Australia, 1982

On behalf of the Aus¬tralian Government, Sir, I

congratulate you on your election to the

presidency of the thirty seventh sessions of the

General Assembly. It gives me particular pleasure

to pay a tribute to the Secretary-General, who

has shown great imagination and integrity in his

first year in office.

98. No one can ignore the somber mood of the

Assembly as it faces the critical issues of the

day, particularly the terrible events of three

weeks ago in Lebanon. Even in a world used to

acts of violence, the Beirut massacres have

numbed and shocked us all Outrage, however

strongly worded and deeply felt, must appear

inadequate to innocent non-com¬batants whose

unhappy history has been written in blood and

tears. Australians share the view of civilized

men and women everywhere on the need for, and

welcome, a full and independent inquiry into

these appalling events.

99. Beyond Beirut, however, there is a wider

tragedy of 30 years and more of the Middle East

conflict that inexcusably still defies resolution

and clouds the future of the region. One can only

hope that the events in Beirut will shock more

countries into a realization of the need for a

comprehensive settlement.

100. Australia has always been deeply

conscious of the age-long suffering of the Jewish

people and their right to a homeland. We

understand Israel's concern that it be able to

live in peace, free of terrorist attacks.

Recognition of Israel's right to exist in peace

can, however, settle only one side of the Middle

East problem. Israel must also recognize the

legitimate rights of the Palestinians, rights

which should include a homeland for the

Palestinians alongside Israel. Israel,

pre-eminently among nations, should understand

the significance of a national homeland for a

dispersed people.

101. Equally important is the need for

movement from the Arab side. We recognize that

the proposals from the Twelfth Arab Summit

Conference at Fez provided an implicit

recognition of Israel by calling for the Security

Council to guarantee peace among all States of

the region. Why, however, cannot the implicit be

made explicit? All Arab nations should clearly

accept what so far Egypt alone has accepted,

namely, that Israel has a right to exist in peace

and security behind stable borders.

102. So the problem has two aspects. It will

need courage and imagination on both sides to

deal with it. Otherwise there will be no peace in

the Middle East— and the Middle East without

peace will remain a threat to the peace of the

world.

103. The Middle East is only one area of

conflict. Other crises in other areas seem to

arise with fright¬ening frequency. It is only too

apparent that the international machinery

developed here in New York to contain and settle

conflicts has not been working as it should. The

fact is that some Member States, including

Australia, have had to go outside the United

Nations framework for alternative peace-keeping

arrangements. Examples are the Sinai

Multinational Force and Observers, in which

Australia is a par¬ticipant, and the current

international force in Lebanon.

104. In an unusually candid report on the

state bf the United Nations, the

Secretary-General has this year set out the

concerns so many of us feel about the present

weaknesses in the Organization. We commend him

for doing so. The recent record is dismal. As the

Secretary-General has observed, we are perilously

near to a new international anarchy.

103. The Security Council, the primary organ for

the maintenance of international peace and

security, finds its resolutions routinely

ignored. Those provi¬sions of the Charter dealing

with collective action for peace and security

have been rendered ineffective. Too often Member

States have contrived to avoid bringing

particular problems to the Security Council, or

to do so too late for the Council to have any

effective impact. Distressingly, for many Member

States, the Council's writ hardly runs at all.

And what applies to the Security Council applies

even more in the General Assembly and other

organs of the United Nations.

106. All that, as the Secretary-General has aptly

observed, amounts to a crisis in the multilateral

approach to resolving world problems, and to a

crisis of confidence in the United Nations

itself. But we must not be overawed by the

problems. Their effects can be moderated if not

overcome. The Secretary- General himself has

proposed a number of measures which could improve

the situation. Some of his propo¬sals, moreover,

could be realized immediately. That is the case,

for example, with his concern that there should

be more systematic use of the Security Council.

There is clearly a role for the Secretary-General

himself, acting within the terms of Article 99 of

the Charter, to bring potentially dangerous

situations to the attention of the Security

Council. The Council itself should be able to

move more promptly into a dispute without, as the

Secretary-General says, waiting for those

directly involved to bring the dispute to its

atten¬tion. The Council and the Secretary-General

acting together could do much to defuse

smouldering conflicts through, for example, the

early dispatch of fact-finding and good offices

missions. Such measures could con¬stitute a

diplomatic early warning system designed to

identify and isolate disputes before they

degenerate into armed conflict.

