Ukraine, 2006

First of all, I would like

to congratulate our President on her election to this

high post and to assure her of the full support of

Ukraine throughout her mandate. I would also like to

express our deep appreciation of her predecessor and

my good friend, Mr. Jan Eliasson, for his outstanding

contribution to progress in implementing the decisions

of the 2005 World Summit.

I would also like to pay special tribute to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, who is about to

relinquish his important and noble mission. I praise Mr.

Annan for his valuable personal contributions and

devoted efforts to further all aspects of United Nations

activities and wish him the best in his further

endeavours.

We are convinced that the next Secretary-General

must be a person truly deserving of the post and who

will discharge this responsible duty with honour. I

would like to again emphasize the justified position of

the Eastern European States regarding the priority right

for a representative of this region to be appointed to

the top post at the United Nations. Eastern Europe

remains the only region that has never had a

representative serve as Secretary-General. In this

respect, we welcome the nomination of Ms. Vaira Vike-

Freiberga, President of the Republic of Latvia.

Our achievements in implementing last year’s

Summit decisions are quite impressive. The Human

Rights Council, of which Ukraine is an active member,

has started its work. The Peacebuilding Commission,

the Central Emergency Response Fund and the United

Nations Democracy Fund are all functioning and

making important contributions towards overcoming

disasters and injustice. All of these are notable

milestones in the process of reforming the United

Nations.

Still, we are far from ensuring the adaptation of

our Organization to today’s realities, let alone

preparing it for addressing tomorrow’s threats and

challenges. The reform of the Security Council, the

strengthening of the Economic and Social Council, the

promotion of the 2005 World Summit agenda for

development and improvement in the management of

the Secretariat have yet to be tackled.

It is well known that without the modernization

of the Security Council, an indispensable pillar of the

collective security system, reform of the United

Nations would be incomplete. From standpoint of the

Member States of the Eastern European Group, this

thesis could be paraphrased as follows: no enlargement

of the Security Council would be complete without

ensuring the enhanced representation of Eastern

Europe. The doubling of the Group’s membership since

1991, with, most recently, the Republic of Montenegro

joining the United Nations as its one hundred ninety-

second Member, supports our argument. At this point, I

would like to welcome the friendly Republic of

Montenegro to the United Nations family.

We need to unite our efforts so that the United

Nations — that is, all of us together — can adequately

respond to the broad spectrum of existing and future

challenges in the areas of security, development and

human rights.

Recent commemoration of the fifth anniversary

of the barbaric terrorist attack on this city, as well as

the growing number of terrorist acts in many parts of

the world, should leave no doubt that terrorism

continues to remain one of the most dangerous threats

of the present day.

Ukraine welcomes the recent adoption by the

General Assembly of the Global Counter-Terrorism

Strategy and is ready to make important contributions

towards its effective realization. This important

decision has become another strong signal that

terrorism will not be tolerated. The Strategy also

testifies to the readiness of the international

community to strengthen coordination and increase the

effectiveness of measures to combat this hideous

phenomenon, within the framework of a concrete

06-53329 20

action plan. On its part, Ukraine recently ratified the

Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of

Terrorism. We call upon Member States to make

additional efforts during the current session of the

General Assembly to elaborate on and adopt the

comprehensive convention on international terrorism.

Ukraine is deeply concerned with the situation in

the Middle East. Recent events in Lebanon and the

continuing Israeli-Palestinian crisis have shown the

need for more decisive international efforts aimed at

returning peace and stability to this region. Violence

and hatred cannot become the alternatives to the

restoration of dialogue and negotiations aimed at

achieving a comprehensive and lasting settlement of

the Arab-Israeli conflict on all of its tracks.

Ukraine therefore welcomes the adoption of

Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) on Lebanon.

Support of the resolution by all parties in the region

allows for hope that it will be fully implemented. As a

longstanding contributor to the United Nations

Peacekeeping efforts, including in the Middle East,

Ukraine made its concrete proposals on contributing to

the enhanced United Nations Interim Force in

Lebanon.

