Portugal, 2004

At the outset,

I would like to state that Portugal, of course, endorses

the statement made here by the presidency of the

European Union. Portugal wishes the United Nations to

fulfil the central role it rightly deserves in the

community of nations. The United Nations is an

indispensable international Organization. Without this

body, of which we are all a part, the world would be

more unstable, less predictable and a place where the

universal dream of peace and freedom would be no

more than a mirage on a far-off horizon.

The United Nations was established in a distant

historical context, but its ideas and basic values remain

contemporary. Portugal has a habit of recalling them,

on occasions such as this, because we feel that this

common undertaking is based on solid foundations.

“We the peoples of the United Nations” believe in the

dignity and the value of the human being, in

fundamental freedoms and in equality between men

and women. We defend the primacy of international

law and tolerance in relations between peoples.

But we also believe that one should not

distinguish between large and small nations, as we all

have a common interest in social advancement and in

the maintenance of international peace and security.

These are the objectives of this Organization that need

to be preserved and strengthened. This is, in good

truth, our common cause, the cause of humankind.

The month of September, in this city of New

York, inevitably brings back memories of the horror of

three years ago. It forces us to look at the challenges to

peace that this Organization and all of us face today.

The tragic events in Madrid, Beslan, Baghdad, Jakarta

and other places show us that terrorism has entered the

deepest and darkest of shadows.

No cause, no idea, justifies acts of pure barbarism

and the spilling of innocent blood. Terrorism is an

enemy of humankind. Moreover, Portugal believes that

it is up to the United Nations to contribute decisively

to the establishment of a global strategy against

terrorism — a strategy that takes into account not only

the obvious security-related responses, but also other

elements that may have the potential to generate

violence.

33

Let us be unyielding in the fight against

terrorism, but let us also engage ourselves in doing it

collectively. Let us take into account the laws and the

values in whose name we are fighting, and should be

fighting, this evil.

Hunger and poverty generate despair and may

cause people to choose the path of violence. I would

therefore like to express my appreciation for the

Summit of World Leaders for Action against Hunger

and Poverty, promoted by President Lula da Silva,

which I had the honour to attend. We believe that that

meeting was a fundamental step towards alleviating

cases of extreme poverty, which are unsustainable in

moral and political terms.

If we act now, the world can change for the

better; if we do not, its balance could become

increasingly difficult to manage. Portugal wants to be

at the forefront of the future. That is why we believe

that the sustainability of development and the defence

of natural resources are paradigms of a new era. We

believe that the economic development of the twenty-

first century will be sustainable only if it truly respects

the balance of the planet and if the Kyoto provisions

are truly implemented.

Does it make sense that an Organization like the

United Nations continues to work in the twenty-first

century as it did 60 years ago? The United Nations was

born at a time when there were no televisions, no

computers, no cellular phones. Communications,

technologies and means of transportation have all

changed; DNA and the human genome have now been

discovered; we surf the Internet on a global scale. And

yet the Organization that brings together the peoples of

the world has the same structure that it had more than

half a century ago.

The pace of change is breathtaking. The United

Nations finds itself at a crossroads: while its relevance

is not challenged, we may question its effectiveness.

But that is an issue that should be placed primarily

before Member States. After all, the United Nations is

an expression of our collective will. The Organization

cannot be seen as a distant reflection on which we

project our individual expectations, which often exceed

the limits of the mandates and the means that we make

available to it.

In that regard, we support the work of the High-

Level Panel established last year by the Secretary-

General to examine current challenges to peace and

security. The strategies for strengthening the

Organization to be recommended by the Panel aim at

preserving what is best in the United Nations and at

ensuring that it is equipped with the means necessary

to promote real development, prevent conflicts and

protect human rights.

Portugal unequivocally supports reform of the

Security Council. We support its enlargement so that it

will better reflect the world of today, through a

rebalancing of its representativity. We have already

stated before this forum — and we reaffirm today —

our support for an increase in the number of permanent

and non-permanent members. Portugal’s support for

Brazil, Germany and Japan has been known to the

General Assembly since 1993. We have already

expressed our support for India’s application for

candidacy, and, on behalf of the Government of

Portugal, I take the opportunity to express our

commitment to seeing the African continent

represented by a permanent seat on the Security

Council.

But we also want to improve the relationship

between the Council and other organs and agencies of

the United Nations, as well as promoting greater

transparency in its decisions. The democracy that the

Organization defends is not compatible with obsolete

working methods that often have a negative impact on

the image and the credibility of the United Nations and

lead to its paralysis.

Preventing conflicts is more important than

solving them. We should be aware that the usefulness

of the United Nations will ultimately be judged by its

capacity for conflict prevention. The proliferation of

crisis situations has led to the current deployment of

approximately 60,000 Blue Helmets in peacekeeping

operations, and that number continues to increase.

