Honduras, 1992

I wish

to convey to Mr. Ganev the most sincere congratulations of the Government of

Honduras on his well-deserved election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its forty-seventh session. Through him we should also like to

extend our best wishes to the Bulgarian people, who, like other peoples of

Eastern Europe, are today, after much effort and self-sacrifice, helping to

keep alive the flame of freedom, democracy and progress in that continent.

To the new Members of our Organization, we extend a most cordial

greeting. We are fully convinced that through the United Nations we shall be

able to establish growing links of friendship and cooperation.

Our Organization is grounded on principles of equality, shared

responsibilities, and the promotion of international peace and security. We

hope that Serbia and Montenegro will best achieve those objectives by meeting

the legitimate expectations of the international community that an end will be

put to the war, persecution and intolerance in the countries of former

Yugoslavia, and that they will be able to become Members of this great family

of nations.

Moreover, in a world of changing realities, one which is none the less

marked by its attachment to universality and peaceful coexistence, my

Government, like other Central American countries, believes that we should

open the way for the Republic of China, with more than 20 million inhabitants

and authorities established in Taipei, to participate in the work of our

Organization and its specialized agencies as that country does in various

regional forums and international mechanisms. Membership in the United

Nations does not constitute diplomatic recognition of sovereignty, and there

have been and are precedents in the history of the United Nations for the

simultaneous presence of countries which are in search of their historical

unity but which, while they remain separated, have not been denied the

opportunity to make their contribution to the complex fabric of international

relations and obligations which bring together the peoples of the Earth

through the United Nations.

We are beginning a new era in the life of this Organization. For us, the

"Agenda for Peace" of our distinguished Secretary-General is a noteworthy

effort embodying both vision and realism that will enable us to make progress

in forging a more secure and prosperous world. The Government of Honduras

warmly supports the proposals on preventive diplomacy and on strengthening the

logistical and financial capacity of the United Nations for peace-keeping and

for peace-building when peace is threatened, when peace has been breached, or

when the persistence of situations of confrontation make peace vulnerable.

In accordance with those aims, Honduras also urges greater support for

and use of the international organs for the legal settlement of disputes such

as the International Court of Justice, which has only recently handed down a

judgment providing a definitive solution to a long-standing border dispute

between El Salvador and Honduras. The peoples and Governments of both

countries intend to comply in good faith with this judgement.

Honduras has also decided to lend its armed forces and police for

peace-keeping missions and is at present satisfactorily participating in the

conciliation mission in Western Sahara of the United Nations Mission for the

Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

With the end of a bipolar world and of the cold war, the terrible threat

of a nuclear holocaust has dissipated. However, atomic weapons and other

powerful weapons of mass destruction continue to overfill the arsenals of

large and medium-sized Powers. My country therefore urges those who possess

nuclear weapons to pursue, and as appropriate to initiate, serious and

verifiable programmes for the reduction and destruction of such weapons, and

the dismantling of possible vehicles for them. We also urge that the

non-proliferation Treaty system be made more general and strengthened, with

guarantees of verification; this applies also to the regional systems such as

the Treaty of Tlatelolco. We shall also join in the broad movement that is

being generated at this session towards seeking and achieving the prohibition

of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.

In the Persian Gulf, the reasons for the vigorous response by the

international community in defence of the sovereignty and legitimate rights of

Kuwait still exist in several respects. More than ever before, the United

Nations should redouble its efforts to bring about faithful compliance with

the relevant resolutions of the Security Council ensuring an end to threats of

aggression and guaranteeing for the countries of the Gulf an environment of

peace and a future free of coercion and uncertainty.

In the Middle East, in southern Africa and in Cambodia, processes of

peace and reconciliation continue to move forward. Candidly acknowledging

past injustices, trusting in the mediating efforts of the United Nations, and

convinced that the fruits of peace are beneficial to their populations, the

leaders of all the parties involved in these conflicts should now more than

ever before strive to bring about equitable solutions to the differences that

separate them, in order to guarantee a speedy restoration in their respective

regions of stable and secure conditions of good neighbourliness.

The signing of the Chapultepec Peace Agreements in January this year

between the Government of El Salvador and representatives from the insurgent

The President returned to the Chair.

movement has brought an end to armed confrontation in our neighbouring country

and has opened the way for a complete reconciliation in the spirit of freedom

and democracy for the Salvadorian people. Honduras associated itself in the

well-deserved tribute paid to former Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar

for his mediating efforts. We have given and shall continue to give our full

support to Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in the fulfilment of the

various stages of the peace agreement, including demobilization of formerly

opposed forces and integration into civil and political life of the insurgents

in a framework of complete legality.

