Nepal, 1993

I have the honour to convey

to the General Assembly greetings from the people and

Government of Nepal and the best wishes of His Majesty

King Birenda Bir Bikram Shah Dev for the success of its

forty-eighth session.

As I stand before members today, my thoughts go back

to 1960, when the first elected Prime Minister of Nepal, the

late B.P. Koirala, addressed the Assembly and declared that

the foreign policy of Nepal was inspired by the purposes and

Forty-eighth session - 13 October l993 11

principles of the United Nations. He said then that Nepal

looked upon the Organization as an instrument for promoting

peace and justice among nations.

The late Prime Minister’s visit to the United Nations

was an event of historic significance for Nepal. A

revolutionary transformation had then taken place in my

country. As a result, a conscious and coherent foreign

policy, with centrality given to the principles of the Charter

of the United Nations, had started to take shape.

Similar revolutionary changes again took place in my

country in 1990, after a gap of more than three decades. In

accordance with the wishes of our people, multiparty

democracy has been restored in Nepal. Now there is a

constitutional guarantee of human rights and fundamental

freedoms. As the second elected Prime Minister to address

this body, after 33 years, I must say that this moment has a

deep personal overtone for me.

Restoration of multiparty democracy and respect for

fundamental human rights does not necessarily mean that we

have solved all our problems. The expectations of the

people are naturally high, but the means at our disposal are

extremely limited.

Faced with such problems, my Government has been

making every effort to ensure a better standard of living for

our people in larger freedom. Our development plans are

based on the premise that it is the individual citizen and not

the State which has the right to development. Along with

economic liberalization, we are pursuing a people-oriented

development policy focused on poverty alleviation. To

achieve our goals we have increased investments in human-

priority areas. Given the enormous constraints upon us,

ranging from lack of resources to the high cost of

infrastructure, a shortage of skilled personnel and

institutional deficiencies, our problems are daunting. We

look forward to greater understanding from donor countries

and multilateral agencies in helping us to implement our

people-oriented development programmes, in upgrading local

skills and in building the capacity to accelerate human

development.

The foreign policy of Nepal is guided by the objective

of ensuring its sovereignty, political independence and

national security while promoting international peace and

cooperation. Inspired by the purposes and principles of the

United Nations, the policy of non-alignment, and respect for

human rights, we seek friendship and cooperation with all

countries of the world, and in particular with our neighbours.

We have reason to be satisfied with the excellent relations

we enjoy with the countries in our immediate

neighbourhood. We are partners with our friends in South

Asia in an effort to forge a mutually beneficial scheme of

cooperation for the welfare of our people under the aegis of

the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

With the sudden end of the cold war the world is at the

threshold of a new era of shared responsibility for global

peace and development. The post-cold-war world is very

much in need of order, but it is a world that cannot be

ordered by military and economic Powers alone. At this

time of historic transition, political leadership in all countries

must show a higher order of statesmanship. It is time to

shed old prejudices and parochialism. We should be able to

pool the best of every civilization and culture for the greater

good of mankind.

Changes in international relations have also created

opportunities to devise new partnership in global

responsibility. The world today is poised to consider new

approaches to international law based not on unilateralism

but on multilateralism. The United Nations is an

organization of the powerful and the weak, the large and the

small, the wealthy and the poor, each contributing its share

to the common interest. It is in the interest of all to make

the United Nations an effective and influential agent of

constructive change in a turbulent world.

If the United Nations is to fulfil its Charter obligations

it must deal with the root causes of conflicts and instability.

The mechanisms and processes at its disposal for achieving

that goal must be strengthened and refined. In this context,

there are four areas which demand immediate attention:

first, international cooperation to combat poverty; secondly,

strengthening of the role of the United Nations in the

maintenance of international peace and security; thirdly,

progressive reduction and finally elimination of weapons of

mass destruction and, fourthly, universalization of human

rights.

Democracy and human rights are easily eroded when

widespread poverty prevails. Poverty undermines human

dignity, contributes to environmental degradation and

undermines the cohesion of a society. It also poses a lasting

threat to peace and stability. The search for collective

security cannot, therefore, be separated from the sustained

efforts to improve the economic and social conditions of

peoples everywhere. Agenda 21, adopted at the Rio

Conference on Environment and Development, is a

comprehensive blueprint for sustainable development. To

turn that vision into reality there is an urgent need for

12 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

resumption of the North-South dialogue and for economic

cooperation between developing nations.

The President returned to the Chair.

In this context, I look forward to the

Secretary-General’s agenda for development. We sincerely

hope that an agenda for development will form the basis of

accelerating international cooperation to the mutual benefit

of developed and developing countries alike. The upcoming

International Conference on Population and Development,

the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth

World Conference on Women should also be occasions to

focus on the human dimensions of socio-economic problems.

In speaking of social and economic issues, I recall the

initiative taken by countries of South Asia under the aegis of

the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to

work together for the cause of children. That initiative

provided the major motivation for the holding of the World

Summit for Children. The mid-decade review in 1995 must

be an occasion to evaluate the implementation of the

promises the international community made to children at

the World Summit. Despite conflicting demands on our

limited resources, we in Nepal are allocating an increasing

portion of our national budget to child and maternal health

and welfare and on other basic human-services areas. We

are in favour of the proposal for matching resource

allocations by donor countries for such national initiatives.

