Austria, 1995

It is with great

pleasure that I congratulate you, Mr. President, on your

election as President of the General Assembly at this

fiftieth session, at which we are commemorating the

founding of the United Nations half a century ago. Your

vast experience as a statesman and scholar is our assurance

that this session will be crowned with success.

I wish to thank your distinguished predecessor, the

Foreign Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, whose untiring efforts to

stimulate the reform process in our world Organization

deserve special gratitude.

Austria, a member of the European Union since 1

January 1995, fully endorses the comprehensive statement

made on behalf of the Union by His Excellency Mr. Javier

Solana Madariaga, the Spanish Foreign Minister.

The Austrian Federal Government is strongly

committed to the objectives of the United Nations Charter

and to the work of the Organization. The United Nations

has traditionally been a priority of the Austrian foreign

policy. Later this year, on 14 December, Austria will

celebrate the 40th birthday of its admission to membership

of the United Nations.

Last June, our Parliament held a commemorative

session on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the

signing of the United Nations Charter at San Francisco. At

that meeting, all political parties represented in Parliament

praised the achievements of the United Nations, expressed

their appreciation of the untiring efforts of the Secretary-

General in the quest for peace, justice and development,

and reaffirmed the commitment of Austria to a strong and

vibrant United Nations.

Austria’s strong commitment to the world

Organization is reflected in Vienna’s role as one of the

Headquarters of the United Nations. The Federal

Government and the City of Vienna lend maximum support

to the United Nations Office as well as to the United

Nations agencies and programmes based in our capital.

More than 36,000 Austrians have served as “blue

helmets” in United Nations peace-keeping operations,

some of them as force commanders. More than 30 of our

countrymen have lost their lives in the service of peace.

This dedication to peace-keeping led the Federal

Government to organize the Vienna Seminar on

Peacemaking and Peace-Keeping for the Next Century,

which was opened by the Secretary-General of the United

Nations in March of this year. The report on this

Conference was distributed this morning.

My country also attaches particular importance to

civilian peace-keeping and sponsors a very successful

training programme on civilian peace-keeping and

peace-building. At the city of Schlaining, this programme

prepares election observers, human rights observers and

humanitarian affairs officers for their difficult tasks.

Concrete proposals for improving the civilian components

of United Nations field missions were formulated at the

International Conference on the Preparation of Civilian

Personnel of United Nations Field Missions. In addition,

Austria makes concerted efforts to support the United

Nations preventive diplomacy capabilities. The Austrian

Government will provide the Secretary-General with a list

of personalities whose great experience will be at the

disposal of the United Nations.

After the end of the cold war, new hopes were

vested in the Security Council. The United Nations took

decisive action in response to military aggression against

a sovereign State and undertook successful multipurpose

peace-keeping missions to resolve several long-standing

conflicts.

At the same time, however, the international

community and the Security Council were called upon to

handle radically new situations. The United Nations had

to respond to these new types of conflict with its

traditional instruments: peace-keeping missions were

deployed to keep a non-existent peace. As we all know,

the United Nations missions in Somalia and in Bosnia and

Herzegovina led to humiliation for the Organization and

the international community.

With regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina there is at

last some realistic hope that the renewed determination of

the United Nations, combined with the decisive support of

NATO, may bring about a durable settlement and - above

all - put an end to the plight of millions of innocent

21

victims, of whom the citizens of Sarajevo have become the

symbol. Terminating the barbaric siege of the Bosnian

capital, which has lasted since the spring of 1992, carries

particular significance.

Austria fully supports the initiative undertaken by the

United States, in the framework of the Contact Group, to

reach a comprehensive peace agreement that will ensure the

existence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Bosnia

and Herzegovina and the peaceful reintegration of Eastern

Slavonia. We welcome the agreement on Basic Principles

reached in New York earlier this week as an important

further step on the long and difficult road to peace.

We remain deeply concerned about the fate of

hundreds of thousands of refugees. Austria attaches the

utmost importance to the rights of all refugees and

displaced persons to freely return to their homes, as already

stated by the London Conference of August 1992.

