Mr. President, on
behalf of the delegation of His Majesty King Mswati
III, Her Majesty the Indlovukazi and the Government
and the people of the Kingdom of Swaziland, may I
extend hearty congratulations to Mr. Harri Holkeri of
the Republic of Finland on his election as President of
this fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly. I also
wish to pay my country's rich tribute to Mr. Holkeri's
predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister for
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Namibia, for his
exemplary stewardship of the last session of the
General Assembly.
The Kingdom of Swaziland continues to develop
quietly and peacefully, according to the wishes of our
people. Against a backdrop of difficult economic
circumstances, we have declared the year 2000 our
Year of Delivery in a number of key economic, social
and political areas. In the coming weeks, the
Commission that is reviewing the national Constitution
will complete its work, and we look forward to
receiving its report. Those recommendations will be
the result of an extensive and all-inclusive process of
consultations and will reflect precisely the wishes of
the entire Swazi nation. We believe this national
exercise will further enhance the unity of the Swazi
people and provide the best possible foundation for our
continuing peace and stability.
On the economic front, we continue to make
every effort to achieve sustainable growth and to
reduce the level of poverty among our people. In
addition to encouraging both local and foreign
investment, the Government this year launched an
ambitious programme of initiatives called the
Millennium Project, targeting the tourism and
manufacturing industry subsectors. This project is
designed to maximize the potential of the Kingdom in
these areas and to reduce the current unacceptably high
level of unemployment, which is threatening to
undermine all our best efforts at development.
Among the many challenges we face as a
developing nation, there is no question that the
HIV/AIDS crisis presents the most serious threat to our
hopes of improving the lives of our people. In the last
years of the twentieth century, much of the progress we
have achieved in 32 years of independence in social
welfare is being reversed by the rapid spread of this
most terrible disease. HIV/AIDS represents the single
most important issue facing our nation today, and we
desperately need the support of the international
community in our efforts to contain the threat to our
very existence as a nation. We look to the United
Nations to take a much stronger leadership role in this
global crisis, and to help us to mobilize resources to
reverse the catastrophic spread of the pandemic.
During the Millennium Summit, the Kingdom of
Swaziland joined other developing countries in
expressing concern at the negative effects of
globalization on our economies, especially in the
context of the widening gap between the rich and the
poor countries. We are, however, reassured by
Summit's agreement to take measures to ensure that
global trends such as globalization should have at their
heart the principle of equitable benefit for all nations,
regardless of size, level of development or economic
strength.
Thus, in recent years, we have waited with great
expectation to benefit from initiatives, particularly in
the area of preferential trade access, that have been
broadcast by our international friends and partners as
measures that are designed to help the developing
world to overcome the negative effects of
globalization.
My delegation is optimistic, therefore, that the
recently concluded Millennium Summit will indeed
serve as an historic occasion of strengthening
international peace and security, as well as the
prosperity of our people, in order to establish a fair
international order. Beginning with this session, what
remains for all of us now is to see to it that the wishes
of the founding fathers of the United Nations are
fulfilled. Those wishes, ambitious as they may be, are
not unreachable and can be achieved. This session,
therefore, has the task of setting the pace for the
dialogue that lies ahead. Both the Millennium Summit
and this session of the General Assembly will have a
34

direct impact on the success of the United Nations in
achieving the goals set by those great visionary leaders.
Since the last session of the General Assembly,
the Organization has held several global conferences.
However, the implementation of commitments in some
cases is regrettably slow. One of the priorities for the
United Nations should be an effective, integrated and
coordinated implementation and follow-up of all these
conferences. The implementation should be further
enhanced within the existing machinery of the United
Nations through improving its functions.
Peace-building is a prevention task of growing
importance. With the disaster that befell the United
Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), the
United Nations is facing one of the most
comprehensive tasks in its history, which perhaps has
made the need to review peacekeeping operations more
imperative. We remain concerned about the serious
negative impact of the proliferation of conflicts in the
world, particularly in Africa, on development capacity
and on progress towards economic, social and political
transformation. The situation in those countries
affected by conflicts is appalling and deserves the
Organization's urgent attention.
In Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Angola, among
others, have been the scene of terrible turmoil, mass
murders, destruction of property and much suffering on
the part of refugees over the years. The Organization of
African Unity (OAU), the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) have done
much to contain and resolve some of these conflicts;
and the United Nations has also rendered its support.
While some progress has been made in resolving some
of these conflicts, much still needs to be done,
especially by the parties involved. The latter have a
responsibility to observe agreements concluded and
must work closely together with the United Nations
and the regional organizations involved so that peace
processes can be brought to a successful conclusion.
With regard to the Middle East, we are
encouraged by the continued efforts by President
Clinton and other leaders to bring both Israel and
Palestine to the negotiating table. We are hopeful that a
long-lasting solution, which has eluded the region for
so long, will be found soon.
There is now more than ever a pressing need to
finally carry out the long overdue substantial reform of
the Security Council. The Council must fully recognize
the new realities of the global landscape. It must have a
more representative composition, and above all, it must
be equipped to react to the crises and conflicts of today.
Reform must involve enlargement to include both more
permanent and non-permanent members, as well as
strengthening its decision-making powers.
The Kingdom of Swaziland unreservedly supports
both the Non-Aligned Movement and the African
Group positions in as far as the review of the
composition and working methods of the Security
Council is concerned. We do trust that the ongoing
debate in the working group set up for this purpose will
continue and that it will yield the much-expected
results. The stage which the negotiations have now
reached is such that it requires the commitment of all
Member States if indeed the Security Council is to be
equipped with all the tools it needs to be equitably
representative. Participation of the United Nations
membership at large in the decision-making process,
transparency in its work and imposition of Charter
restraints on the veto, with the aim of its eventual
abolition, are indispensable imperatives.
The enhancement of the relevance of the United
Nations requires, first and foremost, strengthening the
role and increasing the efficiency of the General
Assembly through focusing its deliberations on
contemporary challenges and problems facing the
world, engaging it in timely and effective decision-
making to address global economic and political issues
and enabling it to seriously examine and effectively
react to the work of the other organs of the United
Nations, particularly the Security Council. In this
context, we believe that the General Assembly, as the
sole democratic universal and transparent organ, is the
proper forum to carry out an in-depth analysis of the
implications of the emerging debates on collective
action.
The Kingdom of Swaziland joins others in
welcoming the Republic of Tuvalu as a new member of
the Organization. The addition of Tuvalu brings closer
to fruition the hope of the founding fathers to see a
United Nations comprised of all the countries of the
world. The United Nations is the only body that deals
with all fields of human activity. It has been a catalyst
of many initiatives that have improved the lives of
peoples across the world.
35

In the same spirit of universality in which we
welcome Tuvalu, the Kingdom of Swaziland wishes to
reiterate its appeal to the United Nations regarding the
question of the Republic of China on Taiwan. The
Kingdom of Swaziland has in the past been in the
forefront arguing in favour of the readmission of the
Republic of China on Taiwan, and our position remains
unchanged. The case for including the Republic of
China on Taiwan in the activities of the United Nations
and its associated agencies takes on even greater
relevance in the light of the peaceful transition of
Government following the successful expression of the
wishes of the people of Taiwan in the elections earlier
this year.
Those 23 million people rightly consider it
unacceptable that they are not represented in the one
Organization that should be truly global, and that they
deserve a review of the special circumstances
surrounding their bid. The Republic of China on
Taiwan has shown time and again its willingness to
participate in efforts to bring about true global peace,
development and stability, and we believe that the rest
of the world is poorer for being denied their
involvement. The Kingdom of Swaziland believes that
this new millennium provides the perfect opportunity
to raise this issue and to restore the right of the people
of the Republic of China on Taiwan to participate fully
in the activities of our Organization.
There is no alternative to the United Nations. Its
objectives and values are universal. We must spare no
effort in seeing to it that the United Nations continues
to meet the current and evolving needs of its entire
membership. It must become the core instrument of
effective and fair global governance, if it is to be
completely transformed to be what its founding fathers
had envisaged.


