France, 1996

My country is especially pleased at the

President’s election to lead the General Assembly. He

represents a great country that plays an important role in

the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 and I

am glad that he is to preside over our work during this

crucial period for our Organization.

17

I should also like to endorse the remarks made by

Ireland’s Foreign Minister in the name of the European

Union.

Last year, we celebrated the first half century of the

United Nations existence, during which its energies were

devoted, with a success universally acknowledged, to the

organization of international society. A mammoth collective

undertaking has been accomplished and the United Nations

has become the keystone of an international system founded

on law and the peaceful settlement of conflicts. This

collective undertaking owes much to the determined action

of successive Secretaries-General, and I should like to pay

a special and warm tribute here to Mr. Boutros-Ghali,

whose determination, vision of the future and firmness have

given our Organization a presence and vitality rarely

achieved. He deserves our confidence.

Today, as the century reaches its turning point, the

Organization is confronted with another major challenge:

globalization. In every sphere, the ideas and realities to

which we were accustomed are changing at a pace

unequalled in human history. The movement of people, of

ideas and images, and of goods is accelerating as distances

shrink. At the same time, the standardization of cultural

practices — and the legitimate reactions this provokes —

the general spread of low-cost high technologies and

intensified competition bring into question the positions that

have been achieved and the functioning, if not the very

foundation, of international society. At the same time, the

production of wealth is increasing tenfold and scientific

progress is growing rapidly, while unexpected opportunities

for development are being given to new nations.

But these benefits have adverse effects. The control

fragile States have over their development is being eroded,

national legislation is becoming inapplicable and the notion

of territorial integrity is changing in meaning. In short,

national authorities are too often reduced to powerlessness

by transnational phenomena over which they have only

scant control. If we are not careful, we are going to be

living in a world without criteria, without values, without

references, in which some — the strongest and the

richest — will be in a position to decide alone on the future

of the planet. It should come as no surprise that, in these

circumstances, the United Nations has many detractors.

Our Organization is in effect a privileged forum in

which the framework of a genuine international society can

be built, a framework that frees the forces of creativity and

development and represses the forces of violence and

oppression. It is up to all of us present here to enable the

United Nations to play that role and to ensure peace,

security and progress in these new circumstances and in

keeping with its mandate. Rest assured that France, a

founding Member of the Organization and permanent

member of the Security Council, will devote all its

energies to this task and will be in the front ranks of this

new fight.

Our world is confronted today with terrible problems

that know no borders and, sadly, spare no population:

terrorism, crime and drugs. The fight against these

scourges is foremost in our concerns and high on the

international agenda. Accordingly, an uncompromising

fight against terrorism, whatever its forms, perpetrators

and motives, constitutes our priority. This is why I

convened a conference on terrorism in Paris last July that

brought together the G-7 countries and Russia. We

adopted 25 practical, specific recommendations. They will

be implemented by each State and will strengthen

international cooperation against terrorism. Therefore,

today I make a solemn call on the entire international

community to join wholeheartedly in this fight.

We must also react without weakness to the

challenge of organized crime, in the knowledge that it

knows how to make the fullest use of the possibilities that

have been opened up by the liberalization of trade. For it

is the very foundation of our societies and institutions that

it endangers today.

International cooperation is indispensable to stem

this phenomenon. France, pursuing the path mapped out

by the Canadian presidency, has drafted a corpus of legal

and operational recommendations with its G-7 partners

and Russia to improve the effectiveness of the fight

against this scourge. These should guide in particular the

action of the States most affected by transnational

organized crime. France recently strengthened its financial

legislation against money-laundering. All States should

pay particular attention to this phenomenon, which is one

of the hardest forms of organized crime to counter.

One of the most loathsome aspects of organized

crime is that which targets our children. A world summit

on combating the sexual exploitation of children was

recently held in Stockholm. That is good, but it is still not

enough. Everyone must now make a commitment to

implementing effective measures for immediate

application. I urge all States represented here to act

quickly and with determination in this area which, more

than any other, affects our future. The Assembly may rest

assured of France’s political resolve.

