Italy, 2007

I wish to offer you my

heartfelt congratulations, Sir, on your election to

preside over this sixty-second session of the General

Assembly. Your experience in international affairs and

your first-hand knowledge of the Organization make

you particularly suitable for this important post. At the

same time I sincerely thank your predecessor,

Ms. Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, for her wise and

dedicated leadership of the Assembly.

I want to begin my statement where I left off last

year, with Italy’s decision to defend human rights in

the world and to oppose the death penalty. In recent

months, Italy has worked very hard to enable the

Assembly to adopt a resolution on a universal

moratorium on the death penalty, with a view to its

complete abolition. It has been a source of great

satisfaction to see support for our initiative growing

day by day in Europe and in every other region of the

world. We have now reached a decisive moment.

I trust that we shall all be united in this battle,

which is supported by Nobel laureates, statesmen and

stateswomen, and free men and women throughout the

world, and that the “growing trend in international law

and national practice toward a phasing out of the death

penalty” to quote Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

(Press release SG/SM/10839) will be officially

sanctioned by this General Assembly’s adoption of the

draft resolution we are about to submit together with

many countries from every regional group and from the

European Union. If genuine politics means showing

foresight, we shall perform a great political act through

the adoption of that draft resolution. It will

demonstrate that humankind is capable of making

progress not only in science, but also in the field of

ethics.

A United Nations resolution against the death

penalty will prove that human beings are better today

than they were yesterday, even in moral terms. An

outcome with enormous consequences, heralding a

more just future, and a society that has at last freed

itself from the spiral of revenge, demonstrating that it

has heeded the ancient admonition: if you want peace,

you must work for justice.

Last year we welcomed the ceasefire in Lebanon

and the launch of the new United Nations Interim

Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which has been under

Italian command for several months now. Today,

thanks in part to our common commitment, Lebanon is

in a better situation, although it has not yet solved its

problems, as the brutal attacks of recent days have

unfortunately demonstrated.

We must continue to support the Lebanese

reconciliation process and help the country to regain its

unity through the election of a new President. We must

do this without ignoring the root causes of the conflicts

afflicting the Middle East, first and foremost the

Palestinian question. In short, we must continue to

mobilize support for reconciliation among peoples and

within a single people.

Restoring peace to the Middle East is the top

priority of the international community, because if one

day this region should find greater peace, freedom and

prosperity, we shall all live in greater peace, freedom

and prosperity. I am therefore delighted that the United

States has promoted a new international meeting. We

are ready to provide our input and we are already

preparing it, knowing that the more countries in the

region that are behind this meeting, the greater the

possibility of success.

Italy will continue to play its part in the rest of

the region too, beginning with dialogue. For it is

through dialogue that the most difficult issues can be

resolved. I have never seen a lasting solution to a

problem when the solution was imposed from above or

from outside.

Today’s challenges, such as bringing peace to the

Middle East, are complex. If we wish to overcome

them we must rise to their dimensions. In other words,

we have to set aside all partisan interests in a world

that is increasingly shaped by global processes.

This applies also to climate change, to which this

session is most appropriately dedicated. As I said

yesterday at the panel convened by the Secretary-

General, Italy considers climate change a priority

issue. We are among the European supporters of a

unilateral 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas

emissions by 2020. We have made similar

commitments on energy efficiency, renewable energy

sources and biofuels. In Europe we have already made

various strategic decisions, but it is obvious that any

post-Kyoto agreement can only be achieved within the

United Nations, because when speaking about global

warming we are speaking about the pre-eminent global

problem of our day.

National approaches to solving the world’s

problems no longer exist. The era of making and

unmaking national borders is long over. It is only

through multilateralism, by marshalling everyone’s

energies, that we can hope to do good.

Our task today is to adapt the multilateral

structures at our disposal to a changing world and to

think of new forms of global governance, for there is

no other way to manage global processes.

The challenge facing Europe today is not to

become resigned to the world as it is, but to seek to

improve it based on the values in which Europe

believes: freedom, democracy, respect for others, and

respect for the rules of peaceful coexistence. That is

why we are adapting our founding treaties. That is why

we are building a common foreign and defence policy.

That is why we have invented a new citizenship,

European citizenship, to which we are entitled by

choosing to share certain values, not by virtue of

kinship or nationality.

