Austria, 2004

I should like to

begin by congratulating Mr. Jean Ping on his election

as President of the fifty-ninth session of the General

Assembly. He may be sure that Austria will fully

support him in carrying out his important task.

I fully subscribe to the statement made by the

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands on

behalf of the European Union, which expressed the

position of the European Union regarding the various

global and regional challenges we face today. I would

like to emphasize a few additional points from our own

perspective.

Over the past few years we have had to reassess

key concepts of our national and international security

environment. With the emergence of new and complex

threats, in particular terrorism in combination with the

proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the

international community faces unprecedented

challenges for which it has to find legitimate

responses. Just recently, we witnessed the horrifying

terrorist attack against innocent school children in

Beslan. This was only the last of a whole series of

heinous attacks in all regions of the world targeted

against innocents.

Austria is committed to full cooperation with

other States and United Nations bodies involved in

counter-terrorism and is working to promote the whole

range of United Nations action against terrorism. In

Vienna, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

and its Terrorism Prevention Branch make an important

contribution by rendering assistance to Member States

in implementing national legislation required by

Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) and in

building their national capacity to do so.

Austria is convinced that only effective

multilateralism based on the rule of law can address the

new and complex challenges that the international

community faces today. We support the efforts of the

Quartet in the Middle East peace process, and we urge

Israel and the Palestinians to implement their

respective obligations. The road map remains the only

way forward towards a just, comprehensive and lasting

settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict leading to two

States living side by side in peace and security.

The United Nations continues to play a key role

in South-Eastern Europe, especially in Kosovo. We

welcome the recent appointment of Mr. Soren Jessen-

Petersen as Special Representative for Kosovo. In that

regard, within the European Union, the countries of the

regional partnership ó the Czech Republic, Hungary,

Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and my country, Austria ó

presented concrete proposals with regard to security,

economic development, decentralization and the

protection of minorities and of religious sites. We are

confident that they can contribute to progress in

Kosovo.

International and regional efforts are essential if

we are to contain and resolve the various conflicts in

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other regions of the world. The dramatic situation in

Darfur highlights the need for better harmonization of the

international efforts of the United Nations, the African

Union, the EU, the League of Arab States, the United

States and other actors. We will have to examine

carefully the results of the current mission to Darfur of

the new Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide

and the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Such missions and mechanisms are indeed the

tools that the United Nations needs if it is to effectively

address emerging crisis situations. Strengthening the

rule of law, human rights, democratic participation and

economic development will reduce the chance of

conflicts within societies and among States turning

violent. In order to be a credible player, the United

Nations must be given the necessary institutional

framework to enact effective strategies at all stages of

a conflict.

Austria therefore welcomed the Secretary-

Generalís call for reform, in particular his initiative to

establish a High-Level Panel of eminent persons to

propose specific measures for institutional innovation

by the end of the year. I was happy to meet with the

members of the Panel when it held its meeting in

Austria earlier this year.

One item on the Panel's agenda is Security

Council reform. Austria, like many other countries, is

concerned about the growing gap between the

Councilís current composition on the one hand, and the

changing political, economic and social reality of the

community of nations on the other.

It is essential to enlarge and balance the

membership of the Security Council, as well as to

increase its transparency. In order for all peoples to

identify with its decisions, we must ensure that the

Security Council is a body that truly reflects the

diversity of the world's cultures and regions by an

improved representation of regions such as Africa,

Asia and Latin America.

As you know, Sir, it is my personal vision that, in

the longer term, the European Union should also be

represented in the Security Council. I pointed out

during the general debate last year that that would be

the logical consequence of further European integration

in the field of common foreign and security policy.

The United Nations has been at the centre of

Austriaís foreign policy since we became a Member

after regaining our full independence in 1955. We have

always strongly supported the principles and purposes

of the United Nations, and we remain committed to the

goals of the Charter.

Austria feels honoured and privileged to host one

of the headquarters of the United Nations. This year,

we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening

of the Vienna International Centre, home to many United

Nations institutions. The work of the International

Atomic Energy Agency and the Preparatory Committee

of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Organization with respect to nuclear non-proliferation;

the work of the United Nations Industrial Development

Organization on development cooperation; and the

fight against the so-called uncivil society by the United

Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, contribute

substantially to the international communityís efforts to

confront the worldís new security threats.

In this spirit of full and honest commitment to the

United Nations, I would like to recall that Austria is a

candidate for a non-permanent seat on the Security

Council for the term 2009-2010. Our candidature,

announced over five years ago - in 1999 - is based

on our willingness to contribute actively and

constructively to the maintenance of international

peace and security. We fully recognize the heavy

responsibility which Security Council membership

entails and we are ready to assume it.

