Switzerland, 2008

I

have the honour to speak on behalf of the President of

the Swiss Confederation, Mr. Pascal Couchepin, who

had to cancel his trip to New York at the very last

minute.

Since its foundation, the United Nations has

embodied the hope of all people to live in peace,

freedom and dignity. As Members of the United

Nations and as representatives of our peoples, we are

under an obligation not to disappoint those hopes.

Three years ago in this Hall, we decided in the 2005

World Summit Outcome to ensure that human beings

would live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty

and despair. We ought now to ask ourselves the

following questions: Have we kept that promise? Have

the expectations been fulfilled? Have we done enough

to bring about peace and security, development and the

realization of human rights?

According to a recent World Bank report, the

number of people living in poverty has fallen by 500

million since 1981. Their proportion of the total

population has fallen from 52 to 26 per cent.

Nevertheless, 1.2 billion people still have to get by on

less than a dollar a day. Twenty-five thousand people a

day are dying as a result of starvation and poverty.

There are still 67 million refugees and internally

displaced persons on the planet. No State, however

wealthy or powerful, can tackle all these challenges

alone. Common solutions are required. A strong United

Nations is needed, a United Nations that focuses on

that which unites rather than on that which divides.

Cooperation across cultural and religious borders

is not always easy. Swiss history has shown that this

type of cooperation is most likely to bear fruit when

specific problems are tackled and solutions are sought

through open dialogue. This approach is reflected in

Swiss peace policy. We support projects the purpose of

which is to bring together people with different values

and cultural backgrounds to enable them to coexist in a

positive way. This approach also characterizes our

activity in the United Nations-sponsored Alliance of

Civilizations.

Although dialogue is necessary, it is nevertheless

only one of the means of promoting the fundamental

values to which we are all devoted. I am thinking first

and foremost of human rights, access to a decent

standard of living and personal development for

everyone.

In this context, Switzerland is participating

actively in the work of the Human Rights Council. Let

us recall that the usefulness of the Council will

ultimately be judged by the specific contribution that it

makes to the protection of human rights on the ground.

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The Universal Periodic Review and its special

procedures provide the Council with two effective

tools, and those tools must be used. Switzerland will

continue to advocate in favour of a constructive and

critical Universal Periodic Review, the independence

of special procedures and the autonomy of the Office

of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human

Rights.

Next year, the Review Conference on the

implementation of the Durban Declaration and

Programme of Action will take place at Durban. For

Switzerland, the fight against racism is a priority. That

is why my country will play its part in this process.

However, we expect the preparatory phase to be

characterized by a constructive spirit that helps us

achieve a balanced outcome. In particular, the Review

Conference should confine itself to the evaluation of

the implementation of the Durban Declaration and

Programme of Action. It should not call into question

the normative advances set out in the International

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial

Discrimination. And finally, it should deal with

different subjects relating to racism in a balanced

manner, without becoming a platform that focuses on a

particular situation.

Last week, the Assembly also discussed the

implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.

We all know that the implementation of the Goals is

slow and arduous. Collectively, we could have done

more. We should have done more, and Switzerland is

no exception. But we are trying to assign our limited

resources to actions that meet the needs of recipients,

that make a difference to the poorest, that help people

to help themselves and that complement, but do not

replace, the efforts of recipient countries.

Development assistance should be characterized

by lasting effectiveness and coherence. The Follow-Up

International Conference on Financing for

Development, to be held in Doha, will give us an

opportunity to renew and to deepen this alliance

between developing and industrialized countries.

Progress towards the achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals requires that the

world’s poorest be better protected legally. Only if they

can defend themselves against injustice and have equal

access to justice, property, work and markets will

development ultimately be possible. The Commission

on Legal Empowerment of the Poor presented its report

a few months ago. It deserves careful study and follow-

up by the Assembly.

The food crisis has undoubtedly made achieving

the Millennium Development Goals more difficult.

Like some other countries, Switzerland has responded

to the crisis by increasing its contribution to the World

Food Programme. But the causes of food price rises

also need to be addressed. The causes are diverse and

range from changing eating habits to increased

cultivation of agrofuel crops and neglect of agricultural

production. Measures to resolve this crisis will have to

be both numerous and varied. In this regard, we

welcome the efforts made by the High-Level Task

Force on the Global Food Security Crisis in providing

a coherent and efficient response.