First of all, I would like
to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your assumption
of your important position. I would also like to
welcome Tuvalu as a new Member of the United
Nations.
Norway is committed to a strong and effective
United Nations. For decades, we have pursued a policy
of translating our commitment to the United Nations
into substantial contributions to the various activities
of the United Nations system. That is why some 60,000
Norwegians have served in United Nations
peacekeeping operations. That is why Norway today
contributes 1,500 military and civilian personnel to
United Nations and United Nations-mandated
peacekeeping operations around the world. That is why
we are supporting the peace and reconciliation efforts
of the United Nations in the Middle East, Colombia,
Cyprus and Sudan. And that is why a relatively small
country of 4.5 million inhabitants is one of the largest
donors of voluntary contributions to the economic,
social and humanitarian programmes of the United
Nations. This year, Norway is providing $1.3 billion
dollars for development cooperation. My Government
plans to increase that amount substantially over the
next few years. A large part of that will be channelled
through the United Nations system.
At the first session of the General Assembly in
the twenty-first century, and after the successful
Millennium Assembly last week, it is time to take stock
and act upon the decisions we have made. Here is what
Norway will give priority to in the time ahead.
We will focus on the root causes of conflict and
put the fight against poverty, underdevelopment and
environmental degradation at the top of our agenda.
Financing for development is essential. Norway
reached the 0.7 per cent target more than 20 years ago.
We are currently devoting 0.9 per cent of our gross
national product for official development assistance,
and my Government has pledged to reach a full one per
cent.
We will increase our support through the
multilateral development agencies, including our
6

support to the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP).
We will continue to advocate a more
comprehensive approach to peace-building. Conflict
prevention, humanitarian relief and long-term
development cannot be regarded as separate tasks.
They must be part of an integrated and coherent
strategy of human security.
We will continue to combat malaria, tuberculosis
and other diseases. Malaria alone takes two lives every
minute  of every day of every year, mainly those of
children and pregnant women. We will significantly
increase our contribution to the vaccination of children,
so that they do not die of easily curable diseases.
We will intensify our efforts to help contain and
reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, which in many
countries has become the single largest threat to
development. We will focus even more strongly on
Africa, as Africa needs a new and better deal. We call
for a renewed commitment to Africa and are prepared
to contribute substantially to this effort.
The United Nations has mounted more peace
operations during the last 10 years than during the
previous four decades combined. We have witnessed
significant successes, but also uncovered disturbing
and tragic weaknesses. Far too often  and frequently
at great cost to the people we were supposed to
protect  the United Nations has relied on last-minute
efforts and ad hoc arrangements. The rich and powerful
Member States must honour their promises to the weak
and defenceless.
Norway supports the recommendations in the
report of the United Nations Panel on Peace
Operations, headed by Ambassador Brahimi. We stand
ready to engage in a broad dialogue on how to ensure
the speedy and efficient implementation of the
recommendations contained in the Brahimi report.
Together with our partners, we will push forward
towards non-proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction. We will work for further reductions in
nuclear arsenals with a view to eliminating them,
building on the important results of the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review
Conference here in New York.
We will continue to combat illicit trade and the
spread of small arms. We should make full use of the
opportunity provided by the United Nations
Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and
Light Weapons in All its Aspects to take firm steps to
curtail this deadly traffic.
None of this can be done, however, if we do not
secure a sound financial basis for the United Nations
itself. We must put United Nations finances on a more
secure and predictable footing. We must close the gap
between the tasks we ask the United Nations to carry
out and the resources we make available to it. Zero
growth is clearly not sufficient. We cannot expect the
United Nations to carry out new and additional tasks
without additional funding.
No one must be allowed to commit war crimes or
crimes against humanity with impunity. Norway
therefore strongly supports the Statute establishing an
International Criminal Court. Now we must seek its
speedy implementation.
To effectively meet our common challenges, we
must build new partnerships between the United
Nations, civil society and the private sector. The
Global Compact' is one such initiative. The Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization' (GAVI) is
another. Early next year Norway will host an
international conference in Oslo on the role of the
private sector in promoting investment and economic
development in the least developed countries.
We will continue to support efforts to enable
developing countries to take full advantage of the
benefits of multilateral cooperation. In particular, we
would like to assist the least developed countries
including small island developing States  to benefit
more fully from joint international efforts, including
the legal regime for the seas and oceans established by
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Globalization provides opportunities for
unprecedented growth, but it can also lead to
marginalization and isolation. In our globalized world,
markets have become global much faster than politics.
There is an urgent need to adapt the international
trading and financial systems so that every country can
obtain its fair share of the benefits of globalization.
In our shrinking world, providing humanitarian
aid and emergency relief to people in need is the
responsibility of every Government. Norway will
increase its humanitarian efforts  which are already
among the most intensive in the world  both
7

bilaterally and through United Nations agencies and
non-governmental organizations.
We will to the best of our ability continue to
facilitate peace efforts in countries where the parties to
a conflict request our involvement. Ultimately,
however, the responsibility for lasting peace rests with
the parties themselves.
Finally, we reiterate our call for reform and
enlargement of the Security Council in terms of both
permanent and non-permanent members. Broader
membership and increased transparency are essential to
the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Council.
For the first time since 1979, Norway is seeking a
seat on the Security Council. We hope to be elected,
after 22 years, based on our contributions to the United
Nations and on the principles of fair rotation. We
therefore ask for the support of the Assembly. Norway
will deeply respect a mandate from the Assembly. We
will be attentive to its voices and concerns. We will
remain committed to help those who suffer from
poverty and war, disasters and famine to place a strong
United Nations at the centre of world affairs, to ensure
that those who have the strongest backs bear the
heaviest burden. We ask the Assembly to allow us to
serve all Members.


I am
particularly pleased to express my congratulations to
you, Sir, on your election as President of the fifty-fifth
session of the General Assembly. Your great diplomatic
experience and your thorough knowledge of
international affairs are the best guarantees for the
success of this session. While assuring you of the
readiness of our delegation to fully cooperate with you,
we would like to wish you the utmost success as you
carry out your responsibilities.
Allow me also to express my thanks to your
predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, for the remarkable
role he played during the previous General Assembly
session. His efforts made it possible to achieve positive
results in the review and resolution of many issues.
The Millennium Assembly takes place at a time
when the world is at the crossroads of two different
eras. This makes it particularly important that this
fifty-fifth session provide us with the opportunity to
take stock of what we have achieved together and to
begin developing a forward-looking strategy that will
allow us to face the current challenges. We can identify
and face these challenges only within the framework of
a multidimensional, international partnership in the
political, economic, social and development spheres.
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his peers
who met at the Millennium Summit have underlined
the main challenges that the international community
must face. These challenges should set priorities for
our joint efforts in the next stage, so that we can make
the next millennium a millennium of international
partnership, of the development of joint strategies, of
the promotion of societies and satisfying their multiple
needs, of the struggle against poverty and epidemics, of
conflict prevention and of the establishment of a lasting
13

basis for peace and international security. In other
words we should make this millennium truly a
millennium of the common future of mankind.
The Declaration adopted by the Millennium
Summit is a document of historical importance. It
paves the way for the future work of the international
community within the framework of the principles and
purposes of the Charter of the United Nations. In the
Declaration world leaders reaffirmed these purposes
and principles and renewed their commitment to them.
They also reaffirmed their adherence to the United
Nations as the only forum for the expression of the
international community's choices for the future and as
the ideal instrument for achieving our collective
aspirations.
At the end of the last millennium there were
several major summits — including the Millennium
Summit, the South Summit, the Non-aligned
Movement summit and the two special sessions of the
General Assembly, devoted to social development and
women. The results of these summits and meetings, the
visions expressed and the decisions taken regarding the
future of international relations provide an important
point of reference that makes it possible to develop a
global and consensual strategy in order to build a true
partnership between peoples and nations. The goal of
this partnership should be to take up the future
challenges together.
Among the lessons we have learned from these
historic meetings was the consensus reached by all
countries on the need for a renewed vision of the
working methods that we have followed every year in
recent decades in order to adapt to the requirements of
our time, when different aspects of international life in
the political, economic and social spheres are all
interlinked.
The challenges of our modern world require a
global vision and common action that would take into
account the link between peace, security and
sustainable development based on a political approach
that combines democracy, human rights and good
governance, as well as overall strategies for the fight
against poverty on an international scale. Indeed,
poverty has been identified by major international
authorities and also in the statements that emerged
from the Millennium Summit and the Security Council
as well as by the Secretary-General in his reports to the
Millennium Summit and to the General Assembly at its
fifty-fifth session as one of the main causes of
international economic imbalance and as a source of
instability, conflict and tension in many regions of the
world.
In our opinion, the international community is
called upon today to objectively develop a concept of
international peace and security as well as the means to
preserve them. It is called upon to adopt a broader
concept that takes into account not only the direct
causes of wars, conflicts and tensions, but also their
entrenched roots and the means to resolve them in
order to ensure their prevention and to guarantee peace
and security. The last decade has shown the magnitude
of the means that are required to resolve conflicts and
tensions throughout the world. This has generated a
weakening of international will when true and direct
participation in the quest for solutions to the many
conflicts was needed.
The United Nations, despite its limited resources,
remains the main actor that can resolve these conflicts.
Previous experiences have taught us, among other
things, that the principle of conflict prevention remains
the best way to avoid conflicts and the resultant human
tragedy and economic and social damage, which are
difficult to remedy.
Indeed, within this international forum, we must
work with regional organizations and international
financial institutions to implement a strategic plan of
action with new dimensions that would enshrine the
principle of prevention as the main way to avoid
conflicts and to deal with their deep and structural
causes, through a global vision that would take into
account the pressing needs of economic and social
development. Experience has proved that stability and
internal harmony within and between countries will not
be achieved without national development and
interdependent interests.
It is difficult indeed to imagine how a society can
engage in internal violence or get involved in an
external conflict if its interests are protected and if it
enjoys well-being and prosperity — both fundamental
conditions for peace and stability.
This vision conforms to the reform process under
way at the United Nations, in the Security Council and
at international financial institutions that have realized
that the cost of prevention is far lower than the cost of
post-conflict reconstruction, especially since certain
14

