Hungary, 1995

May I extend our

congratulations to you, Sir, upon your election as President

of the General Assembly at this historic fiftieth session. The

delegation of Hungary stands ready to do its fair share in

assisting you in the fulfilment of your important

responsibilities.

The 50-year-old United Nations is a living witness to

our successes and failures. In many quarters, the question

is raised whether the United Nations has a credibility

problem at this important juncture of its history. We have

to remind ourselves that the capacity of the United Nations

to act is nothing but the reflection of the will and

determination of its Member States. With the euphoria over

the end of the cold war gone, we ought to take a hard look

at the role the United Nations is called upon to play in a

dramatically altered, often fluid international environment

where shared values may not automatically yield

converging interests.

The Charter provides us with valuable guidance for

distinguishing sound international order and stability from

the expedience of appeasement. The question is whether the

international community is always ready to act accordingly

by taking a firm stand against aggression, heinous crimes

against humanity and flagrant infringements on the human

rights and fundamental freedoms of millions of individuals

around the globe.

We believe that there can be no place for complacency

when we witness devastating wars, lawlessness, the

suffering of civilian populations and widespread human

misery. There is no positive answer to the question

whether, in spite of the absence of the threat of a new

world catastrophe, we can keep our planet safe and secure.

A fundamentally changed global political environment, as

bipolarism fades away, cannot prevent the outbreak of local

wars, internal conflicts or ethnic strife. The values and

principles we hold so dear seem to be distant dreams

against the backdrop of horrors occurring in places remote

for some, but dangerously close to others.

We have come to realize the growing importance of

effective regional tools in addressing this new type of

mostly internal conflicts, where the rule of law and

accountable national administrations are often non-

existent, where warlords and other unscrupulous leaders

lead campaigns of intimidation, “ethnic cleansing” and

genocide in an atmosphere of nationalism and hatred.

Throughout the years, the United Nations has achieved a

number of important successes by brokering peace

agreements, conducting peace-keeping operations,

improving humanitarian situations and promoting national

reconciliation.

The world Organization is better equipped to deal

with traditional conflict situations. However, it has yet to

prepare itself for meeting all the new and alarming

challenges. While the United Nations cannot realistically

manage all the crises occurring world wide, because of its

unique role and responsibility in the maintenance of

international peace and security, it should seek to

strengthen global political consensus on the principles of

the Charter, assist, through its preventive capacity, in the

formulation of regional strategies and efforts and take

decisive action when regional or global security is

seriously challenged.

Today’s conflicts call for a more coherent yet

decentralized United Nations response capability.

Streamlining and rationalizing the Organization should be

the order of the day, not only to eliminate waste and

overlap, but also to make the best use of existing political

and financial resources. We also fully support the

Secretary-General’s efforts to improve coordination

between United Nations organs and agencies with a view

to enhancing the early-warning, stand-by and rapid-

reaction capacities of the Organization, which should

focus on all the political, security, social, economic-

ecological, humanitarian and human rights areas of United

Nations activity.

As regards the reform efforts in general, one should

bear in mind that agreement on such diverse issues as the

elimination of the enemy-States clause from the Charter

or the reform of the financing of peace-keeping operations

cannot be achieved overnight. We hope that the

9

establishment of an open-ended working group of the

General Assembly, chaired by its President, will be an

important milestone in this highly complex endeavour. We

welcome the important measures already implemented and

are looking forward to others which are designed to

enhance the transparency and effectiveness of the

functioning of the Security Council.

The main mission of the United Nations is to make the

world a safer place for all. After a series of United Nations

conferences on the most important global problems, such as

environment, human rights, population and social

development, and the recently concluded World Conference

on Women, we ought to focus our attention on the practical

implementation of their recommendations.

Earlier this year the international community extended

for an indefinite period the validity of the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Hungary had

supported from the very beginning the idea of indefinite

extension, for we are convinced that this major international

instrument promotes stability by preventing the spread of

the nuclear arsenal and at the same time aims at the orderly

development of nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes.

We hope that the security guarantees given to the

non-nuclear States by the permanent members of the

Security Council, as well as the prospects of a thorough

review of the operation of the Treaty — including the

obligations in the field of nuclear disarmament, especially

the early conclusion of a comprehensive test-ban treaty —

will open up further possibilities for progress in this area.

The tragedy in the former Yugoslavia has revealed,

not only where brutality and the trampling of elementary

norms of international law and human behaviour can lead,

but also the devastating consequences of unwillingness to

enforce the legitimate decisions of the international

community. What we have seen was that the Security

Council, and consequently the United Nations as a whole,

was either unable or unwilling to follow through its own

resolutions, thus leaving the initiative to those whose only

argument was and is naked force and the policy of the fait

accompli. The crisis in the Balkans is a serious and tragic

reminder that the Security Council can preserve its

authority and credibility only if there is a unity of action

which ensures the full and timely implementation of its

resolutions. Another important lesson to be drawn from the

handling of this crisis is that adequate early-warning and

preventive machineries should be put in place to forestall

the eruption of further tragedies and conflicts.

The Republic of Hungary, being a neighbouring

country to three of the new States that emerged on the

territory of the former Yugoslavia, is vitally interested in

peaceful and good-neighbourly cooperation with all of

them and in the early settlement of the conflict by

political means, on the basis of the purposes and

principles of the Charter, international law and the

resolutions of the Security Council. In our view, a visible

and credible international presence, backed up by

international resolve to guarantee the implementation of

decisions taken, is essential for this purpose. We believe

that no comprehensive and lasting arrangements can be

worked out for this conflict if two, so far quite neglected,

factors are not taken fully into account.

First, any solution should incorporate the human

rights dimension, including effective guarantees for

minority rights in accordance with international standards.

