Honduras, 1996

Once again the United Nations General

Assembly is meeting to take stock of the global situation

and of the role that the Organization plays in that context.

I am confident that the experience, talent and diplomatic

skills of our President, His Excellency Mr. Razali Ismail,

will play a decisive role in this complex undertaking. I

wish him every success in his sensitive work.

I wish also to express my delegation’s gratitude for

the excellent job done by Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral,

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Portugal, in the course of

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the last General Assembly session, which commemorated

the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of this Organization.

My country has been observing very closely the

administrative activities of Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali in his

capacity as Secretary-General, and we feel bound to express

our recognition of the poise with which he has guided the

United Nations during these difficult times for the

Organization and for the whole world. His undeniable

qualities of statesmanship have averted crises, and his

strength of character has succeeded in upholding the ideals

on which this Organization is founded. I wish to convey to

him, on my own behalf and on behalf of my Government,

my sincere respect and admiration.

Honduras reiterates its conviction that international

conflicts must be settled by peaceful and diplomatic means.

For this reason, we recognize the importance and value of

the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, the 1996 Paris

agreements and the subsequent international agreements and

commitments for which the international community

prepared the way. These have led to a cessation of

hostilities, the resumption of political talks, international

recognition between Belgrade and Zagreb, and the

establishment of relations between the Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia and The former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia.

In the Americas, Haiti is an example of the results that

can be achieved through concerted action and political will

on the part of the international community in establishing,

through the United Nations, operations designed to achieve,

maintain and consolidate peace. My country wishes to

express its satisfaction at having taken part in those

operations, as well as in those carried out in Western

Sahara.

In the same vein, we cannot overlook the problems of

the subregion. Honduras has always viewed with concern

the problems besetting its sister republics in Central

America. For this reason, we acknowledge and support all

efforts in this regard, in particular the agreements reached

between the Government of Guatemala and the URNG.

At the forty-ninth session of the General Assembly,

my country secured unanimous support in this body to

occupy a seat in the Security Council as a non-permanent

member. We believe that we have fully lived up to the trust

vested in us, since we have worked in the Council in strict

adherence to the principles and norms of international law

enshrined in the United Nations Charter and in keeping

with the foreign policy pursued by the President of the

Republic, Mr. Carlos Roberto Reina.

Throughout our first term of presidency of the

Council, in July last year, we succeeded in maintaining

the necessary equanimity and balance to steer the work

and the debates on the various issues brought before the

presidency of the Council. These included humanitarian

operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda and

Burundi, as well as peace operations in Haiti, Angola and

Liberia.

Tomorrow we will assume the presidency of the

Security Council for the second time, and we shall work

in the same spirit of cooperation and with genuine resolve

to help bring about solutions to problems that arise in the

area of international peace and security.

Central America has now returned to the world

scene with a new, integrational approach that promotes

joint action and allows it to speed up its development

process. Our approach, grounded in history, tradition,

solidarity and, above all, our awareness of a shared

destiny, has made it possible for us to pool our efforts in

seeking to achieve a higher level of economic

development in all areas.

In the framework of the integration process in our

subregion, since 1986 we have held a series of

presidential summits, the first six of which were highly

political in nature, fulfilling the purpose of securing peace

and democratization in the region. The following ones,

focusing on economic topics, led to the formation of the

Central American Integration System (SICA) and defined

our current agenda: alliance for sustainable development.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank this

Assembly for the support it gave our System last year by

granting it the status of observer, which will make it

possible to achieve greater cooperation between the

United Nations System and the Central American

Integration System.

As we stand on the threshold of a new millennium,

my Government is strongly committed to the

responsibilities imposed by the world around us. In this

respect, Honduras is in favour of greater democratization

of the principal organs of the United Nations. We take the

view that an increase in the number of permanent and

non-permanent Members of the Security Council should

be carried out in accordance with the principles of

sovereign equality of States and equitable geographical

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distribution, and that it should reflect the expansion in the

membership of the United Nations in recent decades so as

to transform the Security Council into a more democratic

and representative organ, that would thus be a more

credible and effective instrument in fulfilling its primary

responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and

security without affecting its efficiency or the speed of its

decision-making processes. Genuine democratization and

real representativity in the Security Council should be the

principal basis for the expansion of twenty-first-century

world government.

We would all like to see a more competent, responsive

and responsible United Nations. We should all like it to be

better administered and more consolidated and to yield

tangible results. To this end, it is essential to undertake

meaningful reform in order to enhance its efficiency and to

ensure that the United Nations can have a secure financial

footing, robust administration and structural capacity, and

a clear sense of purpose in tackling its tasks.

The General Assembly should play the role now

played by costly world conferences, and it should be the

forum for sustained thematic debates on important and

topical issues held at regular intervals. At the same time,

the traditional agenda of the Assembly should be cut back

radically. Recurring items should be considered less

frequently. We should impose a time limit on our

statements, and we need to reform the structure of the

committees and auxiliary bodies so as to avoid overlapping

and duplication.

My country, Honduras, is continuing to work

vigorously to strengthen, among other things, its democratic

system of government, to bolster judicial power, to organize

the national police under civilian rule, to modernize the

State, in addition to striving to create a new frame of

reference to promote development on the basis of full

participation by all sectors of society.

Honduras, like all other developing countries, is deeply

committed to processes designed to combat poverty and

underdevelopment and to mobilize the potential of its

peoples and resources in order to attain speedy, fair and

sustained growth, working jointly to enhance the effect of

national efforts through solidarity, cooperation and mutual

confidence.

