Nepal, 1999

I bring to you, Mr. President,

to Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to all representatives

the greetings and best wishes of His Majesty King Birendra

and of the Government and people of Nepal. Your election

is testimony to the wide recognition of your great country's

contribution to the cause of freedom of the peoples and to

the work of the United Nations. Please accept our

congratulations and pledge of support. Our appreciation

goes also to your predecessor, Mr. Didier Opertti, for the

wise manner in which he conducted the business of the

fifty-third session of the General Assembly.

The massive loss of life and property and the untold

suffering caused by the recent earthquakes to the peoples

of Turkey, Greece and Taiwan have touched the hearts of

the Nepalese people. Indeed, our hearts go out to the

hundreds of thousands of peoples across the globe who

have suffered from both natural and man-made disasters.

Nepal wholeheartedly welcomes Kiribati, Nauru and

Tonga as new Members of the United Nations. Their

admission has enriched the world Organization and

enhanced its universality.

Following the restoration of the multi-party political

system in Nepal, I had the unique privilege of steering the

country at a turning point of history as its Prime Minister,

entrusted with the twin responsibilities of overseeing the

formulation of a new democratic constitution of the

Kingdom and the holding of free, fair and peaceful

general elections at the beginning of the last decade of

this century. With the people's trust and guidance, the

cooperation of all political parties and the support of His

Majesty the King, and above all with God's will, those

responsibilities were fully discharged.

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal not only

guarantees the fundamental human rights of the people

but also the independence of the judiciary. It defines and

protects the basic tenets of parliamentary democracy in

Nepal, and it identifies the purposes and principles of the

Charter of the United Nations as the fundamental plank of

the foreign policy of the country. Standing today before

this Assembly of nations, I wish to reaffirm Nepal's

commitment to the principles and objectives of the United

Nations and to share, in brief, our hopes, aspirations and

views.

Last year we observed the fiftieth anniversary of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a milestone in

human history. The fiftieth anniversary of another

historical milestone — the Geneva Conventions of

1949 — this year provides the international community

with another opportunity to reiterate its deepening

commitment to democracy, human rights and improved

living conditions for peoples. At the national level, we

regard the protection and promotion of human rights as a

sine qua non for the all-round development of the people.

Democracy and development, I believe, are two sides of

the same coin, hard to guarantee and secure except in a

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state of peace and stability under a system of participatory

good governance.

Nepal is a nation with a young democratic setup and

an ever-deepening commitment to human rights and the all-

round development of the people, who are beset with the

numerous unique and onerous challenges characteristic of

a small land-locked and least developed country with

difficult Himalayan and mountainous terrains and the

greatest of contemporary problems — poverty. At no point

in history have we witnessed poverty eating up so

systematically the spiritual richness of peoples in many

countries, including Nepal — the land of the Buddha.

Nepal's development efforts are driven by an

overriding objective of poverty eradication through

employment and income generation, social mobilization and

the strengthening of social capital within a democratic

values-based system. The country has almost unlimited

potential for hydropower development and tourism, and we

have created legislative conditions for the participation of

foreign investors in these sectors as well as in other trade

and services-generating sectors in Nepal. Our commitment

to sustainable development has been translated into several

measures aimed at the preservation of the environment and

ecological balance, including the earmarking of a large part

of our land area for the development of wildlife parks and

nature reserves. I want at this stage to reiterate our

commitment to the development of Lumbini — the

birthplace of the Buddha — as an enduring peace

monument, a holy shrine for pilgrimage and one of the

world's greatest cultural heritages.

I am disheartened that despite several world summits,

conferences and international commitments, absolute

poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy and hopelessness should

still remain the lot of the bulk of the world's population.

One billion adults, the majority of them women, cannot

read or write. Almost a billion people are underfed and

malnourished, and a similar number have no access to clean

water, shelter or health care. Many millions die before they

reach the age of 40.

Equally threatening is the ever-widening gap between

the haves and the have-nots. The conclusion of this year's

Human Development Report is the unbelievable polarization

between peoples and countries, which the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) characterized as

grotesque and dangerous. The one fifth of the world's

population in the highest-income countries commands 86

per cent of world gross domestic product and 82 per cent

of world export markets, while the bottom fifth, in the

poorest countries has just 1 per cent of both categories.

How long can the world go on like this, with a small part

of its people living in freedom and prosperity while the

larger segment is living in fetters under abject conditions,

before calamity engulfs us all?

A few years ago, at the request of the heads of State

or Government of the South Asian Association for

Regional Cooperation, I undertook the task of chairing the

Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty

Alleviation as part of a regional endeavour to work out

regional strategies and programmes of action for the

eradication of poverty from South Asia. My own

experience as Chairman of that Commission leads me to

the inescapable conclusion that the goal of poverty

eradication requires, among other things, sustained

political will and commitment of the highest order, an

integrated and coordinated approach and decisive national

actions, with the participation of all, including grass-roots

organizations and civil society, backed by enhanced

international development cooperation.

But the fast-dwindling official development

assistance flows and ever-increasing resource constraints

of United Nations development agencies, such as the

United Nations Development Programme, make our task

of poverty eradication and development harder and harder

with each passing year. This is particularly true in the

case of least developed and landlocked countries such as

Nepal. While we deeply appreciate the help of our

development partners, we urge developed countries, which

are undoubtedly in a position to do so, to generously

increase the volume of their official development

assistance so as to attain the target set by this Assembly.

