Kingdom of the Netherlands, 2013

This year, we

celebrate the centennial of the Peace Palace in The

Hague, seat of the International Court of Justice (ICC)

and the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and symbol of

the pursuit of peace by means of law. Next year, we will

commemorate the centennial of the first of two suicidal

world wars that caused unspeakable human suffering,

horrible crimes against humanity and the oppression of

half of Europe’s population until the Berlin wall came

down in 1989.

Out of the ashes of those global conflagrations

grew the desire of the peoples of the world to put an end

to violent conflict and to guarantee human rights for

every human being in every country. “Never again” is

what humankind wanted. Unfortunately, so far it is not

what we have been able to deliver to everyone.

During the festive celebrations this year in The

Hague, which gave fresh impetus to the peaceful

settlement of disputes, there were scenes of unspeakable

violence in Syria, including the use of chemical

weapons. More recently, in Nairobi, dozens of people

were killed by terrorists. One of the victims was Dr.

Elif Yavuz, a young Dutch woman who was eight

months pregnant with her first baby. My heart goes out

to Dr. Yavuz’s family, to all the victims of the Nairobi

attack and to their loved ones.

The powerlessness of the international community

to put an end to abuses like those has led in the past

to the establishment of new bodies and instruments.

After the Second World War, the United Nations was

founded and the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights was adopted. Following more recent genocides,

the International Criminal Court was established. The

use of chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein led to the

Chemical Weapons Convention and the Organization

for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

So the institutions and instruments are in place. The

question is, what is preventing them from delivering

results? Perhaps the answer to the question was given

already four centuries ago by Dutch philosopher Baruch

Spinoza when he wrote: “Peace is not an absence of

war; it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for

benevolence, confidence, justice”.

It is my conviction that the international community

must keep working on the project we launched a hundred

years ago. We should follow the example of Dr. Yavuz,

who was committed to helping people suffering from

HIV/AIDS and malaria. We should work to achieve

her aims and uphold her ideals. We should make clear

that terrorism will never triumph. We should invest in

the United Nations and support it as effectively as we

can. We strongly support the Secretary-General and

the message he delivered here on Tuesday (A/68/PV.5).

We will join him on the road to peace, justice and

development.

The Netherlands advocates a coherent agenda for

strengthening the international legal order. A peaceful

world demands a sustainable legal order and a powerful

agenda for development. It demands a strategy for

disarmament and a focus on human rights. Those are

the principles of the foreign policy of the Netherlands.

A partnership for peace, justice and development is the

cornerstone of the Dutch candidacy for a non-permanent

seat in the Security Council in 2017-2018.

The world was shocked to discover that an attack

with chemical weapons had taken place in Syria

on 21 August. The attack violated one of the most

important peremptory norms of international law. The

1925 Geneva Protocol, to which Syria is a party, bans

the use of chemical weapons. The situation in Syria

poses a clear threat to international peace and security.

The Netherlands calls on the Security Council to take

concerted action to address that threat. We have just

heard from the representative of Australia what is going

to happen today.

Syria does not comply with the international

norm that requires it to protect its citizens. But the

international community also has a responsibility.

The Netherlands supports the proposal that permanent

Security Council members should henceforth refrain

from using their veto power in votes on intervention

to stop the mass atrocity crimes identified by the

2005 World Summit. They should show that they are

serious about their responsibility to protect vulnerable

populations, underlining our consensus that genocide,

war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic

cleansing must never be tolerated.

As the Secretary-General said, those responsible

for the atrocities in Syria should be held accountable in

accordance with international law. The use of chemical

weapons is a war crime under the Rome Statute. If the

Syrian Government itself sees no possibility of tracking

down and prosecuting the guilty parties, it can ask the

ICC to do so. If Syria makes no request, the Security

Council must take action. Finally, as the Secretary-

General also said, we can hardly be satisfied with the

destruction of chemical weapons while the wider war

continues to destroy Syria and kill innocent people. A

peaceful solution is needed. And the women of Syria

should be involved in making that happen, as there can

be no solution without them.

Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women,

peace and security provides an outstanding tool for

promoting inclusive conflict resolution. This week we

hosted a side event marking the importance of women’s

political participation for successful transitions in the

Middle East and North Africa. The Executive Director

of UN-Women told me earlier this week that courage

is every woman’s middle name. It certainly is in Syria.

The Netherlands supports John Kerry’s efforts to

encourage Israel and the Palestinian Authority to arrive

at a two-State solution through direct negotiations. The

international community should support the Israeli-

Palestinian talks. Only a political solution can lead to

lasting peace.

Fifty years ago, United States President John F.

Kennedy expressed the fear that in the 1970s there

would be 15, 20 or even 25 nuclear-weapon States.

Thanks in part to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation

of Nuclear Weapons, that danger was averted, but the

risk of further proliferation of nuclear weapons has not

receded. While much has been achieved in the field

of disarmament, there is still a long way to go. In his

speech in Berlin in June, President Obama warned of

the danger of nuclear weapons. “As long as nuclear

weapons exist, we are not truly safe”, he said — and he

is right. He plans to take new steps to reduce strategic

nuclear arsenals. He also wants to make substantial

reductions in the number of United States and Russian

non-strategic weapons in Europe. The Netherlands is in

favour of those steps, strongly supports the efforts and

wants to contribute to them.

