Czech Republic, 1995

Allow me at the

outset to congratulate Mr. Freitas do Amaral on his election

to the prestigious office of President of the General

Assembly at this fiftieth session. His distinguished career in

Portuguese politics serves as an assurance that his tenure

will be very workmanlike and fruitful, in addition to

celebratory. I wish also to thank the outgoing president,

Ambassador Amara Essy, for the excellent job he did last

year.

It is particularly auspicious to address the General

Assembly this week — a day after the signing, in

Washington, of a bulky, carefully crafted and

long-argued-over agreement between Israel and the

Palestinian Authority on the second stage of Palestinian

autonomy; and a few days after the signing, here in New

York, of a much slimmer, much more tentative and much

more general set of additional principles for peace in the

South Slav States, which, nevertheless, we hope,

represents the next step towards peace in that area as

well.

On 24 October, the United Nations will celebrate its

jubilee. This indicates that the objectives and ideals of

this Organization, as set out in the Charter, are still valid

and still at the forefront of the interest of the international

community. This fills us with joy, all the more so since

one of the founding Members of the Organization was

Czechoslovakia.

The founding of the United Nations was the logical

outcome of the efforts of countries which, having been

affected by the most terrible war in the history of

mankind, wanted to ensure that a new organization would

prevent any repetition of a similar conflagration.

Guaranteeing global peace, however, has never been

the sole objective of the United Nations. The United

Nations constitutes a unique forum for all countries,

without distinction, to present their opinions and pursue

their international interests in all areas of concern,

including not only security and disarmament but also

social and economic development, protection of the

environment and other issues that are particularly pressing

nowadays, including drug trafficking and terrorism. The

United Nations thus offers a platform for solving global

problems.

The United Nations efforts to implement the

principles of its Charter enjoy the full support of the

Czech Republic. Mr. Václav Havel, the President of the

Czech Republic, will no doubt underline the importance

we assign to it when he speaks from this rostrum next

month. Nevertheless, in view of the changes that have

taken place since the inception of the United Nations,

there is an urgent need to adapt the Organization to new

challenges, to thoroughly reform it and to turn it into a

better and more effective instrument of multilateral

international relations.

The most important task is that of creating a more

efficient and more cost-effective system. We need a

practical system, one which, even with limited means,

would guarantee global security, uphold human rights and

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contribute far more effectively to development in less

privileged parts of the world. We need an Organization that,

on the basis of the principle of universality, is open to all

those who are willing and ready to participate in this

endeavour.

The United Nations cannot spend a penny more on

programmes that duplicate one another or on programmes

that have become ineffective or even unnecessary. Many

programmes can be consolidated, or indeed even

eliminated, without any adverse effect on their

beneficiaries. The message is clear: many of our national

Governments are implementing cost-control and efficiency

measures, and a similar approach must be taken by the

United Nations as well. We recognize the important role

that the Advisory Committee on Administrative and

Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) plays in the process of

managing the United Nations finances and the importance

of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, created last

year. These organs must control United Nations

expenditures even more strictly.

The Charter of the United Nations devolves the basic

responsibility for maintaining international peace and

security to the Security Council. In this role, the Council is

irreplaceable. It is perceived as a compact, efficient,

transparent and alert body that should guarantee rapid and

effective United Nations action, wherever necessary, to

maintain or restore peace anywhere in the world.

Although it is currently perhaps the most efficiently

operating organ of the United Nations, there is room for

improvement. The Council must put greater stress on

preventive diplomacy, and it should further improve the

flow of information between its members and other United

Nations Members, as well as its cooperation with the

Secretariat. Greater transparency of the Security Council in

its decision-making would also be desirable. These are steps

the Council can pursue by itself.

A broader issue is that of restructuring the Council,

which requires our special attention. We support, and

actively participate in, the Open-ended Working Group on

the reform and restructuring of the Security Council, and

we anticipate that the proposals that eventually emerge from

it will actually be implemented. The number of permanent

and non-permanent members of the Council should increase

to about 20. Any substantially greater number would affect

its effectiveness. It should, as far as possible, include

representation by all regions, and the Group of Eastern

European States should be allotted an additional seat. We

oppose any new categories of Security Council members.

Participation in maintaining world peace and meeting

financial obligations to the United Nations are some of

the criteria that should be considered in determining the

expansion of the permanent membership. We believe

Germany and Japan to be suitable candidates, and

advocate expanded representation of Latin America,

Africa and Asia.

