Lithuania, 1995

It is with great pleasure that

I join previous speakers in congratulating Mr. Diogo

Freitas do Amaral on his election to the presidency of the

General Assembly at its fiftieth session. It is a great

honour and a great challenge to be serving in that

capacity at a time when the United Nations is marking its

first 50 years of existence, and when people are hoping

for a better world — as Mr. do Amaral noted in his

statement last week — through peace, freedom, justice,

education, health and development.

Fifty years ago, the United Nations was formed to

bring all nations of the world together to work for peace

and development based on the principles of justice,

human dignity and the well-being of all people. The

United Nations aim of promoting international

cooperation is still alive half a century later, although it

is facing more challenges than ever before.

Lithuania itself is facing, and meeting, new

challenges. In the less than six years since the

reestablishment of independence, Lithuania has enshrined

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democratic values in its constitution, established the rule of

law, promoted human rights and implemented free-market

economic reforms. Our foreign policy is based on respect

for international law, national sovereignty, human rights and

peaceful coexistence among nations — especially our most

immediate neighbours. The best testimony to our good-

neighbourly relations is provided by the treaties we have

concluded with all neighbouring States; they were a result

of hard work and compromise. It is our view that they

constitute a major contribution to the security of the region

and of the entire world.

Our other foreign-policy goals are also clearly defined.

Lithuania is striving for full integration into European

political, economic and collective-security structures. As an

associate member of the European Union, our ultimate goal

is full membership in the Union. Membership in the North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and in the Western

European Union (WEU) is also a high priority. We look

forward to continuing our cooperation with and our active

participation in regional organizations such as the

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

(OSCE) and the Council of Europe.

The United Nations is facing new challenges today. A

half-century later it is not only proper to assess the

Organization’s performance, but also necessary to prepare

it for the new demands and problems resulting from the

dramatic changes that have come about since the end of the

cold war. The number and importance of the challenges that

face the United Nations call for reforms. The United

Nations is expected to solve many problems, such as armed

conflicts, human rights violations, the poverty gap and

humanitarian crises. The problems presented by conflicts

such as those in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan,

Liberia, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia are in many ways

unprecedented. The United Nations is expected to provide

development assistance and emergency relief to refugees. It

is expected to promote democracy and to safeguard the

health and rights of women and children. The United

Nations is expected to play a leading role in solving

environmental and population problems and in securing

sustainable development. It is expected to prevent the

spread of weapons of mass destruction.

If the United Nations is to live up to these

expectations, Member States will have to provide it with

the necessary means to do so. For this reason, Lithuania

attaches importance to the efforts aimed at the

revitalization, strengthening and reform of the United

Nations system, and will follow with interest the initiatives

directed towards that goal. Good management in the

Secretariat is an important tool in achieving that goal.

Better productivity and increased cost-effectiveness, as

well as accountability and responsibility, can make a

difference in creating a more mission-driven and result-

oriented Organization. Energies and resources within the

United Nations system need to be utilized in a more

effective and coordinated manner if the Organization is to

meet the challenges that lie ahead.

Likewise, there is a need for integrated policies to

address these global problems, which too often are treated

as separate questions. In that regard, we see a close

connection between “An Agenda for Peace” and “An

Agenda for Development”, and are in full agreement that

the quest for peace and security should not divert

attention from other fundamental objectives of the

Organization, especially in the fields of economic and

social development.

Another priority for a revitalized United Nations is

reform of the Security Council. Lithuania supports

continued discussion on the transparency of the work of

the Security Council. Recent informal arrangements to

improve consultation on peace-keeping between the

Secretariat, the Security Council and troop contributors

should be further developed. The Security Council must

be more representative of the greatly expanded

membership of the United Nations, and it has to take into

account the interests of small States and of all regions,

including those of Central and Eastern Europe. We

believe that an increase in the overall membership of the

Council is needed and that an increase in the permanent

membership should reflect current geopolitical realities. In

this context, Lithuania supports an increase in the number

of permanent members of the Security Council with new

members to come from among countries that make an

exceptional contribution to the activities of the United

Nations. This would significantly strengthen the authority

and capability of the United Nations as a whole. It goes

without saying that reform of the Security Council should

not decrease its effectiveness or its efficient functioning.

The tremendous increase in and complexity of

peace-keeping operations in recent years clearly signals

the need for change. We cannot ignore the financial

consequences of this increase. The budget for peace-

keeping operations currently amounts to approximately

$3.6 billion. We must strengthen preventive diplomacy in

order to avoid overextending our capabilities in the area

of peace-keeping. Nevertheless, Lithuania will continue to

play its part in peace-keeping, as it is already doing in the

United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in

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Croatia (UNCRO); it stands ready to do more. The third

platoon of Lithuanian peace-keepers is now serving in

Croatia within the Danish battalion. We are actively

participating in the NATO Partnership for Peace

programme and are moving forward on the formation and

training of a Baltic peace-keeping battalion.