Portugal has been with the United Nations in

many of its peacekeeping operations around the world.

Here, I would like to pay tribute to my compatriots and

to all others who have served on peacekeeping

missions, particularly those who have given their lives

for our common ideals.

It is our hope that the Organization can better

develop its work in the field of conflict prevention.

However, we still lack an efficient instrument for the

development of that policy. Therefore, at the last

session of the General Assembly, Portugal proposed

the creation of a commission to promote peace and

34

development, under the authority of and in

collaboration with the Security Council and the

Economic and Social Council. Its objectives would be

to regularly monitor countries in crisis or at risk and to

ensure the cooperation6 of regional and international

institutions.

We believe that our proposal remains relevant,

and we thank all those who have already improved it

through suggestions and comments. This is an idea on

which we have worked in particular with our partners

in the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries,

which I would like to warmly acknowledge on this

occasion.

Indeed, the Portuguese language is the unifying

factor among hundreds of millions of people on five

continents. So that it can have strength as a vehicle of

communication and culture in the twenty-first century,

the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries

needs its members to make a clear commitment to the

connection between the past, the present and the future.

The fact that Portugal is the cradle of the Portuguese

language does not lead us to claim it for ourselves

alone with any special rights. The communities that

one joins as a result of specific interests, however

legitimate, can never erase one’s own community —

one’s family, spirit, language, culture and identity.

“Know thyself” was already inscribed at the foot of the

Temple of Delphi.

Nowhere are we confronted with such a huge

predicament regarding the ability of the United Nations

to act as in Iraq. Iraq needs the support of the

international community. The Iraqi people, ravaged by

decades of dictatorship and war, deserve such support.

And we should give the United Nations the necessary

means to fulfil in its entirety the mandate provided by

the Security Council. But we must also understand

clearly that the international presence in Iraq —

approved by the Security Council and by the Iraqi

Interim Government — is by its own nature

provisional.

It is time for the international community to unite

in its efforts to ensure that the Iraqi people again find

the path towards peace and development. We cannot

change the past, but we must assume that the future can

still be influenced in a positive way. Thus, we must

quickly restore unity if our Organization is not to suffer

permanent collateral damage as a result of the Iraqi

crisis.

For democracy to succeed in Iraq, and for that

country to maintain its unity, it is essential that its

people have a say, through elections, regarding the way

they wish to be governed. It is also important that the

agreed political timetable be honoured, or we may

seriously compromise the rightful expectations of the

Iraqi people and Government. We cannot allow those

who generate instability through unthinkable acts of

terrorism to have the power to veto the establishment

of a democratic regime in Iraq. Elections are the only

way to enable the Iraqi people to meet the destiny of

democracy and freedom to which they are entitled.

Peace, freedom and democracy are also at stake

in other parts of the world we inhabit. We cannot look

away from the tragedy unfolding in Darfur. Our

collective security also requires the effective

international control of the production of nuclear,

chemical and bacteriological weapons and the means to

deploy them.

For the maintenance of international security, it is

also essential that the Organization continues to push

for the resumption of the Middle East peace process.

The existing status quo is unacceptable. Israel and

Palestine need to learn to coexist in peace and security,

within internationally recognized borders and without

artificial partitions.

We cannot replace the dichotomy between

liberalism and collectivism with another between

liberty and peace on the one hand and terror and

dictatorship on the other. The world has already

entered a new era. The peoples of the whole world, as

referred to in the Charter of the United Nations,

demand a new contract between the governed and those

who govern.

The three classic powers of Montesquieu are no

longer the only ones in the government of the peoples.

Those who believe so are lost in time. There is nothing

worse than erring in our perception of reality. There are

powers that are not as they were and others that

Montesquieu, Locke and the drafters of liberal

revolutions could not know of, because they did not

exist or because, over time, they have changed

configuration. One need only think of the power of the

media over people’s lives today.

Our peoples want to feel strength in the present

and faith in the future. For that reason, I shall end my

address the way I began: stressing the indispensability

and the centrality of the United Nations in the daily

35

lives of free and sovereign nations. We belong to an

Organization that has restored hope to many peoples

and human beings by bringing the light of freedom to

those who lived in oppression. Timor-Leste is an

excellent example of the ability of the United Nations

to do good.

But one should also stress the attention the

United Nations has given to the vulnerable, children

and the disabled and to the promotion of gender

equality. For this Organization, humankind is not an

abstract entity. The dialogue between cultures,

civilizations and religions, which Portugal upholds, is

an integral part of the daily work of the United

Nations.

We are part of an Organization dedicated to

making peace and preventing war. We are party to a

collective project in the service of human rights and

fundamental freedoms. We have the strength of our

convictions. And, as Pope John Paul II has stated, we

know that peace is not weakness, but strength.