Latvia, 1997

Allow me to congratulate the

President on his election and express my confidence in

his leadership during a crucially important session of the

General Assembly. I wish to assure him that Latvia’s past

experience of fruitful bilateral cooperation with Ukraine

will guide the delegation of Latvia in pursuit of our

common tasks at this session of the Assembly.

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I wish to recognize with gratitude Ambassador Razali

Ismail of Malaysia for his determined leadership during the

fifty-first session of the Assembly, as well as of its General

Committee, of which Latvia was a member.

At the outset I will address the need for United

Nations reform, follow that with a response to the reform

proposals of the Secretary-General, and, finally, inform the

Assembly about Latvia’s recent experiences with reforms.

Recent history suggests why reforming our

Organization is essential. In 1945 many delegates to the

founding conference of our Organization travelled to San

Francisco by train and by sea. Delegates to the fifty-second

session of the General Assembly have travelled to New

York by air. They communicate with their capitals by very

fast electronic means that did not exist 50 years ago. These

advances in the technology of travel and information have

facilitated an enormous and continuing expansion of

international activities by ever greater numbers of State and

non-State actors.

Most important for the United Nations is the

expansion of international activities by state actors other

than members of foreign services. The participants in these

transgovernmental activities come from many governmental

institutions: the courts, police, central banks and regulatory

agencies.

State as well as non-State actors form successful

transnational organizations that are independent of the

United Nations system. These organizations can be

competitors and cooperating partners for the United

Nations. A United Nations that does not continually evolve

to offer a coherent response to changing global conditions

is a United Nations that risks becoming irrelevant.

The world needs a United Nations that can contribute

effectively to the solution of complex global problems, such

as those caused by the three-fold increase since 1945 of

both the global population and the number of independent

States. It needs a United Nations that will be a leader in the

shaping of a new and workable international political order

to fill the place vacated by the bipolar order of the cold-war

era. This will be done best by a United Nations with

universal membership.

Latvia believes that the package of reform proposals

which the Secretary-General has presented to this Assembly

contains measures which will enable the United Nations to

respond to the imperative of organizational evolution.

Latvia views this package as a work in progress, rather than

as completed reform proposals for the long term. But

even if the proposals are imperfect or not complete, they

are the best this Assembly has before it. Latvia will

support the reform package as a good springboard for

reform and hopes that other Member States will do the

same.

During the next few months, the General Assembly

and the Secretary-General will need to work together to

begin the process of implementing the reform package.

The Secretary-General will have to report regularly to

Member States on the progress of the reforms. He will

have to develop implementation plans for

recommendations approved, on the basis of informed

considerations, by the General Assembly and other United

Nations organs. This Assembly will have to elaborate

further the procedure for addressing the proposals of the

Secretary-General. It may wish to decide on additional

reforms. Latvia expects that lessons will be learned during

the implementation of the reform proposals and that the

lessons will suggest mid-course corrections, improvements

and even termination of some elements in the package.

Let me now turn to several substantive aspects of

reform that may touch upon the Secretary-General’s

reform package, but are not a part of it.

The success of reform depends upon a sound

financial footing for the Organization. In this regard, three

recent interconnected processes may be noted. These

processes are, first, rapid changes since 1991 in

peacekeeping budgets and a basically unchanging regular

budget; secondly, reform of the assessment methodology

under way since 1994; and, thirdly and most important,

recent unprecedented increases in overdue outstanding

contributions.

The interdependence of these three processes means

that the General Assembly will have to work out ways to

treat the three processes as parts of a whole. It is also

necessary that the Assembly make decisions that assure a

genuine movement towards achieving a sound financial

situation within a few years at most.

In regard to the very difficult question of Security

Council reform, Latvia wishes to reiterate its continued

support for an expansion of the Council that would result

in more equitable geographical and small-state

representation.

Latvia believes that the mixed outcomes of the

complex post-cold-war peacekeeping operations initiated

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by the Security Council may have relevance to the reform

of the Council. Learning how to improve the success rate

of these operations could have the side benefit of pointing

towards Security Council reforms that might improve the

maintenance of international peace and security.

Latvia has a special interest in the future of United

Nations peacekeeping operations, since the Baltic Battalion

(BALTBAT), in which Latvians serve side by side with

Estonians and Lithuanians, has completed a successful year

of learning to cooperate and interface. This has been done

while participating in a multinational operation: the

Stabilization Force (SFOR) peacekeeping mission in Bosnia

and Herzegovina. BALTBAT, which has been trained and

equipped with the help and encouragement of the North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Nordic

partners of the Baltic States, corresponds to their standards

and has become fully operational.

