Paraguay, 2000

Before I begin, I should like to make a

personal comment. As a former official of the United

Nations Population Fund, I should like to express my

great pride and personal satisfaction at being able to

speak to the Assembly today and to address those

countries with which I have worked, together with my

other colleagues in the United Nations. All of us, of

course, share a hope that our dream of a better world

will come true.

It is a great source of satisfaction to see the

President preside over the work of this Assembly,

familiar as I am with his great personal and

professional skills, which guarantee the success of our

work. I should also like to express to his predecessor,

Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab, our gratitude and

recognition of the efficient work he has done.

Similarly, I would like to thank the Secretary-General,

Mr. Kofi Annan, for the detailed report on the work of

the Organization that he has presented. It describes the

important work carried out by the United Nations over

the past year as well as the challenges for the future.

I should also like to express on behalf of my

Government our pleasure at the entry of Tuvalu as a

new Member of our Organization. This is an important

step forward along the road of universality, which is

the aspiration we all share.

The recently concluded Millennium Summit was

a useful instrument for reflection by our Heads of State

upon the present and future of the Organization. This

Organization must adapt its structures and mechanisms

for action to the new challenges facing humanity. I am

certain that the numerous suggestions that have been

made will help establish clear lines of action so the

United Nations can operate more efficiently and

effectively.

At the last summit of the Rio Group, which took

place in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, the Heads of

State who comprise this political consultation

mechanism endorsed the Cartagena Declaration as our

singular contribution to the Millennium Summit and to

the future of the United Nations. It is our intention to

ensure appropriate follow-up to the initiatives and

aspirations expressed in this document in order to make

certain that they become a reality in the future for the

benefit of all humanity in terms of democracy, trade

flows, better dynamics in international relations in

terms of human security and the pursuit of multilateral

solutions.

I fully agree with the Secretary-General of our

Organization when he says that the conclusion of one

century and the turn of the millennium provide us with

a unique vantage point for reflecting upon our common

destiny. Fifty-five years have passed since the creation

of the United Nations, and during that period we have

seen many auspicious as well as many worrying events.

Let us pause for a moment and think about all the good

that we have done and the good that we have failed to

do, as well as upon what we have done wrong or

should not have done.

The conclusion of the cold war, of which this

Organization was one of the most important theatres,

seemed to herald a period of peace and prosperity for

humanity, in fulfilment of the Biblical mandate to beat

our swords into plowshares. Nevertheless, humanity is

still facing terrible threats, not only to its security —

because war and violence persist in new and more

sophisticated forms — but also threats to its very

existence, in light of the prospect that our planet may

become uninhabitable as a result of human activities.

Consequently, in the new millennium the United

Nations will be equally if not more important than it

was in the previous millennium. Our Organization must

of course adapt to new times. The reform of our

Organization cannot be postponed any further. The

structures of its main organs must adapt to the new

characteristics of the international community, with the

increasing number of nations which belong to it. We

must adapt to the increasing role of civil society, the

spread of the system of representative democracy, the

globalization of our world markets and the intolerable

persistence of serious social deficits in most of our

States.

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In particular, our Organization must adapt so that

our efforts towards development are rendered

appropriate for each individual wherever he or she may

live and wherever his or her community may be

located, and wherever we want to see our families

grow.

The human being as the centre of development

will continue to be at the centre of our mandate, as well

as the commitments assumed by each and every one of

our countries at summits of the United Nations over the

past decade. The efforts made by each man, woman or

child to take advantage of the opportunities offered by

global markets and new economic trends is first and

foremost a local and community effort and secondly a

national effort, which can create opportunities for

growth and ensure participation for each man and each

woman.

The reorganization of the United Nations, and in

particular its system of development, must ensure that

it can respond creatively and flexibly to these

community and national efforts. This will make it

possible progressively to improve for each individual

daily access to health, education, sanitation services,

technology and reasonable credit, as well as the

equitable participation of women in productive

activities. In that way, we can ensure the integration of

all our citizens into the global market and make certain

they can benefit from this process.

It is vital that the cooperation activities of the

United Nations be well structured and have a real

impact on our populations, in particular women,

children and adolescents. It is essential that these

activities create an environment of national dialogue in

each of our countries with a view to harmonizing views

on development and creating consensus on the means

for achieving growth, in order to give true meaning to

social and productive investments and to meet the

qualitative demands of civil society.

