Brazil, 1997

On behalf of the Brazilian

delegation, I would like to congratulate you, my dear

colleague, Hennadiy Udovenko, the Foreign Minister of

Ukraine, on your election as President of the General

Assembly at its fifty-second session. Brazil has a significant

and active community of Ukrainian origin. We Brazilians

are thus very glad to see this session headed by a

distinguished son of the Ukraine, a country that is close to

us.

I want to express my recognition to the Permanent

Representative of Malaysia, Ambassador Razali Ismail, for

the way he conducted the work of the fifty-first session.

Ambassador Razali's dynamic presidency paved the way,

through extensive consultation, for an imaginative and

comprehensive proposal to advance Security Council

reform.

I also pay tribute to our new Secretary-General, Mr.

Kofi Annan, chosen to oversee the political and

administrative challenges of modernization. He has been the

focus of justifiable expectation on the part of the

international community at a difficult moment in the life of

our Organization.

We welcome the Secretary-General's proposals for

reform and institutional strengthening as a sign of renewed

vitality within the United Nations. These proposals and

Ambassador Razali's contribution will certainly warrant

close attention in the General Assembly and in parallel

consultation. We will help to consolidate a new spirit that

should inspire our Organization. This new spirit is called

leadership - that driving force of history altering the

course of events within countries and in the international

scenario, opening new horizons, giving hope to the peoples

of the world, seeing movement where some can only

stand still.

Ambassador Razali and Secretary-General Kofi

Annan have, in a way, revived the leadership of the

creators of the United Nations. They have shown the

same idealism in establishing goals and pragmatism in

carrying them out. It was also the leadership of men such

as Dag Hammarskjöld and Brazilian statesman Oswaldo

Aranha, twice President of this Assembly, that often led

the United Nations to a decisive role as a factor of change

in international relations.

This kind of leadership has given the world a forum

without parallel in history, a stage for negotiation and a

political force in favour of international peace and

security. Although the United Nations has not always

been able to prevent or to deter conflict, it has certainly

reduced its occurrence and avoided some of its more

serious consequences. For this reason, the United Nations

has been a mandatory reference, a sign of hope and a

moral force for world public opinion.

We are witnessing today the rebirth of this

leadership, feeling its effects through a remarkable change

in the heart and soul of our Organization. There is greater

optimism. There is greater motivation among delegates

and staff. There is greater expectation on the part of many

Governments. A new atmosphere of hope embraces the

United Nations. This is something we must nurture and

promote - something we must filter to the public in

order to renew the trust of the international community in

our Organization.

The agenda of the fifty-second session is vast and

reveals the continuing complexity and the numerous

conflicts of interests that animate international relations in

our times. A new international dynamic combines three

positive impulses: first, modernization and political and

economic opening in most countries; secondly, economic

integration in regional contexts, with multiple political

and security benefits; and thirdly, the internationalization

of the economy on a global scale.

These impulses tend to generate, foster and

consolidate international peace and security. They are

based on confidence and understanding and should allow

us to prosper and achieve the desired material and

spiritual results. Economic integration is increasingly the

great bulwark of international peace and cooperation. It

must be given emphasis and further promoted.

4

Precisely because of its many political and economic

benefits, integration is a defining trait of South America's

reality, a direct consequence of democracy and economic

freedom. The Southern Cone Common Market

(MERCOSUR), a new and powerful impetus for

development in the region, is an example of the importance

of integration. With democracy firmly rooted and a

dynamic process of integration, South America has a

reduced potential for conflict. It has the lowest rates of

military spending in the world and is following an

economic course based on strict government budget

controls. Our priorities are stability and development. Arms

purchases are compatible with the defense needs of Latin

American countries. They are aimed at replacing obsolete

or exhausted equipment. Recently announced measures in

the strategic-military domain will not affect these

fundamental parameters.

The concrete interests that bring together the countries

of South America - trade, investment and the

reinforcement of our international standing through

MERCOSUR - are an unyielding factor of unity and

cohesion. There is no threat of military destabilization in

Latin America. There is no danger of an arms race in the

absence of political, economic and strategic conditions for

such. A regional initiative towards self-imposed limitations

on conventional arms purchases is therefore unjustified. It

would be tantamount to disarming those already disarmed.

