Costa Rica, 1994

Costa Rica hails and congratulates you most

warmly, Sir, on your election to the presidency of the

General Assembly. We also wish to thank the Secretary-

General, whose untiring efforts have made this an

Organization which is daily playing a more dynamic and

effective role in the advancement of peace, security and

development.

We are Members of an Organization whose name

bespeaks hope and dreams - the United Nations; not aligned

or groups of nations but one single family of peoples,

united in the struggle for peace, human rights and

development.

In those dark days of 1945, filled with suffering,

hatred and ruin, those who forged the United Nations

created an Organization with medium- and long-term

objectives. Rather than setting up a transitory league of

victors, their vision was to look to the future in unity.

They thought not only of themselves; they thought as well

of their children and their grandchildren. They also

thought of the children of their former adversaries, and

thought as well of those who had stayed on the margins

of the tragedy.

My country is proud to have been a founding

member of this fraternity. It is also proud to say that the

ideals of the United Nations live on in the spirit and in

the daily lives of our people. And although my country

is not wealthy, not powerful, not big, we feel we have

honourably served the cause of this Organization both

within and beyond our borders.

Despite the limitations inherent in our small and

poor country, the Costa Rican people have proved they

are capable of dreaming bold dreams and of making those

dreams come true. Forty-six years ago, when the United

Nations was about to take its first steps and the world

was just beginning to emerge from the horrors of the

Second World War, a group of men and women of vision

in our country began to pursue the dream of a world

without wars and armies, and decided that the dream should

begin to be made a reality right at home. We thus

abolished our army and began a long period of economic

growth, accompanied by social well-being and political

stability. We became a model of human development in a

developing country and a force for the abolition of war and

violence in our region. It is through our commitment to

making this dream a reality within our own borders that our

country has made its most important contribution to the

cause of the United Nations.

Today, as humanity stands at a decisive crossroads,

the need to build new utopias has become of the utmost

urgency. As human beings, we are at our creative best

only when we are in pursuit of a dream, when our eyes

shine with the gleam of that dream. Given the magnitude

of the dangers we face, the international community, now

perhaps more than ever before, needs to muster all its

energies in pursuit of renewal.

As a people living at the centre of the Americas, we

are deeply concerned by the threats hanging over mankind.

We are especially concerned about growing tensions

between the proponents of social progress and those of the

natural environment that supports it. At times, the

countries of the world seem to be playing out a macabre

global compact for self-destruction. While the production

and consumption patterns of the industrialized world are

wreaking havoc on nature, poverty in the third world is also

causing serious environmental damage. The end result is

a rapid deterioration of the natural resource base upon

which all of life and society depends, to the point where the

very survival of humanity is in jeopardy. With every

passing day, awareness is growing of the fact that this

absurd path the world has chosen to follow is not

sustainable.

Given such a formidable threat, the United Nations

once again shines like a beacon of hope for the world. As

a forum pooling the energies of the international

community, it has already acted resolutely in dealing with

the environment. From a variety of vantage points, many

of its agencies have launched efforts to preserve and

conserve the world’s resources and to establish norms of

social organization that are compatible with the life cycles

of the planet. At the Rio de Janeiro Summit, that decades-

long effort of the United Nations in this area was clearly

expressed, and the adoption of Agenda 21, along with the

conventions on biodiversity and climatic change, which my

country has signed, is to a large extent the fruit of the work

of the United Nations.

As the community of nations tackles new common

challenges, Costa Rica once again affirms its commitment

to play a useful role. Aware as we are of our limitations

as a small and poor country, we can but offer the best we

have. We pledge our land and our collective

determination as a contribution to building utopias and

keeping hope alive.

We wish to assume our role in these global causes

with two reasons in mind: we are committed to the

world-wide struggle to ensure the existence and well-

being of mankind, and we feel it is urgent for us to

provide our people with the kind of development that will

make of nature an ally and not an enemy.

Today, we acknowledge that the social and economic

progress made in Costa Rica in recent decades was

achieved at the expense of a serious deterioration in our

environment. Our polluted rivers, our eroded soil and our

rapidly disappearing forests are the unfortunate proof.

