Ireland, 2003

For the United Nations and

the system of collective security that it represents, the

past year has been a traumatic one.

Our Organization could ill afford the loss of the

dedicated and experienced members of staff who were

killed by an act of terrorism in Baghdad on the 19

August. I do not diminish the contribution of each and

every one of those who lost their lives in the cause of

humanity if I give individual mention to Sergio Vieira

de Mello. I would like to pay particular tribute to his

work in bringing to birth the new State of Timor Leste,

which has become the latest Member of the United

Nations.

We are living in a period of great insecurity. We

are stalked by fear — fear of war, terrorism, weapons

of mass destruction, famine, disease, ethnic and

religious hatred, and organized crime. Governments are

acting, individually and in groups, to shield their

people from these threats. However, the nature of the

challenge requires coordinated global action.

Fortunately, we have the United Nations

Organization, which brings together the nations of the

world in the service of international peace and security.

If we did not already have such an organization, we

would surely have to invent it. The tragedy for

mankind is that we do not make the most effective use

of it. We are frequently told by commentators that the

United Nations has failed. All too often, it is difficult

to disagree.

So, who is to blame? To answer that question we

have to ask: what is the United Nations? The answer is

to be found in the Charter. This Organization was

established in the name of the peoples of the United

Nations. When the United Nations fails, it is because

we, the Governments that represent the peoples of the

United Nations, have failed, individually or

collectively, to meet our obligations.

Our most common failing, I would submit, is that

we frequently overlook the fact that this Organization

was created to serve not just our own nation, but all

mankind. Too often, Members seek to use this

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Organization to pursue their national interests by

seeking to have it adopt resolutions that are partial or

biased; by ignoring its resolutions when these do not

suit them; and by encouraging action on certain issues

and conflicts while blocking action on or even

consideration of, others. All too many of us have been

guilty of such an approach.

We simply cannot afford to continue with this

attitude. The world is fast changing. Every day brings a

new awareness of just how interdependent we all are.

The option of shutting ourselves safely away behind

protective walls no longer exists. We have to learn to

live together, to share the resources of this planet and

to look after each other. We can retain our national,

cultural and religious identities, but we need to

recognize that we are, first and foremost, all members

of the human race, and we must act accordingly.

We need a viable system of global governance

that can ensure international peace and security. To be

viable, such a system must possess two essential

qualities: effectiveness and legitimacy. To be effective,

it requires the unambiguous support of the entire

community of nation States. Its decisions must be

respected and, where necessary, we must be ready and

able to act to secure such respect. To retain legitimacy,

the system must be seen to work in the interests of the

entire international community.

I appeal, therefore, to the Governments

represented at this session of the General Assembly for

a change in our attitude to the United Nations. Let us

cease treating it as a tool useful only to the extent that

it can deliver on our national agenda. Instead, let us use

the United Nations to harness our collective resources

in the interests of each and every member of mankind.

To adapt the words of President John F. Kennedy, let us

ask not what the United Nations can do for us, but what

we can do for the United Nations.

The United Nations needs reform. We all accept

that. Our institutions are not sufficiently effective and,

in some instances, are not adequately representative of

today’s membership. We have discussed these issues at

great length, but we have balked at taking the hard

decisions. The time has come to put the interests of the

wider international community before narrow national

concerns.

We are fortunate, at this moment, to have as

Secretary-General a man of the stature of Kofi Annan;

a man who is held in universal regard and who is seen

to stand for the interests of the entire international

community. He has not shrunk from grasping the nettle

of reform, and in his address to this Assembly he called

on the Members of this Organization to grasp it with

him. We must find the courage and generosity to take

up this challenge.

The past two years have been a particularly sober

period in the history of mankind. There has been so

much death and destruction across the globe. How

much of this might have been avoided if the United

Nations had been better able to fulfil the noble

purposes set out in the Charter?

I do not claim that it is possible to eradicate

man’s capacity for evil or to totally eliminate the

tendency to seek to resolve disputes through violence.

But I do submit that a stronger, more resolute, more

respected and more active United Nations might have

prevented some of the suffering of the past two years.

The world today is very different from that which

existed when the Charter was drawn up. It is smaller,

more crowded, more combustible. Isolated pockets of

human habitation have been brought together by a

population explosion, migration, faster and cheaper air

travel, television, the Internet, the growth of free trade

and the development of weapons of mass destruction.

