Andorra, 2003

During the

past two years, the attacks of 11 September 2001 and

the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as in Africa,

have brought turmoil to the world.

The United Nations has never been more

necessary, yet perhaps never has its efficacy been so

questioned nor, until the bombings last month in

Baghdad, have its people been the object of such

massive direct attack.

In the Principality of Andorra, encircled by the

high mountains of the Pyrenees, we have lived

peacefully and democratically between our neighbours

for over 700 years. Since 1419, our Parliament has met

to debate the problems of our people. It was not only

our small size and isolation that kept us apart from the

wars that ravaged Europe; rather, our desire for

independence, the unity of our people, and also our ability

to get along with our powerful neighbours made Andorra

one of the oldest democratic States in the world.

In the past half-century, since the founding of the

United Nations, the world has changed, and Andorra

with it. Less than a century ago it was only possible to

reach Andorra by horse. Now roads bring us 12 million

tourists each year. Telephones, computers, satellites

and airplanes bring the world to Andorra and we in

turn have reached out to the world. In the time of my

grandparents, Andorrans never travelled far from their

mountains. Now we are world travellers.

One of the proud moments in the long history of

our country was the day in 1993 — ten years ago —

when we became a Member State of the United

Nations. We joined with great hopes and all these years

we have believed in its crucial role, despite the crises

that may have cooled that belief.

The terrorist attack on the United States of

America marked the beginning of a very complex stage

in relations among nations and of a difficult

equilibrium among different areas of our planet. The

invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were both set in

motion by this attack; one had the support of the

United Nations while the other did not. While there is

no point in returning to that debate, two questions must

be addressed.

First, can the United Nations effectively respond

to threats to world stability? Secondly, to what degree

will its Member States be willing to work within the

framework of the United Nations? Perhaps a cooling of

passions will enable us to address these difficult issues

clearly.

We are all too aware of the difficulties and

dangers that beset both the citizens of these countries

and the troops of Member States who are working to

bring stability to these places. We hope for a rapid

solution to the myriad difficulties involved in ending

the series of sad and painful events that have taken

place within these countries over the past few years.

The United Nations has a critical responsibility in

fostering a constructive outcome for the Afghan and

Iraqi people and also in resolving tension throughout

the Middle East. In this regard I wish to express our

confidence in the United Nations to bring an end to this

complex and cruel conflict, a crucial step for the

stability of the region and an important matter for the

future of mankind. The United Nations will know how

to find new ways and adequate solutions and will play

a leading role in the establishment of new paths.

As politicians, we pride ourselves on our

knowledge of the needs of our citizens. We are students

at the university of the national will. The most

successful among us have cultivated a keen sense of

the everyday desires, frustrations, and goals that are

important to our citizens. If we live in a democratic

State, and ignore those needs, the voters will quickly

look for others who do not.

The United Nations is a different kind of

university. Here the lessons of national self-interest

must give way to an international understanding. In

this university of the world, our previous studies, by

which I mean our own political careers, can only help

us in the short term. But what we study together here

are long-term lessons that can ensure the long-term

survival of the world we share.

Although Andorra is small in scale, like many

partners in the United Nations, what we smaller nations

have to contribute is larger than our proportionate

geographic scale or the relative size of our population.

Indeed, our small size has made us by necessity careful

observers of the needs of others and our centuries of

independence have taught us responsibility to our citizens

and our neighbours. We have never forgotten the bonds

that link us to the world. Our history has taught us this.

Legend has it that Andorra was founded by

Charlemagne, who, let us recall, was one of the key

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historical players in the battles between Islam and

Christianity. In the thirteenth century, however, it was

the religious tension between the Count of Foix, who

was a Cathar sympathizer, and the Catholic bishop of

Urgell that led to a balanced agreement resulting in the

independence of Andorra. Andorra came into existence

partly as a buffer State between two powerful lords and

between two approaches to Christianity: the orthodox

and the Cathar.

