Nepal, 2003

I greet Julian Hunte warmly

as President at this session and assure him of Nepal’s

full cooperation in his work. His Excellency Jan

Kavan, the outgoing President, deserves our

appreciation for the job well done. I also pay tribute to

the distinguished Secretary-General for providing

dynamic leadership to the United Nations.

The last 12 months have been a momentous

period of convulsive events. It has been a mixed bag.

We have made a dent in combating terrorism, but it

remains a serious threat to peace. Some countries have

limped back to normality, while others have descended

into chaos. All sides have accepted the Middle East

road map, but a new cycle of violence is undermining

it. Iraq continues to be a source of concern to all. The

global economic slump has turned the corner, but

growth remains anaemic, and the Cancun trade talks

have foundered.

In these developments, the United Nations has

come into a sharp focus that is not always flattering.

However, Nepal has an abiding faith in the United

Nations and believes in its centrality for all humanity’s

quest for shared peace, progress and justice. To small

nations like ours, the United Nations is and should be

the bulwark of sovereignty and defender of freedom. It

has stood up to such challenges in the past, and it must

prepare itself to face the future just as boldly through a

process of strengthened multilateralism.

Today, the world faces a number of threats to its

peace, progress and harmony. Terrorism is now by far

the most immediate threat that afflicts countries, rich

and poor, large and small. After 11 September 2001,

the concerted battle we have launched has pushed

terror into retreat, but the decisive war against it that

we must win has yet to be won.

This scourge has not left the United Nations

untouched either. For instance, two bombs exploded

within the first two months of the United Nations

presence in Baghdad at its offices there, killing Mr.

Sergio Vieira de Mello and others, and serving as a

grim reminder of the indiscriminate dark threat of

terrorism. We condemn the assault on the United

Nations and our profound condolences go to the

countries that lost their citizens and families who lost

their dear ones in those tragic attacks.

My own nation is in the throes of terrorism,

perpetrated by the self-proclaimed Maoists for the last

seven years. Opposed to constitutional monarchy and

democratic order, the Maoists have broken the

seven-month ceasefire, withdrawn from the talks and

unleashed unspeakable violence on the people. They

did so even as the Government showed flexibility in

accommodating several of their demands and put a

comprehensive package of reforms on the table.

His Majesty’s Government has the duty to protect

the life and liberty of the people and to defend freedom

and democracy in the country. We will do so resolutely

but also responsibly. While doing so, we have kept the

door of dialogue open. On behalf of the Government, I

thank our friends for their understanding and assistance

in our war against terror and the Secretary-General for

his interest and concern.

Clearly, Iraq continues to be a serious issue. Now

that the war is over, the global community must agree

to return sovereignty to the Iraqi people as quickly as

possible, to let them govern themselves and to help

them rebuild their country. The United Nations should

be given an enhanced role in this process.

Renewed violence in the Middle East has

imperilled the Quartet-endorsed road map, which

promises a viable State to the Palestinians and security

to the Israelis. Nepal appeals to both sides to exercise

maximum restraint and engage in constructive dialogue

to attain a comprehensive settlement of the long-

festering crisis. It also appeals to Israel to reconsider

its decision to remove Palestinian President Arafat.

The Security Council must take an early decision

to extend security throughout Afghanistan so that

rebuilding can go forward in the country. It should also

augment efforts to resolve conflicts and bring stability

to volatile countries in Africa and elsewhere.

Nepal has a deep interest in, and unwavering

commitment to, United Nations peacekeeping.

Nepalese Blue Helmets have served in various

missions in an outstanding manner, and many of them

have made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of peace

and humanity. The United Nations should continue to

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help poor troop-contributing countries to bridge their

resources gaps, and give them more say in mission

planning and deployment of forces.

While firefighting in crisis situations is urgent,

the international community must look beyond the

immediacy of conflicts and attempt to build an edifice

of durable peace in the world. Disarmament,

development and the rule of law are the pillars of such

architecture. There is a moral case for all of us to work

together towards such peace and it is also a matter of

enlightened self-interest.

Disarmament and confidence-building measures

are critical to building a culture of peace. Nuclear

weapons are the greatest threat to humanity and must

be eliminated, with their delivery vehicles, in a time-

bound manner. Nuclear-weapon States should steadily

reduce their nuclear arsenals; the Conference on

Disarmament must draw up a strategy to eradicate

these arms.

As a nation committed to peace, Nepal welcomes

the proposals to establish nuclear-weapon-free zones

and to keep outer space free of weapons. We also stress

the necessity to reinforce the regimes banning chemical

and biological weapons and to strengthen measures to

prevent the access of non-State actors to small arms

and light weapons.

Nepal supports the regional centres for peace and

disarmament as significant tools for building

confidence among nations. We eagerly look forward to

hosting in Kathmandu the Regional Centre for Peace

and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific. We have

asked the Secretariat to revise the draft host country

agreements so that they are consistent with diplomatic

practices and with the provisions for the other two

centres.

Poverty is by far the most entrenched threat to

peace and human dignity, and development is the most

daunting challenge for the world. The global

community must act together to lift people in

developing countries from the perils of hunger,

ignorance, disease and despair. We must create jobs

and opportunities to enable people to lead a decent life

and to raise their stakes in peace and order. Nepal has

accorded the highest priority to poverty alleviation in

its current plan, modelled after the Poverty Reduction

Strategy Papers. Broad-based growth, social sector

development, targeted programmes and good

governance constitute the strategy of the plan. We have

liberalized our economy to foster broader partnership

with the private sector, non-governmental

organizations and community groups and provide a

wider space for foreign investment.