What happens in one part of the world can increasingly

have an instant and dramatic effect in another part.

This evolution has raised questions concerning

the interpretation of two important provisions of the

Charter. The first is paragraph 7 of Article 2, which in

effect excludes the United Nations from intervening in

matters that are essentially within the domestic

jurisdiction of any State. Yet the problem arises

increasingly in our global society as to whether and

when a matter can be considered as falling entirely

within the domestic jurisdiction of a State. Some

situations are clearer than others.

In my view, when events within a country

threaten international peace and security, they become

the legitimate interest of the international community.

Similarly, I cannot accept that the international

community should stand by and accept the large-scale,

flagrant and persistent violation of human rights. We

have received sharp lessons in the past. The trigger for

intervening to prevent an attempted genocide should

not be the moment that refugees begin to flood across

the border.

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At the same time, international intervention raises

serious questions. It can also pose serious risks to the

international regime. Clearly, intervention is

objectively called for in some extreme cases. But there

is a need to work carefully through this concept with a

view to forging an international consensus around it.

Another issue that has recently come to the fore

and was highlighted by the Secretary-General is that of

Article 51 of the Charter and the conditions under

which Member States have the right to act in self-

defence. The development of weapons of mass

destruction in the period since the signing of the

Charter, and the appearance of non-State actors with

the capacity for mass destruction, raise serious

questions as to the point at which a State might

consider it necessary to act in self-defence. This is also

an issue that requires serious reflection.

My Government would be deeply concerned at

the widespread acceptance of a doctrine of pre-emptive

strike. Given the ever more lethal nature of modern

weapons, the risk of large-scale death, destruction and

escalation are enormous.

More effective than striking pre-emptively, of

course, is to pre-empt the risk of conflict through a

wide range of steps in the diplomatic, economic,

humanitarian and other areas.

We should devote more attention to dealing with

the root causes of conflict. We must seek to identify

potential conflicts as early as possible and deal with

them before they get out of hand. Where conflict

nevertheless becomes a possibility, we should act more

assertively to head it off. We simply cannot afford to

accept the existence of so-called forgotten or ignored

conflicts. Any conflict that threatens international peace

and security is the United Nations legitimate business and

should be on the agenda of the Security Council.

I would now like to touch briefly on a number of

specific issues that are of concern to my Government.

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian

people continues to pose a serious threat to world

peace. My own country’s difficult national experience

shows that there is no such thing as a straight line to

peace. Our experience in Ireland clearly demonstrates

that farsighted leaders cannot allow their efforts to be

held hostage by terrorists and extremists. They must

have the wisdom to look beyond the politics of the last

atrocity.

What is more, leaders must be prepared to deal

with each other. As the Nobel Laureate John Hume

once said, “you make peace with your enemies, not

your friends”. President Arafat has a responsibility to

lead his people away from violence and back to the

negotiating table. It is a responsibility that he must

assume. Threats to expel or assassinate him are deeply

misguided and dangerous and can only further delay

efforts to achieve a settlement.

Lasting peace can only be achieved through

negotiation. Palestinians must realize that violence has

failed. Terrorism is wrong and has brought nothing but

misery to both Israel and Palestine. It has made

compromise more difficult than ever.

Israel must see that repression and attempts at

physical separation will not deliver long-term security.

The most effective means for Israel to secure a

peaceful future would be to accept the Palestinian

people’s right to a viable State of their own on the basis

of the 1967 borders. Israel should immediately reverse

its policy of building settlements, settler-only roads

and a security wall on Palestinian territory.

It is imperative that the parties re-engage in the

task of implementing the road map, leading to a two-

State solution based on the vision enshrined in Security

Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 1397

(2002). They need the support of the Quartet. But such

mediation will not succeed if it is, or is perceived to be,

one-sided. We must be careful to ensure that our

demands are balanced and that we hold both sides

equally to account.

The people of Iraq are suffering from events that

in most cases are not of their making. We want to see

this suffering brought to an end as soon as possible.

The Iraqi people can only play a part in that by

rejecting those who engage in violence and industrial

sabotage. The occupying Powers must be scrupulous in

meeting their obligations under international law.

