Australia, 2007

I join my colleagues in

congratulating you, Sir, on your election as President

of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session. I

would also like to wish His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-

moon well for this, his first full session of the General

Assembly as Secretary-General.

On behalf of the Australian Government, let me

begin by reaffirming Australia’s long-standing call for

reform of the United Nations. Australia strongly

supports efforts to make the Organization more

effective. And Australia would like to acknowledge

Secretary-General Ban’s push for reform so far.

But reform of the United Nations is not an end in

itself. We must reform the United Nations so that it can

act decisively to meet global challenges. Simply

talking about issues does not solve problems.

Over the past 60 years, when the United Nations

has acted it has proved its worth. United Nations

peacekeeping operations around the world have saved

lives and helped communities rebuild. Australia has a

proud history of supporting them. Australia was the

first country on the ground in what was arguably the

first-ever United Nations peacekeeping operation, the

1947 Consular Commission to Indonesia. In the past 60

years, Australia has made contributions to 39 United

Nations peacekeeping operations, and we continue that

tradition today.

The United Nations, as the only Organization

with a truly global membership, has both a unique

opportunity to meet challenges and a responsibility to

take action. By coming together, we can achieve more

than each of our countries could on its own. The

United Nations has great moral authority. But, if it fails

to act decisively, that authority will be squandered.

As Members of the United Nations, we have set

ourselves important goals over the past 62 years:

maintaining global peace and security, supporting

economic and social development and advancing

human rights. In 2005, we pledged to protect those

people who are most vulnerable: those facing genocide,

war crimes and crimes against humanity. We

recognized the responsibility to protect as a central

tenet of our shared humanity.

This responsibility to protect underpins the notion

that States must protect their own populations. But, if

they should fail to do so, the international community

has a responsibility to act, not to stand idly by in the

face of atrocities, genocide or ethnic cleansing. For the

international community, that means we must commit

to prevent and respond to these most serious of

crimes, wherever they occur. After the immediate crisis

has passed, we must support recovery efforts to help

communities rebuild and reconcile, by addressing the

causes of the crisis.

Last year, the Security Council drew upon the

responsibility to protect for the first time in a country-

specific resolution: resolution 1706 (2006), on Darfur.

And, under a subsequent resolution, an African Union-

United Nations hybrid peacekeeping operation was

established, with a robust mandate to protect civilians

and humanitarian workers. The international

community must now ensure that the deployment of

the Hybrid force proceeds quickly. Active cooperation

is needed across the international community if we are

to keep our promise to the people of Darfur. The

alternative — to fail — is unthinkable. This is a test for

the United Nations and its Member States.

But resolving the tragedy in Darfur is, first and

foremost, a test for the Government of Sudan and other

parties to the conflict. Ongoing military operations by

the Government of Sudan, and last weekend’s killing

and abduction of African Union peacekeepers by rebel

forces, demonstrate the urgent need for the parties to

stop these crimes and build peace. Those who have

committed crimes in Darfur must be punished.

Australia calls on the Government of Sudan to act

on the warrants issued by the International Criminal

Court. We call on Sudan to arrest those accused and to

hand them over to the Court.

Darfur is not the only humanitarian crisis we

have experienced or will face in the United Nations.

Tragically, other populations will also require

protection from crimes against humanity. The

responsibility to protect provides the necessary guide

to action. But it is up to Security Council members, on

behalf of the international community, to act, and for

all United Nations members to then support them.

The events of the past week in Burma remind us

of the irrepressible human impulse to seek democratic

freedoms and human rights. The United Nations and

individual countries must let the courageous protestors

in Burma know that their message is understood — a

message on the need to move towards genuine

democratic progress and national reconciliation, and

away from military domination.

Australia has joined the international community

in condemning the violent suppression of peaceful

demonstrations by monks and civilians. We call for the

immediate release of those arrested for exercising their

fundamental human rights to peaceful protest and for

humane treatment of all those detained. Australia is

also introducing targeted financial measures against

members of the Burmese regime and its supporters to

increase pressure on them to engage in genuine

political reform and national reconciliation.

Australia supports the consistent efforts that the

United Nations has made to monitor and improve the

situation in Burma. We welcomed the statement by the

United Nations Security Council following its special

consultations on 26 September. We welcome the

current visit to Burma by the United Nations Secretary-

General’s Special Envoy, Mr. Ibrahim Gambari, and his

access to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We urge the

Burmese authorities to work constructively and

meaningfully with him in support of his United

Nations-mandated mission. Mr. Gambari is well placed

to assist in achieving a peaceful resolution to the

current crisis.

