Luxembourg, 1995

Like previous speakers, I should like to convey to the

President of the fiftieth session of the General Assembly

our warmest congratulations on his election to the

presidency of the Assembly. As a representative of a

country close to us, Portugal, he will, I am certain,

discharge skilfully and effectively his difficult

responsibilities in leading our deliberations.

The President of our Council, Mr. Javier Solana, has

recently explained the position of the European Union on

the work of the United Nations and on the major challenges

it is called upon to face. Those are also the views of my

delegation. I welcome the promising prospects opening up

in the Balkans and the Middle East. As for Chechnya, I

must, on the other hand, regret that the parties have been

lagging behind in restoring peace to that sorely tried region

in the past year.

In the former Yugoslavia, dramatic developments in

recent months have changed substantially the nature of the

conflict there. After years of civil war, atrocities and

“ethnic cleansing”, we now see a glimmer of hope

emerging. I welcome the recent agreements in Geneva

between the warring parties, as well as that on the opening

up of Sarajevo, which was arrived at thanks to the

mediation efforts and the commitment of the American

special envoy, Mr. Richard Holbrooke. I am, however, not

unaware of the fact that negotiations on a comprehensive

settlement will be lengthy and that its implementation will

be a difficult task.

The Government of Luxembourg is prepared to take

part in the reconstruction effort as long as certain

conditions are met: the effective implementation of a

comprehensive settlement, the implementation of a

disarmament plan and respect for human rights and for

minorities, including the right of return.

In the Middle East, negotiations for the conclusion

of a second agreement on the autonomy of the occupied

territories have just been concluded. Mr. Rabin and Mr.

Peres, as well as Mr. Arafat, have shown exemplary

tenacity and political will, and they deserve our warmest

congratulations.

We are all called upon to help in the success of this

vast endeavour for peace now under way. My

Government has launched an important action for

cooperation in development in the occupied territories. It

will also send observers to the forthcoming elections,

which will be the decisive test for the creation of a civil

and democratic society.

My country notes with satisfaction the indefinite

extension last May of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation

of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). It appeals urgently to the

nuclear-weapon Powers to renounce any new testing and

to comply with the current moratorium. Such a decision

would help to create a climate favourable to the

conclusion in 1996 of a global treaty on the banning of

nuclear testing, one which is suitably verifiable.

The Fourth World Conference on Women has just

concluded in Beijing. My Government commends the

progress achieved at that Conference. It hails the fact that,

for the first time, the rights of women are recognized as

an integral and indivisible part of all human rights and

fundamental freedoms. In particular, we have in mind the

recognition of the right of all women to control their

sexual health and their access, on an equal footing, to

economic resources. The “right to be different” claimed

by religious fundamentalists should not hamper the

implementation of these new principles.

The events of some time ago led us to believe that

the old bipolar world was a thing of the past and that a

new world order was automatically about to succeed it.

Unfortunately, reality has not confirmed that hope. The

multipolar world in which we live has not at all become

more unified, nor more supportive, nor safer. Ethnic

conflicts have broken out in many parts of the world.

Narrow-minded nationalism has gained adherents, and

political and religious intolerance is spreading.

We thought that with increased international

cooperation, the role of multinational organizations would

increase. This has not always been the case. Often, the

role of our Organization has been ill perceived or badly

presented to the public.

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In many cases, the image given of the United Nations

seems unfair. It does not take into account the many

constraints under which the United Nations functions. Very

often, the critics are aiming at the wrong target, forgetting

that it is Member States that prevent the United Nations

either from taking decisions or by acting, by denying it the

necessary resources.

The political commitment of Member States is often

not commensurate with the ever-growing responsibilities of

the United Nations.

Our Organization must then today come to grips with

a new situation arising from the fact that most current

conflicts take place within the borders of a single State, and

no longer pit States against each other. Intervention

constitutes an interference that only the United Nations can

legitimize.

These ethnic or religious conflicts, whose origins

derive from economic and social issues, are the result not

only of regular armies, but of militias and clans. The

civilian population is often the first victim, if not the main

target.