consequences, those that affect human beings, are
difficult to remedy.
It is therefore high time that industrialized
countries and international financial institutions
honoured their commitments towards disadvantaged
regions and countries in the form of official
development assistance, by encouraging foreign
investment and by settling the debt problem, including
the servicing of the debt, in order to meet the
requirements of development and to contribute
effectively to formalizing the idea of prevention based
on multifaceted international aid.
Before concluding my comments on the matter of
peacekeeping and international security in this new
international environment, I would like to underline the
following. First, there is a need to introduce necessary
reforms into United Nations procedures when it comes
to peacekeeping operations, especially since the
activities of our Organization are no longer limited to
traditional missions, but also encompass disarming and
reintegrating combatants, removing landmines,
establishing State institutions and monitoring elections.
These new missions require greater material and
human resources, as well as collective efforts. Of
course, this requires a substantial strengthening of
United Nations preventive capabilities.
Experience has shown that the success of
peacekeeping operations depends on the prior consent
of the parties concerned, on a clear mandate and on the
availability of necessary resources.
We have also observed through our experience in
peacekeeping operations that serious problems do exist,
especially when it comes to delays in reimbursing
contributing countries.
The report of the group of experts, developed
under the chairmanship of Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi,
contains important recommendations that command our
attention and deserve in-depth study, especially since
they deal with all aspects of peacekeeping operations.
Secondly, the role of the Security Council in
peacekeeping and international security is crucial and
indispensable. It draws its strength from the fact that it
is a universal tool and that it embodies international
legality.
As always since the 1960s, Tunisia remains ready
to meet the United Nations calls, as well as those of the
international community, to take part in peacekeeping
operations throughout the world. Given the priority of
the security of personnel serving in peacekeeping
operations, in July Tunisia ratified the United Nations
Convention on the Safety of United Nations and
Associated Personnel.
The need to introduce reforms to the Security
Council is dictated today by international
developments that have taken place since the adoption
of the Charter. In this context, increasing the number of
permanent and non-permanent members of that body
on the basis of equitable geographic distribution is an
urgent demand. We would like to stress the need to
reach a consensus that would make it possible to
increase the number of permanent members.
In this regard, I would like to recall that Tunisia
supports the candidacy of Japan, Germany and other
countries. An eventual solution should preserve the
interests of all international parties and make it
possible to satisfy the demands of developing countries
and, above all, African countries, which are entitled to
two permanent seats on the Security Council, to be
distributed according to the rule of rotation. It is also
necessary to improve the working methods of the
Council in order to ensure that its work is marked by
transparency and effectiveness. Since acceding to the
Security Council as a non-permanent member, Tunisia
has tried to ensure that its contribution to the work of
that body is based on dialogue with the other members
in order to bring viewpoints closer together and to
reach results that would guarantee the success of all
endeavours to safeguard peace and international
security.
Along the same lines, with respect to the role of
the Security Council, we cannot overlook the question
of humanitarian intervention, which has been the
subject of widening debate in recent years and whose
review calls for particular and sustained attention.
We stress the need for an in-depth examination of
all aspects of this matter. Indeed, if a particular
humanitarian situation requires urgent intervention so
that it does not deteriorate, such intervention cannot
take place outside the framework of international law,
the basic principles and norms of international relations
and the provisions of the United Nations Charter. State
sovereignty remains a fundamental tenet that can never
be overlooked or ignored, because any violation of this
15

principle would alter the balance of international
relations and risk the spread of anarchy.
The question of sanctions is one of the most
important issues that United Nations bodies, including
the Security Council, have to face. The experience of
the past decade has shown that the use of sanctions
must be modified so as to alleviate their impact on
peoples, while certain criteria, such as their use as a
last resort after all other peaceful means have been
exhausted, must be applied.
In cases in which the imposition of sanctions is
necessary, their duration should be limited. We should
also define clear conditions for the lifting or
suspension of sanctions and undertake an ongoing
assessment of their humanitarian effects on the
population of the target countries, as well as their
direct impact on the interests of third countries.
In this connection, with regard to Iraq, Tunisia
has always reaffirmed the need to unite all our efforts
in order to reach a peaceful settlement of the dispute
that would make it possible to end the embargo,
reintegrate Iraq into the community of nations, put an
end to the tragic suffering of the Iraqi people resulting
from the sanctions imposed over the past 10 years and
help to direct the efforts of the countries of the region
and their peoples towards the achievement of
development and stability. All parties must cooperate
in order to resolve the other humanitarian aspects of
the problem, in particular the issue and fate of missing
Kuwaiti nationals.
With regard to the Lockerbie affair, the recent
developments following the implementation of the
agreement concluded on the matter and the suspension
of the embargo imposed on Libya, it is time for
sanctions to be lifted completely and definitively in
order to allow the Jamahiriya to continue its overall
development process and to support the Arab Maghreb
Union (AMU) as it strives to achieve the integration
and complementarity on which all of its member States
place great importance. Tunisia has made the AMU a
strategic choice. It is constantly working to promote
the Union and to strengthen its foundations and
structures. With the help of its partners in the Union, it
has tried to give this regional organization new impetus
so that it can respond to the historic aspirations of its
peoples.
With regard to the Middle East, we would like to
express our regret that the negotiations at the Camp
David summit meeting held in July stalled without an
agreement that would guarantee a fair settlement of the
Palestinian cause. Tunisia, which from the outset has
supported the peace process on all tracks, is convinced
that it is time to give concrete form to the legitimate
aspirations of the Palestinian people to build an
independent State, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its
capital, in accordance with international law and the
terms of reference of the peace process based on the
principle of land for peace. Tunisia hopes that the
American Administration will continue its good
offices, and that other influential parties, such as the
European Union, Russia and Japan, will step up their
efforts to help the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli
Government reach an agreement that would make it
possible to establish a just and lasting peace and
guarantee the national rights of the Palestinian people
in accordance with General Assembly and Security
Council resolutions, in particular Security Council
resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973).
Achieving a just and lasting peace in the Middle
East will also depend on progress on the Syrian track.
Israel is called upon to withdraw from the Golan and to
comply fully with Security Council resolutions 242
(1967) and 338 (1973). Israel is also called upon to
respect the international borders of Lebanon and to
refrain from violating the borders drawn by the United
Nations.
Our States are encouraged to try to identify ways
and means to face the phenomenon of globalization,
with its consequences and economic and social
repercussions, and to adapt to it in order to ensure that
its dividends are shared and to spare our peoples,
especially peoples of the South, the negative fallout
from it.
The African continent is a region suffering most
from development problems, despite major reforms
undertaken by the countries of the continent in
different areas. Despite the efforts made by certain
African countries, Africa is still suffering from a severe
lack of resources and assistance which prevents it from
joining the global development process. In this context,
one of the greatest challenges is to prevent the
marginalization of the economies of developing
countries and to ensure an international environment
conducive to access to international markets and to an
increased share of international trade. This will require
the international community to provide the necessary
impetus in the area of investment and financing if these
16

States are to develop, and to increase official
development assistance, which has not only remained
below 0.7 per cent of the gross national product of the
countries of the North, but is actually decreasing, while
the external debt crisis and debt servicing continue to
burden developing countries.
In this context, we recall the initiative of
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, calling for the
recycling of debts in development projects, which
would make it possible to reduce the debt burden and
help the countries concerned.
I also take this opportunity to recall the appeal
made by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 1995 for
the creation of a partnership and development contract
between the countries of the south and north shores of
the Mediterranean. This appeal is an extension of
President Ben Ali's initiative, launched in 1989 from
this lofty rostrum, for a global contract of peace and
progress between the countries of the North and South
aimed at strengthening cooperation and creating new
prospects for stability and progress in the world.
Given the major progress achieved in the
scientific and technological spheres in recent decades,
the millennium on which we are embarking will
undoubtedly be one of science, technology and
communications, necessitating the sharing of the
benefits of progress, including in the field of
computers, which will create great prospects for the
harmonious and balanced development of countries.
In this context, I recall Tunisia's initiative to hold
a world summit on the information society, and its
proposal, in the framework of the International
Telecommunication Union, to host such a summit in
2003. I renew my appeal to all Member States and to
the parties and institutions interested in this field to
support this initiative and contribute as much as
possible to organizing the summit in Tunisia.
Peace and security are part of a concept with
complementary dimensions; it is no longer limited to
the outbreak, management and resolution of conflicts,
but, rather, encompasses everything that contributes to
strengthening stability and offers opportunities for
development and prosperity. Furthermore, exclusion
and marginalization, in all their aspects, undoubtedly
lead to extremism and open the way to tension and
violence. We know today that the struggle against
poverty has assumed considerable importance. Indeed,
while many societies enjoy well-being and prosperity,
large fringes of the world's population experience
poverty and destitution, which are alien to moral values
and human rights. Furthermore, abject poverty is one
of the most dangerous sources of conflict and
instability. The fight against this planetary scourge and
the violence and internal and inter-State conflicts that it
engenders is a universal duty and a moral obligation
that all international parties must assume.
In this context, I wish to reiterate the appeal
launched by His Excellency President Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali for the creation of a world solidarity fund, as
an instrument to complement existing international
mechanisms, without replacing them. This fund could
be financed by donations and voluntary assistance from
the international community, and its objective would be
to finance field programmes to fight poverty directly
and urgently.
President Ben Ali has made this proposal based
on the success of the experience of the National
Solidarity Fund, 26.26, set up in Tunisia in 1992,
which helped lower the rate of poverty in our country
from 22 per cent to 6 per cent. This proposal has been
favourably received by member countries of the region
and France, as well as by 12 international and regional
organizations, such as the Group of 77, the Non-
Aligned Movement, the Organization of the Islamic
Conference, the South Summit and the General
Assembly special session on social development. With
the international community's awareness of the need to
fight poverty, and given the wide support that the
proposal to create a world solidarity fund enjoys,
Tunisia would like to present, during the current
session, a draft resolution in this regard, which it hopes
will obtain all the support necessary from Member
States.
Tunisia has always attached great importance to
democracy and good governance, because it is
convinced that these values are an integral part of any
rebirth and development. Since the change of 7
November 1987, we have introduced fundamental
reforms to promote these values. Indeed, the principles
of human rights, the culture of tolerance and respect for
the right to difference are the bases of change in
Tunisia, which has enriched the values of international
solidarity and collective responsibility at all levels:
political, economic and social.
The existence of a national solidarity fund is the
best reflection of the importance of this aspect in
17