National consensus must necessarily be the basis

for global consensus, and today more than ever it must

be the basis for consensus among integrated groups

that wish to negotiate with each other. However, a

reorganized and renewed United Nations, in the

ultimate analysis, must be the guarantor of the

well-being of each of our citizens. The United Nations

exists so that all of our citizens can benefit from new

trends in trade, development and technology in order to

achieve growth as individuals and as families and to

improve their quality of life and feel that they live in a

better world where their sons and daughters will be

able to continue to grow, in peace.

Turning to another subject, we are concerned

about the delay in the adoption of a decision about the

future composition of the Security Council, because we

feel that its enlargement cannot be postponed. Its

composition must become more equitable and

representative and allow for a better political balance.

This gradual process of democratization must begin

with an increase in both categories of members,

permanent and non-permanent, and it should also

include both developed and developing countries.

Special attention should be given to the fact that the

developing countries are now under-represented in that

very important body. Paraguay also believes that this

reform should include the gradual elimination of the

veto rights of the permanent members.

We welcome the Brahimi report, which

establishes a valid framework for the reform and

strengthening of United Nations peacekeeping

operations. Paraguay has always supported such

operations as a fundamental mechanism contributing to

world peace and security.

I should also like to refer to the regular budget of

the Organization, in connection with the aspirations of

some developed countries to reduce their contributions

to a lower percentage. We believe that this should not

mean that the assessed contributions of developing

countries would increase to unprecedented percentages,

even though the figures involved may seem to others

modest or insignificant. It is paradoxical that some

developed countries would have their contributions

reduced precisely when they are enjoying excellent

economic growth, while other countries that are

experiencing difficulties would see an increase in their

contributions.

It is in this context that we must seriously study

the scale of assessments so that when we adopt it this

year we will achieve a fair and equitable distribution of

the financial burden of this Organization. We hope that

together we will find balanced solutions and equitable

formulas and timetables for redistributing the

budgetary burden so that we can promote and

reactivate the participation of large and small States in

our Organization.

International relations have acquired a new

dimension as a result of the revolution in computer

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technology, telecommunications and communications

in general. The effect of this is what we call

globalization, which has both positive and negative

consequences. On the one hand it has produced a

change in the consciousness of human beings, who for

the first time feel they are part of a whole — that is, of

humanity in its entirety. On the other hand, it has

increased the divide between the poorest countries and

the more advanced countries owing to the advantages

accruing to those that are better prepared for the

dismantling of national barriers. In these conditions,

solidarity takes on a new urgency. It is an act of justice

for those peoples who see all their potential progress

subordinated to this process.

In this regard, we fully agree with recent

statements made by the representative of the Holy See

during the special session of the General Assembly on

social development, to the effect that the benefits of

great scientific advances must be shared by all peoples

and should not be enjoyed exclusively by the few.

Otherwise we will merely be perpetuating differences

and widening the gap between rich and poor countries.

We know that decades of development assistance

under past conditions have not succeeded very well in

eradicating poverty and cultural backwardness in vast

regions of the world. Nevertheless, this should not

become a pretext for reducing the amount of

development assistance, especially multilateral

assistance, nor should we see any increase in

conditionality. We believe fully in the multilateral

approach, and we should totally reject conditionality

when determining how to provide development

assistance. Nor do we wish to justify the lack of good

governance in many nations, which has meant in some

cases that efforts were wasted to a great extent and

only fuelled corruption and caused the loss of age-old,

noble traditional practices.

In the recent elections for the vice-presidency of

the Republic, my country demonstrated once again the

preference of our region for representative democracy.

In the elections, which all observers considered

exemplary because of the discipline, civic spirit and

participation shown by the citizens, we saw the

election of the opposition candidate, of the radical

liberal party, Mr. Julio César Franco. The fact that two

parties, until now adversaries, can share power is far

from negative. Rather, it constitutes an opportunity to

establish lasting political stability through the

establishment of a Government of national unity that

can efficiently foster the institutional and economic

reforms needed in our country in order to achieve

sustained progress.

