Slovakia, 1998

First of all, I wish to

congratulate the President on his election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-third

session and to express my sincere belief that under his

leadership this session of the General Assembly will carry

out successfully the tasks that the international community

expects this global forum to deal with.

I would also like to thank Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko

for his work and contribution to the successful completion

of the last session of the General Assembly.

In this period of significant global political and

economic changes, the world needs a modern and

effective United Nations that is capable of dealing with

issues of importance to all of mankind in a proper and

flexible manner. Slovakia believes that the ongoing

process of reform of the United Nations will contribute

substantively to this goal. It gives its full support to the

swift implementation of the reform measures initiated by

the Secretary-General in his basic report on reform.

The Slovak Republic welcomes the proposal to

designate the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly

as the Millennium Assembly. We expect that the

Millennium Assembly will provide Member States an

opportunity to formulate answers to questions about the

strategic goals of the United Nations for the next

millennium in the field of international peace and security

and economic cooperation. We assume that the report on

the role of the United Nations in the twenty-first century

that the Secretary-General intends to present to the

General Assembly in the year 2000 will provide a

thorough evaluation of the results achieved in specific

areas of United Nations activities.

The Slovak Republic supports a Security Council

reform that would enhance its representative character, its

working methods and the transparency of its work, as

well as preserve the Council?s capability to act promptly.

The reform should result in an adequate representation of

individual regional groups and accommodate a legitimate

claim of the Eastern European regional Group and other

States to a new non-permanent seat in the Security

Council. Let us keep in mind that the number of members

of the Eastern European Group has doubled over the past

few years.

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Slovakia supports the efforts to reach a consensus on

the reform in the area of United Nations financing,

favouring the principle of capacity to pay. In any case,

much of the tension can be solved through the regular

contributions by Member States to the relevant United

Nations budgets.

The Slovak Republic supports the idea of the

exclusively peaceful use of nuclear energy and is a strong

advocate of unconditional and universal observance of the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)

and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Slovakia actively participates in the Preparatory Committee

for the 2000 sixth Review Conference of the Parties to the

NPT, and in this context fully supports the universality of

the NPT and the CTBT. In March of this year, Slovakia

completed the ratification process of the CTBT. This

confirms our active approach in this area.

We appreciate the highly qualified and objective

expertise of the International Atomic Energy Agency

(IAEA), both in the field of elimination of the nuclear

military threat and the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Slovakia fully supported the activities of the International

Atomic Energy Agency known as programme “93+2” for

strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency

of the safeguards system. I have the honour to inform the

Assembly that the Board of Governors of the International

Atomic Energy Agency approved at its session in

September the additional protocol to the safeguards

agreement between Slovakia and the International Atomic

Energy Agency. Early entry into force of the additional

protocol will be a high priority for Slovak authorities.

Slovakia pays very close attention to the issue of

landmines. The ratification of the Ottawa Convention is in

the internal legislative process. We believe that the Ottawa

process and the Conference on Disarmament are

complementary. Slovakia — which has experience in

demining devices and technologies, and has capacities in

education and training in mine clearance — would like to

play an active role in the process of the total elimination of

anti-personnel landmines.

In the area of biological weapons, the Slovak Republic

supports improving the verification system of the Biological

Weapons Convention, as well as the elimination of the

illegal transfer of these weapons.

Slovakia supports the efforts of the United Nations

aimed at conflict resolution through the strengthening of

United Nations capacities in the field of preventive

diplomacy, early warning systems and effective use of

United Nations peacekeeping operations. Slovakia?s active

participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations

is proof of our continuing commitment. At present,

Slovakia is participating in three peacekeeping operations,

and it is prepared to provide troops to other missions as

well.

My country supports the United Nations efforts to

strengthen its capacity for rapid deployment of United

Nations peacekeeping forces, especially in further

developing the concept of United Nations stand-by

arrangements, as well as a rapidly deployable mission

headquarters.

In the process of post-conflict peace-building, it is of

the utmost importance that a multifunctional approach in

close coordination with regional institutions and non-

governmental and humanitarian organizations should be

strictly observed.

One of the global problems that poses an ever

increasing threat to humankind is terrorism. Slovakia has

always rejected terrorism and strongly condemns all acts,

methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and

unjustifiable, wherever and by whomsoever committed.

The joint efforts of all States are a vital precondition for

successful fight against this evil.

