Luxembourg, 2010

The values upon which the Organization was founded,

65 years ago, are still appropriate for overcoming the

global challenges we face today. Whether in fighting

poverty, protecting the environment and conserving

biodiversity, building peace in conflict areas, helping

populations affected by natural disasters, promoting

human rights, the rule of law and democracy in the

world, making progress towards disarmament and

non-proliferation or combating terrorism, we need to

work together today more than ever before.

You yourself, Mr. President, have quite rightly

organized the general debate under the theme

“Reaffirming the central role of the United Nations in

global governance”. As a founding Member of the

United Nations, Luxembourg fully endorses the

Secretary-General’s assessment that only the United

Nations has the scope, knowledge and legitimacy

necessary to develop and implement effective policies

in order to address global challenges, which require

urgent and collective responses. However, we cannot

content ourselves with that simple article of faith. We

need to draw the necessary conclusions and take

responsibility for them. Those responsibilities are both

individual and collective ones, especially for members

of the international community and our universal

Organization.

At the High-level Plenary Meeting on the

Millennium Development Goals, which was held

earlier this week, we reiterated our collective

determination to do everything possible to free

humankind from hunger, illiteracy and disease and

ultimately to free the Earth of inequalities — between

and within continents, regions and countries and

between men and women.

Luxembourg welcomes this renewed commitment

to combat poverty in its manifold dimensions. The

establishment of a true partnership for development is

based upon shared responsibilities for both donor and

recipient countries. Although we rely on stronger

action from developing countries on good governance,

the rule of law, capacity-building and development

ownership, developed countries must fulfil their

commitments in terms of aid quality and quantity. This

is a needed basis for such a partnership, particularly

with regard to Africa.

I am proud to say that Luxembourg is among the

countries to have kept its promises. We strive to be a

reliable international partner, even in times of crisis.

By 2000, Luxembourg’s official development

assistance (ODA) had reached the threshold of 0.7 per

cent of gross national income (GNI), and in 2009, our

ODA surpassed 1 per cent of GNI. Our Government is

committed to maintaining this effort, both in terms of

volume and percentage of gross national income. That

effort is necessarily linked to steadily growing quality

of aid.

The duty to prevent, contain and resolve violent

conflict is a central aim of our Organization. The

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Charter calls on us to unite our forces in order to

maintain international peace and security. With more

than 120,000 men and women deployed, peacekeeping

operations have reached an unprecedented scale in

recent years. While the stabilizing role of United

Nations forces is undeniable, the changing nature of

conflicts and the increasing complexity of mandates

have also revealed the limits of the system, structures

and basic tools of our Organization.

The mass rapes and sexual assaults that took

place in North Kivu this summer and the inability of

the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission

in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to protect

civilians are stark reminders of the difficulty of

maintaining peace in conflict areas in the absence of

adequate resources and mandates. Those atrocities

compel us to urgently continue the debate on the future

of peacekeeping operations and to overcome our

differences and divisions on this particular issue.

They also serve to underscore once again the

importance of substantial United Nations action to

eradicate the use of sexual violence as a weapon of

war. In that regard, I welcome the appointment of

Ms. Margot Wallström as Special Representative of the

Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. In

this, the tenth anniversary year of Security Council

resolution 1325 (2000), on women and peace and

security, such heinous acts and flagrant violations of

human rights can no longer be tolerated. Impunity must

also be brought to an end.

While the primary responsibility for the safety

and safety of its citizens and for combating poverty and

establishing the rule of law lies within the Congolese

Government, the international community must do

everything possible to support that Government in its

efforts to ensure that those responsible for these

horrendous crimes are actively sought out, tried and

punished. Combating impunity must also lead us to be

far more attentive to the report on violations of human

rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

between 1993 and 2003, the publication of which the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights has announced for 1 October 2010.

As I said at the Review Conference of the Rome

Statute, held in Kampala in May, combating impunity

for the most serious crimes should not be an abstract

goal any longer, but become a tangible and concrete

reality. All of us must cooperate to ensure success in

that regard.

