Switzerland, 2012

Ten years ago, Switzerland joined the United Nations,

thus becoming both the 190th Member State and the

first country in which United Nations membership

was approved by its citizens in a popular vote. The

United Nations and Switzerland share the same values

and pursue common goals: the promotion of peace

and security, sustainable development, the protection

and promotion of human rights, and the provision of

emergency relief to victims of conflict and natural

disasters.

We face significant and pressing challenges

in all these areas. Climate change, food and water

scarcity, migration, organized crime, terrorism and the

proliferation of weapons do not respect borders. These

are global challenges that threaten entire regions. In an

increasingly interconnected world, we have to search

for global solutions that respond to regional and national

needs. It is not enough to simply maintain the status

quo. We have to find today the solutions of tomorrow.

The United Nations spans the entire world. Its

universality gives it unparalleled legitimacy and

enables it to find and implement solutions to global

challenges that enjoy broad support. In view of the

growing interdependence of those challenges, the

United Nations is now more important than ever. It must

be at the heart of international governance. The support

of every Member State and every one of us is therefore

crucial. In order to accomplish the Herculean tasks

awaiting it, the United Nations can no longer settle for

the lowest common denominator, as it does all too often

when consensus is reached among its Members. If the

United Nations is to overcome the challenges facing it,

it must be efficient, innovative and active. What does

that mean?

The United Nations is efficient when it updates and

improves its processes so that it can act more rapidly

and in a more coordinated manner, despite growing

budgetary pressures. In this respect, Switzerland

supports the reform agenda of the Secretary-General. It

should be implemented swiftly.

The United Nations is innovative when it develops

new ideas and solutions that are tailored to the big

picture. United Nations structures have evolved

organically over past decades. They do not encourage

people to stray from the beaten path. More intensive

exchanges within the United Nations and between the

Organization and scientific circles, civil society and

the private sector promote creativity and ensure broad

support for United Nations activities. At the seat of

the United Nations in Geneva that type of exchange

is encouraged in a targeted manner. Switzerland

also supports the strengthening and development of

ref lection and research activities within the United

Nations. Bringing those activities together in Geneva

would further strengthen the creative potential of the

Organization.

Finally, the United Nations will show its strengths

if it can achieve consensus in conflict situations and

push through to find solutions. Resorting to the right

of the veto in the Security Council is difficult to justify

in the event of genocide, war crimes or crimes against

humanity. That is why Switzerland, together with

other countries, continues to clamour for reform of the

working methods of the Security Council. Transparency

and the Council’s collaboration with other bodies within

the Organization should be improved, and the right of

veto should be limited.

As Switzerland traditionally defends dialogue, we

call upon all States and peoples to commit to greater

understanding and peaceful coexistence among

cultures, religions and beliefs. Freedom of belief and

religion, like freedom of opinion and expression,

are universally guaranteed core values that must be

protected and respected. Moreover, responding to an

unpleasant opinion with violence can never be justified.

It must be countered by ideas and logical arguments,

and if necessary through legal recourse, especially if

national, religious or cultural hatred has been incited.

The attacks in recent weeks against diplomatic missions

are therefore unacceptable regardless of the motivation

behind them. We all bear a common responsibility to

promote tolerance and the respect for beliefs.

For the current session of the General Assembly,

the President has chosen as the theme for the high-level

debate “Bringing about adjustment or settlement of

international disputes or situations by peaceful means”.

I applaud his choice. In recent years, the United Nations

has strengthened its capacity in the area of mediation

and preventive diplomacy, which has brought about a

re-evaluation of mediation processes. We need to go

further, however, as most of the United Nations budget

continues to be spent on peacekeeping operations.

Switzerland is therefore convinced that greater

investment in peaceful means that could bring about

a settlement of disputes, especially through mediation

and preventive diplomacy, would pay off in the long

run. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure;

that is as true for States as it is for people.

It is not just a matter of funding. Every single

conflict that is averted means the avoidance of human

suffering and the non-interruption of development in the

countries concerned. Over the past decade, Switzerland

has actively participated in more than 30 mediation

processes in some 20 countries. Moreover, Switzerland

regularly makes its experts and know-how available to

the United Nations and hopes to see its collaboration

with the Organization grow. Adapted to current needs,

special political missions respond to the complexity of

political realities. Thanks to those missions, the United

Nations is in a position to react f lexibly and quickly

in the event of a constitutional crisis or a coup d’état.