Let me equally stress how important it is for the future

of the region that all crimes be brought to light and the

culprits punished. In this context, the War Crimes Tribunal

set up in The Hague can play a crucial role.

The efforts of the United Nations troops and their

commanders, who constantly risk their lives for the cause

of peace, deserve our admiration. I should like also to

honour the memory of three of the main architects of the

United States peace initiative who last August became

victims of the siege of Sarajevo.

During that same month, the Special Rapporteur of the

United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Mr.

Tadeusz Mazowiecki, resigned over what he called

“the lack of consistency and courage displayed by the

international community”.

His relentless efforts in pointing out and documenting

crimes against humanity committed in the war have earned

him our highest respect. We welcome the continuation of

this important task under the eminent leadership of Ms.

Rehn.

A comprehensive settlement also needs to include

satisfactory solutions for minorities, not only in Croatia and

Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in the Federal Republic

of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and in particular in

Kosovo, Vojvodina and Sanjak.

The prospect of a well-coordinated contribution by

the world community to the reconstruction of the

devastated areas and to the relaunching of economic

activities could help in facilitating the prospects for peace

and its eventual consolidation.

Furthermore, Austria believes that regional arms-

control measures will be another decisive factor in the

effort to secure peace and should therefore be initiated as

early as possible.

In the Middle East, long and arduous negotiations

have now led to an important breakthrough. We applaud

as a major step towards final peace and cooperation in the

region yesterday’s signing of the agreement between

Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on

the transfer of authority.

Today, the main threats to peace and security are no

longer predominantly attacks by one country against

another sovereign State. We are faced with conflicts

originating in ethnic tensions, authoritarian rule, economic

despair or migratory movements. Peace and security are

therefore threatened not only by violations of the code of

conduct among States, but increasingly by violations of

international standards on the relationship between

citizens and their Governments and among different

groups within countries. Our instruments for conflict

resolution have to be adapted to these new circumstances.

Part of this effort has to be an enhanced early-

warning capacity of the United Nations. The earlier the

United Nations can attempt to mediate, the more likely

are its missions to meet with success. By increasing the

number of cases where preventive diplomacy can be used

successfully — thus avoiding the need for military peace-

keeping — an early-warning system would also be a great

investment.

We also need to reinforce the capacity of the United

Nations to assist Member States in their efforts to

improve democratic structures, including the holding of

free and fair elections, the full observance of human

rights, the rights of minorities and fundamental freedoms,

the strengthening of the rule of law, the fostering of

popular participation and accountability of Governments,

and the development of a prosperous civil society.

Furthermore, the capacity of the United Nations needs to

be strengthened in order to confront new threats to peace

and security, such as organized crime and illicit

trafficking in drugs.

22

Austria has always been strongly committed to

disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation. We trust

that the indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) earlier this year

will permit and encourage further substantial disarmament

measures, in particular the early conclusion of a

comprehensive test-ban treaty. We are confident that

negotiations on the treaty will be concluded next year and

that the decision by one or more of the nuclear Powers to

conduct additional nuclear-weapons tests — a decision that

continues to cause deep concern in Austria — will not

delay the conclusion of the negotiations.

In this context, allow me to reiterate the invitation of

the Austrian Federal Government to establish the future

comprehensive test-ban treaty organization in Vienna, and

to express my gratitude for the widespread support this

proposal has received and continues to receive.

The human rights agenda has for many years been

dominated by the quest to establish international standards,

culminating in the adoption of the Vienna Declaration and

Programme of Action. The recent Fourth World Conference

on Women, held in Beijing, strongly reaffirmed the central

role of these documents in the struggle for human rights

and their special significance in the context of the human

rights of women. Today, we have to concentrate on the

implementation of these standards. We must take all

necessary measures to fulfil our international human rights

obligations vis-à-vis our own peoples; we have to take a

firm stand against human rights violations, wherever they

occur; and we must assist Governments genuinely

committed to improving the human rights situation in their

countries.

