Germany, 1996

Last year we

took stock of half a century of United Nations history. The

rock we are pushing up the hill like Sisyphus always seems

to roll back a little. We must not be discouraged by this. It

remains our responsibility to do what we solemnly

reaffirmed on the fiftieth anniversary of the world

Organization: maintain peace and to help people who are

suffering from want and poverty.

You, Mr. President, have issued a warning to us all for

this fifty-first General Assembly. We must look beyond our

national borders, and think and act accordingly. After

making those anniversary promises, let us not fall back into

the old routine and rituals. The vision of a more peaceful

and more equitable world must not be lost.

The world Organization must continue to be the

world’s conscience. For who else other than this forum is

to keep watch to prevent murder and torture, to ensure that

refugees have the basic necessities of life and that our

children are protected and cared for?

The world is grossly unjust. From the moment of birth

millions of people have hardly any chance of living in

conditions worthy of humankind. No one can turn away

from this; it concerns us all. No country, no region and

no group of States can bear all of the world’s burdens and

troubles alone. All, even the strongest among us, need

solidarity, need the help of others. How can terrorism, for

instance, a cancer of our time, be stopped without

international cooperation?

Developments over the past 10 years have shown

there is no cause for resignation. There can be

progress — provided we pool our resources and act

together. That is the lesson of Bosnia, of South Africa

and of the Middle East, and of the historic achievements

in the field of disarmament in recent years. Every child

that is saved from death in Rwanda or Burundi, every

refugee able to return to his native village in Bosnia,

every rainforest area we can preserve, must strengthen our

hope. The one world requires us to act as one.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a free election has been

held for the first time after four terrible years of war. It

has provided a crucial foundation for the country’s

recovery. Joint institutions must now be created without

delay. The future members of the three-person presidency

should meet in Sarajevo before the end of September.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in

Europe (OSCE) had a very difficult task supervising the

election in Bosnia. That organization’s scope for action

must be increased at the Lisbon Summit in December this

year. The OSCE remains an indispensable pillar of the

new peaceful order for Europe, which we believe to be

necessary now that the iron curtain has come down.

The forces working for peace in the region are

themselves not strong enough; there is still no self-

sustaining stability. In Bosnia and Herzegovina there can

be no permanent international police force — even the

60,000 troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO), of the United Nations and of all the other

countries cannot guarantee peace on the ground — but I

think that for a limited time that country continues to

require a “fire brigade”. This presupposes a fresh mandate

from the Security Council.

Germany is willing to provide a military

contribution. By admitting more than 320,000 war

refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany has

practised human solidarity. We also have more than

130,000 Yugoslav nationals, most of them from Kosovo,

who have to return to their native regions. This is a heavy

burden for us, including in financial terms. But we gave

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temporary protection and shelter to these people on

humanitarian grounds, and we will not be found wanting in

this respect now that their repatriation is becoming possible.

Europe has been torn by fratricidal wars for centuries.

The current peaceful unification of that continent is a

message of hope for the whole world. The first of our

central and eastern European neighbours will soon belong

to the Euro-Atlantic institutions.

My country Germany owes its unity to the confidence

which the world placed in our policy of reconciliation and

good neighbourliness. In our eyes that implies a duty:

together with France, we will remain the motor of European

Union.

Addressing the Assembly in 1989, my predecessor

Hans-Dietrich Genscher extended a hand to Poland. Today

I turn to our Czech neighbours in particular and say that the

German-Czech declaration will be adopted shortly. Czechs

and Germans can look confidently to a common European

future.

The Russian people too must be winners in the process

of European unification. The special partnership which

NATO is seeking with Russia is of central importance for

peace and security in Europe. And that is why we want as

quickly as possible to draft the fundamentals of a charter

between NATO and Russia, as I suggested in Carcassonne

18 months ago at a meeting of the European Union foreign

ministers. Our offer stands. Russia should help shape

Europe’s future as an equal partner. That large and

important country must be given a place in Europe

commensurate with its size and importance.

Part of the European Union’s peace message is that

we Europeans stand for a policy of international

cooperation among equals, and for a global partnership for

development and the environment in the twenty-first

century. New opportunities for such a partnership derive

from the globalization of industry and technology. Never

have so many people experienced so much progress as in

the past 10 years. In the year 2020, if the present trend

continues, the 15 countries with the largest gross national

products will include nine of today’s developing countries.

