Liechtenstein, 2001

Let me first join

previous speakers in expressing our heartfelt

sympathies to the host country and to the bereaved

families for the loss of their loved ones in yesterday’s

disaster.

Ever since 11 September, the fight against

terrorism in all its forms has rightfully been at the top

of the agenda of the United Nations and of other

international organizations. On behalf of the

Government of Liechtenstein, I wish to pledge our full

support for international cooperation to combat

terrorism. A quick understanding has emerged that

multilateralism and international cooperation are the

only ways to successfully tackle the challenges we are

facing. Once again, the world has looked to the United

Nations for leadership in our common fight, and once

again the United Nations has delivered. We wish to pay

tribute to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He has

navigated this Organization in a most clever, capable

and visionary manner through turbulent times and

assiduously enhanced its standing in the international

arena. Right before the beginning of his second term as

Secretary-General the United Nations is a stronger and

more credible organization than ever. I wish to

congratulate the Secretary-General, and indeed the

entire Organization he heads, on being awarded the

Nobel Peace Prize. No one could be better placed to be

a voice of international legitimacy and to provide

leadership during the times ahead — and this is a

moment when leadership is most needed.

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Both the General Assembly and the Security

Council have reacted with resolve and determination to

the attacks of 11 September. The Council took a bold

step in adopting its ground-breaking resolution 1373

(2001). We are indeed facing a new type of crisis and

the Security Council has designed a new type of

response. The delegation of Liechtenstein looks

forward to working closely with the Counter-Terrorism

Committee to fully implement the provisions of that

resolution. Given the novelty of the task, we appreciate

the difficulties and enormous workload the Committee

is facing. We also express our support for the

transparent manner and the spirit of cooperation and

dialogue which the Committee has displayed thus far in

carrying out its work. Benchmarking and best practices

are of the utmost importance in this context. High

standards of enforcement have to be developed and to

be applied uniformly to all actors, be they

Governments, banks, intermediaries, fiduciaries or

attorneys. We are committed to implementing

resolution 1373 (2001) as a whole, but will place

particular emphasis on its central aspects relating to the

financing of terrorism. We have all the necessary

instruments in place to make our contribution to

suppress and prevent the financing of terrorism.

Consequently, I signed on behalf of Liechtenstein the

Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of

Terrorism on 2 October this year. Our common effort

can only be successful if it is focused on our true goal

of stopping financial flows to terrorists and their

organizations. We must not, however, venture into

other areas of international financing under the guise of

fighting terrorism. In this context I wish to state very

clearly that bank secrecy as practised in Liechtenstein

never has provided and never will provide protection to

terrorists or their financial transactions.

If the fight against terrorism is to be a genuinely

common effort, it must include all of us. The General

Assembly, as the only all-inclusive organ of the United

Nations, must therefore play a significant role in our

efforts. We trust that the General Assembly will assert

its rightful place as the law-making body of the United

Nations by adopting a comprehensive convention

against terrorism to fill the gaps in the existing

framework of international law dealing with specific

aspects of terrorism.

The fight against terrorism is multifaceted and the

role of the United Nations must also cover a wide

range of topics, including what is often referred to as

the root causes of terrorism. Indeed, isolating the

extremists, exposing the perversity of their agenda, and

thus preventing more misguided and disenfranchised

people from joining a cause of insanity, is the only way

our fight will be successful in the long term. Poverty,

social exclusion and marginalization, and the lack of

basic education are key areas we must address. These

are, of course, by no means new topics on the agenda

of the United Nations, but we need to do more and we

need to do better. Informed and educated policy

changes are not concessions to the evil of terrorism.

Such thinking would lead to paralysis and inaction. It

is of crucial importance that the spirit of international

cooperation, rather than being selective and short-lived,

should prevail in our work on these essential issues.

The United Nations is further challenged on the

complex relationship between terrorism and human

rights. The promotion and protection of human rights

must not fall victim to the fight against terrorism.

Human rights are not a luxury that we can afford

during good times and dispense with in times of crisis.

Rather, they are the foundation upon which all our

activities must be based. Curtailing the existing human

rights standards in the name of the fight against

terrorism would mean giving up our most fundamental

values — the very values that those who commit

terrorist attacks are out to destroy. This we must not

allow to happen. The World Conference against

Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and

Related Intolerance was concluded on 8 September. I

had the honour to attend that event in my capacity as

Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council

of Europe, which served as the regional preparatory

body for the Conference. After a most difficult and

complex process, the Conference was brought to a

successful end with probably the best achievable

outcome — the resolution of issues of both the past and

the present, and a global anti-discrimination agenda

within which we all can work.

The difficulties of the Durban Conference are

reflected in the still ongoing debate on remaining

technical, but important, details. The necessary

political will should be mustered as soon as possible so

that the message from Durban can reach people

worldwide. The events of 11 September have given

additional significance to this message, since racism

and intolerance can be both cause and consequence of

terrorism. One of our most difficult new challenges in

our fight against racism is to prevent discrimination

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against people because of their affiliation with certain

ethnic groups.

There are those who interpret the events of 11

September as a fulfilment of a predicted clash of

civilizations. They are wrong. Those who committed

the attacks do not represent a civilization or religion;

they believe only in terror, violence and destruction.

They are just criminals. Their acts were not an attack

on a civilization; they were an attack on, and a crime

against, humanity. But, of course, nothing would serve

their intentions better than a clash of civilizations. The

United Nations is therefore challenged to prevent such

a clash. The International Year of Dialogue among

Civilizations serves as a useful reminder of what the

United Nations has always stood for.

Terrorism cannot be fought only with military

measures and international judicial cooperation. Only

by going beyond these obvious measures can we be

successful in the long term. We must change the

collective conscience and awareness of all societies

and teach our children the futility and the dangers of

resorting to violence as a means of dealing with

conflicts. Terrorists utilize the most extreme forms of

violence. Therefore, they must be effectively excluded

from society. They must be outlawed. It must be

unacceptable for terrorists to establish themselves as

political players by resorting to violence and by

indiscriminately attacking civilians.

This unified stance against terrorism must, in

turn, be accompanied by our willingness to engage in a

peaceful dialogue with those who advocate legitimate

political causes, difficult as that may seem. Only by

ensuring that communities and entities are not

oppressed, and that they are given room to voice their

concerns, can we eventually eradicate terrorism. In this

context it is important that the international community

develop mechanisms that allow for such a dialogue to

take place, based on an agreed framework and existing

standards of international law. We must not accept

terrorism as a fact of life, but believe in our collective

ability to eradicate it. That goal may seem distant or

even unrealistic, but so did the goal of eradicating

slavery in the nineteenth century and fascism in the

twentieth century. It is now up to all of us to free

ourselves from terrorism, the scourge of the twenty-

first century.