Costa Rica, 2000

Allow me at the outset to congratulate

Mr. Harri Holkeri on his well-deserved election to

preside over the work of the General Assembly, which

attests both to his outstanding personal qualities and to

the admiration that the international community has for

his country, Finland. Allow me also to express our

gratitude to the outgoing President, Mr. Theo-Ben

Gurirab, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Namibia, for

his excellent work.

Just a week ago, in this same Hall, our heads of

State or Government held the Millennium Summit.

That historic event served as the framework for an in-

depth consideration of the role of the United Nations in

the next century and for the reiteration, at the highest

political level, of the universal support for this

Organization.

It is now up to us to elaborate on our leaders'

observations and determine what is necessary to build a

more prosperous future, a more just society and an

increasingly human civilization.

At the outset of the new millennium, scientific

and technological achievements in all fields are

allowing us to glimpse an ever-brighter future.

However, a double threat exists to progress towards

that goal. On one hand, it is endangered by uneven

growth, which threatens to deepen the divide between

the wealthiest and the poorest. More effective measures

must be adopted to create a more just and equitable

society and international community.

On the other hand, the future is also threatened by

the temptation of absolute materialism, which can be

understood as the danger of reducing development to

the mere satisfaction of material needs. The risk of

transforming the human being into a commodity and

the temptation to seek wealth instead of happiness

represent a continuing threat. We must establish a new

society whose goal should be the promotion of the

well-being of all, as reflected in their full physical,

intellectual and spiritual development. We must create

a society centred on ideas, creativity and abilities, and

not on power or wealth.

The United Nations can and should play a central

role in the construction of this new society. However,

we must note, honestly and courageously, that so far

the United Nations and the international community as

a whole have been held back by innumerable

constraints and restrictions and known many failures.

More than 50 years ago, at the founding of this

Organization, we committed ourselves to eradicating

the scourge of war, and we undertook to promote social

progress and better living conditions for all.

Unfortunately, though, to date, the United Nations

has been unable to respond fully to these pleas. We

react to political and military crises with hollow

statements to the press. We condemn gross violations

of human rights with procedural resolutions, which are

then forgotten on our shelves. We create organs,

committees and tribunals without any real capacity for

action and lacking the necessary resources to fulfil

their mandates. We convene summits, conferences and

meetings that limit themselves to repeating empty

declarations and passing commitments. We send

military observers who are unable to maintain peace

because we do not provide them with the necessary

resources or political support. Over and over again we

adopt inadequate measures to resolve crises, hoping

that they will perform miracles. We send international

experts with development programmes that respond

neither to the needs nor the desires of their recipients.

This Organization has imposed sanctions that affect

innocent civilians while at the same time inadvertently

strengthening criminal regimes.

We recognize, of course, that many of the United

Nations activities have been successful and

praiseworthy. We cannot overlook the work of the

22

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees or of the United Nations Children's Fund

(UNICEF) in favour of victims of war and of children,

nor can we forget the heroic sacrifice of many Blue

Helmets and humanitarian personnel. We must always

keep in mind the valuable mediation efforts and good

offices provided to defuse armed conflicts. We must

learn from those peacekeeping operations that have

been crowned with success in spite of all of the

difficulties. We must recall and respect the gradual

codification of human rights and of the need to provide

the highest possible standards of living.

But the world expects greater leadership from the

United Nations. The world's peoples are calling for

firm and decisive action on the part of the international

community. Humanity is looking to us to fulfil the lofty

goals that we set for ourselves when we founded this

Organization.

For these reasons, new bases must be established

for the actions of the United Nations. The Organization

must be provided with a renewed political and

philosophical paradigm that will enable it to garner the

political and material support it needs from all States in

order effectively to achieve its goals.

Today the United Nations requires all of our

support. Each one of us is obliged, individually and

collectively, to provide the best living conditions

possible to all our fellow citizens.

The primary objective of the United Nations in

the twenty-first century must be to promote full respect

for human rights. More than 50 years after the adoption

of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the

continuing violation of those rights, through

inexcusable killings for political, religious or ethnic

motives and through the displacement of millions of

refugees and internally displaced persons, is a matter

for profound concern. We are distressed also by the

fact that thousands perish daily of starvation or easily

curable diseases. We are concerned at the fact that

thousands of persons are still persecuted or

incarcerated because of their political opinions and that

for those reasons hundreds are subject to the most

degrading torture or are forced to live in extreme

poverty.

