Andorra, 1996

Allow me first of

all to express the honour I feel as an Andorran at the

distinction that has been conferred on our small country by

this Assembly through your election, Mr. Minoves-Triquell,

as a Vice-President for this year’s session of the General

Assembly. I thank you for calling on me to address this

Assembly and assure you of the support of the people of

Andorra and, I am sure, of all those who speak the Catalan

language.

I must also thank the outgoing President, Mr. Diogo

Freitas do Amaral, for his excellent tenure at the helm of

the General Assembly during the year of the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations. I do this with the

satisfaction of congratulating an illustrious Portuguese, a

brother from the Iberian peninsula who has been able to

give this Assembly the necessary impetus to start off on the

right foot and with hope for the new era of 50 years that

must take us to the one hundredth anniversary of the United

Nations. I wish also to convey to the new President, His

Excellency Mr. Razali Ismail, my warmest congratulations

and those of my country on his election, and I have the

great pleasure of assuring him of the close collaboration of

the Andorran Vice-President of the General Assembly, who

will always be at his service.

Andorra looks to the future of the world with

optimism, sure that on this Earth men and women of good

will will know how to overcome intolerance and injustice.

In order to advance towards these objectives of progress,

we will have to count on the United Nations. Its reform,

which the Secretary General, at the call of all the States,

has promoted during these last years, will give us a more

efficient Organization, with more coordination and less

costly duplication, responsible in the financial sphere and

concentrated on its mandate.

My fellow citizens often ask me, “What can a small

country like Andorra bring to the United Nations?” We are

a State with very little land and with a population that we

count in six tens of thousands, and we lack the political

weight the force of arms normally provides. However, our

small size has been our good fortune. We have opted to

lack armies and cannons since we destroyed all our

country’s fortifications in 1278. One day, we would hope,

that admirable action of the thirteenth-century Andorrans

will be imitated by our century’s over-armed Powers,

large, mid-sized and small. Our small population has been

a good school for human understanding and our

individual and collective aspirations, allowing for the

precision of small-scale observation. Because we are

small and peaceful, and because we have a lengthy

history, we bring to the United Nations a vision of the

world that is patient and optimistic, and it is our belief

that if we have lived in our territory without bellicose

conflict for more than 700 years, the same is also possible

beyond our borders, for, in the end, the men and women

who live in Andorra are different from the rest of

mankind only in their collective historical experience.

It is the young people growing up in this latter part

of the twentieth century who will pave the way to the

third millennium. I should thus like to make them the

main point of my statement this year in the Assembly’s

general debate. Later, I will mention my State’s hopes for

the young who are today being educated in an

understanding of the challenges of the United Nations and

of the need to promote democracy and human rights as

the pillars of the peace, prosperity and justice for peoples

that we are striving to attain, goals that, if we hurry in

our task, we may be able to glimpse ourselves.

Earlier, I indicated that Andorra trusts the future.

One of the principal reasons for that trust is probably the

fact that a great part of our population is young and that

our demographic pyramid is very different from those of

our Western European neighbours. When human beings

are young, everything seems possible. The energy we all

possess allows us to look forward with strength, with

courage and with hope. Raisons d’état, political evils,

economic imperatives, the belief that the end justifies the

means — all these have difficulty taking root in the

young, since youth cares more about fidelity in friendship,

more about making its imprint on society. Youth has

idealism — something we too often criticize but

something which feeds the genuine and vital fire that

compels human beings to strive for dialogue and genuine

coexistence — to aspire, for example, to the United

Nations.

It is that aspect of the young that we must nourish

if we desire a better world. Unfortunately, it is still very

difficult for many young people to seek the good of

mankind when in their own countries, cities or villages,

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in their homes or in their families, they lack the most basic

physical or spiritual necessities, when the education they

are given is the official doctrine of a despotic regime and

when — as was the case with their parents and their

grandparents before them — what they eat today is the

meagre wage of much sweat. In the developed countries,

unemployment among the young crushes the hopes of a

large part of today’s well-prepared generation, which will

be forced to waste the education that decades of economic

progress have enabled it to obtain. In States still striving to

achieve development, in which 84 per cent of the world’s

population between 15 and 24 years of age lives, the

situation is very worrying: AIDS, the rural exodus, poverty,

hunger, medical shortcomings, sexual exploitation, juvenile

delinquency — problems that also affect the developed

countries — are particularly acute. Unemployment in

developing countries is also a tragic evil. We know that

more than 100 million new jobs will have to be created in

the next two decades to satisfy the growing young and

active population of the developing countries.

In confronting these problems we who govern must

assume our responsibilities and give priority to policies

affecting the young, especially those geared towards

fighting youth unemployment. One of the first areas we

must encourage is obviously that of training. Governments

must coordinate economic plans with training policies so

that students can learn professions that they will have some

chance of practicing, as well as to prevent, insofar as

possible, an excess of graduates in saturated sectors. We

must also give appropriate encouragement, through

programmes of coordination and technical assistance when

necessary, to the integration of young people into the

community. Small communities, when they work in

conjunction with non-governmental organizations, pay

special attention to the management of resources and are

well aware of the needs of their young people.