national life. An individual's awareness of his
responsibility towards the future of his homeland
implies solidarity and cooperation with all components
of society, making it possible to remedy the problems
of exclusion and marginalization in society.
Democracy, human rights, good governance and
national solidarity are interlinked values that must take
into account the characteristics and specific features of
each society, since there is no standard model that can
be applied to everyone everywhere. This vision, which
has been enshrined at various international forums
would, thanks to the positive results seen in different
countries, including Tunisia, be likely to constitute one
of the main concepts we have been called upon to
adopt consensually and to implement in the new
millennium.
Indeed, the right of peoples to freedom and
democracy is a concept that has become a daily
practice in many countries and must be consolidated,
taking into account the requirements of growth and
progress that themselves constitute a fundamental
condition for peace and stability. In this context,
international partnership is a common denominator that
must guide our action in the next millennium.
Finally, allow me to express the hope that this
session will mark the rebirth of solidarity among all
components of the international community, within
which the United Nations will play a leading role
through its outreach and its ongoing harmonious
actions. Our objective would be that our action should
contain a human global dimension to establish a
common strategy and conditions for security, stability,
development and prosperity on the basis of the
common interests of all peoples everywhere.


Mr. President, allow me
to join previous speakers in congratulating you on your
assumption of the presidency of the fifty-fifth session
of the General Assembly. Nauru, like your
Government, has full confidence in your ability to
conduct the affairs the Assembly effectively and
efficiently. Through you, Sir, Nauru congratulates the
outgoing President, His Excellency Mr. Theo-Ben
Gurirab, Foreign Minister of Namibia, for a job well
done which climaxed with the successful and
unprecedented Millennium Summit.
The Republic of Nauru has just passed its first
anniversary as a Member of this esteemed Organization
with a Permanent Mission in New York that is just nine
months old. The admission of our brother island from
the Pacific, Tuvalu, as the 189th Member of the
Organization, is a most welcome development. On
behalf of my Government, I extend to Tuvalu our warm
welcome into the brotherhood of nations.
My delegation commends the Secretary-General,
Mr. Kofi Annan, and his team at the Secretariat for
their well-crafted report entitled “We the peoples: the
role of the United Nations in the twenty-first century”.
The report has captured, in one document, the agony
and ecstasy of the United Nations as it journeyed
through its triumphs and failures over the past 55 years
of its existence.
The purpose of our presence in this parliament of
the peoples of the United Nations is not to bask in the
ecstasy of past achievements but to pledge anew our
commitment and determination to face the problems
that continue to confront humanity, and to support the
launching of the United Nations on a new crusade to
engage the tempestuous challenges encapsulated in
chapter VII of the Secretary-General's report. In
conjunction with this, the heads of State or
Government of Member States have mandated the
Assembly, by their solemn act of adopting the outcome
document, to implement the call for action.
It is further encouraging to hear Foreign
Ministers expound upon and reinforce the
commitments that their respective heads of State or
22

Government made at the Millennium Summit. It is now
for the doers to deliver the goods, so to speak. It is here
that the greatest challenges lie. It is indisputable that
the issues before us are not new but are unfinished
business, and the most difficult on which to make
progress. The problem is in the interaction between
Member States for the purpose of delivering agreed
instruments that will act as platforms by which
Member States will be obligated to adopt and
implement at the national level.
It is therefore my delegation's strong view that
our first priority is to revitalize and further strengthen
the foundation for collaboration and cooperation
among Member States on the one hand, and between
the United Nations and the appropriate
intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental
organizations on the other. That is, not only must we
resolve to provide the United Nations with the
allocated resources and processes to perform its tasks
effectively, but we must also repair the negative
undercurrents and detrimental practices that inhibit the
achievement of desired outcomes.
In this regard, Nauru considers the following
actions to be necessary steps towards this goal.
First, we must revitalize the work and restore the
authority of the General Assembly as the only
universally representative body of the United Nations.
Second, there is a need to address the ongoing
marginalization of the smaller and less affluent
Member States.
Third, we must expedite the reform of the
Security Council. Nauru believes that an expansion in
Security Council membership is the politically correct
action to take, and we urge participants and facilitators
alike to expedite the work of the Working Group.
Fourth, the preference for unanimity as the means
of deciding on issues under consideration is, in our
view, a major factor behind the delay in reaching
agreed solutions and has on more than one occasion
resulted in the dilution of outcomes. Setting such a
high standard, when the principal organs of the United
Nations come to decisions on a two-thirds majority
basis, is self-defeating. Nauru takes the view that a
unanimous outcome should be a target only, and not a
rule.
Fifth, financial resources need to be shored up.
The timely and unconditional payment of assessed
contributions will enable the United Nations to
discharge its responsibilities in a timely manner.
Voluntary contributions are also a very essential source
of funds to support the work of the subsidiary bodies
and agencies through trust funds established under the
United Nations. Nauru commends those Member States
that contribute to such trust funds over and above their
assessed contributions, and we also recognize and
praise the important contribution that private trust
funds such as the Ted Turner Foundation make to the
work of the United Nations and its main agencies.
Sixth, a number of covenants remain dormant due
either to the lack of signatories to bring them into force
or to the lack of ratification by States that have signed.
We thus call for all States to make a commitment to
bringing outstanding international agreements into
force.
Seventh, the Secretary-General's reform
initiatives of 1997 must be brought to bear in the
shortest time possible so that the limited resources of
the United Nations are put to work more on the
programmes of action and less on running the
administrative machineries. We urge that the
Secretariat continue to review its operations on a
timely basis as it strives to do more with less.
The President of the Republic of Nauru, in his
intervention in the round-table discussion, expressed
his disappointment that the core responsibilities of the
United Nations regarding the rights of peoples to self-
determination and freedom from alien domination did
not rank as importantly as the other issues currently
before us. The fact that there are still 17 countries
listed in the Special Political and Decolonization
Committee, coupled with the non-settlement of long-
standing disputes between States over their borders,
and the continuing existence of stateless people, may
be indicative of the priority that these issues receive
within the United Nations.
For Nauru, the continued refusal of the United
Nations to deal with the plight of the millions of
Chinese on the island of Taiwan is tantamount to
avoiding its core responsibilities. By no stretch of the
imagination could we be convinced that the Republic
of China on Taiwan is a province of China. Nauru has
no doubt that the condition that unification should take
place through “peaceful” means, adopted by the United
States and its allies as part of their “one China” policy,
has helped maintain relative calm in the region. It is
23

