as the elimination of weapons of mass
destruction, require effective regional cooperation and
concrete international support. Without resolving the
fundamental political aspects of the conflict, the region
will continue to suffer from the consequences of non-
cooperation in resolving these issues. Unless they are
resolved, they themselves will escalate and create new
hotbeds of conflict in the region.
On the eastern flank of our region, the Iraqi people
continue to suffer unprecedented hardships as a result of
the continued economic sanctions. The price of these
sanctions is paid by the Iraqi people in terms of their
health, nutrition, education and prospects for progress.
This poses serious future dangers for the region as a
whole.
Jordan therefore calls for ending this suffering by
lifting the sanctions. It also calls for the implementation
of the relevant Security Council resolutions, including
those concerning the Kuwaiti prisoners of war and
missing persons. It further calls upon the Security Council
to conduct a comprehensive review that would lead to
extricating Iraq from this situation and to affirm its
position of upholding the territorial integrity of Iraq as
one of the main pillars of regional security.
Jordan’s geographical location between two
extremely complex situations resulting from the
consequences of the Middle East crisis in general and the
lack of progress in the peace process during the past three
years in particular, as well as the continued economic
sanctions against Iraq for nine years, has subjected the
Jordanian economy to tremendous pressures. Countries
with capabilities and resources much greater than Jordan’s
would have difficulty coping with them. Although Jordan
is committed to implementing an integrated programme of
reform and restructuring of its economy and to taking
difficult and painful economic measures, the impact of
these two situations makes it virtually impossible for
Jordan to achieve acceptable levels of economic growth,
and it continues to suffer a huge external debt.
Viewing the real economic situation of Jordan and
the challenges facing it without linking it to the regional
32

environment that affects it does not give a true picture of
this situation. While Jordan is grateful for and appreciative
of the international community’s support for Jordan’s
efforts to cope with its enormous economic challenges, and
its assistance to Jordan in playing its central role in
maintaining stability in the region, Jordan would like the
international community to have a better understanding of
its economic problems. From this perspective, we view with
special appreciation the final communiqué issued at the
Summit meeting of the leaders of the industrialized nations
in Cologne last June, which reflected political will to help
Jordan and called for the consideration of reducing Jordan’s
foreign debt-burden. We hope that the friendly creditor
countries will take all possible measures to translate that
political will into action, enabling Jordan to reduce its debt
burden to a point that allows its economy to be revitalized
and to achieve higher growth rates.
The tragic situation the people of Kosovo were made
to experience severely tested the ability of the international
community, at the close of this century, to prevent the
crimes of ethnic cleansing and the violation of basic human
rights from being committed in a most despicable, racist
manner. This matter raises extremely serious and complex
questions about the role of the United Nations and the
limits that separate the right of States to assert their
sovereignty without committing mass crimes against
helpless unarmed civilians.
There are lessons to be drawn from this bitter human
experience. On the one hand, the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization’s ability to put an end to the criminal acts has
given clear evidence to all those who harbour thoughts of
rebelling against international law and of committing
similar acts that they should not presume that their
domestic military strength ensures absolute dominance,
including violation of human rights. Upholding the principle
of sovereignty should not overturn the obligation to observe
human rights and international humanitarian law.
On the other hand, as Members of this international
Organization, we must look into finding mechanisms that
ensure the enhancement of the United Nations and its
ability to be the framework that expresses the determination
of the international community to prevent such crimes, and
to be the umbrella for the coordination and organization of
collective international action to achieve that goal.
That situation has demonstrated the need for
formulating a new international order for the twenty-first
century, in which all peoples can enjoy respect for their
diversity and can participate in the formation of a world
conscience that ensures their coexistence. Continued
progress by peoples in adopting democracy as a way of
life makes it urgent to strengthen democracy within the
international system. Since the United Nations is the
backbone of the world system, it must evolve in such a
way that reflects the new realities in the international
arena.
Our international community has an urgent need to
pause for a real review of the international situation in all
its dimensions: political, security, economic,
environmental and human rights. We hope that the world
summit to be held next year will provide an opportunity
for such a review.
While we see that many issues and crises considered
by the United Nations remain to be resolved, this does not
necessarily mean failure on the part of the United Nations
as much as it demonstrates the importance of an existing
political will to resolve them.