The inability to agree on a set of commitments

regarding disarmament and non-proliferation was one

of the major setbacks of the 2005 World Summit. More

than a decade ago Ukraine made a historic contribution

in this area when it unilaterally renounced the world’s

third largest nuclear weapons arsenal. Therefore, we

call upon Member States to strive for progress in the

areas of disarmament and non-proliferation in the

United Nations and other forums, for the sake of future

generations.

Lately, the international community has been

concerned with the nuclear programme of Iran.

Ukraine supports the efforts of those countries that

seek to gain Teheran’s return to full and close

cooperation with the International Atomic Energy

Agency (IAEA). Appropriate levels of transparency

and cooperation with Iran on this issue would help to

ease the concerns of the international community.

Ukraine stands for the right of all nations to use

nuclear energy for peaceful purposes; however, in

realizing this right, nations must fully adhere to

commitments in the field of non-proliferation.

One of the most important tests of the ability of

the United Nations to deal effectively with inter-ethnic

conflict will be how the future status of Kosovo is

handled.

Taking into account the fragile situation in and

around Kosovo, the political process of determining its

future status should be handled with maximum

responsibility by all the parties involved. Any imposed

decision leading to a unilateral change of borders of

that internationally recognized democratic State will

inevitably destabilize the situation in the Balkan region

and set dangerous precedents in Europe and the entire

world. Unfortunately, we are already witnessing the

unfolding of an undesirable scenario created by

attempts to use the Kosovo settlement as a precedent

for claiming independence for several self-proclaimed

regimes within the boundaries of the former Soviet

Union. I refer to so-called referendums on

independence recently held in Transdniestria, Moldova,

and scheduled for the near future in South Ossetia,

Georgia. Ukraine and the international community do

not recognize these referendums, considering them

illegitimate and without legal consequences.

Ukraine supports the need for negotiations

between Belgrade and Pristina aimed at finding a

mutually acceptable solution based on Security Council

decisions, including resolution 1244 (1999). It is

extremely important to ensure that the decision of the

Security Council on the final status of Kosovo does not

impose a solution, which can be taken only with the

clearly expressed consent of both parties concerned.

As representative of Ukraine and Chair of the

GUAM — Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova

Group — Organization for Democracy and Economic

Development, I would like to thank the countries that

supported placing on the agenda of the sixty-first

session of the General Assembly item 27 on protracted

conflicts in the GUAM area and their implications for

international peace, security and development. It is an

important step that will help to draw attention to the

need for more active and effective steps by the

international community to achieve progress in settling

conflicts on the territory of Azerbaijan, Georgia and

Moldova. We call for implementing the initiative

proposed by the President of Ukraine on Transdniestria

entitled “To settlement through democracy”, the plan

for a peace settlement in South Ossetia presented by

the President of Georgia, and for implementing the

Security Council resolutions and OSCE decisions on

the conflicts in Nagorny Karabakh and Abkhazia.

These conflicts are among the main obstacles to the

21 06-53329

full-scale democratic transformation of the region,

which is among the core elements of Ukraine’s

regional policy.

Having gained a new level of integration during

the Kyiv Summit last May, GUAM member States set

as their main goals the strengthening of democratic

values, the rule of law, and human rights and

fundamental freedoms, the deepening of European

integration, and the achievement of sustainable

development and the greater well-being of their

peoples.

The Black Sea Economic Cooperation

Organization (BSEC) is another promising model of

multilateral political and economic cooperation.

During the 14 years of its dynamic existence, that

organization has proved its value as a framework for

regional cooperation. Because issues of energy security

are very important for Europe today, the Black Sea and

Caspian Sea regions take on special significance for

the secure, stable extraction and transportation of

energy resources. Ukraine is ready to take an active

part in promoting energy projects within the BSEC

framework. We are convinced that the BSEC can

effectively support the efforts of the world community

to combat terrorism, resolve the so-called frozen

conflicts in the region and combat trans-border crime.

It is necessary to coordinate BSEC activity with

corresponding programmes supported by the United

Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation

in Europe, the European Union and NATO.