incumbent upon the United Nations, under the
appropriate Articles of the Charter, and the
international community to find a lasting solution to
the problem. The United Nations cannot claim to be a
truly universally representative world body as long as
the people of Taiwan continue to be excluded from this
Organization.
East Timor is a classic case of the United Nations
not paying attention to the concerns of the Pacific
region. Undoubtedly, had the United Nations, through
the Security Council, acted at the time it was prompted
to do so by the Governments of the region, the human
carnage and immeasurable damage to property would
have been far less, and perhaps even avoided
altogether.
It is in this vein that Nauru is raising the matter of
West Papua. Our head of State stated Nauru's position
on the issue in his intervention at the Millennium
Summit, and I will therefore not repeat it here.
However, the Nauru Mission to the United Nations has
been instructed to take the necessary steps towards
putting together a resolution on West Papua's call for a
new and democratically run referendum on the
question of independence from Indonesia, in the spirit
of the 1962 New York Agreement between the
Netherlands and Indonesia. We ask for the Assembly's
support of this just cause.
Flowing from these issues of security and peace
is the issue of the safety and survival of humankind
from weapons of mass destruction, illicit trade in small
arms and light weapons and the pandemic of the
HIV/AIDS virus. Despite the establishment of several
initiatives by the United Nations in its effort to make
progress on and expedite the question of disarmament,
it is sad to note that progress is at a snail's pace, due
mainly to resistance by most nuclear-weapon States to
disarm. In the Pacific region, which has been declared
a nuclear-weapon-free zone by the Rarotonga Treaty,
the transboundary shipment of nuclear fuel and other
radioactive material in the waters of States parties to
the Waigani Convention are banned. Our efforts
through the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
process, as well as bilateral and multilateral initiatives
to protect our ecosystem and seas against accidents
from these shipments in the high seas of our region,
have been met with strong opposition by shipping
States that, unlike us, are not dependent on the sea and
its ecosystem for their livelihoods.
In this regard, Nauru supports the call by the
Secretary-General to convene a special session of the
General Assembly to address the nuclear disarmament
issue, as we are not satisfied with the pace of progress
in the other forums.
At the other end of the scale, small arms and light
weapons obtained through illicit trade account for
much of the political, ethnic and criminal killings and
human suffering that occur in the less affluent
countries of the world. The tranquil South Pacific has
not been spared from this deadly trade. The United
Nations will be convening the first Conference on the
Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All
its Aspects next year, and it is our hope that Member
States will not put national political interests ahead of
the desires of the international community to eradicate
this illegal and offensive activity.
International efforts to contain the HIV/AIDS
epidemic from spreading have not been successful in
the least developed and developing countries,
particularly in Africa. The prohibitive cost of treatment
and social attitudes are the major constraints that these
countries face in combating the pandemic. We are
satisfied with the efforts of the United Nations to
combat the epidemic, efforts that are largely being
carried out through the World Health Organization and
the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
However, it is obvious that the United Nations needs
the help of affluent countries to provide medicine and
medical experts in support of its efforts. In this regard,
Nauru has joined in the sponsorship of a draft
resolution calling on the General Assembly to take up
the issue and deal with it under its authority.
Poverty continues to be the major concern for the
developing world. The fact that the number of least
developed countries is stagnant at 48, with the
possibility of another 3 countries being added to the
list, is testimony to the fact that current programmes
are not working. The Secretary General's report
entitled “We the peoples” lists some ambitious
initiatives to accomplish freedom from want for
humanity. We strongly endorse the call for setting time-
bound goals in making resolute commitments to the
world's poorest and most vulnerable. Next year's
conference on least developed countries and financing
for development will be our first test since the
Millennium Summit of our sincerity to move from
rhetoric to action on the important issue of poverty
alleviation.
24

The Pacific is a region that demands special
attention. Projections by the Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific estimate growth
in the Pacific region to be only about 2 per cent during
the next three years, as compared to around 6 per cent
for the rest of Asia. My own country is expected to
experience several more years of negative growth, as
our single resource and industry — phosphate —
comes to the end of its natural life.
Small island developing States, and the Pacific
islands in particular, face special difficulties is making
the transition to globalization. They will need time to
adjust to changes in the external trade regime and to
the consequent changes in their economies. Our
particular vulnerabilities should be recognized as
justifying special consideration to deal with such issues
as the global process of trade liberalization. The
removal of special protective regimes continues to
occur.
The South Pacific Applied Geoscience
Commission has been developing an environmental
vulnerability index with input from both the United
Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Nauru,
along with the other small island developing States in
the Pacific, is gratified at the support it has received
from several developed countries to finance the project
to fruition. We urge that this work be incorporated into
the work of the United Nations, especially into the
work of the Committee for Development Policy and
that of the Bretton Woods institutions.
For all of us in the Pacific, the ocean is our major
resource. It provides us with food, income from the
sale of fish stocks caught in our respective zones and,
through the natural cycle of evaporation and
condensation, it is also a vital source of our fresh
water. It may also prove to be the source of the demise
of many low-lying Pacific islands from global warming
and the resultant rise in sea levels. The Rio Conference
in 1992 provided the foundations for international
action. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that
Deplete the Ozone Layer is an important step forward.
But those responses may prove to be too few, too
little and too late for many small islands. We urge the
community of nations to implement the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol. Nations and the private sector must
incorporate “green accounting” into their practices in
order to integrate the environment into economic
policy. Suitable regulations and incentives need to be
designed into the web of governance.
Agenda 21 and the Barbados Programme of
Action continue to be the guiding principles for the
sustainable development of our region and the
protection of our environments. My delegation is
pleased to note that the World Bank has adopted much
of the relevant language in its programmes but it, and
the rest of the developed countries, need to commit to
maintain and, where possible, to expand overall levels
of support for small States' development, in terms of
both advocacy and the provision of technical
assistance.
Fishing offers the best hope for the future
sustenance of the smaller island countries that have no
mineral resources and/or tourism to contribute to the
national treasury. Nauru therefore reaffirms the
importance of the sustainable integrated management
and conservation of living marine resources in the
world's oceans, and the obligations of States to
cooperate to that end. We again call for an end to
unsustainable and damaging practices, such as drift-net
fishing, offshore dumping and high-seas pollution.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is a threat to
the economic development of coastal States in the
Pacific, Caribbean and Latin American regions, whose
national incomes are heavily dependent on the export
of fish. The efforts by the United Nations to convene
the first open-ended informal consultative process on
the oceans and the Law of the Sea has enabled States to
address those issues with a view to reporting the
deliberations of the consultation to the General
Assembly for its consideration and further action.
Another area where small States, including our
own, have been successful in generating income for the
national treasury is in the provision of onshore and
offshore financial services. However, pressure has been
applied by the Financial Action Task Force on Money
Laundering and the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) to blacklist
countries that do not meet the anti-money-laundering
standards of those international bodies. We understand
and accept the need to have an anti-money-laundering
regime, and many small island States have gone a long
way to implement those requirements.
For its part, the Government of Nauru recently
issued a letter of commitment to the United Nations
Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention to
25

undertake the United Nations minimum performance
standards on anti-money-laundering initiatives.
Regrettably, the compliance level has been raised
unilaterally by the OECD to include harmful tax
competition — which has nothing to do with money-
laundering and other financial crimes. This is wrong in
international law and violates both the letter and spirit
of many United Nations resolutions regarding the
intervention of international organizations in the
domestic jurisdiction of States. Such unilateral action
is not acceptable to Nauru.
For the Pacific region, the question of the
equitable representation of the 11 Pacific island
countries in the bodies and commissions of the United
Nations is of vital importance. Until 20 years ago, it
may have been reasonable to have Australia and New
Zealand in the Group of Western European and other
States and a handful of Pacific islands in the Asian
Group. However, with the increase in membership
since that time, and the addition of a number of Pacific
island nations in recent times, it is incumbent upon the
United Nations to review the groupings.
Oceania is a distinct and internationally
recognized region of the world. The Asian Group
presently constitutes member countries from the
Middle East, Central Asia, China, Japan, the two
Koreas, the member countries of the Association of
South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Pacific
island countries. The 11 Pacific island countries are
drowning in the Asian Group, while Australia and New
Zealand, the godfathers of the Pacific island countries,
are marooned in the Group of Western European and
other States.
The parliaments of the ASEAN member
countries, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Pacific
island countries are members of a regional body called
the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians Union. It is a well-
recognized body in the various regional and
international parliamentary forums. This model could
be used as the basis for a new regional group within the
United Nations, with the inclusion of Australia and
New Zealand. In our view, this new grouping would
provide the best opportunity for those Member States
to be equitably represented in the work of the United
Nations.
In conclusion, Nauru would like to reiterate the
importance of Member States making concerted efforts
to strengthen the fundamentals of multilateralism. At
the same time, the United Nations must assert its
leadership role through the coordination of all key
players in keeping the peace and fighting poverty and
transboundary crimes, as well as with regard to
humanitarian initiatives, the protection of human rights
and the rights of the child, and in the fight against
inequity and inequality. Only through such
collaborative efforts can we move the United Nations
in the direction that our leaders have agreed it must go.


