Peru, 1997

It is an honour for me to take part in this

General Assembly as the representative of the people and

Government of Peru, under the leadership of President

Alberto Fujimori. I extend my congratulations to you, Mr.

President, on your election to preside over this session

and assure you of the fullest support by the delegation of

Peru. We likewise congratulate Ambassador Razali Ismail,

President of the previous session.

Peru reaffirms its unfailing dedication to the

purposes, principles and norms enshrined in the Charter

of the United Nations, without whose faithful application

it is not possible to achieve peace and harmonious

coexistence among States. We must all ensure respect for

international law, especially scrupulous and good-faith

compliance with treaties, and must contribute to the

maintenance of international peace and security and

participate in the promotion of economic and social

development. Accordingly, effective observance of the

Charter and respect for its principles are today more

necessary than ever in order to endow multilateralism

with renewed credibility and vigour. We live in a day of

marked change in the organization of power and of

globalizing trends in the international system which

require, in keeping with the Charter, a scrupulous

egalitarianism in relations between States and,

accordingly, multilateral policies in keeping with the

times as an appropriate means of conferring priority on

the common goals of mankind in our era.

Institutional reform of the United Nations system is

imperative to make it more efficient, adapt it to the

present needs of the international community and

consolidate institutions that will be truly representative of

the interests we all share.

For four years now the General Assembly has been

at work on the reform of the Security Council. National

positions have already been made known and reiterated.

We should now decide whether we shall embark on the

negotiations proper or whether that should be deferred

until better political conditions prevail, for the

unproductive prolongation of this debate could affect the

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prestige and authority of the Organization at a juncture

when it is essential instead to strengthen it as the supreme

world forum for dialogue, understanding and cooperation.

We are aware of the difficulty of this process. To

those who have a duty to exercise their power with self-

restraint we address an invitation to be flexible. We also

believe that pressures or haste would be ill advised, since

they could hinder the achievement of a legitimate and vital

goal.

Peru believes it is necessary to make the Security

Council representative, to enhance its legitimacy, to secure

equitable geographical representation through its expansion,

to give it greater transparency, and to take the first steps

towards the abolition of the veto through strict limits on its

use. Accordingly, Peru supports the increase of both

categories of members. All of the foregoing should be

achieved through a legitimate agreement that does not

discriminate against developing countries.

To keep pace with the momentum generated by global

problems, a new institutional structure is needed, such as

that proposed by the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in his

“A Programme for Reform.” In order better to serve

international peace and stability and the sustained growth of

the world economy, renewed efforts are needed that will be

in keeping with the diversity of Member States.

We support the strengthening of the Secretariat, the

emphasis on the promotion of development and the

recommendation for rationalizing and optimizing the use of

its financial resources, as well as the transfer of the

resources thus released to development cooperation

activities.

The Human Development Report for 1977 reveals that

the problem of internally displaced persons has taken on

dramatic dimensions; the numbers increased fivefold during

the decade 1984-1994. At the same time, we note in the

report submitted by the representative of the Secretary-

General to the Commission on Human Rights concerning

institutional lacunae in this area of the United Nations that

there is no institution with exclusive responsibility for such

displaced persons.

We propose that at this session of the General

Assembly, which the Secretary General has called the

reform Assembly, the question of institutional responsibility

for the internally displaced be addressed.

Peru favours the idea of unifying the country offices

and operations of the agencies to facilitate the

implementation of comprehensive programmes in which

the United Nations system will be able to put its

recognized capacities to full use.

No reform can be successful without the necessary

financial resources. The financial situation of the

Organization is a subject of widespread concern. Peru is

of the view that contributions to the regular budget are a

legal obligation that should be fully and promptly

discharged. The principle of capacity to pay should

remain the fundamental criterion in the apportionment of

assessments. Accordingly, if States in arrears do not take

concrete measures to clear their indebtedness, certainly

without setting conditions, it will not be possible in a

timely manner to earmark resources for activities essential

to the majority of our countries. Such is the case, for

example, with the campaign against poverty.

There are other key questions on our increasingly

abundant international agenda. We must place increasing

emphasis on economic and social issues, cooperation for

development, environmental protection, humanitarian

assistance, the advancement and defence of human rights

and, of course, the fight against illegal drug trafficking,

terrorism and corruption.

Peru approaches the development of the international

system on the basis of four criteria that guide its foreign

policy: the pre-eminence of representative democracy and

the rule of law; the promotion of the fundamental rights

of the human person; consolidation of the market

economy and development of regional economic

integration agreements; and the search for peace and the

advancement of cooperation for development.