I would like to take this opportunity to express

our gratitude — to the international community, to our

friends in the Southern Common Market

(MERCOSUR), the Rio Group, the European Union

and the Organization of American States, and to the

United States of America, Japan, the Republic of China

and other countries around the world — for their

constant support for our process of democratization. I

would like to say to all of them that thanks to their

efforts Paraguay is continuing along the road to

democratic growth.

We are certain that the spread of democracy and

the increasing exercise of its freedoms by peoples will

bring greater effectiveness to our State institutions in

the short term. This, together with the increasing role

of the private sector, can create fertile ground for

investment and the transformation of productive

activities in a large part of the world, leading to a

reduction in unemployment and poverty.

International cooperation, for its part, must

establish clear priorities and offer what each of us

needs. It cannot be simply humanitarian aid, although

humanitarian aid is fully justified in emergency

situations. Instead, international cooperation should be

aimed at the integral, sustainable development of

peoples. These are two words that are used and

misused — “integral” and “sustainable”. When we say

“integral”, we understand it to mean that aid must try

to come to grips with the entire set of development

problems of each country and of each individual, in

order to guarantee respect for human rights — not only

political rights but also economic and social rights; and

merely partial solutions should not be offered.

When we say “sustainable” we mean that

assistance must not become an addiction for the

beneficiaries. It should empower them to continue

along the road to progress relying on their own efforts

and should guarantee growth for future generations.

Combating poverty means building peace. The

security of the world must be based on the elimination

of the underlying causes of violence, two of the

principal causes being ignorance and poverty. This

does not exempt us, however, from taking effective

measures to limit the use of the instruments of

violence, from their most deadly form, such as

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weapons of mass destruction, to the more conventional,

including small arms. In the latter case, my country

supports the initiative to establish an international legal

instrument with specific measures to check the illegal

trade in such weapons.

The preservation of our natural environment is a

great source of concern and a subject for reflection.

Paraguay, like many other developing countries, gives

extremely high priority in its national policies to

preserving the integrity and diversity of our natural

heritage, handed on by our ancestors. This is not only

because on it depends our current and future wealth,

but also because we are fully aware of our grave

responsibility to all humanity, since we are the

guardians of resources needed for its very survival.

Paraguay reaffirms its resolve to continue

respecting and implementing the principles established

in Agenda 21. In this regard, we attach high priority to

the participation of the States parties in the legal

framework developed during the implementation phase

of the Agenda. With great pride I report that Paraguay

is a fully fledged party to the most important

international agreements on the environment.

In this area, finally, it is important to mention the

need to come to grips with the grave problem of the

unsustainable use of water resources. It is necessary to

intensify scientific cooperation and research in order to

reduce the effects of environmental disasters, both

natural and man-made.

We believe that an equitable and fair trade system

is vital for our development. In this regard, we reject

any intent to perpetuate protectionist measures in the

developed countries, particularly subsidies for

agricultural production and exports, as well as the use

of technical regulations as trade barriers against

manufactured products. We claim our right to free

access to the world's markets for those goods in which

we are competitive.

On this occasion, as we highlight the importance

of reaffirming our commitment to this Organization, I

believe it is appropriate to stress the essential role that

the international legal framework can play in the

achievement of our common objectives. In this regard,

the Government of Paraguay has paid special attention

to the invitation by the Secretary-General to all

Member States to take advantage of this opportunity to

strengthen our support for the international legal

framework by signing, ratifying or acceding to treaties

deposited with him that bear a special relationship to

the spirit and objectives of the Charter of the United

Nations.

In this respect, I am very pleased to announce that

on behalf of the Government of the Republic of

Paraguay I have signed the following international

instruments: the Optional Protocols to the Convention

on the Rights of the Child — on the involvement of

children in armed conflict, and on the sale of children,

child prostitution and child pornography; the

International Convention on the Protection of the

Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their

Families; and the International Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. I

should also note that the Rome Statute of the

International Criminal Court, of which Paraguay was

one of the first signatories, is in the process of

parliamentary approval.

I conclude by reaffirming the conviction of my

country's firm belief in the United Nations, which is

more necessary than ever in order to meet the great

challenges of peace and development, which, despite

significant progress, continue to be an urgent need of a

great part of humanity.