The ever-more urgent question of minority rights

needs to be an integral part of this agenda. In this context,

I should like to mention that Austria and Italy together have

arrived at an autonomous solution concerning the Austrian

minority in South Tyrol, Italy, which could inspire other

minorities and which is continuing to develop in a positive

and dynamic way.

In order to implement the human rights agenda, we

must better integrate the United Nations human rights

programmes, under the leadership of the High

Commissioner for Human Rights, into the mainstream of

United Nations activities. Based on the lessons learned and

experiences acquired within the United Nations system, we

should further improve the instrument of on-site human

rights monitoring. We firmly believe in the need to

strengthen the United Nations programme of technical

assistance in the field of human rights and the technical

cooperation programme in the field of crime prevention

and criminal justice.

Austria also welcomes the great efforts the United

Nations system has made to cope with humanitarian

crises. As a country that has received Bosnian refugees —

who number approximately one per cent of the total

Austrian population — Austria is particularly aware of the

human dimensions of the refugee problem. Delivering

humanitarian assistance, particularly in the field of major

man-made catastrophes, has become an important

challenge. The well-being of millions of people, be they

in Rwanda, Somalia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, depends

on this assistance and the selfless work of many

specialized United Nations bodies and agencies, such as

the High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food

Programme, UNICEF and the Department for

Humanitarian Affairs. Many people owe their very

survival to these organizations’ activities. Through its

contributions to the European Community Humanitarian

Office (ECHO), Austria shares in the support given to

multilateral humanitarian programmes by their biggest

donor, the European Union. My Government will do its

utmost to enhance direct Austrian contributions to United

Nations programmes as part of our “burden sharing” in

the field of multilateral humanitarian assistance.

Adapting the United Nations institutional structures

to today’s reality also requires reform of the Security

Council. It needs to be enlarged by those Powers whose

international influence has increased over the last 50

years. However, any enlargement of the Council must

neither compromise its efficiency nor the opportunities of

smaller countries to be represented in the Council.

In our intensive deliberations about the composition

and procedures of the Council, we must not lose sight of

its primary function. Security Council resolutions are

effective only if they gain political relevance outside this

building and if parties to a conflict abide by them. If

Security Council resolutions are to facilitate political

solutions of international crises, they must reflect the

political will of Member States to implement them.

Austria welcomes the reform efforts undertaken by

the Secretary-General in the area of management of the

United Nations. We hope that these initiatives will be

further pursued. We are pleased to see that the Office of

Internal Oversight Services has become operational. We

support the strengthening of this Office in order to further

enhance stringent control mechanisms and thus increase

23

Member States’ confidence that the Organization is

efficiently managed.

Above all, the United Nations has to be an

organization in which problem-solving on all issues is

closely monitored in an integrated manner. Coordination

and cooperation among international organizations such as

the United Nations, the World Bank, the International

Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization

(WTO) need to be increased.

In its fiftieth year, the United Nations is suffering

from a chronic financial crisis that needs to be resolved

urgently. A comprehensive and thorough reform is

necessary. Member States must pay their assessed

contributions in full, on time and without conditions.

Under the co-chairmanship of Austria, the High-level

Open-ended Working Group on the Financial Situation of

the United Nations has prepared the ground for agreement

on comprehensive reform measures. A solution to the

financial crisis will have to be based on the continued

recognition of the special responsibility of the Permanent

Members of the Security Council, as well as on a scale of

assessment reflecting today’s economic realities.

In the future, the United Nations system will need

additional financing mechanisms for the funding of global

priorities. A number of proposals have already been made,

including minimal charges on foreign exchange transactions

and charges to be levied on international airline travel. The

point has been made that all these proposals require

in-depth consideration by competent bodies. Austria

therefore proposes that the General Assembly should decide

on a comprehensive study to be undertaken by various

components of the United Nations system in collaboration

with outside experts in order to advance the international

discussion on charges or taxes pertaining to such

international transactions.

Negotiations on the crucial issue of reform are under

way. Reform is possible only if Member States are truly

committed to the Organization, which is and remains the

only forum to address global issues. Let us use this historic

fiftieth session of the General Assembly to commit

ourselves to decisive reform in order to make our

Organization fit for the challenges of the next century.