United States, 2005

On behalf

of President Bush and all of the American people,

welcome to New York City.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, my fellow

citizens have experienced the compassion of the United

Nations. I want to thank Secretary-General Annan for

mobilizing the support of this institution. I also want to

thank the representatives of the 126 countries that have

offered assistance in our relief efforts. The United

States will never forget their generosity in our time of

need.

In moments of tumultuous historical change,

leaders must become architects of a better world. We

must survey the new international landscape, lay firm

foundations of moral principle and build institutions

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that reflect our unique moment in history. It is those

institutions that enable citizens of conviction to lead us

ever closer to the ideals of justice that stir every soul:

the universal desire for security, prosperity, liberty and

dignity.

Sixty years ago was just such a time of

transformation. After one of the greatest cataclysms in

world history, the United States joined with visionary

builders from over 50 countries to create the United

Nations. We placed the enduring principles of human

rights and fundamental freedoms at the foundation of

the United Nations Charter. We built an institution that

has helped to support a peaceful world order for six

decades. Today, however, with the end of the cold war

and the rise of globalization and the emergence of new

threats, the very terrain of international politics has

shifted beneath our feet. In this new world we must

again embrace the challenge of building for the future.

The time to reform the United Nations is now. We

must seize this opportunity together. Chapter I, Article

1, of the Charter of the United Nations proclaims the

four purposes of the United Nations, great aspirations

that have stood the test of time. But consider what

different forms they take today, in 2005, as opposed to

1945, when they were first declared.

The first purpose of the United Nations is to help

maintain international peace and security. In 1945 the

most serious threats to peace and security emerged

between States, and were largely defined by their

borders. Today, however, the greatest threats we face

emerge within States, and melt through their borders:

transnational threats like terrorism and the proliferation

of weapons, pandemic disease and trafficking in human

beings.

The second purpose of this institution, as written

in the United Nations Charter, is to develop friendly

relations among nations, based on equal rights and the

self-determination of all peoples. In 1945, a life of

liberty and dignity was more an aspiration than a

reality for a majority of the world’s people. Today,

however, more nations than ever have enshrined the

principles of democracy and human rights — a true

moral triumph that will be complete only when all

individuals are secure in their basic freedoms.

The third purpose of the United Nations is to

achieve international cooperation in solving

international problems. In 1945, the fear was that

strong, aggressive States, eager and able to expand

their frontiers with force, would be the primary cause

of international problems. Today, however, it is clear

that weak and poorly governed States, unwilling or

incapable of ruling their countries with justice, are the

principal source of global crises, from civil war and

genocide to extreme poverty and humanitarian disaster.

The final purpose of the United Nations, as the

Charter states, is to be a centre for harmonizing the

actions of nations in the attainment of common ends.

In 1945, the world’s leaders joined together to build an

institutional partnership that could address the shared

challenges of their time. Today, faced with the realities

of a new world, we must transform the United Nations

to meet the shared challenges of our time.

The Members of this body must work together to

strengthen security in a world threatened by stateless

extremists. Today, I call on the nations of the world to

ratify the comprehensive convention on terrorism. No

cause, no movement and no grievance can justify the

intentional killing of innocent civilians and non-

combatants. That is unacceptable by any moral

standard. It is time for every Member of the United

Nations to outlaw acts of international terrorism.

We must also work together to promote

prosperity and development in a world of great

potential. The United States is committed to the

Millennium Development Goals. And at the Monterrey

Conference three years ago all nations agreed that

development must be a two-way street. Donor

countries have a responsibility to increase their

assistance to developing nations. And developing

nations have a responsibility to govern justly, advance

economic liberty and invest in their people. The

Monterrey Consensus is working.

Now is not the time to revert to old, failed

thinking about development. Countries representing

three quarters of the developing world’s population are

on a pace to meet the targets of the Millennium

Declaration by 2015.

And, as President Bush said on Wednesday, the

United States is prepared to take new action to

accelerate this progress: we will eliminate all tariffs

and subsidies that distort free trade — as other nations

do the same.

Members of the United Nations must work

together as well to support democracy in a world of

expanding liberty. To advance this common purpose, in

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2004 President Bush proposed the creation of a

democracy fund. With the broad support of this body,

we have made it a reality. The Fund is now receiving

donations in cash and in kind from countries large and

small that wish to help other nations lay the

foundations of democracy. Showing its leadership as

the world’s largest democracy, India made the generous

opening pledge of $10 million.

