Kingdom of the Netherlands, 2008

When the present

session of the General Assembly began on Tuesday, the

Secretary-General made important remarks about the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the

financial crisis. The world is witnessing extraordinary

financial turbulence, and all parties must shoulder their

responsibility.

At the same time, the current crisis should not

distract us from the need to achieve the MDGs. What

kind of world do we want to leave to our children and

grandchildren? Any parent who considers that question

for a moment will answer: a world in which my

children are safe and can build decent lives, free from

want; a world in which my children can reach their full

potential without fear of repression or terror; a world in

which my children are free and their rights are

protected.

Everything that we do as the United Nations is

about deep desires. There is a direct link between this

United Nations building and the homes of hundreds of

millions of families all over the world.

One man who forcefully reminded us that we are

responsible for the opportunities open to future

generations was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In early

1941, in the darkest hour of the Second World War, he

gave us his vision of the future: the dawning of a world

in which people would enjoy freedom of expression

and belief and would be free from fear and want. After

the war, those freedoms became our moral compass.

They were set out in the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights, proclaimed by this very Assembly

almost 60 years ago. Human rights remain the

cornerstone of Dutch policy.

If we look around us today, we can see that

reality falls far short of our ideal. We still live in a

world where, each year, more than 9 million children

die before they reach the age of five, and every day

millions of people live in fear of violence and the

abuse of power.

We cannot accept that. Together, the United

Nations comprises a working community and our work

is not done — not by a long way. Global challenges

require global solutions. Global solutions require

global action. Every one of us needs to ask ourselves:

What am I doing to make freedom a reality for people

at home and elsewhere?

What are we doing to bring about freedom from

want? In the past 10 years, millions of people have

managed to escape from poverty. In Asia and parts of

Africa, a great deal of progress has been made, thanks

to the efforts of many people. That progress should

inspire hope as we continue to work towards the

Millennium Development Goals. There is still so much

to do. In some countries, the situation is actually

getting worse, especially where health is concerned.

One child still dies every three seconds, one mother

every minute.

All Governments need to realize that good and

ethical governance is an essential foundation for

development, and realizing that, they must act

accordingly. That also applies to the current financial

crisis, where urgent action is needed. The financial

sector and regulators should quickly implement the

recommendations of the Financial Stability Forum:

stricter supervision, better risk management, greater

transparency and enhanced accountability. That is how

to restore confidence in the financial markets and

prevent future crises. The International Monetary Fund

should play a central role in that process by further

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stepping up its financial sector oversight. Together, we

should re-establish the stability and integrity of the

financial system.

Governments have a duty to provide food for

their people. The international community will support

all those who fight against hunger, want and disease,

but we must do so as efficiently as possible. We must

not waste resources; the need is too great. Above all,

we must work together. We must work together with

other Governments, certainly, but also with the

business community and civil society. Public-private

partnership works. I meet more and more entrepreneurs

who are committed to the Millennium Development

Goals and actively want to help. Let us grasp the hands

they extend.

The Netherlands welcomes the initiative of

Mr. d’Escoto Brockmann to place food security at the

centre of this session of the General Assembly. Rising

food prices hit the poor hardest. The position of small

farmers is particularly important. If they are able to

increase production, not only will their own families

benefit, but the local community will too. That is why

the Netherlands has earmarked extra funding for the

development of agriculture in developing countries.

However, there can be no food without water.

Water is the source of all life — 1.8 billion people

currently have no proper access to clean drinking

water, and their health, their very lives, are in the

balance. So the Netherlands has joined with countries

that believe that water is a human right, because access

to water is an essential part of freedom from want.

What are we doing to ensure that second essential

freedom — freedom from fear? Millions of people still

live in the middle of conflict and violence. We must

not accept that. Over the past 60 years, United Nations

peace operations have played an important role in

ending conflict. In many areas, the United Nations has

ensured that dormant conflicts do not flare up again. So

our efforts must continue, undiminished. Yet peace

operations alone are not enough. The root cause of a

conflict is often a political dispute, and it often requires

a political solution.

There is no place in a free society for torture.

There is no place for the death penalty. We all strive

for a life without fear, yet there are people who face

fear every day in order to defend human rights. To

recognize those brave people, the Netherlands has

introduced the Human Rights Defenders Tulip, a

special honour that will be awarded annually on

International Human Rights Day.

In our free world, no one is above the law and no

one is beneath it. The Netherlands is proud to host the

legal capital of the world in the city of The Hague. We

will continue to strive for an International Criminal

Court that is supported by all Member States. In a safe

world, right is stronger than might. Crimes that outrage

world opinion must always be punished. The

International Criminal Court is there to support us in

that task, and we must support the Court — all of us,

openly and unconditionally. A wider acceptance of the

jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice will

also strengthen the international legal order.

We also need to speak about freedom of

expression and belief. The debate on that issue often

leads to misunderstandings, incomprehension and fears

that national traditions may be swept aside. We can all

be proud of our cultures and traditions, of the things

that distinguish us from others. The challenge for every

Government is to affirm its people’s cultural and

religious values and customs, and at the same time to

build bridges with the rest of the world — bridges that

enable people, organizations and religions to meet and

draw closer. Finding the right balance is not easy, but it

is essential.

Governments are there for everyone — for men

and women; for people of all backgrounds and all

religious convictions; for monks, priests, rabbis and

imams; and equally for those who do not believe in a

supreme being. Religion offers people comfort and

inspiration in their personal lives. A religion is not a

system of dogmas that may be imposed on others by

force, and it is certainly not a justification for using

violence when one feels aggrieved.

Everyone is free to profess his or her faith, to

change religion or not to believe. We must all cherish

and defend the freedom of religion or belief. The same

goes for the freedom of people to express their views,

and those freedoms go hand in hand.

We all know that there are countries in the world

where those freedoms are violated, and to those

countries I say: Respect the right of every person to

freedom of religion and freedom of expression. They

are universal rights. They are universal freedoms. At

the same time, we must remind everyone who enjoys

those freedoms of their responsibility — the

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responsibility to show the same respect to others that

we claim for ourselves.

We need the United Nations to ensure those four

essential freedoms for which we stand, and the United

Nations needs us. A strong United Nations is one in

which universal values are central — a United Nations

with a fair and balanced Human Rights Council, a

United Nations that unites and delivers. When we

began building the United Nations together, the number

of countries worldwide in which people enjoyed a

reasonable level of freedom was around 15 per cent of

the total. Today, more than 60 per cent of countries can

be called free.

In the same period, the number of people

suffering from malnutrition has fallen by several

hundred million. The number of armed conflicts is also

declining, however serious the situation remains in

certain troubled regions. Progress is possible, but it

does not happen by itself. For the Netherlands, that is

an incentive to continue working, heart and soul, for “a

world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of

speech and belief and freedom from fear and want”.

In conclusion, let me echo President Roosevelt’s

words: “The world order which we seek is the

cooperation of free countries, working together in a

friendly, civilized society.”