Costa Rica, 2011

It gives me great pleasure to begin my

statement by warmly congratulating Secretary-General

Ban Ki-moon on his re-election to the post in which he

has carried out his duties with such effectiveness and

honesty. His contributions to the Organization, the

international community and the multilateral system

over these first five years are well known. We know

they will continue to be so in the years to come.

I would also like to congratulate the President of

the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly,

Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser. His

experience, ability and dedication are guarantees of

fruitful work.

I extend my best wishes to both as they exercise

their vital functions, and they will have Costa Rica’s

full support for their efforts in favour of peace,

security, democracy, disarmament, human rights,

respect for the rule of law, sustainable development,

mediation and the peaceful settlement of disputes.

I am also very pleased to welcome South Sudan

as a new Member of the Organization. I believe that its

people will enjoy a prosperous, peaceful and safe

future. The emergence of this new State is a testament

to what can be achieved, even in situations of endemic

violence, through serious negotiations between the

parties and international mediation.

The intense and invigorating, but still uncertain,

currents of political and social change that have swept

through North Africa and the Middle East this year are

proof of the universal force of democracy as an

aspiration, of free expression as an incentive, and of

respect for human dignity as the most urgent demand.

Our admiration for the peoples of those countries

is as great as our hope in their capacity to forge social

and political systems in peace, systems that are

tolerant, free and dynamic, in which people are

respected and whereby a country can be open to its

neighbours.

We also hope that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

will soon come to an end, with two sovereign and

democratic States living in peaceful coexistence.

From its deepest collective roots, Costa Rica fully

identifies with the principles of democracy, peace and

human rights. These are values that we share with the

immense majority of Central Americans.

Disrespect for those values, together with social

exclusion, the outrages of militarism and the deadly

echo of the Cold War, plunged much of Central

America into a series of intense conflicts for almost

four decades. After tens of thousands of deaths, our

region was able, through dialogue and mediation, to

overcome the worst manifestations of political

violence. In those overwhelming days, Costa Rica

made a decisive contribution by shaping and realizing

the Esquipulas Accords, which opened the door to

reconciliation.

Since then, progress has been slow and erratic.

Fifteen years ago, as part of that process, Central

American countries signed the Framework Treaty on

Democratic Security in Central America. But the time

that has elapsed since then has not sufficed to secure

the peace, liberty, democracy and development in the

region that we promised our peoples.

Even worse, we are now victims of a new and

terrible form of aggression. I am referring to the cold,

disastrous and fierce onslaught of transnational

organized crime. Such activities have generated

insecurity, weakened institutions, corrupted officials,

fostered addiction, cut short the lives of thousands of

young people, destroyed families and turned humble

single mothers into criminals. This scourge has eroded

the basic fabric of our society and has jeopardized the

very existence of the rule of law in some countries.

Today, I wish to repeat the comments I made on

22 June at the International Conference on Regional

Security in Central America, held recently in

Guatemala. Our region has fallen victim to a perverse

geopolitical situation. As Costa Rica is located between

the major production centres and the world’s largest

consumer market for drugs, we have become a target in

the dynamic of death that both create. We must bear the

burden of exponentially increasing material,

institutional and human costs. What are instances of

mere collateral damage for some of the main actors in

this conflict are, for the people of Central America,

extreme challenges and a source of deep wounds.

That is where our greatest frustration lies. That is

why we demand that the international community, in

particular the largest consumers of drugs and producers

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of the weapons that create violence, fully assume its

share of responsibility without further delay.

The International Conference on Regional

Security in Central America, which was attended by

the Presidents of all of the countries in the region, from

Mexico to Colombia, was a hopeful turning point.

There, we were able to coordinate our strategies.

There, we agreed on the need for a comprehensive

approach to violence that includes measures to

strengthen institutions and the rule of law, as well as

comprehensive initiatives to prevent and fight crime. In

addition, we were able to catch the attention of, and

obtain some promises from, the international

community.

Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether the

strategies can be translated into effective actions, or

whether we will have enough support from external

resources to drive them forward. Those resources are

not merely aid. They are a morally inescapable and, in

practical terms, indispensable form of compensation

that we need to make at least part of the investment

necessary to establish peace, stability and security.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations has

insisted, quite rightly, on the need to promote

preventive diplomacy. I join in that call as President of

Costa Rica and as a citizen of Central America. I insist,

before the world, that we can wait no longer to act in

order to avoid an even greater tragedy in our region. It

is already late; to wait even longer will be tragic.

Preventive diplomacy demands political will. We

are approaching another moment in which it will be put

to the test. I refer to the upcoming United Conference

on the Arms Trade Treaty, which Costa Rica has

actively supported, along with other States. We need to

have the Conference produce a robust, comprehensive

and demanding instrument capable of effectively

controlling the flow of the death machines that provoke

all types of conflict.

Preventive diplomacy, in its deepest essence, also

means fostering democracy and human rights and

respecting the rule of law as the cornerstone of security

and international coexistence. Costa Rica knows it

well. Since we abolished the army in 1949, our only

lines of defence have been the deep civic beliefs of our

people, the strength of our institutions and the

instruments provided by the multilateral system. The

security of the 26 other disarmed democracies in the

world also depends on those defences. We deserve to

be heard and paid attention to.

