Uruguay, 1997

Allow me first of all, Mr. President, to congratulate you

on your election to preside over this new session of the

General Assembly. We are sure that the experience you

have gained in your years of activity in the Organization,

together with your personal qualities and technical skills,

will, under your mandate, contribute to the strengthening

of this most important body of the Organization.

Allow me also to express our congratulations to the

outgoing President, Ambassador Razali, for the work he

performed, which certainly contributed to the

strengthening both of the presidency and of the role the

General Assembly is called on to play in the United

Nations.

Undoubtedly, the central focus of our attention will

continue to be the issue of the reform of the Organization,

the essence of which is now contained in the document

submitted by the Secretary-General.

My country fully supports and has every confidence

in the appointment and endeavours of the Secretary-

General, Mr. Kofi Annan. We have thus paid the greatest

attention to the package of reforms he has submitted, and

we are prepared to promote deliberations on them so that

they can be concluded as soon as possible.

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We understand that the document is aimed at the

objective of equipping the Organization with an

administrative structure that will permit more flexible

management, prevent duplication of functions and secure

coordination among its organs and programmes, all of

which will result in an improvement in terms of both

economy and management.

Within the overall issue of reform, the specific topic

of the Security Council is one of the most important

because of the political significance that organ has had and

will continue to have within the structure of the United

Nations. Uruguay endorses an enlargement of the Council

because it believes that its structure should be adapted to

the new realities in the world, which differ substantially

from those that existed when the Organization was

established, since at that time account was taken of the

power structure resulting from the Second World War.

In this regard, we support an increase in the number

of both permanent and non-permanent Members of the

Council, to a total of not more than 25, so that efficiency

is not impaired. Our country particularly supports an

increased presence of developing countries to ensure a

better balance in the membership of this singular organ of

our Organization. We believe that the newly created seats

should be occupied on the basis of real equality of

opportunity for all States.

However, my country believes that the reform of the

Council should not be confined to the topic of its

membership. Equally important is ensuring that its activities

are transparent and that information provided to and

communication with the States that are not members of the

Council flow freely and are up to date.

The Eastern Republic of Uruguay has expressed strong

support for progressively limiting the right of veto, and to

that end we have submitted a proposal to the effect that on

certain subjects, the right of veto could be suspended by the

General Assembly by a majority to be determined. That

mechanism, essentially democratic in nature, would thus

help reduce the absolute power of the right of veto as

currently provided for in the Charter, while at the same

time it would strengthen the competence of the General

Assembly.

Nonetheless, our country will be ready to analyse any

other proposal that might be submitted aimed at limiting the

absolute individual veto.

While the reform of the Security Council and the

possible revision of the scale of assessments have recently

been, and continue to be, the focus of political attention,

we should also study the question of strengthening the

General Assembly. A calm and dispassionate analysis of

the organizational structure and respective areas of

responsibility of our Organization shows that the forum

where the principle of juridical equality of States reigns

supreme is undoubtedly the General Assembly.

There has been and still is much discussion

regarding the composition of the Security Council and the

exercise of the right of veto, in the context of the new

parameters of international realities. That is all well and

good, but at the same time, we need to find practical

ways of revitalizing and invigorating the activity of the

Assembly.

The General Assembly is a unique body in

international institutional machinery. In it, representativity

is practically universal. States participate on an equal

footing without regard for their size or power, and the

ideal of international democracy attains its clearest

expression, at least in formal terms. The decisions of this

body have great moral and political force and accordingly,

it is essential to formulate them better and make them

more timely.

For these reasons, the General Assembly not only

needs to function more flexibly and utilize its resources

more rationally, but also, and essentially, requires greater

substance. Only thus will we be able to give its

resolutions greater operative force.

Consequently, we should take a new approach and

open a new chapter in the reform process, not confining

our reflections and aspirations to reforms of the Security

Council or to reforms of a financial nature, but extending

them to the organ that brings together the international

community as a whole, namely, the General Assembly.

After 52 years of the Organization's existence, the

maintenance of international peace and security continues

to be one of its essential functions. Peacekeeping

operations, to which my country is proud to have been a

contributor from the outset, must be fully maintained

while adapting to new kinds of conflicts.

Uruguay is prepared for this, and, accordingly, we

reaffirm here once again our commitment not only to

continue to make our traditional contribution but also to

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diversify it in order to adapt it fundamentally to peace-

building.

In this connection, we welcome the signing, with the

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, of

a memorandum of understanding regarding our

contributions to the United Nations standby arrangements

system. This will contribute to facilitating the planning of

future peacekeeping missions in the shortest possible time.

The General Assembly's recent adoption of the

resolution putting an end to the use of “gratis personnel

provided by Governments and other entities” fulfils one of

my country's long-standing aspirations and does justice to

the principles of equitable geographical representation and

the equality of Member States, both enshrined in the

Charter.

Similarly, the recent General Assembly resolution

adopting uniform and standardized rates for payment of

awards in cases of death or disability sustained by troops in

the service of the United Nations peacekeeping operations

seems to us an important step that puts an end to an unjust

situation.

