Uruguay, 2008

Uruguay, one of the founding States of the United

Nations, sees the fundamental principles of its foreign

policy fully reflected in the Charter of this

Organization.

For that reason, we believe it important at the

outset to reassert the validity of those principles in the

present international context and to emphasize once

again the traditional Uruguayan position of full respect

for international law, support for multilateralism,

peaceful settlement of disputes, sovereign equality of

States, rejection of the use or threat of use of force,

non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States,

the self-determination of peoples, the promotion and

protection of human rights and international economic

and social cooperation.

It is worth repeating that this list is not simply an

inventory of good intentions, but of legal principles

and fundamental values. Their enshrinement in the

Charter of the United Nations gives them the status of

international law, to whose validity and enforcement

all States must conform.

Furthermore, those principles are crucial guiding

tools in a world that presents us today with major

challenges. We, nations gathered here, have the moral

and legal duty to find suitable solutions that will make

peace and development the rule of coexistence for our

peoples.

As we all know, a severe food crisis is currently

afflicting too many countries throughout the world. If a

sustainable and lasting solution in to be found, we must

address the structural factors influencing and causing

the crisis. Correcting the distortions in the multilateral

trade system, in particular in agricultural trade, is

certainly a decisive element in ensuring a plentiful

supply of food that will meet the needs of the entire

population of the planet.

Uruguay believes that, in addition to tackling this

serious crisis with urgent measures, we must make

progress towards a long-term solution. That inevitably

means redoubling our efforts to strengthen the

multilateral trade system and swiftly resuming the

negotiations in the World Trade Organization. It is

essential that we do so, particularly in the area of

agriculture, in order to guarantee world food security

and to avoid a reversion to protectionist practices that

would only further aggravate the situation.

The food crisis is not the only crisis affecting us,

however; another major challenge facing the world

economy is undoubtedly that of energy. Here, as with

agriculture, Latin America requires the technological

cooperation of developed countries. Likewise, when it

comes to developing the production of alternative

energy sources, such as bioenergy and biofuels,

research and technical assistance are essential if we are

to benefit from the opportunities provided by such

production without affecting food security or the

environment. The United Nations has a crucially

important catalytic role in that regard.

In addition, we cannot overlook the current

financial crisis of the major developed countries, which

demonstrates the global interconnectedness and

interdependence among States. Although developing

countries are certainly not the cause of the crisis, its

effects afflict and punish the economies of emerging

countries.

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With regard to the environment and sustainable

development, Uruguay is a party to the major

international conventions in that area. While we have

emphasized the importance of international

cooperation, we have also always emphasized the

individual responsibility of every State to actively

protect the environment in its own territory and waters,

and have always valued the vigilant participation of

civil society in that regard.

That is why, while we receive significant

investments that contribute to our industrial

development, my country also exerts rigorous control

over the environmental practices of the entities

involved, applying internationally recognized standards

and requiring the use of the most modern technologies

available, with effective control over the environmental

impact of those undertakings. The Uruguayan

Government thus reaffirms its unwavering commitment

to protecting the environment as a human right and as a

fundamental component in the achievement of true

sustainable development.

Another major issue on the agenda of the General

Assembly is the Millennium Development Goals

agreed by Member States in September 2000, which

Uruguay has fully endorsed. In that context, Uruguay

has taken firm steps to achieve the Goals. We need

only highlight, among other policies with a significant

social content, the recent launching of our

comprehensive national health system — aimed at

transforming the health-care model by prioritizing

primary health care and prevention in order to

guarantee a basic right of all citizens — as part of the

social inclusion policy that Uruguay is implementing.

Given its strict adherence to international law,

Uruguay is also firmly committed to consolidating

international peace and security, as demonstrated by its

status as one of the 10 major contributors of troops to

United Nations peacekeeping operations and as the

world’s largest contributor per capita in terms of troop

numbers. Our country is currently participating in

16 United Nations peacekeeping missions deployed in

Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. Since we began

to participate in peacekeeping missions, Uruguay has

gained experience in matters related to reconstruction

and peacebuilding in areas devastated by conflict,

making great efforts to put an end to hostilities so that

various societies and communities can agree on peace

and achieve national reconciliation.

However, as our international experience has

taught us, peacekeeping, while essential, is not

sufficient to return affected countries to institutional

normalcy and an orderly and peaceful life. That is why

the strong involvement of the international community

is needed in peacekeeping efforts to effectively ensure

the building of stable, democratic and prosperous

societies through robust institutional mechanisms for

resolving their conflicts. For that reason, Uruguay

submitted its candidature to the Peacebuilding

Commission in February 2007. We hope to be able to

contribute to the attainment of those noble objectives

in that forum.