107. The Secretary-General has gone further; he

has urged the need for improving the collective

security provisions of the Charter provided under

Chapter VII. Specifically he has proposed—and

Australia supports him—that Member States should

use their collective influence to ensure respect

for decisions of the Security Council. In an

ideal situation Security Council peace¬keeping

orders would be backed up by guarantees of

collective action, including guarantees by the

per¬manent members, to ensure compliance with all

deci¬sions of the Council.

108. We recognize that these constructive ideas

of the Secretary-General will be the subject of

intensive scrutiny. They presuppose, as he says,

at least a modicum of co-operation among the

permanent members. It is the lack of that

co-operation in the past which has so often

frustrated the work of the Council. But some such

evolution along the lines the Secretary-General

has outlined is essential if the present drift is

to be arrested.

109. Not that the recent record has been all bad;

we should recall and reflect upon some of the

signifi¬cant achievements of the United Nations.

One notable example is decolonization. The

Organization has made it possible for very many

peoples to attain indepen¬dence and thereby make

their own contribution to the international

community.

110. There are today very few situations where

non-self-governing peoples have yet to exercise

their right of self-determination. Namibia,

however, remains on the agenda. The

Secretary-General in his report on the work of

the Organization reflects a sense of cautious

optimism about Namibia. Let us hope that that

optimism is well placed. A peaceful solution to

this long-standing problem would clearly be a

very great achievement, if such a solution is

worked out, it will owe much to the persistent

efforts of the contact group and the front-line

States. Australia continues to stand ready to

contribute an engineering and head¬quarters unit

of about 300 men to UNTAG to help oversee and

supervise the independence process.

111. Decolonization is not the only area of

United Nations success. There have been, and

continue to be, considerable achievements in the

economic, social and technical fields—so much so

perhaps that we sometimes take these achievements

for granted. As a clearing-house for ideas and as

an instrument for technical assistance and

co-operation, the United Nations and its agencies

have fulfilled a unique and valuable role.

112. In the North-South area, too, there has

been progress, although we have not yet achieved

our ultimate goals. Australia shares what I take

to be the general sense of disappointment at the

failure thus fhr to launch global negotiations.

We also share in the concern, so evident at the

recent meetings of IMF and World Bank in Toronto,

about what thefuture holds. Finding durable

solutions to the financial and economic problems

besetting the world has never been more urgent.

113. One major issue rightly causing growing

con¬cern is the extent of the world's

indebtedness. A par¬ticularly disturbing aspect

is the concentration in areas with limited

ability to service and repay bor¬rowings, the

cost of which has in some cases tripled since the

time of the original loan.

114. Australia wants a break in the impasse in

the North-South dialogue. There is a need to

galvanize the kind of political will evident at

the Common¬wealth Heads of Government Meeting at

Melbourne in September/October 1981, and at the

International Meeting on Co-operation and

Development, at Cancun in October 1981. In both

cases it was shown to be possible to break across

traditional North- South lines. Australia accepts

the North-South frame¬work, and the developing

country Group of 77 as a valid negotiating

partner. But we also see merit in more flexible

and open contacts across North-South lines as a

means of bridging differences.

115. The benefits of such an approach were

demon¬strated in the recent law of the sea

negotiations. It was a remarkable achievement for

a Conference of ISO countries to draft and reach

consensus on hun¬dreds of articles of new

international treaty law. While the Convention on

the Law of the Sea perhaps never could have been

entirely satisfactory to all parties, it

represents a major step forward in the

codification of maritime law and in co-operation

between nations. This experience shows that we

must not relax efforts to tackle the seemingly

insoluble as well as the apparently soluble.

116. Among present international economic

prob¬lems none concerns the Australian Government

more than protectionism and restraints on trade.

Australia is acutely aware of the obstacles to

progress and of the entrenched national interest

and rigidities which have to be overcome. The

Australian Government has promoted the concept of

collective reduction of protectionism by

Governments aimed at providing a stimulus to

world trade. The Australian proposal involves a

standstill on all trade-distorting assistance

measures and, following the standstill, a gradual

wind-back of this assistance. We intend to pursue

these proposals vigorously at the forthcoming

GATT ministerial meeting and afterwards at the

sixth session of UNCTAD.

117. What distinguishes the Australian

approach is that we are ready to commit ourselves

to action along these lines—provided that other

comparable countries do likewise. In other words,

the Australian Government, having considered the

matter, has already taken the decision that, if

the other major trading nations were to apply the

approach we have outlined, or to attempt

something like it, we would immediately join it.

