General Assembly Session 55 meeting 4

The Co-Chairperson (Finland)

Before proceeding to the list of speakers, I will read the statement by the Co-Chairpersons of the Millennium Summit of the General Assembly, welcoming the Inter-Korean Summit and the Follow-up Measures.

"The Co-Chairpersons of the Millennium Summit welcome the summit meeting held in Pyongyang in June this year between the leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea and their Joint Declaration as a major breakthrough in bringing peace, stability and reunification to the Korean peninsula, and encourage the two parties to advance the process of dialogue so that it may eventually lead to the peaceful reunification of the peninsula, while contributing to the peace and security of the region and beyond."

The Co-Chairperson (Finland)

The Assembly will now hear an address by Her Excellency Mrs. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of the Republic of the Latvia.

President Vike-Freiberga (Latvia)

At the dawning of the third millennium this Summit inspires us to reflect on our future and on the role that the United Nations must continue to play to improve the human condition the world over. May I congratulate Mr. Kofi Annan on the numerous and highly commendable initiatives that he has introduced and supported as Secretary-General.

I wish to turn immediately to the important fields in which challenges remain to be met.

President Vike-Freiberga (Latvia)

Globalization presents a major challenge to the United Nations, involving as it does, almost by definition, every nation on this planet. The continuing spread of technological and other improvements is providing new opportunities to advance human societies and to create higher living standards across the planet. However, in many countries, poverty and want show little sign of decreasing, and may even be worsened by some aspects of globalization. Not surprisingly, this has created widespread disaffection against the very process.

The United Nations, as a global and international Organization, can play a major role in ensuring a more equitable distribution of the resources generated through globalization. It can draw on the unique strengths of its universality and neutrality, and on its established, on-the-ground presence in numerous countries.

These strengths allow the United Nations to make objective assessments of the difficulties in each particular country and to prescribe remedial courses of action in partnership with the Governments concerned. However, the plethora of United Nations bodies with differing mandates has become unwieldy, difficult to manage and confusing. In some cases, the configuration of the United Nations presence does not match the requirements of a particular country.

The United Nations must therefore strengthen its coordinating role and streamline its institutions. It must focus on results and impact. It must develop assistance programmes without competition, overlap or waste. The United Nations must reassess its resource-allocation policies, which, in some cases, have proven most wasteful and ineffective. It is one thing to oppose conditionality, but there should be no objections to stricter accountability and tighter follow-up requirements, thus ensuring that any aid received is well and truly spent on the purposes it had been destined for.

The United Nations must also reassess its military peacekeeping operations, not all of which have been successful. Recently, 500 United Nations soldiers were captured and then released by rebel forces in Sierra Leone. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations peacekeeping efforts have not attained their objectives. In Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Rwanda, United Nations peacekeepers became passive witnesses to wide-scale slaughter and atrocities and, just this morning again, we heard about tragedies in East Timor.

There is little purpose in passing peacekeeping resolutions that cannot be implemented. Perhaps we should prepare for worst-case scenarios and arm the United Nations forces for more muscular peace enforcement, rather than send in lightly armed troops who cannot intervene in serious armed conflict. The report of the United Nations Panel on Peace Operations contains constructive recommendations that are well worth considering. This is one major issue that will have to be addressed by the Security Council.

Regarding the reform of the Security Council itself, Latvia agrees that such reforms are urgently needed in order to make that important organ better reflect existing realities.

It is my pleasure to announce that, within Latvia's modest possibilities, my country has donated a beautiful and fully renovated building in the old town of Riga, the capital city, for the use of the United Nations organizations in Latvia. As a donor country, Latvia is also increasing its contributions to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and covering UNDP's local office costs. In addition, Latvia is once again making a voluntary contribution to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Latvia believes that, at the turn of the millennium, the United Nations Member Governments must work seriously to render this Organization more efficient and effective in the common fight against poverty, war, corruption, lawlessness and torture and in the promotion of human rights. We must concentrate our efforts on transforming the United Nations into an efficient problem-solving and development-oriented Organization that people can truly trust and rely upon. May it truly come to pass.

The Co-Chairperson (Finland)

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Natsagiyn Bagabandi, President of Mongolia.