The Iraqi people need and deserve the support of

a united international community in the political and

economic reconstruction of their country. The United

Nations, with its unique experience and legitimacy, is

essential to efforts to help the Iraqi people recover their

sovereignty as soon as possible and to forge a new Iraq,

at peace with itself and with its neighbours. We look to

the members of the Security Council at this crucial

moment to assume their responsibilities and to reach an

agreement on a new resolution that reflects the interests

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of the people of Iraq and that can enjoy the necessary

support of the region and of the broad international

community.

The proliferation of nuclear, chemical and

biological weapons poses a serious threat to international

peace and security. We must recommit ourselves to

controlling the spread of such weapons, and working

towards their complete elimination. This can only be

achieved through a comprehensive and rigorous system

of international treaties and obligations that are

verifiable and universal.

Ireland, with its partners in the New Agenda

Coalition, will continue its efforts in respect of nuclear

disarmament during this year’s General Assembly.

Ireland calls on all States who are concerned about the

issue of weapons of mass destruction to become

constructively engaged in the multilateral disarmament

and non-proliferation process. There can be no room

for double standards.

We must also remain resolute in our

determination to counter the threat of terrorism. We

owe it to the victims of 11 September, and to the

victims of terrorist atrocities before and since then. The

measures put in place by the Security Council have

made it more difficult for international terrorist

networks to organize and to finance their activities.

These organizations, however, do not stand still. We

must remain vigilant and redouble our efforts to make

it impossible for the agents of international terror to

operate.

In doing so, however, we must be clear that the need

to act against terrorism offers no license for action

contrary to the United Nations Charter, or against the

body of international human rights and humanitarian

law that we have so painstakingly constructed.

We must also seek to deal with the causes of

terrorism. Terrorism is not some kind of original sin.

No child is born a terrorist. At some point in their

lives, some people become terrorists. We have to

identify how and why.

And if we find that young people are being

indoctrinated into terrorism, we have to deal with those

who seek to incite hatred and terror. If we find that

they act, however wrongly, in reaction to real or

perceived injustice, we have to confront that fact and,

as far as it is possible, seek to eliminate the reality or

perception of that injustice. To seek to understand the

causes of terrorism should not be misunderstood as

being soft on terrorism. On the contrary, it is an

essential step in its elimination. I can speak from

experience of developments in my own country for

many decades.

The Government and people of Afghanistan face

important challenges in the coming year, in particular

the adoption of a constitution and the holding of

national elections. Severe difficulties stand in the way,

especially the precarious security situation. The

sustained and wholehearted support of the international

community is required if Afghanistan is to recover

from its long ordeal. For Ireland’s part, it has delivered

on its pledges to the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

In Africa, encouraging progress has been made in

the past year towards the resolution of some long-

standing and intractable conflicts. We urge the parties to

the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to

implement the commitments that they have entered into.

Neighbouring States must abide by their commitments

and their obligation not to interfere in the area.

Sierra Leone remains on track, with the help of

the United Nations, towards a future and peaceful

development. And progress has been achieved in

Liberia. I want to pay tribute to the efforts of those

Member States that have contributed to this positive

development. Their continued engagement, along with

the United Nations, will be indispensable in helping the

people of Liberia to consolidate what has been

achieved and to build peace in their country. I am

pleased to inform the Assembly that my Government in

the next few days will recommend to our Parliament

that Ireland’s Defence Forces participate with a

sizeable contingent in the forthcoming United

peacekeeping operation in Liberia.

Respect for human rights is an essential foundation

for peace and security. Lack of respect for human rights is

at the root of many conflicts, internal and international.

The promotion of human rights is rightly the concern

of the international community as a whole. It must

remain a central task of the United Nations and must be

integrated into all United Nations activities.

There is no room for complacency. We must all

recognize that no country, including our own, is

perfect. We can all do better.

I pay tribute to the many brave individuals around

the world — defenders of human rights — who risk

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discrimination, imprisonment or worse to ensure that

Governments live up to their human rights obligations.

The establishment of the International Criminal

Court was a clear signal of the determination of the

international community to bring to justice those who

are involved in genocide, crimes against humanity and

war crimes. Ireland, together with its partners in the

European Union, will continue to offer firm support to

the International Criminal Court, as its work gets under

way. I urge those who have not signed or ratified the

Rome Statute to do so, and I urge all States to adhere

firmly to the principles on which it is based.