Furthermore, the challenges of globalization pose
new kinds of global problems, which require harmonious
global solutions to the challenges facing developed
societies, such as terrorism, drug-trafficking and pollution
of the environment, and to the challenges that threaten the
developing countries, such as debt, unemployment and
economic recession. Such solutions must also strengthen
the ability of the developing countries to benefit from the
opportunities provided by globalization and to avoid its
negative effects by preventing a broadening of the
inequalities that lie between them and the developed
countries. The persistence of these inequalities will cause
the developing countries to remain on the periphery of
globalization.
Despite the magnitude of the challenges that
continue to confront us as we begin the proceedings of
this last session of the General Assembly in this century,
we should not overlook the many positive steps that have
been made recently. The adoption of the Statute of the
International Criminal Court was a particularly important
measure taken towards confronting and preventing the
perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity
from escaping punishment. I must also mention the
successful conclusion of the first Conference of States
Parties on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,
Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and On
Their Destruction.
Such accomplishments contribute to strengthening
human security and consolidating the commitment to
33

human rights. They also provide examples of the potential
for activating international cooperation in many areas,
including the promotion of international commitment to
condemning and prohibiting terrorism.
In a different context, Jordan welcomes the agreement
reached by Libya and the United Nations on the Lockerbie
issue. It also commends the strenuous efforts made by the
Secretary-General of the United Nations, which contributed
to the reaching of an agreement. It calls for the complete
lifting of sanctions against Libya, after the removal of the
reasons for such sanctions and following the extradition of
the two suspects for trial.
On the matter of regional crises, we appeal to our
friends in Pakistan and India to resort to peaceful means to
resolve their conflict and to refrain from any escalation that
would seriously endanger the peace of the Indian
subcontinent and the whole world.
As for the dispute between the United Arab Emirates
and the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan calls for, as it
always has, the resolution of this dispute through dialogue
based upon mutual respect. It also hopes that Iran will heed
the United Arab Emirates’ request to enter into dialogue
with a specific timetable and agenda, in order to reach a
solution that conforms to international legitimacy, which
denies the admissibility of occupation of territory by force.
Jordan attaches special importance to maintaining a
dialogue between religions and civilizations, in order to
bring closer together the views of the various beliefs,
religions and civilizations. This will also create a common
base for developing humanitarian thought, which calls for
peace and cooperation rather than confrontation. These
efforts have resulted in creating a greater awareness at the
domestic and international levels of the goals of this
dialogue. We hope that the United Nations will promote,
through its specialized agencies, programmes of dialogue in
the various fields of human activity and at all national,
regional and international levels.
The international community is called upon to use
dialogue to combat dangerous discriminatory practices,
which we see today, such as Islamophobia. Islam is being
subjected to a severe and unjustified attack, which attempts,
intentionally or unintentionally, to establish a linkage
between Islam and those extremist and terrorist movements
that hurt Islam and Muslims by using religion as a tool.
Discrimination and arbitrary practices against Muslim
populations in various countries are only a result of
extremist thinking, far removed from the principles of
civilized behaviour and humanity. The international
community must consider how to confront this
phenomenon of Islamophobia in order to prevent its
proliferation.
Natural disasters, which have afflicted many
countries recently, remind us of a basic fact, which is that
we all face phenomena and challenges that do not
discriminate between us on the basis of race, religion,
wealth or geographical location. While expressing
sympathy to our friends in Turkey and Greece, which
have been hit by earthquakes recently, and our admiration
for the positive sentiments they have expressed to each
other in their suffering, we realize that confronting natural
dangers and disasters, like confronting other challenges,
requires a sincere political will to take collective action in
order to preserve the planet, to which we all belong
equally.


The past year has been a
difficult one for the United Nations. Its principles have
been challenged. Its relevance has been questioned. Still, at
the end of the millennium, we have proved ourselves
unable to prevent war between Ethiopia and Eritrea and
unable to prevent genocide in Rwanda or ethnic cleansing
in Kosovo. Still, we see flagrant disrespect for international
law, humanitarian law and human rights. Children are used
as soldiers in Sierra Leone, women are denied all rights in
Afghanistan, fundamentalist forces have demonstrating
students arrested and possibly sentenced to death in Iran.
Other tragic examples can be found in almost all parts of
the world.
We can change all that, if only there is political will.