In view of the growth of crimes that escape national

punishment or that cross national borders, Latvia fully

supports the establishment of an independent, efficient and

authoritative international criminal court with independent

prosecution. We consider this to be the most important

development in international law since the creation of the

International Court of Justice. Latvia intends to participate

actively in the completion of the establishment of the court

in 1998.

In regard to reforms in Latvia, it may be noted at the

outset that they are driven by the need to overcome the

consequences of 50 years of occupation, which caused the

political, economic and social development of Latvia to fall

behind its Nordic neighbours. In its sixth year of restored

independence, Latvia continues with reforms designed to

catch up with its Nordic neighbours. Latvia wishes to build

a solidly democratic foundation for long-term economic and

social well-being.

In this endeavour, Latvia receives international

assistance from many sources. One source is the United

Nations system, cooperation with which — primarily with

the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) —

has contributed significantly to the improvement of social

and economic well-being in Latvia. The United Nations

presence in Latvia began in 1992 with an integrated office

under the leadership of a resident coordinator who is also

the UNDP representative. The integrated office, essentially

a United Nations House, has allowed cost-effective access

to the technical assistance offered by any part of the United

Nations system. In addition, UNDP mobilizes bilateral and

multilateral donors for projects in which it participates. I

wish to express my deepest gratitude to UNDP and the

donors who have made contributions to Latvia’s reform

projects.

I will now focus on reforms in only three of the

areas that have an impact on social well-being and in

which UNDP and the donors it has mobilized have been

involved.

The first area is human rights. Although at its last

session the Assembly concluded its consideration of the

question of human rights in Latvia and Estonia, I believe

that a brief report on some human rights developments

during this year may nevertheless be of interest at this

session.

Latvia cooperates with the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights and the Centre for

Human Rights. Recently Latvia made a financial

contribution — its first voluntary contribution ever to any

United Nations body — in support of work by the

Commissioner’s staff on national human rights

institutions.

The Latvian National Human Rights Office,

established in 1995 as an independent national institution,

has begun to have a tangible impact, particularly on the

rights of vulnerable social groups. The somewhat

unprecedented powers and functions of the Office have

generated considerable interest in other central and eastern

European countries. The Office has received UNDP

technical and financial assistance at all stages of its

conception, planning and development.

On 4 June 1997 Latvia ratified the European

Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, thus

providing new legal guarantees to its residents, including

the right of individual complaint and compulsory

jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

Human rights were further strengthened through adoption

of the Law on Refugees and Asylum Seekers and

ratification of the 1951 United Nations Convention

relating to the Status of Refugees.

Another area affecting social well-being and

integration is language training offered to the relatively

large segment of the population that lacks a knowledge of

Latvian, the State language. The Government of Latvia

approved the National Programme for Latvian Language

Training in 1995. Since then the Programme has

completed the training of a core body of teachers.

Textbooks and teacher handbooks have been published.

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The third area relevant to social well-being is support

for the re-emergence of civil society. Since the time of

national reawakening 10 years ago, almost 3,000 non-

governmental organizations have been established in Latvia.

The first major national non-governmental-organization

forum will take place in Riga this weekend. I note that its

organizers have received valuable assistance from the

UNDP office in Latvia.

With regard to economic well-being, the Government

has worked hard to achieve macroeconomic stability during

the transition process from a centrally planned to an

efficient market economy. As a result, economic growth has

resumed and inflation has decreased dramatically. Real

gross-domestic-product growth for 1997 is estimated at 4

per cent. By June of this year inflation had declined to

about 7.5 per cent on an annual basis. These achievements

are accompanied by continuing economic hardship for large

segments of the population. Social welfare and poverty-

alleviation projects are aimed at decreasing these hardships.

Latvia intends to apply the lessons learned from its

reform experiences to its work as a member of the

Economic and Social Council. One general lesson learned

in Latvia is that the results of reforms include not only

benefits but also costs. The cost hardest to bear is probably

insecurity about the ultimate outcome of reforms.

We, the reformers of the United Nations, will surely

have to bear the cost of insecurity as well. Perhaps a bit of

ancient wisdom can diminish the insecurity. The Roman

philosopher and Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in his

Meditations, asked three questions about reforms:

“Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take

place without change? What then is more pleasing or

suitable”

than change?