Hungary, 1997

I am very pleased to see the

Foreign Minister of neighbouring Ukraine assume the

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prestigious post of President of the General Assembly at its

fifty-second session. In fulfilling your challenging tasks you

may rest assured of the support and cooperation of the

delegation of Hungary.

Our tribute and thanks are also due to your

predecessor, Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia, who

served us with distinction and innovative spirit.

In the post-cold-war era, international organizations

are undergoing a profound adaptation process. Here, in the

United Nations, we are only at the beginning of a bumpy

road. Whether the United Nations can find its place in the

new international political environment of the twenty-first

century depends on our foresight, realism and

determination. If our decisions are underpinned by a

strongly shared joint commitment to tackle the global

agenda, we can make the United Nations relevant for the

next millennium.

The reform proposals presented by Secretary-General

Kofi Annan are guided by the urgency of the task, sober

realism and healthy idealism as well as personal

commitment to change. We welcome the intention of the

Secretary-General to proceed to the early implementation of

concrete organizational measures within his own areas of

competence.

The package of proposals which require action by the

Member States themselves truly captures those areas of

United Nations activities where agreements are necessary at

this stage. The suggestions to ensure the desired coherence

of United Nations efforts in development cooperation, to

bolster its institutional capacity to combat international

crime, drug-trafficking and terrorism, or to integrate human

rights concerns into all principal United Nations activities

and programmes deserve our full support and need swift

and concrete action. Let me add the voice of my delegation

to all those who have called for approval at this session of

the package as a whole, which will have to be followed by

practical steps in order to translate it into meaningful

action.

In its foreign policy Hungary continues to serve

international peace and stability, with special regard to its

own region. The tragic events in former Yugoslavia, the

crises and convulsions on the territory of the former Soviet

Union and elsewhere, the emergence of aggressive

nationalism as well as populism in Central and Eastern

Europe, as an appealing “remedy” for political problems,

economic difficulties and social tensions, are vivid

reminders of the critical, sometimes lethal, nature of these

challenges. They underscore how important it is that the

international community act with appropriate means and

in a timely manner.

Hungary supports the efforts of the Organization for

Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and of other

multilateral regional organizations to help prevent new

conflicts, to initiate, where needed, peacekeeping and

peace-building activities, to solidify the rule of law and to

promote cooperation in the OSCE area. My country is

seeking to consolidate genuine good-neighbourly relations

with all the countries of its region, especially with

countries bordering it, and to launch regional initiatives

and enhance regional cooperation to better respond to the

new challenges threatening regional stability. It is in this

spirit that we have been active in the creation of, and

have sought to expand, various forms of regional

cooperation, such as the Central European Initiative, the

Central European Free Trade Agreement and the South-

East European Cooperative Initiative, involving a large

number of countries in the region, or have moved ahead

with trilateral, more tailor-made, cooperative schemes

with a number of our immediate neighbours. Regional

and cross-border cooperation is a valuable asset for

regional stability and security, and has to be utilized to its

full potential.

As we look forward, from the invitation we received

from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit in

Madrid to the winding up of the accession talks with the

Alliance, and in the expectation of the commencement of

negotiations on our entry into the European Union next

January, we wish to develop further such regional

activities of dialogue and wide-ranging cooperation in

order to prevent the emergence of new dividing lines and

to assist all the countries of the region in their drive to

join the mainstream European developments. We are also

confident that Hungary, through the structures of Euro-

Atlantic integration, will become an even more active

partner and supporter of the United Nations.

The post-cold-war era has brought to the forefront

urgent questions. These include issues related to the

future operation of the United Nations conflict-

management capacity. The debate unfolding on these

problems has political, legal and, quite often, emotional

dimensions as well. We welcome the proposals of the

Secretary-General geared towards enhancing the rapid

reaction capabilities of the United Nations.

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It is in this context that in recent years Hungary has

increased its participation in United Nations mandated

peacekeeping operations in a variety of ways, including

both infrastructural and logistical support and the

deployment of military and police personnel, an example of

which is the Hungarian contribution to the Implementation

Force and the Stabilization Force and the considerable

increase in the number of Hungarian peacekeepers serving

in the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus. We

are pleased that the performance and professional skill of

my compatriots engaged in various such operations all

across the globe are considered positively.

