Estonia, 1999

Let me begin by congratulating

Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab on his election as President of this

fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly. I wish him all

the best in carrying out his duties.

As the General Assembly convenes for the last time

before the Millennium Assembly, I believe that it is

appropriate to consider the United Nations future and how

we can prepare our Organization for the twenty-first

century.

Fifty-four years after its founding, the United Nations

remains the largest multi-purpose intergovernmental

Organization in the world. Indeed, with 188 Members, the

United Nations has become truly global. I would like to

take this opportunity to welcome Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga

to the United Nations family.

The United Nations faces a vastly different set of

international issues from those of fifty-four years ago,

when the Organization was founded. Most threats to

international security and stability are no longer

State-driven but rather derive from the malfunction or

dysfunction of States. The consequences of these threats,

however, are just as severe as the erstwhile threats by

States. Terrorism, corruption, economic collapse, nuclear

meltdowns, mass migration and ethnic strife are but a few

of the challenges that the world has had to face in recent

years. The violent conflict in East Timor, “ethnic

cleansing” in Kosovo, and the recent re-escalation of

violence in Chechnya are but a few vivid examples of the

new kinds of threats that we face today.

The United Nations has a crucial role to play in

combating these and other international threats. But before

it can start to play a more active role in the post-cold-war

international order, serious structural reforms are needed.

Estonia believes that reforms should focus above all

on the Security Council. Formally, the Council, originally

intended to be the cornerstone of collective security, is

vested with strong executive authority. Yet in practice its

authority is challenged. Because of a recurring failure or

inability to take action, countries in crisis situations look

less and less to the Council. In order for the United

Nations to avoid relegation to the status of a body that

creates norms but cannot ensure their implementation,

voting procedures and mechanisms in the United Nations

most powerful body should be reformed.

The key issue is voting practice, not the shopworn

issue of non-permanent membership. The often

irresponsible exercise of the veto, or even more often the

threat of the veto, has paralysed the Security Council and

undermined its legitimacy. More and more often we witness

some permanent members taking actions to meet their

domestic interests and foreign policy goals in areas

irrelevant to the issue at hand. We as Member States have

given the mandate to the Council. Even before we are able

to carry out the reforms, we must entrust the permanent

members to use the veto with utmost responsibility.

As we look around this Hall, or at the globe, we can

all observe that the world today is not what it was half a

century ago — thank God. The United Nations was created

to maintain peace in the wake of the turmoil of the Second

World War. Today we are already into the second decade

of the post-cold-war order, two generations removed from

the problems faced by our grandfathers. Why, then, should

we be constrained by obsolescent structures still based on

the power relationships of 1945? The guarantors of and

greatest contributors to stability in the world have changed

fundamentally in the course of half a century. We need not

fear opening a discussion on whether the moral and legal

reasoning underlying Security Council membership in the

wake of the Second World War is still appropriate for the

post-cold-war era.

Following from this, another area where Estonia

believes reforms are vitally needed is that of the informal

regional groups that provide the basis for election

procedures. Many of these groups are based on a now

irrelevant cold war ideological and geopolitical alignment.

A decade after the end of the cold war the East-West divide

has disappeared, and regional groups, such as the Eastern

European Group, which were a product of that divide,

simply no longer make sense. In order to make United

Nations structures correspond to today’s realities, those

regional groups should become truly geographic.

Allow me now to turn to economic and social

development. We can all agree that over the years the

United Nations has been most successful in that area. The

United Nations system has devoted more attention and

resources to development than to any other international

assistance effort. Although these non-political activities

have received less attention than efforts in the field of

peacekeeping and diplomacy, they are no less important.

Many countries, including mine, have benefited from

United Nations assistance. We believe, however, that it is

time to start to pay back.

Providing development and humanitarian assistance

is a logical and moral consequence of our membership of

the international community. It should be the goal of

every country. In this regard, I would like to observe that

most United Nations activities, whether in the field of

peacekeeping or economic assistance, almost invariably

become permanent. Permanence, however, is not a sign of

success; it is a sign of failure. The United Nations should

therefore concentrate more on preventive actions and on

implementing well-planned, well-targeted and timely

programmes with a clear exit strategy. That, in turn, will

encourage success and positive development, not

dependency.

Estonia values the United Nations function as a

normative Organization that sets international standards

and universal principles for its Members. The gross

violations of human rights witnessed this year, including

killings and mass deportations reminiscent of those

experienced by my country 50 years ago, show that it is

more important than ever that countries adhere to

common international norms and standards in the field of

human rights. As the only truly global Organization, the

United Nations should play a greater role in making sure

that universal principles, enshrined in the United Nations

Charter, are fairly and fully applied. To pursue this goal

I call upon all countries to support wholeheartedly the

activities of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights.

Every year hundreds and thousands of innocent

people perish as a result of brutal terrorist actions. The

General Assembly has passed a number of resolutions on

the fight against terrorism, and currently no fewer than 11

anti-terrorism conventions have been adopted. In the light

of the recent terrorist attacks in Russia, we believe that

the fight against terrorism should be pursued with even

greater zeal. Terrorism of all kinds should be globally

condemned and eradicated. At the same time, however,

the fight against terrorism should not serve as a pretext

for equally gross violations of human rights, forcible

detention and the deportation of tens of thousands of

innocent people all over a country without due process,

simply because of the colour of their skin or their ethnic

background.

Allow me to conclude by saying a few words on the

issue of financing. If the United Nations is to enter the

twenty-first century as a serious and effective

Organization, we must commit ourselves to economic

realities. This means administrative reform, zero budget

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growth and fiscal responsibility, combined with a firm

commitment by all countries to pay their share.

The gist of Estonia’s message is that the world has

changed dramatically in the past half century. Let us adapt

the Organization to reflect the realities of today. Let us

make the United Nations an Organization that will continue

to play a vital and prominent role far into the new

millennium.