Security Council meeting 3583

The President

Members of the Council will recall that the date and agenda for this commemorative meeting of the Security Council were agreed upon by members of the Council in its prior consultations. In accordance with that consensus, the provisional agenda for this meeting is before the Council in document (S/Agenda/3583). Unless I hear any objection, I shall consider the agenda adopted.

The President

I am very pleased to acknowledge that at this commemorative meeting of the Security Council the following members of the Council are represented by their Minister for Foreign Affairs: Argentina, Botswana, China, France, Germany, Honduras, Indonesia, Italy, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. The Czech Republic is represented by its First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs. Oman and Rwanda are represented by their Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

The spirit of cooperation demonstrated by all those present here, which has made this very important meeting possible, is greatly appreciated by all of us.

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda.

I call on the Secretary-General.

The Secretary-General

It is my great pleasure to welcome you today to this ministerial meeting of the Security Council of the United Nations. It is also an honour for me, Madam President, to greet you on this historic occasion -- historic for two reasons: First, it coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of this Organization. Secondly, this is the first time that, at the ministerial level, a woman has presided over this body. This is an affirmation of the essential role that women must play at the highest level of international diplomacy. It is gratifying that this takes place so soon after the Conference on Women in Beijing, which was itself a landmark.

This gathering of Ministers responsible for the conduct of the foreign affairs of States in every region of the world is significant. To have so many distinguished individuals here is a welcome and impressive event. I express my gratitude to all of you for your presence.

Given the complex world in which we live, meetings at this level are necessary. They help strengthen this organ, which today more than ever is playing the role envisaged for it by the Charter.

Every great conflict of history has been followed by a time of reconstruction and transformation. New ways of solving problems need to be found. Here in this Chamber lie the responsibility and the privilege of seeking to shape the future under vastly changed international conditions.

Experience over the past few years assures us that this task will not be easy. Patience and determination will be required. Cooperation is essential. Concepts must be re-examined. Institutions will have to be reformed. New approaches will have to be adopted even as fundamental principles of international relations are maintained.

The Security Council is itself an impressive example of the fact that the structures and mechanisms available to us can adapt and evolve to meet new challenges. In crisis after crisis over the past few years, the distinguished representatives who sit in the chairs you now occupy have been part of a transforming and positive process of change.

The Security Council has been functioning more flexibly, continuously and creatively than ever before. Its work ranges across a far wider spectrum than in the past. Along with its more traditional responses in resolving conflicts, the Council has taken pioneering positions on sanctions, preventive deployment, international war-crimes tribunals, confidence building, and through the many stages of democratization.

The work has often been frustrating. There have been setbacks and there have been successes. But, overall, the example of the Security Council's performance should be an inspiration to all who must face the frequently agonizing decisions of this age of ambiguity and change.

The ever-increasing and varied agenda of the Council has placed new demands on the Secretariat, which itself is adapting to the realities of today's world. As I have repeatedly stated, I am determined that the Secretariat should become more effective in carrying out the tasks assigned to it by the Council. To this end, the process of reform which I launched at the outset of my term in office is under way and will continue. If we are to meet the challenges ahead, it is essential that the Security Council and the Secretariat should work closely together.

For several years now the Council has succeeded in achieving consensus on most of its decisions. A spirit of cooperation prevails. So, too, the relationship between the Secretariat and the Council has become more interactive and dynamic, and we have to continue to work together in order to improve our methods and our actions.

The Secretary-General

It is in this framework that I wish to say once again that the implementation of peace-keeping operations is for me a subject of genuine concern, particularly because at present Member States owe the United Nations more than $3.4 billion.

The operations in the former Yugoslavia alone cost approximately $4.7 million per day. The current situation compels us to limit our action and to take drastic measures for the future. This, in my view, has two consequences, the importance of which must not be underestimated.

The first is a financial consequence. It is leading the United Nations to reject for purely monetary reasons actions that would none the less be politically desirable. In a way, each of our peace-keeping operations is carried out at the expense of others. Hence, we risk allowing financial constraints to overtake political necessities.

This brings with it a second consequence that is no less serious, because it is an ethical one. The United Nations runs the risk of being constrained in its choice of operations on the basis of criteria and reasons that run counter to the principles of universality and equality contained in the Charter. Some conflicts are in danger of being forgotten for reasons that have nothing to do with the suffering they cause but, rather, because they take place in regions to which the world pays less attention. The United Nations thus runs the risk of being accused of following two sets of criteria, of using a double standard in choosing its actions in the service of peace.

I am sure that all of you here are well aware of all that. Your presence here today demonstrates in striking fashion the importance that you all attach to the multilateral diplomacy of the world Organization. This is for me a source of encouragement, and it must be for every people and every nation a real reason for hope.

The President

I thank the Secretary-General for his kind words addressed to me.

I now call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, His Excellency Mr. Ali Alatas.

Mr. Alatas (Indonesia)

I deem it a distinct privilege to be able to participate in this special meeting of the Security Council in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. It is indeed fitting that the Security Council should mark this milestone in our Organization's history with a special observance.