Our preoccupation, on the other hand, should be the

fight against the arms trade that sustains organized crime

and drug trafficking. This is the real and grave problem

perpetuating a major source of instability that has,

unfortunately, also affected our region severely. Only

determined and coordinated action on the part of the

international community, especially through tighter controls

on the production and selling of weapons in private hands,

can curb or even suppress this trade; which feeds crime

cartels and leads to violence, fear and desperation. Brazil

strongly urges all countries, and particularly those in the

Western Hemisphere, to intensify cooperation in the fight

against arms trafficking.

We have taken great strides in areas of concern and

growing visibility. Disarmament and, most specifically,

efforts towards the elimination of anti-personnel landmines

have increasingly held the attention of the international

community. Today, we can speak of significant

accomplishments, such as the signing of the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the willingness of an

overwhelming majority to make firm commitments,

expressed at the Oslo Conference on anti-personnel

landmines.

In these two instances, Brazil has sought to add its

own efforts to those of the international community. This

was the main thrust of President Fernando Henrique

Cardoso's decision to submit the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to congressional

approval. Brazil can and should make an additional

contribution to nuclear disarmament. We want to take a

constructive part in discussions within the framework

created by the indefinite extension of the NPT, the most

universal of disarmament treaties. This is also the

guideline for our participation in the Oslo conference and

in the Ottawa process. Brazil stands firmly behind the

interdiction of landmines in all types of conflict.

The international community should do everything

in its power to help poor countries devastated by war.

They suffer the perverse and prolonged effects of

landmines irresponsibly planted in their territories. The

interdiction of anti-personnel landmines and their removal

must become an effective commitment on the part of the

international community. This a question of ethics, a

question of observing the most elementary principles of

humanitarian law. We hope that the international

convention agreed upon in Oslo and the important

commitments it enshrines find universal acceptance.

These positive tendencies might lead to the

impression that the United Nations is less in demand

today than 10, 20 or 50 years ago. This is a false

impression. We are still subject to the effects of

disintegrating factors. Some are, unfortunately,

by-products of new global trends, such as marginalization

within and among nations, transnational crime and

conflicts of interest that find expression through violence

and the threat or use of force.

The persistent and overbearing nature of terrorism

continues to be one of the most serious threats to

international peace and development. It breeds despair and

suffering. In the Middle East, terrorism and intolerance

jeopardize a peace process that was once full of promise

for the peoples of the region. In other countries, some of

them in Latin America, terrorist acts reveal the existence

of groups that still insist on employing tactics

incompatible with the values of civilization and human

dignity. We must not falter in condemning those who, in

disregard of all moral values, resort to cowardly violence

in seeking to advance their own obscure purposes. Brazil

is emphatic in repelling these practices and exhorts the

5

international community to spare no effort in the fight

against terrorism, whatever its form or the alleged reasoning

behind it.

In addition, conflicts that had apparently been

surmounted by a spirit of understanding and constructive

action on the part of the United Nations still show signs of

resistance that demand a strong reaction from the

international community. Angola is a case in point. Hope

and promise cannot be constantly undermined by the factors

that have wrought so much destruction and suffering upon

a valiant people to whom we Brazilians feel so closely

linked. Angola is now a decisive test for the United

Nations. We cannot accept even the slightest possibility of

regression. Brazil, currently holding the presidency of the

Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, calls upon

the international community, and in particular the members

of the Security Council, to exercise close scrutiny over the

Angolan peace process. We must do everything to ensure

that the people of Angola once again find the road of

development in a context of democracy and pluralism.

The United Nations has an irreplaceable role in a

world that still combines forces of integration and

cooperation with forces of disintegration and aggression.

But we have allowed the United Nations to lose its strength

as an instrument of universal peace and understanding and

as a promoter of cooperation and development. We have

done this through inaction, through a lack of consensus,

through obstructionism and through excessive politicization

of issues. We must react to this situation. We must once

again find the cardinal notion of leadership.