18

Drugs are a formidable threat today because of the

ravages they inflict on young people. International

cooperation must be solid. The producer and consumer

countries must recognize their shared responsibility. The

international community must therefore continue to pursue

convergent policies to reduce the supply of illegal

substances and the demand for them. The European Union

has chosen such a global policy and has launched large-

scale actions in close coordination with international

institutions, in particular the United Nations International

Drug Control Programme. France strongly supports the

proposal to convene a special session of the General

Assembly devoted to drugs in 1998.

These new perils do not supplant the traditional

challenges, which our Organization must address with

sustained vigilance and unwavering firmness. Peace-keeping

remains the central function of our Organization under the

terms of the founding Charter. The mission of the United

Nations to soothe tensions, separate combatants and resolve

conflicts remains fundamental.

The panoply of available instruments is becoming

more diversified. Recent additions to conventional peace-

keeping missions include activities to consolidate peace,

preventive diplomacy measures and even regional

conferences — such as I hope will soon take place with

regard to the situation in the Great Lakes region.

Sanctions constitute one of these instruments. They are

a useful weapon, but they penalize populations and must

therefore be used with prudence and moderation, follow

strict criteria and — I stress this — always be limited in

time. Only under those conditions can sanctions, which are

sometimes necessary to prevent something worse, continue

to be used by our Organization with the required

legitimacy.

Of course, we cannot refer to the traditional challenges

to peace without speaking about current regional conflicts.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, where my country has paid a

heavy tribute, France is pleased that elections could be held,

imperfect though they were. That represents an essential

stage in the return to peace provided for by the agreements

signed in Paris in 1995.

But peace still has to be consolidated, devastated

territories be reconstructed, refugees encouraged to return

and a civilian society rebuilt. To that end, France has

proposed a plan of consolidated action by the international

community with a time-frame of two years. With this goal

in mind, we will very shortly be hosting an international

conference in Paris to examine, and I hope adopt, this

proposal.

Similarly, the peace process in the Middle East

seems to be at a crucial stage. I wish here to express my

anxiety about it. I certainly believe the process to be

irreversible, but I am also aware of the precariousness of

the gains and the urgency of the need for long-term

solutions. We are half-way there. I say “we”, because this

process concerns not just Arabs and Israelis but all of us

here.

For France, peace in the Middle East is built upon

dialogue between equal partners, respect for the identity

of each and the right of peoples to the free determination

of their destiny, the affirmation of their independence, and

security. That is why — and I wish to emphasize this

point — France believes that there will be no lasting

peace in the region, based on an exchange of land for

peace, unless the right of the Palestinian people to self-

determination is respected, together with their legitimate

aspirations for a State.

We believe that a just and balanced agreement

between Israelis and Palestinians cannot avoid the issues

of Jerusalem, refugees and the settlements in the

Palestinian territories. Finally, a lasting peace presupposes

that Israel is assured of its existence within secure and

recognized borders.

France believes that complete withdrawal from the

Golan Heights in exchange for total peace constitutes the

basis of an agreement between Syria and Israel, and that

Lebanon must regain full and complete sovereignty over

the whole of its territory.

Based on these principles, France intends to have a

greater and more active presence than ever in the Middle

East, with which it has close and long-standing relations.

It will pursue this policy in close consultation with its

European partners. Furthermore, Europe must have a

place, alongside the two sponsors of the peace process,

commensurate with the major contribution it is making to

the region’s development.

While we are endeavouring to build peace in areas

in crisis, our efforts are no less ambitious for the entire

European continent. In building step by step what we call

an “architecture of security“, we are really offering the

international community a pillar of peace. France is

making an important contribution to the establishment on

19

the European continent a system of global security that

leaves no one out on the edge.

The construction of peace in Europe began with the

construction of European institutions. It is being continued

by deepening the Union. The intergovernmental Conference

represents a decisive stage in this process, the forerunner of

expansion, which is vital to the stability and prosperity of

the continent.

France wishes to see the Union go still further by

giving substance to the European identity in security and

defence matters. To that end, we would like to see a

strengthening of the Western European Union and its

gradual rapprochement with the European Union.

