Thailand, 2000

On behalf of the

people and the Government of Thailand, I would like to

extend my warm congratulations to you, Sir, upon your

election to the presidency of the fifty-fifth session of

the General Assembly. I am confident that under your

able guidance, we shall be able to build upon the

momentum generated by the Millennium Summit and

enjoy a successful and result-oriented General

Assembly session.

I should also like to take this opportunity to pay

tribute to Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Foreign Minister of

Namibia, the President of the fifty-fourth session, for

his leadership and tireless efforts throughout the past

year. His wisdom and dedication to the tasks of our

Assembly enabled him to serve as an effective bridge

between the last session and the Millennium Summit,

thus laying a firm foundation for our work this year.

On this occasion, may I, on behalf of the people

and the Government of Thailand, extend a warm

welcome to Tuvalu on its admission as the newest

Member of the United Nations family.

The dawn of the new millennium is a time for

both justified celebration of and sombre reflection on

the achievements and shortcomings of the United

Nations during the past 55 years. As we review the

United Nations track record, I cannot but recall the

very first words written in the United Nations Charter:

“We the peoples of the United Nations”. These few

simple words convey an idea of overwhelming

significance — that it is the peoples of our respective

nations who represent the core raison d'être of this

foremost assembly of humankind. It is the peoples who

should be the primary beneficiaries of every resolution

that we adopt and every programme that we launch.

As we proceed with the first General Assembly

session of this millennium, we should ask ourselves the

questions, “Have we indeed put the peoples at the

centre of all our deliberations and activities? Have we

done enough to ensure that ordinary people, both men

and women, young and old, benefit from all our

initiatives and actions, collective as well as

individual?”

We are encouraged that the Secretary-General, in

his report to the Millennium Assembly, has highlighted

the “peoples' concerns” as one of the primary agenda

items for the international community to take up. And

we are gratified that many countries have highlighted

issues of direct interest to peoples at the Millennium

Summit, from reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS,

malaria and other diseases to combating the scourge of

drugs, from rolling back poverty to closing the

educational gaps within and between countries. These

are all important steps in the right direction.

But we need to do more. We need to adopt a fresh

mindset that places the interests and welfare of the

peoples — the peoples of our own countries and those

of other nations — at the centre of our policies in

socio-economic development and in maintaining

international peace and security. We need to keep in

mind that promoting the interests and welfare of

peoples requires that we also promote human rights and

fundamental freedoms. We need to work collectively to

translate commitments made at the Millennium Summit

and in other forums into concrete results that reach

people directly.

Although the recent economic and financial crisis

has brought devastating consequences to millions of

people across the Asia-Pacific region, it has helped

refocus the attention of Governments on the need to

protect the most important of any economy's assets,

namely, its people. The crisis, by exposing the

inadequacies of national social safety nets in protecting

the welfare of vulnerable peoples, has raised many

difficult questions. In essence, how can one pursue

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sustainable development and even attempt to attain

economic prosperity when the basic needs of people

cannot be fulfilled and the potentials of people not

fully developed?

The idea of putting people at the centre of

development efforts is not new. But its application has

been far from widespread. As various countries slowly

recover from the economic and financial crisis in Asia,

the value of pursuing people-centred development has

become ever greater. This development paradigm

considers development as a means to promote people's

welfare and interests rather than as an end in itself. It

looks beyond quantitative indicators of growth and

focuses more on how to nurture the capabilities of

people in society so that they are empowered and are

able to make positive contributions to a country's

development efforts. And it needs to be forward-

looking, taking into account the interests and welfare

of future, unborn generations.

As part and parcel of the efforts to pursue people-

centre development, we must put a premium on

tackling those issues, national and transnational, that

have a direct impact on people's welfare. I should

therefore like to highlight three issues in particular that

affect the very essence of the welfare of our peoples:

drugs and narcotics-trafficking, HIV/AIDS and poverty

alleviation through sustainable development.

One of the most unfortunate consequences of

globalization is the globalization of the drugs and

narcotics problem. Illicit trafficking in and production

of narcotics erode an economy's resources, generate a

host of social problems and undermine our human

potential. These effects are widespread, from the most

rural and remote of villages to the most modern of

metropolises. It is a global social problem that affects

people directly, both users and non-users. While all

types of drugs and narcotics are a threat to society, we

hope that the international community will give as

much attention to the growing threat of

methamphethamines as it did to heroin and other drugs

in the past. The small size and low cost of producing

methamphethamines make them readily accessible to

all sectors of society and therefore difficult to suppress.

Thailand has spared no effort in tackling the drug

and narcotics problem at the national level, and is at

the forefront of regional and international cooperation

to meet this challenge, with the Association of South-

East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations

International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP). I am

pleased to announce that Thailand and UNDCP will be

hosting an International Congress, “In pursuit of a drug

free ASEAN 2015: Sharing the vision, leading the

change”, in Bangkok from 11 to 13 October this year.