Now, to be sure, when speaking about democracy,

the United States has every reason for humility. After

all, it was only in my lifetime that America guaranteed

the right to vote for all its citizens. Obviously, the path

to democracy is long and imperfect and different for

every nation. But the principles of democracy are

universal, as is the desire for them. And the United

Nations must support every country that embraces the

challenge of self-government. In Afghanistan, Iraq,

Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and throughout the

world, peoples who want to build democracy deserve

our help.

The many goals we share are great indeed. And

the United Nations has a major role to play in their

achievement. But for this institution to become an

engine of change in the twenty-first century, it must

now change itself. The United Nations must launch a

lasting revolution of reform.

The United Nations summit declaration

(resolution 60/1), which every head of State endorsed

this week, expresses a global consensus on the fact that

reform is imperative. I want to thank former General

Assembly President Ping for his tireless hard work.

Our challenge now, under President Eliasson’s

leadership, is to enact the vital reforms that will make

the United Nations more accountable to its Members,

more suited to new challenges and more faithful to its

founding purposes.

The United States welcomes the commitment of

all leaders to establish a new Peacebuilding

Commission. Now, we must embrace the difficult task

of implementing that vision. A Peacebuilding

Commission should plan for post-conflict missions

before crises erupt. And it must help to coordinate

reconstruction efforts after the fighting stops. In a

world threatened by civil strife, the United Nations

needs to be better prepared to help countries rebuild in

the aftermath of conflict.

We are also pleased that the world’s leaders have

recognized the importance of establishing a new

Human Rights Council. But it will take a lot of hard

work in the coming months to realize that goal. The

Human Rights Council must have fewer members, less

politics and more credibility. And it should never,

never, empower brutal dictatorships to sit in judgement

of responsible democracies. The Human Rights

Council must have the moral authority to condemn all

violators of human rights, even those that sit among us

in this Hall.

Finally, we welcome the promise of the world’s

leaders to make the United Nations a more effective

and a more principled institution. As President Bush

said on Wednesday (see A/60/PV.2), the United

Nations must stand for integrity and live by the high

standards it sets for others. For the United Nations to

champion democracy more legitimately, we must

increase the transparency and the accountability of this

institution. For the United Nations to promote

prosperity more credibly, tougher ethics rules and

greater internal oversight are needed to ensure the

highest professional standards. And to make the United

Nations relevant to the challenges of today, the purpose

and the performance of all United Nations programmes

must be reviewed thoroughly, consistently and

comprehensively.

Our fellow citizens deserve a United Nations that

commands their respect and is worthy of their hard-

earned tax dollars. In a democracy, leaders must be

able to justify that their people’s money is indeed being

well spent.

Real progress on those fundamental reforms will

prove that the United Nations can address greater

issues of change, in particular the reform of the

Security Council. We want that important body to

reflect the world as it is in 2005, not as it was in 1945.

The United States is open to expanding the Security

Council. We have long supported a permanent seat for

Japan. And we believe that developing countries

deserve greater representation on that body. All this

would make for a more effective Security Council.

And the Security Council must be effective. It

must be able to deal with great challenges such as

terrorism and nuclear proliferation, especially when it

faces real threats and when countries such as Iran

threaten the effectiveness of the global non-

proliferation regime. When diplomacy has been

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exhausted, the Security Council must become involved.

Questions about Iran’s nuclear activities remain

unanswered, despite repeated efforts by the

International Atomic Energy Agency. And after

agreeing to negotiate with Europe, Iran unilaterally

walked away from the talks and restarted its nuclear

programmes. Iran should return to the negotiations

with the European Union three and abandon forever its

plans for a nuclear-weapons capability.

The experience of recent years has reinforced the

universal truth that international institutions are only as

strong and effective and relevant as their members

choose to make them. The United Nations is no

different.

The United States believes in a United Nations

that is strong and effective. And we have ambitious

hopes for its future.

So in this year, as the United Nations marks its

sixtieth anniversary, let us recommit ourselves to

principled action. Let us embrace the same spirit of

creation that moved the builders and leaders of 1945.

And let us reform this great institution to meet the

challenges of a new era.