Uruguay, 1999

Allow me

first, on behalf of my Government and myself, to

congratulate Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister for Foreign

Affairs of Namibia, on his well-deserved election as

President of the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth

session. We wish him every success and assure him of my

delegation's sincere cooperation in carrying out his work.

I also wish to express a warm welcome to the new

Members: the Republics of Kiribati and Nauru and the

Kingdom of Tonga.

A little more than a week ago, we had the opportunity

to address this same body at the close the fifty-third session

of the General Assembly. On that occasion, we expressed

a general view of the Organization as a whole, as well as

of some of the items or questions of greater relevance. That

view cannot differ basically from the one I am now

expressing as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay.

In order to contribute to the debate of ideas, we did

not silence then, nor will we now, certain views on the

international community, on the changes it is experiencing

and on the response capability of the United Nations to

face the new situations or expectations of the Member

States, especially the demands of regions or areas of the

world experiencing diverse types of suffering.

This suffering is at times basically economic in

origin — call it underdevelopment or more simply,

poverty and even extreme destitution — with all the

attending consequences of marginalization and exclusion.

In other cases, suffering stems from problems of

civilization that tend to show alarming signs of

deterioration. We must also emphasize that the turmoil

and instability experienced by peoples are not in every

case due to one and the same cause, whether of a material

or economic nature or because of the lack of resources.

We observe phenomena such as violence,

dramatically present at the individual or collective level;

terrorism of all kinds, blind and relentless; and, of course,

the drug problem in its diverse stages, including the

entrepreneurial business of its traffic and its perverse

destabilizing effect, and drug consumption, which is

destructive to the individual and is also related to family

dissolution. There is also the absence of or weakness in

educational standards that adequately prioritize the ethical

dimension and human values as a great pedagogical goal.

Perhaps none of us yet possesses the key to explain

the real origin of these pathological phenomena, but what

is very clear is that we cannot affect ignorance about

them, as if they were foreign to us — Governments,

States, peoples and organizations.

Without prejudice to what was just said, we

recognize first the central role the Organization must play

in terms of international peacekeeping and security. On

the other hand, it is necessary to give special attention to

the dreadful consequences of nationalist excesses, to

confront the exclusive and unfair fundamentalism of

religions, to fight discrimination, whatever the basic

claims or pretexts are, and to make tolerance a basic

principle of relations among individuals and peoples. All

are unavoidable duties of the United Nations.

We must now establish and reaffirm our position as

a Member State on those main items — some of which

are planned, others under way and others still to come —

regarding what is to be done.

I refer first to the reform of the Organization and of

the Charter, and in particular to the reform of the Security

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Council. These are priorities that must continue at a pace

imposed by the complexity of the matter, by the current

state of international relations and, above all, by the

expectation of world public opinion that moves

momentarily from hope to anxiety. If it is true, as it is said,

that time takes revenge on things done without prior

consultation, it is just as true that medicine refined for a

long time, as the Italian master Carnelutti reminds us, could

arrive too late, when the patient is already dead.

Reform requires a balance, a balance between sudden

need and efficiency, between rigidity and flexibility and

between unavoidable principles and the just appreciation of

new realities. In favour of this balance, the General

Assembly approved in November 1998 resolution 53/30,

requiring at least a two-thirds majority for the approval of

any reform relating to the membership of the Security

Council. This dispelled concern about a reform being

approved by non-representative majorities, opening up a

new phase. This is contained in the report of the Open-

ended Working Group on reform of the Security Council,

established by consensus by the General Assembly by

resolution 48/26, in the chapter entitled “Observations”.

It will be your task, Mr. President, to give renewed

momentum to this process on the basis of its progress and

of other steps which, however modest and far from

resolving the matter, advance in denoting certain basic

points concerning which there is at least a common

diagnosis. Although distant from final solutions, these

points are always adjustable to the changes of the

international community.

The Government of Uruguay, my country — an active

Member State of this Organization and of other world and

regional organizations, both political and integration

ones — has observed and continues to see well-constituted

international institutions as the main guarantee for the

observance a more just, foreseeable and fair international

order. Therefore, when distinguishing the vital from the

superficial and rhetorical speech from the true search for

agreements, which can involve reciprocal concessions, the

delegation of Uruguay will be in favour of change and

against stagnation — but not just any change. It will favour

change that restores to the United Nations a level of

international recognition which, without sacrificing efficacy,

would make the Member States and their regions feel that

they are a tangible and active reality, that those subregions

cannot be under-represented.

There is no longer a place for an elitist international

society that freezes obsolete historical periods in time,

typical of a dialectic of confrontation measured in terms

of the cold war. We must propose new formulas to avoid

the effect of blockage that in many cases produces the

conspicuous right to veto, granting the Security Council

the procedural means to break it and even entrusting the

General Assembly, under certain conditions, as proposed

by my delegation, with new competencies so that it could

be formally informed and its decision be required in

situations which demand it, particularly when it concerns

cases that could involve the legitimate use of force.

