Italy, 1997

I warmly congratulate Minister

Udovenko on his election to the helm of the fifty-second

session of the General Assembly. His profound

experience in international affairs is the best guarantee for

the success of his mandate. Allow me also to thank his

predecessor, Ambassador Razali Ismail, who led the fifty-

first session of the General Assembly with great

distinction.

On all the broad issues confronting the General

Assembly, Italy supports the statement made on Tuesday

by the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg on behalf of the

European Union.

Today we have a historic opportunity to connect

principles and reality, give life to our ideals and shape

this Organization for decades to come. The ideologies that

divided humankind in this century have crumbled.

Meanwhile, the system engineered with such foresight by

the founding Members amidst the horrors of the most

devastating war the world has ever seen has maintained

and increased its significance.

We no longer live in a world of purely national

interests. More and more, policy-making is informed by

global concerns such as human rights, solidarity and

social justice. At the threshold of the twenty-first century,

let us pledge to settle religious and ethnic conflicts

through dialogue, tolerance and cultural exchange, and to

find collective answers to international terrorism,

organized crime, drug trafficking and the degradation of

the environment. We can join forces to eradicate poverty,

which is a major cause of social injustice and political

turmoil in the world, and guarantee dignity, respect and

better living standards for every human being.

The goals of a new world order, founded on mutual

trust and the rejection of the threat and use of force, are

peace, security, sustainable development and respect for

the fundamental freedoms of the individual. But these

values cannot be dictated by an elite group of States. The

future of humankind is the responsibility of the

international community as a whole.

As the United Nations prepares to meet the

challenges of the third millennium, the General Assembly

has a role of paramount importance to play.

15

At the opening of the fifty-first session of the General

Assembly there was unanimous consensus on the need for

a far-reaching reform of the United Nations system. In my

address I stated that if the United Nations was to respond

effectively to the growing concerns that had emerged,

reform could no longer be postponed. The international

community requires higher standards of security,

development and democracy, and it needs them now.

On that occasion, I listed 10 specific proposals to

make United Nations peacekeeping operations more

effective, and I am glad to see that progress has been made

on some of them. Procedures for periodic meetings between

the Security Council and troop-contributing countries have

been consolidated. To help the Organization respond to

crises where and when they arise, Italy recently became the

sixth country to formalize its participation in standby

arrangements for United Nations peacekeeping operations.

President Clinton said in his speech on Monday that

the first task of the United Nations must remain the pursuit

of peace and security. When a situation of serious

instability developed in Albania last March, the Security

Council — with the full support of the Secretary-

General — acted promptly, authorizing a coalition of the

countries, led by Italy, willing to form a Multinational

Protection Force. During the four months of its mandate,

Operation Alba enabled the safe delivery of humanitarian

assistance, created a secure environment for the missions of

international organizations, and made democratic elections

possible. In short, it helped put the country back on its feet.

One of the keys to its success was an innovative approach

to peacekeeping, involving the rapid planning and

deployment of the Force, and close coordination among the

participating countries and the host country, under the

constant monitoring of the United Nations.

To consolidate the gains that have been made and lay

the foundations for Albania's growth and prosperity, the

next step is to rehabilitate the State institutions and

economy. With this in mind, the Italian Government has

convened a ministerial conference for October, in Rome,

with the participation of the Albanian Government and all

the relevant international organizations to assess needs and

decide on a common course of action.

For over half a century, the United Nations has been

seeking to establish a permanent international criminal court

to prosecute and punish genocide, war crimes and crimes

against humanity, wherever and by whomever they are

committed. This is a test of our collective responsibility,

made even more pressing by the terrible massacres that

have characterized recent ethnic conflicts, and Italy

confirms its strong support, pledges its active contribution

to this endeavour, and is prepared to host in Rome the

diplomatic conference to adopt the statute for the

international criminal court.

A second major challenge is arms control. Before

dealing with the security requirements of tomorrow, we

must stop living by the fears of yesterday. New standards

of security can be produced only through international

cooperation under the leadership of the United Nations.