In the era of globalization, Peru views international

peace and security as multidimensional tasks. If States are

to assume them as real commitments and priorities, they

must be associated with a higher purpose, namely, with

improving the intolerable lot of some 60 per cent of the

world's population.

Problems such as poverty, acute poverty, illiteracy,

malnutrition, infant mortality, discrimination and

marginalization in general constitute a picture of potential

social violence that threatens the universal ideal of a

peaceful and orderly life. The plight of poverty and the

challenge of promoting human development have

radically altered the direction and pace of international

relations.

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The international system is tending towards a gradual

demilitarization. With the end of the cold war and the

reduced risk of a global military confrontation, conditions

have been created to give priority, on the basis of dialogue

and cooperation, to the long-delayed task of advancing

economic and social development.

General and complete disarmament continues to be a

key element in security and an abiding goal of the

international community. Peru attaches special importance

to non-proliferation in all its aspects, primarily nuclear non-

proliferation and nuclear disarmament. My country

participated actively in the arduous negotiations that

culminated in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

and signed it on the day it was opened for signature.

We are gratified at the outcome of the Oslo

Diplomatic Conference, in the context of the Ottawa

process to prohibit the production, transfer and

indiscriminate use of anti-personnel landmines, in which

Peru has participated as a full member from the outset. We

are preparing to sign the global agreement in December.

The Rio Group has undertaken to make our region the first

in the world to be free of these odious devices, which day

after day continue to take their toll of thousands of innocent

victims.

Peru is a peace-loving country that works for peace

and repudiates conflict. We want to strengthen political and

economic cooperation with all countries and groups of

countries in various regions on the basis of common

interests and mutual benefit. We emphasize especially the

forging of closer ties of friendship and cooperation with

neighbouring countries and fostering mutual trust through

specific processes, mechanisms and measures that we are

vigorously pursuing.

Without economic growth, there can be no creation of

wealth or jobs, and without these there can be no

development or prosperity. That is the great challenge of

our time. We must act to create conditions of market

transparency and social convergence in order to sustain the

growth of the world economy, the opening and

liberalization of trade, services and capital flows and the

transfer of technology. Developed and developing countries

must reach an understanding in order to avoid a return to

that not-so-distant past when narrow forms of protectionism

and conditionalities failed to overcome inequality and,

indeed, aggravated it.

Globalization must not lead to greater poverty and

discrimination, for they are one of the principal obstacles to

stability, and, on the eve of the twenty-first century, they

also pose a moral challenge. We must adopt measures to

incorporate disadvantaged societies into policies and

processes that promote economic growth and social

development.

In Peru, the campaign for the gradual reduction of

poverty until its eradication has taken a comprehensive

approach. Its focal points are openness, modernization and

liberalization of the economy, reform of the State and a

legal framework that guarantees property and promotes

investment. In addition, we are pursuing consistent

sectoral policies, financed by 40 per cent of our national

budget going to items in the social sphere, such as health,

housing, education, population and justice. The results

already achieved in economic and social growth are well

known, and Peru is considered a stable, secure country

with a bright future. Around the year 2000, the Peruvian

Government hopes significantly to reduce acute poverty

and poverty in general.

The United Nations has primary responsibility for

addressing three negatives trends of universal scope: illicit

drug trafficking, terrorism and corruption. We are

combating vigorously these criminal phenomena because

they erode fundamental values and threaten the stability

of democracies. The upcoming special session of the

General Assembly on the question of drugs — a session

that we fully support — calls for unity of purpose. The

international community will have an excellent

opportunity to tackle this problem in all of its dimensions.

Peru has been achieving concrete results in all facets of

this comprehensive campaign, not only in interdiction but

also in crop eradication and alternative development. We

hope to see a substantial increase in international

cooperation that would help step up our anti-drug policy

and would complement, even if only partially, the

tremendous national efforts that we have been making.

We hope that this enhanced cooperation will materialize,

in view of the increased awareness and greater political

will that have emerged worldwide regarding a problem

for which all of us, without exception, share

responsibility.

The Eighth International Anti-Corruption

Conference, which took place three weeks ago in the

capital of Peru, brought together more than 600

representatives from 93 countries. I wish to highlight the

set of recommendations that emerged for combating

public and private corruption. These are contained in the

Lima Declaration, the first global document of its kind. It

establishes an evaluation and follow-up mechanism that

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will bring these recommendations to the attention of

Governments and international institutions. The goal

henceforth in this endeavour, which concerns Governments

and citizens equally, will be to identify specific problem

areas, taking into account public opinion and with the

effective participation of civil society.