The persistence of war is the cause of inexcusable

atrocities and recurrent humanitarian crisis. The true

victims of war are not the fallen soldiers but the

displaced or refugee children and elderly, the women

who are raped, the young people who are murdered, the

mothers who lose their incomes, the innocent workers

whose workplaces are destroyed, the students whose

schools are bombed, the sick who cannot go to hospital

because there are no bridges and no medicines. In the

contemporary world, every armed conflict, every civil

war, every massive violation of human rights, every

humanitarian emergency, caused either by man or by

nature, calls for coordinated international action

through this Organization.

In that context, all States must politically and

financially support United Nations activities to

eradicate the scourge of war. The Organization must

regain leadership in maintaining international peace

and security. It is imperative that all States strictly

adhere to the prohibition of the use of force.

For those reasons, one of our tasks is to revitalize

the Security Council in order to increase its legitimacy

and its capacity for action. That organ should never

transfer, abandon or renounce its primary responsibility

for the maintenance of international peace and security.

To the contrary, it is essential to ensure that it can

perform its functions satisfactorily by providing it with

the necessary resources and political support.

The Security Council cannot renounce its role

simply because it is unable to find a quick or

inexpensive solution to a crisis. We cannot accept the

establishment of peacekeeping operations that lack

personnel and resources to the point of being

irrelevant. Nor can we accept the dispatch of personnel

who lack training or motivation and who become easy

victims of conflicts. By no means can we consent to the

imposition of sanctions regimes that affect innocent

populations. When establishing a peacekeeping

mission, the Security Council must define realistic

goals, so that mandates and resources will be

commensurate with the actual requirements of the

crisis it is to face.

Armed conflicts and political crises are

multifaceted phenomena. Every emergency situation

presents a series of political, military and economic

problems. True peace can be attained only when all

individuals enjoy proper living conditions, when they

possess a sufficiently high level of economic

development to meet their basic needs, when their

fundamental human rights are respected and when their

interests and individual rights are guaranteed by

democratic means.

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True peace requires a culture and a climate that

foster mutual respect and that categorically reject

violence. In order to achieve peace, we must create a

culture of peace. With a view to creating such a culture

of peace, the United Nations must promote not only

peace but also social justice, democracy and

development. This should actively involve the Security

Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and

Social Council, the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights and the United

Nations Development Programme. We advocate in

particular the strengthening of the role of the Economic

and Social Council so that it can effectively monitor

and coordinate the implementation of the economic,

social, cultural and environmental activities of the

United Nations and of all its organs.

In this regard, international cooperation plays a

central role in supporting local initiatives for

development, democratization and the promotion of

human rights. Unfortunately, we are witnessing a

decrease in international assistance in these fields

while the demand continues to grow. To address this

situation, each nation has to take into its own hands the

task of creating the conditions necessary to attain

peace, development and justice.

We believe that only if human rights are fully

respected will it be possible to create and sustain the

conditions necessary for the full development of all

men and women. The promotion of democracy and

social and economic development are also

indispensable instruments to generate the material,

social and spiritual conditions required for this

comprehensive development.

Our experience has taught us that only democracy

can provide the necessary framework for the full

respect of human rights. Only democracy which grants

all citizens equal rights and opportunities to participate

in the political process can secure true peace. Only a

democratic system which bestows on all people equal

opportunities to enjoy the benefits of economic

development and personal accomplishment will make

possible sustainable and just development. For that

reason, we celebrate the democratic consolidation that,

thanks to recent elections after a long period under the

same ruling party, is being enjoyed by Mexico and by

the Republic of China in Taiwan — which deserves an

appropriate place in international forums.

Additionally, our own national evolution has

taught us that the first step in such a policy is the

elimination or reduction of military budgets. Costa

Rica abolished its army more than 50 years ago and has

since been free from armed conflict with its neighbours

and from military oppression of its population.

Reduction of military expenditure is especially

valuable for developing States whose resources are

limited and cannot be mismanaged. In that context,

armies are a heavy burden on national budgets and a

constant source of tension and repression. Would it not

be better to devote to health the $191 billion that

developing countries waste on their armed forces?

Would it not be preferable to allocate to education the

$22 billion dollars that are spent in arms transfers to

the third world? Our historical experience has made us

a witness to and an example of the multifaceted and

positive relationship between disarmament and

development.