The missions demanded of the United Nations are also

becoming more and more complex, difficult and dangerous.

The United Nations is called upon to maintain peace, but

often there is no peace to keep.

The United Nations has none the less had a number of

successes which have been important but which the media

have tended to minimize, be they in Namibia, Cambodia,

El Salvador, Mozambique or Haiti. In those countries, the

United Nations has helped peoples to overcome years of

civil war and to channel their energies into building

democratic nations.

These positive and courageous actions contrast with

other, rather timid reactions to conflicts that threaten the

lives of thousands of civilians and expose them to terrible

violations of their basic rights. This was the case in

Rwanda and was long also the case in the former

Yugoslavia, even if the international community has

provided substantial humanitarian assistance and helped to

ease the suffering of the victims. But as long as the United

Nations does not adopt a more defined and resolute

approach that would allow it to prevent such catastrophes,

the effectiveness and credibility of our Organization run the

risk of being called into question.

As I have just emphasized with regard to the

conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, we must learn from

our failures and near-successes. My country encourages

efforts to provide the United Nations with its own rapid-

reaction capacity. But the Organization should also

determine whether increased cooperation with specialized

regional organizations, such as the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization or the European Union, might not in certain

cases be both more effective and more economical. At

any rate, any new United Nations operation should be

established only on the basis of a military appraisal as

well. Furthermore, the United Nations should see to it that

the commanders of an operation are given sufficient

military resources and clear, consistent political

guidelines.

Our era has witnessed spectacular developments at

the national level. The concept of the State has been

called into question as both a mechanism for solving

national problems and a basic element of the international

system. States find themselves increasingly threatened

with disintegration, their citizens seeking to escape the

oppression of rigid structures and demanding to become

part of ever more narrowly defined ethnic groups.

In such a context, democracy would seem to be the

best means of ensuring the viability of the State as

manager of public affairs and guarantor of progress. At

the national level, democracy provides the stability

necessary for peace by ensuring respect for human rights

and allowing the population to express its will. At the

regional level, as in Europe, it involves States, large and

small, in joint decision-making and contributes to

development by encouraging cooperation and fostering

peace. Democratic States do not war with each other.

It is thus an important duty of the international

community to promote democracy among and within

States by helping them to build a democratic system; by

providing them with logistical and technical support for

the organization of free elections; by promoting the

creation of a public sector to guarantee the proper

management of State affairs; and by providing the various

sectors of civil society with the resources to consolidate

the bases of democracy. The Government of Luxembourg

provides tangible support to the activities of our

Organization in this sphere.

In our view, the promotion of human rights is

another priority area. In particular, the adoption of the

Convention on the Rights of the Child represents a large

step forward. This Convention is a valuable instrument

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that helps to protect children from physical and mental

abuse. It is therefore essential for Governments that have

ratified the Convention to adopt and implement the

necessary national legislation. The General Assembly has

initiated international activity on behalf of millions of street

children. My Government proposes that a similar effort be

undertaken to assist millions of children who work by

necessity or even compulsion.

It is unacceptable, indeed intolerable, that at the end

of the twentieth century more than a billion people live in

abject poverty and almost 1.5 billion men, women and

children lack sufficient food and drinking water and have

no access to education or the most elementary health care.

To be sure, certain parts of the South today are enjoying

remarkable development. But others, on the African

continent in particular, seem to have been left behind by the

progress from which the world economy as a whole has

benefited.

It is also alarming that inequalities both within

countries and between the countries of the South and the

North are growing rather than shrinking, and that the richest

fifth of mankind owns more than four-fifths of the world’s

social product while the poorest fifth must content itself

with 1.4 per cent.

As concerns the developing countries, we have a duty

to be supportive. This support should supplement and

strengthen the efforts which these countries must undertake

at the national level. Luxembourg has doubled its

development assistance in just a few years. It has

committed itself to the goal of achieving 0.7 per cent in

official development assistance before the end of the

century. It would also like to see new progress achieved in

reducing the debt that continues to paralyse the

development of many developing countries.

Our Organization must play a central role as the major

institution for international cooperation at the global level.