The United Nations, as the global framework for

combating corruption in all its manifestations, must

participate in these efforts, just as the inter-American

system has been doing within its own geographical area.

The phenomenon of terrorism has, at the cost of

countless innocent human lives and huge material losses,

today placed itself on the agenda of contemporary

international relations. We have already unequivocally and

at all levels condemned terrorist acts and the criminal

groups that perpetrate them, and we have also agreed that

terrorist acts represent human rights violations. It is now

time to undertake a process of consultation that will enable

the international community to avail itself of universal legal

instruments with which to combat effectively terrorism in

all its forms and manifestations, as we are striving to do on

our continent.

Five years after the adoption of the plan of action of

the United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development, held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the lack of

progress on Agenda 21 is discouraging. There has been an

erosion of the political commitment entered into, especially

with respect to the allocation of new and additional

resources, as well as scant willingness to transfer

technology to the developing countries.

We reaffirm that only a comprehensive approach can

lead to the achievement of sustainable development,

because this requires a consolidation of the process of the

opening and liberalization of trade, as well as commercial

and environmental policies that are mutually supportive. An

adequate transfer of financial resources and technologies to

support national policies is also required. In this task, no

State should shirk its individual responsibility.

One of the challenges facing the international

community is to ensure the effective promotion and full

observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The advancement and protection of human rights are central

concerns of the Peruvian Government. The concept of

human development, which underlies the entire economic

and social policy of our State, focuses on a revalorization

of life and of the human being. The cooperation of the

United Nations is essential, through a realistic approach that

takes due account of regional and national characteristics

and that is geared primarily to achieving a culture of

human rights.

Many countries, including Peru, are currently facing

a cyclical, worldwide natural phenomenon known as El

Niño, whose severe economic, environmental and social

consequences are drastically changing the marine

environment, which is a source of food and employment

for broad sectors of humankind. The damage that these

large-scale oceanic and atmospheric changes did in the

past prompted my country some decades ago to promote

the study of this phenomenon. Thus in 1974 a regional

study of El Niño was carried out in the framework of the

Permanent South Pacific Commission, a subregional

organ of the South-East Pacific Action Plan, which has

continued to address this problem with the valuable

support of organizations such as the Intergovernmental

Oceanographic Commission and the World

Meteorological Organization.

The knowledge acquired by Peru and other countries,

as well as by international, regional, and world bodies,

needs to be integrated and systematized. Accordingly,

Peru proposes the establishment of a global programme

of integrated cooperation on the El Niño phenomenon,

which would enable our countries to mitigate its effects

and the ensuing material damage. In order to lay the

foundations of this program and set it in motion, we

should consider holding an international meeting with the

participation of the relevant agencies of the system,

regional organs and the respective national programmes

of the countries concerned. In this context, we propose

that, as part of the reform of the United Nations system,

its operational capacity in the area of the monitoring and

the mobilization of assistance for natural disasters be

maintained and strengthened.

The development policy now being implemented in

Peru is anchored in the universal concepts, values and

principles propounded by the United Nations: democracy,

economic freedom, respect for the fundamental rights of

the human person, environmental conservation, the

advancement of women and protection of the rights of

indigenous populations.

Responding to the dictates of its history and

geography, Peruvian society has since ancient times

embodied the ideal of unity within diversity. We

Peruvians are laying the foundations of our own future. I

shall not dwell on the policies that we have been pursuing

for the last seven years, their impressive results or the

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vicissitudes in this process that have tested our resolve and

perseverance. But I feel that it is appropriate to repeat the

principal characteristic of our development model, which is

a harmonious and rational complementary relationship

between economic and social policies, which for the first

time in many years is enabling us to carry out a realistic

strategy for sustainable human development. Accordingly,

the modern and efficient functioning of the United Nations

system of cooperation is now, more than ever, of strategic

value to Peru. I should like in particular to express thanks

for the cooperation that the United Nations system has been

providing to the Peruvian people, which is stimulating and

complementing our national effort.

The United Nations is the best instrument available at

a global level to consolidate international peace and

security, respect for the sovereignty and independence of

States and international law, and for the promotion of

economic and social development. Accordingly, its

operations, approaches and strategies should provide

effective answers to the challenges of the contemporary

world and the needs of our peoples, who continue to place

their hopes in our Organization. Peru will always remain

committed to that endeavour.