Monaco, 1995

Allow me first of all, and with particular gratitude, to

extend to the President’s predecessor, His Excellency Mr.

Amara Essy, our warmest compliments for the care and

discipline he displayed during his presidency of the forty-

ninth session of the General Assembly. Our compliments

also go to the other officers who worked with him.

Allow me also to extend the sincere congratulations

of the delegation of the Principality of Monaco to the new

Bureau that has just been elected and say how pleased we

are to see this fiftieth session of the General Assembly

under the esteemed authority of Mr. Freitas do Amaral.

The country he represents, a country that is open to

the world, tolerant, accessible, culturally rich and enriched

by the cultures it has encountered throughout its history,

deserved to be given this recognition. Our General

Assembly decided to give it and we are deeply gratified.

His personality and great political experience at the national

and international levels, has recognized abilities and

dynamism should all help to ensure the success of this

important session.

Its importance is first of all symbolic. Since man

invented calendars, anniversaries have been occasions for

celebration and rejoicing, and, as many speakers have said

before me, for taking stock.

Since its inception, our Organization has lived through

highly complex political, economic, social and cultural

events and phenomena which make any appraisal difficult.

It position and role have grown constantly and gained in

importance over the past fifty years. The expectations that

people have for it and the hopes they place in it can be

measured by the depth of the disappointment and bitterness

that can be seen in cases of failure or difficulty.

Has the United Nations not always tried to respond to

the constant and often conflicting appeals made to it? Its

responses are inspired by the fundamental values that

prevailed when the Charter was drafted in 1945. Let us not

forget that our States, by joining the United Nations,

recognized the universality of these values. We must remain

true to them and provide assistance whenever they are

endangered. Recent events, still fresh in all our minds, have

reminded us that these values have not always been

respected and that faith in fundamental human rights, in the

dignity and worth of the human person, and in the equal

rights of men and women and of nations, large and small,

has not always been shared. And so, at this fiftieth

anniversary of our Organization, these values must be

recalled forcefully and with conviction at every opportunity

so that these same values can be the inspiration for each of

our resolutions, and every text we adopt.

Above and beyond the States that we represent and

their legitimate political interests, it is individuals — often

vulnerable and adversely affected by poverty or war —

who must be the recipients of international cooperation. It

is our duty to live up to their expectations.

When we look at the situation in this way, whether in

terms of the Organization as a whole or in terms of certain

of its organs, such as the Security Council, it becomes clear

that there is a constant effort at adapting on the part of the

international community, and a need — widely

anticipated — to make our Organization more

performance-oriented, more representative and closer to

the concerns of its membership.

We have followed with interest the work of the

various Working Groups set up to that end. We have

participated, and we have made suggestions, inter alia,

with regard to equitable representation within the Security

Council and an increase in its membership.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase

in the membership of the United Nations, and today it

includes all, or almost all, nations of the Earth. And so it

would seem quite normal that its decision-making bodies,

including the Security Council, should reflect this new

reality. As the famous French writer and philosopher Paul

Valéry wisely said, we have reached the stage when the

end of the world is beginning. For this reason, we must

now redouble our efforts and heighten our vigilance so

that our Organization may be able to respond to this

universality, in a relevant manner and in all its diversity

and richness.

Along with reforming its decision-making bodies, the

United Nations must continue to improve its functioning

and restructure its operations. Major efforts have been

made. We would thank the Secretary-General for this, and

we would also thank the members of the Secretariat.

Improving the functioning of this Organization must

take account of the need to strengthen its multilingual

nature. Every staff member should know at least the two

working languages of the Organization. Using just one

language deprives the Organization of a rich resource. If

we wish to really enhance the effectiveness of the

Secretariat, we should first of all concentrate seriously on

improving the language abilities of staff members so that

they have a truly international culture and dimension.

As can be seen from our history, the people of

Monaco and the Government of our Principality, like all

peace-loving peoples, follow very closely all initiatives to

reduce armaments and transform the arms race — which

has gone on too long — into a race towards disarmament.

Let us hope that with the end of the cold war, this

approach will be strengthened and that despite technical

and financial problems, disarmament processes will not

only continue but speed up.

We must more than ever ensure that respect for

international treaties and agreements and for international

14

law shall replace the balance of terror, and that the law thus

serve justice.

It is in this spirit that we wholeheartedly welcome the

indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation

of Nuclear Weapons. Our Principality was in favour of this

extension, and so once again we would thank the parties to

the Treaty for this courageous decision, which was inspired

by trust and hope. We welcome the initiative of the Powers

that have already entered into a commitment — which had

been expected for next fall — to ban, over the short term,

all nuclear-weapon tests. This is a major advance.