The Forum of the Community of Democratic

Choice (CDC), held in Kyiv in December 2005, is

another example of cooperation aimed at strengthening

European democratic values in Eastern Europe. The

CDC is a forum in which the States of the Baltic Sea-

Black Sea-Caspian Sea area with the Balkans discuss

their aspirations for the higher democratic standards

required for full-scale European integration. GUAM,

BSEC and the CDC are valuable contributions to the

creation of an Eastern Europe area akin to the

European Union area of democracy, stability and

prosperity.

Democracy, the rule of law and respect for human

rights and fundamental freedoms are essential elements

of Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policies. That is why

we are proud to have been elected to the Human Rights

Council. As a member of that body, Ukraine is ready to

work with other States to bring about real change

through the promotion of human rights worldwide.

The international community is responsible for

protecting people threatened with genocide or other

violations of fundamental human rights. In two years,

we will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the United

Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment

of the Crime of Genocide. One and a half decades

before the adoption of the Convention, and even before

the tragedy of the Holocaust, the Ukrainian people was

a victim of genocide. Deliberately organized by the

Communist totalitarian regime for the purpose of

destroying the vital core of the freedom-loving

Ukrainian people — its peasantry — the Holodomor in

Ukraine of 1932 and 1933 killed 7 million to 10

million innocent men, women and children, about

25 per cent of Ukraine’s population at that time. The

Communist regime tried to conceal the scale and tragic

consequences of that inhuman crime from the world

community, and they succeeded for a long time.

After Ukraine regained its independence, many

new appalling and horrifying facts were revealed. The

parliaments of a number of countries have recognized

the Holodomor of 1932 and 1933 as an act of genocide.

Ukraine calls on the United Nations, as the collective

voice of the international community, to contribute to

the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the

Convention by recognizing the Holodomor as an act of

genocide against the Ukrainian people. That step would

contribute towards making genocide and mass abuse of

human rights impossible in the future.

With the same aim, a number of events will take

place in Kyiv tomorrow to commemorate the sixty-fifth

anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy. The mass

executions by the Nazis there were among the first sad

pages of the evolving tragedy of the Holocaust. Etched

in the memory of the Ukrainian people, it also saw the

death of tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war of

various nationalities. This event will be yet another

important reminder of the lessons of history and the

need to prevent all manifestations of anti-Semitism,

xenophobia and intolerance.

Needless to say, we should focus on

implementing the Millennium Development Goals and

new commitments on the global development agenda

made at the 2005 World Summit. There has been mixed

progress in this area, and the commitments and

promises made have not yet been translated into action

06-53329 22

with direct impact on the lives of peoples in need. The

response to global threats should be effective and

timely. It took the international community nearly 20

years since the first recorded cases of AIDS to

recognize that this disease could threaten the very

existence of humanity. The twenty-sixth special session

of the Assembly initiated by Ukraine together with

other States, and held in 2001, was a turning point in

combating HIV/AIDS. I want to confirm Ukraine’s

commitment to implementing the Declaration of

Commitment on HIV/AIDS (resolution S-26/2) and to

express hope for continuing close cooperation in this

field with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis

and Malaria, with the World Bank and with United

Nations specialized agencies.

Lately, we have witnessed the emergence of a

new disease that potentially poses no less a challenge

to humanity than HIV/AIDS. Avian influenza threatens

the entire world and knows no borders. It is our joint

responsibility to ensure that all countries are protected

against this threat. Combating the spread of avian

influenza and preparations for a possible pandemic of

human influenza demand concerted action at the

national, regional and global levels. Should we repeat

the mistakes of the past or should we learn the lessons

and thus meet the challenge prepared? We believe that

the General Assembly should consider the problem and

provide the answer.

In the more than 60 years since its creation, the

United Nations has grown both in numbers — from 51

States to 192 — and in quality. Our Organization has

gained invaluable experience in changing the world so

that every person can enjoy more security, justice and

dignity. However, much remains yet to be achieved. I

believe that it is within our power and in our interest to

do all we can to ensure that the world is united not only

by a common past but by a common future as well.