The recipe is free markets, democracy, reliability of

the judicial system, and integration into the global

economy. This kind of good governance was rewarded with

$150 billion of private direct investment in 1995.

However, 90 per cent of that investment has gone to

only 12 countries, and the gap between the poor and the

rest of the world continues to widen. The World Summit

for Social Development put the number of poor people at

1.3 billion, nearly a quarter of the entire human race. This

calls for action from both sides, help from the community

of nations and self-help on the part of the countries

concerned. The one is the precondition for the other.

This evening I am having another meeting with my

African colleagues. I take a very keen interest in the

future of Europe’s vast neighbouring continent. We

should not see only Africa’s negative side but the hopeful

signs as well, and there are such signs. Democratization

is progressing, as shown by the fact that elections have

taken place or are scheduled in 17 countries this year.

Average economic growth has outpaced population

growth for the first time in many years. Life expectancy

has increased by more than 25 per cent since 1960, and

ever more children are going to school.

Germany supports Africa’s integration into the world

economy and the development of its own capabilities. The

United Nations New Agenda for the Development of

Africa in the 1990s is a sound foundation for these

efforts. The Secretary-General’s United Nations System-

wide Initiative on Africa should likewise be used by all

concerned as a basis for joint action.

However, much remains to be done. The ghastly

events in Rwanda must not be repeated in Burundi. On

the other hand, the United Nations should not be the

organization of first resort in every conflict situation. It

cannot solve every problem. Hence, the regional

organizations must assume a larger measure of

responsibility.

The Organization of African Unity, like the

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has

matured to a degree that commands respect. Germany,

with one eye on Burundi, has to date provided one

million deutsche mark in support of that organization’s

conflict prevention mechanism. High hopes have been

placed in the efforts of Julius Nyerere. The proposed

conference on the Great Lakes region has the support of

Germany and the European Union.

Germany will remain a good partner and friend to

the nations of Africa. That will also be my message at the

forthcoming second European Union-Southern African

Development Community (SADC) ministerial meeting in

Windhoek. The regionalization process in Africa is an

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element of hope. The outstanding example is southern

Africa with the SADC. That region must become a

locomotive for the whole continent.

One neighbouring region whose fate touches Europe

is the Middle East. That is also the main reason for our

strong commitment in the whole Middle East region. For

historical reasons, Germany has a special relationship with

Israel; that remains unshakable. Bilaterally and through the

European Union we are the most important donor for the

Palestinians. Germany will maintain that commitment. I

confirmed this in my recent meetings with Israeli Foreign

Minister Levy and with President Yasser Arafat in Bonn.

Terrorists should not be given any chance to block the

path to peace. The sealing off of Gaza and the West Bank

must be eased and discontinued as soon as possible. That

is our common endeavour. The struggle against terrorism

must remain at the top of the international agenda. I

urgently appeal to all concerned to resume the peace

process without delay. There is no alternative.

It has been estimated that the world’s population will

number about 10 billion in 2030. For their sake, for the

sake of our children and grandchildren, we must take steps

today to ensure that the Earth remains habitable. Peace and

human dignity, economic progress and protection of the

natural foundations of life are inseparable. Without social

justice, without any vision for the world’s economic

progress, we shall not be able to break the vicious circle of

poverty, environmental destruction and population

explosion.

We have no time to lose. Every second three babies

are born, and every year the world’s population increases

by nearly 100 million. All of them need food, clothing,

schools and a home. Every minute about 12 acres of

tropical rain forest are lost, an area the size of 40 football

pitches.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry warned that the human race

had not inherited the Earth from its fathers but had

borrowed it from its children. We became acutely aware of

this at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. North and

South, East and West, are struggling to survive together in

spaceship Earth, whose blue protective shield is becoming

increasingly fragile.

Our task now is to convert that environmental

awareness into environmental action. The year 1997 will be

crucial for such action. The special session of the General

Assembly devoted to environment and development must

chart the course for the next millennium in order to

restore the balance between man, nature and the economy.