The issue of the functioning and the size of the

Security Council has been extensively dealt with at several

United Nations forums. Legitimacy and efficiency are both

important premises for any pattern of Security Council

reform. The general view is that, once the Security Council

is enlarged, its size and composition should be not an

impediment, but, rather, an asset for effective decision-

making and action, enjoying the widest possible support

and cooperation of the membership at large. Agreement on

Security Council enlargement is a fundamental pillar of the

United Nations reform process. We have to make sure that

with a future Security Council comprising Germany, Japan

and countries each from Africa, Asia and Latin America

and the Caribbean as permanent members, and also

additional non-permanent members, we preserve and

enhance the purpose-oriented character of this important

body.

The financial reform of our Organization is an

indispensable prerequisite to ensure its viability and

relevance. Payment of assessed contributions is an

obligation under the United Nations Charter. Hungary has

made serious efforts to meet all its outstanding financial

assessments, and now we belong to the yet small, but,

hopefully, growing group of Member States which pay all

their contributions to the regular as well as peacekeeping

budgets in full and without conditions.

To solve the financial crisis, we must find a way that

is acceptable to Member States and is good for the

Organization. The delegation of Hungary stands ready to

join in further constructive efforts along the lines of the

proposal presented by the European Union with a view to

arriving at a comprehensive compromise solution.

After the demise of the political structures of the cold

war, international protection of human rights and

fundamental freedoms can no longer be relegated to some

distant corner of United Nations activities. As a legitimate

concern of the international community, human rights

issues should be given their due weight in all United

Nations activities, in a well coordinated manner. This

must be reflected in the provision of adequate funding.

Today, human rights are violated on a massive scale

worldwide, and we all must stand up in their defence and

hold violators accountable wherever abuses occur. We are

aware that there exist regional, cultural and other

specificities in the field of human rights. We believe,

however, that these should not stand in the way of

consistency in promoting universal respect for human

rights and should not allow complacency to surface in

attitudes towards human rights violations.

We are pleased with the Secretary-General’s

excellent choice of Mrs. Mary Robinson to serve as the

next High Commissioner for Human Rights. We will lend

her assistance to make the United Nations more effective

in responding to human rights challenges, including those

stemming from ethnic discrimination. As recent

developments have shown, these represent a threat to

regional and international stability and security.

Development and environment are questions of the

utmost importance for the future, and even the survival,

of humankind. United Nations activities in this sphere

should lead to the elaboration of a comprehensive

programme for sustainable development acceptable to all

nations. We wish to voice our concern about the

insufficient progress achieved in this domain. We lend

our full support to efforts aimed at seeking solutions to

the burning questions of underdevelopment and at

stopping the processes of degradation of the ecological

habitat of our planet.

Armed conflicts continue to take their toll,

sometimes decades after the cessation of hostilities, due

to the presence of anti-personnel landmines. The plight of

tens of thousands of innocent victims has been a growing

source of international concern in no small part as a result

of effective advocacy by human rights groups and

humanitarian organizations. Hungary stands for the total

ban of these devices. My Government has supported the

Ottawa process from its very inception; it welcomes the

success of the Diplomatic Conference held on this issue

at Oslo and intends to become one of the first signatories

of the new Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,

Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel

Mines and on Their Destruction. This is an important

milestone in the development of international

humanitarian law and in the endeavour to put an end to

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the immense human suffering caused by the proliferation

and indiscriminate use of these weapons. At the same time,

in our view, the remarkable achievements of the Oslo

Conference do not diminish the role that other forums,

including the Conference on Disarmament, can play in

promoting the objectives of the new Convention.

The horrible atrocities and genocidal acts committed

during recent conflicts have speeded up negotiations on

establishing international criminal jurisdiction on war

crimes and crimes against humanity. By establishing the ad

hoc tribunals on former Yugoslavia and on Rwanda, the

international community reaffirmed an important principle:

all those having committed war crimes or crimes against

humanity are to be held personally responsible and

accountable. It is our legitimate expectation that all persons

indicted by the tribunals will be brought to justice and

moreover that failing to cooperate fully with the tribunals

will not remain without consequences.

The experience gained from the functioning of these

two ad hoc tribunals has paved the way for the wider

acceptance of the idea of an international criminal court,

thus creating a firm legal basis at the universal level for the

establishment of individual criminal responsibility with

regard to war crimes and crimes against humanity. We are

committed to pursuing vigorously the negotiations at this

session to enable the finalization of the statute of the court

at the diplomatic conference to be held next year.

At this session, we have to focus our efforts on

preparing the ground for practical steps to make the United

Nations a viable and dynamic body. We must maintain the

momentum for change if we want to ensure a decent future

for the human experiment.