The European dream is thus the child of the

universal dream of the United Nations. In the past year

the United Nations has continued to play a central role

in resolving international disputes. The cases of

Lebanon and Darfur demonstrate that if Member States

are willing to give the United Nations a strong central

role, the Organization is today up to the task. We have

to ask ourselves what the United Nations needs in

order to fulfil its worldwide mission and to be equally

effective in different crisis areas.

First and foremost, we need an Organization

capable of renewal and adaptation. In the past two

years the revival of the reform process produced its

first positive results. One essential aspect of reform

relates to the General Assembly, which remains the

main decision-making organ of the Organization. I

never tire of repeating that we have to restore the

General Assembly’s central position, and exploit its

political guidance potential and, above all, its

universality.

The principles of democracy and the

representation of every Member State underpin the

United Nations system. That is why we are opposed to

any concept of Security Council reform that would

establish new permanent members. The growing

contribution of a growing number of countries to the

Organization should not be wasted by introducing

elitist and selective reforms.

It is clear that reforming the Security Council

means addressing one of the fundamental pillars of the

global security architecture. The Council’s central role

and its nature as the paramount source of international

legitimacy impel us to seek shared political solutions.

Last year, in this very Hall, I advocated that

negotiations be started to break the deadlock and help

strengthen the Organization. I spoke of the need to start

negotiations based not on imposing predefined models

and positions, but rather on the search for solutions

based on the widest possible consensus.

I am therefore delighted that, one year later, the

General Assembly has decided to make every effort,

through intergovernmental negotiations among others,

to reach a general agreement on Security Council

reform that we all hope will open a new chapter with a

view to an agreed solution, a solution that I hope can

include strengthening the presence of the leading

regional stakeholders in the Security Council. My

country is ready and will not fail to demonstrate

commitment and to contribute ideas in this new phase

of the Security Council reform process.

Reform is also intended to make the Organization

more effective in the areas and on the issues where, by

history and vocation, it can provide greater added

value: Africa and development issues.

The United Nations is deeply engaged in Africa.

Over two thirds of the Blue Helmets are deployed in

Africa on peacekeeping missions. Italy will pursue this

goal through the establishment of the African Peace

Facility fund, which will complement its European

counterpart fund. Darfur and Somalia remain two of

our central concerns.

But it would be a mistake to look only at the

negative side and forget the many encouraging signs of

development and unity coming from Africa. I am

referring to the growth of the economy and to the hope

that has arisen in many parts of the continent.

In Europe we are now preparing for the second

Africa-Europe Summit. I hope that it will be held

successfully before the end of the year. Italy is working

above all to ensure that the Summit will spark a

European policy for Africa that is worthy of the name.

That brings me to development. It is the

responsibility of the United Nations to keep

development at the top of the international agenda. It

will take more than lip service to the Millennium

Development Goals to achieve them. We all have to

work for their attainment. I have already expressed my

willingness to sit at a table next year for a progress

report on the implementation of the commitments we

made seven years ago.

We can no longer ignore the reality around us:

one half of world trade and investment benefits 14 per

cent of the world’s population; the 49 poorest countries

in the world receive 0.5 per cent of the global product;

and 90 per cent of the planet’s wealth lies in the hands

of only 1 per cent of its inhabitants. Efforts are needed

from everyone, particularly those who have more to

give. The G-8 can play an important role in this area.

Here and now I pledge to make this issue the

centrepiece of the Italian presidency in 2009.

The principles of solidarity and cooperation

underlying this Organization are as sound today as they

were 62 years ago. The spread of democratic values

and greater attention to the protection of human rights

should not make us forget that these principles and

values are still threatened and violated in far too many

parts of the world. What is more, insecurity leads more

and more people and countries to close themselves off.

The danger is that this sense of insecurity can

cause societies to regress. Even the most free and

democratic nations, if they feel they are under threat,

may adopt measures that will undermine peace and

with it, the civil and political rights of their citizens.

In the face of such risks, the principles and values

of the United Nations are our beacons and our stars.

They make it possible for us to navigate even by night

and in rough waters. Staying on course is not just a

political imperative. It is above all a moral imperative

for all of us.