It is up to us, the Member States, to ensure that the United
Nations and the Security Council are able to uphold
international law and their responsibility for international
peace and security.
I would like to highlight four key areas that we, the
United Nations and its Member States, need to address to
make the United Nations truly relevant: the questions of
intervention; early action and prevention; nuclear
disarmament; and human rights. To succeed, the United
Nations system also needs to be reformed, and I will come
back to that.
When it comes to intervention to secure peace,
regional organizations and arrangements, as well as so-
called coalitions of the willing, can have important roles,
together with the United Nations, as we have just seen in
East Timor. But it is for the Security Council to provide the
legal foundation — the mandate — for such action, in
particular when force has to be used. Without such a legal
foundation, we run the risk of anarchy in international
relations, and in fact we undermine the prospects for peace
and security; and that long-term perspective must never be
lost.
Our responsibility for international peace and
security implies that necessary action by the Security
Council should not be hindered by a veto. If the Security
Council in an urgent situation is paralysed by a veto or a
threat of veto, this may undermine the authority and the
relevance of the United Nations itself. It also presents the
international community with a difficult dilemma.
When human life is threatened on a massive scale,
it is not possible to remain passive. Humanitarian
intervention has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, in
view of the values at stake and whether all other means
have been exhausted. The effects on international law and
international security at large have to be considered as
well.
As the Secretary-General said yesterday, we must
ensure that the Security Council is able to rise to the
challenge. It must negotiate in earnest, with creativity and
without the threat of veto, to define threats to peace and
security at an early stage, and to deal with a crisis before
an emergency situation arises. Council action does not
necessarily mean the use of force. The use of force
almost inevitably causes suffering for the innocent. It
should, therefore, only be the last resort. There are many
other tools available. The United Nations Charter offers
several options.
The most obvious alternative to the use of force is
conflict prevention and early action. Member States, in
particular the permanent members of the Security
Council, must share information on conflict situations and
early warning signals with the Secretariat. The Secretary-
General should be invited to react to such reports and to
propose appropriate and timely action to the Security
Council. The United Nations offices in the field and early
fact-finding missions dispatched to areas of potential
conflict could help the Secretary-General formulate such
proposals. Academic institutions and non-governmental
organizations could also be helpful in this regard.
The Swedish Government has adopted a programme
of action to facilitate and contribute to the prevention of
armed conflict. It is our hope that this action plan will
stimulate a debate on how to change the focus from crisis
management to early preventive action in order to
promote a culture of prevention.
When considering peacekeeping operations, the
Security Council should not be hampered by short-term
budgetary considerations. This sends a very negative
message and runs counter to the need for early and
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preventive action. All countries must pay their assessed
contributions in full, on time and without conditions.
Naturally, that also goes for the host country. The United
Nations must be given the necessary resources to be able to
act swiftly upon decisions by the Security Council.
The danger of nuclear devastation has not faded. On
the contrary, we are faced with new threats. Last year the
positive trend set by Argentina, Brazil and South Africa
having joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was reversed by India and
Pakistan, which both tested nuclear weapons. Their actions
have endangered international peace and security, as well
as stability in the region, and are a serious setback to our
hopes for a world without nuclear weapons.
Sweden will follow up its call of last year for a new
agenda for complete nuclear disarmament. India and
Pakistan have taken us further away from that goal. We call
upon them, and all other States which have not yet done so,
to give up their nuclear ambitions. All countries should
become parties to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban
Treaty (CTBT) and the NPT.
The five nuclear-weapon States also have a
responsibility to complete nuclear disarmament.
Deployment of national missile defence systems in the
future would create uncertainties and have a negative
impact on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. We
encourage the United States and Russia to re-establish a
new momentum in the stalled START negotiations, and
especially we call upon Russia to ratify the Start II
agreement without further delay. Reductions should be
extended to non-strategic nuclear weapons. Furthermore, we
urge the three nuclear-weapon States which have not yet
done so to ratify the CTBT. All this should be done in an
effort aimed at the elimination of all kinds of weapons of
mass destruction, which still pose a threat to human beings
all over the world.
Any regime violating human rights paves the way for
crisis and armed conflict. The defence of human rights is a
legitimate concern for the Security Council and the
international community. It is our duty to react when the
rights of individuals are violated, wherever it happens.
