Ireland, 2007

First of all, Mr. President,

may I congratulate you on your election and wish you

well in the months ahead.

Upon its formation earlier this year, the Irish

Government set itself the goal of becoming a model

Member State of the this great Organization. We have

set out an ambitious programme to be a world leader in

development assistance, rapid response to humanitarian

disasters and conflict resolution.

This is because our own history shows that there

is a path from famine to plenty and from conflict to

peace. And from that history has grown a

determination, in ordinary Irish men and women, to

stand in the vanguard of the fight against conflict,

hunger and the denial of human rights, a fight best

fought by a strong and equally determined United

Nations a fight we cannot afford to lose.

It is also because after six decades, the core goal

of the United Nations universal peace and

security unfortunately still eludes us. Today, in spite

of all our efforts, violent conflict remains all too

common.

The causes of conflict are many. But very often, it

is in the persistence of poverty and in the denial of

human rights that we find the causes of conflict, the

enduring results of conflict and the seeds of future

conflict. In making peace, we must be as creative and

as determined as those waging war.

The range of instruments now available

strengthens our collective capacity to resolve conflict.

We must use that full array with determination now.

We must ensure that the United Nations Peacebuilding

Commission and Peacebuilding Fund are organized and

resourced to fulfil their important mandate. We must

maintain our support for United Nations-mandated

peacekeeping operations, which today are at an all-time

high in terms of their size, scope and complexity. We

must also support strengthened United Nations efforts

in the fields of conflict prevention and resolution. We

in Ireland will play our part.

My Government has decided to significantly

increase its commitment to conflict resolution,

including through the establishment of a designated

unit in the Foreign Ministry, the creation of an

academic Centre for Conflict Resolution, a system of

roving ambassadors to affected regions and an annual

fund of €25 million to assist conflict resolution in the

developing world.

In the years ahead, we will also work to

strengthen the capacity of the African Union and

subregional organizations to make and build peace for

themselves. We will focus our efforts on peacemaking

during conflict and peacebuilding after conflict. We

will also work on identifying, distilling and sharing the

lessons of conflict resolution. We will be particularly

active in Africa, including through working with our

partner Governments under our Irish Aid programme.

We will explore the links between climate change and

conflict, because climate change directly threatens not

only the most vulnerable but all of our shared goals of

progress, peace and development.

The focus of our foreign policy on rights,

development and now conflict resolution underlines

once again Ireland’s commitment to the global agenda

of the United Nations. But this convergence is also

underscored by our own national experience of

peacemaking. Speaking here in New York in April

1969, before the appalling escalation of violence in

Northern Ireland, one of my distinguished

predecessors, Frank Aiken, said “I think there is

sufficient wisdom if it can only be energized in our

section of the world, in these islands off the North

West of Europe, to settle the problem.” For far too long

that sufficient wisdom eluded us.

For almost 40 years it has been my duty and that

of my predecessors as Minister for Foreign Affairs to

brief this Assembly on the search for peace on the

island of Ireland. I am particularly delighted to report

that perhaps, save for general updates on progress, this

will no longer be necessary.

The conflict in Northern Ireland lasted for more

than three decades and was made apparently insoluble

by issues of national, cultural and religious identity,

contested historical narratives and claims of

sovereignty, all hardened by the direct experiences of

division, inequality and violence.

Since the ceasefires of the mid-1990s and the

negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998,

there has been much better news to report. But the final

steps to the full implementation of that Agreement

were not completed until earlier this year. With the

formation of the power-sharing Northern Ireland

Executive, bringing together historic opponents from

across the political divide, we have opened an

extraordinary new chapter in the history of the island

of Ireland.

Legacies of separation and distrust remain, and

the inevitable challenges and difficulties of normal

politics will need wise and sensitive management. But

there is an overwhelming consensus that this new

beginning can be nurtured and sustained.

The task is no longer to find peace, but to

maintain and build on the peace we have found. I do

not believe our success offers a universal, transferable

formula, but I do believe that our experience of failure

and then success over 40 years provides insights and

lessons worth sharing. One of the specific tasks of our

conflict resolution initiative is to codify those insights

and lessons. But today I will offer just a few.

First, in the end, those who are part of the

problem must be part of the solution not because we

approve of their actions or beliefs, but because without

them it is all too easy for an agreement among others to

be destroyed.

Secondly, inclusive dialogue must, however, take

place on the basis of clear and guaranteed principles. In

Ireland, these were consent, non-violence and parity of

esteem.

Thirdly, partnerships between Governments and

involving sympathetic third parties in our case the

United States and the European Union can develop

comprehensive frameworks within which enduring

settlements can be reached.

Fourthly, it is often necessary to take risks for

peace but those risks must be carefully calibrated.

Timing is of the essence and so is patience, and there

are times when contacts must be private and at arm’s

length.

Fifthly, our experience demonstrates the need to

address all issues, all of the causes of conflict,

comprehensively, no matter how difficult and

intractable they may be, and even if they have to be

resolved in different time frames.

Sixth, popular endorsement of an agreement

through the ballot box makes it immensely more

legitimate and durable.

Finally, without effective and faithful

implementation, again often with external assistance,

an agreement’s viability and credibility can quickly ebb

away.

On a more practical and operational level, we

have devised and implemented innovative

arrangements for dealing with many of the issues that

dominate peacemaking and peacebuilding in our case:

constitutional change, power sharing, cross-border

cooperation, transitional justice, policing and security

reform, equality and human rights, conflict over

symbols, arms decommissioning and prisoner release.

In our own process, we have learned much from

others, particularly from the instance of South Africa.

