General Assembly Session 59 meeting 65

The Acting President

I give the floor to the representative of Peru to introduce draft resolution A/59/L.20/Rev.1.

Mr. De Rivero (Peru)

I have the honour to address the General Assembly on behalf of the member States of the Andean Community -- Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela -- in order to submit for consideration by the plenary draft resolution A/59/L.20/Rev.1, entitled "Andean Zone of Peace".

The Andean Zone of Peace was established by the presidential Declaration of San Francisco de Quito on 12 July 2004 and covers the territories, airspace and waters under the sovereignty of the Andean countries. It is the result of one of the most advanced processes aimed at bringing about a genuine area of peace and security on the American continent.

The Andean Zone of Peace is the culmination of important processes aimed at strengthening security in the Andean subregion, such as the Lima Commitment of 17 June 2002 on the limitation, control and transparency of expenditures related to conventional weapons; the "Andean Plan to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects" of June 2003; and decision 587 of July 2004, containing the Andean Common External Security Policy Guidelines.

The main objectives of the Andean Zone of Peace are the following: first, to prohibit weapons of mass destruction and their transit through the subregion, as well as the definitive eradication of anti-personnel landmines; secondly, to design and implement an Andean programme aimed at confidence-building and strengthening security; thirdly, to promote the participation of Andean countries in United Nations peacekeeping operations; fourthly, to ensure compliance with the prohibition of the use or threat of use of force between Member States; and, fifthly, to promote the prevention and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, whatever their nature.

The draft resolution is the outcome of negotiations among the five Andean countries and those delegations that have made suggestions in order to improve the text.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to make a slight oral amendment to the text of the draft resolution. It has to do with a mistake that was made in the translation into English of the original Spanish text. In the fifth preambular paragraph in the English version, in the third line, we should include the word "overcoming" before the word "poverty" and then delete the word "eradication", so the sentence would then read "Overcoming poverty, social exclusion and inequity".

Having said this, given that the new zone of peace coincides fully with the principles and objectives that form the very foundation of the Charter of the United Nations, I would ask the General Assembly, on behalf of the Andean countries, to recognize this peace initiative and to approve it by consensus.

Ms. Holguín (Colombia)

It is an honour for me to address the plenary at the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly with regard to agenda item 161, whose inclusion in the agenda was requested by Peru.

My country, along with Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, is a sponsor of draft resolution A/59/L.20/Rev.1 which welcomes the Declaration of San Francisco de Quito on the Establishment and Development on the Andean Zone of Peace, signed on 12 July 2004. In this Declaration, our Presidents agreed to establish a zone of peace in the Andean Community with precise objectives and concrete guidelines.

The Declaration recognizes that peace, security, the full force of democracy and the rule of law are necessary conditions to reach higher levels of political, economic and social development in our countries. Therefore agreements such as the Andean Common External Security Policy are fundamental parts of our integration process. We are also committed to designing and implementing an Andean Programme for Security and Confidence-Building.

Colombia welcomes the definitive solution to territorial disputes among the countries of our subregion, which has allowed us to make the Declaration on the Andean Zone of Peace. Nevertheless, our democratic stability and the integrity of the political, economic and social structures of our countries still face grave threats like the illicit drugs problem; terrorism, corruption and extreme poverty. That is why we are working together to strengthen our democracies with the ongoing promotion and defence of the rule of law, human rights and the sustainable and equitable development of our peoples. Together, we will be able to achieve success in the struggle against transnational threats.

Among the objectives of the Andean Zone of Peace that we hope the General Assembly will welcome today, we included the ban on the use or threat to use force between member States, as well as the consolidation of a democratic, cooperative and non-offensive conception of security in our subregion. For the Government of Colombia, committed to the implementation of a democratic security and defence strategy to fight terrorism and the world illicit drug problem that finance it, cooperation from the international community and the Andean subregion is fundamental. That is why we underline the Declaration's commitment to develop and strengthen legal, judicial and police cooperation with the goal of contributing to create a common space for citizens' security and justice.

