Suriname, 2002

The

creation on 24 October 1945 of the family of nations

brought the peoples of the world values, principles and

goals to cherish and to realize. The founders of the

United Nations brought us hope; they brought us new

belief in the future of humanity after two world wars.

They opened the eyes of the world community to such

key issues as human dignity, equality, tolerance, peace,

national and international security, social and economic

progress, and respect for human rights.

How do we deal with those precious gifts? Do

we, the Member countries — large and small; powerful

and less powerful; developed, less developed and

developing — make the optimal use of those tools to

shoulder the necessary responsibility and solidarity

with one another and with our peoples, in particular the

most vulnerable ones among us: our children, older

persons, persons with disabilities, persons with

HIV/AIDS, women and men, and older and younger

persons who are suffering from extreme poverty,

hunger, deadly diseases, drought and war crimes?

In my statement today on behalf of the

Government and the people of the Republic of

Suriname, in which those fundamental issues should be

addressed, I would first like to express feelings of

peace and love to the entire United Nations family:

peace and love, which was brought to us in the peace

messages of the President and of the Secretary-General

and in the beautiful songs of the United Nations Choir

during the Peace Bell Ceremony, held this morning

here at Headquarters, on the occasion of the

International Day of Peace; peace and love to you, Mr.

President, because of your unanimous election to that

high Office, because of your readiness to serve and

because of your country's important contribution to the

lofty goals of the Organization; peace and love to your

predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo, for his energetic

guidance and leadership during the remarkable fifty-

sixth session of the General Assembly; and peace and

love to the dedicated and inspiring Secretary-General

and to the entire Secretariat — those who work actively

every day everywhere in the United Nations system

and who, despite their difficult roles, which include

security personnel, interpreters, conference officers,

field workers, information and communication

technology personnel and personnel in the various

agencies and programmes, always stand ready to serve

humanity with a kind smile.

Peace and love were enshrined in the recent 11

September message of President Runaldo Ronald

Venetiaan of the Republic of Suriname to President

George W. Bush of the United States of America:

“On this day, our thoughts and feelings are

with the families and friends of the victims of the

cruel terrorist attack on 11 September 2001, as

well as with the Government and people of the

United States of America. The people of

Suriname pray that the whole of the American

nation will prosper in peace, together with all of

the global family”.

We express peace, love and special words of

welcome to the newly admitted Swiss Confederation,

which, as of 10 September 2002, has joined our family

as the 190th Member State, after having served the

United Nations so well as an observer State, especially

with respect to the promotion of human rights and the

protection of humanitarian law. We also express our

special feelings of love, peace and welcome to the

Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, which will be

admitted as the 191st Member State of the United

Nations on 27 September 2002 after a long process of

preparation, on the basis of Security Council resolution

1272 (1999), with the strong participation of its own

well-motivated people and with the guidance and

support of the international community. We wish the

Governments and peoples of both countries well in

their future endeavours.

Last year, designated as the United Nations Year

of Dialogue among Civilizations, came at a time in

today's world when dialogue proved to be most

essential. Suriname is a fervent advocate of dialogue.

Therefore, we prefer to choose the path of dialogue to

solve our disputes. I am pleased to say that the

Surinamese peoples, who originated in all parts of the

world — in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe —

live in peace and harmony with one another. We also

cherish our peaceful and friendly relations with

neighbouring countries and with many other countries

27

around the globe. To promote unity in our society, the

ideals of peace and respect for one another's cultures

are incorporated into our national educational

programmes and are taught from an early age.

The human rights based approach to

development, including the notion that human rights

education is a key to development, should be

embraced. Therefore, the national education plan of

Suriname will also deal with human rights education.

Awareness should be raised that poverty among our

peoples is a serious violation of their human rights:

every human being has the right to an adequate

standard of living with regard to health, medical care

and well-being — the right to education, to food, to

housing and to social services in general.

Suriname has ratified all major human rights

instruments. We welcomed the special attention of the

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination

against Women during the consideration of, among

other things, Suriname's initial periodic report,

submitted last June, on the importance of human rights

as a way to transform society and as a birthright. My

delegation emphasizes that no equality can be achieved

unless human rights become a way of life.

Therefore, on behalf of my Government, I would

like to express my heartfelt thanks to the former High

Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Mary

Robinson, for the excellent manner in which she

carried out her duties. At the same time, we wish to

welcome the newly appointed High Commissioner for

Human Rights, who is from our region: Mr. Sergio

Vieira de Mello of Brazil.

We extend our best wishes to him, and are

convinced that he will guide us in promoting and

protecting the effective enjoyment by everyone of all

civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights,

including the right to development, in accordance with

General Assembly resolution 48/141.

If we indeed want the United Nations to maintain

international peace and security, we need to abide by

and implement the various resolutions and decisions it

has adopted towards this goal. The commitments,

declarations and action plans drafted at the various

United Nations follow-up conferences held this year

will have to be implemented. The difference in

positions of various countries poses a threat to

international peace and security, especially with regard

to the consequences of trade liberalization for

developing countries.

