Andorra, 1999

We are coming to

the end of 1999, a date that many see as the end of an

epoch, given the proximity of the new millennium. The

imminence of its arrival invites us to reflect on the history

of men and women.

It is with humility that Western nations, such as

mine, consider the development of mankind, which well

before our year one was recorded by other calendars

during thousands and thousands of years, as homo sapiens

began to create tools of wood and metal, began to bury

their dead with dignity or to build empires and cultures

ever greater, and also ever more ephemeral. Today we

marvel at the mysterious paintings of prehistoric man,

such as we find in Andorra and throughout the Pyrenees,

or at the great architectural projects of ancient Egypt. Our

culture, our crafts, our way of life — all these have

certainly changed; but our intellect, though more

cultivated and filled with more knowledge, continues to

grasp at the problems of our existence in the same way,

with the same hesitations — caught between superstition,

cruelty and fear on the one hand and optimism and hope

on the other.

In short, at the dawn of the year 2000 we remain

essentially human and we can still discern in ourselves

the traces of our ancestors who were born of natural

evolution. However, the progress of human societies has

so intensively transformed our environment that our era

is intrinsically new and different from those that preceded

it. This new world, so recent and so obvious to us that it

appears it could not be otherwise, is the world of the new

millennium. Globalization defines the spirit of the age.

This phenomenon is of such importance that the General

Assembly should reflect upon it, each of us according to

his unique perspective. The universality of this

international forum — where, because of the far-

sightedness of its founders, all nations, large and small,

have the same voice — makes it the ideal place for a

sober reflection on globalization and its effects.

The nineteenth century saw the birth of nationalism,

which, in giving cohesion to human communities of all

sizes, mythologized its unifying elements, often to an

extreme. Andorra is a State, the fruit of a juridical

agreement that defined it, long before the coming of

nationalism. Our national essence is not based only on our

language, Catalan, which we share with our neighbours to

the south and to the north, or on other manifestations of

modern nationalism. Institutions are the pillars of our

community: a democratic parliamentary system that began

in 1419, a culture of peace that has continued

uninterrupted since 1278. Perhaps, since the Andorran

fatherland is the result of institutional and political ideas

worked out in a unique historical experience, born out of

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a pact, we can emphasize these ideas today in this speech

so that here at the United Nations they can serve as

unifying institutional elements, thereby promoting the idea

that globalization should be shared by all in common

progress.

What is important in the new millennium is to know

how to orient this globalization with international criteria,

so that a son of the Argentine pampas or a daughter of

Gabon can equally laugh and cry at the same cartoon, so

that their freedom and ambitions can be equal and equally

unconstrained. For if their childhoods are no longer so

culturally separate, the political and economic opportunities

they have when they pass into adulthood should be equally

similar.

Globalization is probably the greatest opportunity for

humanity, but it will not develop its potential if it is not

accompanied by both principles and political action at the

highest levels which allow for the establishment of new

“post-national” communities with different cultures but with

similar characteristics, communities that together can work

towards a world of peace and economic progress. This will

never be realized without the United Nations, the

indispensable Organization. There are no indispensable

nations, just as there are not men and women who are

better than others because of the accident of their places of

birth. What exists today are the indispensable economic and

political precepts that our parents, survivors of the

Holocaust and other terrors of the Second World War, gave

to the United Nations and to the other international

organizations allied to it. This Organization, which many

love to criticize, while it may be distorted or weakened by

the weakness of its Members, is at its core the expression

of one of the greatest moments of the soul of humanity.

The political power of the United Nations comes from

the defence of the rights of man and the peaceful resolution

of conflicts. Its power in the economic sphere is based on

an ethical cry for development. I spoke before of the

children of the pampas or of Gabon, as I might speak of

children of the American Midwest or of East Asia or the

French Pyrenees or the Arab peninsula. Many of these boys

and girls will grow up with the same aspirations, instilled

in them by a global culture, but once the age of adulthood

is reached the possibilities for the exploitation of their

potentials is not the same, and in this great injustice lie the

seeds of new wars, exploitations and corruptions. For many

of these children globalization has little meaning.

