Australia, 1996

I should like to extend

warm congratulations to Mr. Razali on his election as

President of the General Assembly. As a close neighbour

of Malaysia, Australia will confidently rely on his

experience and sound judgement as he presides over this

important session of the Assembly.

I feel greatly honoured to be leading for the first

time the Australian delegation to a session of the General

Assembly.

A year ago, when the Assembly adopted the

Declaration on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary

of the United Nations, it made an important promise: to

give to the twenty-first century a United Nations that

would serve effectively the peoples in whose name it was

established. We must keep that promise, but to do so we

8

will need a clear view of contemporary circumstances and

of those which we can see unfolding into the twenty-first

century.

The landscape that was revealed at the end of the cold

war, just a little over five years ago, has many new

features, some of which are still not clear. What is clear,

however, is that we face new challenges and that we have

new opportunities that few of us would have imagined five

years ago.

The most compelling of these opportunities is to take

future steps in nuclear-arms control and disarmament. The

possibility of taking such steps is surely a principal

outcome of the end of the cold war. This was firmly

underlined last Tuesday when, in a single day, 67 countries

signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. That

number, only a week later, is now nearly 100. But beyond

this achievement lies another major opportunity, which is

to turn our national and international attention to enhancing

human security in all its aspects.

Our dynamic times have presented us with new

problems. Such problems include the major non-military

threats to security: the clandestine arms trade, the narcotics

trade, HIV/AIDS, the need to stabilize the rate of growth of

the world’s population and major threats to the

environment.

The elemental characteristics of such non-military

threats to security are that they cannot be defeated by

weapons. They cross state boundaries and they can affect

whole populations. These characteristics lead to one central

conclusion, that is, action on these problems must be the

subject of international cooperation.

Multilateral cooperation can, does and must take many

forms. But the role of the United Nations is unique because

of its universality and because of the rules we find in the

Charter of the United Nations.

It is for these reasons — the nature of the

opportunities we have before us, the problems we face and

the unique role and capability of the United Nations — that

we must keep last year’s promise of a United Nations fit

for the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Australia’s particular commitment to the United

Nations is founded on the belief, articulated as far back as

the 1950s by the then Foreign Minister, Richard Casey, that

the United Nations represents the practical effort of the

Governments and peoples of the world to attain the high

goals to which they are pledged through the United

Nations Charter: international peace and security and the

economic and social advancement of all peoples.

Australia has contributed readily to achieving those

goals. Whether by paying its financial contributions in full

and on time, by providing personnel to peacekeeping

operations or through its contributions to development

programmes, Australia has been determined to see the

United Nations succeed. I commit Australia today to

continuing such involvement in the work of the United

Nations.

At present, a window of opportunity in arms control

and disarmament is open to us. If we do not take it soon,

it will close. Large and sophisticated nuclear and

conventional arsenals continue to exist. In a number of

regions, suspicions remain close to the surface. The risks

of the spread of weapons of mass destruction have, in

certain respects, increased.

In Australia’s view, two tasks are fundamental: first,

building and strengthening international institutions and

instruments; and secondly, developing new thinking in

arms control and disarmament so as to push the

international agenda forward in constructive and realistic

ways.

To achieve progress with institutions and

instruments, Members of the United Nations need to work

together on at least six priorities. These priorities for

international cooperation are to make the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its enhanced

review process operate more effectively; to strengthen the

International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards; to

achieve an early start for the Organization for the

Prohibition of Chemical Weapons; to reach early

agreement on effective verification machinery for the

Biological Weapons Convention; to pursue the goal of a

global ban on anti-personnel landmines in conjunction

with a global approach to the problem of demining; and

to achieve a ban on the production of fissile materials for

nuclear weapons.

As we pursue these priorities in the multilateral

system, we should keep firmly in mind that progress in

regional security, particularly in regions of weapons-

proliferation concern, will make a crucial contribution.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is of

course the immediate priority. Its adoption by the General

Assembly and its opening for signature on 24 September

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were major milestones for the international community. The

Treaty is a product of our times. It flows from a long and

commonly held global concern. Its death was something the

international community simply could not allow.

Australia was therefore prepared to take the lead in

bringing the Treaty to the General Assembly. The

overwhelming support for the resolution demonstrated the

strength of international feeling against nuclear testing. This

Treaty was wanted and needed, but it has also helped

change the international climate. We can now reasonably

hope and expect that nuclear testing will not be part of the

future to be faced by succeeding generations. In a world

with a mixed history on controlling the development and

spread of destructive weaponry, that is something of which

we can all be proud.