Reallocation of official development assistance in favour

of the less developed countries is another area which

deserves attention.

As we are a democratic nation, women — who

make up half of every country's population — are the

backbone of Nepalese society. We can hardly remain

oblivious to the urgent need for their empowerment and

advancement. We have made legislative arrangements to

guarantee their participation in the national polity by

reserving exclusively for them as many as 40,000 seats in

the local elected bodies. In the three general elections

since 1991, the number of women parliamentarians has

steadily gone up. But we are aiming for more. Their

literacy rate is also improving. The Committee on the

Elimination of Discrimination against Women, to which

Nepal recently presented its country report, has

acknowledged the progress made in raising the status of

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women in general and in increasing understanding of

gender issues and the human rights of women among the

Nepalese population. We know we have to do a lot more,

and I am personally committed to this.

We are equally committed to the protection and

promotion of the rights of the child as well as the rights

and interests of other vulnerable and disadvantaged sections

of society. In short, we have before us a large agenda for

nation-building, for the consolidation of gains in democracy

and human rights and for living up to our international

commitment to peace, cooperation and development in the

world. We are dealing with the agenda with a sense of

purpose and commitment, although there are several

obvious difficulties, including the economic, social,

environmental and political problems created by 100,000

refugees from Bhutan. We seek the continued support and

understanding of the international community in the

creation of an environment conducive to the resolution of

this problem through bilateral negotiations. We also seek its

support for their sustenance until they are repatriated.

I wish to place on record our appreciation of and

gratitude to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the world's

foremost public servant, for his efforts and successes in

defusing tensions around the world and solving many

seemingly intractable problems, such as those of Libya and

the popular consultation in East Timor. I am impressed with

his impassioned call for the transition from a culture of

reaction to a culture of prevention in the United Nations.

He has drawn our attention to the benefits and risks

provided by globalization and to the need for strengthened

international cooperation to offset the vulnerability of many

countries, particularly the least developed and landlocked

ones, and the marginalization of Africa.

We have noted his emphasis on the maintenance of

international peace and security as the primary

responsibility of the Security Council. We thank him also

for his dedication to comprehensive United Nations reform

and for his package of reform proposals. Reform is a

continuing process. It will be neither meaningful nor

complete unless we arrive at a ratifiable global consensus

on the functioning and composition of a reformed Security

Council. The statement of the Foreign Ministers of the five

permanent members that any attempt to restrict or curtail

their veto rights would not be conducive to the reform

process is a matter of deep disappointment. Nepal supports

the common position evolved at the Durban Summit of the

Non-Aligned Movement on the question of Security

Council reform. We are also firm in our view that no

reform measure should curtail the authority of the General

Assembly, which is the nearest thing to a world

parliament.

The United Nations cannot continue to function

effectively without a fair and sound financial base.

Assessed dues must be paid in full and on time.

Peacekeeping is a unique and most useful instrument for

the United Nations in the maintenance of international

peace and security. Nepal has participated in United

Nations peacekeeping for over 40 years in all parts of the

world. Some 35,000 of our troops and 800 of our police

have served with many peacekeeping operations, 39

having been martyred and several more wounded in the

line of duty. It is the firm policy of Nepal not only to

maintain but also to increase our contribution to United

Nations peacekeeping.

It is disappointing that for three years in a row the

principal United Nations forum for disarmament

negotiations, the Conference on Disarmament, has not

been able to agree on an agenda of work. Some important

arms control and disarmament measures have been

adopted without reference to the Conference on

Disarmament. As host to the United Nations Regional

Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the

Pacific, Nepal's commitment to general and complete

disarmament, including total nuclear disarmament,

remains undiluted.

In the summer months of this year, South Asia

witnessed a flare-up between two of our close neighbours.

Disquieting because it broke a peace that had lasted for

nearly three decades, it also exposed the myth fostered in

a bygone era that countries possessing nuclear weapons

would not go to conventional war against each other. The

risk of an accidental nuclear war engulfing other countries

was magnified by the close proximity of the two

countries. Leaving aside the causes of that flare-up, I

would like to commend the Prime Ministers and the

Governments of the two countries for their restraint, good

sense and wisdom in containing the conflict and

displaying a high degree of responsibility to their peoples,

to the rest of South Asia and to the peoples of the entire

world. May I take this opportunity once again to appeal

to the Prime Ministers of those two countries to resume

their dialogue, begun in Lahore last February.

Nepal welcomes the Sharm el-Sheikh accord

between Prime Minister Barak and President Arafat as an

irreversible step forward in the Middle East peace

process. It opens the way to a just, lasting and

comprehensive peace. We hope, for the sake of peace,

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that negotiations between Syria and Israel and Lebanon will

soon resume in accordance with relevant United Nations

resolutions.

Let me conclude with a brief mention of the South

Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC),

which consists of the seven countries of the region,

representing one fifth of humanity. We are united in a

common effort to enhance the quality of life of all our

peoples. I am looking forward to hosting the next summit

meeting of heads of State or Government of the South

Asian region in two months' time at Kathmandu. Our

important agenda will deal with such issues as free trade

and a SAARC social charter. We will also be signing a

regional convention on combatting the crime of trafficking

in women and children. This will be another landmark in

the work of SAARC, a regional association dedicated to

peace and cooperation in South Asia.