Logically, non-permanent members, and small States

in particular, cannot play the same role as permanent

members with the veto. Nevertheless, non-permanent

members have a positive role to play in the Council’s

activities and in its decision-making. During its current

tenure on the Security Council, the Czech Republic has

been contributing constructively to the Council’s

activities. Our own active policies demonstrate, on the

one hand, the unmistakable place of the Czech Republic

among traditionally democratic countries and, on the other

hand, our independent analyses and attitudes, in which we

are beholden to no other Power. Our Security Council

activity has also demonstrated — if such a demonstration

were indeed necessary — our commitment and

involvement not only with respect to Europe, but also in

seeking solutions in far-away conflicts which at first

glance may not affect us.

The Czech Republic supports a more active role of

the Security Council in various aspects of conflict

management and in delving even deeper to the roots of

conflicts. Such a role, exemplified for example in

preventive diplomacy, aims at creating conditions and an

atmosphere for parties in dispute to enter into serious and

sincere negotiations, thus restoring stability and peace in

the regions where tension prevails. When it comes to

implementing the results of negotiations, active and

complex peace building and peacemaking have been our

primary vehicles. We do not share one-sided negative

evaluations of the results of United Nations peace-keeping

operations. In some regions normalcy has been restored

precisely because of the United Nations and its peace-

keeping activities. But there are also regions where

tragedies unfold unchecked despite the United Nations

best efforts, including tremendous financial, material and

personnel contributions.

In its extent, depth and consequences, the crisis in

the former Yugoslavia amounts to the greatest and most

tragic conflict in post-war Europe. The inability of Europe

and of the international community in general to stop the

conflict has undermined the confidence of the world

public in a number of international institutions. Gaps in

existing security arrangements have become apparent, and

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the European integration process has slowed down and

became more complicated. The Balkan conflict is also

frequently linked with the crisis of the United Nations and

with the perceived need to create a more effective

international security mechanism for resolving regional

conflicts. In this strange way, the war in the former

Yugoslavia might thus eventually assist in forming a new,

more effective security mechanism.

It transpires that the international community was not

ready for the conflict. It underestimated its complexity and

its potential for escalation. Its length and its chronic

character are linked with the military-strategic equality of

the antagonists who, despite international pressure, have

been refusing to negotiate. They believe, quite erroneously,

that they can attain more of their objectives by fighting than

by negotiating and signing a peace agreement. The latest

developments indicate that it is impossible to attain any

significant success in solving conflicts of this type without

the determination of the international community and the

combination of strong political pressure, sanctions and the

appropriate use of military force. But it is still more

obvious that a final, just and lasting solution can be attained

only by peaceful negotiations.

The fate of the innocent civilian population lies at the

heart of our concerns. The victims of ethnic cleansing, the

still-concealed tragedy of the men and boys of Srebrenica

and Zepa and the exodus of Croatian Serbs from their old

homes all evoke fears for the fate of civilians. We should

help monitor the observance of human rights for civilians

on all sides of the conflict.

The United States initiative regarding Bosnia and

Herzegovina, as well as Croatia, amounts to an effort to

create a joint peace project of Contact Group members and

other interested parties. This effort should be fully

supported by the international community and presented to

the belligerent parties as the basic framework for solving

the crisis. The de facto recognition of the territorial

integrity of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and of the Srpska Republic

by the Sarajevo Government, as well as the acceptance by

Bosnian Serbs of the Contact Group plan dividing the

territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a 51:49 ratio, should

certainly facilitate the next phase in peace negotiations.

The changing approach of the Serb party to peace

initiatives of the international community, especially to the

latest United States plan, confirms the more cooperative

approach of Belgrade to finding a peaceful solution

acceptable to all sides. This is definitely a positive. By the

same token we supported the joint North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO)-United Nations operation, even

though we realize that in and of themselves, air strikes

would not resolve the conflict. Effective cooperation

between the United Nations and NATO in implementing

relevant Security Council resolutions has demonstrated

that NATO has a very important role to play in the

region.

Solving the problem of Eastern Slavonia should also

be on the agenda of current peace efforts.

The Czech Republic is ready to continue its active

participation in peace missions in the former Yugoslavia,

whether under United Nations auspices or under some

regional arrangement according to Chapter VIII of the

Charter. Needless to say, the Czech Republic will

continue to the best of its abilities to provide

humanitarian assistance, and intends to participate in the

post-war reconstruction of the war-ravaged areas.

There has been a great increase in the number of

peace-keeping operations since the end of the cold war.

In the last five years, more peace-keeping operations have

been launched than during the entire previous existence of

the United Nations. In 1995, 16 peace-keeping operations

were functioning, compared to eight in 1988, with almost

70,000 personnel. Expenditures rose about five times.