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals

must be our first priority, and this achievement should

not be jeopardized by an increase in defence

expenditures.

We welcome Iraq's recently announced decision

to allow the return of United Nations weapon

inspectors into the country; we also applaud the

recently agreed peace plan that aims to achieve, by

2005, a final settlement towards a peaceful solution to

the conflicts in the Middle East.

If we want to guarantee international peace and

security, we have to live up to the challenge of creating

a world fit for children; a world without child-soldiers;

a society for all ages, where people are no longer

starving, dying of famine, drought or living in extreme

poverty; where there is respect for human rights, the

rule of law and international law; where there is fair

trade, sustainable development, good governance; and

where each individual has the right to development, the

ultimate goal being to improve the quality of life of

every human being — children, women, men, older

persons and persons with disabilities.

According to the 2002 Human Development

Report, many countries are poorer than they were 10,

20, and in some cases, even 30 years ago; genuine

attention should be given to these most vulnerable

people. Developing countries can by no means meet

the needs of their people on the basis of their own

financial resources; Governments of the developed

world, international financial institutions and donor

countries should increase their official development

assistance.

Poverty eradication should be a high priority in

our countries. Our poverty eradication programme is

designed in such a way that it emphasizes not only

labour demanding growth, but also, and especially,

domestic capital demanding growth. Our Government

has confidence in a programme focusing on technology

and the education of our people to elevate our

population to higher material and spiritual levels.

Education is an important vehicle leading to the

awareness of health problems, such as HIV/AIDS,

malaria and tuberculosis, human rights and democracy

issues, criminality, including cross-boundary crime,

and drug trafficking. Suriname has a long tradition and

28

history regarding the involvement of civil society and

other non-State actors in the development of our

country and attaches great importance to real

partnership between Government, civil society and

non-governmental organizations in the fields of social

affairs, education and health, among others.

During our participation last Monday in the high-

level General Assembly session on the New

Partnership for Africa's Development, we expressed

the solidarity of the Government and People of

Suriname with our brothers and sisters on the African

continent and our strong support for Africa's

determination to emerge from poverty, hunger and

famine, and such destructive deadly diseases as

HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, in order to build

a strong and lasting culture of peace and democracy

based on Africa's precious natural and human

resources and its cultural wealth.

Information and communication technologies

(ICT) must be considered as essential for the

sustainable development of peoples and societies; the

rights-based approach to development should include

the right to information and communication

technologies. ICT has been recognized as an effective

instrument in the fields of economic growth,

knowledge, education at all levels, poverty eradication,

people's empowerment, capacity-building, decision-

making and the promotion of sustainable development.

The United Nations Secretary-General should be

commended for the timely initiative within the United

Nations system to create the United Nations

Information and Communication Technologies Task

Force, which plays a vital role in the preparatory

process for the World Summit on the Information

Society in December 2003 in Geneva and 2005 in

Tunis. Various ICT programmes and projects for

children, students, older persons and others, are being

carried out in Suriname by the Government, the

university and civil society.

My country will continue to support the work of

the United Nations. We are committed to implementing

the plans of action of the important follow-up United

Nations Conferences held this year — namely, the

Special Session on Children, the International

Conference on Financing for Development, the World

Assembly on Ageing, the World Food Summit and the

World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The challenges that we face with regard to

economic, social and environmental development are

to cut poverty in half within the next 10 years. My

Government is committed to working on the economic

growth and poverty eradication of our own people. We

are also faced with the challenge of improving

environmentally-friendly and healthy products and

consumer goods; protecting and managing the natural

resource base of Suriname; improving the sustainable

development of small island developing States; and

strengthening the management of sustainable

development at the national, regional and international

levels.

Because Suriname is situated in the Caribbean

region, the region with the second highest rate of

HIV/AIDS-infected people in the world, this issue is of

utmost importance. Besides HIV/AIDS, malaria and

tuberculosis pose grave threats not only to health in

general, but also to the labour sector and to the social

and economic development of Suriname. We are,

therefore, now taking the necessary steps to submit a

request for funding through the United Nations Global

Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

We are faced with a vast amount of issues that

need to be solved, and agreements and programmes

that need to be implemented in order to improve the

lives of our peoples. The United Nations still proves to

be the best place to collectively discuss the problems of

the world and to look for lasting solutions. It is up to us

to live up to our commitments as Members of the

United Nations and to create better living conditions

for our people. We can only hope that this would

eventually lead to stability in and between our

countries, and ultimately lead to peace and security, as

envisioned by the founders of this great Organization.

Secretary-General Annan and Assembly President

Kavan, at this morning's Peace Bell ceremony,

exhorted the international community to heed the

message of International Peace Day and let it resound

far and wide, spreading dignity, justice, understanding,

solidarity and prosperity.

Let there be peace on earth. Let peace begin with

all of us who are assembled in this beautiful, historical

General Assembly Hall. May the Almighty be with all

of us.