Uzbekistan, 2008

Allow me at the outset to congratulate Mr. Miguel

d’Escoto Brockmann on his election to the presidency

of the General Assembly at its sixty-third session and

wish him every success in his work.

In the context of the agenda of the current session

of the General Assembly, I would like to address the

following issues, which we consider to be of the

utmost importance and are directly relevant to the

security and sustainable development of the Central

Asian region.

First are the issues related to the continuing

intensification and escalation of confrontation in

Afghanistan, the increasing radicalization of the

situation and the provocative terrorist statements by the

fighters. Despite the enormous efforts and measures by

the international community and coalition forces to

support peace in Afghanistan, the situation,

unfortunately, is deteriorating. The civilians are

perishing.

What further exacerbates the situation in

Afghanistan is the growing volume of drug trafficking.

Today the production of opium in Afghanistan accounts

for more than 8,000 tons, or over 90 percent of global

production. It must be taken into consideration that

drug trafficking is becoming one of the important

sources of financing for fighters, destabilizing the

situation in Afghanistan itself and in neighbouring

States.

From this high rostrum, I would like to state

again that we are deeply convinced that recent

developments in the situation in Afghanistan show ever

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more clearly that the Afghan problem cannot be

resolved by the use of armed force, military means and

increasing militarization alone. The war, which has

been ongoing for close to 30 years, has destroyed both

the economic and social infrastructure, led to the

impoverishment of the population and, we must admit,

has deprived people of any belief in a future and has

provided fertile ground for recruiting more and more

fighters.

The developing situation dictates the need to

radically reconsider the approaches to resolving the

Afghan problem. It is our firm belief that our main

priorities must be providing targeted economic aid to

Afghanistan, building and moulding economic and

social infrastructure, ensuring employment

opportunities and resolving the acute problem of

combating poverty.

It is necessary to do everything we can to ensure

respectful attitudes to national and religious values and

the centuries-old traditions and customs of the

multinational and multi-faith people of Afghanistan,

and on that basis to bring together the conflicting

forces. An important instrument for achieving such

goals could be a return to the successful Six plus Two

group on Afghanistan that successfully functioned in

the middle of the 1990s under the auspices of the

United Nations and transforming it into a Six plus

Three group by taking into consideration contemporary

realities and including in its make-up neighbouring

States, Russia and the United States, and NATO.

As the President of Uzbekistan, Mr. Islam

Karimov, has repeatedly underscored, the realization of

such an initiative — which has already been called for

from a number of international rostrums — could be a

worthy alternative in achieving peace, stability and the

revival of Afghanistan.

The outcomes of the high-level event on the

Millennium Development Goals that took place on

25 September 2008 demonstrated that the international

community needs to resolutely seek concrete results in

achieving the goals in the sphere of development as

formulated in the Millennium Declaration.

In that context, all of us share responsibility for

the reasonable use of natural resources, including the

transboundary rivers in Central Asia. Experience itself

has shown that disregarding well-known United

Nations declarations and international standards on the

joint use of water resources of transboundary rivers can

lead to very serious and at times tragic ecological

disasters, as borne out by the ongoing catastrophe of

the drying up of the Aral Sea, with all of its unforeseen

consequences for the tens of millions of people in the

region.

According to the fundamental provisions of

United Nations conventions, all decisions on the use of

the water of transboundary rivers in Central Asia,

including the construction of hydropower facilities,

must in no way inflict damage on the ecology of the

region or infringe on the interests of the populations of

neighbouring countries, nor should they upset the

established balanced use of the water of transboundary

rivers by all States in those rivers basins. In the case of

damage, all measures must be taken to remove or

mitigate such damage, and, if necessary, the issue of

compensation must be raised.

We are convinced that compliance with those

requirements must be mandatory in the implementation

of various projects such as building hydropower

facilities in Central Asia, including compliance by

international financial institutions that wish to

participate in such projects.

We are also convinced of the importance of

expanding cooperation and strengthening interaction

between the United Nations and the International Fund

to Save the Aral Sea. In this respect, we consider it

timely and necessary to grant the Fund observer status

in the General Assembly, and we call upon Member

States to support the draft resolution on this matter

during the Assembly’s sixty-third session.

This year in Uzbekistan we will widely observe

the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights, and a programme of action dedicated to

that most significant event has been approved. As of

1 January 2008, Uzbekistan fully abolished the death

penalty and introduced habeas corpus, a democratic

principle of justice. The adoption of the law on

guaranteeing the rights of the child and the ratification

of the International Labour Organization Minimum

Age Convention and Convention on the Worst Forms

of Child Labour have become important steps in

ensuring human rights in Uzbekistan. We have adopted

a national plan for implementing the commitments

undertaken in those Conventions. Aware of the urgency

of the problem of human trafficking at both domestic

and international levels, in April 2008 Uzbekistan

adopted its law against human trafficking.

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Committed to the ideals and principles of human

rights, Uzbekistan advocates gradual reforms and

changes with the main purpose of ensuring peace in

society and greater well-being of the people.

In conclusion, I want to underscore once again

that Uzbekistan stands ready to engage in further

constructive multilateral interaction within the United

Nations framework to address the urgent issues on the

agenda of the international community.