The past few years have shown that reform of the

United Nations can no longer be put off. We cannot lose

sight of major institutional issues or waste further precious

energy. The report of the Secretary-General entitled

"Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform"

is thus timely and opportune. The Brazilian Government

welcomes it with satisfaction and enthusiasm. The strength

of our Organization derives from its universality and from

the all-encompassing nature of its mandate. The United

Nations must not be held to the performance of tasks better

suited to other international organizations or specialized

agencies.

We cannot be made prisoners of inertia, nor must we

condemn our debates to irrelevancy. The General Assembly

must urgently move towards an agenda focused on what is

essential to ensuring a relevant role for the United Nations

in international affairs. For the United Nations to make a

difference and provide leadership in today's complex world,

it must recover the original meaning of the Charter by

concentrating on its essential mission: maintaining

international peace and security, promoting justice and

international law, strengthening cooperation for

development, protecting human rights and providing

humanitarian assistance.

Member States must create political conditions for

effective action by the United Nations and make the

commitment to setting priorities and eliminating the

superfluous. Only then will our Organization as a

whole - not just the Secretariat - be able to devote

itself to those fundamental tasks. The Secretary-General

has assumed a leadership role by putting forth ideas that

must be objectively discussed by all Member States.

Brazil is committed to working constructively with Mr.

Kofi Annan on his proposals to strengthen our

Organization.

Brazil has taken an active part in the debate on

reform of the Security Council. We have adopted an

open-minded and constructive approach because we

believe this to be a central element in the reform of the

Organization. Brazil has upheld a concept of reform that

would strengthen the Council and the United Nations as

a whole. It is not geared to the individual interests of any

one country. We want the Council to be representative of

contemporary international realities, as it was in its early

years.

The Council must be enlarged both in its permanent

membership, to take account of the industrialized and the

developing worlds, and in its non-permanent membership,

to allow for more frequent participation by interested

States. We repudiate all discrimination in the conception

or assignment of new seats. We must not create a third or

fourth category of member. This would weaken and

depreciate the participation of the developing world, and

of Latin America in particular, in the reform process and

in an enlarged Council.

We have always said that in identifying new

permanent members we must exercise realism and

pragmatism by means of a democratic selection process

that leads to universally recognized representation without

renouncing regional support. Brazil has expressed,

through President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, its

willingness to accept the responsibilities of permanent

membership in the Security Council, if called upon by the

international community to do so. In such a case, Brazil

would be determined to carry out the role of permanent

member as the representative of Latin America and the

6

Caribbean. We want our region to be present in the

Security Council on a permanent basis and, through ample

coordination and consultation, to have an even stronger

collective voice.

The Brazilian Government notes with satisfaction that

we are moving, if not towards consensus, at least in the

direction of a significant majority in favour of certain basic

notions about how to reform the Security Council,

particularly enlargement of its permanent membership to

take account of the developing world. The proposal by

Ambassador Razali, presently under discussion in the

Working Group, constitutes a firm basis for a negotiating

process leading to a decision by the General Assembly.

Ambassador Razali has helped us regain the ideal of

Council reform as a means of strengthening the entire

Organization. Our priority is now to define the most

suitable format for an enlarged Security Council. This must

be the prime focus of attention.

The international community needs a strong, efficient

and ever-present United Nations. We will continue to rely

on the political body with the universality and moral

strength that, in the history of humankind, only the United

Nations has been able to muster. We must display in this

session the determination to create the conditions for the

United Nations to be an effective instrument for promoting

international peace and security. The same spirit of

leadership that we have seen in the Secretary-General and

in Ambassador Razali has driven many delegations. A new

willingness to make a constructive contribution to the

Security Council reform process and to other reforms is

clearly felt by Member States. There is a new thrust to

negotiations. There is leadership, as well as carefully

crafted proposals. We must take advantage of this unique

opportunity in the history of the United Nations. We must

not let the moment pass. Reform has become more than a

key concept; it has become the order of the day for the

United Nations in 1997.

Let us do it with that "fierce urgency of now" felt by

Martin Luther King, a symbol of political leadership and of

the forces of change in our century. "This is no time", said

King in his most famous speech,

"to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the

tranquillizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time...".

Let us do it, then.