Liechtenstein, 1995

I should like to begin by

congratulating you, Sir, on your election to the presidency

of the General Assembly at its fiftieth session. At the

same time, I wish to thank your predecessor,

His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy.

We are meeting this year at a crucial moment in the

history of the United Nations. The fiftieth anniversary of

the Organization should be an occasion on which to

review the first half-century of the United Nations, but

also, first and foremost, to prepare the Organization for its

future activities and to address the manifold challenges

that are ahead of us.

While we commemorate the United Nations fiftieth

anniversary, Liechtenstein is celebrating its fifth year of

membership in the Organization. When Liechtenstein was

admitted to the United Nations, the global situation was

undergoing fundamental changes. People around the world

hoped that the Organization would be able to work in a

comprehensive and more efficient way towards fulfilling

the purposes assigned to it under the Charter. Many of

these hopes have remained unfulfilled. The optimism that

prevailed at the beginning of the post-cold-war era has

turned into sometimes heavy criticism and a decreasing

confidence in the work of the United Nations. This

criticism is not always justified and is sometimes based

on a lack of understanding of the functioning of the

United Nations or, more often, on a one-sided approach

to its activities.

The achievements of the Organization in the areas of

development, humanitarian assistance, the promotion and

protection of human rights and the strengthening and

further development of international law, to name only a

few, are unique and undeniable. However, it remains a

fact that events of the recent past have undermined the

credibility of the United Nations in the eyes of many

people, and we have to make every effort to restore and

enhance the confidence of the peoples that we represent.

We must only look back in order to make the best use of

the experience we have acquired over the past 50 years

and to enable the Organization to respond effectively to

the new challenges it faces today.

The financial situation of the Organization is beyond

any doubt one of the issues that need to be addressed

urgently. After many years of serious financial problems,

we have reached a stage where the work of the United

Nations itself is in jeopardy. Drastic measures had to be

taken recently to guarantee the continuation of its daily

work. It is of the utmost importance, however, that no

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measures be taken which affect the nature and the

efficiency of United Nations activities, which are urgently

needed. The efforts to improve and to monitor the

administrative and management capabilities must be

continued and further enhanced. All Member States have to

pay their assessed contributions fully and on time if a

durable solution to the current crisis is to be found. We are

confident that the Working Group that you, Mr. President,

will be chairing, will produce fruitful results.

The increasing financial burden that peace-keeping

operations impose on national budgets must be alleviated.

We are of the opinion that a proliferation of peace-keeping

operations has to be avoided, and I wish to emphasize that

the concept of preventive diplomacy deserves even more

attention than it has received until now.

It is obvious that the world has changed. It is also

obvious that the challenges for the United Nations have

changed. For these reasons, changes have to be made

within the Organization in order to enable it to cope with

these challenges. We therefore support the efforts to reform,

modernize and restructure the United Nations and welcome

the process that has been initiated to that effect.

Many people wrongly identify the United Nations only

with the activities of and the decisions taken by the

Security Council. While we must work together in order to

promote understanding and knowledge of other United

Nations activities, which are equally important, we also

have to understand that issues of international peace and

security directly or emotionally affect people all over the

world. We therefore have to make every effort to enhance

the effectiveness and the credibility of the work of the

Council. A limited expansion of the permanent and non-

permanent membership and improved working methods, as

well as enhanced transparency, would certainly make an

important contribution in this respect. As a small country,

we follow the activities of the pertinent Working Group

with particular interest. We are of the view that the work

done so far has been very substantial. However, many of

the sensitive questions require further discussions.

Liechtenstein, like many other countries, has to rely on

the universal respect for international law. The United

Nations has made remarkable contributions to the further

development and strengthening of international law. The

adoption of new legal instruments in important areas,

however, sharply conflicts with continued and sometimes

systematic violations of international law, particularly in the

field of human rights, and of international humanitarian

law. The establishment of the international ad hoc Tribunals

for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda can prove to be an

important element in preventing the recurrence of such

violations. It is essential that, for the first time since the

Tribunals of Nuremberg and of Tokyo, individuals be

held responsible for violations of international

humanitarian law. We hope that the work of these

Tribunals will be effective and will contribute to the early

establishment of a permanent international criminal court.

The Liechtenstein Government welcomes the historic

decision to make the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons (NPT) permanent. We have come one

step closer to the overall elimination of nuclear weapons,

and we express our most fervent hope that the NPT will

very soon become universal. We therefore appeal to those

States which have not yet ratified the Treaty to do so

urgently. We further express our hope that the next step

will be the early conclusion of a comprehensive nuclear

test-ban treaty. Liechtenstein deplores the fact that nuclear

tests are still going on and urges all nuclear-weapon

States to refrain from any further testing.

One of the most remarkable and uncontested merits

of the United Nations in its first 50 years lies in the field

of self-determination. While some people seem to think

that these activities of the Organization are a closed

chapter that belongs to the past, others, including the

Government of Liechtenstein, are of the view that the

potential of the right to self-determination has not been

exhausted and offers possibilities to cope with many

conflict situations all over the world. We are convinced

that the right to self-determination deserves further

discussion and development within the United Nations.

Liechtenstein has therefore, within the framework of its

national activities for the commemoration of the fiftieth

anniversary, organized two international conferences this

year dedicated to this subject. We hope that we can

continue to count on the Organization’s interest in this

matter, which is of crucial importance for the fulfilment

of its purposes.

The Fourth World Conference on Women, which

concluded in Beijing three weeks ago, reaffirmed that the

human rights of women and of the girl child are an

integral part of universal human rights. The Liechtenstein

Government welcomes the fact that the Conference agreed

on a wide range of measures to remove the remaining

obstacles to women’s full and equal participation in all

spheres of life. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for

Action contain a comprehensive plan for the international

community to promote the status of women, to the

ultimate benefit of society as a whole. It gives me

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pleasure to announce that the Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

has recently been submitted to the Liechtenstein Parliament

for approval.

The fiftieth anniversary cannot be an occasion for self-

congratulation. However impressive the achievements,

however disappointing the failures, one thing is certain:

there is no alternative to the United Nations, and all

Member States have to work together to make the

Organization stronger and more efficient. The Government

of Liechtenstein remains committed to this goal.