President Bagabandi (Mongolia)

Mongolia views this unprecedented gathering of world leaders as an event of historic importance that offers us a unique opportunity to reaffirm our faith in the United Nations and to formulate our shared vision on how collectively to address the pressing challenges, both existing and emerging. The United Nations has consistently manifested its undisputed authority in identifying ways and means to address major global problems. Yet, the need to reform and adapt the United Nations to the evolving international realities, with a view to ensuring its efficient functioning in the era of globalization, appears to have been universally recognized.

Some important steps to this end have already been taken. However, the reform process, particularly the Security Council reform, has a tendency to slow down and there is therefore an apparent need to take appropriate measures to accelerate it. Mongolia is in favour of a just and equitable enlargement of the Security Council by increasing the number of permanent and non-permanent seats and ensuring representation of developing and developed countries alike. We also favour the democratization of international relations through increased openness and transparency in the work of the Security Council and an enhanced role of the General Assembly, as envisaged in the United Nations Charter.

In carrying out its activities in the maintenance of international peace and security, the United Nations should give priority to preventive diplomacy, especially in matters pertaining to international and internal disputes and conflicts. In this respect, further enhancement of the relevant international mechanisms appears to be crucial. Furthermore, ensuring the universality of international instruments concerning disarmament, crime prevention, human rights, the environment and other fields requires further collaborative efforts and a strong display of political will by all the stakeholders.

As the Secretary-General rightly pinpoints in his millennium report, the central challenge we face today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world's people. Today, not only do ideas of globality pervade the language of politicians, economists and researchers the world over; globalization as a reality has generated a host of multifaceted challenges beyond the reach of a single nation. It has become more evident that, along with greater opportunities, globalization has created situations of heightened vulnerability. This is all the more true for the weak and poor nations and leads to their further marginalization.

The question is how to manage the inevitable process of globalization so that it incorporates the human dimension in its seemingly unruly trends. Mongolia believes that, with its impartiality and universal legitimacy, as well as its Charter-based prevalence over any other international agreement, the United Nations is uniquely placed to provide an overarching general guidance to the process of globalization so that its benefits may be enjoyed by all, especially the small States.

No matter how liberal the world economy is becoming, it is a matter of fact that many developing countries have found themselves handicapped in seeking to enjoy the fruits of global liberalization. Therefore, it is our considered view that countries in a disadvantaged location, facing specific difficulties and serious constraints in their development efforts, need the closer attention and support of the international community. Proceeding from this premise, Mongolia has circulated as an official document of the United Nations the memorandum of its Government on how to enhance the role of the Organization in promoting the security interests of small States. We would appreciate the inputs and support of the other Members regarding our initiative.

Mongolia fully shares the Secretary-General's call upon us, the Member States, to spare no effort to make the United Nations a more effective instrument in pursuing the threefold freedom identified in the millennium report. The honourable mission of ensuring human security and promoting human-centred development should remain high on the agenda of the world Organization. In recognition of the crucial role of education in human development, Mongolia reiterates its conviction of the need to launch a United Nations literacy decade to marshal strong political will and determination towards ensuring lifelong education for all.

Mongolia fully supports the Secretary-General's proposal to establish a health inter-network with 10,000 on-line sites in developing countries to provide access to up-to-date medical information and to ensure reliable and fast communications in disaster-stricken areas.

Over the last decade, Mongolia has developed democratic institutions in the political, economic and social spheres, while promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms and pursuing an open and multi-pillared foreign policy.

The new Parliament and Government of Mongolia, which were formed following the general elections held last July, are resolved to vigorously pursue the programme of action designed to revive and encourage the national economy, ensure sustained economic growth, upgrade the living standards of the people, and reduce poverty and unemployment in close cooperation with the international community.

May I express my confidence that this Summit will yield a common strategy for the world community to collectively work in the new century towards a safer, more equitable and prosperous future.

The Co-Chairperson (Finland)

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria.

Mr. Bouteflika (Algeria)

Although it has become commonplace to talk about the astonishing progress made in science and technology, it is nevertheless true that the effects of that progress on our daily lives and on our societies are not yet fully known. Those unknown effects can lead to speculation of the wildest sort. The conquest of space and the often striking advances in genetics could give one the impression that man now has unlimited power over nature and the universe. However, those achievements have also allowed the continued existence of the ills that beset the majority of mankind and for which we have yet to find solutions.