In March of next year, the Nuclear Security Summit

will convene in The Hague. My country’s hosting of the

Summit is in keeping with our tradition as a country of

peace, justice and security. Nuclear materials can play

an important role in curing our illnesses and heating

our homes. And fortunately, the likelihood of terrorists

using nuclear materials in an attack is small. But if it

did happen, the consequences for the world would be

very serious indeed.

The Nuclear Security Summit is meant to give

fresh impetus to global efforts to ensure nuclear

security and prevent nuclear terrorism by making and

implementing agreements at the highest multilateral

level. Governments, businesses, researchers and

organizations from many countries are working

together to reduce the quantities of nuclear materials,

to enhance the security of the materials that remain,

and to combat nuclear smuggling.

The centennial of the Peace Palace is a good

occasion to highlight the peaceful settlement of

disputes. The Netherlands has used the celebrations

to strengthen instruments for peaceful settlement. We

advocate taking three interrelated steps.

First, we need to encourage countries to recognize

the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court

of Justice. As States Members of the United Nations,

we recognize the Court as a principal organ of the

United Nations. In my view, recognizing its compulsory

jurisdiction is a logical and necessary next step.

Secondly, we must help countries realize how useful

and flexible arbitration is as a way of settling disputes.

The Security Council and the General Assembly could

draw parties’ attention to that instrument more often

and we should advocate it more often in the public

debate. Thirdly, we must reduce the obstacles to the

peaceful settlement of disputes by making alternatives

available. This is why the Netherlands enthusiastically

supports the Department of Political Affairs and

non-governmental organization that promote mediation.

In his 2011 report on the responsibility to protect

(A/65/877), the Secretary-General rightly pointed

out the importance of mediation as a means of

preventing atrocity crimes. National legal systems

are the foundation of the international legal order.

Strengthening national legal systems should make it

possible to keep the courtrooms of the International

Criminal Court closed.

The ICC is inextricably linked to the global chain

of legal institutions. It delivers justice in the wake of

international crimes, thus helping to prevent future

offences. So it is crucial that countries continue to

accede to the Rome Statute and that popular support

for it be maintained. We need to ensure that countries

that have acceded to the Statute continue to work with

the ICC.

This year marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the

twentieth anniversary of the Vienna Declaration.

The Universal Declaration is an enduring source of

inspiration. It was adopted without a single dissenting

vote under the inspired leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt,

who acted as a change agent before the expression

was coined. Just before the vote she said, “We stand

today at the threshold of a great event both in the life

of the United Nations and in the life of mankind” (see

A/PV.180).

The World Conference on Human Rights in

Vienna underlined that human rights are universal,

indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Twenty

years after Vienna, the blueprints of our human rights

infrastructure are complete. Now it is time to ensure

the necessary implementation, political will, capacity,

financial resources and treaty body reforms. To that

end, Dutch human rights policy stresses the importance

of forging trilateral partnerships in different regions

of the world. We focus on protecting human rights

defenders and promoting LGBT and women’s rights.

Without development, there can be no global

peace and security. We are fast approaching 2015,

and have made great progress. In the next two years

we can still make a difference and advance towards

the Millennium Development Goals. The post-2015

development agenda will also benefit from a single,

unified framework. We cannot talk about the plight

of the world’s poorest people in isolation from the

environmental problems endangering life on our planet.

It is crucial to ensure that development is sustainable so

that we can balance and integrate its economic, social

and ecological dimensions. Peace, security and the rule

of law constitute a fourth vital element of sustainable

development.

The key words for the post-2015 development

agenda are better aid, more trade and stronger policy

coherence for sustainable development. Also, we

need to promote women’s rights. That includes sexual

and reproductive health and rights, as well as equal

opportunity. I have four children — two of them are

girls. It would be unbearable for me, as a parent, if they

did not have equal opportunity as their brothers.

It goes without saying that a nation that was built

by claiming its lands from the sea is concerned when

rising sea levels might endanger that claim. Therefore,

we feel a strong solidarity with other countries that are

threatened in the same way. The Netherlands wants to

strengthen the synergy between climate and poverty-

reduction policies, particularly in the field of water and

food security.

Exactly 75 years ago today, British Prime Minister

Chamberlain said, in a radio address on the Sudetenland

crisis,

“How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we

should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks

here because of a quarrel in a far away country

between people of whom we know nothing.”

Czechoslovakia was dismembered shortly afterwards.

That was not just the fault of the signatories of

the Munich Agreement. The entire international

community — especially Czechoslovakia’s fellow

democracies in Europe, including my own country, the

Netherlands — looked the other way.

Today we can no longer pretend to know nothing of

quarrels in faraway countries or of the people who live

there. If we fail, it is not because of the deficiency of the

legal instruments that we have developed. It is because

of the international community’s deficient sense of

responsibility. It is our duty to take responsibility in

addressing the crisis in Syria.

The Secretary-General talked earlier this week

about leadership and identified Nelson Mandela as a

shining example. I wish we would all listen to “Madiba”

more often. On Syria, we should follow the Secretary-

General’s lead and make peace and justice a reality.

Investing in the United Nations is an investment

in our common future. We are shareholders with a

long-term interest. We need to have the instruments for

peace, justice and development ready for the moment

that they can help avert catastrophe. That is why we

invested in the Organization for the Prohibition of

Chemical Weapons, which has now proved crucial in

the Syrian crisis. That is why we should invest in the

legitimacy and effectiveness of the Security Council.

That is why we should work as hard as we can to come

up with a clear and ambitious post-2015 sustainable

development agenda. We are all in this together; we

should invest together in our United Nations.