Costa Rica, 1999

Let

me congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the presidency

of this General Assembly, a truly global parliament where

all mankind is represented and finds expression in its

diversity and its fundamental unity. Your election and your

personal qualities honour your country and your region.

I would like to congratulate also the delegations of

Kiribati, Tonga and Nauru, and through them their

Governments and peoples, on their recently becoming

Members of this Organization. We are convinced that they

will contribute constructively and positively to the work of

the United Nations, and that their presence here reaffirms

the universal and democratic vocation of the General

Assembly.

We are holding this session at a transcendental

moment in human history. At the threshold of a new

century and a new millennium, it is timely for the peoples

of the world to reflect on the future of our countries and of

the international system. Facing the new millennium, we

must draw lessons from the era that we are leaving behind,

in which we learned all the good and all the evil that we

can do. We saw the first man walking on the moon, the end

of apartheid in South Africa and peace agreements signed

in Central America; but we witnessed also the consequences

of the nuclear mushroom cloud and the aberration of the

Holocaust, ethnic conflicts and local wars which in the last

40 years have caused more deaths than the two world wars

together. We have seen the bright-lights of democracy and

freedom, but also the deep shadows of poverty and the

violation of human rights.

This has been a century of great contrasts. While in

some parts of the globe peace is signed, in others war is

never ending. While thousands of millions live in poverty,

a small group lives in opulence. While we celebrate the

fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, in many parts of the world gross violations of

human dignity are committed. Yes, this has been a century

of many contrasts. It has given us plenty of reasons to be

proud, but it has also made us ashamed of the cruelty and

hardness of the human heart. For these reasons we should

never forget the lessons of the twentieth century.

In the context of these lessons, we, the 188 nations

gathered here — each with its own flag and symbols, each

with its own political, commercial and strategic interests,

each with its own problems, suffering, visions and

dreams — express our readiness to take up the challenges

of the new century, which must take shape, beginning

now, as the century of human rights and human

development.

For these reasons, we have to recognize that the

greatest failure of the United Nations and the international

community in recent years has been the persistence of

cruel armed conflicts and civil wars, which cause

continued humanitarian crises and prevent the peaceful

development of nations. The real victims of war are the

displaced and refugee children and elderly, the raped

women, the youngsters killed, the workers whose

workplaces are destroyed, the students whose schools are

bombed and the sick who cannot receive treatment. While

war persists, human rights cannot be respected.

In this sense, we condemn the atrocities committed

in East Timor against the civilian population, and we join

the whole world in demanding that its will, democratically

expressed, be respected. We view with satisfaction the

quick action of the Security Council, which will allow for

the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in

that Territory in order to prevent a greater humanitarian

crisis. In retrospect, this crisis teaches us that the

international community must be willing to actively and

promptly support the processes that it initiates.

Regarding the situation in the Middle East, we watch

with hope the progress in the search for a peaceful and

definitive solution on the basis of full compliance with

the Oslo accords. We acknowledge the tireless efforts of

President Barak, of Israel, and President Arafat, of the

Palestinian Authority, and their commitment to peace and

the future of their peoples.

I would like to express my condolences to the

people of the Republic of China on Taiwan for the tragic

earthquake that devastated its territory on Monday, 20

September, and the recent after-shock. My most heartfelt

sympathy goes to the families of the victims and the

injured.

Costa Rica has a firm relationship with the Republic

of China on Taiwan. We admire its shared economic

progress, its respect for human rights and its democracy,

much promoted by President Lee. Our deep commitment

to the cause of peace prompts us to view with concern the

growing differences and instability in the region during

the last year. We fear that these threaten peace and might

unleash a new armaments race. For this reason, we trust

that the differences will be resolved through constructive

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dialogue and negotiation in good faith, with respect for the

interests of the whole Chinese people.

We must remember that the United Nations was

established with precisely the mandate of eradicating the

scourge of war, and it must again take the lead in the

maintenance of international peace and security. Costa Rica

therefore supports the efforts to reform the Security

Council, which cannot be limited simply to an increase in

the number of its members, even if this might be useful.

Rather, the reform effort must centre on the Council’s

revitalization.

Fifty years ago Costa Rica abolished its army. In line

with this example, it has advocated disarmament throughout

the history of the United Nations, in order to build a world

of progress and peace. The abolition of the army allowed

our society to become an example of dialogue, respect and

the peaceful coexistence of all social groups. Costa Rica

actively promotes demilitarization because it knows its

extraordinary benefits for human development; in this

context, we have proposed the creation of a fund for the

demilitarization of Central America, as well as the

strengthening of, and full compliance with, the mechanisms

of international law, in order to guarantee international

peace and security and respect for human rights throughout

the world.