We hope to establish an effective coordinating

mechanism to tackle the drugs and narcotics problem

along all fronts and at all levels, and we hope that the

international community will support us in these

endeavours.

We are gratified that the global problem of

HIV/AIDS, which is affecting an increasing number of

people in our societies, was given due attention at the

Millennium Summit. But international efforts will have

to be strengthened and sustained if the international

community is to make a dent in a problem that has

already affected more than 36 million people

worldwide and is reaching epidemic proportions. We

are honoured that Thailand has been cited as one of the

success stories in tackling the HIV/AIDS problem in

the developing world. Nevertheless, the sustainability

of successful national efforts requires strong support

and cooperation at the regional and multilateral levels

and effective partnerships with non-governmental

organizations, including the private sector.

In this connection, we hope that regional and

international cooperation in preventing and alleviating

the HIV/AIDS problem will emphasize the exchange of

AIDS-related technologies and state-of-the-art

techniques for the prevention and alleviation of this

disease, as well as the sharing of knowledge on

affordable HIV/AIDS-related drugs. We call on the

Secretary-General to enhance his efforts in

coordinating international action against HIV/AIDS.

We also support the proposal for a special session of

the General Assembly in 2001 to address this problem.

Uplifting peoples from abject poverty and

endowing them with appropriate means to lead

productive lives are the best guarantees of long-term

social stability, and provide a secure foundation for

future prosperity and international peace. Poverty

reduction is thus at the core of people-centred

development and the first step in promoting a more just

and equitable global order. The tenth session of the

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

(UNCTAD X), which Thailand had the honour of

hosting from 12 to 19 February this year, drew

particular attention to the risks of marginalization of

the poorest countries in the global economy and of the

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most vulnerable groups within both developing and

developed countries.

UNCTAD is endeavouring to build a new

consensus on how to have greater equity and

participation by all in the international economy in this

era of globalization. In line with the “Spirit of

Bangkok” emerging from UNCTAD X, Thailand, as

current President of UNCTAD, greatly appreciates the

initiative by Japan during the Group of Eight (G-8)

Summit in Okinawa and the G-8 Foreign Ministers'

Meeting in Miyazaki in July this year to invite

representatives from developing countries as well as

regional and international organizations to meet with

the G-8 leaders as a means to strengthen North-South

cooperation. We are also very appreciative of China's

initiative to hold a Sino-African dialogue on

development cooperation soon. We are convinced that

these initiatives are a step in the right direction.

I was astounded to learn that fewer than 2 per

cent of the world's population is connected to the

Internet, despite all the hype, and that a large portion of

mankind have never heard a dial tone. If such

discrepancies in information (IT) and/or digital divides

are not reversed soon, the developing world will be left

far behind the rest of the world. Thailand believes that

we should act in concert to maximize the benefits of IT

and to ensure that the greatest possible percentage of

the world's population is guaranteed IT access.

To this end, Thailand fully supports and

appreciates the G-8 Okinawa Charter on the Global

Information Society to bridge the so-called digital

divide. We also welcome the contributions of the

private sector, such as those of the Global Digital

Divide Initiative of the World Economic Forum and the

Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce.

We hope that more, similar initiatives will be

forthcoming so that we, especially the developing part

of the world, can overcome the digital divide.

Debt problems are also recognized as a serious

obstacle to the pursuit of economic and social

development, and all countries should be assisted in

managing their debt obligations, including through a

debt standstill. Thailand therefore also supports the

convening of an international intergovernmental event

on financing for development next year at the highest

possible level and hopes that feasible and effective

measures can be agreed upon to generate greater

international financial assistance to support sustainable

development and to address poverty. In this connection,

we see great value in securing the active participation

of the international financial and trade institutions and

the private sector, as well as all the NGOs concerned.

The most effective way to ensure poverty

reduction and promote sustainable development is to

empower peoples with the capacity to help themselves.

And there is no better way to achieve this than through

education and training. Thailand thus attaches great

importance to human resources development (HRD).

Our efforts are not confined to the national level but

extend to a wider, regional scale. We have been at the

forefront in promoting HRD in the Mekong subregion,

for we sincerely believe that the upgrading of human

potential is the best way to fight poverty and ensure

closer regional cooperation and sustainable

development.

International peace and security begin at home. If

we are able to pursue an all-encompassing notion of

security that places the security of peoples at the apex

of our considerations, if we can secure for people

freedom from want as well as freedom from fear, then

the likelihood of threats to international peace and

security will be drastically reduced. Human security

and people-centred development are two sides of the

same coin: they each promote the welfare of peoples in

different ways and reinforce one another at the same

time.

It is gratifying to note that the concept of human

security is gaining ground, even though the debates on

what constitutes human security are by no means over.