Still, disrespect for democracy and human rights is
obvious in many parts of the world. The events in East
Timor show how the will of the people can be totally
ignored by armed thugs. In Kosovo, innocent civilians are
attacked for belonging to a certain ethnic group.
Still, poverty and social injustice deprive people of
health and education.
Still, women and girls are facing discrimination. The
brutalizing and killing of women is carried out with
impunity in many countries. In wars, rape is used as a
means of terror. Often women are deprived of their right
to earn their own living or participate in the economic
and political life of their countries. I urge all countries to
adhere to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women, without reservation.
Still, 10 years after the adoption of the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, the hopes of children for the
future are overshadowed by daily hardship and fear. Too
often their talents and skills are buried in poverty or
diseases which are curable but not attended to. Too often
they are denied proper education, or suffer from
discriminatory school systems. The recruitment of child
soldiers is a shameful practice that causes individual
suffering and will harm the security and development of
societies for many years to come. I appeal to all
Governments to assist in the conclusion of the two
optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child in order to prohibit sexual abuse of children and the
use of children below the age of 18 in armed conflict.
The use of the death penalty has no place in a
civilized society. Sweden welcomes moves taken in a
number of countries to put an end to this repugnant
practice. The abolition of the death penalty would
enhance human dignity worldwide.
Still, the ugly face of racism appears in all parts of
the world. Manifestations of racism are an affront to the
fundamental principle of non-discrimination and a threat
to the fragile fabric of peaceful relations between people
in an increasingly global community. The preparations for
the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
provide an important opportunity to identify concrete and
action-oriented ways to combat racism. Another important
manifestation will be the Stockholm International Forum
on the Holocaust, to be held in January 2000.
The early entry into force of the Statute of the
International Criminal Court would send a clear signal
that the international community is determined to end the
culture of impunity for the most heinous crimes under
international law. Sweden is committed to early
ratification, and we urge all countries to be similarly
committed.
33

As I said at the outset, in order to have an efficient
and relevant United Nations, not paralysed by the veto and
able to cope with the challenges of conflict prevention,
nuclear disarmament and the protection of human rights, we
also need reforms. In particular, we need to strengthen the
United Nations capacity for conflict prevention and to
address root causes of conflict. This is a moral imperative
as well as a humanitarian, political and economic necessity.
The Security Council should be enlarged to better
reflect the realities of today’s international relations. A
geographical balance is important in this regard so that the
Council can become truly representative of the international
community.
The use of the veto, or even the threat of its use,
hampers the work of the Council. We support the proposal
that as a first step the right of veto should be limited to
decisions on enforcement action under Chapter VII of the
Charter. We would also like to see the five permanent
members agreeing on a moratorium on the use of the veto.
The Security Council should be more transparent and
open. This would contribute to the acceptance and
legitimacy of its decisions. The Council should be able to
hear the views of all relevant parties to a conflict without
the implication of political recognition.
The involvement of humanitarian organizations in the
Council’s deliberations would enhance the quality of its
decisions. The humanitarian consequences of Security
Council action should always be taken into consideration.
This is particularly important when sanctions are imposed.
Sweden welcomes the Secretary-General’s efforts to
reform the Secretariat and modernize its management
culture, and we appreciate the improved efficiency that has
followed. Reform is not only about cost-cutting. The aim
must be to revitalize the Organization and the multilateral
system to cope with the many challenges before us.
Long-term security is closely linked to sustainable
development and the eradication of poverty. We need to
strengthen not only the United Nations capacity to provide
humanitarian assistance but also its long-term social and
economic development efforts.
A basic problem is the lack of funds. The donor
community needs to ensure sufficient and predictable
financial resources to allow the reforms to produce long-
term results. Sweden is one of only four countries that meet
the United Nations aid target of 0.7 per cent of gross
national product. Development requires a true partnership
between countries, ensuring sufficient external resources,
sound use of internal resources and good governance.
The reform process has to continue, and we look
forward to the Millennium Assembly and the summit next
year as an opportunity to accelerate the work.
We all have a tendency to blame the United Nations
for our own failures and shortcomings. In fact, when the
United Nations fails, it is because we fail. If the United
Nations loses its relevance, we lose. There is no real
alternative to global cooperation to cope with increasingly
global problems, and for this, we need the United
Nations — but a strengthened and reformed United
Nations.