Mexico, 1993

The United Nations has embarked on an irreversible process

of profound transformation. Efficiency and flexibility will

be the defining features of this process. But an effective

United Nations must continue to be in the service of peace

and development.

The United Nations of the next century must not be a

mechanism, however efficient, for balancing the interests of

the most powerful. The Organization must move ahead as

the world’s primary instrument for promoting development

and solidarity among nations and among men.

Our Organization is first and foremost a body of

sovereign nations. It does not and cannot have any other

will than that expressed here by Member States. The drastic

increase in the number of Members over the last four years,

something that had not been seen since the days of

18 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

decolonization, underscores this characteristic and is also

proof of the confidence that we States place in the United

Nations.

This community of nations now wishes to

internationalize certain issues which in earlier times fell

exclusively within the internal jurisdiction of States.

Mexico, as a country aware of its international

responsibilities, is acting within the requirements of the new

consensuses. But we must repeat time and again that we

reject the idea of international action developing to the

detriment of national sovereignty.

All the peoples represented here must participate in

forging the Organization of the future. Mexico sees in any

reforms a historic opportunity to strengthen the democratic

life of this Organization.

The question of equitable representation in the Security

Council plays a central role in the reform of our

Organization. There is a consensus on the need to increase

the number of seats in the Council. Whereas in 1945 there

were 51 Members of the United Nations, today there are 184

of us. For this reason, we should perhaps try, at the very

least, to double the number of seats in the Council. But

simply increasing the membership would not be enough.

The restructuring of the Council must take into account,

first of all, the fact that the Council lacks authority of its

own. It acts by the mandate of those of us who have

decided, as sovereign States, to delegate our authority to it

for the delicate task of maintaining world peace. The

question of the Council’s composition must be addressed

having regard to the overriding need to guarantee the

legitimacy and transparency of the Council’s actions.

Those who make the greatest contributions to the

maintenance of peace, not necessarily those who are the

largest producers and exporters of the world’s weapons,

should be members of the Council. Carrying out peace-

keeping operations is not simply a question of placing

military contingents at the Council’s disposition. We must

recognize the efforts of all those countries which have

brought about the peaceful settlement of international

disputes. The recent frequent recourse to the Security

Council has tended to hide the fact that our first obligation

is to resolve differences by peaceful means.

A representative body must be democratic. The right

of veto is not democratic, and therefore Mexico has never

supported it. Together, we must seek new ways to control

the exercise of that right and ensure that no permanent

member alone can decide or obstruct the Council’s action.

Transparency in the working methods of the Council

will restore to the General Assembly the primacy derived

from its universality and pluralism. We propose that a

General Assembly working group be established to make

recommendations on all aspects of the Security Council’s

reform.

In recent years peace-keeping operations have increased

considerably. This shows that the world has not yet

managed to resolve its most pressing problems.

Nationalisms persist. Xenophobia and racism are on

the rise. Extreme poverty has increased.

Mexico sees peace-keeping operations as an excellent

instrument for containing the effects of conflict situations.

Such operations exist to create the conditions for a political

solution to be reached by peaceful means. They are an

opportunity for peace, but they are not peace itself.

Before the Security Council decides to set up a peace-

keeping operation, all parties to the conflict must have given

their consent. Only in this way can we guarantee the

inviolability of the sovereign rights of States and respect for

their internal jurisdiction.

A clear mandate is also indispensable. Precisely

because their functions have become diversified, the Blue

Helmets must have clearly delimited fields of activity. My

Government is concerned that the scope of activity of the

members of those forces can be widened in situ, and that

their areas of competence are confused with other collective

actions based on the enforcement measures outlined in

Chapter VII of the Charter.

In Somalia United Nations forces should only ensure

that the international humanitarian aid reaches its intended

beneficiaries. The international community’s support for

peace-keeping operations and humanitarian relief depends on

their impartiality and transparency.

Mexico makes an urgent appeal to Member States

immediately to lay down parameters regulating all aspects of

the establishment and functioning of peace-keeping

operations.