My delegation wishes to commend Italy for convening this significant meeting of the Security Council at the Ministerial level. It offers us a unique opportunity for sober reflection on the Security Council's performance since its inception, as well as on ways to further enhance its efficacy.

It may be recalled that the United Nations was born while humankind was still recoiling from the horrors of the Second World War. The international community, "determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war", endeavoured at the San Francisco Conference, 50 years ago, to create an international Organization that would be able to prevent such calamities in the future by establishing the political, economic and social conditions for a new, more peaceful and safer world. An important part of that task, the maintenance of international peace, was entrusted to this Council.

The high hopes that the international community invested in the United Nations, however, were soon overcast by the shadow of the cold war. The lofty intentions of the United Nations Charter could no longer be fully realized in a world split into two rival military and ideological blocs locked in a struggle for dominance.

In this Council, a sense of higher responsibility and common purpose among its members had been presupposed, but time and again the Council would be paralysed precisely because the major Powers could not achieve unanimity. As a result, the Council too often failed to take decisive action to resolve conflicts, and its resolutions were frequently defied or ignored. The superimposition of East-West rivalries on the deliberations of the Council rendered even unanimously approved resolutions unimplementable.

But it cannot be denied that even during the cold war era, the Security Council did manage to bring about some measure of global stability by limiting the scope and intensity of conflicts. Working with the Secretary-General, the Council provided modalities for conciliation, mediation, good offices, fact-finding, truce observation and quiet diplomacy. Time and again the Council would formulate guidelines for the solution of complex problems and substitute dialogue and negotiations for armed hostilities.

With the end of the cold war, a new era in the search for peace has dawned. Breakthroughs have been achieved in long-standing conflicts in some countries and regions. On a number of occasions in the recent past, the permanent members of the Security Council have recognized the international responsibilities inherent in their status and have shown a capability for united action never seen before. We are thus given a glimpse of what the Council could achieve if it could be made strictly faithful to the vision of the United Nations Charter.

Still, the lessons of the past 50 years are clear. We are called upon to further strengthen our institutions and to adopt more effective and innovative approaches to the prevention and resolution of conflicts. We have to recast the Charter's concept of collective action for peace and security so as to render the United Nations more capable of carrying out its primary function. We need to devise a more viable system of collective security in which all Member States can participate in accordance with their respective capabilities. In this way, the burden of making the world better and safer for all will be equitably shared by all. The General Assembly, the Security Council and the Secretary-General should assume their respective, complementary roles in preserving the peace, as mandated by the Charter.

Peace-keeping operations have to be armed with a clear mandate and provided adequate means, including financial, to fulfil their missions. Indeed, in this context, it is of critical importance to come to grips with the serious financial crisis that the Organization is facing; otherwise, all our endeavours to maintain international peace and security would grind to a halt. Concepts of peacemaking, peace-keeping, peace-building and preventive diplomacy need to be adapted to the new realities, especially in view of the qualitative changes that have occurred in the nature of conflicts. Questions relating to the future use of powers vested under Chapter VII of the Charter call for a collective re-thinking on the basis of insights derived from recent experience.

The profound changes that have taken place in the course of the past fifty years should now be reflected in the composition of the Security Council. An equitable and balanced expansion of the permanent and non-permanent membership of the Council, coupled with reforms in its working methods and procedures, would render the Council more responsive and relevant to prevailing geopolitical realities and more open to the participation of small and medium-sized States, which constitute the majority of the Organization. It would also be timely and pertinent to review the manner in which the veto is exercised at present, with a view to mitigating its arbitrary use and to ensuring a more democratic decision-making process.

The United Nations may not have been a perfect instrument for peace but it has given us fifty years without a global war and fifty years of experience in the pursuit of peace. Let us look back at the road we have traversed, distil useful lessons from that experience and set out again with refreshed determination. With renewed commitment we can create the world of peace envisioned in the Charter fifty years ago.

The President

I thank the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia for his kind words addressed to me.

I call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Honduras, His Excellency Mr. Delmer Urbizo Panting.

Mr. Urbizo Panting (Honduras)

Permit me to congratulate you, Madam President, on Italy's assumption of the Presidency of the Security Council for the current month. It is a fitting occasion as we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

The United Nations symbolizes the constant aspiration of men who, with a vision of the future, enshrined in the Preamble of the Charter the purpose of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war; reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human being, and embodied among its purposes the maintenance of international peace and security.

In the time that has lapsed since its establishment, the United Nations has, in our view, achieved important results; among them the avoidance of many military conflicts, which in other circumstances would have resulted in a worse regional or international conflagration and which would have threatened the very existence of mankind. At the same time it has contributed to the economic, social and democratic development of several Member States. Let us add to these achievements the fact that some countries, once considered enemies, are today part of the United Nations, have declared themselves to be peace-loving, and have accepted the obligations set forth in the Charter.

The Security Council of the United Nations was entrusted with a serious responsibility -- that of maintaining international peace and security. While in the early years of its existence, this organ which is such an important part of the international system, was paralysed by a world divided in ideologies, and by the so-called cold war. Today it plays an important role in the area of international peace and security. At present, there are more than 16 peace-keeping operations, covering a vast gamut of conflicts which could endanger international stability.

