Belarus, 2008

This session’s general political debate and

high-level meetings once again convince us of the need

to move in international relations from confrontation

based on narrow national interests towards equal,

mutually respectful dialogue and cooperation.

Otherwise, it will not be possible to achieve progress in

addressing the urgent global and regional problems

facing humanity.

The advent of the twenty-first century raised

many hopes, but thus far the world has not been able to

avoid wars as a means of achieving its objectives.

Imposing or dictating one’s will and pressure by

individual States increase conflict and make it difficult

to overcome obstacles. Today, we are dealing with

global challenges that not only impede humankind’s

development but also threaten our civilized existence.

This situation imposes special responsibilities on all

stakeholders in international relations, irrespective of

their geographical location, their geopolitical influence

or their socio-political systems. Equality,

non-confrontation, mutual respect and proper dialogue:

those are the keys to overcoming the obstacles to

effective progress on development.

Over recent years, we have often spoken of the

need to increase the effectiveness of the work of the

General Assembly and its influence on overall global

processes. That can be achieved only if each State that

seeks to make its own modest but positive contribution

to addressing global problems can be sure that its

approaches and proposals will be closely and

impartially studied in the General Assembly.

In the eight years since the Millennium Summit,

we have seen that the Millennium Development Goals,

on which the fate of millions of individuals depends,

will continue to be mere words on paper if the more

developed States do not cease to view efforts to

establish the conditions conducive to development in

countries in the South and to provide those countries

with financial and economic support from the

perspective of their own geopolitical interests. Let us

just admit honestly that the global partnership for

development that is mentioned so often in this

Assembly still does not exist in practice.

Unless we deal with the energy and food crises,

we will not achieve any progress. We must work in the

interests of all and not serve the wishes of a narrow

group of influential countries. We also need to clearly

determine how we will target our efforts and act in a

systematic way.

The challenges we are facing are interrelated:

climate change and energy and food shortages, to a

large extent, are due to existing patterns of energy use.

Humankind has an increasing impact on the

atmosphere and the biosphere; environmental problems

due to the increasing impact of human activity lead to

climate change; climate change, in turn, leads to

reduced agricultural harvests; and that, in turn,

exacerbates the food crisis.

Thus, we are faced with a single,

multidimensional global challenge, and the value of

this session will be magnified if at this international

forum we hear new, justified and forward-thinking

proposals for a coordinated response to the challenges

facing humankind. Such an approach should undergird

the work on a post-Kyoto agreement, and today it is

31 08-53141

clear that talks on that accord must include a broader

range of issues than simply agreement on quantities

and quotas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Belarus has stated on many occasions that future

approaches to the problem of how to ensure economic

growth while not harming the environment will be

based on international cooperation to spread

throughout the world energy-saving technology and

technology for the use of alternative and renewable

sources of energy.

An intrinsic, fundamental and vital element of

that cooperation should be ensuring fair access by all

States to such technology by establishing, through the

United Nations, a global mechanism to control the

process. The first step in that direction has been

defined and can be adopted in the very near future:

their Tehran ministerial meeting, on the initiative of

Belarus the non-aligned States proposed holding at the

sixty-third session of the General Assembly a thematic

debate on ensuring access for all States to energy-

efficient technology and the use of alternative and

renewable sources of energy — naturally with due

respect for intellectual property rights.

Particular attention must be paid to establishing a

multidimensional energy agenda at the United Nations,

which should take into account the interests of

producer, transit and user countries. Responsible

energy cooperation can be a key factor in regional

security. Turkmenistan’s proposal to discuss ways to

ensure reliable transit for fuel is also promising.

In the context of establishing a fair system of

international economic relations, particular attention

must be paid to a code of conduct for transnational

corporations in exploiting oil and gas fields and the

mineral resources of developing countries. We need

reliable protection against the practice of international

oil cartels of finding concessions that are profitable to

them, but that amount to slavery for the host country.

Such deals are often challenged, but the oil companies

use the media to justify their measures, citing threats to

regional security. We look forward to the discussion of

that important initiative and those issues during this

session of the General Assembly.

Indeed, attempts to get access to resources are the

basic cause of many current conflicts. Here, we are

talking not only about oil and other energy resources:

people are also dying because of local conflicts linked

to the lack of drinking water. Given the fact that 97 per

cent of global water resources are found in the oceans

and seas, finding practical ways to desalinate seawater

should be a priority for scientific research in the

coming decades.

The United Nations can play a role in defining

the future of such technology, and we believe that this

should belong to all mankind. To ensure that, we must

put in place mechanisms to avoid the concentration of

such technologies in the hands of a chosen few. One of

the main keys to successfully addressing global

problems facing mankind is speedily achieving

agreements and understandings among the whole

international community. Any delay in addressing

climate change is unacceptable, because it affects other

issues on the international agenda.

We believe that one of the main concerns on that

agenda should be human development and the

prevention of exploitation of nations and individuals. A

United Nations action plan to fight human trafficking

is an important stage in efforts to counter

contemporary forms of slavery. Within the United

Nations, work on that plan is under way: we have set

up an inter-agency coordination group; resolutions

have been adopted by the General Assembly and by the

Economic and Social Council; and we have held

thematic debates in the General Assembly. We call on

all delegations to take an active and constructive role

in that process, which will raise the issue of human

trafficking to a new level. An inadequate response to

the threat will promote the exploitation of entire

nations and establish a new chain of human trafficking,

and the number of new slaves will increase. Criminals

will begin to select the best from among their victims,

and, as a result, there will be growth in colonialist

thinking in the new framework of globalization, which

would render the problem particularly dangerous. We

do not have the right to allow such a situation to

develop.

From its very beginning, the United Nations was

seen by its founding States as the most democratic of

international institutions, a universal mechanism for

involving all countries and peoples in establishing a

new and just world order. As a founding Member of the

United Nations, Belarus supports the initiative of the

President of the General Assembly at its sixty-third

session, Mr. d’Escoto Brockmann, to give particular

attention to the democratization of the Organization.

We support that process within the United Nations, and

we support allowing all Member States equal

08-53141 32

opportunities and the same rules of the game. We

favour strict respect for all the principles set out in the

United Nations Charter.

The results-oriented proposal for democratization

includes enlarging the membership of the United

Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic

Radiation. Over the 20 years since the accident at

Chernobyl, Belarus has acquired unique experience in

studying the effects of radiation on individuals and the

environment, and we would like to have the

opportunity to share that experience with other States

within the framework of the Scientific Committee. We

call on all States to support the admission of Belarus as

a member of the Committee, which was established on

the recommendation of the First Committee, adopted as

resolution 913 (X), entitled “Effects of atomic radiation”.

We also support efforts to democratize the

Secretariat. The management of each Secretariat

department should respect the principle of equitable

geographic representation. The top five jobs in each

department should be distributed among the five

regional groups. Establishing that principle will be an

important step forward in creating confidence among

Member States.

We hope that we are moving towards several

important international events. In Doha, there will be

an international conference on financing for

development. Work is continuing on a post-Kyoto

accord, and discussions on the reform of the Security

Council are entering a new phase. Their success

depends on us all. Will we be able to have a

constructive dialogue and a non-confrontational

approach and reach a deeper understanding of the real

interests of all peoples throughout the world than we

have today? Most answers to those key issues of the

contemporary world are to be found in our own history.

All we need to do is look back at our own history and

draw the right lessons from the past in a timely way.