We cannot turn our backs on the fact that 20 per cent

of mankind lives in conditions of extreme poverty, and that

many millions of others are very close to this state. What

does global culture represent for all of these people?

Perhaps simply a mirage of all that they might have had

and taken pleasure in had they been born citizens of a

richer country. The world has today more that 1.5 billion

people who lack access to potable water and basic

sanitation facilities and who are largely illiterate. What

kind of global community will we be creating if these

numbers do nothing but rise? The United Nations

indicated what needed to take place after the Social

Summit in Copenhagen in 1995. That conference traced

a path that we have begun to follow, but that must now

be followed with a firmer step. Why do we not, in the

decades to come, try to apply the desires expressed in

United Nations policy to economic organizations, such as

the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary

Fund and the World Bank? We must do this. Otherwise,

globalization cannot be any more than it is now: a

dictatorship of the financial world over people and their

legitimate representatives.

A discussion of the responsibility of those States that

administer economic aid returns us to the questions of

political rights, the advancement of democracy, the

transparency of the political and economic process and

the consolidation of the rule of law. Models exist, and if

they have been developed in specific nations of the earth,

these models do not carry any copyright. Human

communities are either free or not; there exists no other

possibility. True democracy, the freedom to choose the

people to administer the public good through regular

elections, is the only form of democracy that can be

defended. Today, with the information we have at our

fingertips, nobody should dare defend tyranny by

resorting to cultural arguments. During the first years of

the new century, it will be necessary to keep alive the

principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

so that people everywhere are educated in the social

responsibility of the individual and so that democracy is

accepted as the only natural form of governance for all

regimes.

The recent conflict in East Timor is a good example

of the opportunities as well as the dangers that the United

Nations has before it. On the one hand, we find ourselves

facing a long but productive process, in which a popular

vote accepted by all the parties will lead towards an

unequivocal resolution of a long-standing problem. On the

other hand, once this democratic process was effectively

carried out, violence broke out, and now we must react

quickly in order to stop the massacre. The United Nations

capacity for reaction and the mobilization of the forces of

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the States that compose it is therefore essential. Here is the

third aspect of the United Nations that must become more

effective than it is at present. Peacekeeping must be

conducted using more powerful and better organized

mechanisms of intervention that allow for rapid action and

guarantee the effective conversion of words into deeds.

Globalization, a current reality, presents both

opportunities and dangers. In order for it to be a tool of

progress, it must be accompanied by a system that is both

political — involving democracy, the rule of law and

respect for human rights — and economic — involving the

goal of the eradication of poverty and encouragement of

development. Support for the system depends on the United

Nations having a real capacity for intervention so that

peacekeeping is more effective. This was the point of

departure for my series of observations. I can guarantee that

Andorra, a small State that has been a United Nations

Member only since 1993, will make every effort so that the

desire to make the United Nations an instrument for

positive globalization is not in vain. We are making

increasing efforts within the Organization.

Andorra's active participation in the Rome Conference

to establish an international criminal court, where it was the

second State, after Italy, to sign the Statute, which begins

with words written by Andorra well illustrates the efforts of

my country to aid and reinforce the rule of law in the

world.

I have the pleasure to announce to the Assembly today

that once the juridical analysis and translation from Catalan

has been completed, my Government will give to the

Consell General, our Parliament, a copy of the Statute for

ratification. We hope, therefore, shortly to be one of the

States that will permit the International Criminal Court

(ICC) to become a reality by being one of the first

countries to ratify the Statute for its entry into force.

Another small European State, San Marino, preceded us

towards this goal and we congratulate it on its speed and

support for the ICC.

The work of Andorra in the United Nations concerning

the rights of man continues to occupy a special place in this

fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly. In particular,

our delegation will follow with interest the work of the

Commission on Human Rights during its meetings in

Geneva. Andorra's desire to mark its opposition to the death

penalty as punishment for a crime will again be expressed.