Advances in communications that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago have certainly shrunk our world. But have those advances similarly increased the feeling of solidarity among human beings and between peoples? We know that this shrinking of our universe is leading inexorably towards globalization, from which none of us will be able to escape. We also know that it foretells a real shake-up in the behaviour and structures of our societies and the international community as a whole.

Such changes are worrisome because of their scope, their suddenness and, above all, because they seem to be independent of our own will. We must adapt to those changes or be condemned to remain on the fringes of modern life, unable to ascertain the future or to act on it. Will we be able to maintain a semblance of free will in this mad pursuit into which we are being dragged by the new discoveries in science and technology? Will we be able to make our own choices, set our own priorities, and preserve the moral values on which our civilizations have been built?

The legitimate fears aroused by these questions are even more acute in our underdeveloped countries, where our economic, social and even cultural structures are more vulnerable to these assaults by progress and to the constraints of a globalization that is creeping progressively but inevitably into our daily lives and that daily decreases the scope of our freedom. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, we therefore wonder with the greatest concern about the place our countries will occupy in tomorrow's world, a world based on the implacable law of power and governed by the inflexible rules of the market. Will we still be able to make our voices heard in the debates that will decide our future, or will we lapse into some sort of disguised servitude in which we will once again become the objects -- either consciously or not -- of schemes that will by and large exclude us?

The idea of democracy has made its way in the world and is beginning to permeate political life in our countries. Democratic culture is spreading throughout social classes as the intellectual level of our populations increases. Conversely, international life is increasingly moving away from democratic practices as decision-making power is being concentrated in the hands of the great Powers, especially in those of the developed countries.

But here again, things are changing. Under globalization, even political decisions are governed by economic considerations. This brings into play the financial interests of multinational corporations and highlights the market forces that now govern traditional diplomacy. As has been said, old negotiators no longer play any role other than that of being mere baggage handlers to high-flying banks and multinationals.

In a word, the world is becoming de-humanized, and that is the source of the anguish I referred to that is felt by all countries of the South and which for us is characteristic of our entry into the third millennium. While prosperity is increasing in rich countries and becoming more promising, our countries are floundering in underdevelopment that we absolutely cannot overcome because of the weight of endless debt. Will we one day be able to free ourselves from this crushing subservience and finally be able to devote our resources to our development and the well-being of our populations? From now on we are bound to a system of expanded, unequal and mercilessly marginalizing competition.

We would like to convey here our feeling of deep helplessness, not to tarnish the excitement we share with everyone else at seeing human beings extend their power and domination over nature, but to warn about the price that will have to be paid if the majority of mankind were to be marginalized in an international society based solely on the notion of material profit.

For us, the United Nations remains the Organization best able to take note of our fears and to try to find appropriate answers. The Organization has survived all the hazards of international life. No one can call into question the undeniable service it has rendered to the cause of peace in the world. It will certainly have to submit itself to renovation in order to ensure the preservation of the ideals of justice and peace that were part of its creation. In this regard, the analyses and suggestions contained in the report of the Secretary-General seem to us fully relevant. I would like to refer to just one of the observations contained in the report.

It is clear that the game of international relations that used to be played exclusively among States increasingly involves that which we have agreed to refer to as civil society -- represented by non-governmental organizations -- and is extending to increasingly diverse fields. I personally think that the role of non-governmental organizations must be acknowledged and that it is in everyone's interest to determine the status of non-governmental organizations in international relations.

Our concerns are numerous and pressing, and time is short. I simply wish to say that I hope that this Summit will lead to an awareness of our nations' difficulties and of the worries of our peoples. Faced with misery and endless distress, we would like to believe in the advent of a world in which the right to dignity is not measured in dollars. We remain deeply convinced that dignity is an essential, absolute and definitive characteristic of the human condition.

The Co-Chairperson (Finland)

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Alyaksandr Lukashenka, President of the Republic of Belarus.

President Lukashenka (Belarus)

The Almighty has endowed States and peoples, just like individuals, with equal rights to freedom, peace, security and a decent life. Yet for many centuries a small group of States has ruled the destinies of the world, regarding other nations and peoples as a mass with no rights.

The great achievement of the United Nations system, as I see it, is that the division of peoples into subjects and objects of international law has been eliminated. Today every State, regardless of its size and resources, has the opportunity to participate on an equal basis in solving the topical problems facing the world community.

The Belarusian people have made a considerable contribution to the establishment of this just system. And we cannot accept any attempts to dictate to us how we should live and with whom we should be friends.

