San Marino, 2009

Mr. President, I

wish to congratulate you on your election as the head

of the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session and

to assure you that the delegation of the Republic of San

Marino will do its utmost in collaborating with you

throughout the session.

In my first speech before this Assembly as

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of San

Marino, I would like to express my most sincere thanks

to the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Ban

Ki-moon, for guiding this Organization with great

energy and extraordinary dedication. I wish to mention

his admirable commitment in the area of reform and

his constant and important involvement in world

affairs.

The United Nations reform process is fundamental

to ensuring future world stability and must remain a

priority in our efforts, not only because we have the

duty to guarantee that the Organization and all its

activities are fully effective, but in particular in order

to preserve its primary and essential value. We cannot

afford to witness a decentralization of the substantial

role of the United Nations caused by the impossibility

of reaching agreement on measures to be implemented

for the improvement of its functioning.

Moreover, I would like to express the

appreciation of San Marino for the work accomplished

in the General Assembly with the contribution of all

States Members of the United Nations, as well as for

the attention paid to particularly relevant issues, such

as the world economic and financial crisis, climate

change and the global food crisis.

The Republic of San Marino supports the process

of the revitalization of the General Assembly. That

process is a political reform necessary to reaffirm the

Assembly’s role as the most representative body of the

United Nations, as well as the role and leadership of its

President. San Marino believes that the reform should

make the activities of the General Assembly more

efficient and effective, improve its relations with the

other main United Nations bodies to avoid duplication

of work and aim at the effective implementation of its

resolutions.

The Security Council reform process, which the

Republic of San Marino has been following with

commitment and interest since the beginning, is also

very important. We are grateful to the Afghan Chair for

the important activity carried out and for the way in

which it has presided over the intergovernmental

negotiations aimed at reaching the widest possible

political agreement on Security Council reforms.

San Marino believes that the aims of the reform

should be to make the Security Council more

democratic, transparent, efficient, accountable and

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representative, to restore the balance between the

Security Council and the General Assembly, and to

enhance its cooperation with the Secretariat. It is

important that this process allow for the development

of a sense of belonging to the Security Council among

all Member States, thus avoiding the risk that it could

be perceived as an isolated body within the United

Nations. Moreover, the reform should take into

consideration the legitimate interest of all States, big

and small, in being elected to the Security Council.

San Marino participates with commitment and

interest in the intergovernmental negotiations on the

reform of the Security Council and regrets that, to date,

no reasonable compromise has been reached to make it

more representative, democratic and possibly less

paralyzed by cross-vetoes concerning fundamental

issues.

Mr. Acharya (Nepal), Vice-President, took the

Chair.

The reforms of the General Assembly and the

Security Council are encompassed in a wider process

of transformation and strengthening of the role of the

United Nations within the global governance system.

San Marino believes that the United Nations plays and

must continue to play a pivotal role in managing the

global governance system and that the United Nations

reform process must be aimed at reaching this

objective.

Today’s world is characterized by marked

differences in terms of power, wealth, income and

social well-being among nations and peoples, and

within individual nations. Unfortunately, the world is

beset by numerous ethnic and interreligious conflicts,

which are sometimes fuelled by economic and

geopolitical factors originating outside the area of the

conflict. Moreover, global warming, which is also a

consequence of indiscriminate energy consumption in

developed and developing countries, is one of the

major causes of disasters and is leading, inter alia, to a

reduction in agricultural yields in tropical and

subtropical countries. Furthermore, this year in

particular the world economy has undergone one of the

most devastating financial crises in history, whose

consequences are clear to everyone.

These challenges can be faced only through

global and coordinated action, and the United Nations

has the responsibility and the duty to be at the centre of

this process. Only by tapping into the rich and varied

cultures and traditions represented by the United

Nations is it possible to manage the global governance

system in such a way as to achieve sustainable human

development. That the United Nations might relinquish

its role as leader of the global governance system in

favour of other bodies would be a defeat for all.

Unfortunately, the widespread poverty that affects

such a large percentage of the global population,

causing hunger, disease and underdevelopment, is one

of the most endemic problems faced by States. Despite

the efforts made and the commitments undertaken at a

global level, poverty continues to plague the whole

planet.

San Marino values the efforts and success of the

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) over the last

60 years and is proud to host Jacques Diouf, FAO

Director-General, as the official speaker at the

investiture ceremony of the new Captains-Regent, the

heads of State of the Republic of San Marino, which

will take place on 1 October 2009.