Together, I hope we can, in Frank Aiken’s term,

develop both sufficient wisdom and sufficient will to

resolve enduring and complex conflicts.

Working with a strengthened United Nations and

sharing lessons with one another, I passionately hope

we can advance the day when political leaders from

other regions of the world blighted by conflict can

announce in this forum that peace has come to them

too.

Northern Ireland has been added to the list of

conflicts resolved. But the road to universal peace is

still blocked by conflicts old, new and threatened.

Today, across the world we stand with the people

of Burma. The courage of the Buddhist monks and

nuns and their supporters has won universal

admiration. The efforts of its regime to conceal its

brutality behind a wall of silence have failed. It has

been rightly condemned for its violent response. I call

on its leaders at long last to respond constructively to

the wishes of the people, to stop their violence and to

release Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political

prisoners. The process of national reconciliation and

democratization must begin in earnest, and we hope

that the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy will be able

to report progress on his return here in a few days.

We look to the Security Council to respond

effectively to the compelling calls of the international

community. It is neither acceptable nor true to argue, as

some of its members have, that the situation in Burma

is not a question of international peace and security.

The potential regional consequences of the crisis are

evident to all. This places a particular onus on the

Governments of China, India and of the countries of

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). I

welcome the encouraging recent signs of positive and

concerned engagement and urge them to redouble their

efforts.

Within the European Union, Ireland has long

taken a strong and principled position on Burma. We

are looking urgently at how to increase the pressure on

the regime, including through further European Union

restrictive measures, without harming the ordinary

people, whose suffering is already so great.

As it is for people across the world, Darfur is a

matter of grave concern in Ireland. We have made it a

priority for our diplomacy and our Irish Aid

programme. We must solve the humanitarian and

security crisis while simultaneously establishing the

foundations for longer-term peace and development.

We urge the full, effective and speedy deployment of

the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in

Darfur. Khartoum must actively cooperate and at last

desist from all obstruction. Rebel groups must also

play their part. The recent attack on peacekeepers in

Darfur was an outrage and was rightly condemned

here. I would like to express my sympathies and those

of the Irish Government to the families of those killed.

In keeping with our proud tradition of

peacekeeping, Ireland expects to make a substantial

contribution to the United Nations-mandated mission

to Chad and the Central African Republic to help aid

refugees and address the regional dimension of the

Darfur crisis.

All those who are party to the conflict must

commit to the political talks in Libya next month. I

welcome the Secretary-General’s establishment of a

trust fund to support these talks, and I pledge Ireland’s

support in that respect. If commitments are not fulfilled

and progress does not materialize, Ireland will support

further sanctions against non-cooperating parties.

I am particularly and gravely concerned at the

increasingly serious humanitarian situation in

Zimbabwe. The current Southern African Development

Community initiative, led by President Mbeki, offers

the best hope for progress and I would encourage all

those involved to redouble their efforts to agree on a

new political dispensation offering real political reform

and economic recovery for all Zimbabweans.

The situation in the Middle East is always high

on our agenda. There has been a collective

international failure to establish a credible political

process leading to a two-State solution. But today there

are possibilities for change. The outlines of a viable

settlement are clear to everyone, even if it will require

difficult and painful compromises. Ireland strongly

supports the dialogue between Prime Minister Olmert

and President Abbas. We are also encouraged by the

determination of the Arab States to pursue the historic

Arab Peace Initiative. We share the hope that the

international meeting now in preparation under

Secretary Rice’s leadership will indeed be serious and

substantive and set in train a transformation of the

political landscape and the lives of its people.

Ireland’s historic commitment to nuclear

disarmament and non-proliferation continues. We are

also active in seeking a comprehensive response to the

curse of cluster munitions, the appalling effects of

which are all too evident in Lebanon and elsewhere. As

a contribution to the collaborative effort launched in

Oslo last February, Ireland will host a diplomatic

conference in May 2008, which we hope will finalize

the first-ever international agreement on cluster

munitions.

The establishment of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) spurred our efforts to

tackle poverty and its consequences. I greatly welcome

the Secretary-General’s establishment of the MDG

Africa Steering Group to lead a determined push to

achieve our targets for 2015.

Ireland is doing its part. We are currently

spending more than 0.5 per cent of our gross national

product on overseas development aid and will reach

0.7 per cent by 2012. We have substantially increased

our support to humanitarian relief operations and to

tackling HIV/AIDS.

But we know that more needs to be done. The

donor community is failing the test set by the MDGs.

Overseas aid has fallen by 5 per cent in real terms. It is

not acceptable in today’s world that there are still 980

million people living in abject poverty, that half of the

developing world has no access to basic sanitation or

that half a million women will die in pregnancy or

childbirth each year. Perhaps the most damning fact is

that one in seven people on this Earth today do not get

enough food to eat to have a healthy and productive

life. That figure jumps to one in four in sub-Saharan

Africa.

To help meet that most basic of challenges,

Ireland has established a Hunger Task Force to

examine the root causes of that enduring source of

misery, disease and death. It will help us contribute to

the MDG goal of halving hunger and poverty. I am

delighted that the experts on the Hunger Task Force

include Jeffrey Sachs, the Special Adviser to the

Secretary-General on the MDGs.

Ireland will maintain and increase its

commitment to the work of the United Nations in the

fields of peace and security, development and human

rights. There is no mystery to the challenges facing us,

even if they are formidable. Our generation is uniquely

equipped to know what it will take to deal with them.

We have the scientific knowledge, the experience, the

resources and, through this Organization, the

mechanism for cooperation to rise to these challenges.

We must summon sufficient wisdom and will to do so.