Honduras, 1993

First of all, I take great pleasure in expressing to

the President of the General Assembly the sincerest

congratulations of the people and the Government of

Honduras on his well-deserved election to the presidency of

the General Assembly at its forty-eighth session.

In entrusting this very delicate role to him, the

international community is recognizing his personal merits

and those of our sister nation of Guyana. We are convinced

that with his experience and proven capacity he will conduct

the work of this Assembly with great success.

My delegation also extends a warm welcome to the

new Members of our Organization: the Czech Republic, the

Slovak Republic, The Former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia, Eritrea, Andorra and the Principality of Monaco.

We do so fully convinced that within the framework of the

United Nations we will establish and strengthen strong bonds

of friendship and cooperation with them, and that their

participation will contribute effectively to the full realization

of the principles and purposes enshrined in the United

Nations Charter.

Pursuant to those same principles, the Republic of

Honduras calls, as it did at the previous session of the

General Assembly, for greater support and resources to be

accorded to the universal organs for the legal settlement of

disputes, such as the International Court of Justice, whose

rulings contribute to the peaceful settlement of disputes

brought before it. We are pleased to state that a year ago

Honduras and El Salvador were handed down a ruling by the

International Court of Justice on their border dispute; we are

now complying with that ruling and the border populations

are living in complete harmony.

On the question of disarmament, in taking note of the

vital discussion of the destructive power of nuclear weapons,

we urge the nuclear-weapon States to arrive at sound,

verifiable agreements on the reduction and destruction of

such weapons and their means of delivery, taking into

account the great danger the use of these and other weapons

of mass destruction represents for humanity, and ensuring

that the growing financial resources released from the arms

race are transferred to the needs arising from international

cooperation for development.

It is only natural that, in activities in the field of

general disarmament, priority should have been given to

nuclear disarmament, but this must not impede renewed

efforts in the field of conventional disarmament, particularly

on a regional basis.

Honduras has observed with great concern the tragic

situation still prevailing in Bosnia and Herzegovina: the

escalation of hostilities, massive violations of human rights

and attempts to enshrine in legal instruments territorial

conquests obtained by aggression.

My country therefore unreservedly supports the Security

Council’s efforts to protect the displace populations, to

provide them with food, medicine and protection, and to

46 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

obtain a cease-fire and a solution to the various problems

that stand in the way of restoring peace to the region.

In Somalia, there is no national government to ensure

that the United Nations intervention in that country will not

only mitigate the hunger which unfortunately afflicts its

inhabitants but also make it possible, with the full

participation of the Somalis, to follow the path to peace,

coexistence and the restoration of normalcy.

That path of hope has already been taken with great

determination in South Africa, and the international

community is rejoicing at the end of the last vestiges of

apartheid and the beginning of national reconciliation and

reconstruction.

It was with rekindled hope that the entire world learned

of the outcome of the negotiations which, under the inspired

mediation of the Government of Norway, led to the recently

signed historic agreement on mutual recognition between the

State of Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

This is one more step towards the normalization of good-

neighbourly relations in the Middle East with respect to the

right to self-determination of peoples.

The Honduran Government, which has followed with

interest and concern the fierce struggle that for decades has

pitted Israelis and Arabs against each other, welcomes this

positive development and hopes it will be accompanied by

peace agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

Similarly, our country has followed with great attention

the course of events in Haiti, where we have welcomed the

agreement reached between President Jean-Bertrand Aristide

and the head of the country’s armed forces, through the

mediation of Mr. Dante Caputo, the Special Envoy of the

Secretaries-General of the United Nations and the

Organization of American States (OAS).

The text of this agreement, in addition to contemplating

a series of basic provisions for the solution of the crisis,

calls for the return of Haiti’s legitimate President, and for

compliance with all commitments undertaken both in the

United Nations and in the OAS. Our country expresses its

resolute support for all measures that may be taken to

comply with the timetable established in the Governors

Island Agreement, which led to the parliamentary ratification

of Prime Minister Robert Malval, which in turn has made it

possible to suspend the embargo on Haiti.

In Central America, the Tegucigalpa Protocol of

13 December 1991 has entered into force. It adapts the legal

framework of the former Organization of Central American

States to the new realities of the region by establishing a

system of Central American Integration which, acting under

the impetus of the regional summits, is strengthening and

fostering a new system of economic, social, cultural and

political integration for the benefit of all Central Americans.

In accordance with this basic objective, my country

aspires, with increasing determination and political will, to

see our region established as a region of peace, freedom,

democracy and development which is more actively involved

in the new reordering of the international community.