The second step on the path to peace and

development is to devote as many resources as possible

to education and health. Only an educated people can

live in freedom; only a healthy people can work for

development; only a cultured people can be a part of

the contemporary globalized world. For those reasons,

we must invest intensively and systematically in our

human resources while also striving for economic

development, social justice and the institutionalization

of democracy.

The third step towards the future is to secure

respect for human rights and democracy to enable

peoples to choose freely their own destinies and to

facilitate the coordination of all of society's actors. In

my country, we have deeply committed ourselves to

those principles, both in the national sphere through

constitutional provisions, and in the international arena

through various international conventions and treaties.

In this regard, the issue of migrations is of the

greatest importance to my country. Costa Rica has

given emphasis to the need to relocate the nationals of

each country peacefully and in an orderly fashion to

satisfy their specific immigration and emigration

needs; to the movements of qualified human resources

to promote economic, social and cultural progress in

the receiving countries; and to the orderly reintegration

and resettlement of persons who, for one reason or

another, have been obliged to abandon their country or

place of origin or who have been forced to leave a

nation that did not allow them to exercise their right

24

not to emigrate. Therefore, we appreciate the key role

played by the International Organization for Migration

(IOM), and we advocate in particular that States that

have not yet done so make the necessary amendments

to their domestic legislation in order to guarantee this

right to all human beings.

There are three main elements in the process of

development that we believe require greater attention.

First, we should reconstruct society and its values,

especially through a renewed effort to acknowledge

and protect the value of the family in its role as

society's basic cell. Unfortunately, the family is the

first victim of political and economic crisis, thus

forcing its dissolution by the scattering of its members.

For this reason, we must emphasize that families are

the schools where the basic values of coexistence and

respect for the dignity of all other persons are taught,

and that, without them, it is impossible to create a

stable society.

Secondly, it is necessary to make greater efforts

to pursue sustainable development in all areas of

human endeavour. In this sense, we are pleased to

report that Costa Rica has achieved significant

advances in the environmental field regarding the

preservation of its rich biodiversity and the promotion

of development in harmony with nature. We are one of

the first nations to have undertaken carbon fixation and

the sale of oxygen as an additional source of income

for development, on the basis of the sustainable use of

our forests and recognition of the economic value of

the environmental services that they provide to all

humanity. In the same vein, we have incorporated the

provisions of the Kyoto Protocol into our domestic

legal system. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to

go towards fully sustainable development.

Similarly, Costa Rica is honoured to be the

headquarters of the Earth Council and the University

for Peace, which are working jointly to promote a

concept of development in greater harmony with the

environment. We are confident that the University for

Peace, in particular, can play a constructive role both in

the promotion of sustainable development as in the

creation of a culture of peace. Thanks to the work of its

new Council and in particular Mr. Maurice Strong, who

presides over it, that institution can count on my

Government's unwavering support.

We take this opportunity to reiterate our pledge to

offer our country as the headquarters of the Secretariat

of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests. We are

confident that this new organ will finally secure the

international community's coordinated and

comprehensive action with respect to forests.

Thirdly, it is necessary to ensure that economic

development is sustainable. To achieve this goal, it is

necessary to modify the international economic order,

with a view to making it more just and balanced, so

that it can grant to the smaller developing countries

greater access to the benefits of the globalization

process and the opportunities for development that it

creates. Open commercial mechanisms enabling

commerce and investment to be engines for economic

growth should be established. In a parallel, we should

target our developmental policies towards more

efficient use of the digital revolution, which provides

us with many opportunities to compete in the global

market and to increase our production. In short, we

must democratize globalization.

We believe that knowledge and opportunities to

access information and the new technologies are

essential today to generate well-being. In today's

world, marked by new technological frontiers, our

endeavours should also be directed towards narrowing

the digital divide. We should seek to provide more just

and equitable access to the opportunities open to us in

order to transform economic and social activities. In

accordance with this thesis, Costa Rica recently

initiated the programme “Communications without

frontiers”, becoming the first nation to provide free e-

mail to all its population.

Democracy, sustainable development and human

rights constitute the three fundamental elements upon

which the United Nations action must be based, as well

as that of each of our nations. None is an end in itself;

rather they are only a means to secure better living

conditions for all people. The true goal of our action

centres on the human being; it is to guarantee greater

happiness for all persons, the greatest respect for their

dignity and the necessary conditions for their full

physical, intellectual and spiritual development.