I join other delegations in
congratulating Mr. Harri Holkeri of Finland on his
election to preside over the proceedings of the fifty-
fifth session of the General Assembly, and on Finland's
able service as Co-Chairperson of the Millennium
Summit. My delegation's appreciation is extended also
to the outgoing President, the Foreign Minister of
Namibia.
I take this opportunity also to express the distinct
pleasure of the Government of Barbados at the fact that
another member of the fraternity of small island
developing States, Tuvalu, has recently taken its place
at our table.
Five short years ago, the United Nations
celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a massive
gathering of world leaders not much different from the
event which engaged our attention for the better part of
last week. Then as now, the report card was weighed;
then as now, amid critical assessment of its deficiencies
and calls for bold reform, the Organization's continued
validity was ultimately recognized and its unique and
inherently positive role in multilateral relations
emphatically supported.
We hope that this time the Millennium Summit
will have served as more than just a familiar echo
reverberating, unchanged, at five-year intervals
through these chambers, magnified among the myriad
murmurs that linger from other occasions of
25

specialized summitry. For there is nothing inherently
magical about the passing of a millennium, or a decade,
or even a quinquennium. Indeed, the proliferation of
plus fives in this place is enough to confound the
entire fraternity of mathematicians and accountants.
And none of us is totally confident that the final
reckoning will leave us on the plus side of the ledger.
On the contrary, it seems, sadly, that we have become
consumed by the show, not the substance; the process,
not the result; the plan, not the implementation.
In this, the last year of the second Christian
millennium, as we review the progress of the peoples
of the planet over the past century, we find that, on
balance, humankind has not done very well. In many
fundamental ways, the twentieth century has not lived
up to the promises and expectations that an era marked
by such far-reaching technological change and
innovation should have produced. In contrast, it has
ushered in a time of unprecedented violence and
suffering, visited mainly upon innocent civilians by
international and internal warfare fought with
increasingly sophisticated and deadly weaponry.
The end of the ideological divide has not been
followed by an era of peace and development, as we
had all anticipated, but by a horrendous upsurge in
genocidal, religious and ethnic conflicts. The threat of
nuclear proliferation and biological warfare has only
partially receded, and the scourges of terrorism, narco-
trafficking and transnational crime continue to scar
innocent lives and threaten democratic governance.
While a few thousand souls live in obscene luxury, half
of the world's population subsist on less than two
dollars a day, and millions remain desperately poor,
with no prospects of bequeathing a better life to their
children. The new plague of the twentieth century,
AIDS, continues its decimation, with disproportionate
effects upon the poor in the developing world. In sum,
our modern civilization has not evolved into a caring
and enlightened species, but rather into one that has
often abused the positive aspects of its heightened
capacity and modernization to the detriment of
humanity and of the earth.
We well know that the United Nations is not, and
cannot be, the panacea for all the problems of the
twenty-first century, but we are convinced that it can
and should serve as a mechanism through which the
Governments of the world, and their people, can work
in common cause to find real solutions to the most
pressing global problems and challenges. In our
increasingly interdependent world, there is little chance
of success for unilateral action. This applies equally to
the Organization's mandates for the maintenance of
international peace and security and those for the
promotion of economic development and social
progress.
Since the Organization's creation in 1945, the
international landscape has changed considerably.
Internecine and intra-territorial conflicts based on
religious and ethnic differences have escalated, and the
United Nations has seen its peacekeeping role used
more in the last decade than ever before. At the same
time, the effectiveness of that peacemaking and
peacekeeping capacity has been called into question by
international public opinion and Governments alike.
We continue to expect miracles of the United Nations
in ending the bloodshed in the most troubled corners of
the world, but we seldom provide it with the tools, the
financing and the appropriate mandate to allow for
timely and decisive action. Without this support,
United Nations peacekeeping efforts will remain
reactive, and not preventive.
One of the most complex issues currently being
debated in the context of an enhanced role for the
international community in the maintenance of
international peace and security is the clash between
the opposing tenets of sovereignty and humanitarian
intervention. My delegation believes that this is a
matter of such fundamental importance that it requires
in-depth discussion and the elaboration, by broad-based
consensus, of clear new rules under international law.
For while we do not believe that the international
community can stand idly by in the face of massive and
genocidal violations of the human rights of citizens by
power-hungry tyrants, we must at the same time ensure
that any international response to such situations is not
influenced primarily by the national ambitions of third
States.
Decisions must be based on clearly defined
criteria, informed by an objective verification of the
facts. Action must be confined to the saving of lives,
not the overthrowing of Governments. Humanitarian
intervention, however compelling the circumstances,
must never be used as a guise for unwarranted
interference in internal State governance.
The balance sheet for the twentieth century in the
area of economic and social development is similarly
mixed. While the United Nations, through its
26

specialized agencies and programmes, has made great
strides in the fight against hunger, disease and
deprivation, that progress has not been evenly
distributed. The goal of the alleviation and ultimate
eradication of poverty remains largely unfulfilled, with
desperate consequences for the growing numbers of the
world's population who live in extreme poverty.
Structural adjustment, the errant compass of the so-
called lost decade of the 1980s, has taken its heavy
social toll. So, too, has the burden of debt, which,
despite the promise of debt forgiveness for the least
developed countries and special initiatives for the
highly indebted poor countries, continues to constrain
future economic prospects for a large number of
developing countries. At the same time, the decline in
official development assistance has had a direct impact
on the most vulnerable sectors of society  I refer to
women, children, the elderly and the infirm.
The Secretary-General has challenged the
international community to set a target for the halving
of the numbers of the population living in extreme
poverty by 2015. For this to be achieved, there is an
urgent need for a higher level of political will and a
shared commitment to create the necessary social and
economic framework to enable the poor and
dispossessed to redirect their lives.
Education remains the most powerful tool for
ensuring social progress and the betterment of living
standards for the underprivileged. It is therefore one of
the most disappointing truths of this closing century
that the international community has failed in its
collective endeavour to eradicate illiteracy, especially
among children. Although in the developing world the
adult literacy rate has increased by half, from 48 per
cent in 1970 to 72 per cent in 1998, the information
revolution now threatens to create a new category of
functional illiterates. The eradication of illiteracy and
the provision of at least primary basic schooling are
eminently achievable goals.
As an engine of social mobility, education stands
as the most important component in ensuring the
success of an individual and of a society. It is the
greatest social liberator and facilitator of peace and is
one of the fundamental pillars supporting democracy,
competitiveness and social stability.
The development of my country, Barbados,
provides ample proof of how education can empower a
people and foster upward mobility for each succeeding
generation. Education has always been one of the
highest priorities for the Government of Barbados and
a major source of budget expenditure. We are one of
the very few countries where access to education is
free at point of delivery, mandatory up to 16 years of
age and universal at the primary, secondary and tertiary
levels. Currently, the Government of Barbados is
embarked upon an ambitious programme within the
schools known as EDUTECH 2000, which aims to
ensure that every child is equipped to function
successfully in the new information age.
As we approach the new century, the world faces
probably one of the most disastrous threats to its
sustainability, a threat which has ended the lives of an
unimaginable number of persons, crippled the
economies and threatened the productive workforce of
southern Africa, and taken an increasing toll in Asia
and in my own subregion, the Caribbean. I am referring
to the pandemic of AIDS/HIV.
Current estimates indicate that there are over 33.4
million people worldwide who are now infected with
the disease. In the Caribbean region alone, that figure
numbers some 330,000, which is an astounding and
frightening statistic to contemplate for a country like
Barbados, with a population of 267,000 people. Our
region has the highest prevalence per capita in the
western hemisphere, and a prevalence second only to
that of sub-Saharan Africa. It has been reported by the
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS) that, every day, there are 16,000 new HIV
infections and that 95 per cent of all reported AIDS
cases occur in the developing world.
The AIDS pandemic is, in our view, the gravest
economic and social crisis facing the global community
as we enter the twenty-first century. Many of our
leaders and policy-makers are only now beginning to
grasp the enormity of the problem and to fully
appreciate the devastating impact which AIDS is
having, and will continue to have, on the economic
sustainability of every country, from the smallest, most
undeveloped nation to the largest, most economically
viable State, because AIDS is not only a human and a
social tragedy  it is also an economic one. It attacks
our present workforce not only in its productive, but
also in its reproductive capacity, thus simultaneously
decimating the economic potential of two generations.
It is a sobering reality that AIDS is now the leading
cause of death among young men in the Caribbean, and
it is projected that the disease may cause a decline in
27

