Hungary, 1993

Allow me to express

my warmest congratulations to Ambassador Insanally, on his

election as President of the General Assembly at its forty-

eighth session. I should also like to welcome into our midst

Andorra, the Czech Republic, Eritrea, the former Yugoslav

Republic of Macedonia, Monaco and Slovakia, whose recent

admissions have brought the United Nations even closer to

becoming truly universal.

During the last year, the international community

continued to face extremely grave challenges. This period

has seen, along with certain positive achievements, more

alarming failures and disappointments. The questions to

which we have to respond take us back once again to the

basic problem of multilateralism, that is to say, to defining

in our complex world the values that can ensure a cohesion

which is necessary for our common will to be translated into

joint action.

The fall of communist dictatorships in Central and

Eastern Europe and the end of super-Power confrontation

have brought about an international political climate in

which new approaches can be found in the maintenance of

international peace and security and the resolution of global

problems. They are based on greater opportunities for closer

interaction and the participation of each and every United

Nations Member State in managing and influencing the

course of events. These opportunities and the ability of the

international community to turn them into tangible results are

manifest in the conflict-resolution processes in Central

America and South-East Asia, in the resolute reversal of

brutal aggression in the Gulf, in the fundamental

transformation we are witnessing in South Africa and in the

historic agreement in the Middle East. These evolutions

clearly demonstrate that with political courage,

far-sightedness and readiness for compromise, even the most

intractable problems can be untangled and resolved. They

show us an example that ought to be emulated in all regions

of the world.

The convulsions of the new era of world history are

strongly felt in a country like Hungary which, as it has so

often in its history, finds itself again close to conflict-ridden

areas. Despite the difficulties that inevitably accompany the

historic transition processes of the region, the Hungarian

Government, ever since it took office in 1990, has been

striving consistently and successfully to maintain the

country’s internal stability and to ensure that it remains a

mainstay of stability in our troubled region. Stability should

be omnipresent and universal, and we have to find the

appropriate ways and means to achieve it.

As regards the old continent, Hungary wants to see

democracy, prosperity, security and the institutions, such as

the Council of Europe, the European Community and the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that lie at its

foundation, gradually expand eastward.

For some time now the world has been living in the

shadow of events that ominously remind us of the darkest

periods in the history of mankind. The conflict in the

former Yugoslavia has been raging for more than two years.

But most regrettably, not even the worst cases of disregard

for the norms of international law and the principles

enshrined in the Charter, not even the gravest crimes against

humanity and the most brutal mass violations of fundamental

human and minority rights, have proven to be sufficient to

persuade the world, when there was still time, to counter

aggression promptly and effectively, to prevent the

acquisition of territory by use of force and to take a firm

stand against the abhorrent policy of "ethnic cleansing".

The end result of such policies of passivity,

appeasement and complacency, of the striking lack of an

ability to learn from past experiences and of the absence of

the necessary political will to act, is well documented right

here, in this building, in a shocking and soul-stirring photo

exhibition about the horrors of war in the former Yugoslavia.

It brings home a painful awareness of the practical

consequences of unbridled extreme nationalism and the

compelling message not to relax and relent in our national,

regional and international efforts to uphold in an

uncompromising manner the purposes and principles of the

Charter.

Forty-eighth session - 30 September l993 19

The renewal of Central and Eastern Europe and the

economic and social processes there have thrown to the

surface tendencies of political and ethnic fundamentalism

which, having been elevated to the level of official State

policy, have unleashed or could lead to conflicts threatening

the security of the whole of Europe. In our interdependent

world, every nation on Earth, irrespective of where it is

situated, should realize the danger of this venomous

contagion if it were allowed to spread across our planet.

The people and the Government of Hungary continue

to follow the developments of the crisis in the former

Yugoslavia with utmost concern. As a country immediately

adjacent to the crisis area, Hungary has sought to avoid

being dragged into this conflict, while continuing at the same

time to voice its principled position on the crisis and abiding

by the relevant decisions of the international community.

One has to reckon with the fact that this crisis is not

limited to the war-torn areas of Bosnia and Croatia. It

festers in Serbia proper, where there is growing pressure on

the different ethnic communities inhabiting the country,

including the Hungarian community in Vojvodina. In this

formerly autonomous province, the successive waves of

intimidation and discrimination have already significantly

reduced both the size and the proportion of the Hungarian

minority. There continues to be a constant threat of a

further massive influx of refugees into Hungary, I am afraid.

In the conditions prevailing in Serbia and Montenegro, just

as in other parts of the former Yugoslavia, it is of utmost

importance to seek adequate international protection for these

ethnic communities and national minorities. Indeed, one of

the key issues in settling the crisis is to ensure their rights

without any discrimination, whether they have majority or

minority status, with the same norms and standards applying

to each and every one of them.