The Treaty must become universal. We urge all those

countries that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the

Treaty as soon as possible so that it can be fully

implemented as quickly as possible. There is no merit in

the argument that says that, because there is more to be

done in nuclear-arms control and disarmament, we should

in some way scorn or reject a Treaty that bans all nuclear

explosions forever. This ban has intrinsic value. We must

now keep up the positive momentum generated by the

adoption of the Treaty.

This brings me to the second task: developing new

ideas. Because building institutions and strengthening

international instruments will not be enough, the

international community must also develop imaginative new

ways of guiding the world into the next century.

The Australian Government established the Canberra

Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons to

address the questions of whether a nuclear-weapon-free

world is feasible and, if so, the measures which could be

taken to attain that objective. I am delighted to confirm that

the Commission has more than met Australia’s

expectations. Its report will make a major contribution to

international thinking and discussion on nuclear

disarmament. The Australian Government will take it

forward by circulating it today in this Hall, will present it

to the Secretary-General tomorrow and introduce it to the

Conference on Disarmament in January.

The Canberra Commission report recommends a

political commitment by the nuclear-weapon States to the

elimination of nuclear weapons. That is the first and central

requirement. The report then sets out six immediate steps:

taking nuclear forces off alert; removal of warheads from

delivery vehicles; ending the deployment of non-strategic

nuclear weapons; ending nuclear testing; initiating

negotiations further to reduce United States and Russian

nuclear arsenals; and an agreement among the nuclear-

weapon States on reciprocal no-first-use undertakings and

of a non-use undertaking by them in relation to the

non-nuclear-weapon States.

The Commission also recommends three reinforcing

steps: action to prevent further horizontal proliferation;

developing verification arrangements for a nuclear-

weapon-free world; and the cessation of the production of

fissile material for nuclear-explosive purposes. The

Commission placed particular emphasis on the importance

of effective verification in the achievement and

maintenance of a nuclear-weapons-free world.

Having at last, after 33 years, met the challenge of

the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the

international community must now push on with further

practical and realistic measures on nuclear-arms control

and disarmament.

As already indicated, one such measure is the

negotiation of a convention under which it would be

agreed that there will be no further manufacturing of

weapons-grade fissile material. This convention should be

sought now.

Any discussion of arms control and disarmament in

today’s world that failed to address the question of

landmines would be sadly incomplete. These hideous and

diabolically inexpensive weapons must be banned.

Australia will support efforts that will be made at this

session of the Assembly to take the next step towards the

negotiation of an international convention to that effect.

But in the meantime, there are in excess of 100

million of these maiming weapons distributed in the soil

of too many countries. Demining must proceed at a far

faster rate than has been the case in the past. There have

been technological barriers to increasing that rate and

Australia has therefore proposed that a technology

working group be established among interested and

capable countries with the purpose of designing the

equipment required for demining on a far larger and

quicker scale.

If there is any doubt about the need for this action,

I would place on record here that, if the current rate of

demining in Cambodia were to be maintained, that

country, which has struggled so hard to repair itself,

10

would not be free of these mines for a further 130 years.

This must be unacceptable to all. That is why the

Australian Government recently committed $12 million to

practical demining initiatives in the war-ravaged fields

within our own region.

Security Council reform is another vitally important

item on the peace-and-security agenda. The three key issues

to be tackled are expansion, transparency and the

effectiveness of sanctions regimes.

There is now a general acceptance that the Security

Council must be expanded and modernized if it is to

manage international peace and security more effectively.

Although Australia wants to avoid making the Council too

unwieldy, there can be little doubt that its membership

needs to reflect better current geopolitical and economic

circumstances. Expanding the membership is an important

element in achieving this and Australia believes that an

expansion up to a total Council membership of 25 States

would be reasonable.

This brings me to the more contentious point of

permanent as against non-permanent membership. Australia

has made clear that it supports the claims of Japan and

Germany to permanent membership. This is the very least

the United Nations can do to acknowledge their major-

Power status and the financial contribution they are making

to the Organization.

Australia also advocates permanent seats on the

Council for underrepresented regions. As to how that is to

be achieved, we remain flexible. Whether those seats are

filled by a single member or rotate among leading Member

States agreed on by regional groupings needs to be

discussed further, primarily by those regions concerned. We

also see scope for an increase in the number of

non-permanent members of the Council, again in the

interests of ensuring greater balance in representation.

I turn now to the need for greater transparency in

Security Council processes. Consultative mechanisms have

improved in recent times, notably between the Secretariat

and troop-contributing countries, but more needs to be

done. Australia is committed to trying to improve the way

in which the Security Council interacts with non-members

so that the Council’s activities become more responsive to

the United Nations as a whole.