We fully support the Middle East peace process

initiated at Madrid in October 1991 and continued at

Washington, and the Government of the Eastern Republic

of Uruguay continues to encourage the necessary holding of

direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian National

Authority. It is essential for both parties to respect in good

faith the commitments entered into in the Madrid and

Washington declarations.

Our Latin American continent does not want an arms

race; it wants, on the contrary, to be free of nuclear

weapons and of other sophisticated weapons of mass

destruction that can create instability. We want to work in

peace, allocating the largest possible amount of resources

to our economic and social development.

However, this should not be an obstacle to limited

purchases of arms by our armed forces solely for the

purpose of replacing their obsolete equipment, thereby fully

discharging their constitutional mandates.

We must work to ensure a continuation of the mutual

confidence and security that prevails in the region today,

without third countries weakening and taking advantage of

our continent through the sale of sophisticated weapons.

Uruguay will continue to support with firm

conviction all disarmament processes, and, accordingly,

we recently signed in Oslo the Convention on the

Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and

Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, those lethal weapons

that have caused not only death and serious injury to

soldiers but also the loss of thousands of innocent lives.

Protection of human rights has been and will

continue to be one of the priority objectives of both our

domestic and international policies. Without full exercise

of human rights, there can be neither peace nor security,

neither economic prosperity nor social equity, and the

existence of a democratic system of government will

therefore also be impossible.

In addition, there can be no full exercise of human

rights without a minimum economic, social and

educational base, and my country will be prepared to

contribute to ensuring the existence of such a base.

In this connection, we fully support the restructuring

proposed by the Secretary-General while at the same time

endorsing the philosophy on which it is based, embodied

in his idea that the question of human rights should be

part of all the substantive spheres of the Secretariat's

programme of work: peace and security, economic and

social affairs, development cooperation and humanitarian

affairs.

The financial crisis the Organization is experiencing,

which has no counterpart in its history, stems primarily

from the failure to pay assessed contributions. While not

intending to justify any delay in payment, Uruguay

believes that the current scale of assessments requires

adjustments to make it fairer, more transparent and better

based on the capacity of States to pay. That should not,

however, mean that developing countries would assume

new and additional commitments today; that would, in our

view, be unjust and unacceptable. The system of

contributions should be based on objective criteria of

financial responsibility. We agree that there is a need to

correct and manage the budgets of the Organization in

order to reduce expenditures and increase efficiency, thus

striking a balance between expenditure on peace and

security and expenditure on development, each of which

is a cornerstone of the other, without weakening operating

and information activities.

We cannot but express our public satisfaction at

seeing the importance the Secretary-General attaches to

development, which he regards as one of the priorities

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and essential functions of the Organization. There can be no

peace without development.

On the threshold of a century that is already taking

shape and that, unfortunately, seems to be marked by

growth without equity, uncertainty in employment and a

proliferation of crises and conflicts, good management of

development assistance is today more necessary than ever

before. At a time when human concerns seem to be alien to

us, it is essential, in Uruguay's view, to support an

Organization that holds that people must be placed at the

very heart of the development process if we want growth to

be compatible with the human condition and development

to be conducted by and for people.

In this context, we consider it very important to

maintain unconditionally the principle of universality and

the right of all developing countries, without exception, to

benefit from international cooperation and to receive

technical assistance with a view to achieving sustainable

human development.

Uruguay considers international technical cooperation

essential for consolidating the processes of development and

integration in the various regions. It is a fundamental tool

for attaining greater economic growth.

We support the development of South-South

cooperation as an important tool for promoting the

improved development of nations. We believe that a new

concept of technical cooperation will have to respond to

traditional demands, such as humanitarian affairs, as well

as others associated directly with the process of integration

into the international economy, such as, for example, the

redefinition of the role of the State, its modernization and

its decentralization.

We believe that a positive contribution to political and

democratic stability and to economic growth is made by

processes of regional and subregional integration. In our

case, the Southern Cone Common Market — composed of

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and our country — is a clear

example of democratic stability and expansion of trade,

within and outside the region, compatible with the rules of

the World Trade Organization.

Uruguay continues to assign to international law a

primordial role as a regulator of relations among States.

Respect for and compliance with international law are

essential for peaceful coexistence. For this reason, we

support the holding of an international conference to discuss

a draft convention establishing an international criminal

court for autonomous and independent hearings on certain

crimes, such as genocide and others which, because of

their seriousness, are roundly condemned by the

international community. We also support the work of the

Ad Hoc Committee on the elaboration of a convention for

the suppression of terrorist bombings.

In times of change, which we all see as appropriate

and inevitable in order to revitalize the Organization, we

nevertheless identify more than ever before with the

essential purposes and principles established 52 years ago.

These bind the Organization together and, despite the time

that has elapsed and the important changes that have since

taken place in the world, continue to constitute and must

continue to constitute, today as yesterday, the goal and

objective of all the changes the United Nations will have

to face at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

People, simple people, call for us to be effective and

efficient in our activities and bold in our decisions in

preventing conflicts, and to act on their behalf in

rebuilding civil societies. The citizens of every nation, of

every country of the world, call on us today to be firm in

our commitment to the Charter and to adapt our new

activities to the changing times.