Colombia contributes to the Andean Zone of Peace with a democratic defence and national security strategy that aims to consolidate the rule of law and to guarantee the human rights of all Colombians. This includes our farmers, so that they are not forcefully displaced from their land; our businessmen, so that they are not victims of kidnapping; our journalists, so that they are not threatened; our labour leaders, so that they can exercise their action freely; and our human rights defenders, so that they can work without intimidation. The democratic security policy protects all citizens of a pluralist nation, open to fraternal and creative debate, that counts on the solidarity of its Andean brothers in its fight against violence and terrorism.

Today we welcome the Andean Zone of Peace as a firm commitment in the fight against threats to the security of our States, as well as the consolidation of the fraternal and cooperative relations that exist among our peoples and governments -- a commitment for action, coordination, and concerted common strategies in order to face serious threats to the security of our countries and the stability of our region together.

Therefore, I would like to conclude this speech by underlining the fundamental role that regional and subregional organizations can play in maintaining international peace and security, as well as in achieving the economic and social development of the peoples of the world. Today, when many doubt the effectiveness of multilateralism to face the threats and challenges of the twenty-first century it is enough to take a look at regional and subregional organizations around the globe to see that multilateralism maintains its full force and that States' commitment in strengthening it should be progressively stronger.

I call upon the United Nations to recognize and make use of regional and subregional organizations' exceptional capacity to contribute to building a more pacific and just international scenario, where security and development are achieved to face successfully threats and challenges of today's world. Regional and subregional organizations, taking into account the spirit of harmony and understanding among their member States, their geographic proximity and common values, are exceptional forums for widening and strengthening cooperation, solving conflicts and mobilizing regional solidarity on fundamental topics. The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Andean Community are good examples in our hemisphere of the potential of regional and subregional organizations.

Ms. Núñez de Odremán (Venezuela)

The fifteenth Andean Presidential Council, which brought together Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and my country, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, instructed the Foreign Ministers of our countries, through the mandate of the Declaration of San Francisco de Quito, to include an additional subject on the agenda of the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly, namely, the Andean Zone of Peace. The progress in this peace process between our countries is a further link in our path towards reciprocal peace and security, which strengthens the harmonious development of the community and protects us from threats to our security and vulnerability to our territories and peoples.

In this respect, it also represents a contribution to overcoming poverty. It promotes social inclusion and therefore constitutes an adequate environment to overcome social injustices. Likewise, it also helps to promote trust between our peoples, to improve coordination of activities and it will facilitate the adoption of specific measures to solve subregional conflicts, whatever be their nature or cause.

We consider that this initiative of the Andean Zone of Peace is part of a complementary process to the Treaty of Tlatelolco, as well as other important disarmament measures to which Venezuela is a party and which have as their basis the Charter of the United Nations and the Charter of the Organization of American States.

Finally, I would like to thank the President for having included this subject on the General Assembly agenda. We would also like to point out that the provisions contained in the draft resolution are only binding on the parties involved, and we therefore hope that the resolution can be adopted by consensus.

Mr. Araníbar Quiroga (Bolivia)

Allow me, on the occasion of the adoption of the draft resolution on the Andean Zone of Peace, to refer to the Declaration of San Francisco de Quito on the Establishment and Development of the Andean Zone of Peace, adopted on 12 July 2004 by the Presidents of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela within the framework of the fifteenth Meeting of the Andean Presidential Council.

The idea of establishing nuclear-weapon-free zones, zones of peace and denuclearized zones has been gaining favour among many States of the international community and has spread to various regions of the world. It has travelled beyond national borders and crossed oceans and seas, taking root on various continents, regions and subregions in a sort of chain reaction that continues to spread until the process is complete.

This ambition seems consonant with the goal of general and complete disarmament, as it is guided by the innate desire of human beings to live in genuine peace and security, to eradicate the scourge of war and to free up economic, intellectual and other resources for peaceful pursuits and the needs of development.