The European identity is also based on the reform of

the Atlantic Alliance. France, after taking a decisive step,

is now working actively with its allies on the adaptation of

structures. This should allow the emergence of a genuine

European security and defence identity within the Alliance

and make it possible in practice for the Western European

Union, and therefore the European Union, to use the assets

of the Alliance for military action that Europeans decide to

undertake themselves. This reform is also the key to the

process of expanding the Alliance, with which France is

ready to assist. That expansion must naturally go hand-in-

hand with in-depth dialogue and cooperation with Russia.

The third and last aspect of the structure is the

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

(OSCE), which is the sole forum for security in which all

the European States are represented on an equal footing.

That is why France believes that it is necessary to

strengthen the organization. We hope that the Lisbon

summit will provide the occasion to move towards the

drafting of a charter or treaty linking all the States of the

continent.

Important events therefore await us on the path that

we have mapped out, including the OSCE summit in

December and the NATO summit next year. The latter

should bring together all the European States for a

“pan-Europe day”, demonstrating the community of security

interests of all the countries on the continent, including

Russia and our North American allies whose role in

European security remains decisive. That is our ambition

for a Europe of security that leaves no one out and is safer

and more stable for the entire international community.

In this changing world, it is for the United Nations to

bring out the common values that will be the foundations

of civilization in the twenty-first century. It is thanks to

its actions that we hope to build a safer, less harsh world

for its inhabitants. First, we hope it will be a world in

which the spectre of nuclear war has faded. For many

years, public opinion called for a complete ban on nuclear

tests. It was a hope and a plan that was certainly worthy,

but remained blocked by the reality of East-West

confrontation.

France welcomes the signing of the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which I had the honour to sign

yesterday. This Treaty marks a major turning-point in the

world’s strategic balances.

It puts an end to the possibility of the nuclear-

weapon States’ developing new types of nuclear weapons,

and it makes a decisive contribution to the fight against

nuclear-weapon proliferation.

The Treaty thus opens the way to a more stable,

safer world which will cease to be haunted by the twin

dangers of the nuclear-arms race and the proliferation of

these weapons.

There is another development which I find

remarkable: the endorsement of human rights as a major

principle of international relations. And the United

Nations is at the centre of this development.

I should like in this regard to pay tribute to the

remarkable work done by the Commission on Human

Rights. In often difficult circumstances, it has pursued

with pragmatism and tenacity its patient efforts to awaken

consciences, to galvanize energies and to promote the rule

of law in concrete ways.

Our aim must not be to pronounce

excommunications or establish a blacklist, generally to no

effect. Rather, it must be to promote the protection of

individuals and the progress of law with due respect for

differences.

I should also like to reaffirm France’s determination

to see crimes against humanity punished. The

condemnation they warrant cannot brook any exception.

Together with others, France took the initiative of

proposing the establishment of the international criminal

Tribunal and the international Tribunal for Rwanda. I

wish to reaffirm France’s unqualified support for their

founding work, and its backing in order that the tribunals

might carry out their work in full.

20

Lastly, France is pleased that the foundations that have

thus been laid have helped to speed up the debates on the

establishment of an international criminal court, which we

earnestly desire and to which we attach a high priority.

There are other important areas which we have begun

to consider.

At this time when workers, money, factories and

commerce operate at a heightened pace, it is essential to

develop dialogue among the partners of economic life. This

is really the only solid basis on which to build social

protection that preserves the interests of all without harming

the growth of economies.

The fiftieth anniversary of the International Labour

Organisation (ILO) provided the opportunity to recall the

essential role of this organization in defining these minimal

norms, without which the economic world is but a vast

jungle.

Universality, however, must not lead to uniformity.

The definition of common values, accepted by all, is based

on respect for the identities that underpin the cultures of the

world. Our values will thus command all the more respect

for being expressed in all our respective languages.

Accordingly, we welcome the fact that the General

Assembly last year adopted a resolution on multilingualism

by a very large majority. Our civilizations, languages and

cultures, inherited from an often turbulent history, but of

irreplaceable richness, are a precious legacy for humankind.

The importance that my country ascribes to the

French-speaking community reflects its determination to

maintain the specificity and richness of the profoundly

original world view of several hundreds of millions of

people. We will not give this up.