Having sacrificed the lives of one third of its citizens to the cause of victory in the war against fascism, Belarus is capable of determining its own destiny. Having fully experienced the horrors of devastating wars, Belarus cannot be indifferent to the attempts to break the stability of the emerging world order, to disrupt the geopolitical balance in the world, and bring back the times when States were divided into first- and second-rate countries.

The proposals of the United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Annan, which are aimed at increasing the Organization's efficiency, evoke our profound interest.

In implementing these proposals it is important, as we say, not to throw out the baby with the bathwater. The aims and principles of the United Nations Charter should be preserved. Only under these conditions can we ensure that the Organization's activity yields practical results and that it is capable of effectively responding to the global challenges of our time.

I think everybody will agree that with all the diversity of the goals of the United Nations, the main task of the Organization is to ensure international peace and security.

For the time being, unfortunately, the United Nations is not fully able to deal with the task of preventing aggression and armed conflicts. The cases where military force was used, bypassing the United Nations Security Council, have not resolved any issues, but have only aggravated existing problems. Belarus holds the view that military force cannot be a legitimate instrument of foreign policy in the twenty-first century.

The intention to make the world a safer place was the main motive behind our decision to renounce the status of a nuclear State.

I do not understand those countries who speak so insistently about the threat of nuclear proliferation, sometimes from this rostrum, but at the same time do not want to take on the responsibility of making Central and Eastern Europe free of nuclear weapons, as proposed by Belarus on many occasions.

I avail myself of this opportunity to draw the attention of the world leaders present here today to the problem of environmental protection and the responsibility of large and small nations in that area.

Many in the world have already started to forget the greatest man-made disaster of the past century -- the Chernobyl disaster -- whose main victim was Belarus. The moral duty of the United Nations is to mobilize world resources for dealing with the consequences of the Chernobyl and other ecological disasters. Without awareness of our joint responsibility for preserving the common human environment, all discussions of a fair distribution of the benefits and disadvantages of globalization will remain just shallow talk.

Human rights and democracy are the central issues of the Millennium Summit. I believe that nobody in this hall would question the significance of these values and high standards, which are set out in United Nations documents.

The problem is that human rights and democracy are increasingly often being used by some States as a pretext for punishing objectionable countries and nations.

Recently, efforts have been made to create a sort of "club of the elect", which excludes the majority of the world's nations. This arrogant attempt to divide the peoples into "teachers" and "pupils" can do no good for the real encouragement of democracy and human rights.

In conclusion, I would like to draw your attention to the necessity for a more deferential attitude to the unique nature, existing way of life and historical destiny of every nation.

For the time being, unfortunately, in international relations we are facing more frequent attempts of the bigger Powers to treat all alike and reject any national and regional features which do not fall into the customary framework of the "Western way of life".

I doubt whether the overwhelming majority of the United Nations would agree with such arrogance.

Belarus is in the mainstream of democratic development. But in promoting democracy we rely, and shall continue to rely, on our own way of life and national spiritual traditions which have been maturing over centuries.

This is why we manage to combine development, democracy and stability. There are not and have never been any religious or ethnic conflicts in our country. Our borders are the borders of peace and cooperation. We are open to friendship and cooperation with all those who respect our country and people.

Addressing the United Nations from this high rostrum, I declare that in the new millennium my country shall continue to be your reliable partner in promoting the cause of peace and security on the planet.

The Co-Chairperson (Finland)

Before giving the floor to the next speaker, I would like to make an appeal. Members are aware that there are still several speakers remaining on the list of speakers for this meeting. Since we must exhaust the list for each meeting, I should like to appeal to the participants in the Millennium Summit to respect as much as possible the five-minute speaking time allotted to each speaker. This would allow us to hear all the speakers on the list.

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Thomas Klestil, Federal President of the Republic of Austria.

President Klestil (Austria)

A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.

<type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'>: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xf6' in position 1739: ordinal not in range(128)
      args = ('ascii', u'\n\t<p id="pg006-bk02-pa01">This assembly of world...tions appropriate for the agenda of our time.</p>', 1739, 1740, 'ordinal not in range(128)')
      encoding = 'ascii'
      end = 1740
      message = ''
      object = u'\n\t<p id="pg006-bk02-pa01">This assembly of world...tions appropriate for the agenda of our time.</p>'
      reason = 'ordinal not in range(128)'
      start = 1739