This concern is not foreign to the American continent. It was expressed clearly on 29 April 1963, when Bolivia, together with Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico, issued a declaration proclaiming their readiness to sign a multilateral agreement establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone with the aim of reducing the threat of nuclear war. Without doubt, the subsequent adoption of the Tlatelolco Treaty in 1967, which declared Latin America and the Caribbean to be a nuclear-weapon-free zone, constituted the first link in the chain. In that context, we note with satisfaction that its message has spread. Nuclear-weapon-free zones, zones of peace and denuclearized zones, although they have different specific strategic meanings, are all aimed at achieving similar objectives and respond to an issue of great interest in the prevailing world situation.

It is useful to note the opinion of United Nations experts responsible for studying this question, who have said that the establishment of zones of peace and nuclear-weapon-free zones should not be considered an end in itself; rather, it should be seen as ways of achieving the objective of general and complete disarmament in order to ensure genuine peace and international security. Our new, multidimensional concept of security should guide us, within the framework of respect for international law, the protection of human rights and the defence of democracy, which are enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the charter of the Organization of American States.

A clear threat to the legally elected Governments of our region is posed by disturbing phenomena characteristic of the international situation today, namely, the increase in armed conflicts, terrorist acts and trafficking in human beings and arms, as well as the increase in transnational organized crime, drug trafficking and money laundering.

In that context, the establishment of the Andean Zone of Peace marks an important milestone in the strengthening and the deepening of Andean and South American integration and reflects the common will of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela to prohibit not only nuclear, chemical, biological and toxin weapons and their transit through the airspace and the waters under their respective sovereignty and jurisdiction, but also to carry out the total eradication of anti-personnel mines.

The Andean Zone of Peace represents the consolidation of initiatives previously undertaken in the area of security, such as the 1989 Galapagos Declaration, the 2002 Lima Commitment, the Andean Plan to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects of June 2003 and Decision 587 of July 2004, containing the Andean Common External Policy guidelines. The countries of the Andean Zone of Peace will continue their efforts to prevent and combat threats to security, strengthen and revitalize democracy, enhance cooperation for integrated development and continuously seek a more just and equitable international order.

Bolivia, from a perspective of integration consistent with its peace-oriented foreign policy guidelines, has sought to unite its efforts with those of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela to establish the Andean Zone of Peace, convinced that peace, democratic stability and collective security will have a positive impact on the entire process of South American integration.

We believe it important to make progress in education for peace and disarmament and in the promotion of a democratic culture, with the aim of creating conditions that will help us achieve our historical aspirations and thus overcome problems that continue to negatively impact the comprehensive development of the subregion and the establishment of true multilateralism.

In conclusion, I would like to underline that in order to effectively consolidate the Andean Zone of Peace, it is absolutely necessary to make progress in overcoming poverty and inequality and to find peaceful solutions to disputes, demonstrating through our actions that peace and security are an essential part of the process of subregional integration and, from the broader perspective of a renewed and emerging reality, of South American integration.

My country therefore urges the General Assembly to adopt by consensus draft resolution A/59/L.20/Rev.1, introduced by the member States of the Andean Community.

Mr. Calderón (Ecuador)

My delegation would like to take this occasion to refer to the Declaration of San Francisco de Quito on the Establishment and Development of the Andean Zone of Peace, adopted in the city of Quito, Ecuador, on 12 July 2004, by the heads of State of the member countries of the Andean Community within the framework of the fifteenth Meeting of the Andean Presidential Council. We stress the importance that Ecuador attaches to the zone of peace that the Declaration created in the sovereign areas of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

It is evident that the Andean countries, conscious of their common history and the similar challenges they face in the current situation of the international community, and in a clear demonstration of their firm belief that peace and security constitute the foundations for development, stability and the rule of law, deem it essential to further strengthen the South American zone of peace and cooperation approved by the Presidents of South America at their second meeting, in Guayaquil, Ecuador on 27 July 2002, which was subsequently welcomed by the General Assembly in its resolution 57/13 of 14 November 2002.

Ecuador is convinced that the Andean nations will be able to contribute to the economic development and the overall well-being of their peoples on the basis of a clear political will to work with one accord to strengthen the climate of mutual trust and to consolidate a zone of peace free of weapons of mass destruction, that prohibits transit of those weapons through the region, a zone free of anti-personnel mines. We will work to achieve transparency and the gradual limitation in the acquisition of weapons.