However, there are still many economic and financial

obligations that need to be met in the short- and medium-

term. International cooperation is steadily declining, and

poverty indicators are becoming worse.

We wish to see a world where countries, mindful of

their diversity, act together to attain common goals, a

world in which peace, security and dignity will be the

common heritage of all peoples, a world in which the

advances of science will serve to benefit humankind and,

in short, a world in which existing resources are used

rationally in order to meet everyone’s needs. This is our

understanding of what, in essence, North-South

cooperation should mean.

As the United Nations enters its second half-century,

we have an opportunity to work towards the objective of

its Charter — world cooperation in deterring and halting

aggression — and to foster peaceful, productive and

sustainable human progress. In this respect, “An Agenda

for Development” offers a unique opportunity to make the

issue of economic and social development a central

priority of the multilateral system. Promotion of sustained

economic growth and eradication of poverty in the

developing countries, as well as the legitimate leadership

that the United Nations should show in this field, must

also be key objectives of the Agenda.

My country hopes that the negotiations on the

Agenda for Development being held by the Ad Hoc

Open-ended Working Group of the General Assembly on

An Agenda for Development will conclude promptly and

successfully in the course of the fifty-first session of the

Assembly. The completion of this work will be a point of

departure because it will give rise to firm commitments

and mark the beginning of the task of putting the actions

agreed upon into practice.

Honduras, as a peace-loving country, reaffirms its

total support for the principles and objectives seeking the

complete elimination of nuclear weapons and to establish

a universal, verifiable, multilateral and effective

machinery that will help to promote nuclear disarmament

and to prevent proliferation of such weapons in all its

aspects.

Consistent with these principles, I am pleased to

announce that Honduras has signed the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at this session of the General

Assembly, and I would venture to appeal to all States

Members of the United Nations to sign it as soon as

possible. We would also urge all States possessing

nuclear weapons to take resolute steps to reduce them

with a view to their elimination.

The existence of landmines and other undetonated

explosive devices in various regions of the world is a

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tremendous humanitarian problem and a grave threat to the

security, health and survival of the local population where

these deadly devices have been scattered. These devices

prevent the return of refugees and displaced persons to their

homes in the States affected by this ongoing menace and

impede humanitarian operations and programmes, national

reconstruction and economic development activities and

peacekeeping operations.

For this reason, we urge Member States, particularly

those that have the capacity to do so, to lend their

assistance to the affected countries, including those of the

Central American region, with a view to establishing and

refining national mine-clearance mechanisms. We also

appeal to the international community finally to agree on

the total prohibition of the production, exportation, sale and

use of anti-personnel mines.

My delegation wishes once again to place on record its

interest in seeing the Republic of China in Taiwan admitted

as a Member of the United Nations. At this moment in

time, when democratic systems of government and the rule

of law are gaining ground in most of the nations that make

up this Organization, it seems contradictory to continue

excluding the Republic of China in Taiwan from

participation. This is a country which struggled

determinedly for democracy and succeeded in establishing

it this year with the election of a Government by the direct

vote of the majority of its people. This is a nation that

respects human rights, possesses one of the strongest

economies on earth and has been constantly struggling to

eradicate poverty, and whose population of 21 million

people enjoys an enviable cultural level. In short, the

Republic of China in Taiwan fully meets the requirements

established in the Charter for membership of the United

Nations.

For the developing countries, its participation in the

various international forums would be extremely beneficial,

since we would be able to draw on its valuable experience

in cooperation programmes, as demonstrated when it

occupied a seat in this General Assembly from the day it

signed the Charter until 1971.

In this respect, my Government supports the resolution

adopted on 19 July 1996 by the European Parliament

entitled the “Role of Taiwan in International

Organizations”, which explicitly states its support for the

idea that the Republic of China in Taiwan should have a

greater level of recognition and representation in

international agencies. It also urges the United Nations to

establish a working group to study the possibility of its

participation in the activities of the United Nations and its

international agencies.

The problem of drug production is not as severe in

the Central American region as it is elsewhere, although

our countries are not unaffected by drug use. For this

reason, on 21 June, the Ministers of the Interior of our

region agreed to develop a plan of cooperation to fight

this evil. In this regard, we support the initiative of

convening a special session of the United Nations General

Assembly in 1998 in order to strengthen the international

strategy to combat narcotic drugs.

With a view to beginning to address the problem of

the efficiency and effectiveness of the United Nations

system, 1996 could be a year of meditation and reflection.

Calls have been made for a redefinition of the purposes

of the Organization and, in particular, of the tasks of the

Security Council. In order to achieve this important task,

we must work on the basis of a shared and balanced

vision of the future of the Organization. The construction

of a culture of international peace, security and prosperity

should be the ultimate goal in this redefinition of tasks.

This is something that the United Nations must

accomplish in response to the needs of our peoples.

As we approach the end of the century and the

millennium, the globality of economies and the grouping

of countries into systems of integration are becoming

irreversible facts. One consequence of this will be the

resurgence of mega-States in which smaller States will

remain submerged. We are concerned for the future of

weaker and less developed nations which, like ours,

require great external and internal efforts to retain the

identity that distinguishes them from the rest of the world.

The right of peoples to decide their own destiny on

the basis of sovereignty is enshrined in the Charter of the

United Nations. This right must be observed in the new

world order if we wish to preserve, as is our duty, peace

and cultural plurality among nations.