This joint effort is most appropriate when we recall

that we are living in an era in which society realizes that

big government and its programmes sometimes give rise to

more expenditure than advantages and that fiscal

responsibility is of more benefit to the economy than is the

multiplication of governmental departments, especially in

the developing countries, where the public sector is still

suffering the consequences of large-scale programmes that

have not produced the results expected. In those States,

Governments will find it to their advantage to acknowledge

the value of fostering microcredits for young people with

entrepreneurial projects. The example of Bangladesh, where

such credits have enabled many women to achieve financial

independence, is noteworthy in this respect. I would also

mention as an example of successful action the

educational measures for young entrepreneurs that some

Latin American States have taken with a view to the

creation of new, small companies.

At the United Nations, States must give direct

support to young people and to the programmes related to

them. More specifically, I am thinking of the World

Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and

Beyond. That Programme, which was adopted by the

General Assembly on 14 December 1995, defines some

of the problems that affect the world’s young people and

indicates medical, educational and job-oriented priorities

for the next few years. We must enlarge on that text.

States Members of the United Nations must collaborate

with the Secretariat in defining the Programme’s

possibilities and putting it into practice in a concrete way

so that its message reaches all nations. What we do with

today’s youth will define the twenty-first century.

For the past year Andorra has actively participated

at the United Nations in the debates involving the young.

On 26 October of last year, in commemorating the tenth

anniversary of the International Youth Year, our

Ambassador spoke in this Hall on the benefits of teaching

tolerance and human rights to young people in schools.

Andorra has also contributed to the United Nations Youth

Fund.

Earlier, at the March 1995 Copenhagen World

Summit for Social Development, Andorra proposed a full

and specific commitment asking the Governments of the

world to foster dialogue between generations and

achieved its incorporation into the Declaration by Heads

of State and Government. Given the lack of specific

references in many United Nations texts, this provides a

good basis for subsequent studies on youth-related

themes.

At this juncture, I should like to say that the fact that

we concentrate our attention on youth must never lead us

to forget members of older generations, particularly the

elderly. Dignity in ageing must be recognized and

promoted, particularly today, when the progress of

medicine is making possible the lengthening of human

life. Intergenerational solidarity accompanied by dialogue,

is an integral theme of any policy geared to the support

of the young. Indeed, when we talk of giving primary

attention to youth, that must not mean a glorification of

the first decades of human life to the detriment of old

age. On the contrary, it should mean a recognition of the

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determining role that young people play in what will

happen later.

I should like for a moment to pay a tribute here to a

generation of young people which the media has of late

characterized as being “lost” — the young people of Bosnia

and other parts of the former Yugoslavia who, not so many

years ago, were confident children of Europe and who have

now spent their youth amidst fratricidal struggles and

“ethnic cleansing”, with all the revulsion inherent in that

expression, a youth spent between death and barbarism.

Andorra, which, during the Spanish Civil War and later

during the Second World War, was a land of welcome and

refuge for other lost generations of other wars — also

fratricidal, and, indeed, if all human beings are brothers,

what war is not fratricidal? — feels solidarity with these

young people of Bosnia, upon whom has fallen the

responsibility for building a new coexistence and for

erasing from the collective consciousness these past years

of propaganda and demagoguery and for breaking with the

history of confrontation that afflicts the Balkans.

Bosnia is not the only place where we have witnessed

difficult times. Angola, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Liberia,

Sierra Leone, Somalia, Haiti, Guatemala, El Salvador,

Burundi, Rwanda, Iraq and many other places have in

recent years been affected by conflicts of great complexity.

Some of these problems have already been solved or

attenuated, often thanks to United Nations action.

Developments in the situation in El Salvador are a good

example. Other conflicts continue, a cause of great

consternation to the international community.

My Minister of Foreign Affairs reminded us last year,

in this Assembly Hall, of the considerable increase in

military personnel deployed for the United Nations in recent

years. At the beginning of 1988, there were just over 9,000

Blue Helmets in the world engaged in peacekeeping

operations. Seven years later, there are over 70,000 — this

in spite of the fact that the military and logistical means of

immediate action are not in the hands of this international

Organization.

Ultimately, we — the States that decide how this

Organization shall act — are the ones responsible for

failing to end or prevent conflicts. Criticism must be

constructive. When we accuse the United Nations of a lack

of action in Bosnia, let us ask ourselves why the policies of

the members of the Security Council are so divergent and

difficult to coordinate. We must therefore make an effort to

provide information so that the public has an accurate idea

of what really happens behind the flags that adorn this

building. We must make the successes of the United

Nations known, not just its shortcomings. We must

highlight its efforts to promote international law, a body

of law that will guarantee negotiated solutions instead of

shows of strength, a principle that is essential for the

survival of small States. We must recognize the small,

quiet steps humanity takes day by day in United Nations

committees, steps geared towards the promotion and

application of human rights. If in a particular State some

people, be it only a few, no longer suffer torture or

repulsive abuse when they are arrested; if in some parts

of the world blood is not shed because international

shame projects itself on those countries; if in other places,

nuclear tests will not shatter the peace of the people

living there because we have signed a treaty prohibiting

such actions, then the United Nations deserves all our

support.

