Norway, 1995

I wish first of all to

congratulate the President of the General Assembly upon

his election to his high office in the year of the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations. May I, at the same time,

extend my sincere thanks to the outgoing President, His

Excellency Mr. Amara Essy, for his excellent work.

Fifty years ago, my countryman Trygve Lie became

Secretary-General of an Organization with a very modest

structure but with a “sacred mandate”, as he said in his

acceptance speech,

“to build a firm foundation for the peace of the

world”. (Official Records of the General Assembly,

First Session, Plenary Meetings, 22nd meeting, p. 326)

Since then, even greater demands have been made on the

United Nations in terms of leadership, ideas, manpower and

finances. On the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, we

must empower the United Nations to work with renewed

vigour and effectiveness in promoting peace, human rights,

sustainable development, equality, justice and understanding

among peoples.

Rather than being poised to take on new challenges,

however, the United Nations finds itself in a financial crisis

of major proportions. The Secretary-General has recently

pointed out that the Organization is, in a technical sense,

insolvent — yes, bankrupt. Only prompt payment by a

small number of Member States has enabled it to continue

to operate. The situation is more serious than ever before

because of the unprecedented amounts involved and the fact

that one major contributor’s payment is being withheld and

is expected to be unilaterally reduced in the years ahead.

This desperate financial situation reflects the

inadequate priority given to the United Nations by many of

its Members, which is in clear violation of their obligations.

It may sound harsh, but, coming from a country which

consistently pays $100 per capita to the United Nations

system, I have difficulties in explaining to my own

electorate that other rich countries are not even willing to

provide one tenth of that level.

At the same time, I realize that the United Nations

assessment system should be reformed without delay.

Moreover, experience has shown that the United Nations

itself needs to be reformed, restructured and modernized.

Norway wholeheartedly supports the reform process

launched to strengthen the United Nations system and

make it more representative and effective. This should

include expansion of the membership of the Security

Council and increased transparency of its methods of

work.

To meet the twin challenges of peace and sustainable

development, the United Nations and its Member States

should proceed along five parallel paths.

First, we must help increase local and regional

capacity to handle conflict situations. For instance,

African countries have signalled via the Organization of

African Unity (OAU) that they are prepared to take on a

larger share of the responsibility for solving their own

problems. In response, Norway will cooperate with

partners in Southern Africa in building up standby

reserves of qualified personnel for peace operations under

United Nations or OAU auspices.

Secondly, more nations must be willing to contribute

to the United Nations peace-keeping forces. Traditional

troop contributors do not have the capacity to provide all

the personnel that will be needed in future peace-keeping

missions aimed at solving disputes, protecting local

populations and providing humanitarian assistance. Both

the United Nations and the traditional troop-contributing

countries must assist potential troop contributors with

competence-building measures, just as the Nordic

countries are now assisting the Baltic States.

Thirdly, the rapid-reaction and standby capability of

the United Nations must be improved. Norway is

prepared to join in efforts to develop new, much-needed

instruments to deal quickly and effectively with crisis

situations. The rapid-reaction capability must also include

humanitarian assistance. The United Nations should

continue to play a central role in coordinating

humanitarian relief efforts.

Norway has given high priority to measures that

enable us to respond expeditiously to requests for

assistance. We have established an effective preparedness

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system for emergency assistance that covers both personnel

and matériel. Emergency equipment can be airborne within

24 hours. Experienced personnel can be in the field within

72 hours. In Rwanda, a fully equipped field hospital,

accompanied by the necessary personnel, was recently

delivered at short notice to the United Nations, in

accordance with these procedures. With a view to

improving the United Nations response to support

requirements, Norway has offered to provide facilities for

a United Nations medical depot where medical equipment

and supplies for peace-keeping and humanitarian operations

can be stored and maintained.

Fourthly, we must put even greater emphasis on

conflict-prevention measures. The international community

must be present in unstable areas and must provide

economic incentives, mediation expertise and human rights

monitors. Conflict prevention is the most effective way of

using limited resources. Norway will continue to shoulder

its share of the responsibility — for instance, in Guatemala,

where we are actively involved in the peace process,

together with the other members of the Group of Friends.

Norway has established a special human-resource bank for

human rights and democracy, which is able, at short notice,

to offer experts to assist countries and peoples in their

efforts to build democratic societies.

The international community must be prepared to act

decisively when atrocities are committed. Serious crimes

should be prosecuted by an international criminal tribunal.