As the main instruments of preventive diplomacy, such

missions should be strengthened, specifically through

the introduction of modalities, financing and optimal

support.

When prevention is not enough, the international

community must act firmly. The United Nations should

therefore demonstrate that it is capable of intervening

and imposing itself. Switzerland is deeply concerned by

the dramatic worsening of the situation in Syria, where

human rights and international humanitarian law are

being f louted. At this very moment, as I speak, innocent

people are dying from bullets fired by the Syrian army

and the armed opposition. Thousands of people have

been killed, more than 1 million are on the run in their

own country and some 250,000 have sought refuge

in neighbouring countries. It is difficult, maybe even

impossible, to reach hundreds of thousands of victims

who, wounded and traumatized, are condemned to wait

in zones under siege. United Nations agencies estimate

that approximately 2.5 million people need urgent

humanitarian assistance. Switzerland has therefore set

aside more than $15 million for humanitarian assistance

in Syria and neighbouring countries.

As long as human rights continue to be trampled upon

and those responsible are not sufficiently perturbed, it

will be impossible to guarantee security. Switzerland

therefore calls for the perpetrators of serious violations

of human rights answer for their actions. The impunity

of perpetrators is not just immoral; by compromising

the process of reconciliation that gets under way in a

society after a war, it encourages history to repeat itself.

Switzerland leads a group of some 30 countries

that are asking that the International Criminal Court

take up the case of Syria. I would invite all heads of

State and Government present here today to rally to that

initiative. The international community must be made

aware of the extent of human rights violations in Syria.

Switzerland welcomes the work of the commission

of inquiry set up by the Human Rights Council and

calls for it to be strengthened. It also welcomes the

appointment of Mr. Brahimi as the new Joint Special

Representative of the United Nations and the League of

Arab States for the Syrian crisis and will do its utmost

to help him find a political solution to the conflict in

that country.

We know that our use of the world’s available

resources is not sustainable at the global level. We

are exploiting those resources without concern for

the future. We also know that human beings are the

cause of climate change. The fate of our planet rests in

our hands. Much will depend on whether we succeed

in making the transition to sustainable development

and whether we succeed in moving towards a green

economy. The Rio+20 outcome document provides us

with an opportunity that we must embrace. We must act

today so that future generations do not have to pay the

price for our inaction.

However, a great deal of mutual distrust remains, as

does the fear that not everyone will be able to compete

on equal terms in a green economy. We must overcome

that hurdle. Switzerland will play its part in sharing the

burden of efforts between the North and the South. The

Green Climate Fund will be a key element in financing

that transition. It should therefore be set up without

delay and in an optimal environment. I am convinced

that Geneva can offer such an environment.

The transition to a green economy also requires

new approaches, in terms of both thinking and acting.

In any process of change, there are winners and losers.

However, with regard to sustainable development

the winners and losers are the same, namely, future

generations. Either they will be able to continue to live

in an intact environment where they benefit from the

natural resources they need, or they will have to put

up with a decline in the standard of living due to the

exhaustion of resources and the broad consequences of

climate change. Our common challenge lies in ensuring

the well-being of all without overexploiting our natural

resources.

Switzerland attaches the greatest importance to

the post-2015 agenda, which will allow us to benefit

from our experience with the Millennium Development

Goals in order to prepare for the future. That approach

gives us the opportunity to consider all dimensions of

sustainable development together and, for the first time

ever, develop a universal system of targets for the well-

being of future generations throughout the world.

Switzerland is convinced that setting sustainable

development goals is an important element in

strengthening that development. It will play an active

part in defining a new system of goals. Switzerland

believes it imperative to combine discussions on the

post-2015 agenda and on sustainable development goals

into a single process.

According to the Roman philosopher Seneca, it is

not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste

much of it. So let us today take on the great challenges

before us. Let us join forces to bring about more peace

and security in the world and better protect human rights.

Let us put an end to the impunity of the perpetrators of

serious human rights abuses and bring them to account.

Let us take bold steps for more sustainable development

in the interests of our children and grandchildren. And

let us strengthen the United Nations so that, as the only

truly universal Organization, it is better equipped to

address those immense challenges.