For the future, only sustainable development can offer us

continued abundance and growing well-being, generation

after generation.

All too often throughout history, human beings have

opted for the easy way out - only economic growth,

superficial and fleeting change and an irrational

exploitation of the environment. Aware as we are of the

deplorable results of such an approach, we Costa Ricans

wish to rid ourselves of such self-deception. We envisage

sustainable development as one that is mindful of the

macro-equilibrium that in turn makes long-term

development possible - I refer to political stability, social

equity, economic balance and harmony with nature.

The enjoyment of peace, democracy and stability in

Costa Rica is in large measure because of the sustained

investment we have made for decades in education, health

and other services to ensure the well-being of our people.

By abolishing our army, we have been able to convert

military expenditure into expenditure on social

programmes and to avoid the threat of stunted

development such as often occurs under military

dictatorships. Building on these traditions, we are now

attaining new and ambitious goals.

To achieve sustainability, major changes are in store

for us in our way of life, and to make these changes we

will have to set free the energies and the determination of

our citizens. That is why we are shifting away from

representative democracy and moving towards more

complex forms of participatory democracy.

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Since we have chosen to pursue sustainable

development we are committed to finding medium- and

long-term solutions to the cyclical economic imbalances

from which we have suffered over the years.

Desirous as we are of changing the ways in which we

interact with the natural world, we in Costa Rica have

undertaken an ambitious programme based on social

consensus, the work of the scientific and technological

community and the historical ability of new State

institutions to promote development. Decades ago, when

the topic of environmental conservation was not yet a key

item on the agendas of Governments or international

organizations, my country was already working to set up a

system of nature conservation areas which today cover one

fourth of our national territory and provide protection for

virtually all our animal and plant species. Today we are

taking yet a further step and endeavouring to arrive at an

integrated scheme to combine nature conservation with the

productive use of tropical biodiversity. Our goal to live in

harmony with nature has helped us to realize that our land

was for the most part meant to be forested. The objectives

of our programme include improving the net absorption of

carbon dioxide through forestation programmes carried out

in conjunction with developed countries, the exportation of

plant trees and the development of technologies for tropical

reforestation. These and other projects are part of a

national plan designed to implement all the elements of

Agenda 21, adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

In the pursuit of these and other, similar goals we

intend to make Costa Rica into a model of sustainable

development. Indeed, we hope to become the first

developing country to make the leap to sustainable

development. Like other dreams we have cherished and

realized in the past, through our own efforts and with the

help of the international community, this dream is bold and

ambitious.

Costa Rica cherishes this aspiration for all of Central

America as well. We are committed to our region’s efforts

to achieve sustainable development, efforts that are today

being carried out under a common programme that was

agreed to at our recent meetings of Presidents.

During the tragic years of the Central American crisis

Costa Rica did not suffer the ravages of war or dictatorship,

nor did it see any of its freedoms taken away.

Nevertheless, our national development was hampered by

the backwardness, injustice and violence that held sway

throughout the region. Today, we Costa Ricans reaffirm

our conviction that our destiny as a nation is indissolubly

linked to that of the other nations of the Isthmus.

Costa Rica vividly remembers and continues to be

grateful to the United Nations for its valuable support in

bringing peace to our region. We recall the exceptional

efforts the Organization made. Its action of solidarity,

mobilizing substantial resources and devising specific

programmes, was at that time of great benefit to Central

America.

Today, the situation is very different. In our region

we have put an end to the fratricidal conflicts that bled us

for decades and we have ushered in an era of

reconciliation, peace and democracy. Today, Central

America offers much more fertile ground for ever-higher

levels of human development. Today, our peoples are

more capable of building a better future for themselves

and therefore of establishing mutually beneficial and

cooperative relations with international organizations and

friendly countries.

Today’s watchword is "interdependence". The

industrialized countries will be able to maintain their

standards of living and levels of production only if they

can foster development in the rest of the world. This is

why we invite them to forge closer ties of cooperation

with us so that Central America’s goals can be shared and

more easily attained by our countries.

Notwithstanding innumerable difficulties and despite

40 years of cold war and a multitude of conflicts, the

United Nations has a record of accomplishment

unprecedented in history.