No force can replace political will in finding solutions

to international conflicts. This is demonstrated by the

Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 19

agreement between the Palestinian Liberation Organization

and the State of Israel regarding autonomy for the occupied

territories. Mexico congratulates both the parties involved,

as well as those who assisted them in this great success of

political intelligence, of concertation and respect for the

rights of the other side. Weapons are yielding to the rule of

reason. The self-determination of peoples and the right of

every State to live within secure and recognized boundaries -

principles to which Mexico has always subscribed - are

beginning to gain strength in the Middle East.

In contrast to the signs of hope we are seeing in the

Middle East, the failure of the efforts to bring peace to the

former Yugoslavia is clear. Peace plans come and go, but

there has been no end to the killing and suffering of

innocent people. Mexico urges all the parties to the conflict

to agree on concrete confidence-building measures which

will allow the conditions for a broad, lasting agreement to be

created.

Mexico welcomes the recent decision by the United

States, France, the United Kingdom and Russia unilaterally

to extend the moratorium on nuclear testing. This decision

will make it possible for the Conference on Disarmament

finally to begin negotiations to ratify a treaty completely

banning these tests. We hope that all the nuclear Powers,

including China, will join the moratorium.

This historic decision, inspired and encouraged from the

beginning by my country, will be a vital step in preventing

the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Mexico stresses the

priority of the negotiations, both on their own merits and

because of the effect they will have on the next Non-

Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which will

determine the future of this important international

instrument. For Mexico, the complete cessation of nuclear

tests is inextricably linked to the fate of the non-proliferation

regime.

The community of nations must now confront another

danger: drugs. Now the largest illegal business in history,

they are putting an end to human lives, corrupting the forces

of order and harming political institutions, and they can even

affect the stability of States.

We cannot question the merit of the United Nations

Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and

Psychotropic Substances, an instrument which has served to

guide State policies and coordinate international cooperation.

Certain local and national battles have been won as a result

of them. But the war has not been won, and it is now a

world war.

In view of the uncontrollable spread throughout the

world of the dirty business of drugs, of their consumption,

production and traffic, and all the related illegal activities,

we must give thought to the ineffectiveness of the strategies

we have followed, and we must adopt a new course. We

must intensify our political determination, imagination and

strategic creativity and, above all, international cooperation

in which there is respect for sovereignty and no one claims

preeminence, in order to stop the growth of this terrible

social cancer.

Another central issue of our times is the great migratory

currents which are developing with renewed vigour as the

century draws to a close. The great international migrations

are a result of the polarization of wealth and well-being.

They are a problem which affects the entire world,

exceeding the capacity for action of individual States. We

need new plans for international cooperation to seek

solutions to the most distressing problems relating to

economic underdevelopment.

Every wave of migration throughout history has its own

explanations, and the explanations are not necessarily related.

However, they always include the search for a better life.

Changes in the world’s structure are both a brake on

migration and an encouragement. In 1989, 1 per cent of the

world’s population - more than 50 million people - lived

outside their country of origin. In 1992, only three years

later, this figure had doubled. At the beginning of the

1990s, the number of refugees in the world had reached 17

million.

Those countries which, because of their economic

development and social peace, seem to be able to accept new

groups of migrants are today undergoing internal conflicts at

times expressed through manifestations of ethnic and

religious intolerance.

During this period of difficult transition towards a new

ordering of power and balance in the world, internal

tensions, protectionist tendencies, the global recession and

the disintegration of numerous States have combined to

make certain countries perceive the phenomenon of

migration as a threat to their national security.

Let us keep this phenomenon from overwhelming us by

adopting restrictive measures that are only superficial

palliatives.

Mexico proposes that the Assembly begin serious

thought on this subject as soon as possible.

20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

The national plans of any State must be based on

policies which make it possible for the inhabitants to live in

a dignified manner in their own country. Only in this way

can we ensure that whole peoples will not try to leave in

search of better economic opportunities. Extreme poverty

has increased in all areas of the world. For as long as the

richest one fifth of the world’s population represents 83 per

cent of total income, we will have failed in our efforts at

economic cooperation.