Over the past 50 years, Austria has sought to

contribute effectively to the work of the United Nations,

in particular in the fields of peace and security, human

rights, development, disarmament and international

law. We are a significant contributor to United Nations

peacekeeping operations and have traditionally been

among the largest European troop contributors. Since

1963, over 50,000 Austrians have served in more than

50 United Nations missions worldwide.

Security, as we see it, means human security. It is

the kind of security that all human beings are looking

for, among them millions of civilians in all parts of the

world affected by armed conflict ó the majority of

them women and children ó and 40 million people

living with the HIV virus. Human security transcends

the concept of hard threats and soft threats. If we see

those threats through the prism of the human beings

concerned, it becomes clear that for the afflicted

individual, all such threats - war, hunger, terrorism or

deadly disease - deprive them of their security.

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Austria is honoured to chair the first Review

Conference of States Parties to the Anti-personnel

Mine-Ban Convention in Nairobi later this year, where

the international community will chart a course for the

solution of the landmine problem in the coming years.

The Mine-Ban Convention has become a true example

of a successful and effective multilateral approach to

address a global problem. I encourage all States to

participate at the Nairobi Summit at the highest

possible level.

As a member of the Human Security Network, we

cooperate with others to promote human security in the

world. To provide one concrete example, Austria -

together with Slovenia and Jordan ó initiated and

funded an aid project for traumatized children in Iraq. I

am convinced that applying a human security

perspective to international problems has the potential

of preventing or resolving conflict and promoting

peace and development.

We also need to reflect further on how best to

ensure respect for human rights during conflict, how to

incorporate human rights into preventive policies and

how to formulate post-conflict strategies likely to

achieve lasting reconciliation and build a firm basis for

the rule of law and good governance. In that respect,

human rights education is an important element in

getting to the root of conflict and breaking the vicious

circle of human rights violations.

Violence between ethnic groups and religious

communities has shaken countries across the globe. In

particular, the disregard for the needs and the rights of

minorities tends to fuel violent conflict. Our

endeavours for the protection of the rights of minorities

are still highly needed, not the least to ensure that

ethnic cleansing or genocide will never happen again.

We know that the Secretary-General feels very strongly

about the need for speed of action to prevent the most

heinous crimes. I share his concerns.

The Austrian Government is convinced that it is

an essential responsibility of the United Nations and its

Member States to address the root causes of conflict.

Global poverty, inequality, competition for scarce

resources, environmental degradation and the spread of

infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, are among the

ingredients that fuel the outbreak of conflicts both

within countries and among States.

The Austrian Development Policy has placed a

particular focus on poverty reduction, maintenance of

peace and the protection of the environment. I am

pleased to inform the Assembly that Austria has

increased its development aid by 35 per cent this year.

In the area of environment and sustainable energy, we

have initiated and promoted the Global Forum for

Sustainable Energy, which aims at providing access to

energy for people in developing countries. We consider

issues such as climate change, the decline of

biodiversity and other forms of environmental

degradation as essential aspects of our comprehensive

security agenda.

Let me finally highlight an issue which the

Secretary-General made a central theme of his address

to the General Assembly. The key guarantee for

creating and maintaining peace and security in the

world has been and will continue to be an international

system based on the rule of law. This was the very idea

of the founders of the United Nations.

I particularly welcome the Secretary-General's

pledge two days ago that he will make the United

Nations work to strengthen the rule of law and

transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict

societies a priority for the remainder of his tenure.

Particularly for smaller and medium sized countries, an

international order based on the rule of law is of

paramount importance.

With this in mind, I would like to announce today

that I have launched a discourse on the role and

function of the Security Council in strengthening a

rules-based international system. As a first step, we

will organize in November a panel of international

legal experts during International Law Week at

Headquarters, which will analyse the increasing law-

making tendency of the Security Council.

This is my last speech as Austrian Foreign

Minister. As you may know, I have been nominated

Commissioner of the European Union for External

Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy. This

function will, of course, keep me in close contact with

many Assembly delegates and with the United Nations.

I would therefore like to use this opportunity today to

thank all colleagues, members of delegations and, in

particular, the Secretariat, in which I myself had the

honour to work, for the support that has been extended

to me and my staff here in New York over the past

years. A special and warm expression of gratitude and

respect goes to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. To the

President of the Assembly, I would like to extend my

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best wishes for a successful and constructive fifty-

ninth session of the General Assembly.