However, in spite of the progress in the regional peace

process, many of the root causes of the Central American

crisis persist, and the advances that have been made are only

a starting-point in confronting the underlying causes of the

armed conflict which threaten to destroy all that has been

accomplished.

Peace and development will be securely established

only if a broad and participatory commitment is achieved,

involving both the Governments and the organized sectors of

civilian society of each of our nations.

It is a fact that the difficulties of any one Central

American country have an effect on all other countries of the

region. Concerted action within a regional framework is

therefore necessary, to allow internal processes to be

strengthened while fully respecting the particular

circumstances of each country.

The Government of Honduras therefore appeals to our

fellow Central Americans to meet in the near future in order

to give a new thrust to coordination of the efforts which

benefit from international support and to make it possible for

us to view with hope the economic integration now under

way.

The challenge of establishing peace in Central America

requires that we give priority to the geographical areas most

affected by poverty. This in turn requires us to promote

greater social participation by deepening the process of

decentralization through a concept of human development at

the local level and expressing that social development in

realistic macroeconomic policies which encourage both

domestic and foreign investment.

In Honduras this year we will be holding our fifth

consecutive general election since the restoration of

democracy in 1980, and it is our policy to give firm support

to the economic integration of the Central American isthmus

Forty-eighth session - 28 September l993 47

in order to consolidate the results of growth with greater

social well-being.

A revitalized Central America with sustainable

economic growth, while respecting the natural environment

and continually acting to rapidly improve the quality of life

of its inhabitants, is the best guarantee of permanent security

for the region bathed by the Caribbean Sea, within which

Central America, in harmony with the principles of the

member countries of the "Community of the Caribbean", can

consolidate an era of peace and cooperation by the end of

this century.

The third Ibero-American summit, held at San Salvador

de Bahia, Brazil, examined with concern the subject of

development, with emphasis on social development. In so

doing, it reaffirmed in that community of nations the

commitment to representative democracy, the promotion of

the observance and defence of human rights, and the

promotion of the economic and social development of our

peoples, which are united by language, tradition and by a

shared future.

To follow up on what was decided in this new forum

for cooperation, we Ibero-Americans must strengthen our

commitment to the successful convening of the World

Summit for Social Development, an initiative of the Chilean

Government supported enthusiastically by Honduras, and

which we hope will be given a final impetus by this General

Assembly.

There can be no doubt that all of these attempts to

achieve prosperity for our nations must inevitably involve a

willingness on the part of the industrialized States to include

us in trying to establish an open, multilateral trade system

that gives our products greater access to competitive markets

so that more and more countries can reach satisfactory levels

of growth and trade.

Unfortunately, the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade

Negotiations has not yet been concluded, and this is a source

of grave concern to the less developed States whose

expectations are affected along with the programmes of

structural adjustment they are carrying out with great

sacrifice, as an effective contribution to a better ordering of

the world economy. Protectionist measures imposed by

certain States on exports from our region not only cause a

decline in the prices of those products but also impede

access to international markets, thus helping to plunge our

economies into a climate of uncertainty by restricting the

possibilities of investment and continued growth.

The need to achieve greater global economic stability

without regard to the economic and political might of any

individual nation should be examined along with the growing

convergence of opinions concerning global priorities with

regard to the environment; this was demonstrated in a clear

and positive way at the Earth Summit held at Rio de Janeiro

last year.

The deterioration of nature must be avoided. Together

we can design preservation strategies that also make it

possible to make rational use of our natural resources in

order to meet our countries’ requirements for employment

needs and economic growth. In Honduras, we have

established a Ministry of the Environment charged with

designing policies and strategies aimed at creating

mechanisms to protect and preserve our ecosystem and its

endangered species of flora and fauna.

Lastly, as regards the restructuring of the United

Nations, Honduras supports the proposal that the Security

Council be expanded to include new permanent and non-

permanent members so as to reflect the realities of today’s

world, allowing for the rotation of membership and an

equitable geographical distribution in the composition of the

Council.

We are also in favour of the revitalization of the United

Nations in the economic, social, cultural and related spheres.

It is essential that the necessary measures be adopted as soon

as possible to strengthen the capacity of those organs

concerned in order to discharge the functions conferred upon

them by the Charter of the United Nations in the sphere of

international cooperation.

We welcome the steps that have already been taken to

achieve the objectives we have set, but we believe that we

need to arrive at a more effective and more economical

United Nations system, one which is at the same time less

passive in executing the programmes adopted here.

The emergence of new conflicts and the persistence of

old ones in different parts of the world reconfirm, if such a

thing is necessary, the proven wisdom of trying to achieve,

as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the United

Nations, an integral structure of harmonization and peaceful

cooperation for the international community. Let us pledge

to achieve this with our votes and our actions.