118. It follows from what I have said that

this is an area which must be addressed

multilateral^ and in which States will inevitably

be looking to progressive, balanced global

reductions in trade barriers, export subsidies

and other trade-distorting measures as a

condition of their own participation. It is a

further rationale for getting on with global

negotiations.

119. Now is not the time for a detailed

analysis of the present difficulties in launching

global negotia¬tions, but a basis emerged from

the Versailles Eco¬nomic Summit. I interpreted

the Versailles language to mean: here is an

opportunity to launch global negotiations now. If

it is rejected, I believe it could be some time

before we get another chance. Indeed, if the

debate is allowed to drift again into the details

of what groups should be constituted here to

handle the talks, and thus what the agenda and

degree of decentralization should be, this will

amount to turning the clock back to a much

earlier and more difficult phase in the

discussions.

120. As in the North-South so in the

humanitarian area the United Nations has an

important role to play. Here it can point to a

number of significant achievements. In some cases

results have been attained only after arduous and

lengthy negotiations. This has often obscured the

significance of the ultimate result.

121. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

of 1948 and the two International Covenants on

Human Rights provide the world community with a

set of standards for the protection of

fundamental rights and freedoms. The adoption by

the General Assembly of the Declaration on the

Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of

Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief is a

further step along this road. Working through the

Commission on Human Rights, ILO and other

relevant bodies, the United Nations system has

been able significantly to mitigate some of the

worst breaches of human rights. Human rights in

South Africa and countries such as Poland, the

Islamic Republic of Iran and Guatemala have come

under increasing scrutiny. Australia will remain

active in these important areas.

122. Meanwhile, new areas of humanitarian

concern are being considered. We have

particularly welcomed the recent emphasis on the

protection of indigenous populations. Australia

was active in encouraging the establishment by

the Economic and Social Council this year of a

working group on indigenous populations.

123. Yet another area, regrettably, of

increasing concern is the plight of refugees

throughout the world. The facts are stark: a

world refugee population of at least 8 million to

10 miHion, an increasing number of other

displaced persons and movements of peoples within

regions in response to pressures of poverty or

deprivation. UNHCR has helped to cope with this

huge problem; success, however, has been mixed.

UNHCR has assisted and continues to assist

millions of refugees and displaced persons, but

it needs the assurance of a continuing mandate,

not a fixed-term mandate, and a vigorous pursuit

of durable solutions, especially volun¬tary

repatriation. It needs, too, a widened acceptance

by the entire international community of the

moral obligation to provide at least temporary

refuge to those compelled to leave their own

countries. Australia proposed a code of conduct

embodying this principle of temporary refuge in

Geneva two years ago. We shall be pursuing the

initiative further in the Executive Committee of

the High Commissioner and at a later stage here

in the General Assembly itself.

124. For many Governments and ordinary

citizens the second special session on

disarmament was a disappointment and its results

limited. Nevertheless Australia considers that

the session did help clear the air. It did

establish, if not a meeting of minds, a better

understanding of the essential basis of mutual

con¬fidence if progress in arms control and

disarmament is to be realized. It showed that a

better under¬standing leading to an improvement

in relations between East and West, essentially

between the superpowers, is imperative if there

is to be any significant progress in disarmament

and, indeed, in other issues of strategic and

political concern.

123. I conclude by returning to the earlier theme

of the role and promise of the United Nations.

State¬ments made in this debate already indicate

a sense of failure, frustration or disappointment

felt by many about the United Nations during the

course of the year. While it may be argued that

publicly held expectations of progress had been

too high, it is undeniable that a serious crisis

of pubic confidence now exists about the capacity

of the United Nations to carry out some of its

most central) responsibilities.

126. Yet we must not turn away from the United

Nations in frustration. Each nation must actively

look for ways in which to strengthen public faith

in the Organization and its potential capacity

for negotiation and conciliation. We need less

debate, less rhetoric and fewer resolutions; and

more constructive effort, more effective action

to resolve the major issues, including those of

disarmament and development, which face us all. I

hope that the Secretary-General's important and

courageous comments will help to change the

attitude of Member States towards adopting more

responsible, more rational and more moderate

approaches to the world community's problems.

Australia is ready to play its part.

127. We are a growing middle Power. White our

historical links are with Europe, we are situated

in the South-East Asian and South Pacific region.

We are thus a country with interests spanning

both the developing and the developed worlds. We

see our role as one of exercising a reasoned,

responsible and steady influence in the world

community. We have a strong and abiding belief in

the essential validity of the United Nations. The

Secretary-General can count on Australia's

support.