We must foster confidence in the future of men and

women, not cynicism towards international organizations.

If we do not, we run the risk of encouraging movements

that seek to express this cynicism through violence and

terrorist acts. We have no choice but to consider the

means democracy gives to its enemies that they can use

to destroy it, particularly through terrorism. When the

media tell us that the United Nations is a potential

terrorist target, we become even more conscious of our

commitment to strengthening efforts more effectively to

publicize the task of our Organization. The energies of

our youth must not be directed towards violent

expressions of social discomfort. We must therefore

channel them, as I have stated before, towards creativity

in one’s work and promoting confidence in humanity’s

potential. When, a few years ago, the political scientist

Francis Fukuyama, as witness to the end of the cold war,

wrote about the end of history, he forgot about the

immense creativity of human beings. When one period of

history ends, another one begins. Our responsibility is to

ensure that the period of history we have entered in the

nineties rejects the obscurantism produced by the fear

perpetuated by human beings, and reflects the qualities

humanity holds highest.

The framing of a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

Treaty (CTBT), which I will sign tomorrow on behalf of

the Andorran Government, along with many of the

representatives here, is an achievement of which the

United Nations Organization can feel proud and a clear

example of what we can do when the peoples of the

world unite with the strength of an ideal of peace.

Andorra, an initial co-sponsor of the resolution that

brought this Treaty to the General Assembly, adheres to

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its principles in full, principles which provided the basis for

the founding of our country. In the same fashion, not very

long ago we gave top priority to acceding to the Treaty on

the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons with the hope of

promoting that text of peace. Peace! The cry of alignment

for the traditionally neutral States, one of the most noble

cries, is — let us not fool ourselves — still far from being

answered. The CTBT is only the first step, and an essential

one, towards more efforts to ensure nuclear disarmament

and non-proliferation, and the reduction of other types of

arsenals — goals to which Andorra will devote much

attention.

To help achieve these objectives, the Government of

Andorra has a mandate of solidarity which is enshrined in

our Constitution. In its preamble, the Andorran people

declare themselves eager to make every effort to promote

values such as freedom, justice, democracy and social

progress, to maintain and strengthen Andorra’s harmonious

relations with the rest of the world on the basis of mutual

respect, coexistence and peace, and willing to bring their

collaboration and effort to all the common causes of

humankind.

At present, States, large or small, within the

framework of the United Nations, have a duty to provide a

source of inspiration for the ideals of youth, prevent

isolationism and look beyond their borders, share

experiences and show solidarity with States in distress. This

notwithstanding, Governments continue to have a

fundamental role in the internal activities of States, so that

few United Nations efforts and initiatives can really be

effective without their active cooperation.

For this reason, the leaders of States who, year after

year, gather in this Assembly Hall must leave here

convinced of our unavoidable responsibility to promote

human rights within our own borders and social and

economic development in our States.

In accordance with article 29 of the Convention on the

Rights of the Child, which Andorra signed and ratified less

than a year ago, thus contributing to the universal process

of ratification so desired by the United Nations Children’s

Fund (UNICEF), it is vital that Governments ensure that

tolerance and human rights are taught freely and

comprehensively at school in order to rear new generations

that are much more sensitive to the universality and

relevance of these rights. We must also encourage States

still using other forms of government to adopt democratic

processes, and make the rule of law a priority for leaders in

the coming years. There are no peoples unprepared for

democracy, only leaders with little aptitude for fostering

it.

I wanted to introduce a spirit of optimism in my

speech today. When optimism does not conceal reality,

but instead tries to transcend it, it is the best remedy

against the apathy that can affect the human heart in a

world full of conflict. I have spoken of youth and its

optimism, and of the need to focus our attention on the

problems affecting youth. I have lauded the successes of

the United Nations, but I have also noted the difficulties

we will have to overcome if the United Nations, is to

enjoy qualitative growth. I have advocated the teaching of

human rights, of democracy, of tolerance, and of social

and individual responsibility for the progress of human

communities. Four years before the new millennium, we

must give our youth optimism and confidence in the

future.

One year ago, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of

Andorra concluded his statement before this Assembly

with some words by Robert Kennedy. Previously, my

predecessor in the presidency of the Andorran

Government borrowed from John Fitzgerald Kennedy the

expression “Ich bin ein Berliner” to declare himself an

Andorran in a speech on the particularities of small

States. To make reference to the Kennedys is to make

reference to an optimistic decade imprinted with the

ideals and dreams that a young American President spread

around the world. It was also a decade of harsh realities

and contradictions, as in the world today. Ideals, however,

last because there is always a new generation to adopt

them. Today I reiterate the promise that President

Kennedy made to the United Nations:

“To that world assembly of sovereign states,

the United Nations, our last, best hope in an age

where the instruments of war have far outpaced the

instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of

support to prevent it from becoming merely a forum

for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and

the weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ

may run”.