Dominican Republic, 1993

The delegation of the

Dominican Republic takes great pleasure in extending its

warmest congratulations to Mr. Samuel Insanally on his

well-merited election to preside over the General Assembly

at this forty-eighth session. A man from our America - and,

more specifically, from the Caribbean region, where both of

our countries are located - he has the required abilities and

experience successfully to guide our work at this session,

which must confront and deal with the major challenges

facing the international community, namely, the achievement

of peace and the economic and social development of our

nations.

We also wish to express our appreciation to the

outgoing President, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, for the wisdom with

which he led our deliberations at the previous session.

I should also like to take this opportunity to extend our

thanks to the Secretary-General of the United Nations,

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his commitment and for his

efforts to carry out the principles and purposes of the

Organization’s Charter.

Today, in our America, we are witnessing the

beginnings of a negotiated solution to conflict, and we are

pleased that in Central America, and particularly in El

Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, the disputes that have

disturbed the peace and hindered the development of our

peoples are now being resolved at the negotiating table. In

our Island of Hispaniola, imperial and colonial rivalry

divided the population into two peoples who, over the course

of time, established two independent States - the Dominican

Republic, which we represent here, and the Republic of

Haiti. The efforts being made by the Haitian people and

their leaders, with international assistance in the form of

negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations and the

Organization of American States, are now beginning to bear

fruit and will, we trust, restore normalcy to that fraternal

country with the re-establishment of constitutional order.

In that connection our delegation reiterates its appeal to

the international community to lend real assistance to

stabilize the democratic regime and to ensure the economic

reconstruction of Haiti - assistance and cooperation adequate

to meet the needs of peace and employment. The

Dominican Republic, in so far as it is able, remains ready to

continue to cooperate with this fraternal people to lighten the

heavy burden of its current problems.

In this respect, we are pleased to report that the Prime

Minister of the Haitian Government, Mr. Robert Malval,

recently made an official visit to the Dominican Republic,

with a view to fully normalizing relations between the

Dominican and Haitian peoples and establishing the full

spectrum of relations between the two countries, in their

mutual interest. I am happy to say that the Haitian Prime

Minister was given a very warm welcome by the President

of the Dominican Republic, Mr. Joaquín Balaguer, who has

always been interested in finding a solution to our brother

country’s political conflict and especially in alleviating the

serious economic situation there. As a result of the meeting,

the two statesmen reached an agreement, subsequently

formalized, that will ensure the speedy and constructive

normalization of relations, with real reciprocal cooperation,

between our two States.

There is no more appropriate forum than this for me,

on behalf of my country and Government, to appeal again

for massive aid from the most developed nations of the

Earth to that afflicted and impoverished neighbouring brother

country.

Since the conquest and colonization of America, the

Dominican Republic has defended human rights. It was in

our island, Hispaniola, that a loud voice was first raised on

behalf of the rights of the indigenous inhabitants of our

American lands - the voice of Brother Antón de Montesinos,

in his famous Advent sermon. Faithful to that first call for

the redemption of our continent, our Government honours

this historical tradition, which is fully valid today in our

country’s official and private practice. It has been working

on instruments - which might eventually become

international in nature - that will contribute to giving

juridical force to that tradition.

18 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

Our country has advocated the universality of human

rights. We believe that neither geographical, economic,

social, religious nor cultural differences can ever be used as

a pretext for showing contempt for human rights.

The Dominican delegation believes that, because of the

increase in the membership of the United Nations - currently

at 184 countries - there should be a more equitable

representation in the Security Council, while at the same

time we continue to abide by the provisions of paragraph 1

of Article 23 of the United Nations Charter. Now that the

bipolarity of the past has disappeared and the use and abuse

of the veto are fading, the Council should become more

representative of the new international reality. This should

be done in broad consultations, after due reflection and with

account taken of the need for equity, so that the Council can

become more representative without its effectiveness being

in any way mitigated or weakened. Rather, its authority and

responsibility will be enhanced so that it can respond

effectively to any crisis with which the international

community might be confronted, as the Council has done

recently. In this regard, we consider that it would be

practical and feasible to give the Council greater flexibility

in meeting the just aspirations of nations, such as the

Republic of China, that wish to become Members of the

United Nations and cooperate in carrying out its principles.

