Costa Rica, 2002

Allow me to congratulate Mr. Jan Kavan, and through

him the Czech Republic, on his well-deserved election

to preside over the work of this session of the General

Assembly. Allow me also to congratulate Switzerland

on its recent admission to membership of the United

Nations and to congratulate the Republic of Timor-

Leste on its imminent admission.

Fifty-eight years ago, the founders of the

Organization undertook to promote social progress and

better standards of life in larger freedom.

Unquestionably, the main purpose of the United

Nations is the promotion of justice and well-being for

all. We must reaffirm that commitment today. We must

dedicate ourselves to building a more just, free,

harmonious and happy society. We must indeed draw

the maximum advantage from the benefits of joint

action and cooperation in order to create a world of

mutual advantage. As stated in the Millennium

Declaration, we have a collective responsibility to

uphold the principles of human dignity and equality at

the global level.

However, we are still very far from reaching that

goal. In the last 10 years, more than 3.5 million people

have died in civil wars. One billion three hundred and

eighty million people live in extreme poverty, and 854

million do not know how to read or write. Democracy,

justice and the enjoyment of civil and political rights

are far from being universal. We believe that we need

to address the miserable and alarming situation of the

world's children. More than 30,000 children die every

day of diseases that are easily preventable. There are

more than 300,000 child soldiers in the world. More

than 150 million children suffer from malnutrition due

to a lack of food, and many millions go without

schooling. This situation is as serious as — or more

serious than — the effects of terrorism, which are

themselves abominable. However, these problems do

not draw the public's attention and are relegated to a

secondary place on the world's agenda.

We have stopped half way in our struggle to

create a better world. Many examples attest to this

bitter fact. It is right for us to celebrate the holding of

the first elections after an armed conflict or the end of

a dictatorship. However, those are just the first steps

down the path of a democratic way of life. Unless the

United Nations commits itself to ensuring the

sustainability of democracy, elections, regardless of

their inherent value, will not necessarily mean a victory

in the fight for human rights. Democracy must be an

instrument for attaining equitable development and

creating favourable conditions for peoples who invest

their hopes in it.

The sustainability of democracy can be

safeguarded though the promotion of the fundamental

social values of dialogue, harmony and reconciliation.

That is also done by combating extreme poverty and

the growing economic gap between various social

groups, which are ills that weaken the social fabric and

erode confidence in political institutions. Financial

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crises foster conditions favourable to the existence of

extremist and opportunist groups seeking to overthrow

democratic Governments. Greater international

cooperation for development is necessary to

consolidate democracy. It is for that reason that we

urgently call upon developed nations to implement the

Monterrey Consensus, and in particular to fulfil their

commitment to increase official development

assistance. Costa Rica fully supports United Nations

efforts to promote and strengthen democracy. But we

also emphasize that the United Nations should not give

any less attention to the creation of the economic and

social conditions that will help to strengthen and

preserve democratic institutions throughout the world.

We also believe that globalization, with its rapid

development of information and communication

technologies and growing economic and commercial

interdependence, offers us tremendous opportunities

for economic and social development. We must

certainly take advantage of those opportunities to

create a better world for all. However, globalization

also poses serious dangers. Structural barriers,

financial imbalances and the lack of capital for

productive and social investment can cause the

economic collapse of entire regions. Subsidies,

restricted access to international markets and capital

flight distort free competition. Globalization may

widen the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest

sectors of society. The digital divide may exclude the

most vulnerable from the benefits of the modern

economy and cast a long shadow over the futures of

those left behind. It is essential that we make greater

efforts to protect the most vulnerable groups and

nations.

The United Nations must call on the developed

countries to open their markets and to abolish

subsidies, thus enabling developing countries to have

access to the benefits of globalization. Thus, in

combating inequality and extreme poverty, we will

build more equitable and just societies.

