San Marino, 2000

Allow me first of all

to congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption of the

presidency of the fifty-fifth session of the General

Assembly. I wish also to congratulate most sincerely

the Secretary-General on his comprehensive and

detailed report outlining the most important challenges

facing the international community in the twenty-first

century.

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The heads of State or Government of the States

Members of the United Nations drew inspiration from

this important document for the Millennium Summit,

which has just concluded, at which they expressed their

collective commitment and determination to adopt

policies in favour of a globalization process benefiting

the entire world population.

International cooperation among Governments

will pave the way for an increasingly integrated system

in which all States are inevitably involved, thus

bringing all the peoples of the world closer together.

San Marino believes that a wider globalization process

of a juridical, ethical and cultural nature, in which

solidarity is a major concern, is a sine qua non for the

achievement of genuine economic globalization.

The Republic I represent is fully convinced that it

is the responsibility of all countries of the world to

ensure economic and social development and to

address threats to international peace and security, and

that the United Nations must play a central role in

shaping our common future.

Against this backdrop, the question of the least

developed countries burdened with a huge foreign debt

must be re-examined, in the conviction that debt relief

must form an integral part of the contribution offered

by the international community to worldwide

development.

Since the economic and social development of

many countries is being irreparably hindered by debt

problems, international solidarity is an imperative for

everybody, just as human rights and dignity must not

be violated in the name of market laws.

At the dawn of the third millennium, it is

unacceptable that half of the world's population still

lives in extreme poverty, with an income of barely two

dollars a day. The indifference to this problem is a

disgrace to humanity as a whole, since we are all well

aware that poverty often triggers domestic and

international conflicts and leads to exploitation and

underdevelopment.

Against this gloomy background characterized by

blatant contrasts, the international community must

concentrate its efforts on the protection of the most

vulnerable, who bear the heaviest burden, and must pay

special attention to women and children, who are the

main victims of poverty, violence and exploitation.

Prompted by the conviction that legal cooperation, at

an international level, is crucial to the protection of the

rights of the child, San Marino was the first country to

sign, this year, the Optional Protocol on child

pornography, and the second country to sign the

Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in

armed conflicts. The Republic is actively preparing to

participate in the Special Session on Children to be

held in September 2001, where progress made over the

last decade in the protection of children will be

reviewed. On that occasion, the international

community will lay the foundations for ensuring that

children enjoy their full juridical status.

Well aware that legal equality between men and

women has become a major concern, both nationally

and internationally, San Marino welcomes the results

of the 1995 Beijing Conference, as well as those of its

follow-up special review session held in New York last

June.

The technology revolution, among the most

important ones of the last decades, has caused radical

changes in international relations. We all hope that

information technology and the Internet will be

increasingly used by the poorest countries as

instruments of economic and cultural development. In

this context, I wish to reiterate my country's

commitment and willingness to take part in the latest

United Nations projects aimed at reducing illiteracy

through computer science and promoting the

knowledge and use of new technologies in developing

countries. In this way, new technologies, far from

widening the gap between rich and poor countries, will

benefit everybody.

In this spirit, the international community as a

whole has the duty to contribute to the consolidation of

democracy in Africa and to help its populations, under

the auspices of the United Nations, in their struggle for

lasting peace, poverty eradication and the achievement

of just and sustainable social development.

The entire international community has the moral

and civil obligation to put an end to the conflicts

afflicting many African countries and to counter the

growing instability caused by ethnic and territorial

divisions in some of these States or regions. In fact, if

international peace is to be attained, the right of each

individual to live in peace and security must be

guaranteed.

The numerous and cruel acts of genocide

witnessed by the twentieth century recently led the

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international community to set up an International

Criminal Court in order to prevent the authors of

crimes against humanity from going unpunished. San

Marino, the first European country to ratify the Statute

of the Court, hopes that other Parliaments will add to

the 19 having already deposited their instruments of

ratification, so as to attain the minimum number,

enabling the Court to be operative and become a

juridical and moral authority.

On behalf of my country, I wish to thank the

Secretary-General for having made the Organization

more efficient and modern, through a series of reforms.

Yet, with regard to the reform of the Security Council,

Member States could not make any decision in the

absence of a general agreement. In this regard, let me

express my sincere hope for a comprehensive,

democratic and fair reform of the Security Council

soon.

At the beginning of a new millennium, the

consolidation of a more efficient and representative

governance, at an international level, bridging the gap

between the haves and have-nots, is our common

expectation. Globalization being an irreversible

process, we rely on the power and ability of this

institution, which we believe in and which we are

striving to strengthen.