Because of its geographical situation, Hungary finds

itself confronted with special economic problems arising

from the implementation of sanctions imposed by the

Security Council against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

(Serbia and Montenegro). Our economic and financial losses

directly attributable to the effects of implementing the

sanctions are constantly growing, and have now reached $1

billion. We highly appreciate the steps taken so far by the

Security Council vis-à-vis those countries that have suffered

economic losses and have made use of their right to consult

the Security Council under Article 50 of the Charter. We

trust that the international organizations and institutions

concerned will find early solutions to help alleviate those

pressing problems. It is clear from the experience gained in

connection with the various sanctions regimes in place that

attention from the international community commensurate

with the scale of the problems caused to third countries is

required in order to examine how best we can establish an

effective mechanism for the implementation of Article 50.

Without such a mechanism, the burden placed on an

ever-growing number of countries fulfilling their

international obligations will remain disproportionately and

unjustly heavy.

In this connection, it is totally unacceptable to take

retaliatory measures in response to actions by any State in

fulfilment of its obligations under the Charter. Therefore,

illegal measures such as attempts to block free and safe

navigation on the Danube river, which is an international

waterway vital for many countries of Europe, warrant

international action, and the States concerned rightly expect

the international organizations to provide effective assistance

in this matter.

In the light of recent bitter experiences, we have

become more acutely aware that the world cannot be made

a safer place unless there are international organizations able

and willing to take resolute and timely action. Multilateral

diplomacy must be at its best if it is to offer remedies where

other possibilities for preventing or settling conflicts have

been exhausted. We consider it especially important that the

various tools of preventive diplomacy and crisis management

should be constantly at the disposal of the international

community.

Hungary is highly interested in the ongoing work aimed

at a comprehensive review and enhancement of the United

Nations peace-keeping, peacemaking and peace- building

activities. Many substantive proposals have been made and

useful observations put forward in this regard. We hope that

they will assist in our endeavours to carry out genuine and

purpose-oriented reform measures in the world Organization.

We expect that the present session of the General Assembly

will move us ahead in the debate on how to bring certain

provisions of the Charter into line with the changing realities

of our world. Conditions seem ripe today for giving most

serious consideration to questions relating to the review of

the Charter. The fundamental aim of such a review is to

make the United Nations function better. At the same time,

it should in no way undermine the effectiveness of the

decision-making processes at the United Nations. In this

context, Hungary fully understands the pressing financial

situation of the world Organization and, as its contribution

to redressing this state of affairs, has, as of this year,

eliminated all its arrears to the regular budget.

20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

In our view, there are, inter alia, two particular areas

where a review of the provisions of the Charter is needed.

First, there is a long-overdue need for a review of those

Charter provisions that imply a distinction between United

Nations Member States on the basis of their status of

signatory or enemy State. On the eve of the fiftieth

anniversary of the birth of the United Nations, the

elimination of this obsolete distinction would be more than

a gesture towards a number of countries that have, over the

years, fully proved their commitment to the purposes and

principles enshrined in the Charter. Secondly, the role

played in today’s world politics by some States and their

contribution to the realization of the purposes and principles

of the Charter justify their more intimate involvement in the

maintenance of international peace and security. We are

aware that the issue of the enlargement of the permanent

membership of the Security Council will be the subject of

further discussions. However, we believe that two countries

- Germany and Japan - already qualify to play the enhanced

role that would stem from permanent membership in the

Security Council.

My Government continues to believe that the United

Nations provides a most fitting framework for translating

into reality our global responsibility for the international

protection of human rights. It is our deep conviction that the

Security Council should pay appropriate attention, and act

resolutely and promptly, as part of its preventive actions, to

mass infringements of human and minority rights, since they

constitute threats to regional and international peace and

security.

We should pursue an effective integration of human

rights elements into the workings of the whole United

Nations system. Hungary supports the early establishment

of a post of high commissioner for human rights. An

appropriate mandate from this session of the General

Assembly could ensure, through this new institution, an

adequate presence for human rights elements, particularly in

the various fields of early warning, conflict management,

peace-keeping and peace-making, electoral assistance and

post-conflict peace-building. The high commissioner could

make the human rights activities of the United Nations more

transparent to world public opinion. We intend to lend our

full support to a mandate for the high commissioner that

would also cover the protection and promotion of minority

rights. In our view, the high commissioner could also play

a major role in raising public awareness of the positive

models of multinational coexistence and minority protection

systems that are functioning well in various democratic

countries of the world. Here I can refer to the previous

speaker, whose country, I believe, is a good example of this.

We believe that this task is of major importance and has

never been higher on the agenda than it is today. The

application or adaptation of these successful solutions to the

specific circumstances prevailing in other parts of the world

could greatly contribute to a more satisfactory human rights

situation in our world at the end of this turbulent century.

I have obviously not exhausted all the problems

besetting the world. Our Governments today have an

enormous responsibility to find answers to the new

challenges. If we fail to act now, we risk losing all the

achievements won with the ending of the cold war.