The search for a new world ethic is not limited to

human rights but extends to the whole of international life.

Since 1945, international trade has been a powerful growth

factor, contributing to a large extent to the expansion of the

industrialized economies and to the success of the so-called

emerging countries. But here too we must have rules of the

game, acknowledged at the world level, so as to develop

and regulate trade, ensure that it is fair and prevent

unilateral conduct.

I should like to mention here the dangers of

unilateralism. Unilateralism: behind this technocratic word

lurks the temptation to impose the law of the strongest at

the expense of dialogue and negotiation.

France and Europe cannot accept that one country,

even if it is the most powerful, attempt to regulate world

trade by itself by means of decisions that have extra-

territorial scope. The World Trade Organization does not

allow it, and no one should doubt the firmness of French

and European reactions were such measures actually to be

implemented.

The globalization of the economy and the

liberalization of trade and investments have opened up

unprecedented prospects. However, we must take care not

to allow the gap to widen between the nations that trade,

invest and derive profit from this new factor and those

that remain on the sidelines of this new prosperity.

Each nation is responsible for itself and must create,

through rigorous public management and compliance with

its legislative rulings, optimum conditions for freeing

private initiative, a factor in economic and commercial

progress. But I do not believe that one can leave to

market forces alone the care of ensuring the development

of the poorest nations.

Here, too, the United Nations has an important role

to play. By its side, the wealthiest States must affirm their

solidarity in a tangible way: actively and effectively, this

solidarity must assist the developing countries without

becoming a substitute for them. On the threshold of a

new century, poverty and exclusion cannot constitute the

sole prospects for two-thirds of humankind. France, for its

part, will not accept this.

This commitment concerns Africa in particular,

where real prospects for progress are beginning to

emerge.

Africa has embarked with courage and perseverance

on the path to readjustment and recovery, which will

enable it to find its place again in the great flows of

world trade.

For the first time in a long time, Africa’s growth

rate has been on the order of 5 per cent these past two

years, higher than its demographic expansion, very high

though it is. This is a reassuring sign, attributable to the

efforts made by the African States themselves. They have

been able to cut public deficits, establish realistic

monetary parities, open up their markets and move

towards regional integration and democratization. Such

21

achievements, which are the result of structural reforms,

seem to us to justify our confidence. France believes in

Africa’s future.

Still, official development assistance must be

maintained and strengthened, but this assistance must be the

subject of many initiatives. France has taken such

initiatives within the European Union, the African

Development Bank, the International Development

Association and the International Monetary Fund.

Recently, at the summit of industrialized countries

held in Lyons, my country reaffirmed the need to increase

aid to the poorest countries, asking for more generous

treatment of debt for them, and for a new global partnership

to be defined between the developing countries and the

multilateral institutions.

In this new world context, we have to consider the

progress that the United Nations needs to make to be able

to meet its responsibilities for the next century.

France approves of the current discussions on

improving the representative character of the Security

Council, in particular with respect to Germany, Japan and

the States of the South.

Similarly, under the decisive impetus of the Secretary-

General, the Organization has embarked on a vast effort for

structural reform, the first results of which are beginning to

show.

It is not a matter of changing everything but of seeing

that every institution is in a position to make a useful

contribution to the collective work in its own sphere.

That is why the members of the G-7 have proposed

putting the savings realized through reforms into

development projects.

France would like to see the reform of the United

Nations economic and social sector concluded quickly so as

to strengthen the overall coherence of the Organization. To

that end, the roles and mandates of the specialized agencies

and commissions in particular should be better defined, and

waste and duplication eliminated.

These proposals are dictated solely by the wish to help

the United Nations better fulfil its mission of fighting

poverty and exclusion on a global scale.

In the case of the United Nations budget, many of us

are worried about the financial crisis that threatens to

paralyse the United Nations. The European Union has put

forward concrete proposals for overcoming this crisis. It

is now up to all States that have let their arrears

accumulate to assume their responsibilities.

Whatever some may say, the United Nations is still

one of our best chances for building a better world. Let

us not spoil it.