The dramatic increase in the demands on and

heightened expectations of the United Nations is nowhere

more compelling than in the area of peace and security.

With experience spanning over 35 years in United Nations

missions, Nepal welcomes the expansion in the mandates of

peace-keeping operations. The recent successes of the

missions in El Salvador and Cambodia are testimony to the

potential of a United Nations operation with a clearly

defined and practicable mandate. The joint venture of the

United Nations and the Organization of American States in

Haiti is breaking newer ground in international cooperation

to restore a democratically elected Government and to

protect and promote human rights.

Without minimizing the enormity of the problems the

United Nations has to take into account in Somalia, I feel

that the emphasis on military action will overshadow the

larger goal of the mission in that country. I urge the

redoubling of efforts to seek lasting political solutions to the

problems in Somalia.

I appeal to the parties concerned in Bosnia and

Herzegovina to respond immediately to the successive

resolutions of the Security Council and halt the senseless

carnage of innocent people. The continuing tragedy in the

territory of the former Yugoslavia presents a test-case for

viable cooperation between the United Nations and regional

organizations in the maintenance of peace and security.

Nepal will continue to support the further development

of preventive diplomacy by the Secretary-General and the

Security Council. In the maintenance of peace and security,

the implementation of enforcement measures under the

Charter should be the step of last resort. It should be the

exception to rather than the rule of the game. The real

strength of collective security lies in the ability to implement

the provisions of the Charter relating to peaceful settlement

of disputes.

The grounds for the intervention of the Security

Council have also raised questions of consistency. As the

principal organ entrusted with the maintenance of

international peace and security, the Council must act in an

even-handed and impartial manner and must be perceived as

doing so.

The recent comments of the Secretary-General on the

financial situation of the Organization should be a cause of

concern to all. Investments in peace-keeping, peacemaking

and preventive diplomacy are investments in collective

stability. It is not possible for the United Nations to play its

role without adequate resources.

Along with other non-aligned countries, Nepal has

always subscribed to the call for a more active United

Nations role in arms control and disarmament. Since mutual

fear is the source of any arms race, confidence-building

measures must be seriously pursued in order to achieve the

goals of disarmament. Nations should pursue a culture of

ensuring security at the lowest possible level of armaments.

Successes in bilateral negotiations on nuclear weapons,

conventional forces in Europe and chemical weapons prove

that it is a feasible goal.

Nepal deems it extremely significant that all five

nuclear-weapon States are now parties to the nuclear

non-proliferation Treaty. We have long advocated an early

conclusion of a comprehensive test-ban treaty. Meaningful

progress in this area will have important implications for the

review and extension Conference on the non-proliferation

Treaty.

Forty-eighth session - 13 October l993 13

Protection of human rights has emerged as an important

factor in the development of friendly relations among States.

The United Nations must spare no effort in establishing an

international norm of human rights. The World Conference

on Human Rights was a major step in this direction. Human

rights cannot be secure without a universal conscience on the

part of all peoples to uphold each other’s rights in full

understanding of the just demands of the individual, the

community, the State and the international order. Human

rights cannot be secured unless there is an absolute freedom

from fear from any source. There is a direct correlation

between the status of human rights, the democratic process

and an evolution of a culture of peaceful settlement of

disputes. The threat to peace is the greatest when human

rights are denied.

The world is at a vital turning-point. The old order has

come to an end while the new has yet to take shape. While

some old contradictions persist and new ones appear, some

unexpected bright areas have also dawned. Nepal welcomes

the agreement reached by the negotiating parties in South

Africa to hold an election in April 1994. We share the deep

concern of the international community over the continued

violence which threatens the peaceful transition of South

Africa to a non-racial democratic society.

Nepal has long enjoyed friendship with both the Israeli

and the Palestinian peoples. We welcome the Declaration of

Principles as well as the exchange of letters of mutual

recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation

Organization (PLO). The statesmanship shown by the

leaders of Israel and the PLO promises a new beginning for

the Middle East and, indeed, the world. We earnestly hope

that this historic breakthrough will facilitate the search for a

comprehensive and lasting solution of the Middle East

problem.

As I come towards the end of my statement, I wish to

extend to you, Sir, my hearty congratulations on your

election to the high office of President of the General

Assembly at a time when the United Nations is passing

through a very important phase in its history. I also take

this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to

Mr. Stoyan Ganev for his stewardship of the forty-seventh

session of the General Assembly.

I must also take this opportunity to pay our warmest

tribute to the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

His efforts to reform and strengthen the United Nations with

the courage of conviction have been universally appreciated.

We are impressed by his vision and dynamism, which are

necessary for the United Nations to cope with the new

realities and challenges of our time. Mr. Boutros-Ghali was

a well-known figure in my country even before he became

the Secretary-General of the United Nations. We consider

him to be a sincere friend of Nepal.

Although small in military and economic strength,

Nepal is fully alive to its responsibilities as a Member of

this world Organization. Nepal will not hesitate to take an

independent and objective stand in favour of larger good and

justice. For us, the Charter of the United Nations captures

the highest ideals of mankind. I take this opportunity to

rededicate the commitment of the people and the

Government of Nepal to the United Nations.