The countries of Latin America and those of Central

and Eastern Europe have made special efforts to make

internal adjustments to bring about economic reforms that

would have been hard even to imagine a few years ago. The

problem of critical poverty, however, cannot be left to the

whim of market forces. In Mexico the State has not

abdicated its social responsibility. Indeed, we have

strengthened our development policies based on solidarity.

President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has said, time and

time again, that in order to consolidate any programme of

adjustment and economic stability, the promotion of social

programmes is indispensable. He has also stressed that the

expansion, modernization and proper orientation of

educational programmes was the only way, in the long term,

to increase productivity and raise the living standards of the

people.

The convening of the World Summit for Social

Development in 1995 shows that the United Nations has

acknowledged the priority nature of this item on the

international agenda. Mexico is already participating with

enthusiasm in preparations for this important event.

In the course of this year the World Conference on

Human Rights was held at Vienna. The agreements reached

must lead to a strengthening of already existing legal

instruments. The community of States participating in the

Conference expressed their political determination to

implement these agreements in a non-selective manner, with

objectivity and respect for universality. This is a

fundamental aspect of the protection and promotion of

human rights throughout the world. Mexico would repeat

before the Assembly that full respect for human rights

requires us to direct our efforts towards the weakest groups:

those that live in conditions of poverty, refugees, ethnic

minorities, and all those people in need of respect for their

way of life and their culture.

Mexico’s total trade with the United States of America

and Canada is equivalent to 20 per cent of its gross national

product. For this reason it signed the North American Free

Trade Agreement and parallel agreements. On that basis we

hope to promote, regulate and ensure trade flows, services

and investments among these three countries. In due course

this will be the largest free-trade area in the world: 360

million people with a product worth $7 trillion, a moving

force of principal importance for the world economy.

But Mexico is also a substantial and proud part of Latin

America. We have our cultural links and historic alliances

in Latin America. We give priority to our cooperation with

Central America and with the countries of the Caribbean.

We participate actively in the Rio Group and in the Latin

American Economic System (SELA). We, together with

Colombia and Venezuela, are involved in negotiations on

free trade with the Group of Three, and we hope that these

will be completed this year. With Chile we already have an

agreement which has been in existence since January 1992.

We are also having talks with other countries in the area.

We participate actively in the Ibero-American

Conference, which is gaining the kind of standing that befits

an organization of 21 Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking

countries in America and Europe.

As an Atlantic country we feel very close to Europe,

where we have our principal partners and friends. We feel

especially close to the European Community, with which we

have a standing dialogue.

We are also a Pacific country and have significantly

expanded the number of our representatives and our trade

with Asian countries. We appreciate the support that has

been given to us by the countries of the Asia Pacific

Economic Cooperation Council to help us to enter that body

very soon.

We have also been invited by the 24 countries of the

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

(OECD). We appreciate the invitation. We are working out

the details of our entry into this prestigious group.

We congratulate the leaders of South Africa, President

De Klerk and Nelson Mandela, on the agreements that they

have reached and we are ready immediately to initiate full

relations with that Republic.

We recognize and fully support the efforts that have

been made in Haiti. Our Ambassador has now returned to

Port au Prince. We reiterate our offer to the Secretary-

General to give technical and economic resources for the

general recovery of Haiti.

Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 21

We wish to continue to be respectful friends of each

and every one of the States that are Members of the United

Nations.

The central strategy of the foreign policies of President

Carlos Salinas de Gortari are diversification and the

deepening of our relations with all regions and countries of

the world.

Mexico has already begun preparations for the

commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the United

Nations. In my country this will not be an occasion for

meaningless celebrations and self-congratulatory gestures.

We are making a serious effort to give serious thought to the

future of the Organization. The first question that we must

answer, however, is: What functions do we want the United

Nations to perform in the coming century? All the rest will

follow by accretion.

If in truth we have an opportunity - as has so often

been said since the end of the cold war - to turn the

Organization into the cornerstone of a truly new, more just

international order, then let us take action.