Costa Rica considers that humanitarian crises are in

themselves threats to international peace and security. When

they arise, the United Nations and the Security Council

must not attempt to avoid their responsibility, whatever

reasons are invoked. Nowadays any massive violation of

human rights, any humanitarian emergency, requires the

coordinated action of the international community, through

this Organization. For there to be justice at the global level,

the rule of law and full compliance with the principles that

gave birth to the United Nations must prevail.

In this context, we recall the importance of the prompt

establishment of the International Criminal Court, and thus

call on all States that have not yet done so to sign the

Statute with a view to its prompt ratification, and we

reiterate the need to accelerate the negotiations on its rules

of procedure. Costa Rica hopes to receive promptly the

final text in order to proceed to its ratification.

Furthermore, we must recognize that conflicts and

crises are multifaceted and that they present a series of

political, military and economic problems. In this context,

action undertaken by the United Nations must be designed

not only to re-establish peace in military terms but also to

re-establish peace in terms of social justice, democracy

and development. The actions taken by this Organization

should not be centred only on the Security Council but

must actively include the General Assembly, the

Economic and Social Council and the United Nations

Development Programme as participants in the peace-

building process.

My people’s manifest desire is for the new century

to be truly the century of human rights and human

development. I would like to express to the international

community the desire of a people that, since the

nineteenth century, has been building the foundation of a

far-sighted society by balancing in a single equation

respect for human rights, freedom, peace, active tolerance,

fraternity, democracy and solidarity.

The end of the cold war, the knowledge-based

economy, awareness of gender issues, an understanding of

the rights of the persons with disabilities and of

minorities, respect for the rights of the future generations

and for environmental protection, and the processes of

globalization have all begun to delineate a new human

order: a twenty-first century with a more human mankind.

In this new context, which is just now showing its initial

characteristics, the human development agenda and the

human rights agenda must coincide and complement each

other. The twenty-first century is taking shape as that in

which individuals and peoples will demand the right to

human development, which is nothing more than the

appropriate implementation and effectiveness of the

institutions of freedom: human rights, the rule of law,

pluralism, competition, solidarity and harmony with

nature.

It is at once a right and a duty to take part, actively,

creatively and jointly, in the creation of such

development, because the twenty-first century is called

upon to be the century of high-intensity citizenship. Male

and female citizens are, together with the State and the

international community, the creators of their own

opportunities and the builders of their own development.

Passivity is a thing of the past.

We in Costa Rica who are part of this change

greatly value the foresight and sense of responsibility of

our forefathers, which have made of our small motherland

the second-ranking country in Latin America in terms of

human development and the oldest and most stable

democracy in the region. Even as early as the end of the

nineteenth century, Costa Ricans enjoyed the continent’s

highest levels of education and health, thanks to the

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country’s far-sighted devotion to education, the rule of law,

democracy, social solidarity and international trade. Since

the early days of our independent and republican life,

solidarity and human rights, in their fullness, have been a

way of life for us Costa Ricans. Not in vain was our first

Constitution called the “Covenant of Harmony”. Thus, last

year when hurricane Mitch devastated Central America, in

the midst of the pain over the loss of Costa Rican lives and

the serious economic damage, we also took on the suffering

of our Central American brothers and sisters. We were side

by side with them, sharing with them our food, medicine

and territory.

Faithful to its humanitarian tradition, Costa Rica

implemented the most generous immigration policy put

forward by any nation in recent years, giving hundreds of

thousands of illegal immigrants from the region —

amounting to more than 10 per cent of our population —

the opportunity to normalize their situation with a minimum

of requirements, as well as the opportunity to enjoy full

equality with our nationals in access to our social welfare

institutions. We hope that other countries that are sought

out by immigrants because of war, poverty, natural

catastrophes and ethnic conflicts will follow this example.

Our country is making great efforts to look after these

hundreds of thousands of immigrants; therefore, we reiterate

our need to be helped so that we can strengthen the health,

education and basic-services systems that we use in order

to meet their needs.

At this end of the century, it has been my task to

promote vital transformations for the future of our small

nation. We are protecting human beings even before they

are born. We are fighting against child labour and the

sexual exploitation of minors. We are opening havens for

our adolescent mothers, and we are fighting the aggression

suffered by women in many homes the world over. We are

strengthening the family, providing it with more and better

opportunities. We are working in favour of the rights of

elder adults and those of workers, in order to deepen our

social achievements of the 1940s and to guarantee a

retirement pension in old age as a universal human right.