the region's gross domestic product by as much as 4 to
6 per cent over the next decade.
We cannot tackle this grave crisis solely on the
basis of current strategies and financial flows.
Containing the spread of AIDS and dealing with its
economic impact is an immediate priority which will
require a major commitment of human and financial
resources. In this regard, I am pleased to note the
serious attention now being given to the crisis by the
World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank
and other international financial institutions. Just
yesterday in Barbados, a major conference was
convened under the auspices of the World Bank,
UNAIDS, the Pan American Health
Organization/WHO, the United Nations Development
Programme, the Caribbean Community and the
Canadian International Development Agency to bring
together high-level Caribbean health, education,
economic development and labour-policy makers to
map out a new crisis strategy for the Caribbean region.
Barbados applauds the recommendations of the
Secretary-General that the United Nations should adopt
as an explicit goal the reduction of HIV-infection rates
in persons 15 to 24 years of age by 25 per cent within
the most affected countries before the year 2005 and by
25 per cent globally by 2010. The United Nations must
make AIDS education and research a priority for the
coming century. Determined leadership is needed to
persuade Governments and international
pharmaceutical companies that a partnership must be
developed to combat the disease, both through research
and through the provision of drugs at reasonable cost to
those who are most in need.
The trafficking in and abuse of illegal drugs have
paralysed the development of many of our societies.
They have also eroded the productivity of the work
force and led to social discord, violence and a
conspicuous erosion of values and respect for the rule
of law. The countries of the Caribbean have not
remained untouched by this affliction, both as
transhipment and, more recently, sadly, as consuming
States.
In the fight against this menace, the United
Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) has
played a crucial role and its subregional office in
Barbados deserves special mention for its active
support for our own efforts. In Barbados, UNDCP
assistance has been invaluable in the establishment of
the Integrated Drug Programme through our domestic
National Council on Substance Abuse and also in
facilitating our community outreach efforts. Of
particular note too, has been its role in the
establishment of an Anti-Money Laundering Authority
in Barbados.
As a small island developing State, Barbados is
very aware that the natural environment performs for
us free basic services without which human beings
could not survive. At the same time, certain industrial
and technological advances have threatened the
biodiversity of many of the small island developing
States. Therefore, for ecological reasons and for
reasons of sovereignty and sustainable development,
Barbados, on behalf of the Association of Caribbean
States, last year launched an initiative leading to the
adoption of resolution 54/225 on promoting an
integrated management approach to the Caribbean Sea
area in the context of sustainable development. We are
grateful for the recognition by the General Assembly of
the efforts of the Caribbean to protect and preserve our
most precious resource.
The functions of the Caribbean Sea are many and
multi-layered. It is the source of our food, it is the main
attraction which drives our tourism markets and it is
our primary and most reliable link with the outside
world. The destruction that would be caused if there
were an accident involving nuclear waste or oil in our
waters would be beyond catastrophic and it would take
centuries for our environment to fully recover. We look
forward to continued assistance from the international
community in helping us to achieve the objectives of
that resolution to maintain and protect this, our most
vital natural resource. It remains the ultimate goal of
the region to have the Caribbean Sea recognized as a
special area within the context of sustainable
development.
In this spirit, Barbados also welcomes the newly
established United Nations Open-ended Informal
Consultative Process on Ocean Affairs and intends to
be an active participant in the consultative process. We
welcome the efforts of the General Assembly to
address the problems of over-exploitation of living
marine resources and the degradation of the marine
environment.
The collective efforts of our Governments to
alleviate poverty and disease and to help our human
capital to take full advantage of the opportunities for
28

economic and social advancement take place within the
parameters of a challenging new international order.
Naturally, I refer to the phenomenon of globalization.
Globalization is not entirely new. It has existed in
various incarnations among trading nations throughout
history. What makes the modern incarnation different,
however, is the manner in which the accompanying
information revolution is making possible the
integration of trade, investment, finance, production
and services across national boundaries. What also
distinguishes it is the philosophy of multilateralism,
which offers all countries, developed and developing, a
say  at least in theory  in shaping the rules which
will henceforth govern international economic
transactions. Nor is globalization as a concept
inherently negative. The precepts of expanding market
access, trade liberalization, increased technological
advancement and more efficient and effective
mechanisms of manufacturing and agriculture are all
positive elements. It is in the rigid application of these
elements, however, and their application without regard
to the social dimension of development, that distortions
have arisen which threaten to widen further the income
gap between the developed and the developing worlds.
I reiterate that the true challenge of the new
multilateralism will be to ensure that globalization does
not become an instrument of oppression for the peoples
of the developing world, but, rather, becomes a means
of offering a better life to all of our peoples.
In our efforts to sensitize the developed world to
the need for adequate transitional measures for
developing countries and for recognition of the special
vulnerabilities of small economies, Barbados has
frequently pointed to the fact that our Caribbean
countries are being asked to undertake in 10 years a
process which was carried out by the advanced
industrialized societies over a period of more than 40
years, spread over eight rounds of multilateral trade
negotiations between 1947 and 1994. In this regard, we
have emphasized that, however clinically sound a
procedure might be, the compression of its application
into too short a time period can often be a fatal therapy.
One of the greatest essential inequalities of the
contemporary global economy is that, while the
developed world was allowed an extended period over
which to properly phase in trade liberalization, to its
benefit, smaller, less endowed societies with less scope
to absorb the shocks of adjustment are expected to
make a potentially beneficial adjustment over an
incredibly short period of time. It would not have
worked for the developed world; it will not now work
for the developing, and is in fact the consideration
which argues the case for longer phase-in periods to
apply the changes in the global trading regime.
Barbados is not opposed to globalization. We
have already indeed begun the process of restructuring
our economy and repositioning our society to meet that
challenge. But our efforts, we believe, must be met by
a similar display of good faith on the part of the World
Trade Organization, which must, as my Government
has repeatedly stated, review, repair and reform itself,
adopt an ideology that is developmental and embrace a
developmental agenda that is progressive and balanced
in its substance, its processes and its outcomes.
That display of good faith is also necessary in
promoting constructive and mutually beneficial
dialogue between the industrialized countries and their
developing country partners on the crucial matter of the
regulation of international financial centres in their
jurisdictions. My country has spoken extensively in
other forums about our serious concerns over the
unilateral manner in which the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development has
proceeded on its so-called harmful tax competition
initiative, and on the real motives underlying this
unfortunate move. The setting of international rules in
the area of financial services cannot properly be done
by a grouping of 29 countries to the exclusion of all
other interested parties. In this age of enlightened
multilateralism there is no place for the application of
unilateral, extra-territorial solutions to international
economic developments.
On balance, we must not allow our frustration at
the many missed opportunities to obscure the fact that
the twentieth century has produced much that is
positive. As we look forward, in the words of the Prime
Minister of Barbados, the Right Honourable Owen
Arthur:
We face the prospect that the simultaneous
operation of the enormous power of technological
change, the dismantling of barriers to the
movement of output, capital, ideas and skills, and
the emergence of rules-based, consensus-driven
institutions of global scope will create a new
global society that is capable of affording
development to all, and of putting the scourge of
poverty behind us for ever. We will leave the

twentieth century and enter the twenty-first
conscious of the dangers, but excited by the
prospects.


The individual human
being must always be at the centre of our work.
Burmese students fighting for democracy, victims of
ethnic violence in Kosovo, women in Afghanistan
denied their right to education and equality, children
dying of curable diseases, people simply trying to
survive in the utmost poverty  have given us our
task. Meeting the needs of the peoples and realizing
their aspirations remain the starting point, the purpose
and the vision of our Organization.
But the United Nations will only be what we, its
Members, allow it to be. This year's General Assembly
session provides an occasion to revitalize our much
needed, but often criticized, global Organization. The
Secretary-General's excellent report on the role of the
United Nations in the twenty-first century provides a
firm basis for the creation of a truly modern United
Nations  a United Nations with maintained
legitimacy and increased credibility, greater efficiency
and continued global relevance.
Globalization opens the market for those who
have the resources and instruments to benefit from it.
Globalization makes knowledge and information
available to those who have the tools and skills to make
use of the new technology. Globalization brings
opportunities to improve life for all people, but it has
also led to an increasing gap between those who can
take advantage and those left behind.
Safeguarding the universal and indivisible rights
and values of humanity is a key responsibility for the
United Nations in the age of globalized economy,
technology and communications.
The world community has to do its utmost to
integrate the least developed countries into the global
economy. Solidarity and responsibility from all
countries are necessary for reaching international
development targets and for contributing to an
improved standard of living for all people. Solidarity
and responsibility are essential in fighting two of the
greatest threats to development and human security in
our time: poverty and HIV/AIDS. We need to work
with a wide range of measures to overcome these
threats.
Sustained and increased official development
assistance remains of vital importance. Today only four
countries, Sweden among them, meet the United
Nations target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income
in development aid.
But we must also look at financing for
development in a broader perspective. Domestic
resources, trade, international finance and official
development assistance must all be taken into account.
Sweden wants an integrated approach to development.
We welcome the fact that the United Nations, the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the
World Trade Organization (WTO) and others are
working together in preparing next year's high-level
events on these issues.
The start of new negotiations under the WTO can
be an important contribution to growth and
development. Let us together make sure that such
negotiations truly turn into a development round. The
major trading nations have already committed
themselves to giving free market access to products
from the least developed countries. It is time to put
these commitments into effect.
There is no contradiction between development
and respect for human rights. On the contrary,
development benefits from respect for the human rights
and participation of all citizens, and discrimination and
oppression are threats to development. For women in
many parts of the world, discrimination means being
25