Our Government also welcomes particularly the

decisions taken at the meeting, currently under way in

Vienna, aimed at establishing a moratorium on the

production of anti-personnel land-mines. We trust that this

example will be followed widely.

Since joining the United Nations, the Principality of

Monaco has been co-sponsoring the resolution on assistance

in mine clearance. By contributing financially to the

voluntary fund created for that purpose, my country’s

highest authorities wished to become involved, in a

concrete way, in the implementation of that resolution. The

international community, quite rightly, was shocked by the

death and mutilation caused by these mines, which afflict

mainly civilian populations, and children in particular.

Our delegation would hope that significant progress

could be made in strengthening security and cooperation in

the region of the Mediterranean, in the spirit of resolution

49/81, which we co-sponsored and which was adopted on

15 December 1994. Our Principality hopes that we will

always be involved in all the initiatives relating to the

Mediterranean countries.

We are also ready to support all initiatives in favour

of international cooperation relating to the peaceful uses of

outer space and those intended to develop, in collaboration

with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization, education and information programmes in

support of disarmament. Making young people aware of

this issue is a fundamental guarantee for peace in the years

to come.

While general and complete disarmament, no doubt

still far off, may today seem utopian to some, nevertheless

that goal must remain our ambition. For when weapons

awaken, their might and their destructive power are

limitless.

This year, conflicts have been particularly

devastating. Wars of another age have become the wars

of our age, attacking, brutally and without distinction,

men, women, children and defenceless old people.

The Government of the Principality is thus resolutely

in favour of strengthening preventive diplomacy on the

part of the United Nations. We would thank the

Secretary-General for the initiatives he has already taken

to promote the settlement of many disputes and to avoid

the eruption or continuation of conflicts. The “Supplement

to An Agenda for Peace'” is an irreplaceable source of

ideas, suggestions and wise solutions.

It is no longer tolerable that the Blue Helmets be

mistreated, humiliated, taken hostage and used as human

shields with no means of defending themselves. Those

men and women are no doubt ready to sacrifice their life,

but not their dignity.

This is a particularly appropriate time to stress —

because recently the Organization has been criticized very

sharply — how much it has contributed to the successful

solution of disputes, which have sometimes been very

difficult ones, and how much courage has been needed to

take certain decisions and to carry out certain operations

successfully.

The hopes for peace coming out of the Middle East

and Bosnia and Herzegovina represent a significant

recognition of the courage that has been demonstrated,

and they are an invitation to us to continue to persevere

and to be optimistic. The report of the Secretary-General

on the work of the Organization reminds us, in a very

timely way, of this, mentioning the 24 operations

currently under way in the areas of preventive diplomacy,

the restoration and maintenance of peace, and the four

major operations, which he describes as multifaceted.

Coordination within the Secretariat between the three

Departments involved in peace-keeping operations

responds to current needs and concerns, a fact we note

with great satisfaction.

When diplomacy, at the end of its tether, cannot

prevail and conflict erupts, then barbarism triumphs. No

law of war, no humanitarian law, can control it. The most

vulnerable human beings and those without weapons are

not spared. The only way to help them is by humanitarian

assistance.

15

In conditions that are always very difficult and

sometimes dangerous, many humanitarian operations have

been conducted in a most admirable way in the last few

months. Men and women have lost their lives, and I pay

tribute to their suffering and to their memory. I would pay

tribute in particular to the “blue helmets”, the soldiers of

peace, and to the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees and to UNICEF, as well as to the many non-

governmental organizations, some well-known, some less

well-known, that have all worked tirelessly, constantly and

with determination to protect, feed and provide medical and

health care to populations that are adrift, assaulted by

ruthless armed conflict.

This year, the Principality of Monaco contributed a

large percentage of its public efforts to financial

contributions in the humanitarian and social fields. We will

continue to do so, hoping that the action that is taken to

this end can be completed as the conflicts themselves cease.

We would like to lend our support, and this is in the

spirit of the suggestions made by the Chairman of the

delegation of Monaco, His Serene Highness, Crown Prince

Albert, to the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session,

to the thinking now under way on the strengthening of the

coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance provided

by the United Nations.

The international Tribunals created on the initiative of

the United Nations designed to prosecute those responsible

for crimes against international humanitarian law in the

territories of the former Yugoslavia and of Rwanda must be

quickly established and enabled to function so as not to

disappoint the hopes that have been placed in them.

The idea of an international criminal court also

deserves consideration and support.

Humanitarian actions and respect for international

humanitarian law are corollaries in a period of armed

conflict to the struggle being waged by the United Nations

to ensure general and universal respect for human rights.

Since the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights

in Vienna, significant progress seems to be under way.