Germany’s industrial community has voluntarily

undertaken to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by

20 per cent by the year 2005. Since 1990, Germany has

reduced those emissions by nearly 13 per cent and

thereby has led the way for the rest of the world.

We are contributing 312 million deutsche mark to

the pilot programme to protect Brazil’s tropical forests.

That represents 60 per cent of the total contributions

made so far. We appeal to the community of nations to

become more heavily involved in this programme. We

can only succeed together or fail together.

At the 1997 climate conference in Japan we must

achieve the objective agreed upon in Berlin 12 months

ago: the adoption of a substantive and binding protocol to

reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the recent Geneva

conference, the great majority of nations came out in

favour of specific targets and time limits. This is

encouraging.

I wish to thank all members once again for

supporting our efforts to have the secretariat of the

Framework Convention on Climate Change established in

Bonn. May I also ask members to support our proposal

that the secretariat of the Framework Convention to

Combat Desertification likewise be located in Bonn, as it

has to cooperate closely with the climate secretariat. The

United Nations will find that living and working

conditions in our country are good.

The Rio Declaration on Environment and

Development rightly makes people the focal point of all

efforts. We must continue to concentrate on combating

poverty and providing basic and vocational education.

Even if that is not the kind of subject that makes

headlines, it is and will remain, together with

peacekeeping, one of our principal tasks.

Equal opportunities for women must not remain

mere theory.

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time

has come, is a saying that applies to human dignity and

human rights. The fall of the Berlin Wall showed that the

people’s pursuit of freedom and personal happiness is, in

the long run, stronger than any dictatorship. That is why

the worldwide defence of human rights will likewise not

be in vain.

It all boils down to something quite natural: that we

treat one another as humans and that we do not inflict upon

others what we would not like to have inflicted upon

ourselves. Murderers and torturers must not be allowed to

sleep peacefully. Mladic´ and Karadzic´, and all for whom

arrest warrants have been issued, deserve to be brought

before the International Tribunal in The Hague. Germany

calls for the early convening of a conference to establish an

international criminal court.

There is a core of human rights that are common to us

all and that are universally valid. This fact received

international confirmation at the Vienna Conference on

Human Rights. There can and should be no withdrawal

from that position.

With the East-West confrontation now consigned to

the past, intercultural dialogue assumes ever-greater

significance. Close to 2.5 million Muslims are living in

Germany. If only for this reason, it is of special importance

to develop greater mutual understanding between

Christianity and Islam.

A subject very close to my heart, as former Minister

of Justice, is the protection of our children, the weakest

members of society. Universal Children’s Day was

observed on 20 September. Its motto: “Children have

rights”. What do those rights look like in reality? Every day

35,000 children die of hunger. Twelve million children do

not live beyond the age of 5. Two million are forced into

prostitution. Two hundred thousand children around the

world are used as soldiers in war. Millions of them are used

as cheap labour.

The Stockholm conference on sexual abuse of children

has awakened world opinion, and I should like to thank the

Swedish Government for having hosted and organized this

conference, which shocked us all into action. The atrocious

way many of our children are being treated is a disgrace —

a disgrace — to our civilization. The Stockholm Plan of

Action must be followed by global action. This we owe to

our children. And I should like to make it very clear that

anyone who violates the weakest members of society —

children, that is — deserves to be outlawed by society.

Peace is not everything, but without peace everything

is nothing. These words originate from the time when East

and West faced each other armed to the teeth. In the

meantime the nightmare of a nuclear inferno has been

dispelled. Yesterday’s signing of the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was another momentous step in

this process, I believe, after half a century of international

debate and protest against nuclear testing.

In expressing my thanks to Australia I appeal to all

nations to ratify the Treaty as soon as possible. Since the

end of the Second World War upwards of 2,000 nuclear

tests have been carried out. We now have the chance to

put a stop to them once and for all. Anyone who rejects

something good because they will only accept something

perfect should be mindful of their responsibility to future

generations. We cannot force the atomic genie back into

the bottle, but we owe it to our children and

grandchildren to tame it — at least to tame it.

The total abolition of all chemical weapons is of

similar consequence. The Chemical Weapons Convention

must enter into force next spring. All nations, and

especially those with the largest stockpiles of such

weapons, must meet their tremendous responsibility and

ratify the Convention as soon as possible.

