Germany, 2000

First of all I

would like to warmly congratulate you, Sir, on your

election as President of the fifty-fifth session of the

General Assembly, and wish you every success with

your work. I would like to thank Foreign Minister

Gurirab for his dedication in chairing the fifty-fourth

session of the General Assembly. I welcome Tuvalu as

the one hundred and eighty-ninth member of the United

Nations and congratulate it on its accession. I endorse

the statement of my French colleague, Hubert VÈdrine,

on behalf of the European Union.

At this session of the General Assembly, the first

in the new millennium, we are asked to determine the

future tasks of the United Nations and which reforms

are necessary in order to master them. The Millennium

Declaration, which we all adopted on 8 September,

shows us the way forward. The implementation of this

Declaration should be a main focus of the consultations

of this and future sessions of the General Assembly. I

propose that the Secretary-General make use of the

opportunity to draw up review reports at the beginning

of the next session of the General Assembly.

There was one issue in particular which

dominated this debate, namely globalization. It will

radically change the economy and finances, politics

and culture everywhere. The question is, will a new

order which guarantees peace, justice and an equal

share in our common progress be established or will a

new divide evolve in the world? Will the future of the

globalized world manifest its pluralist character in a

multilateral order? Only the future can provide the

answers to these questions.

Particularly for developing countries,

globalization offers great opportunities. If it

nevertheless provokes strong opposition, this lies in the

imbalances of this historical process. Indeed, just under

a decade after the end of the cold war, our world is

today at risk from a new divide, one between the

winners and losers of the economic globalization

process. In his impressive Millennium Report, the

Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, rightly highlights

the growing inequalities in the distribution of income,

resources, investments and access to new technologies.

In view of this situation, the international

community must make every effort in the coming

decade to ensure that globalization benefits all peoples.

If market forces are not balanced by a political

corrective mechanism, it is to be expected that injustice

in the world will increase further. Those who have been

hitherto excluded from the advantages of globalization

must be included to a greater extent. They must be

given more say in the political decisions made about

steering global processes and they must be given an

opportunity to gain a fairer share in the development of

the world economy.

In the twenty-first century, we will, more than

ever before, need a form of global governance if we are

to solve global challenges. The United Nations will

play a key role here. It is the only organization within

which the injustice between rich and poor can be

overcome and where a reconciliation between peoples

and regions, global peace and sustainable development

can be achieved.

Greatly strengthening the United Nations capacity

to act is, therefore, a crucial question for the whole of

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humanity in the twenty-first century. In addition to the

crucial reform of the Security Council, this will entail

the United Nations entering into creative partnerships

with industry and civil society.

Germany strongly supports the Secretary-

General's idea for a global compact with major

companies. The German initiative for a resolution in

the General Assembly on global partnerships will take

up this and other issues relating to the globalization

process.

Global poverty is the key problem in North-South

relations. It lies at the root of many global risks and

threats to peace. The Secretary-General provided

precise and stimulating analyses of this in his report.

The industrialized nations have a special

obligation to support the poorest of the poor. With the

Cologne debt initiative launched by Germany, we are

combining debt relief with a strategy to combat

poverty. The 20 poorest developing countries should be

debt-free by the end of the year.

The least developed countries should be granted

access to world markets with the greatest possible

exemption from duties and quotas. We must, also by

way of liberalization steps in the World Trade

Organization, prevent these countries from being

socially excluded even further.

This applies in particular to the new economy.

The United Nations and its Member States must

intensify their efforts to make it easier for these

countries to use the information and communication

technologies. This is contingent upon initiatives in the

field of education, as well as the availability of the

necessary resources.

However, how can poor countries ever catch up

economically if they are, at the same time, afflicted to a

much greater degree than the North by terrible

diseases? The fight against the disastrous spread of the

AIDS virus, particularly in Africa, must be priority for

us all. The focus must be on prevention. At the same

time, access to medicines must be improved and

vaccine research must be intensified. The World Bank's

promising idea of establishing a future fund for the

purchase of vaccines deserves every support.

Particularly in the fight against AIDS, new partnerships

between Governments and companies are crucial.

The second major issue of this General Assembly

is peacekeeping. The Secretary-General showed the

way ahead with the Brahimi report. The

recommendations it contains should be examined and

implemented as quickly as possible. Germany will play

its part. Peace missions need a more robust mandate, as

well as more personnel and equipment. Member States

must do considerably more to ensure the rapid

secondment of well-trained troops, police officers and

civilian experts. The further development of the police

concept is one of the most important tasks in this

connection as the last few months and years have, in

fact been teaching us.

The German Government will offer German

training for civilian peace-mission personnel and offer

civilian capacities to the United Nations stand-by

system. In addition, we are drafting a plan for training

civilian experts for peace missions, thus creating a pool

of qualified personnel who can be deployed at short

notice.

The prevailing form of conflict today is conflict

within States. Therefore the main task of peacekeeping

must be to address the internal roots of conflicts. In

addition to focusing on an improvement in socio-

economic conditions, our efforts must focus on

promoting human rights, democracy and the rule of

law. Mary Robinson, the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights, aptly said that the

human rights violations of today are the wars of

tomorrow.