The establishment of the ad hoc Tribunals in the former

Yugoslavia and Rwanda has provided momentum for the

efforts to establish a permanent court. The tribunal’s role

should be limited to cases where national jurisdiction is

unavailable or ineffective.

Fifthly, on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, we

call on the United Nations to take a decisive lead in

promoting sustainable development and eradicating poverty.

Efforts to improve global security must address the issues

of economic growth, development and poverty, while

ensuring that the use of natural resources is kept within the

carrying capacity of the Earth. The United Nations must

become a driving force for sustainable development.

The United Nations is the only forum with a mandate

to tackle the truly global problems affecting the

environment and the sustainable management of natural

resources. Let me offer some brief examples. The

Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks provided an

invaluable contribution to the management of fishery

resources. We are also pleased that, just a few days ago, the

United Nations Panel on Forests was able to take the first

steps to protect, preserve and manage the world’s forests

in a sustainable manner.

I would like to stress the need for a concerted effort

within the United Nations system to ensure that the

results from the major conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen

and Beijing on, respectively, population, social

development and women actually become translated into

law and realities, locally, nationally and at the

international level.

With a growing world population, we have witnessed

the spread of the gravest insult to human dignity —

poverty. Our inability to eradicate poverty haunts our

common conscience. As long as the gap between rich and

poor, whether between States or within States, continues

to widen, we cannot claim to be on the right track. If we

are to alleviate poverty, both donors and recipients must

make more resources available for social welfare

activities. At least 20 per cent of development assistance

budgets and national budgets of recipient countries should

be allocated to the social sector.

The conflict in the former Yugoslavia is far from

being solved, even though the prospects for a negotiated

solution now appear much better than they did until

recently. Norway welcomes the agreement on basic

principles which resulted from the Geneva meeting on

8 September. The United States of America deserves

praise for its persistent efforts in this regard. It is vitally

important that the members of the international

community, in particular the contact group countries,

continue their common approach to the solution of the

crisis. In this context, the United Nations and the

European Union mediators can make a valuable

contribution.

The success of the mediation efforts depends entirely

on the readiness of the parties to compromise. We

strongly urge all the parties to show flexibility and

restraint, and to refrain from attempting to obtain further

advantages on the battlefield. Special attention must be

given to displaced persons, who, whenever possible, must

be allowed to repossess their homes.

The time has come to start reflecting on the

reconstruction of that war-devastated region. This will

require a sustained international effort. The United

Nations system together with the European Union and

others must play a leadership role in coordinating

programs in various fields, such as economic

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reconstruction, humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees,

democracy-building and human rights. Local leaders have

a heavy responsibility to prevent a new arms race, human

rights abuses and the renewal of tensions in the area.

Norway will continue to support the process of building

peace and prosperity in the former Yugoslavia.

I call on the General Assembly to lend its full and

undivided support to the peace process in the Middle East.

The new interim agreement is a significant and necessary

follow-up to the Oslo agreement. Today we salute once

more the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders for their

courage and determination. As Chairman of the Ad Hoc

Liaison Committee to coordinate donor activities, I strongly

urge the donors to continue to support — for some donors,

to increase their support of — the Middle East peace

process by providing economic assistance to the Palestinian

people. Our common interest in peace in the Middle East

is the best argument for heavy economic support to the

Palestinian areas.

Nuclear testing is a threat to our search for common

security and to the environment, and should be banned. We

deeply deplore the Chinese and French tests, which we fear

may complicate the ongoing negotiations in Geneva on a

comprehensive test ban treaty. We would once again urge

all nuclear-weapon States to refrain from further nuclear

testing during the negotiations and until the treaty enters

into force.

Land-mines are among the most insidious weapons in

common use. They cause indiscriminate and widespread

suffering and continue to spread terror for years or even

decades after hostilities have ended. We call for a total ban

on the production, stockpiling, trade and use of

anti-personnel land-mines. In the absence of such a ban, we

urge all countries to adhere to the United Nations 1980

inhumane-weapons Convention. No strengthening of the

land-mine Protocol will be effective unless adherence to it

becomes universal.

Finally, let us seize the opportunity offered by the

fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations to renew our

support for the United Nations and its aims. Each and every

one of us must help to ensure that the United Nations

becomes what we need and what future generations have

the right to expect: an effective tool to harness our strength

and unite us in maintaining peace, promoting social

progress and protecting human dignity.