I would now like to express our views on developments

in the international situation, particularly on conflicts that, in

one way or another, have been affecting international peace.

I shall refer first to the Central American crisis, which,

happily, today is on the road to a definitive solution because

of the positive evolution, under the auspices of the United

Nations, of the El Salvador peace agreements, and the recent

return to democracy in Guatemala, which augurs well for the

institutionalization of peace and prosperity in that region.

Next, we would like to refer to one of the most

complex and difficult conflicts facing the international

community today - that is, the existence of extreme

nationalism, which in some cases has led to fratricidal wars

and the annihilation of large groups of people because of

racial and cultural hatred. This has happened in the former

Yugoslavia, where even now, despite the efforts of the

United Nations and intensive diplomatic activity, blood is

still being shed between brother peoples that until recently

lived together under one flag. Our Government wishes to

see a swift solution to the situation in the former Yugoslavia

and reiterates its support for measures taken by the Security

Council, in particular the establishment of an international

war tribunal to pass judgement on crimes against humanity

committed in some areas of the conflict.

We would especially like to point to one positive

development that represents perhaps our best hope for peace

today: the transitional agreement between the Palestine

Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Government of the

State of Israel. The long-standing conflict in the Middle

East engendered dangerous tension that has kept the entire

world in suspense and has been regarded as the potential

source of a future conflagration of incalculable

destructiveness.

In connection with the development to which I have

just referred - the agreement between the Palestinians and

the State of Israel - it might be time to defer consideration

of or remove the items on that conflict that have long

appeared on the General Assembly’s agenda. With this

reciprocal exchange of olive branches of peace, we can see

the promise of harmony between peoples that have been

living in such uneasy proximity.

We must recognize how the persistent diplomacy of the

United States contributed to securing the results that have

been achieved. The United States considered the situation

with a view to deciding what was possible in relations

between the Arab and Jewish peoples. The agreement

culminated in the signing at the White House in Washington.

In our opinion, that demonstrated unequivocally and very

clearly to international public opinion the sincerity of the

parties, who were fully aware of the extreme importance of

the commitments into which they were entering.

We must constantly stress the importance of the

environment. After economic crisis and the imbalance

between North and South, the major challenge facing

mankind is the environmental crisis. The gradual destruction

of ecosystems and the deteriorating quality of life of human

beings are unavoidable aspects of everyday existence for the

peoples of the world. Thus, it is essential that the course of

events be changed. The political will of Governments and

of all those who participate in organized civilian society will

be necessary to our taking up this great challenge, which

will involve commitment on the part of everyone - a

commitment from all mankind.

In that connection, the Dominican Republic supports the

general outline of the Plan of Action that was adopted at the

summit Conference on Environment and Development in Rio

de Janeiro in 1992. Here we have a valuable instrument for

political programming and regional cooperation to protect the

environment in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The latter part of the twentieth century has witnessed

major changes in world political affairs, ranging from the

end of the cold war to democratization in the countries of

Forty-eighth session - 11 October l993 19

Eastern Europe.Despite this ideological thaw, however, we

still have arms trafficking and nuclear arsenals and,

therefore, a serious threat to peace.

Let me refer once again to the situation in the Korean

peninsula and mention specifically North Korea, which is

continuing its nuclear research and investing enormous

resources in this undertaking. Let us invite the Government

of North Korea to become a party to the universal

agreements on the control of nuclear weapons. Let us invite

it to cooperate transparently and effectively with the

International Atomic Energy Agency in that body’s

important task of inspecting and monitoring nuclear

facilities. Willingness to do so would constitute evidence of

that Government’s respect for its own nation and of its

concern for the future of its people and of all mankind.

We support United Nations measures to put an end to

arms trafficking. We support efforts to ensure transparency

in military expenditures so that military activity may be

made more predictable, and peace and international security,

at the regional and world levels, strengthened.