We derive great satisfaction from the imminent

fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. Never before

in the history of mankind has any joint effort for peace

managed to endure so long, and never before has any

international effort taken on such universal proportions.

We nevertheless hope that this universality will

become total as soon as possible, without any exceptions

whatever. Today, Costa Rica would like to reaffirm its

strong support for the legitimate aspirations of the

Republic of China in Taiwan to take part in the efforts of

the United Nations. We believe that the people of that

nation must be represented in this family of nations. It is

a reality, and it is also an issue that the Organization

cannot continue to sidestep.

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The impending anniversary is also a good time for us

to set a new course for the United Nations so that we can

successfully meet new challenges. We consider the ideas

on this subject contained in the Secretary-General’s

"Agenda for Peace" to be of the utmost importance, and we

hope that we will be able to contribute to making them a

reality.

"An Agenda for Peace" is a particularly important

guide for the international community. Its natural

complement, the agenda for development, optimistically

reflects mankind’s new concerns and offers us great

opportunities to work dynamically in building the new

millennium.

Indeed, there is a great deal of work before us.

Although there is no longer a cold war, although many

States have rejected totalitarianism, it is still true that we

are faced with the horror of the unfolding tragedy of

Rwanda, the aggression being pursued against Bosnia and

the resurgence of ethnic and religious fanaticism. We are

frustrated to see that the best efforts of the organized

international community have not been sufficient to find a

way out of the Cuban crisis, in our America.

We feel indignation in the face of the violence and

exploitation to which women and children continue to be

subjected and alarm at the steady increase in drug

trafficking and its occasional ally, terrorism. We are sad to

see that hunger and poverty continue to be a daily reality

for millions in Africa, Asia and our own Latin America.

These painful realities must not, however, weaken our

resolve. Recently we have seen hopeful and bright signals

to the effect that things can and should be different. We

have witnessed the Republic of South Africa peacefully

putting an end to a shameful regime and becoming the

mother of all its children, regardless of the color of their

skin.

We have seen Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians

together plough furrows of peace through the Holy Land.

The first steps have been taken towards reconciliation in

Northern Ireland. There are signs of lessening tensions on

the Korean peninsula, and we trust that, through

negotiations, there will be effective control of North

Korea’s nuclear programme.

Just a few days ago we saw how the efforts of the

international community had finally provided the people of

Haiti with a chance of real peace and democracy. Costa

Rica would like to make a proposal that it considers basic

for human development in Haiti. To this end we ask the

United Nations to work with others on a democratization

programme, with the gradual and irreversible abolition of

the army in that country. The time is ripe for such an

initiative; by carrying it out we would protect this long-

suffering nation from many future injustices.

Having for many years been committed to the

struggle against poverty and underdevelopment, Costa

Rica has strong hopes of the World Summit for Social

Development, to be held in Denmark next March. My

country shares and supports its objectives and will

enthusiastically participate in activities at the Summit and

afterwards.

We optimistically hail, as part of the restructuring of

international relations, the establishment of the World

Trade Organization. We are confident that its creation

will lead to greater legal consistency in international trade

relations, a new era of global economic cooperation and

a greater dynamism in trade, as well as higher volumes.

For countries such as the banana-producing countries of

Latin America, today facing serious problems because of

reduced access to markets in the European Union, this

new forum will be of particular importance. We are glad

that its priority topics include the links between trade

policies, environmental policies and sustainable

development.

Costa Rica was present in San Francisco to declare

its faith in the future of the world. We have been here

for half a century, bearing witness to our trust in the

United Nations. Today Costa Rica is present again to call

on all Member States to continue to look forward, firmly

committed to working with still greater dedication for the

attainment of the common goal of securing the well-being

of our peoples.

We must have faith in the future, but we must work

to build it. Let us forge a new spirit in our minds and fill

our hearts, and this Organization, with a new kind of

feeling. Let us adopt as our own the attitude embodied

in the lessons of an old proverb:

"Fear less and hope more; complain less and breathe

more; speak less and say more; hate less and love

more; and all good things shall be yours."