Costa Rica is today acknowledged to be the healthiest

society in Latin America, with high levels of computer

literacy. It is the oldest democracy on the continent and a

leader in the conservation and protection of the

environment. Its human development levels are comparable

to those of developed countries. Nevertheless, we face

serious problems that prevent us from indulging in

misguided self-congratulation.

We are aware that progress in the field of

development depends on our own actions and on the

international context. Human, civil, cultural, economic,

political and social rights have equal importance and

complement one another. Having acknowledged the

indivisibility and interdependence of these rights, it is a

matter of concern that there is still some reluctance to

accept the right of all nations to human development.

The awarding of the Nobel Prize to Amartya Sen for

his work on the welfare economy and on the

understanding of poverty, inequality and hunger reminds

us that global development must include the fight against

inequalities and extreme poverty. This, however, must not

be a struggle in which developed countries take part only

out of a feeling of human solidarity; rather, it must be a

struggle that involves the entire system of nations through

the creation of appropriate instruments and mechanisms

for action that offer opportunities for development

through trade and investment. We welcomed the views of

Harvard University economist Jeffrey Sachs — published

recently in The Economist and supported yesterday by

President Clinton and today by Vice-Chancellor Fischer

of Germany — regarding the urgent need to establish new

mechanisms to ensure the necessary resources for the

purchase of medicines and vaccines to combat tropical

diseases, thus securing their development and ensuring

their distribution to the poorest and most helpless sectors

of mankind.

Costa Rica has spoken out to have the international

economic order allow the development of those countries

that are lagging behind. If we do not take action in this

direction, the conditions necessary for the long-term

maintenance of international peace and security will not

be created. We have constantly advocated a more just and

equitable economic and commercial order, one that will

provide all nations with access to the benefits of the

globalization process and that will provide small

developing States with better opportunities to enter into

commercial agreements. Before the European Union we

have also advocated secure and tariff-free access for Latin

American agricultural products to the European Union

markets, whose protectionism costs Latin America $4.223

billion dollars annually.

In order to promote the development of small States,

it is indispensable to establish open trade systems so that

trade and investment can become engines of economic

growth and so that more and better opportunities for

employment will be created in a region that suffers

poverty and unemployment.

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The developed countries' trade restrictions are barriers

to our human development, as are the policies of the

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to restrict

supplies of oil and to raise its price artificially at a time

when the traditional exports of Latin America are suffering

a dramatic slump in prices.

On the other hand, the nations gathered here face the

challenge of building an international financial system that

will protect small States from economic crises. Small

economies do not cause the crises, but we do suffer their

adverse effects and we have not received the necessary

support to face them. To correct this situation, Costa Rica

proposes the creation of a precautionary fund with a

flexible and speedy financial mechanism to solve the

financial emergencies of small and vulnerable States, which

are frequently forgotten by the international financial

community because of their limited global impact.

As a country that has succeeded in building a culture

of protecting and preserving the environment, we stress, as

we did at the summit between Europe and Latin America

held this year in Rio de Janeiro, the urgent need to build an

international system that will reward those who protect the

environment and penalize those who contaminate or destroy

it. Currently, my country is developing a system of

payments to the owners of forests for environmental

services and more than one fourth of our territory is

protected in reservations or national parks. Costa Rica

reiterates the need to take action to better apply the Kyoto

Protocol; to make greater use of new markets; and to

determine efficiently the costs of pollution and the profits

of preservation in order to maintain the sustainable use of

natural resources.

Jointly with Norway, we performed the first global

transaction of certificates of greenhouse-gases reduction.

This mechanism should receive the support of all countries,

not only in order to apply the right to human and

sustainable development in each country, but also to extend

the life of the human species on our planet. Let us recall

that, in this task, the obligations are shared but

differentiated. It is time to move from words to deeds.

It is clear that, if financial systems of broader

coverage are not established; if more open trade schemes

are not implemented; if protectionism by developed

countries, which limits our access to their markets, is not

reduced; and if the global benefits of our forests are not

recognized, developing countries will see a decline in their

opportunities for economic growth; inequalities will

increase; poverty will further deepen; political stability and

social peace will be threatened; the loss of natural

resources will rise; and illegal immigration towards

developed nations will intensify, all creating an

environment of instability and uncertainty harmful to the

new millennium.

Wanting the developed countries to recognize the

right to human development of small countries is not

utopian. It is the real aspiration of those peoples that have

faced with meagre resources the tragedies of wars and the

wrath of nature. Solidarity and fraternity among nations

must be genuine. The twenty-first century awaits us. Let

us all join hands. Humankind must enter this new age

united. The twenty-first century must be the century of

human rights — the century of human development.