Thailand believes that human security can only take

firm root if the basic needs of peoples are fulfilled and

peoples are free from social and economic threats to

their well-being. How can we begin to talk about

human security, let alone international peace and

international security, when 1.2 billion people in the

world live on less than 1 US dollar a day, about 90

million children are out of school at the primary level

and about 1.2 million women and children under 18 are

trafficked for prostitution each year?

We therefore advocate freeing people from want

by effectively and collectively meeting the challenges

posed by poverty, illiteracy, infectious disease, famine,

natural disaster, social unrest and disintegration. These

are in fact the very same goals that we need to achieve

in promoting people-centred development.

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The achievement of human security also requires

the promotion and protection of human rights and

fundamental freedoms. We cannot support human

security and effectively pursue people-centred

development if we are unable to ensure that people are

protected from the worst forms of abuse, suffering and

deprivation. We cannot claim to put people at the

centre of development efforts if we are unwilling to

create political conditions whereby people are able to

pursue their lives free from threats to their dignity and

personal safety. We cannot expect to develop human

potential to the fullest or make people effective

contributors to economic development if they cannot

have the intellectual freedom to pursue their hopes and

dreams for their own future.

Thailand therefore calls upon the international

community to renew its commitment to promoting and

protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, in

order to ensure that people's interests and welfare are

indeed at the centre of our policies and programmes. It

is with this conviction that Thailand commits itself to

playing an active and responsible role within the

United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Drawing strength and inspiration from one of the most

democratic constitutions anywhere, we will continue to

give our full support to the efforts of the United

Nations aimed at the protection and promotion of basic

human rights, freedoms and dignity.

In this connection, Thailand also calls upon the

international community to redouble its efforts to assist

displaced persons wherever they may be. As host to

over 100,000 displaced persons and over a million

illegal economic migrants, Thailand attaches great

importance to this issue and hopes that it will be

resolved comprehensively and as soon as possible.

While we seek to promote international peace and

security from within by building support for the

adoption of the human security paradigm among

nations, we should also redouble our efforts

internationally. We should engage in prompt and

effective collective action at the regional and

multilateral levels to create conditions of peace and

stability. At the Millennium Summit, many leaders

spoke of the need and urgency of Security Council

reform. In line with the increased membership of and

mounting challenges to this world Organization,

Thailand, for one, supports the expansion of both the

permanent and non-permanent membership of the

Security Council, based on the principle of equitable

geographical representation, efficiency and readiness to

share responsibilities.

Furthermore, Thailand fully supports the reform

of United Nations peace operations to ensure their

effective conduct and thus the credibility of the United

Nations itself. As I mentioned during the Millennium

Summit, we strongly support the Brahimi report on

United Nations peace operations, for we believe that its

recommendations are right on target and constitute

achievable and practical steps towards the

strengthening of United Nations peace operations

worldwide. I should also add that peace operations

should be prompt and non-selective as well as being

comprehensive in nature.

Thailand is therefore honoured to play an

important part in United Nations peacekeeping efforts

under the United Nations International Force, East

Timor (INTERFET) and now under the United Nations

Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET),

through the contribution of over 1,500 Thai

peacekeepers and the role of Lieutenant-General

Boonsrang Niumpradit, Force Commander of

UNTAET. At the same time, Thailand has always been

conscious of the value of regional cooperation in

fostering peace and stability and strongly supports

regional efforts aimed at confidence-building and

promoting preventive diplomacy.

In this connection, we are proud of the seventh

meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)

recently concluded in Bangkok in July, which saw the

admission of the People's Democratic Republic of

Korea (DPRK) into our forum. We warmly welcome

the Democratic Republic of Korea's participation in the

ARF, the only regional forum that brings together all

the key countries in the Asia-Pacific region. We are

confident that this will strengthen the momentum for

regional peace and security in the Asia and Pacific

region.

It is our fervent hope that at this first General

Assembly of the twenty-first century, 55 years after the

United Nations held its first meeting, we, the

Government representatives of Member States, can

move forward in fulfilling our promise made in the

United Nations Charter to serve the interests of “We

the peoples of the United Nations”. More than ever

before, we need to remind ourselves that it is the

peoples of our nations who are at the core of all our

efforts, whether these be to pursue social and economic

7

development, maintain international peace and security

or promote human rights and fundamental freedoms.

For if we do not fulfil our task in advancing the cause

of protecting the welfare of our peoples, who will? If

we cannot adequately promote and protect the interests

of the peoples of the United Nations, then it is time to

consider other ways in which the peoples of the United

Nations — indeed, our own peoples — can interact

directly with the United Nations.

Now is the time. Let us rededicate ourselves to

the task that we set out to accomplish 55 years ago. Let

us strive to become what we were always meant to

be — a truly representative body of “We the Peoples of

the United Nations”, acting in defence of their welfare

and the advancement of their interests above all else.

Let us resolve and pledge to each other that we shall be

even more united, better prepared and more resilient to

meet the challenges of the new millennium together.