I should also like to touch upon an issue that I take

a very personal, keen interest in, and that is a totally

different kind of mass-destruction weapon: anti-personnel

mines. I travelled to Mozambique and Cambodia and took

a look at the situation there. Hundreds of millions of such

anti-personnel mines are still in the ground. Year in, year

out they kill and maim 20,000 people and make entire

regions permanently uninhabitable. These treacherous

tools of murder must be banned.

Germany has completely renounced anti-personnel

mines and imposed a unilateral, open-ended ban on

exports. Residual stocks are to be destroyed by the end of

1997. In my Seven-Point Programme of Action I have

proposed a number of measures to maintain the

momentum generated in Geneva. My main objective —

because I think the motto should be “first things first” —

is to improve the efficiency of mine clearance. We will

attend a conference in Canada very soon which deals with

the political aspects of this issue, trying to ban land-

mines. But we should also at the same time try to

concentrate on improving the efficiency of mine

clearance, that is, testing and using mechanical clearance

equipment. We quickly need machinery that can be mass-

produced in order to remove this plague without harming

people. I do not know whether anyone here has watched

a mine-clearance operation. It is done by people and can

be compared to trying to remove a sand-dune with a

spoon. I think it is incredible that highly developed

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nations such as ours and many others are not able to

produce a piece of machinery for a large-scale de-mining

operation. I want to focus the technical knowledge that we

have to make this matter progress as quickly as possible.

If we want to win peace, we must not only consider

conflict prevention; we must also pay greater attention to

the situation after the termination of military hostilities.

Peace-building was the subject of the international

conference that we sponsored in Berlin in July. That

conference produced a number of interesting and tangible

results, which we are making available to all Member

States in the form of a report. Together with other countries

we intend to submit to members during this session of the

General Assembly a draft resolution on peace consolidation

through practical steps towards disarmament. Whether in

Bosnia, Rwanda or Angola, all previous efforts will prove

in vain unless we can prevent a resurgence of violence.

Most of the burden is borne by the 26,000 or so Blue

Helmets and civilian personnel making up the peacekeeping

missions, as well as by the countless courageous staff of

non-governmental organizations who are doing their job all

over the world under difficult conditions. Speaking here in

the United Nations, I should like to express my sincere

thanks to the non-governmental organizations. We are

proud of them.

In our resolution marking the fiftieth anniversary of

the United Nations, we solemnly undertook to pass on to

the next millennium a United Nations organization equipped

and financed to perform its tasks. The greatest political

significance attaches to reform of the Security Council, in

whose work we have been closely involved over the last

two years. This, the principal guardian of world peace, still

bears the countenance of the year 1945, but it now needs a

new one for the year 2000. It is a question of enhancing

that body’s legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness. After

a three-year debate the time has come to put the various

elements together and start the restructuring process, to now

get things done after having analysed what can be done.

We are pleased that a large number of Member States are

in favour of a permanent seat for Germany on the Security

Council. I really believe that the time is approaching when

the General Assembly will have to decide.

What continues to require our immediate attention is

the financial crisis. The Organization’s rationalization and

reform are indispensable and urgent. A glance at the books

is enough to tell us that. The regular United Nations budget

shows zero growth. The Secretariat has lost more than

1,000 posts, and further reductions will follow next year.

So much has already been achieved.

I therefore take this opportunity to thank the

Secretary-General and his staff, who, both at headquarters

and in the field, continue to achieve outstanding results

despite the reductions in their numbers and the constant

lack of funds. I should like to thank them very warmly.

I wish to add another word if I may. The United

Nations, in its actions and decisions, can be only as

strong as its Members allow it to be. People tend to

overlook that fact so readily when they criticize this

Organization. I stress this point because I think that the

outside world has a distorted image of the United Nations.

The United Nations is us, the Member States. We can

only achieve what we want to achieve together.

I am afraid that I must repeat that we will have to

save and rationalize further still. The need for reform is

no justification for refusing to pay contributions, however.

Moreover, special rights also imply special duties. The

German-American philosopher Hans Jonas said that

responsibility is the most important principle of the new

age. Let us act in accordance with that principle.