With human and material resources that are far from

sufficient to meet actual needs, the Centre for Human

Rights, thanks to the commitment and the extensive

experience of its staff, is successfully continuing its work.

The increase in the number and the quality of the

consultants and the technical assistance provided plays a

major role in ensuring that human rights are no longer

just a concept, but become a reality. The presence in

many countries of specialists working in varied areas,

such as training, education, legislative reform and public

information is one way of anchoring human rights and,

thereby, the state of law in society on a day-to-day basis.

The dispatch of observers to certain troubled regions

of the world today is also an excellent initiative. We hope

that it will continue, because it strengthens the moral

presence of the United Nations. The creation of the post

of High Commissioner is also in keeping with this

approach, and we would encourage his actions.

International cooperation in favour of the respect for

human rights and fundamental freedoms, which is one of

the basic vocations of this Organization, is being

strengthened thereby.

Rights that are applied to certain categories but

which should remain universal — as the Fourth World

Conference on Women in Beijing has just rightly recalled

by describing women’s rights as being inseparable from

human rights — must be recognized and strengthened in

their application.

The implementation of international Conventions

relating to those rights is an essential element in this

strengthening process. The committees set up pursuant to

those instruments are the focus of this process and of the

arrangements made to implement it. They must be given

the means to act and to react.

The Government of Monaco is particularly involved

in the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of

the Child of 20 November 1989, and that of the

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms

of Racial Discrimination of 21 December 1965, to which

the Principality of Monaco has just become a party.

The human condition in the twenty-first century will

depend to a large extent not only on respect for civil and

political rights, but also on the promotion of economic,

social and cultural rights.

It is in terms of human rights that we have to look

at development, a point made in the 1993 Vienna

Declaration.

The recent World Summit for Social Development

in Copenhagen also adopted this approach. My

16

Government noted with interest the conclusions of the

Fourth World Conference on Women, which has just ended

in Beijing.

All of this leads us to think, as does the Secretary-

General, that development must first of all be recognized as

a primary task of our age.

The fundamental objective must be to improve the

standards of living of people throughout the world,

including the developed countries, where an increasingly

large part of the population is excluded from the benefits of

progress.

The satisfaction of basic needs and the elimination of

poverty, hunger, sickness and ignorance must be goals that

we constantly seek to attain, using all available means.

The Government of Monaco devotes a major part of

its resources to social assistance, particularly for women

and children, those who are most in need.

The celebration in 1996 of the International Year for

the Eradication of Poverty will be an excellent occasion for

strengthening the implementation of these

recommendations.

Recent work on the “Agenda for Development” has

attracted close attention. For the Principality of Monaco,

development must above all be sustainable and based on

balanced economic exchange and trade, harmonious

regional integration and careful protection of the

environment.

The implementation of Agenda 21, the Conventions

and resolutions adopted at Rio de Janeiro in support of the

environment and development, is in our view a priority.

The General Assembly has decided that 1998 shall be

the Year of the Oceans. The people of Monaco, like all

peoples that love the sea, are eagerly awaiting this event.

Through our history, our traditions and our economy

Monaco, like many other countries in the world, depends to

a large extent on the sea and its resources, whether these be

living, commercial, tourist or industrial.

Protecting this valuable element of the environment

against all kinds of thoughtless pollution and over-

exploitation is a major concern. Enough must be done at

the regional and international levels to protect it. In the

Mediterranean, the Principality of Monaco is doing what it

can, along with its closest neighbours France and Italy,

within the framework of international agreements with

practical and specific goals.

The year 1998 must be an opportunity for us to

become more aware and to launch new multidisciplinary

and well-planned programmes so that the next century

will not see an irreversible worsening of the state of the

seas and oceans. In this connection, we are glad that the

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is

willing to act as the secretariat for the world programme

of action to protect the marine environment against land-

based pollution. The Government of Monaco will be

interested in this programme and any other action to

eliminate organic pollution from the marine environment.

The Oceanographic Museum of Monaco is involved

in the international initiative to protect coral reefs. We

have organized an exhibition to make the public more

aware of the need to protect coral, which is particularly

sensitive to all forms of pollution and which, to develop,

requires a healthy and protected environment. The UNEP

programme on regional seas deserves encouragement.

I cannot conclude my statement without mentioning

the very serious financial crisis that the Organization is

going through. The measures taken by the Secretary-

General are mere palliatives. If all Member States were to

live up to their commitments there would be no problem;

there would be no need for working groups or committees

of experts, which, after all, involve additional expenditure

for the Organization.

In conclusion, I should like to repeat something that

was said by a famous politician: the United Nations, like

nations, shapes its own future; nothing good comes to it

by chance; those that serve it are those that develop their

inner strength.