excluded from participation in the economic and
political fields; their potential contribution is lost. Two
thirds of all illiterates are women. For millions of
women, domestic violence is a daily reality. This is not
in accordance with the basic values of our international
community and it is a major obstacle to sustainable
development. The legal basis for ending discrimination
exists with the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women and the new
agreement of the special session in June.
For the children, next year's special session of the
General Assembly provides an excellent opportunity to
set a global and concrete agenda. The Convention on
the Rights of the Child is the basis for this agenda to
reduce forcefully maternal mortality, to give more
children access to primary school and to promote the
participation of young people in shaping our societies.
Girls must be given the same rights and opportunities
as boys. I thus welcome the Secretary-General's new
system-wide girls' education initiative.
A growing problem in many countries and
regions is the traffic in human beings, especially
exposing women and children to sexual exploitation
and to forced labour. These criminal acts call for our
immediate attention and a forceful reaction from the
international community. We need and actively seek
closer cooperation between Europe, Asia and others in
order to develop strong and efficient measures to fight
this appalling violation of human rights.
Respect for human dignity requires an end to the
use of the death penalty. This brutal and irrevocable
form of punishment has no place in a modern, civilized
society. It is time for the international community to
fully recognize the most fundamental human right and
abolish the death penalty.
Disrespect for democracy and human rights paves
the way for crisis and conflict. National sovereignty is
firmly coupled with a Government's responsibility to
protect and promote human rights. It is the duty of the
international community and our duty as political
leaders to act and react when human rights and
fundamental freedoms are violated. We cannot idly
stand by when people are being brutalized behind
national borders.
In many armed conflicts, deliberate terror
directed against civilians is used to create fear. Women
suffer from violence and rape. Children are denied their
dignity and childhood when forced to become soldiers.
Men are imprisoned in concentration camps, forced to
take sides or killed. Lives and families are ruined and
the perpetrators often go unpunished. Sierra Leone is
one example, Kosovo another.
Strengthening international law and humanitarian
law does increase the protection of the individual. It
also creates confidence amongst people, since it
demonstrates that a culture of impunity will not be
tolerated. A good example was the decision by the
Security Council to set up a special court to try those
responsible for war crimes during the conflict in Sierra
Leone.
The establishment of an International Criminal
Court will give us a safer and more just world.
Suspected perpetrators of crimes against humanity can
and will be tried in accordance with international law
whenever national courts are unable or unwilling to do
so. There is a strong need for joint and early action to
make the International Criminal Court operational.
The past year saw a new honesty in drawing
conclusions from previous mistakes and I want to
congratulate the Secretary-General for having initiated
the studies of our failures in Bosnia and Rwanda. The
lessons learned from the chilling reports on the
massacre in Srebrenica and on the genocide in Rwanda,
as well as from the senseless terror in East Timor, must
be put to constructive use for the future.
National sovereignty must not be used as an
excuse to prevent the United Nations from taking
necessary measures when fundamental humanitarian
values are at stake. It is our common responsibility to
make sure that commitments are made and that the
resources for peace operations are available when
needed. My Government warmly welcomes the
recommendations in the Brahimi report, for example
concerning core funding for United Nations
Headquarters support for peacekeeping operations. By
implementing the many recommendations in the report,
the United Nations capacity to act will be significantly
strengthened.
If the Security Council cannot act in an urgent
situation, due to a veto or the threat of a veto, its
credibility and its legitimacy suffer. Necessary action
ought not to be hindered or blocked by a veto. Now is
the time for the permanent members to agree on a
moratorium on the use of the veto.
26

The credibility of the Security Council is of vital
interest not only to its members, but to the United
Nations membership at large. All efforts should be
made to use the Security Council as a forum for
negotiations and decisions in order to avoid not only
the unnecessary threat of or use of the veto, but also
unilateral action whereby the Council is circumvented.
A modern United Nations requires a Security Council
that reflects the realities of today's international
relations. The Council should therefore be enlarged to
make room for an increased representation of
countries, not least from the developing world. We
should also be prepared to periodically review the
composition of the Security Council. At stake is the
global relevance of the Security Council in a world
vastly different from that of 1945.
The recent developments on the Korean peninsula
show that long-lasting tension can also be challenged
through enlightened statesmanship. But the absence of
armed conflict does not equal lasting peace. It is
essential to address the root causes of violent conflict
by building democracy and safeguarding human rights,
by promoting economic and social development and by
removing trade barriers and debt burdens.
There is no alternative to the United Nations in
preventing and, if needed, managing conflicts. The
United Nations provides legitimacy for global action,
but the United Nations alone cannot meet the needs and
demands in this area. Cooperation between the United
Nations and regional entities could be further
developed. Sweden believes that the civilian and
military capacity for crisis management and conflict
prevention now being developed by the European
Union (EU) could be put to use in the future by the
United Nations. We will continue to work for close
cooperation between the EU and the United Nations on
these matters during the Swedish presidency of the EU
in the spring of 2001.
During the past year, the Security Council has
placed emphasis on early action and on the need to
focus on the prevention of violent conflicts. Sweden
strongly supports this shift towards identifying and
taking early measures. We are prepared to work with
other countries to support the Secretary-General in the
development of a comprehensive conflict prevention
strategy.
Improved interaction between the Security
Council and the Economic and Social Council, other
United Nations bodies and the Bretton Woods
institutions, including the use of joint fact-finding
missions, will facilitate early action. Sweden would
like to see the establishment of a standing fact-finding
mechanism at the disposal of the Secretary-General, as
a complement to Security Council missions. Such a
mechanism could be utilized at an early stage in an
emerging crisis situation, without undue delays.
Another part of a United Nations strategy should
be to explore and develop the link between democracy
and prevention of violent conflict. Democracy offers
peaceful ways of handling conflicts and different
interests. Democratization is a process in which the
holding of elections should only be the first step in a
long-term international commitment. Establishing
peace and democracy takes a lot more than free and
fair elections, even if that is the beginning. The
sanctions instrument needs to be refined to become
truly effective. By now, we have ample evidence that
sweeping economic sanctions frequently do more harm
than good. The guiding principle should be to exert the
strongest possible pressure on the decision-makers,
while no effort should be spared to avoid negative
effects on civilians. Every future sanctions regime
ought to consist of sharp and enforceable measures,
directed against the factors that cause and fuel crisis or
conflict. Sweden stands ready to contribute actively to
the debate on how this instrument of the United
Nations Charter can be made more efficient.
To promote disarmament and prevent the
proliferation of weapons of mass-destruction remains a
major challenge for the United Nations and its Member
States. The result of this year's Review Conference of
the Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT) gives certain hope in this regard. For the first
time in many years, a consensus document on the
agenda for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament
was adopted. For the first time ever, the nuclear-
weapon States unconditionally pledged to totally
eliminate their nuclear arsenals. For the first time, a
number of practical steps were identified for how to
work towards this goal.
A world free from nuclear weapons will not be
achieved overnight. Nor are these steps to be taken in a
distant future or held hostage to States' perception of
the appropriate strategic balance. The momentum
achieved at the NPT Conference has to be sustained.
The countries of the New Agenda Coalition will work
for the implementation of the NPT results. All States
27

ought to immediately cease production of nuclear
weapons and fissile material for weapons purposes.
The Conference on Disarmament should now start its
work on a ban on such material. The world
community's efforts to prevent the further production
of nuclear weapons must not be blocked by China,
India, Pakistan or any other State. It is high time to
bring the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty into force.
We expect all States to live up to their commitments.
The United States' plans for a national missile
defence system causes concern. In today's globalized
world, we must always take account of the global
effects of our decisions. It is hard to see how a possible
threat, from a few States, would best be countered by a
missile shield that may or may not work, and which
risks setting off a renewed arms race, with immense
costs in terms of wasted resources and loss of human
security. The recent announcement by the United States
administration to postpone the decision on the national
missile defence system was therefore welcome. A more
secure world ought to be built on cooperation rather
than on isolation and confrontation. The Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty is crucial to global security and must not
be jeopardized.
A major cause of concern is also the uncontrolled
and destabilizing spread of small arms and light
weapons. The international conference on illicit traffic
in small arms and light weapons next year will be an
important opportunity to address the issue in a
comprehensive way. It should result in a concrete
action-plan in the global, regional and national context.
The United Nations today is stronger and leaner
than three years ago when the Secretary-General
launched his reform programme. But there is still work
to be done, for example regarding the interplay
between the main bodies of the United Nations. We
should give the Secretary-General the full authority to
act in his leadership role. We support the Secretary-
General's proposal for a shorter, more focused agenda
for the General Assembly and restructuring of its work.
Another main issue for the Millennium Assembly is to
reach an agreement on the scales of assessment for the
regular United Nations budget and for peacekeeping
operations. While it is imperative that all members pay
their dues on time, in full and without conditions,
Sweden believes that a review of United Nations
contributions should be done. The aim however must
always be a fairer distribution of the financial burden
among Member States, adapted to today's realities, and
with capacity to pay as the guiding principle.
The United Nations must not be used as a
scapegoat when the real problem is lack of political
will or hesitance from us Member States to provide
necessary resources. Accordingly, any call for action
must be followed by a pledge to provide the personnel
or financial means.
The United Nations, with its global character and
legitimacy, can make a difference for mankind as well
as for the individual. Behind the much used term
globalization there are billions of people. They want us
to provide hope. They expect us to act responsibly.
They need to see concrete results. We are here,
representing them, on a mission to make the United
Nations a true guardian of human dignity.