Costa Rica, 2005

Allow me at the outset to congratulate the

President on his well-deserved election to preside over

the sixtieth session of the General Assembly. The

session that he is chairing is special because of its

scope and the importance of its issues, particularly in

view of the unfinished mandates and unfulfilled hopes

of the 2005 summit.

We cannot conceal our dissatisfaction with the

summit’s outcome. In some areas, such as development

and human rights, the outcome document reflects less

than the international community’s least common

denominator. In others, such as disarmament and

impunity, the final document is a real step back.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that we should

neglect our commitment to the reform of the United

Nations.

We must avoid past mistakes in order to ensure

the success of the next round of negotiations. The

General Assembly must set realistic goals, avoiding

expectations that cannot be met or accepting artificial

deadlines that create undue pressure on the

negotiations and must not be distracted by secondary

issues. The negotiation process must be open, inclusive

and transparent, so that all States may be free to

participate and contribute actively. We must not yield

to the temptation of creating closed negotiating groups

that can make private and non-transparent

arrangements. We must prevent small groups of States

from imposing their own national ambitions upon

others. The Secretariat must remain totally impartial.

And finally, we must see to it that decisions are made

by democratic means in conformity with the rules of

procedure.

Such principles must be borne in mind

particularly when we consider the possible reform of

the Security Council. In the last few months, we

devoted a disproportionate amount of time and effort to

the question of Security Council reform, to the

detriment of other equally important issues. During the

present Assembly session, we must give equal

emphasis to the Human Rights Council, the

Peacebuilding Commission and the negotiation of the

comprehensive convention on terrorism, in addition to

the reform of the Security Council. We deem it

necessary to revitalize the Working Group on the

reform of the Security Council so that we may work

together towards a consensus solution.

We reaffirm our commitment to Security Council

reform in order to make it more democratic and more

transparent and effective, on the basis of the principles

of sovereign equality among States, rotation, periodic

elections and accountability. Therefore, we cannot

accept having new permanent members which, due to

their permanent status, cannot he held to account and

which cannot be replaced if their performance is found

wanting. We would only favour an increase in the

number of non-permanent members of the Council,

with a possibility of re-election.

At the same time, we support reforming the

Security Council’s working methods so that it may be

more responsive to the requirements and needs of the

great majority of Member States. It is indispensable to

limit the undemocratic instrument of the veto, which

erodes the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Council.

The veto is unacceptable, especially in cases of

genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and

massive violations of human rights. Regrettably, the

proposal to eliminate the veto in such cases was not

included in the summit’s outcome. This question will

have to be reconsidered in the coming months in the

context of Security Council reform.

We should focus also on the accountability of the

Security Council to the broader membership. Insofar as

the Council acts on behalf of all Member States, it

should submit special reports to the General Assembly,

pursuant to Article 24, paragraph 3, of the Charter,

every time that it establishes or substantially modifies

the mandate of a peacekeeping mission, every time that

it imposes sanctions or other measures of general

application under Chapter VII of the Charter, and every

time that a draft resolution is vetoed. The General

Assembly should consider such reports with a view to

further action when necessary.

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Furthermore, the Security Council must adopt

measures to ensure full respect for human rights and, in

particular, the right to due process of persons included

on lists of sanctions committees. The work of the

Security Council must serve as an example of the

highest standards of human rights and due process at

the international level.

My delegation wholeheartedly supports all efforts

to strengthen the international mechanisms for the

promotion and protection of human rights. We fully

support the idea of transforming the Commission on

Human Rights into a Human Rights Council. We had

hoped that the outcome document would contain

specific provisions on the structure and mandate of the

new Council. In their absence, we should devote the

next few months to designing this new institution. We

particularly deem it necessary to ensure that the

composition of the new Council reflects an equitable

geographical distribution and that its mandate may

favour expert consideration of issues, avoiding

unnecessary politicization. It is also necessary to draw

a distinction between the mandate of the new Council

and the work of the General Assembly’s Third

Committee.

We support the idea to increase substantially the

budget of the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights. We are greatly

interested in the idea of submitting a single report to all

of the monitoring mechanisms established under the

various human rights treaties. In order to protect

persons with disabilities, we believe it necessary to

conclude as soon as possible the convention on

protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of

persons with disabilities.