With peace in El Salvador, Central America, under the sign of democracy,

is returning to the path of integration and development. Our countries are

aware of the countless challenges posed by the insufficiency of our productive

infrastructure, poverty and inequalities. But we also know that with

dedication and vision, and especially with unity, we shall be able to overcome

them.

That is why the Tegucigalpa Protocol (A/46/829, annex III) of

13 December 1991 has entered into force, establishing a system for Central

America integration which, working in the summit meetings of Presidents of the

Central American isthmus, will impart force and impetus to a broad movement

towards integration. Honduras hopes that the ever-stronger voice of Central

America will be heard and that our region, a region of peace, democracy,

freedom and development, will join and participate actively in the new forms

of global interdependence that are taking shape on the eve of a new millennium.

For Honduras, an essential part of this integrated vision is the

formation and implementation of national, regional and international

strategies to fight poverty and to overcome long-standing problems that strike

hardest at children, women and the elderly.

If we justly aspire to economic development, and to growing expansion of

trade in goods and services originating from all continents, we should

likewise aspire to, and indeed make possible, real improvement in the quality

of life of the inhabitants of our countries. Enhanced social well being

should not be conceived of as a generous remedy that may prove insufficient to

the communities receiving it, but rather as a joint undertaking to facilitate,

through international cooperation, conditions for vocational training and

better access to the opportunities that can be provided by open and growing

economies.

On 12 December 1991, in Central America, the Heads of State and

Government of the seven countries of the isthmus assumed that very commitment,

and, in the presence of various distinguished figures and executives of the

United Nations and regional organizations, initiated a coordinated programme

of human development with goals, objectives and resources defined for the

present decade to culminate in the year 2000.

Those initiatives of our subregion are universal in conception. That is

why Honduras, like Chile and other friendly countries, will continue to give

impetus to, and participate in, the appropriate preparations for and holding

of a world conference on social and human development that may serve as a

forum for reflection and initiatives to effectively set in motion

international measures and policies in this respect.

In an ever more integrated world, our countries, which share not only a

rich cultural heritage exemplified by the common use of a single language, but

also a democratic and modern vision of international relations, are naturally

seeking to strengthen our links of fraternal friendship and our presence in

the world. Those are the fundamental reasons that led us to constitute the

Ibero-American Conference, which, following its founding declaration in

Guadalajara, signed in July 1991 by the Heads of State and Government of the

Hispanic-American countries, Brazil, Spain and Portugal, has now formally been

constituted.

Within the Ibero-American Conference, as a mechanism for interaction and

cooperation, we have been designing programmes of mutual benefit primarily in

the fields of education, exchanges of programmes via satellite, the creation

of an indigenous fund and the launching of a broad programme of exchanges of

scholars and researchers.

The Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Madrid this year also

gave support to growing and leading involvement by our countries in a world

programme of human development.

Maintenance of an open multilateral trading system is of vital importance

to the expansion of world trade and the economic development of all

countries. For that reason we must join our efforts to bring about the speedy

culmination, on satisfactory terms, of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade

Negotiations. Stagnation of the negotiating process would have very serious

consequences for world trade and would affect prospects and the structural

programmes that many developing countries have undertaken at the cost of great

sacrifice to find our proper place in the trend towards large trading blocs.

This year there has been a dramatic fall in the prices of commodities

essential to our economies. This leads us to stress the need to bring about

better regulation of conditions of access guaranteeing the growth of sales of

our competitive products at fair prices.

In this context we must also, in our judgement, strengthen the transfer

of technology for industrial development and more flexible terms in financing

the modernization of industrial plant in developing countries.

The urgent need to share responsibilities and to act together to

guarantee global economic stability independently of the economic and

political power of each nation, together with the growing convergence of views

as to global priorities, were clearly and positively demonstrated at the Earth

Summit held in Rio de Janeiro.

The Government of Honduras takes great satisfaction from the common

reflection on urgent environmental problems initiated at that conference, and

we reiterate our support for the principles adopted by it and for Agenda 21,

which comprehensively encompasses a whole programme of action in the

environmental sphere and for sustainable development.

We must persevere in this direction. The deterioration of nature must be

halted. Together we can design conservation strategies that allow for the

rational use of natural resources to meet the needs of employment and the

economic growth of our populations.

The new strategy of peace is also necessarily a new strategy of

development. Only by growing together can we survive; only by pooling our

efforts can we secure for future generations a better world in harmony and

concord.