San Marino endorses the Millennium Development

Goals — which have unfortunately become more

difficult to achieve because of the crisis we are

currently facing — and believes we must continue in

our commitment.

The strengthening of multilateralism — included

by the Assembly President in the theme proposed for

this general debate, namely “Effective responses to

global crises: strengthening multilateralism and

dialogue among civilizations for international peace,

security and development” — is, in my opinion, a

central element. In fact, international organizations,

and the United Nations in the first instance, promote

the affirmation of democracy, rule of law, freedoms

and human rights as a condition for economic and

social development, cultural growth and education.

The current world economic and financial crisis

is the greatest global disaster since the very birth of the

United Nations, all the more so because it has added to

a severe food crisis that has affected many regions of

the world. As this crisis concerns all countries and

regions indiscriminately, it is now one of the major

challenges our Organization has to face.

The Republic of San Marino, as a small State,

attaches great importance to the role of the General

Assembly in the lives of our nations. It has welcomed

the high-level Conference on the World Financial and

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Economic Crisis and has supported its outcome

document (resolution 63/303, annex), which is the

result of long and complex negotiations. However, I

note with regret that the uncertainty in the preparation

of the Conference and the difficulties encountered in

drafting the final document discouraged the

participation of many world leaders, whose presence

could have made that United Nations conference an

historic event.

The task of the United Nations is to find, through

coordinated and global action, the right methods to

mitigate the impact of the crisis and to achieve

sustainable economic growth and development, taking

into account the negative effects of the crisis on the

attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

Climate change has become a central issue on the

United Nations agenda in the last three years, thanks to

the commitment and efforts undertaken by the

Secretary-General in this regard. Climate change,

which in the 1990s was already among the main

environmental concerns, has now become an absolute

priority on the political agenda of all States, including

the smallest ones like our Republic. The deep changes

caused by human intervention in the energy dynamics

of the climate system are indeed the elements of this

concern for the present and immediate future.

Therefore, urgent and significant changes in social and

economic development patterns cannot be further

postponed.

San Marino has recently submitted its first

national communication in accordance with the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

That communication represents the beginning of a

process, first of all of a social and cultural nature,

aimed at making all citizens of our country aware of

the need to face climate changes and effectively

commit to reducing as much as possible the impact of

these changes.

Among the most serious challenges we have to

face at national and international levels, terrorism in all

its forms and manifestations is of primary importance.

The Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the

General Assembly in 2006 represents a fundamental

initiative, because for the first time all Member States

agreed to a common strategic and operational approach

to counter terrorism. Such a strategy laid the

foundations for a coordinated response to this

emergency by envisaging preventive measures and the

strengthening of the role of the United Nations in the

fight against terrorism. It also recognizes that counter-

terrorism measures and the protection of human rights

are not conflicting goals; on the contrary, they are

complementary and mutually reinforcing.

However, an effective response to terrorism must

also be based on education in order to foster

understanding and respect for each other as a sine qua

non condition for achieving justice and peace. Indeed,

hatred, lack of understanding and injustice provide

breeding grounds for terrorist groups and organizations

to recruit new members.

My country focuses great attention, both at the

national and international levels, to the promotion and

protection of human rights, with special attention paid

to those of the weakest and most vulnerable groups. I

am pleased to recall that this year we celebrate the

twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the United

Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a

fundamental instrument that has been ratified by a

large number of States. However, we must not forget

that still today 9.2 million children under the age of

five die every year from largely preventable causes and

more than 100 million school-age children do not have

access to education. Furthermore, many children are

robbed of their childhood, are victims of sexual

violence, are used by armies or armed groups as

soldiers or sold as sexual slaves.

San Marino applauds and supports the United

Nations and UNICEF for the efforts undertaken

worldwide in order to improve the life of these

children. We also actively endorse the United Nations

commitment to women’s rights.

Finally, the protection of human rights is strictly

connected to the need to guarantee every human being

and every population the possibility of living in peace

and justice. It is therefore necessary to give new

momentum to the disarmament process. An important

step was taken last year in this regard by adopting the

Convention on Cluster Munitions, an instrument that

will prove essential to protecting affected populations

from those weapons, which have devastating effects on

civilians. The Republic of San Marino attaches great

importance to this Convention, which is focused on

human dignity and the interests of victims, and hopes

that it will promptly enter into force. We therefore call

upon the States that have not yet ratified it to do so as

soon as possible.