A little less than a year ago, our faith in

international law and the instruments and institutions

that underpin it was put to the test. Last October,

Nicaraguan troops and civilians invaded and occupied

part of our national territory, in clear violation of our

sovereignty, the border treaties and international law.

After exhausting the possibilities of a suitable bilateral

agreement, we appealed to various forums of the

regional and international system. Our neighbour’s

Government rejected several of them. Finally, thanks to

urgent measures ordered by the International Court of

Justice, the Nicaraguan forces had to leave our

territory.

However, while we await the Court’s final ruling,

Nicaragua, ignoring the Court’s orders, has continued

specific provocations to and violations of the

provisional measures. Furthermore, it has threatened

other actions that could infringe on our territory. We

hope that that does not occur. But, if it were to, we will

vigorously reinstate our actions before the machinery

of the international system.

All that we request of the Organization and the

multilateral system in general is rapid and timely

consideration of possible aggressions. The

international community cannot make its preventive

action conditional on actual armed violence between

brothers. It should react not only in relation to the

quantity and scale of the explosive blasts, but to the

severity and persistence of the violations.

Otherwise, the message to the world would be

disastrous. It would imply that the shortest route for

mobilizing international diplomacy is that of blood. As

a country and as a people, we emphatically reject that

notion.

Based on our firm belief in the importance of the

rule of law, human rights and humanitarian law, I

informed the Assembly a year ago of our aspiration to

become a member of the Human Rights Council.

Today, I am grateful for the generous support that it

gave us in achieving that goal. We will remain faithful

to the promises made at the time and to the proposals

that we called for during the review of the Council in

Geneva and New York.

In particular, I urge Member States to support an

initiative whose time has come: the United Nations

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declaration on human rights education and training,

which Costa Rica supports together with a group of

like-minded countries. After its unanimous adoption by

the Council, it will soon be submitted to the General

Assembly. We are confident that it will receive similar

support.

When education, deterrence and other preventive

mechanisms are unable to avert the worst assaults on

human dignity, the international community faces other

obligations. Among them is the protection of civilians,

contained in the responsibility to protect. My country

recognizes that concept as a principle and guide for

action, whether preventive or reactive, on the basis of

legitimate and well-founded decisions. We hope that

such a concept, like human security, is very clearly

defined within the Organization.

Moreover, the fight for human rights requires that

perpetrators of crimes against humanity be held

accountable and punished. Today, the International

Criminal Court is the main multilateral mechanism for

achieving that goal. I reiterate our support of its

activities and urge all States Members of the United

Nations to ratify the Treaty of Rome. I also urge that

we should all, as Member States, be more active and

resolute in our support for the greater effectiveness,

relevance and significance of the United Nations;

hence, the importance of its reform process.

Costa Rica has joined and will continue to join

initiatives that push for the best possible changes.

Among other things, we will continue to work

constructively for the ongoing improvement of the

working methods of the Security Council, through the

Small Five group, and for a more representative

composition of that organ, in accordance with the

guidelines of Uniting for Consensus.

Costa Rica is a middle-income country. Thanks to

its commitment to democracy, peace, good governance,

the efficient use of international cooperation and its

investments in health and education, Costa Rica has

achieved high levels of human development. Together

with other States with similar characteristics, we

exemplify the success of international cooperation as a

key factor in achieving such results. However, we still

face serious challenges with regard to poverty, income

distribution, regional differences and the consequences

of the economic crisis and natural disasters, among

others.

We have been responsible, effective and ethical

partners. We have made progress in development, but

have still not been able to consolidate it to the point of

dispensing with international assistance. We still need

that assistance to fully secure our achievements. We

look forward to the support and understanding of donor

countries and the institutions of the United Nations, in

particular the United Nations Development

Programme. Our relative success should not be

penalized, but bolstered.

Costa Rica has focused on sustainable social and

environmental development. We have taken significant

steps to sustain our growth through clean energy and a

low-carbon economic model. Our goal is to become

one of the first carbon-neutral countries in the world,

and we are working diligently to achieve it.

On that path, in which every local action has

global links, we have confidence in the next

Conference of the Parties to the United Nations

Climate Change Conference, to be held in Durban at

the end of the year, and in the coming United Nations

Conference on Sustainable Development, planned for

next year in Rio de Janeiro. However, we are also

concerned about the lack of progress made in earlier

negotiations.

I conclude these words by reiterating our deep

commitment to the principles set out in the Charter of

the United Nations. I am delighted that yesterday we

celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the International

Day of Peace, a Costa Rican initiative that was adopted

by consensus by Member States. It gives me even

greater pleasure that its theme this year is “Peace and

democracy: Make your voice heard”.

As national and international leaders, we should

always heed the voices of our peoples. We should

listen to them, respect them and incorporate them in

our initiatives. That is part of our democratic

responsibility, the basis of good governance, the seed

of meaningful change and the foundation of legitimacy.

As President of Costa Rica, a discrete, noble,

fraternal and free people, I promise not to relent in our

efforts to achieve a better country and a better world.