Improvements in the agriculture and social

sectors as well as in rural infrastructure constitute the

core of our quest for poverty reduction and sustainable

development. However, Nepal lacks sufficient

resources to achieve its development objectives. Our

resource constraints have become more acute due to

Maoist insurgency and consequent economic

disruption. Many other developing countries are in a

similar situation.

The global community must join forces, in a

spirit of partnership, to eradicate absolute poverty and

stimulate development in developing nations. Indeed,

the Millennium Summit and global conferences on

financing, sustainable development, HIV/AIDS and

trade have clearly laid down the way forward. We must

ensure that these compacts do not fail in the crucible of

implementation.

As developing countries lead efforts for their

progress, development partners must keep their

commitments by meeting development assistance

targets and providing debt relief to the highly indebted

poor countries, including the least developed nations.

Increasing development assistance alone,

however, will do little to help developing countries

unless rich nations dismantle their farm subsidies and

pull down their tariff and non-tariff barriers to products

from the South. Improved access to world markets is

critical for poor nations to attract investment, remove

their supply-side constraints and transform their

economies. In this context, the Cancun trade talks must

be resumed soon and in such a manner that

globalization brings benefits to the poor as well.

His Majesty’s Government is grateful to the

World Trade Organization for deciding to admit Nepal

and Cambodia as new members. That is just the first

step. Nepal needs, as other least developed countries

do, duty-free and quota-free access to, and increased

assistance from, rich nations to escape the poverty trap

and to integrate itself into the global economy.

Landlocked developing countries face geographic

handicaps and remoteness from the major corridors of

global commerce. We welcome the fact that the Almaty

Programme of Action addresses their problem and we

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thank the transit and development partners for making

the ministerial meeting a success. We urge all sides to

make concerted efforts to implement the Almaty

Programme of Action.

Democracy, fairness and the rule of law are the

building blocks of secure peace at home and across the

world. With this in view, Nepal has embraced

pluralistic democracy, constitutional monarchy, and the

inviolability of human rights and freedoms as the

defining features in our present Constitution.

Our pledge to these values and ideals remains as

strong as ever. Parliamentary elections postponed due

to the Maoist threat will be held as soon as possible,

and immediate steps will be taken to restore and

reactivate local authorities. The Government is

seriously committed to doing this.

The Government has accorded high priority to

raising the status of women, children and

disadvantaged people, as well as to preventing

trafficking in women. It has established juvenile courts

and strengthened the court system, and has tried to give

the human rights protection and anti-corruption

agencies the necessary tools and resources to do their

job.

Nepal firmly believes that the world community

should try its level best to promote democracy, justice

and fairness in world trade, global governance and

international relations. In this spirit, we underscore the

imperative need for change in the global trade regime,

for reform in the international financial architecture

and for help to developing countries to overcome their

problems.

Speaking of justice, nearly 100,000 Bhutanese

refugees living in camps in Nepal have been waiting

for over a decade to return home in safety and dignity.

We hope Bhutan will show more flexibility in the

bilateral negotiations to find an early and just

settlement. We call on the world community, including

the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Refugees (UNHCR), to help create a climate

conducive for resolving this distressing humanitarian

problem by sustaining its interest and assistance for the

maintenance of the refugees at this crucial juncture.

No organization can stand the test of time unless

it is prepared to carry out bold reforms. Events in the

run-up to the Iraq war have shown the frailty of the

United Nations and underlined the imperative for

immediate and balanced reforms for the Organization

to secure more legitimacy, not only in the eyes of the

rich but also in the perception of the poor.

While we welcome the reforms the General

Assembly adopted last year, we support the Secretary-

General’s proposal to set up a high-level panel to seek

ways to make the United Nations a vibrant, effective

and efficient Organization, which can come to grips

with emerging challenges.

As we see it, it is imperative for the General

Assembly to reclaim its primacy at the United Nations

and for the Economic and Social Council to make its

work more visible and relevant to ordinary people. To

achieve these objectives, we must not only rationalize

the agendas of those organs but also ensure that they

adopt fewer but more relevant resolutions —

resolutions that could be implemented to benefit

humanity.

Reforms are long overdue to make the Security

Council more democratic in its work and more

representative in its structure. Nepal expresses its deep

concern at the lack of tangible progress for over a

decade on the issue of Council enlargement and urges

all Member States to scale up their efforts to achieve

that goal. In our view, the Non-Aligned Movement

should play an active role in United Nations reform. It

should also work closely with the G-77 to advance

their shared agenda in this and other respects.

In South Asia, as elsewhere, we view regional

cooperation as an instrument of South-South

cooperation for collective progress in the region and

the world at large. The South Asian Association for

Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has been inspired by

that aspiration. Let us hope our region can put its

political differences behind it and steam ahead to find

the place South Asia deserves in the community of

nations.

If our immediate and overriding preoccupation at

home is the restoration of peace, our commitment to

regional cooperation and a just and secure world

constitutes an objective of equal order. The world has

witnessed the resilience of the Nepalese people during

the difficult periods in our history. We remain equally

committed today to overcome the current challenge. I

call on friends and well-wishers of Nepal for greater

understanding and cooperation to help us help

ourselves in our onward journey to peace and progress.