Lithuania also welcomes the growing interaction

between the United Nations and regional organizations,

such as the OSCE and NATO, in the field of peace-keeping

operations. This approach enables regional organizations to

share the common burden of peace-keeping functions and

to contribute, together with the United Nations, to the

maintenance of peace and security. OSCE missions are

actively promoting peaceful political solutions to regional

crises in Chechnya, Georgia, Nagorny-Karabakh, Tajikistan

and elsewhere.

Although Lithuania believes that European countries

should try to solve their own problems in the framework of

the OSCE before turning to the United Nations, we hope

that cooperation between the OSCE and the United Nations

will be strengthened in areas of common concern,

particularly on issues concerning stability and security in

the OSCE area. Further work needs to be done in

developing a standard set of principles for peace-keeping

activities undertaken by individual States or third parties.

Any strategy for preventing armed conflicts should

involve disarmament and non-proliferation objectives. The

easy availability of arms contributes to the scale of

suffering in conflict situations as well as to the outbreak of

conflict itself. Lithuania wholeheartedly supported the

indefinite and unconditional extension of the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), because it

views the Treaty as a crucial instrument for preventing the

spread of nuclear weapons and for reducing existing stocks.

We recognize that, although the threat posed by

nuclear weapons is of prime concern, the ongoing use of

conventional weapons is equally dangerous. There is a need

for States to exercise greater responsibility and restraint in

their arms transfers. The United Nations Register of

Conventional Arms has led to greater transparency, but a

code of conduct for conventional arms transfers could set

out common principles to be observed in this area.

Drug trafficking and associated international crime are

another growing threat to the security and well-being of

nations and peoples. We give our full support to the United

Nations International Drug Control Programme, which has

the responsibility of leading the global fight against this

scourge. In view of the continuous and growing rise in

drug-related problems throughout the world, including in

our region, we encourage closer cooperation in this area.

The situation in Rwanda and in former Yugoslavia

is uppermost in our minds, as are other armed conflicts

closer to home, which have resulted in bloodshed and

systematic violations of human rights. Racial and ethnic

hatred have led to particularly inhumane behaviour. These

horrible lessons must never be forgotten; nor should these

crimes against humanity go unpunished. This is why we

are in favour of strengthening mechanisms to monitor and

protect human rights by fully implementing the mandate

of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human

Rights, and by strengthening the Centre for Human

Rights. In order to avoid duplication, we encourage

further coordination of United Nations human rights

activities with regional bodies carrying out similar

mandates.

Lithuania also feels that the mandate for peace-

keeping operations could include a human rights

component with clearly established reporting and

verification procedures. When terrible crimes are

committed and when human rights are systematically

violated despite all efforts, Lithuania believes that those

responsible, including the actual perpetrators, should be

prosecuted. We thus support moves to establish a

permanent international criminal court which would have

jurisdiction over serious crimes of international concern,

wherever they occur.

Lithuania places great importance on the work of the

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the

principal funding agency and coordinator of United

Nations technical and development assistance. Since the

establishment of the UNDP office in Vilnius in 1992, my

Government, with support from UNDP, has launched

programmes in such priority sectors as democratization

and the development of civil society, public

administration reform and the social impact of transition.

We are especially grateful for UNDP assistance in the

preparation of our 1995 national development report.

My Government reaffirms the need for the full

integration of countries with economies in transition into

the world economy and for continued United Nations

support in achieving that goal. We see the concept of

transition as a temporary one, which at this point in time

identifies the special needs and immediate concerns of

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countries undergoing fundamental political, economic and

social transformation. We hope that these needs and

concerns will be reflected in “An Agenda for

Development”. Lithuania recognizes the fine work done by

the Economic Commission for Europe in diagnosing the

problems of transitional economies and in preparing useful

recommendations.

I also wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge the

work of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in

my country. UNICEF has provided much-appreciated

technical and advisory services on meeting global objectives

for the welfare of children.

Recent major international conferences in Rio de

Janeiro, Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing have addressed

important strategies and goals for development. Coordinated

follow-up and implementation of the recommendations of

these conferences will require not only the commitment of

Governments, but greater coordination in United Nations

operational activities and improved coherence in

programmes.

Fully recognizing and supporting the obligation of all

Member States to pay their contributions in full and on

time, Lithuania also believes in the principle of sovereign

equality, that is the equal rights of all Member States. In

our case, those rights were violated by the assignment in

1992 of inequitable assessment rates to the Baltic States

and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent

States (CIS), which were above the capacity of those States

to pay. We have participated in the work of the high-level

working group on the financial situation of the United

Nations and have followed the work of the working group

on the principle of capacity to pay. We welcome the partial

improvement in our rates of assessment due to the 50 per

cent phasing out of the scheme of limits for 1995-1997.

Next month the Lithuanian Committee for the Fiftieth

Anniversary of the United Nations will commemorate this

anniversary with an impressive programme. Emphasis is

being placed on youth education, the main themes on the

agenda of the United Nations and the achievements of the

Organization over the past five decades. We must, however,

remind ourselves of what the United Nations has not yet

achieved. Let us hope that those unattained goals will

inspire us to move forward with the same vision and

commitment as the founders of the United Nations did 50

years ago.