Human dignity has been championed ever since

the founding of the United Nations. Government

corruption, in all its forms and at all levels, is a

genuine breach of human rights. It is outrageous that

unjust leaders should enrich themselves by corrupt

means and thus impoverish their peoples. It is

scandalous to see how certain rulers divert public funds

to their private accounts while reducing their peoples to

the most appalling poverty. At the same time, the

Governments of some States Members of the United

Nations fuel corruption by granting tax deductions for

bribes offered abroad. There are even some Member

States that protect corrupt leaders under the guise of

banking secrecy. The United Nations should forbid all

such acts and prevent the granting of amnesty, asylum

and travel visas to those who seek to evade justice.

The protection of human rights may be weakened

without multilateral protection, monitoring and

sanctions mechanisms. Costa Rica advocates the

creation of a new generation of human rights

mechanisms to provide greater protection to all

individuals. This effort has already born its first fruit in

the form of a draft optional protocol to the Convention

against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading

Treatment or Punishment. That legal instrument,

recently adopted by the Economic and Social Council,

will be submitted to the General Assembly for

consideration in the next few days. I urge all States

actively to support the draft as a sign of their

unequivocal commitment to human rights and to the

primacy of the dignity and integrity of all human

beings.

We welcome the recent entry into force of the

Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal

Court. Human kind at last has an effective, independent

and impartial judicial organ with jurisdiction to try the

most serious crimes against human dignity. We must

not weaken it.

While the United Nations upholds the principle of

the peaceful settlement of disputes, requiring just

means and institutions to resolve differences, the

International Court of Justice — the United Nations

main judicial organ and guarantor of international law,

responsible for ensuring the rule of law in international

relations and for preventing arbitrary and casuistic

interpretations of legal norms — has become a purely

rhetorical device. Very few States Members of the

United Nations have accepted its mandatory

jurisdiction without reservation, while others have

made the situation even worse by unjustifiably

withdrawing or modifying their acceptance of its

jurisdiction. Only 12 nations accept the mandatory

jurisdiction of the Court without reservation or

condition. To ignore the authority of the highest

judicial organ of the society of nations is tantamount to

closing the door to justice and endangers the integrity

of the international legal order.

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What alternative is there for nations if they

cannot rely on judicial bodies to settle their

differences? The only alternative is force. It is essential

for all States Members of the United Nations to accept

without condition the obligatory jurisdiction of the

International Court of Justice. Only thus will we be

able to create a more just, peaceful and secure world.

A more just world will necessarily be more

peaceful. Justice demands respect for others and for

their freedom — in other words, tolerance. Peace in

many regions of the world is seriously threatened by

intolerance. In the Middle East, the rights of the

peoples of Israel and Palestine are being violated. The

intolerance of one leader is today making a country

like Iraq the possible setting for endlessly bitter war.

How different the situation would be if it had a fair

Government respectful of human rights. The world has

also witnessed with concern the growing dispute

between India and Pakistan and the threat of nuclear

war in that region.

My country would like to see greater tolerance

prevail in the Taiwan Straits. We hope to see a just

settlement that would fulfil the desires of the entire

Chinese people. Costa Rica has historically enjoyed

and continues to enjoy close friendly relations with the

Republic of China on Taiwan. Creative agreements

have been reached in many international organizations

to permit the participation of the Republic of China in

their work. The world would be a far more peaceful

place if we were able to find an innovative accord to

allow that country and its people to be represented with

dignity in this and other international organizations.

While it is a principle of the United Nations to

prevent violence and to achieve lasting and stable

peace, there are Governments that transfer weapons to

rebel and terrorist groups and States Members of the

United Nations that scorn efforts being made for

disarmament and the reduction of military expenditure.

We call for the adoption of a legally binding

framework convention to regulate the arms trade. Our

experience as a disarmed nation has taught us that not

spending on weapons is the best decision for those

countries that are truly committed to the well-being of

their peoples.

We urge the nuclear States truly to commit

themselves to disarmament negotiations. We deem it

necessary to adopt a comprehensive convention to

prohibit the use of nuclear weapons. In the meantime,

all States must renounce the development of new

nuclear weapons and ratify the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

We cannot commit ourselves only half-way to

human dignity, equality and justice. We must not allow

our children, the future generation, to be able to

condemn us for doublespeak. If we can do that, we will

be making a true contribution to their inheritance of a

better world.