However, there is also a positive side to this

crisis. Rising food prices may also represent an

opportunity for farmers in developing countries. But

for farmers to benefit from the rise in food prices they

need access to land and property, financing and seed.

Likewise, they need international rules against the

flooding of their sales markets by subsidized

agricultural products, as well as better access to the

markets of industrialized countries.

A positive conclusion of the World Trade

Organization (WTO) discussions could have been a

positive sign of movement in this direction.

Switzerland therefore regrets that it was not possible to

reach agreement at the Ministerial Meeting held in

Geneva in July. The challenge now is to ensure that the

progress already made is not jeopardized and that

confidence among WTO member States is restored, so

that the Doha Round can be brought to a successful

conclusion.

Climate change is another major source of

concern. We in Switzerland are particularly aware of

this fact because our alpine glaciers are rapidly melting

away. In other parts of the world, this phenomenon

takes the form of changing precipitation patterns,

droughts and floods. The reports of the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

clearly show that all these disasters have a point in

common: they are the result of climate change and are

caused by human beings, and particularly by the

consumption of fossil fuels.

The time for never-ending talks has passed.

Switzerland will achieve its emissions reduction goals

for 2012. For the years after 2012, we need a new,

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ambitious and internationally accepted climate regime.

Such a regime should be based on the principle of

common but differentiated responsibilities. Switzerland

has put forward a proposal for a global carbon dioxide

tax which meets that criterion and would ensure the

financing of the necessary adaptation measures. I

would like to invite the Assembly to carefully study

this proposal in the framework of the ongoing climate

discussions.

The efforts of the industrialized countries alone

will not be enough, however, to solve the problem of

global warming. Each country will, according to its

own capacities, have to contribute to the reduction of

CO2 emissions. In so doing, we are united by a

common concern: that of shouldering our responsibility

to future generations.

Today, many countries are still in situations of

armed conflict. In many cases, respect for international

humanitarian law has declined. That is why

Switzerland calls again on all conflicting parties to

comply with the provisions of international

humanitarian law and to guarantee humanitarian

organizations swift and unhindered access to the

victims of conflicts.

Conflict prevention is one of the central tasks of

the United Nations. Switzerland is particularly active

on two levels. First, we wish to pay closer attention to

the connection between armed violence and

development. Together with other partners, we intend

to submit a draft resolution on this subject during this

session of the General Assembly. Secondly, we

strongly advocate the strengthening of the Secretariat’s

mediation capacities. The mediation efforts in Kenya,

for instance, have demonstrated that this form of

conflict prevention can work.

That brings me to the subjects of the

responsibility to protect and of prevention of genocide.

Switzerland welcomes the fact that these subjects have

been institutionally anchored more firmly within the

United Nations.

The concept of the responsibility to protect was

recognized in September 2005 in the framework of the

World Summit. It is obvious that the operational

implementation of the concept can only be realized

progressively. Nevertheless, Switzerland will commit

to ensuring that the concept is not partially assimilated

into that of humanitarian intervention, thereby calling

into question the consensus achieved in 2005.

Justice is necessary for building lasting peace. In

other words, peace and impunity are incompatible in

the long term. The arrest and extradition of Charles

Taylor and Radovan Karadzic to The Hague have once

again confirmed the importance of international

criminal justice. Alleged war criminals must not be

allowed to live in serenity. They must answer for their

acts in a fair trial. That is the preventive effect of the

international criminal justice system, and it should not

be underestimated. Switzerland therefore supports the

work of the International Criminal Court and advocates

its independence.

At the beginning of my speech, I stressed the

great importance of the United Nations. The world is

changing, however, and international relations are

constantly developing. The United Nations will also

have to change. Those who focus only on the past will

no doubt miss the future.

There is a need for reform in all United Nations

bodies, but particularly in the Security Council. Given

the power that it exerts, the expectations of the

Security Council are very high. If its decisions are to

be accepted and supported by the entire international

community, the Council will need to adapt to the

realities of the twenty-first century, namely, the new

balances that characterize our world at the political,

economic and demographic levels.

Moreover, it is important that the views of

important actors that are not members of the Council

should be better taken into account in decision-making.

Switzerland has for some time advocated an

improvement of the Council’s working methods and

will continue to work for greater participation and

transparency.

Peace is not a given. It is an ideal that has to be

pursued every day. The United Nations is the

predestined venue for achieving that goal. We are

willing, within our capacities, to make our contribution

to that pressing collective task.