We will also insist on the need to teach human rights to

children, as is emphasized in Article 29 of the Convention

on the Rights of the Child. We will also work this year on

other United Nations Conventions concerning human

rights to which Andorra has committed itself to adhere

pending internal proceedings.

The year 2001, as a result of the internal rotation of

the Western Group, will allow Andorra to be a member

of the Economic and Social Council. This represents an

important goal for us in our international life, and we are

pleased to inform the Assembly that Andorra has started

its preparatory work for its presence in this organ, so

important to the United Nations. The deliberations of the

next session of the Economic and Social Council which

will take place in New York in the year 2000. For the

session to take place in 200l in Geneva, where we will

participate as full members, the recent extension of our

Permanent Mission to the Geneva Headquarters will

assure our being able to carefully follow the proceedings.

To this end, I have asked our Permanent Representative

to establish at this session which of the members of his

team, and in what capacity, will be responsible for the

Economic and Social Council in 2001 for Andorra. This

preparation will ensure that our contribution will measure

up to the noble work of the Council, notably in the war

against poverty.

Still on the economic plane, Andorra's candidature

for the World Trade Organization represents one of the

most important current challenges for my country,

alongside the relationship we are exploring with our

neighbours in the European Union. As a small State

which tries to understand its economic opportunities, we

find the flows of global commerce, and our participation

in them, of particular interest.

In 1998 each Andorran gave around $6 to our annual

budget for contributions to the United Nations; this is the

per capita figure for the Andorran contribution to the

Organization. I am aware that it is not an enormous

contribution, but it is much greater than that which each

inhabitant of the biggest countries with a high income

pays or should pay. A good part of this figure was for

voluntary contributions towards disarmament. An

exhibition on children and small arms opened recently.

Prepared by the Department of Under-Secretary-General

Dhanapala and the United Nations Children's Fund

(UNICEF), and sponsored by Andorra, it will move to

different sites in the world to raise consciousness

concerning the tragedy brought about by the presence of

small arms in areas of conflict, especially for the young.

We have also made contributions towards programmes

designed to collect small arms in some of those countries

that suffer from an infestation of this plague. My country

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intends to continue to contribute to initiatives such as these

in order to express our solidarity with the actions for peace

of the United Nations. It is right that a small country such

as mine, which has been blessed by 721 years of

uninterrupted peace should participate in the United Nations

in those acts which bring about a culture of peace.

The last time I visited the Headquarters of the United

Nations, during May of last year, I did so to present a

programme of computerization for the archives of the

Group of Western European and Other States to the high-

level working group on informatics. I am happy that the

diplomatic mission of a small State such as ours can bring

about the realization of this project, aided by the National

Computer Science Centre of Andorra. The server computers

installed at the Mission function at a good rhythm and other

regional groups have asked for information in order to

establish a similar system. I therefore reiterate the offer I

made last year concerning the cooperation of Andorra with

any other interested regional groups.

The United Nations is certainly imperfect, but it is the

best organization that we have to orient this unpredictable

world of the third millennium towards a culture of peace

and international solidarity and also along the path of

development.

There are many labours left unfinished: the reform of

the Security Council, the new tasks of the Trusteeship

Council, the revitalization of the Economic and Social

Council, the increase in possibilities for peacekeeping

operations, among others.

We have a great chance to change this world so

transformed by globalization. Do not forget, however, that

at the end of this century marked by the worst excesses of

humanity, the United Nations represents our charitable spirit

and at its centre there is not a machine, but human beings,

albeit exceptional ones: the first among them, Kofi Annan,

the Secretary-General; Didi Opertti, the outgoing President

of the General Assembly, whom we thank with all our

hearts for work well done; Theo-Ben Gurirab, the new

President, whom we congratulate on his election; and many

other persons who bring their individual beliefs to this

common house for humanity. It comforts us to think not

about systems, but rather about those people who,

indefatigable, work for a better world. Let us therefore have

the optimism to believe in our species. For I believe that,

as the Nobel Prize Winner William Falkner said:

“man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is

immortal, not because he alone among creatures has

an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a

spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and

endurance.”