Year after year, in this very forum, we express

our hope to see peace established in the Middle East.

We once again call for a solution based on the

coexistence of two States, Israel and Palestine, living

side by side in peace and security. We urge the parties

to assume their responsibility to create through their

actions the framework for a lasting settlement of the

conflict. To date, as we know, such calls have mostly

been in vain.

The resumption of direct talks between Israelis

and Palestinians on 2 September 2010, however, once

again gives me hope that we will finally reach a final

settlement that ends the occupation that began in 1967

and leads to the birth of an independent, democratic,

viable and contiguous Palestinian State living in peace

and security with Israel and its other neighbours. I

genuinely hope that the call by President Obama to

work to achieve a Palestinian State in 2011 will

become a reality.

However, we must not be distracted by the

enemies of peace and those who seek to sabotage peace

talks. It will be important for both parties to show

determination, courage, calm and restraint, and to act

solely according to international law. Hence the

importance of ending all settlement activities. They are

illegal, contrary to international law and clearly

constitute an obstacle to peace. Why is that so? While

the material fact of building on another person’s land is

in itself to be condemned, it is also a symbol of

domination and humiliation that cannot be accepted. As

a European, I am heartened that the European Union

persists in its strong unanimous call for a prolongation

of the moratorium beyond next Sunday, 26 September

2010. President Obama’s position is clearly and

unambiguously along the same lines.

Meanwhile, it will be of paramount importance to

find a lasting solution for the situation in Gaza and to

revive its economy. The blockade continues. I hope

that the calls by the United Nations Relief and Works

Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East will at

last be heard. In that context, I welcome the launching

by the Secretary-General of an international

investigation into last May’s incident involving the aid

flotilla en route to Gaza. A full, honest, impartial,

balanced and transparent investigation consistent with

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international standards is of great importance. It also,

of course, entails the credibility of our Organization.

In the Sudan, the implementation of the

Comprehensive Peace Agreement is entering its final

phase with the referendum on the self-determination of

Southern Sudan and Abyei. After more than two

decades of confrontation, the prospects for a settlement

are taking shape at last. The road ahead nevertheless

remains fraught with difficulties. It is our collective

responsibility to help the Sudan steer through this

critical period and carry out a process that at last leads

to lasting peace for its people. We must ensure that the

elections are conducted in a transparent and peaceful

manner, regardless, of course, of the outcome.

Increased efforts are also needed to support the

current initiatives of the African Union and the United

Nations towards a political solution involving all

parties in Darfur in order to address the root causes of

the conflict and ensure the protection and promotion of

human rights, justice and reconciliation. The

continuing violence in Darfur threatens the stability of

the whole of the Sudan and of the larger region.

A comprehensive approach is also needed in

Somalia, a country that has for too long been

synonymous with civil war and bloody conflict. Only a

comprehensive approach will put an end to the terrorist

threat that armed groups pose to Somalia, the

subregion and the entire international community, as

well as permanently eradicating piracy and establishing

the rule of law in Somalia.

My country seeks to play its full effective role in

the global efforts to resolve the crisis in Somalia. To

that end, Luxembourg actively participates in

Operation Atalanta to deter, prevent and suppress acts

of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast, as

well as in the military mission to help train security

forces of the Transitional Federal Government — two

operations launched by the European Union in support

of Security Council decisions. Together with our

European and African partners, we intend to continue

our support for the Djibouti peace process and for the

search for a lasting political solution.

Allow me for a moment to address another issue

that I believe it is important not to overlook when

discussing ways to guarantee and strengthen peace,

security and stability at the international level:

disarmament and non-proliferation. The success of the

eighth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty

on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, held

here in New York in May, brought us closer to our

common goal of a world safer for all and free of

nuclear weapons. It will now be important to maintain

the political momentum and to ensure the full

implementation of the decisions taken, including that

relating to the holding by 2012 of a conference on a

nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. I am

certain that progress in this area will not remain

without implications for other actors and for other

issues.