The peace process in Northern Ireland remains a

major priority for the Irish Government. Regrettably,

due to diminishing trust between the political parties,

the devolved political institutions in Northern Ireland

were suspended nearly one year ago. Since then, we have

been working to re-establish the trust and confidence

necessary to restore and sustain these institutions.

This involves both ensuring that all vestiges of

paramilitary activity are consigned to the past and that

all parties commit themselves to the full and stable

operation of the democratic institutions of the Good

Friday Agreement. Following intensive negotiations,

we came tantalizingly close in April to making the

required breakthrough but unfortunately did not get

matters fully resolved at that time.

After one of the most peaceful summers on the

streets of Northern Ireland, the process is now entering

another decisive phase of challenge and opportunity.

Developments over the next few weeks will have a

crucial bearing on whether elections — which I believe

should take place before the end of the year — will be

held in an atmosphere that is conducive to forming a

working administration on the other side of the polling

day.

For this to happen, all of the pro-Agreement

parties must show leadership and courage, face up to

their responsibilities and take the decisions they know

are right, and encourage their constituencies to reach

out to others. As partners in this process, Prime

Minister Blair and I — and our two Governments —

are working closely together to support and encourage

all those political and community leaders who are

taking risks for peace.

From other areas around the world struggling to

escape from a legacy of violence, we in Ireland know

all too well that a process of conflict resolution cannot

rest still. Either it continues to move forward or it loses

momentum and direction and falters. To complacently

assume that current opportunities for progress can be

deferred until a more politically convenient moment is

both wrong and dangerous. In the case of Northern

Ireland, the moment of opportunity is now and it is my

hope that in the weeks and months ahead all of the

parties who subscribed to the Good Friday Agreement

will collectively rise to that challenge.

Poverty and insecurity go hand in hand. The

efforts of the United Nations to promote international

peace and security must be closely aligned with its

work in tackling the root causes of poverty.

When I launched the United Nations Human

Development Report in Dublin last July, I noted how

powerful a reminder it was that the world is becoming

a more unequal place. According to the report, 54

countries — the great majority of them in Africa — are

poorer now than they were in 1990. A world where

more than 1.2 billion people continue to live on less

than a dollar a day, where 14 million children are

orphaned because of HIV/AIDS and where women in

the poorest countries are 175 times more likely to die

in childbirth than women in rich countries is inherently

unjust and hence insecure.

At the United Nations special session on

HIV/AIDS in 2001, I said Ireland would increase its

contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS by an

additional $30 million per year. Last year, our spending

on HIV/AIDS programmes exceeded $40 million — a

ten-fold increase over the past three years.

The Millennium Declaration called for a global

partnership for development, and as in any partnership,

there are responsibilities on all sides. Undertakings on

official development assistance, debt relief, and

governance must be achieved. We must be rigorous in

assessing our progress in 2005, as we committed

ourselves to doing.

At the Millennium Summit, I committed Ireland

to reaching the United Nations target for official

development assistance of 0.7 per cent of gross

national product by 2007. Since then, Ireland has

increased its official development assistance to 0.41

per cent and remains committed to reaching the target

by 2007.

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Fair and open international trade is essential for

global peace and prosperity. It is an integral part of the

multilateral system that we are pledged to protect. I

regret that it did not prove possible to reach agreement

at the recent World Trade Organization talks in

Cancun. I understand the frustration of those who

consider themselves unfairly treated in global markets.

But if we turn our back on the multilateral trading

system and allow trade and investment to be diverted

and distorted by bilateral and regional arrangements,

we will damage — perhaps irreparably — the best tool

available to us to make serious inroads into poverty

and to raise standards of living on a global basis. Let us

redouble our efforts to achieve an agreement that offers

fair market access and at the same time allows all of us

to preserve the essence of our unique cultures and

environments.

The past year might have been a difficult one for

the United Nations, but events have demonstrated that

for the people of the world it is the indispensable

Organization at the centre of our system of collective

security. We have invested it with unique legitimacy

and authority. People around the world look to it in

hope and expectation. Let us work together to make

sure that the United Nations is an organization worthy

of the ideals enshrined in its Charter, worthy of the

trust of those who rely on it for help and protection,

worthy of the idealism and dedication of those who

work for it and worthy of the sacrifice of those who

have given their lives in its service.

As the Secretary-General made clear when he

addressed this session of General Assembly: we are at

a fork in the road. Let us be sure to take the right road.