In this regard, I would like to pay tribute to the former

Special Rapporteur for the Commission on Human Rights,

Mr. Tadeusz Mazowiecki, for his untiring efforts

consistently to uphold the values of our civilization.

Neither massive economic assistance, nor a huge

international presence can make a real difference if the

human rights questions are left unaddressed.

Secondly, the security of the subregion, and, indeed,

of Europe as a whole, is threatened by massive arms

stockpiles, mostly left over from the previous period,

when the former Yugoslavia — not being a party to the

Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) —

maintained significant armed forces, in fact, one of the

relatively largest in Europe. It is of vital importance,

therefore, to work out, in the context of the settlement,

arrangements to reduce conventional armaments on the

territory of former Yugoslavia.

The acquisition of territory by force and the

accompanying abhorrent phenomenon of “ethnic

cleansing” in the former Yugoslavia led to the destruction

of entire regions. It triggered a forced population

movement unseen in Europe since the Second World

War. Today, when we are about to enter the fifth year of

the war and the diplomatic efforts to find a solution are

continuing, we should not lose sight of political

responsibilities and personal accountabilities for the

initiation of this drama. The sick ideas of ethnically pure,

homogenous, single-nation States had started a vicious

cycle of vengeance that claimed the lives of over 100,000

people and forced millions of others to flee, many of

them seeking refuge in neighbouring and other countries.

In this regard, the settlement of refugees in new areas

10

traditionally inhabited by other national minorities in order

to change their century-old ethnic composition is contrary

to international law. It is even more so if it is being

conducted by forcible means and through intimidation, as

has happened to the Croat and Hungarian minorities in the

Vojvodina province of Serbia.

The Government of Hungary has, on several

occasions, expressed its grave concern about the negative

impact of the conflict on the ethnic composition of the

population concerned. From this rostrum, I should like to

call the attention of the international community again to

the need to elaborate a comprehensive settlement, in the

framework of which the question of the refugees should be

so resolved as to respect the interests of each and every

ethnic community. Any settlement must include the

development and implementation of agreements that ensure

the survival of these communities, respect their human

rights and fundamental freedoms, including minority rights,

and encourage the establishment of institutions that

guarantee those rights in the long run.

The issue of human rights and fundamental freedoms

remains in the forefront of our attention. Protection and

promotion of these rights is not only a voluntarily

undertaken obligation of all Members of the United

Nations, but a responsibility the implementation of which

can be legitimately scrutinized by the international

community. In Vienna, we closed the debate on the

universality of human rights by adopting the document of

the World Conference on Human Rights and restating

universality in its own right as our guiding principle since

the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights. The legitimate role of the United Nations acting in

defence of human rights should therefore be supported and

strengthened.

With renewed waves of human rights violations

occurring worldwide, mostly in internal conflicts or ethnic

strife, our Organization has to step up its early-warning and

preventive capacities, develop an integrated response

mechanism encompassing field visits and monitors, a closer

integration of the human rights element in peace-keeping

activities and ensuring effective interaction in the

implementation of political, peace-keeping, human rights

and humanitarian mandates. International presence,

particularly preventive protection, is a most efficient

deterrent in curbing violations and preventing their

escalation.

The establishment of the Office of the United Nations

High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) was built

on the premise of giving more coherence and visibility to

human rights activities within the United Nations system.

However, our commitment to human rights rings hollow

without constant efforts to improve the efficiency of the

United Nations human rights machinery, focusing on

prevention, on-site monitoring and developing a rapid-

response capacity.

May I now address the General Assembly in my

capacity as Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for

Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The cooperation between the United Nations and the

OSCE has significantly developed on both political and

operational levels since the December 1994 Budapest

summit. As the OSCE, a regional organization in the

sense of Chapter VIII of the Charter, embarks on so-far-

uncharted waters in conflict prevention and crisis

management, the advice and assistance of the United

Nations proves to be an important asset, for which I

would like to express our appreciation to the Secretary-

General.

Based on the agreement concluded between the two

organizations, we have indeed developed flexible forms

of cooperation, not only in the political area, but in our

joint efforts on humanitarian issues, human rights,

sanctions-monitoring and operational presence.

At present, the OSCE has missions in Georgia,

Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic

of Macedonia, Moldova, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Nagorno-

Karabakh, Estonia, Latvia and Chechnya. We are also

about to establish one in Croatia. We find it indispensable

that the OSCE mission to Kosovo, Sandjak and Vojvodina

in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and

Montenegro) resume its activities, in accordance with the

relevant resolution of the Security Council.

Though the mandates of these OSCE missions vary,

they still point in the same direction, namely assisting the

parties involved in finding a political solution to their

differences on the basis of OSCE principles and

commitments. OSCE helps to monitor and verify cease-

fire accords, supervise troop withdrawals, establish

negotiating structures and principles for talks on national

reconciliation and respect for human rights and

fundamental freedoms. It has to be added that in some

cases the OSCE has to work hard to obtain the necessary

political endorsement of the parties to engage in a

peaceful and structured political process and offer mutual

concessions.

11

I wish to express our appreciation of the peace efforts

in Bosnia and Herzegovina which, in this very city of New

York only two days ago, yielded the so-called “further

agreed basic principles”. As its Chairman-in-Office, I can

see that it is extremely important that the Organization for

Security and Cooperation in Europe may soon find itself in

a new, important and challenging role as an active

participant in the course of the implementation of the long-

awaited Bosnian peace accords.

In making use of the mutually reinforcing capabilities

of the United Nations and the OSCE, the Hungarian

Chairmanship-in-Office of the organization for 1995 is

determined to strengthen both organizations. I remain

convinced that the further development of this cooperation

in the vast area from Alaska to Kamchatka will, with the

active support of Members, bring us closer to the

realization of the noble ideals set forth in the Charter 50

years ago.