More needs to be done, too, to build the Council’s

relationship with regional organizations. Good progress has

been recorded to date, but United Nations and regional

organizations should meet regularly in order to develop

further the appropriate division of responsibilities.

The Council also has an important role to play in

preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction and enhancing the effectiveness of the

non-proliferation regime.

Australia wants to see improvements in the

effectiveness of United Nations sanctions because we

recognize that the Security Council’s use of collective

sanctions continues to be an important and, at times,

contentious enforcement measure. The effectiveness of

sanctions regimes could be improved in three ways:

clearer drafting of Security Council resolutions; providing

specific objectives and realistic time-frames; and through

relevant sanctions committees providing clear

interpretative guidance on implementation. These are

changes that are essential for the Security Council’s

dynamism. We need to press ahead with them to ensure

that the Council reflects modern-day circumstances and

realities.

Our contemporary circumstances have opened up

new needs and prospects for peacekeeping and preventive

diplomacy. Initial post-cold-war hopes about the

capabilities of the Security Council have been tempered.

It has become clear that many conflicts are intractable.

Experience has taught us that it is difficult to reach

agreement on suitable approaches and to find enough

resources, particularly in the area of peacekeeping.

The Security Council must be realistic in the

implementation of its Charter responsibilities. It must

resist pressure to embark on missions before it has

completed adequate preparations, developed a focused

sense of the mission’s goals and agreed on a clearly

articulated mandate.

At this very moment, the United Nations is

confronted with major challenges in such diverse

situations as those in Cyprus, Burundi and Liberia.

Australia has been contributing personnel to the United

Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, for example, for

over 20 years and has been saddened by the recent

incidents of violence there. The time has come to resolve

that situation, which requires the assistance of all parties.

One very important area of reform for United

Nations peacekeeping is to establish an enhanced rapid-

reaction capability. There have been many proposals on

this issue, but the Australian Government believes that the

11

Canadian study, Towards a Rapid Reaction Capability for

the United Nations, contains some commendable

recommendations, including the development of a

deployable, operational-level headquarters to strengthen

planning for operations.

Australia welcomes recent moves by the Department

of Peacekeeping Operations to begin implementing

measures aimed at improving United Nations rapid-reaction

capability, but in taking these measures forward, the United

Nations should consult adequately with all Member States.

Australia is also keen to see the United Nations

develop the preventive-diplomacy agenda and it welcomes

the greater resources the Secretariat now devotes to such

activity. The Security Council, the General Assembly and

the good offices of the Secretary-General, as well as

regional arrangements and agencies, have important roles to

play in preventive diplomacy. Australia supports greater use

of Chapter VI of the Charter on the pacific settlement of

disputes. Article 33 is particularly important. The Security

Council can use it to undertake a leadership role by calling

on disputing parties to seek a solution using negotiation,

mediation and other peaceful means.

As I indicated at the beginning of this statement, one

of the chief results of the end of the cold war must surely

be an increase in our ability to turn away from military

concerns and to give a greater degree of attention to threats

to the security of individuals, as distinct from those threats

to the security of States that have dominated our thinking

in the past, important and basic though they have been and

remain.

In today’s world and in the world we see unfolding

into the twenty-first century, the security of far too many

people is threatened in ways no less immediate than the

threat of the gun. I have in mind narcotics, HIV/AIDS and

major threats to the environment. These threats cannot be

dealt with effectively by States acting alone. Sometimes

they require new international law, but more specifically

they require political will to defeat them and to foster

cooperation among nations to ensure maximum

effectiveness of action.

The United Nations is the ideal environment in which

to develop such cooperation. It is here that the world is

represented. We have here a tradition of debate, of

discussion, of identification of problems and of consensus.

We have the ability to make law when it is necessary.

Above all, we have pledged ourselves to defending and

providing a decent standard of living to the peoples we

represent.

There is also a regional role and, in that context,

Australia was pleased to have promoted the concept of a

regional HIV/AIDS ministers’ meeting at the Post-

Ministerial Conference of this year’s session of the

Association of South-East Asian Nations.

As we move towards the twenty-first century, it will

be crucial to the execution of that responsibility to ensure

that we have a healthy United Nations that is devoted to

international cooperation aimed at defeating the major

non-military threats to the security of the human family.

These threats are tragically evident to us today. They will

only become larger if we do not agree, now, to begin

cooperative action to defeat them. History will surely

judge our generation harshly if, having identified the

problems of human security, we fail for lack of will to

address their solutions.