This issue is inextricably connected with the critical

financial situation of the United Nations. The United

Nations is almost $4 billion in the red. The Czech

Republic supports not only the reform of financing peace-

keeping operations, but of the entire system of United

Nations financing. The system should be based on

economic indicators — per capita national product — and

should correspond to a given country’s ability to pay. Let

me assure you that the Czech Republic takes its

responsibility very seriously.

We are prepared to pay our fair share of the burden

immediately and in full, as soon as this share is decided

and we receive formal notification from the

Secretary-General.

Czech authorities are right now drafting legislation

which, if adopted, would create a legal framework for the

Czech Republic’s participation in the United Nations

stand-by arrangements. The system should be as effective

as possible. Similarly, initiatives aimed at the

establishment of United Nations rapid-reaction units to be

based on this system — including, for example, the recent

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Canadian proposals to this effect — have our

understanding. Resolving all political, organizational and

financial issues will take time, yet we feel that this is a

promising way of addressing the critical question of getting

peace-keeping operations started in time.

We hope very soon to become a party to the

Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated

Personnel. We share the burden of peace-keeping operations

by sending troops, military observers and other personnel,

and therefore have a keen foreign-policy interest in

strengthening their status and security.

Strengthening regimes of non-proliferation of weapons

of mass destruction is high on the agenda of the United

Nations. It is our view, shaped by, among other things, the

recent horrific discoveries of the United Nations Special

Commission in Iraq, that the Security Council should play

a more important role in this regard.

The unlimited extension of the Non-Proliferation

Treaty attained earlier this year in this very building is a

success of truly historic importance. An important task is

the preparation of an agreement on a complete and

comprehensive ban of nuclear tests. We hope that the

intensive negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament in

Geneva will reach a successful conclusion in 1996. And let

me make one point: nuclear tests undertaken despite vocal

protests from around the world do not contribute to the

objective of global denuclearization.

The expectation of an early ratification of the 1993

Convention on the Prohibition of the Development,

Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and

on Their Destruction has not yet been realized.

Nevertheless, we hope that in 1996 the Convention will

enter into force.

Existing regimes of export and import controls for

dual-use material, equipment and technologies are also very

useful. They complement or expand on international

agreements, conventions and treaties concerning the

banning, elimination and non-proliferation of weapons,

especially those of mass destruction. I have in mind in

particular activities of the so-called Australia Group, the

Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, the Missile Technology Control

Regime and the emerging New Forum, the new multilateral

arrangement on export controls.

The importance of the topics of this year’s United

Nations conferences, the Social Summit in Copenhagen and

the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, attracted

broad public attention — which, for that matter, was one

of the objectives of their organizers. As we reflect on

these conferences, evaluate their final documents and

review the fate of the documents that emerged from

earlier conferences, we are contemplating the very future

of such meetings.

Notwithstanding all the expectations and enthusiasm

that accompany them, we note the increasing

disenchantment from the moment a conference is over

and its conclusions are to be implemented. It then

becomes obvious that large parts of its declarations fail

the litmus test of practicality. One wonders: do the

tremendous efforts and the very considerable outlays

involved in organizing such activities really have the end

effect we would all desire? We are not sure that we can

answer in the affirmative.

The Czech Republic is a candidate for membership

in the Economic and Social Council at this year’s

elections. The successes of our economic transformation

have already proved to be of interest to other economies

in transition. And they have allowed the Czech Republic

to become an emerging donor country in the

economic-assistance equation. These are some of the

arguments I would submit to support our candidature. We

of course realize that the Council is as badly in need of

reform and streamlining as other segments of the United

Nations body, and maybe more. We are prepared to offer

our analytical skills in suggesting improvements and to

support reasonable proposals leading to such reforms.

Allow to me say a few words from the perspective

of another high office I currently hold, that of the

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Council of

Europe. The United Nations and the Council of Europe

have a number of points in common. These common

points should be further explored with a view to

eliminating duplication even across organizations,

economizing expenses and leveraging our resources.

Some ideas about cooperating in the triangle of the

United Nations, the Organization for Security and

Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe have

recently been shared in Strasbourg. I have full confidence

that any ideas that are deemed useful will be further

examined and implemented by our organizations.

The Czech Republic wishes to demonstrate its

continued emphasis on multinational diplomacy and on

assuming its proper role in the governance of world

affairs. We have been doing so in the Security Council

these past years; we do so by sending our troops, military

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observers and other personnel to far-flung corners of the

world; and we do so by offering multilateral and bilateral

assistance. Putting our shoulder to the wheel, we join others

in moving this organization of ours into the next

millennium and into its next 50 years.