In the next few months, this General Assembly

should also devote itself to the establishment of the

Peacebuilding Commission. In our view, this new

Commission should be a subsidiary body of the

General Assembly, maintaining an appropriate

functional relationship with the Security Council. Its

members, we believe, should be elected, and the body

should be open to all States that are making an

effective contribution to peace. Therefore, we are

opposed to having permanent members of the Security

Council automatically become members of the new

Commission. Such an unjustifiable privilege would be

one more example of the cascade effect. Similarly, we

are opposed to extending the right of veto to the work

of the new Commission. We believe that in its

decision-making the Commission should apply the

rules of procedure of the General Assembly.

We are convinced that the United Nations should

play a key role in the efforts to fight international

terrorism. Pursuant to the summit’s outcome document,

in the coming months the General Assembly should

design a comprehensive strategy against terrorism and

adopt concrete measures to strengthen and enhance

coordination in the Organization on this matter. In this

context, we would like to repeat the proposal made last

year by the President of Costa Rica, His Excellency

Mr. Abel Pacheco de la Espriella, to create a United

Nations High Commissioner on Terrorism, as an

independent, professional and permanent mechanism at

the heart of the Secretariat to ensure greater

coordination and better use of the resources available

at the global level to fight terrorism.

We also support the conclusion of the

comprehensive convention on international terrorism

by the end of this year. That draft convention already

contains a technical and precise definition of the crime

of terrorism, which will enhance judicial and police

cooperation on the basis of the principle of “prosecute

or extradite”.

We highlight the importance of law and justice in

international relations, and thus we reaffirm our

confidence in the International Court of Justice as the

best mechanism for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

Thus, we urge all nations to accept, without any

conditions, the jurisdiction of the Court. We call upon

States that may have entered reservations in their

declarations of acceptance of the jurisdiction of the

Court to withdraw them.

We reaffirm our support for the International

Criminal Court as an indispensable mechanism to

prevent and punish the most serious crimes against

mankind. We are particularly pleased at the fact that

the delegation of Costa Rica will in the next few

months preside over the Assembly of States Parties to

the Rome Statute.

This year’s negotiations on disarmament and non-

proliferation have yielded unsatisfactory results. In

particular, we believe that the General Assembly

should begin preparations for the review conference of

the United Nations Programme of Action to Action to

Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in

Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects,

which will be held in mid-2006. That conference

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should incorporate, in the implementation of its

Programme of Action, a human rights perspective and

the six global principles of the draft framework

convention on international arms transfers.

Regarding development, we reiterate our appeal

to implement the Millennium Development Goals and

urge developed countries to fulfil their commitments to

allocate 0.7 per cent of their gross national product to

development assistance and to do away with all

barriers and subsidies that have a negative impact on

the exports of developing countries.

Specific measures must be adopted to enhance

prevention and assistance in case of natural disasters.

In this context, I would like to recall that the Sachs

report identified Central America and the Caribbean as

the region with the highest vulnerability indices to

natural disasters. Similarly, it is indispensable to bear

in mind the importance of economically sustainable

development. In this context, I would like to highlight

the initiative of creating a “Rainforest Coalition”, led

by Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea, with a view to

protecting all forests and ensuring payment for the

environmental services that they provide. We must

recall that tropical forests benefit mankind as a whole

by sequestering the carbon dioxide produced by

industry. Unfortunately, the Kyoto Protocol does not

provide incentives to developing countries to protect

primary tropical forests. We believe that this omission

in the Kyoto Protocol must be remedied.

Regarding management, and with a view to

safeguarding the unique legitimacy of this

Organization, we deem it indispensable to strengthen

the United Nations monitoring and inspection

mechanisms, and we request that the General Assembly

consider in depth the recommendations of the Volcker

report. It is indispensable to face with absolute

transparency the cases of mismanagement and alleged

corruption that have surfaced within the Organization

in recent months.

We believe that the General Assembly should

seriously consider the question of the representation of

the Republic of China on Taiwan in the United

Nations. There is no doubt that the Republic of China

on Taiwan could contribute to the work of the

Organization. Incorporating the Republic of China on

Taiwan into the community of nations is also necessary

so that it may fully assume the rights and duties that

arise from the various legal regimes of global

governance in areas as varied as collective security,

development assistance, the fight against terrorism,

sustainable development and the various international

health mechanisms.

I would like to conclude by reiterating Costa

Rica’s unconditional commitment to the principles and

purposes of the Organization, reaffirming our faith in

the United Nations as the principle instrument of the

international community to maintain peace, and

renewing our full confidence in the Organization’s

capability to promote human rights and the well-being

of all peoples.