The recent problem in Kosovo, which continues,

could serve as a typical example of the aforementioned

paralysing effect of the veto in the Security Council,

without forgetting the disturbing consequences that effect

would have in producing the marginalization of the

United Nations system of peace and security, with the

resulting questioning of the Organization itself and its real

possibilities.

This, naturally, requires the foresight of international

law as the sole source of legitimacy, without ignoring the

authentic and grave humanitarian situations that are

imposed on us by the drama of the real facts at a time

when they require a formal framework of timely,

legitimate and efficient international action.

We also attach special meaning to the improvement

of the rules of procedure and the working methods of the

Security Council, and we therefore trust that the proposals

elaborated by the Open-ended Working Group will be

adopted.

An optimistic initiative of the Organization,

encouraged by the Secretariat and the Member States, is

undoubtedly the so-called millennium summit, which will

take place at the fifty-fifth session of the General

Assembly. Regarding its agenda, there will be a certain

tendency in favour of approving a main topic of common

interest, capable of stirring the attention and participation

of heads of State and Government.

As this is the most important point now under debate

here, and since I wished to contribute when I was

President of the General Assembly, I now say quite

simply that in our view the main theme should be “The

United Nations: its future viability”. This would generate,

like the organs of a single body, related fundamental

issues, perhaps formulated as important questions, such

as: Towards a new system of international security? Does

globalization demand new strategies of the world

Organization? What more concrete strategies can there be

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for the elimination of poverty and underdevelopment? How

can we review the system for the protection of human

rights, with a view to strengthening and improving them,

particularly in the fields of the family, children, education

and international cooperation?

Naturally, we are aware that for the millennium

summit to be successful and give hope for the next century,

its agenda must reflect the expectations of Member States,

which still show marked differences. My Government will

continue to participate in the preparation of the summit with

interest and in a responsible manner.

The initiative for dialogue between civilizations —

2001 is to be the United Nations Year of Dialogue among

Civilizations — proposed by Iran and approved by

consensus by the General Assembly at its fifty-third

session — is the kind of topic that is at the heart of the

United Nations role and should be studied in depth. We are

convinced of the great importance of examining with

extreme care the cultural diversity of Member States in

order to know each other better, but at the same time

understand the profound reasons why, despite our diversity,

we are all Member States of a unique universal

Organization: the United Nations.

Support and respect for the San Francisco Charter is

undoubtedly the starting point of any responsible dialogue.

The Government of Uruguay will contribute its ideas and

initiatives, joining in the efforts of all delegations to

improve the international habitat through understanding and

tolerance of peoples and ideas.

Without prejudice to the important progress made

towards the establishment of a normative system against the

proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons,

Uruguay considers it essential to take new steps in this

direction through the universalization of the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), whose

norms must be recognized and accepted by all States.

The abusive use of light weapons or small arms — a

subject of great debate — whose uncontrolled proliferation

is reaching unacceptable levels, with devastating effects, in

some cases worse than those caused by weapons of massive

destruction, is a field in which the United Nations must

play a fundamental role, as already reflected in the

convening of an international conference to deal with the

illicit traffic in small arms, a conference which Uruguay

firmly supports.

My country strongly believes in the need to replace

the “culture of conflict” with a “culture of peace”, so that,

as wisely stated by the Under-Secretary-General for

Disarmament Affairs, Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala, “As the

twentieth century witnessed the creation of nuclear

weapons, the twenty-first century will see their

destruction”. The entry into force last March of the

Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,

Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on

Their Destruction is an auspicious sign.

A most significant milestone in the endless search

for effective international ways to protect human rights

was the signing of the Statute of the International

Criminal Court in Rome in July 1998, during the same

year in which the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights was celebrated. Uruguay is

participating and will continue to participate seriously in

the elaboration of complementary rules and procedural

provisions to give the Court the basic elements to

guarantee that it can work properly. When that process is

completed the matter will come before our legislative

bodies for consideration, in accordance with our

Constitution.

In conclusion, the topics that concern and will

continue to concern the United Nations are multiple and

diverse. At this very moment, for example, an instrument

that has shown its effectiveness on various occasions is

being employed again: the peacekeeping operation. I refer

here to the one taking place in East Timor, with the prime

goal of ensuring that the mandate of the Timorese people

is implemented, and of preserving the lives and physical

integrity of that people.

Naturally, the environment, which is under attack,

paradoxically as much by unregulated over-development

as by poverty, will continue to be on the Organization's

agenda, as well as the topic of population and

development.

But perhaps the essential need is to make the

maximum effort to make the United Nations the point of

reference for all States, the most powerful and the

weakest — the former so that they yield to the

international order and the latter so that they adjust to it,

and find in the Organization their best shield. For all

States it means access to a modernity that will develop

them and make them part of the current technical

innovation, which is supported by the information

revolution through which all of us, in one way or another,

will be introduced to the coming century.

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