The cause of peace requires, in institutional

terms, a strengthened and effective Organization. That

brings us to the topic of the United Nations reform

process. The negotiations in that regard have not

proceeded with the scope and speed originally

envisaged. Although the two recently established

bodies, the Human Rights Council and the

Peacebuilding Commission, have been in existence for

a few years, we have not yet been able to move on to

Security Council reform — which is essential — and

only a few timid steps have been taken in the process

of reforming the Secretariat and the General Assembly.

Uruguay reaffirms its support for the process of

Security Council reform in the permanent and

non-permanent membership categories. However, we

will not support the creation of new members with the

right of the veto, since we believe that the issue of

extending the veto must not be included in the package

to be agreed upon in the intergovernmental

negotiations. Moreover, in keeping with its traditional

position since the founding of the United Nations, our

country disapproves of the right of veto, which is a

privilege that runs counter to the full democratization

of our Organization.

In the area of reform, we also view the One

United Nations pilot project in two ways. We see it

first as an instrument through which reform of the

operational activities of the United Nations system

could be put into practice; and secondly, as a

cooperative exercise in areas of priority identified by

the Uruguayan Government in the context of a national

development strategy based on sustained and

sustainable economic growth with equity and social

justice. However, we understand that the programme

should adapt itself to specific national priorities and

needs. That is why no single model is applicable to all

31 08-53129

pilot countries, given their inherent differences from

one another.

I also wish to refer to a topic of particular

relevance for Uruguay — the situation of so-called

middle-income countries. Those countries find

themselves in a paradoxical situation. Although there

are certain indicators of economic growth, negative

circumstances that hinder sustainable and sustained

growth in the medium- and long-terms have not been

taken into account, nor has it been possible to prevent

dramatic erosion of some of the progress made. In

particular and with dramatic effect, the well-known

clear vulnerability of the economies of developing

countries in a globalized world economy subjects them

to the effects of external crises with clear, direct

consequences, such as rising poverty and inequity in

income distribution, as well as strengthened migratory

trends, to mention just some effects that Uruguay has

experienced directly.

Finally, in affirming its unwavering commitment

to the fight against terrorism, Uruguay reiterates its

rejection of all terrorist acts and vigorously condemns

all attacks against civil populations and public

infrastructure, the destruction of which adversely

affects the civil population. Terrorism must be

unequivocally condemned and cooperation between

States must increase in order to ensure that such acts

do not go unpunished.

We must be careful, however. The fight against

terrorism must always be waged based on the rule of

law, and consequently in the strictest respect for the

standards of international humanitarian and human

rights law.

The same applies to drug trafficking. Our country

has continued its unrelenting fight against illegal drug

trafficking. Our effort targets both supply and demand.

Thanks to that policy and beyond our success in

stamping out the illicit traffic in those substances, our

country has been at the vanguard of our continent in

terms of its policies to prevent consumption and treat

those affected by drugs.

Both terrorism and drug trafficking severely

compromise the full enjoyment of human rights, the

safeguarding of which has been one of the strategic

policies of the current Government. We want respect

for human rights to be more than routine rhetoric; it

should enjoy full expression in the daily life of its

citizens. On that basis, our country has prioritized

strengthening legislation and the competent national

bodies, and has sought to extend international human

rights and to consolidate institutions that effectively

protect and secure the international enjoyment of

human rights and prevent their violation. In short, the

protection of human rights is one of the central axes of

the Republic’s foreign policy and is without a doubt

Uruguay’s basic political institutional asset.

As is evident, the effective protection of human

rights calls for a strong jurisdictional body to guarantee

its application. In that context, the creation of the

International Criminal Court (ICC) was a fundamental

contribution to the progressive development of

international law and an event of tremendous legal and

political importance. In 2006, Uruguay enacted a

national law pledging full cooperation with the ICC.

Respectfully, we urge the international community as a

whole to do the same in order to prevent genocide, war

crimes and crimes against humanity from going

unpunished.

In conclusion, I would like to stress that, with

conflicts threatening peace and international security

and taking into account the growing interdependence

of States as a result of globalization, it is now crucial

to emphatically reaffirm the relevance of the United

Nations as the lead body and ultimate multilateral

forum for finding appropriate solutions to today’s

major global challenges.

The pursuit of multilateralism therefore implies a

search for collective responses to international

conflicts and problems, in accordance with

international law and in the framework of the

principles of the United Nations Charter, which

regulates peaceful coexistence between nations.

Indeed, we must uphold the ideals that inspired the

establishment of the Organization. That is a civilizing

project that we cannot abandon as it represents

unfinished business that we owe it to ourselves and to

generations to come to complete.