Italy has some of the world's strictest and most

advanced legislation on the export of arms. I am proud to

report that this past June the Italian Government

unilaterally decided to renounce the production, export,

stockpiling and use of anti-personnel landmines, and

enabling legislation to this effect has already been passed

by one branch of our Parliament. But the full value of

this commitment can only be realized if it is shared by all

countries, whether or not they are parties to the Ottawa

process. The recent Oslo conference, to be sure, made

remarkable accomplishments, but they are not yet

universal. To achieve this goal, our efforts should be

complemented by the continuing involvement of the

Conference on Disarmament.

Two months ago, Secretary-General Kofi Annan

presented a package of ground-breaking proposals to

improve the effectiveness of the Organization and

enhance its ability to meet the new challenges. Those

proposals deserve our full support.

One important goal of the Secretary General's reform

plan is to energize the strategic direction provided by the

General Assembly. To this end, we need to streamline the

agenda and identify priorities for consideration in the short-

and medium-term. Since the time available for plenary

debates is limited, we should focus on matters of general

interest.

The reform of the Organization is a question of the

highest priority for the current session of the General

Assembly, as the Secretary-General himself has

underlined. In the coming months, two other major

subjects also command our attention: the financial

situation of the Organization, and the structure and

composition of the Security Council.

To function properly, the Organization has to be able

to rely on adequate resources. Assessed contributions

must be paid in full, on time and without conditions by

16

Member States. Italy, for its part, has always complied with

this fundamental rule. Nevertheless, we believe that the

time has come to agree on a realistic new scale of

assessments, based on Member States' capacity to pay and

making the Organization less dependent on the

contributions of a single country.

However, let there be no confusion about our support

for a review of the scale of assessments. There can be

absolutely no link between Members' contributions and

Security Council reform, lest the impression be created that

permanent seats are up for sale.

This brings me to the reform of the Security Council.

There is broad agreement that reform is needed to bring the

Council more in line with the new realities of the world in

which we live. The reform must be inspired by the

principles of democracy, equitable geographical

representation and transparency. These are the very

principles guiding the proposal presented by Italy. While

we are prepared to look constructively at other proposals,

we must guard against those advocating a system that

would divide Member States into four categories: first-class

countries — the five current permanent members of the

Security Council, with veto power; second-class

countries — the new permanent members from

industrialized nations, without veto power; third-class

countries — “pseudo-permanent” rotating members, without

veto power, from developing nations in different regions;

and fourth-class countries — the overwhelming majority of

United Nations Member States, with fewer chances than

ever of serving on the Security Council.

Such stratification of membership, reminiscent of the

caste system in ancient empires, would defy the

fundamental principles of logic and democracy, and

marginalize some of the countries most active in the

Organization. How could any of us accept relegation to the

last of these categories and go back to our people and

Parliaments and tell them that we actually voted in favour

of our country's demotion to fourth-class status? Let me

stress that this type of problem would not be generated by

the Italian proposal, which calls for an increase only in

non-permanent members, to be democratically elected by

the General Assembly.

Another aspect of reform is the question of the veto.

This cannot and should not be discussed independently of

the issue of enlarging the Council. The two issues are

inseparable. Indeed, every aspect of Security Council

reform should be addressed at the same time and in the

same context. Before determining the future size of the

Council and the names of new members, we must define

the criteria that should govern the reform. Ad hoc

approaches will not work. Ultimately, no solution can be

adopted unless there is broad consensus. And a lasting

and equitable outcome cannot be reached through hasty

and partial solutions. Forcing the issue would deepen

divisions and jeopardize the larger and more urgent

question before the General Assembly: approving the

Secretary-General's reform package.

In a longer-term perspective, I would like to add that

a fact-finding inquiry recently conducted by the Italian

Parliament envisaged a permanent seat on the Security

Council for the European Union, as a natural evolution of

its common foreign and security policy.

Almost 55 years ago, on November 13 1942,

President Roosevelt said that the future of the United

Nations association

“should not be restricted to the 28 signatories of the

Atlantic Charter, but should be one which all nations

could join.”

President Roosevelt believed that the purpose of the

United Nations should not be the defence of the status

quo and that its strength did not lie in sheer numbers, but

in the way that Member States engaged in collective

deliberations and action. This vision should guide our

pursuit of a more promising future for all the people of

this world. History will not be lenient with us if we fail.