For Honduras, the maintenance of international peace and security is not an end in itself. Its significance lies rather in laying the foundations for a just and well-balanced system which fosters human development and encourages international cooperation and the development of North-South and South-South economic relations.

Furthermore, the United Nations has successfully carried out activities relating to human development. The recent world summits on population and development, on social development, and on women, held in Egypt, Denmark and China, respectively, are eloquent testimony to the dynamism of the United Nations. We must consolidate these achievements for the benefit of the great masses of people struggling in abject poverty throughout the world, with little hope of overcoming that lamentable state.

That is where the United Nations and the developed world should put forth their best efforts, in order to improve the lot of those who are marginalized and who today constitute the majority of the world's population.

As regards the future of the United Nations, we believe that after fifty years of its existence it requires a thorough overhauling of its operation in order to enable it to better meet the challenges of the coming millennium.

In this context, the Secretary-General of the United Nations was far-sighted when, in his "An Agenda for Peace", he pointed out that the United Nations

"must never again be crippled as it was in the era that has now passed."

and that in order to prevent conflict and war we must do our utmost

"to enhance respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, to promote sustainable and economic and social development for wider prosperity, to alleviate distress and to curtail the existence and use of weapons of mass destruction."

With reference to the maintenance of international peace and security, the Secretary-General has also updated the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations by incorporating in his "An Agenda for Peace" the concepts of preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peace-keeping and post-conflict peace-building. In this activities, Honduras makes a modest and significant contribution with contingents in Western Sahara and Haiti. We are also favourably disposed to making contributions in this field in other geographical areas of the world where our cooperation may be required.

The fifty years of our Organization are now part of history. The challenge of change which we will face in the coming years is by nature complex and fraught with serious difficulties, but there is no other way. We must assume the historic commitment to accept the challenge and to devote ourselves with enthusiasm to the shaping of a new world, which will do away with political, religious and racial intolerance, which will eliminate inequality and social backwardness, which will establish human fraternity and solidarity, a new world in which the beacon of freedom and democracy will light its path.

The President

I thank the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Honduras for his kind words addressed to my country.

I call on the Deputy Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, His Excellency Mr. Klaus Kinkel.

Mr. Kinkel (Germany)

Madam President, I too would like to express our pleasure at the fact that you, as the Foreign Minister of Italy, and as a woman, have assumed the office of President of the Security Council.

This special session today manifests our resolve to take stock after fifty years and jointly to look to the future.

The Security Council is the international community's central forum for decisions designed to preserve peace and international security.

Since the end of the cold war, it has recovered from its paralysis. And the challenges facing the Security Council have dramatically increased, but so too have the Council's activities. Well over 400 of its more than 1,000 resolutions have been adopted since 1989. Of course, I am pleased that the one-thousandth resolution was adopted during Germany's presidency of the Council.

Sixty-eight thousand Blue Helmets are at present engaged in 16 peace missions under the auspices of the Security Council. To my mind, this is an encouraging development. It demonstrates the international community's awareness that security and peace can be achieved only through joint action within the framework of the United Nations.

Criticism of the United Nations has become louder in the last few weeks and months -- destructive criticism, to my mind. However, what we need is constructive criticism, above all with respect to the Security Council. In view of the criticism we have heard, I feel justified in asking whether anyone knows of an alternative or of an organization better suited to master the challenges facing the United Nations, one that can look back to the same achievements as this Organization can.

Recent developments, however, have placed the United Nations in a very difficult position. The gap between the demands made upon it and the willingness of Member States to provide material and financial support is growing ever wider, and therefore we are faced with hard decisions regarding the future of international peace-keeping. The Security Council must strike the right balance between the obligation to intervene and the need to avoid making excessive demands on the solidarity and on the resources of the international community.

In its declaration of 31 January 1992, the Security Council rightly underlined the significance of the economic, social, humanitarian and, not least, ecological sources of instability. It must increasingly focus its attention on the prevention of conflicts, and in this endeavour it needs the support and close cooperation of the regional organizations. I do not believe that everything has to be taken immediately to the Security Council or to the United Nations. I think that many regional organizations can play a key role and that this is very important for the future.

The Security Council's credibility and efficiency crucially depend on recognition of the Council by the entire international community as the legitimate representative of its security interests. I believe that today there is worldwide consensus on the need to reform the Council. We need a more equitable representation of the Asian, African, Latin American and Caribbean countries, as well as more transparent working methods that would increase the Security Council's operational role and representative character.

Germany, with the support of many Member States, has announced its interest in permanent membership of the Security Council. Our willingness to assume greater responsibility, also within this framework, is for us the logical and consistent extension of our commitment to the United Nations.

Cooperation, networking of interests, joint action in a spirit of solidarity as the basis of global security and development: this is, and will continue to be, our basic foreign policy precept. In this belief, we are committed to European unity. It is also with this objective in mind that we would like to play our part in the Security Council.

The Federal Government is determined to do everything in its power to ensure that this forum can continue, in the decades to come, to fulfil the mandate to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, as laid down in the Charter.

The President

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