Another great requirement of our times is the

economic needs of people and the promotion of

development. Much has been done through the United

Nations and its agencies to advance the development

cause. They have been pivotal to the emergence of a

multilateral approach in which institutions with special

competencies such as the specialized agencies, the

International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,

together with policy deliberative bodies such as the

General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council,

have complementary roles to play.

Development is about more than just economic

growth, however. There is also the need for internal

stability, sound environmental management, a vigorous

civil society and a lively democracy. The United Nations

is uniquely placed to build consensus on how to advance

these various elements of the development agenda.

In this context, Australia welcomes the constructive

outcomes achieved at the ninth session of the United

Nations Conference on Trade and Development

(UNCTAD) held in Midrand, South Africa, earlier this

year. The decisions taken there should help developing

countries benefit from the opportunities of economic

globalization.

We also underline the importance of encouraging

investment and technology transfers and providing trade

opportunities to stimulate economic development. Such

1

development is the only enduring foundation for

independence and economic and social well-being.

It is in Africa that these development challenges are

most stark. Rich in promise yet wearied by emergencies,

Africa stands today at a decisive juncture in its history.

African leaders seized the moment with the

Organization of African Unity’s 1995 Cairo Agenda for

Action, in which they called for immediate action to

implement the development strategies for which an

international consensus now exists. The United Nations

responded this year with the launch of a 10-year,

$25 billion United Nations System-wide Special Initiative

for Africa.

The Australian Government welcomes the Special

Initiative as a concrete demonstration of the international

community’s concern with Africa. The international

community cannot allow disease, poverty, war and

underdevelopment to become entrenched in the 53

nations — almost one-third of United Nations Member

States — that make up the African continent.

The world must continue to seek ways to break the

poverty cycle in Africa so that its potential for economic

development is realized. Sustainable economic development

is essential to overcome poverty, disease and conflict.

The United Nations system needs to give greater focus

and impetus to the development effort in Africa.

I now turn to the issue of human rights. Human rights

are important in international relations for two main

reasons: first, political instability and major conflict can

result where human rights are breached or are under threat;

and secondly, the freedom and dignity of individuals is, in

itself, of fundamental value to the world community.

The Australian Government aims for practical

outcomes that will improve the lives of individual men,

women and children. We recognize the importance of

dialogue and cooperation, based on mutual respect. In

addition to public and private diplomacy, Australia’s

approach to the improvement of human rights also

encompasses development cooperation.

Australia strongly supports the development of strong

and independent national human rights institutions. For

example, Australia provided financial support for a

workshop of Asia-Pacific national human rights institutions,

which agreed to establish an informal forum to work for the

strengthening and further development of such institutions

in the region. Australia has also provided financial

support to the United Nations for the creation of a

position of special adviser to the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights on national human

rights institutions.

Finally, it is important to address the issue of reform

of the United Nations. Much work still needs to be done

to bring about greater efficiency and effectiveness in the

United Nations and its specialized agencies.

While Australia applauds the dedication and hard

work of the General Assembly Working Groups that were

set up in 1995, Member States must not lose sight of the

fact that to achieve real change, the Groups have to come

up with realistic and achievable recommendations. Those

recommendations must in turn lead to practical and

measurable outcomes.

It is important that the work of the groups be

focused and that their momentum be restored so that early

and positive outcomes can be achieved. We must all

commit ourselves to this end and to bringing about

structured change within the United Nations.

It is also crucial that the financial situation of the

United Nations be repaired. Australia believes that all

Members should pay their contributions in full and on

time. We therefore welcome recent moves by some

countries to pay their arrears.

It is time to establish a revised scale of assessed

contributions that more fairly reflects what Governments

can pay. The current minimum payment is too high for

many small-economy countries, and Australia would like

to see it reduced or even removed.

These are the reforms that Australia believes are

necessary to equip the United Nations for its role in the

twenty-first century.

It is in this overall context that Australia is deeply

committed to contributing to the United Nations goal of

maintaining international peace and security in an active

way. Serving a term as a non-permanent member of the

Security Council during 1997-1998 would enable

Australia to make a substantive contribution to that goal

and to work for a more effective, modernized and

transparent Council. That is why we have asked for the

support of Member States at the elections to be held a

few weeks from now.

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Let me conclude by summing up what I have said

today. The United Nations is unique and needed, but it

must pursue, and work on the basis of, a relevant Agenda.

This is the central point. The United Nations must be put

to work on the agenda of the twenty-first century.

Much work needs to be done to tackle the key

challenges that face the United Nations. Only a sustained,

cooperative effort among all Member States will bring

success. Australia will make that effort.