Liechtenstein, 1996

At the outset I should like

to congratulate Ambassador Razali Ismail on his election as

President of the General Assembly at its fifty-first session.

The Liechtenstein delegation is confident that his leadership

will strengthen the United Nations ability to pursue the

purposes and principles of the Charter.

One year after the celebration of the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations, it is appropriate to take

stock once again of the achievements and shortcomings of

our Organization and, first and foremost, to define the

measures we have to take in order to face the challenges

that lie ahead of us. One of the recurrent topics at the

fiftieth session of the General Assembly was the call for a

comprehensive and effective reform with a view both to

enhancing the efficiency of the United Nations and to

reducing the costs of its work.

I wish to express my appreciation for all the efforts

that have been made by the Secretariat to meet this need,

particularly to the Department of Administration and

Management and to the Office of Internal Oversight

Services, which have made an important contribution in this

regard. However, it remains a fact that more needs to be

done in order to cope with the financial crisis the

Organization continues to struggle with. Even though there

seems to be a consensus concerning the need for further

such action, we were not able, during the fiftieth session of

the General Assembly, to reach agreement on the measures

that are so urgently needed. In our view, it is of the utmost

importance that the high-level working group on the

financial situation established by the General Assembly

should adopt, during the fifty-first session, proposals for a

solution of the financial crisis, including the payment of

arrears. I should like to take this opportunity to express the

support of the Government of Liechtenstein for the

proposals that have been put forward by the European

Union in this respect.

We support ongoing efforts with a view to a reform

and enlargement of the Security Council. We are of the

view that the reform of the Security Council should be

consistent with the principle of the sovereign equality of

all States, as enshrined in the Charter. Liechtenstein

agrees with those Member countries that have said that

with regard to the distribution of new permanent seats,

the financial and other contributions to achieving the

purposes of the Organization as well as a balanced

geographic distribution should be adequately taken into

account.

Another area of crucial importance for the future

work and credibility of our Organization is peacekeeping

activities, which attract the particular interest and concern

of the world community. The experience of the recent

past has made it very clear that the United Nations needs

to be better equipped in order to respond effectively and

quickly to prevent situations that threaten international

peace and security. If we are to enhance the credibility of

the United Nations as a whole and the effectiveness of

United Nations peace-keeping operations, we have to

ensure that every such mission is given a clear mandate

and vested with the funds necessary for its full

implementation. Very useful proposals to that end have

been made by the Secretary-General in his report entitled

“An Agenda for Peace”. We have noted with satisfaction

the progress made by the Working Group established by

the General Assembly to discuss the Agenda for Peace,

and the provisional agreements reached by two of the four

subgroups dealing with specific aspects of the Agenda for

Peace. I wish to express my hope that the two other

subgroups, which have to discuss the very important

questions of preventive diplomacy and peacemaking, and

post-conflict peace-building, respectively, will also be

able to conclude their work soon, so a comprehensive

agreement on the Agenda for Peace can be adopted.

Some of the events that have taken place over the

past few years have made it very clear that more attention

should be given to preventive diplomacy, which can avert

human suffering and reduce costs considerably. One of

the situations where determined preventive action is

urgently needed is the one that has arisen in Burundi,

where patterns of large-scale violations of human rights

and the risk of a further worsening of the situation

10

continue to exist. It is indeed disturbing to note that the

international community has not been able to take all

possible measures to prevent a further deterioration of this

situation.

Liechtenstein made its own contribution to the

furthering of conflict prevention by introducing an initiative

on the right of self-determination before the General

Assembly at its forty-eighth session. It has been stated

many times that the vast majority of armed or other violent

conflicts today are no longer conflicts between but within

States. Such conflicts often have their roots in tensions

between communities living within States, and the thrust of

the initiative of Liechtenstein is aimed at finding peaceful

solutions to such situations before one of the parties

involved resorts to violence. It seems to us that the right of

self-determination, the exercise of which has played a

crucial role in the history of the United Nations,

progressively needs to be seen outside its traditional context

and should be further developed and adapted to the

conditions that prevail in today’s world.

Many cases of intra-State conflicts have made clear

that it is timely and necessary for the international

community to develop mechanisms that will enable

communities living within States to exercise the right of

self-determination in flexible ways and in accordance with

existing international law. The Liechtenstein research

programme that was established at Princeton University as

part of the contribution of Liechtenstein to the celebration

of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations is intended

to provide further know-how for, and assistance in,

developing such mechanisms, and I should like to take this

opportunity to thank all those countries that continue to

support us in this endeavour.

As a small State, Liechtenstein attaches the utmost

importance to strengthening international law and to

effective disarmament. We therefore actively supported the

draft resolution, submitted by Australia on behalf of a large

number of countries, that enabled us to adopt the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) after

lengthy and very difficult negotiations in the Conference on

Disarmament. The CTBT will take us one step further

towards achieving our goal of a world free of nuclear

weapons. The Government of Liechtenstein is of the view

that it is a crucial step. Tomorrow, therefore, I will sign the

CTBT on behalf of Liechtenstein, and I would like to

express our hope that as many countries as possible will do

the same.

One year ago we met in Beijing and unanimously

adopted a Declaration and a Platform for Action that

represent a new international commitment to the goals of

equality, development and peace for all women in the

world. In Liechtenstein we are in the process of preparing

the implementation of the Platform for Action, which

includes, inter alia: motivation for women to enter

politics and to present their candidatures; specific

academic and vocational guidance for girls; measures to

facilitate the compatibility of professional and family life;

and sensitization towards the problem of violence against

women and children.

Peace is a prerequisite for the attainment of equality

between women and men. Unfortunately, aggression and

armed and other types of conflict persist in many parts of

the world. Women rarely have any role in the decisions

leading to armed conflicts, but they contribute to a large

extent to preserving social order in times of war and

armed conflicts. We believe that women could and should

play an increased role in conflict resolution, and we

would particularly welcome more women being appointed

as Special Representatives of the Secretary-General.

There has been a dramatic growth in the need for

humanitarian assistance in recent years. The United

Nations system, playing a major role in the field of

humanitarian relief, has been tested almost to breaking

point by recent crises. Complex emergency situations

have resulted in increased demands on scarce resources.

There has been criticism that as a result of concentration

on emergency relief, little effort was made to devise

recovery programmes. The humanitarian community will

have to play an important role in ensuring the transition

from relief to rehabilitation. We should not forget,

however, that it has been only four years since

humanitarian action provided by the United Nations

system was given structure and coherence.

Anti-personnel land-mines, with their immensely

destructive effects on individuals and communities around

the world, are a humanitarian tragedy. Innocent civilians,

in particular women, children, refugees and displaced

persons, are at greatest risk. Furthermore, mines impede

the rehabilitation and reconstruction of societies torn by

war. In keeping with its mandate to develop and promote

international humanitarian law, the International

Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has continuously

called attention to weapons whose effects threaten to

undermine that law, and we commend the ICRC for its

efforts in that respect. I wish to reiterate our call for a

total ban on these deadly weapons.

We hope that, during this fifty-first session of the

General Assembly, we will be able to strengthen the United

Nations, which has been indispensable to the international

community for more than 50 years, and to enhance its

credibility in the eyes of the peoples whom our

Organization represents.