Let me now turn to two important issues that are still

on the agenda of this Assembly.

May I, first, draw the attention of the international

community, as represented here, to the positive

developments in the area of drug trafficking, which are due

to the success of many measures aimed at combating and

eradicating what has for too long been one of the most

ominous scourges of mankind. None the less, we must

redouble our efforts to ensure that measures are implemented

both internally and internationally and result from

coordinated policies of all the nations represented here today.

The Dominican Republic has just become a party to the

1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in

Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and the 1972

Protocol Amending the Single Convention on Narcotic

Drugs of 1961, bringing itself up to date on international

legislation in order the better to play its role in collaborating

with other States and agencies.

The other issue to which I wish to refer is the economic

crisis affecting most countries of the world. Today, the

phenomenon of globalization of the economy and integration

of regional blocs is typical of the international situation,

which is evolving so rapidly that countries such as mine can

no longer put off negotiations to determine their participation

in multilateral free-trade agreements, customs unions or

regional markets.

In this connection, the international activities of the

Dominican Republic focus on the economic programmes of

countries in our region and regional organizations that can

help in our development and in our enjoyment of technical

and financial cooperation.

The implementation of appropriate domestic policies by

our Government will ensure that trade and investment will

become the ideal means to strengthen bilateral relations,

underpinned, of course, by the unilateral granting of trade

benefits under the Caribbean Basin Initiative and by the

opening up of our market under the Americas Initiative.

In the new international order, another of the major

challenges that the Dominican Republic must face is the

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its

possible implications; we understand that NAFTA, as a

theoretical possible outcome, would imply an effort towards

the complete liberalization of trade throughout the

hemisphere.

I should like to emphasize the Dominican Republic’s

strong support for holding a World Summit for Social

Development to take up matters relating to the social

situation in the world, particularly that of women, young

people, the elderly, the handicapped and families. The

Summit will have to deliver a clear undertaking for common

policies to defend and protect these important segments of

the world’s population collectively, and we hope that many

of our countries will take measures to extend coverage and

protection for these social sectors, especially for children and

the elderly.

We should like to draw to members’ attention a subject

of serious concern to my Government and country, and that

has complex and serious ramifications that will be brought

before the appropriate forums during the forty-eighth

General Assembly session. This is the Secretary-General’s

proposal to merge the International Research and Training

Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) with

the United Nations Development Fund for Women

(UNIFEM). Theoretically, the General Assembly will study

this proposal in November.

My Government attaches the greatest importance to this

decision, and requests this world forum to give it its closest

attention in order to avoid committing a grave injustice by

taking hasty action or the like.

INSTRAW was conceived at the First World

Conference on Women, held in Mexico City in 1975, and

was established as the result of a series of resolutions,

including, we should like to recall, Economic and Social

20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

Council resolution 1979/11 of 9 May 1979. This resolution

specified clearly that the permanent headquarters of the

Institute was to be my country, the Dominican Republic, a

developing country.

Moreover, my Government gave the United Nations the

building that is being used as the Institute’s headquarters.

Not only that, it had to make significant investments in

terms of money and other resources in order to overhaul the

building to bring it up to the specifications required by the

Organization.

We request the Secretary-General to postpone any

action leading to merger between INSTRAW and UNIFEM

until such time as the General Assembly considers his

proposal and comes to its own conclusions on the matter.

Also, it would seem that there is an attempt being made

to ignore, unilaterally, the Agreement between the United

Nations and the host Government that is the legal framework

within which INSTRAW operates. My Government regards

this as a serious - an extremely serious - impropriety, and

reserves the right to use all relevant legal means to assert its

legitimate rights.

Finally, the delegation I lead calls upon the consciences

of all nations and on all those leaders who bear upon their

shoulders responsibility for the destiny of their countries and

the world, for peace, common sense and mutual respect to

prevail over violence and for there to be cooperation and

solidarity between peoples; for these are the supreme

purposes of this Organization.