The year 1998 will witness two important human

rights anniversaries — the fiftieth anniversary of the

adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

and the fifth anniversary of the World Conference on

Human Rights. Both these events represent an appropriate

framework and provide the impetus for the further

promotion, protection and development of human rights

at the threshold of the twenty-first century.

In a year which will mark two important

anniversaries in the field of human rights, the

Government of the Slovak Republic approved the

country?s accession to the Second Optional Protocol to

the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

which I had the honour to sign on 22 September last.

The Slovak Republic attaches great importance to

international economic cooperation and to the important

role of the Economic and Social Council in this process.

In the framework of regional cooperation, Slovakia

favours respect for the specific needs of individual

regions. We welcome, therefore, the activities of the

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Economic Commission for Europe aimed at broadening

cooperation with the private business sector and non-

governmental organizations. Slovakia is interested in a more

intensive participation in the development programmes of

the United Nations specialized institutions and is preparing

its own concept of development assistance, whose objective

is to increase Slovakia?s participation in programmes for

developing countries.

The Slovak Republic, as a member of the United

Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing

Council and the United Nations Commission on Sustainable

Development, takes an active approach to issues of

environmental protection and sustainable development.

In accordance with General Assembly resolution

52/201, the Government of the Slovak Republic offered to

host the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to

the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bratislava this

year. In total 169 parties to the Convention took part in the

Conference under the presidency of the Minister of the

Environment of the Slovak Republic. The successful

outcome of the Conference reaffirmed the commitment of

all parties to conserve biological diversity for future

generations. The fact that the Government of the Slovak

Republic hosted that Conference confirms the importance

we attach to the protection of environment and sustainable

development.

As an emerging donor country, Slovakia is

investigating ways of providing humanitarian assistance on

a bilateral basis. A very important element in the process of

humanitarian assistance, especially in crisis regions, is

ensuring the security of humanitarian personnel, and the

Slovak Republic is ready to give its support to all United

Nations measures aimed at reinforcing this security.

The recent twentieth special session of the General

Assembly devoted to countering the world drug problem

together was an important milestone in the joint efforts of

the international community in the fight against drugs. It is

a great achievement that for the first time in history a

consensus was reached between producer and consumer

countries on the need to eliminate the threat of drugs

through parallel and considered action in both priority

areas: decreasing the demand for drugs and decreasing the

production of drugs.

To coordinate drug control activities at the regional

level, the Slovak Republic is ready to secure the

establishment in Bratislava of a regional United Nations

International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) office

for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

We appreciate that the Diplomatic Conference of

Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International

Criminal Court in Rome was successfully completed, and

we believe that in the foreseeable future a permanent

criminal court will be established in order to punish the

most serious crimes against humanity and, moreover, to

prevent them.

We believe that progress in the preparation of an

international legal document on the elimination of nuclear

terrorism will be achieved during this session of the

General Assembly. We also expect further substantial

progress in the discussion on the jurisdictional immunity

of States and State property prepared by the International

Law Commission.

The United Nations contributes not only to the

progressive development of international law and its

codification but also — in particular through its main

judicial authority, the International Court of Justice — to

the peaceful solution of disputes between States in

accordance with international law. The Slovak Republic

has gained its first experience of ICJ proceedings. It

welcomed the Court?s Judgment in the case concerning

the Gabcˇ'kovo-Nagymaros Project, which confirmed the

validity of the treaty between Slovakia and Hungary

concerning the construction and operation of the project

on the Danube. The Slovak Republic is sincerely

interested in the implementation of the Judgment, which

would be based on an agreement with Hungary reached,

if necessary, with the further help of the International

Court of Justice.

An active and effective participation of Slovakia in

the United Nations is one of our foreign policy priorities.

To achieve this objective, Slovakia meets all its

commitments under the United Nations Charter in full and

is consistently intensifying its engagement in all areas of

the United Nations system. The candidature of the Slovak

Republic for a non-permanent seat in the Security Council

for the term 2000-2001 is the logical result of this

approach. I should like to stress that my country, which

belongs to the group of small and medium-sized States,

is prepared to be fully responsible for bearing its fair

share of the global responsibility connected with

membership in the Security Council.

As we approach the third millennium, a considerable

part of humankind is still facing poverty, violence,

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violations of human rights and the effects of war. The

millions of people on this planet affected look to the

international community, and the United Nations in

particular, with great hope. Whether we will succeed in

reforming the United Nations together into a strong,

politically efficient and financially healthy system that will

be able to meet the expectations of current and future

generations depends on the will and commitment of all of

us.