This was in fact envisaged by our Charter. The Preamble

stresses the need to promote “the economic and social

advancement of all peoples” and thereby makes

development one of the principal goals of our Organization.

Fifty years after the creation of the United Nations, we

believe that the time has come to begin an in-depth review

of the activities and structures of the Organization in the

economic and social spheres, taking into account the far-

reaching changes that have occurred and the growing

globalization of problems. This review should take

cognizance of the fact that countries are being faced with

new phenomena that are often diverse but are alike in

reaching beyond national borders.

I am thinking, inter alia, of such health problems as

AIDS or of such environmental problems as the depletion

of the ozone layer and global warming. There are also

such social phenomena as population growth, the pressure

of migration, the problem of refugees, and violations of

human rights. Other trans-border issues that are of

increasing concern are drug trafficking, and new forms of

violence and crime and even international terrorism.

We need an effective system built on these realities

and better able to take into account the interests of all

mankind, the poorest in particular. Such a system should

be able to define integrated policies and lay down clear,

coherent guidelines. Cooperation between international

financial institutions and the United Nations system

should be organized with this in view.

Only the United Nations has the necessary

legitimacy and authority for such reform. The work of

renewal and clarification that has begun with the Agenda

for Development is a natural component of this global

perspective. My country, together with its partners in the

European Union, intends to make an active contribution

to the discussion to be held on this subject.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations,

several focus groups have considered the challenges

facing humanity and the ability of the United Nations to

meet them. In particular, I would refer to the Carlsson-

Ramphal Commission, which submitted the report entitled

“On Global Governance”, and an independent working

group on the future of the United Nations which the

Secretary-General himself established and which delivered

the results of its study last June. These two reports set

forth a number of potential reforms and make concrete

proposals, including one to create an economic security

council.

I believe that these proposals are a valuable source

of inspiration and make an important contribution to the

reform work that should be pursued and intensified. I

attach great importance to the consideration of these

reports, which our Assembly has entrusted to the high-

level Working Group recently set up in the framework of

the strengthening of the United Nations system.

Before concluding I should like to deal with two

issues concerning the reform process begun by the

Organization — expanding the Security Council, and

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putting the finances of the United Nations on a sound

footing.

The Security Council today is invested with enormous

responsibilities. Its decisions commit all Member States and

have a decisive impact on the fate of millions of human

beings. The Security Council must therefore reflect as

faithfully as possible the determination of the international

community as a whole. A Security Council more

representative of today’s world would strengthen the

legitimacy of its actions and facilitate the implementation

of its decisions.

My Government is in favour of a balanced increase

that would involve the admission to the Council of new

permanent and non-permanent members from both the

North and the South. In particular we would like

permanent-member status to be acknowledged for economic

Powers whose positive role in international affairs has long

been recognized.

The improved representativeness of the Security

Council cannot be achieved only by remaking its

membership: it also requires greater transparency in its

decision-making processes. Dialogue with other Members

of the Organization, especially those countries that

contribute troops for peace-keeping operations, must be

enhanced.

Finally, the time has come to delete from the Charter

references to “enemy States” which have not existed for a

long time now.

Each and every one of us is aware of the seriousness

of the financial crisis that the Organization faces. It results

not only from sums disbursed, which are relatively speaking

very modest if we compare them to sums invested

elsewhere. It results essentially from the failure of Member

States which fulfil inadequately, if at all, their obligation to

pay their contributions to the budget of the Organization.

Each and every State is bound under the Charter to pay its

contributions on time and in full.

The Luxembourg Government is in favour of a

monitoring mechanism that would ensure the proper

management of the United Nations system.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the

United Nations, Member States should endeavour to define

an approach that could confer on the Organization new

legitimacy and credibility for the next century. This will

succeed only if they involve in this effort representatives of

civil society and, in particular, those of non-governmental

organizations.

But in the final analysis the proper functioning and

efficiency of the United Nations depend first and foremost

on the political support that Member States, especially the

most powerful, give to multilateralism, as well as the

political, military and financial resources they are

prepared to make available to international organizations.