Numerous concrete tasks are on the agenda. The

protocols relating to the involvement of children in

armed conflict and to the sale of children, child

prostitution and child pornography must enter into

force as early as possible. The equality of women must

be advanced in all spheres. I call upon all states to

ratify quickly the new Optional Protocol to the

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination against Women and to abolish all laws

that discriminate against women by 2005. The World

Conference against racism, to be held in 2001, must

tackle all aspects of this issue. Out of a sense of

responsibility for our history, our State and our society

will stand up firmly against all forms of right-wing

radicalism, racism and anti-Semitism, both in our own

country and in the world.

I call upon all States to respect the integrity of the

Statute of the International Criminal Court, to sign and

to ratify it, so that the Court can commence work soon.

There can be no exceptions to the Rome Statute.

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One of the greatest dangers facing humanity

remains the proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction. The risk of regional arms races,

particularly in South Asia, has increased. Further

developing the international arms-control regime

therefore continues to be one of the United Nations key

tasks. This will require resolute implementation of the

results of the sixth Review Conference of the Parties to

the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons. Against this background, President Clinton's

decision not to commit now to the development of a

national missile defence system is very welcome. The

Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty must remain as a

cornerstone of strategic stability and the basis for

further nuclear-disarmament measures.

In poor countries the excessive stockpiling of

small arms must be stopped. We must therefore do

everything we can to achieve tangible progress at the

United Nations small arms conference to be held in

2001. This presupposes the inclusion of all aspects,

including the legal transfer of production and

stockpiles.

Regional cooperation has proved to be an

extremely effective means of preventing conflicts. The

United Nations can do much to help here. Allow me to

mention two regions where progress is particularly

urgent. The triangle between Central Asia, the

Caucasus and the Middle East is full of destabilizing

factors oil, religious fundamentalism, terrorism,

drugs and the nuclear arms race and this area is

threatening to become the crisis region of the century

ahead. A new comprehensive regional process, along

the lines of the Helsinki model, which fosters

cooperation instead of confrontation, could play an

important stabilizing role. Germany is prepared to take

part in such a process.

In Africa, regional approaches have gained in

significance. In the main, however, it is, unfortunately,

too early to talk of effective peacekeeping structures.

Unfortunately, the efforts on the part of the United

Nations and of the Organization of African Unity to

resolve the conflicts in the Congo and Sierra Leone

have not achieved a breakthrough so far. In the conflict

between Ethiopia and Eritrea it is to be hoped that the

ceasefire that has finally been concluded will be

consolidated and that the United Nations peace mission

will be lent the full support of the parties to the

conflict.

The third issue, protection of our natural

environment, will probably become the crucial issue

affecting our planet. In the course of the twentieth

century the world's population quadrupled, while

consumption of energy and raw materials increased

tenfold. We must end the squandering of natural

resources and switch to renewable energy sources as

quickly as possible. This cannot only be a matter for

industrialized nations. We are witnessing at this very

moment what a burden high oil prices places on poor

countries in particular. It must be in the interest of all

States to bring about the transition from the oil to the

hydrogen age as quickly as possible. The most

important thing now is to finally overcome the

deadlock in the climate-protection negotiations and to

ensure that the Kyoto Protocol can be implemented by

2002, 10 years after the Rio Summit.

Another key issue for humanity, the future of

genetic engineering, can only be mastered within the

framework of a global consensus. Genetic engineering

has the potential to revolutionalize medicine and

agriculture. At the same time, it raises more ethical and

human rights questions than any other technology. Do

we not need clear, binding rules for dealing with such a

powerful new technology? Why do we not seriously

consider within the United Nations creating under

international law a convention that meaningfully

promotes genetic engineering and safeguards the

freedom to research and the findings of this research,

while, at the same time, defining an ethical basis and

guaranteeing protection against abuse?

The Millennium Declaration points the way

ahead. But what help will that be if an increasing

number of Members allow the world's real problems to

be dealt with and decided somewhere else? If we do

not succeed in adapting the United Nations to deal with

the challenges of the twenty-first century and in

modernizing it fully, it will be sidelined, with fatal

consequences for peace and development, human

rights, the environment and social progress.

We will all, rich and poor, lose out.

We must therefore muster the strength to

resolutely implement the Millennium Declaration. We

need a world Organization that is strong and we must

use its scarce resources more effectively. An important

prerequisite for this is that the United Nations be

placed finally on a solid financial footing. Together

with its European Union partners, Germany has put

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forward proposals for a fairer, more balanced scale of

assessments, which must continue to be based on

Member States' ability to pay..

The Security Council no longer reflects the

political reality of our world at the dawn of the new

millennium. We share the Secretary-General's view

that this central steering organ of the international

community must become more representative,

legitimate and effective, also involving the developing

countries. Last week Chancellor Schroeder reaffirmed

Germany's willingness to take on more responsibility

in this connection. I would like to take this opportunity

to thank my friend and colleague Robin Cook for the

clear language that he used before the General

Assembly just a few minutes ago.

The General Assembly must structure its work,

debate global problems in a more focused fashion than

hitherto and identify courses of action. The synergetic

potential between United Nations organizations, for

example in the environmental field, must be better used

and resources pooled to a greater extent by merging

organizations.

Reform of the United Nations will play a decisive

role in ensuring that the twenty-first century is safer

and more just than the twentieth century. Allow me to

conclude with a quote from the Secretary-General's

Millennium Report:

No shift in the way we think or act can be

more critical than this: we must put people at the

centre of everything we do ... Only when that

begins to happen will we know that globalization

is indeed becoming inclusive, allowing everyone

to share its opportunities.'