The Cathars are only a distant memory now, but I

raise this issue here because it points to the

battleground of belief. Whereas the Church once

summoned councils to struggle over the problems of

heresy, we now gather at the United Nations not to

insist on one form of belief, but to recognize and

sustain the common ethical base that unites all beliefs,

all ideologies, under the unshakeable canopy of the

1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We are now in the twenty-first century and not in

the Middle Ages, but those who then were

fundamentalist Christians and who resolved everything

with anathemas, crusades and exiles have given place

to those who practice other forms of religious

intolerance of different persuasions. It is shameful to

see that, even today, people are being killed or kill in

the name of their God.

The work that the United Nations accomplishes,

therefore, does not simply pay lip service to diversity.

We need to advance, in all moral seriousness, an ethic

of diversity that goes beyond recognizing the value of

tolerance and multiculturalism and strives to

implement shared ethical values in the service of world

understanding.

In 1278, the strategic importance of Andorra lay

in its proximity to the border between Catholic Europe

and al-Andalus, Islamic Spain. The road that led to the

great city of Cordoba — where the philosophy of

Aristotle was retranslated from Greek and Arabic into

Latin and re-entered the thought of the Christian West

in the renaissance of the twelfth century — passed

close by our country.

In the centre of that city, the Muslim rulers built

an astonishing mosque with a forest of columns, made

all the more beautiful by the presence within it of a

synagogue. Such was its beauty that it was not destroyed

when the Christians captured the city, but converted into a

Cathedral, just as the great basilicas of Constantinople

became the great mosques of Istanbul when that city

fell to the Ottoman empire a century later.

What if we could learn from the events that have

marked history, making use of the lessons of peaceful

coexistence, avoiding past mistakes and appreciating

the moments of openness between cultures in previous

centuries?

We live in a world of vast contrasts where

technological progress, used dangerously or simply

without precaution, has made life more perilous on a

global scale. Where once the great plague took years to

make its way across Europe, modern plagues — be

they biological viruses or computer viruses — travel

across the globe in a matter of hours.

Pollution and global warming concern us all. The

strange climactic shifts of recent years, the pollution of

our great oceans and lakes, threaten our environment.

Perhaps most dangerously, nuclear weapons threaten

the life of everyone on the planet. All of these

calamities, present or looming, demand international

cooperation if we are to survive.

It is most sad that some of those who could do

most to prevent the degradation of life on Earth

continue to look in another direction — at the balance

sheets of the big companies that contaminate the Earth

most egregiously — and continue to apply an energy

policy based on the uncontrolled exploitation and low

cost of limited resources.

We have become a little world. We have become

like a small country, rather like Andorra, where

everybody knows everybody else’s business. As we

become smaller, the need to combat poverty and

suffering has become all the more important. We

cannot forget that images from more fortunate

countries are beamed into the lives of people existing

in difficult or even life-threatening circumstances

across the world. No matter that these images may be

propaganda and distortions of the truth — our modern

technology, the source of so many comforts and

advantages, is also demonstrating the full scale of our

differences.

We must learn to treat all members of the world

as we would like to see our own citizens treated. We

need to insist on a decent life for everyone, for all

mankind.

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Andorra is committed to aiding development

around the world. Since 1995, we have regularly

increased our budgetary contributions and hope to

devote 0.7 per cent of our budget to third-world aid

within two years. Our philosophy of development

supports the institutions of the United Nations, looking

to small-scale solutions that foster self-reliance and

local initiative. We are particularly enthusiastic about

projects aimed at children, education and those who

help women to establish their own businesses. We are

also committed to encouraging sustainable farming

because we recognize that proper farming practices

provide the best defence against catastrophic crop

failures. To that end, Andorra also proposes within the

next year to become a member of the Food and

Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The insignificant part of the Andorran budget

devoted to the purchase of weapons resulted in the

composer and singer Pete Seeger dedicating a song to

us in the 1960s. His verses still echo today, just as they

did when he made a whole generation sing “We shall

overcome. We shall live in peace”. Many things have

happened since those days and Andorra no longer

allocates so much as $4.50 towards its defence budget.

We do not spend a penny.

In this diverse and contradictory world, with all

that is squandered on new weapons and old, the whole

of mankind could live decently. We could eliminate all

diseases. Education and culture would be made

available to all. Thus, we could end fanaticism and all

those who abuse the ignorance of the people would end

up without victims or lackeys.

Let us try and make some use of these long

debates and speeches which we applaud with

diplomatic courtesy, often without even hearing them.

Too much is at stake for all of us.