The responsibility to protect means that we, the

international community, must act when confronted

with the most serious of crimes. But we also have to

act to confront a range of global challenges, from

terrorism and climate change to poverty. Terrorists

stand in stark contrast to those of us who seek to

protect the vulnerable. Their goals are global and their

reach transnational. No single country can solve the

problem alone. There have been some successes in

combating terrorist networks, but we need to develop

even more effective strategies to disrupt and dismantle

their networks.

Australia calls on Member States of the United

Nations to implement fully all relevant Security

Council resolutions on freezing the assets of terrorists.

Terrorist organizations must be starved of their funds

and support. Australia also calls on Member States to

conclude a comprehensive convention against terrorism

as soon as possible. A convention would provide a

solid foundation for international cooperation to

prevent, prosecute and punish terrorist acts.

The international community must support the

efforts of States that fight terrorism — in particular,

fledgling democratic States. We must help those States

to establish strong democratic institutions and

accountable Government structures, as State weakness

can only allow terrorism to fester.

We should cooperate also to prevent man-

portable air-defence systems from falling into the

hands of terrorist groups. We should also intensify

work on the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear

Terrorism. Australia urges Member States to join the

Initiative.

We must also act to stop the spread of weapons of

mass destruction. Australia welcomes the robust action

taken by the Security Council over the past year in

imposing sanctions against programmes relating to

proliferation in the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea and also in Iran. The Security Council’s action

on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea nuclear

issue sent a strong signal to that country that the

international community would not tolerate its nuclear

programmes. We welcome recent progress in the Six-

Party Talks. We call on the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea to maintain the momentum and

implement fully its commitment to denuclearize.

The Security Council also sent a strong message

to Iran. We welcome Iran’s stated intention to work

with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

to address long-outstanding issues. But the

international community, including Australia, remains

deeply concerned about Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran

should suspend its uranium enrichment programme, as

required by the Security Council, and cooperate fully

with the IAEA.

Australia also hopes that the United Nations can

continue its work in protecting populations by raising

barriers against the illicit trade in conventional

weapons. We support the development of an arms trade

treaty.

Climate change is another challenge that clearly

requires our urgent attention. Climate change demands

an effective and enduring global response. The United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is

the forum to forge such a global response. On 9

September, the leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific

Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies issued the

historic Sydney Declaration on Climate Change,

Energy Security and Clean Development. The APEC

leaders agreed to work to achieve a common

understanding on long-term aspirational goals to

reduce emissions and pave the way for an effective

post-2012 international arrangement.

Significantly, the APEC leaders, whose

economies represent over half of the world’s gross

domestic product (GDP), agreed that the post-2012

agreement needs to be comprehensive and that all

economies should contribute to meeting shared global

goals. They also agreed that our responses must be

equitable and environmentally and economically

effective, as well as capable of including diverse

approaches.

The High-Level Event on Climate Change, hosted

by the Secretary-General on 24 September, and the

Major Economies Meeting on Energy, Security and

Climate Change, hosted by United States Secretary

Rice a few days later, highlighted these same goals and

built additional international momentum for a post-

2012 agreement. Australia calls on parties to this year’s

United Nations conference on climate change in Bali to

agree to a new mandate for the Convention that will

move beyond Kyoto and forge a comprehensive new

agreement.

The international community must also address

pressing health and human security issues, in particular

the spread of HIV/AIDS. Failure to combat HIV/AIDS

will have global economic and social consequences.

Australia takes its responsibility to act seriously and

continues to support its near neighbours in the Asia

Pacific region to address the challenge of HIV/AIDS.

The Australian Government believes that the

challenge of ending endemic poverty remains the

single most difficult economic and social issue, and yet

the most fundamental one. In a world where

international commerce moves at the click of a button,

people should not be starving. Commerce and

economic development have the power to lift people

out of poverty. Free and open trade helps countries to

develop through integration into the world trading

system. We must conclude the Doha Round and deliver

results that increase market access and reduce domestic

subsidies.

Development assistance, too, plays a key role in

alleviating poverty. At the United Nations Summit in

2005, Australia undertook to double its development

assistance budget by the year 2010, and we are well on

the way to achieving that goal, but this aid must be

focused and delivered in a way that promotes broad-

based economic growth and encourages good

governance. We need to make long-term commitments,

particularly in post-conflict development and

reconstruction.

I have outlined today serious global challenges

facing the international community — humanitarian

and political crises, including in Darfur and Burma,

climate change, poverty, weapons of mass destruction

and terrorism. The Security Council has drawn upon

the responsibility to protect principle, endorsed by

leaders at the 2005 Summit. It is clear that the

international community as a whole has a

responsibility to protect those facing genocide, war

crimes and crimes against humanity.

Our task is to respond quickly and effectively.

The United Nations has been vested with great

authority by its Members to effect real change. But that

authority will mean little unless we turn commitment

into action.