In addition, as I had the opportunity to say

yesterday at the ministerial meeting on revitalizing the

work of the Conference on Disarmament convened by

the Secretary-General, we must continue our efforts at

both nuclear and conventional disarmament. The

constant search for security at the lowest possible level

of armaments will make an essential contribution to

stability in the world.

In that regard, I welcome the entry into force, on

1 August 2010, of the Convention on Cluster

Munitions, which prohibits the use, production,

transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions. At the

national level, Luxembourg, which was among the first

countries to sign and ratify the Convention, has also

prohibited the funding of cluster munitions.

The progress made towards a legally binding

arms trade instrument under the auspices of the United

Nations is also to be welcomed. The problems linked to

the unregulated trade in conventional weapons and the

diversion of those weapons into illicit markets have the

potential to fuel instability, organized crime and

terrorism, thereby jeopardizing peace, security and

sustainable economic and social development. Hence

the importance of finally adopting a binding instrument

in this field.

Next week, together with other partners, my

country will hold a symposium in Boston on an arms

trade treaty. All United Nations Member States have

been invited to participate. We hope thereby to

contribute to the discussion and consideration of this

important issue.

If we believe in the relevance of a multilateral

approach based on the United Nations, we must give

the Organization the means to be the centre of

multilateral action and a real catalyst for change. We

need to push for decisive internal reforms, including, I

believe, reform of the Security Council. We are all

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aware of the need for Council reform to make it more

inclusive and more representative of today’s realities,

as well as more effective and more transparent.

Ensuring an adequate place for small States, which

now represent the vast majority of the Organization’s

Member States, is paramount in this regard.

We must review the instruments at our disposal,

be it peacekeeping operations, to which I referred

previously, the Peacebuilding Commission or the

Human Rights Council, including the necessary

integration of human rights in all aspects of United

Nations action.

The Peacebuilding Commission represents a key

asset for the operational capacity of the international

community in the vast peace agenda. Luxembourg fully

supports the philosophy behind the Commission and is

actively involved in the Guinea-Bissau configuration.

The Commission has begun to prove its usefulness.

However, we should consider how we can make its

results more tangible at the country level in order to

allow other countries to benefit from its achievements

and face emerging challenges. Our goals must meet the

expectations of post-conflict societies and peoples. In

that regard, I welcome the recent decision to include

Liberia on the Commission’s agenda.

We also need to overcome the systemic

fragmentation that has gradually developed since the

establishment of the Organization and enhance system-

wide coherence. An important step in that direction

was taken this year with the establishment of the

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the

Empowerment of Women (UN Women). I would like to

warmly welcome the appointment of Ms. Michelle

Bachelet as head of UN Women. I have no doubt that

she will demonstrate a dynamic and unwavering

commitment to serve women and girls worldwide. She

will be able to rely on the full support of my country,

which has for many years pursued an integrated gender

approach and an active policy of promoting gender

equality, including in the area of development

cooperation.

As you rightly pointed out, Sir, when you were

elected to the presidency on 11 June (see A/64/PV.93),

our primary task is to work together to find

constructive solutions for the dignity, safety and

security and well-being of all. My country is ready to

continue to play its part at the national level, but also

as a member of the European Union. The willingness

of Luxembourg to assume its national responsibilities

can be seen in the concrete examples that I have just

given. It is also expressed in our bid for a non-

permanent seat in the Security Council for the period

2013 to 2014.

The commitment of Luxembourg is also a

European one, as I have just said. By strengthening its

capabilities and the increased synergy of its

instruments following the entry into force of the

Lisbon Treaty, the European Union is now more than

ever ready to be an active, effective and supportive

actor for the United Nations in all areas in which the

Organization is active. The European Union wants to

be such an active and supportive partner. Hence the

importance we attach to a resolution regulating the

effective participation of the European Union in the

work of our Organization. It is only together in the

United Nations that we can help build a better future

for all.