Ecuador is allied with those nations that cherish peace and international law. Its foreign policy is guided by the principles laid down in article 4 of its Constitution, among which I note those pertaining to the legal equality of States, the condemnation of the use or the threat of the use of force as a means of resolving conflicts, the disavowal of claiming a legal basis for the spoils of war, the recognition that international law constitutes a standard of conduct for relations among States, the promotion of the settlement of disputes by legal and peaceful means, and peace and cooperation as the basis of coexistence among nations.

Conscious of its responsibilities as a member of the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the Andean Community, Ecuador stands ready, with profound conviction and determination, to contribute to the best of its ability to the maintenance of peace and security in the Andean subregion, in South America and throughout the world.

As the heads of State of the Rio Group declared on 5 November at the conclusion of the summit of Rio de Janeiro, only a multilateral approach to global problems and threats to international peace and security and full respect for international law will enable us, with a new spirit of international cooperation, to achieve peace, development and social inclusion.

Draft resolution A/59/L.20/Rev.1, submitted today for consideration, stresses in its preambular part the progress that the members of the Andean Community of nations have achieved in matters of security, peace and confidence-building, as reflected in Decision 587 of the Andean Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers, entitled, the "Andean Common External Security Policy Guidelines", and in decision 552, comprising the "Andean plan to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects". As stressed in the eighth preambular paragraph of draft resolution A/59/L.20/Rev.1, this is the first binding subregional instrument derived from the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects, adopted in 2001.

My country is convinced that the Andean Zone of Peace, as stated in the sixth preambular paragraph of the draft resolution, represents efforts aimed at

"promoting growing commonality among Governments, public opinion, political parties and civil society with regard to widely shared objectives and values",

and it will help to promote a broadening of the already very many possibilities existing in the different areas of cooperation between the Andean nations. On the basis of mutual trust and respect, it will enable us to join efforts to face the challenges of development in an increasingly interdependent and globalized world, and it will assure our peoples of a present and a future that is full of well-being and prosperity.

Likewise, we feel that the Andean Zone of Peace will help us to promote the principles and norms of international law enshrined in the United Nations Charter and in the Charter of the Organization of American States.

That is why, given my country's deeply felt peaceful vocation and as a firm defender of the Charter of this world Organization, we will do everything possible to strengthen the Andean Zone of Peace and to firmly contribute to the preservation of peace, security and trust, not only in the Andean region, but also at the regional, hemispheric and global levels.

In conclusion, my delegation, true to the steadfast principles that govern our relations with other States, would like to reiterate our support and renew our commitment to the peaceful settlement of conflicts.

We call upon United Nations Member States to support and adopt draft resolution A/59/L.20/Rev.1. on the Andean Zone of Peace, submitted for the consideration of delegations today, so that they can contribute to and cooperate with the objectives established in the Declaration of San Francisco de Quito on the Establishment and Development of the Andean Zone of Peace, adopted in Quito, on 12 July 2004.

Mr. Garza (United States)

The United States welcomes the aim of the Andean States to establish an Andean Zone of Peace to promote their peaceful coexistence, their self-determination and their freedom. We recognize the principles outlined in the Declaration of San Francisco de Quito as a first step towards establishing the parameters of this Zone of Peace.

We understand that an Andean Zone of Peace would be fully consistent with the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Treaty of Tlatelolco, to which all prospective Andean Zone of Peace members are parties, other applicable international agreements and international law, particularly customary international law of the sea.

I wish to commend all the Missions involved in putting together this draft resolution and the exceptional work and coordination they have done to reach a consensus.

The Acting President

We have heard the last speaker in the debate on this item.

The Assembly will now take a decision on draft resolution A/59/L.20/Rev.1, as orally revised.

May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt draft resolution A/59/L.20/Rev.1, as orally revised?

The Acting President

May I take it that it is the wish of the Assembly to conclude its consideration of agenda item 161?