Nepal, 1994

It is a special pleasure for me

to congratulate His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy, Foreign

Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, on his unanimous election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth

session. We are confident that under his able leadership the

deliberations of this session will come to a fruitful

conclusion. My delegation extends its full support to him

in carrying out his important duties.

I should also like to express my delegation’s

appreciation to His Excellency Ambassador Samuel R.

Insanally, the Permanent Representative of the Republic

of Guyana to the United Nations, for successfully

presiding over the General Assembly during its forty-

eighth session. I also take this opportunity to express my

admiration to the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros

Boutros-Ghali, for the dedication, commitment and insight

with which he has been serving the United Nations.

Since the end of the cold war the world community

has faced many developments, both encouraging and

disturbing. As a Vice-Chairman of the Special

Committee against Apartheid — now dissolved — Nepal

feels particularly happy about the end of the apartheid

regime in South Africa. As President Mandela said in his

speech earlier in this session, it was one of the ironies of

our age that it was only so late in the twentieth century

that such a regime came to an end. The United Nations

role in the establishment of a united democratic and

non-racist South Africa has been gratifying to all of us.

The end of apartheid represents progress on the part of

mankind in its history of civilization. The statesmanship

of President Mandela can be a source of inspiration for

those who are in search of freedom, peace and justice

elsewhere in the world.

Nepal also welcomes the progress in the Middle

East peace process and looks forward to the establishment

of comprehensive peace in the region. We hope that such

achievements will inspire peoples in conflict with each

other elsewhere to end their hostilities, and to start similar

peace processes.

There are also disturbing areas of conflict. The

Nepalese people are grieved at the enormous loss of life

and the extensive material devastation in Rwanda. It is

our hope that with the active support of the Organization

of African Unity (OAU) in conflict resolution, the United

Nations peace-keeping efforts will facilitate the process of

restoring normalcy and a peaceful civil society in

Rwanda.

Nepal also appreciates the role played by the OAU

in Burundi in terms of conflict prevention, management

and resolution. We hope that the OAU mechanism will

be applied effectively to other troubled parts of the region

such as Somalia, Angola and Liberia, in order to restore

normalcy.

Nepal is also deeply distressed by the tragedy which,

despite the Security Council’s resolutions, continues

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unabated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We would like to

urge all the parties concerned to seek peace through

dialogue and negotiation rather than through violence.

Nepal also looks forward to an early restoration of the

democratically elected Government in Haiti, which alone

can ensure full respect for human rights in that country.

We are meeting on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary

of the United Nations, which will be a time for us to reflect

on the past five decades and plan for the next 50 years.

Born as a result of the Second World War, the United

Nations has over the past five decades ceaselessly deployed

efforts to prevent a third world war. Disarmament,

especially nuclear disarmament, has therefore been one of

its major concerns. The United Nations also made constant

efforts to bring peace to the Middle East and to put an end

to apartheid in South Africa, and it remained engaged in

many other areas of conflict. However, the last five

decades, characterized by the cold war, almost paralysed

the United Nations.

The East-West divide seriously hampered the United

Nations efforts in most conflict situations. A number of

important agreements were reached and many peace

negotiations were held outside the United Nations.

Nevertheless, those achievements were in conformity with

the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations, and the

United Nations provided an important global forum for

discussion, which helped defuse major global catastrophes.

Thus, in the ultimate analysis, the United Nations has

undoubtedly made significant contributions to international

relations. Moreover, the United Nations and its specialized

agencies and other related bodies, such as the United

Nations Development Programme, the United Nations

Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the United

Nations Population Fund, the Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United Nations and many others, have

been engaged in improving social and economic conditions

around the world.

Since the cold war, whose enormous cost adversely

affected the lives of billions of people, is now over, we at

the United Nations, standing — as it were — at the

crossroads of history, can now define the Organization’s

role and work for the next 50 years.

With such rapid changes taking place in international

relations, particularly in recent years, the United Nations

needs to be restructured and revitalized. The restructuring

of the Security Council has assumed a particular urgency.

Nepal strongly supports an increase in the membership of

the Council to reflect, not only the increase in the general

membership of the United Nations, but also the reality of

the present world. A review of the Council’s membership

has also to take into account the contributions of Member

States to the maintenance of international peace and

security. We attach a high priority to greater

transparency and openness in the Council’s work, and

also attach great importance to the principle of equitable

representation, which would give all United Nations

Members — large or small, rich or poor, powerful or

weak — a reasonable opportunity to contribute to the

work of the Council.

We hope that the work of the Open-ended Working

Group on the Security Council and related issues will be

fruitful in due time. Our delegation considers that the

reform and expansion of the Security Council should also

include measures geared to reforming its working

methods and procedures. In addition, there is a need to

enhance the relationship between the Security Council and

the General Assembly, in accordance with the relevant

provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.

The changed context of international relations and

the United Nations preoccupation with peace-keeping

operations should not be allowed to deflect attention from

efforts to achieve general and complete disarmament

under effective international control. Rather, the

propitious climate now prevailing calls for strengthening

the role of the United Nations in arms control and

disarmament. In this context, I wish to recall the

unanimous political support expressed by the General

Assembly at its last session for the decision of the

Conference on Disarmament to give to its Ad Hoc

Committee on a Nuclear Test Ban a mandate to negotiate

such a ban. To this end, the Non-Aligned Movement, of

which Nepal is a founding member, has called for a

special session of the United Nations General Assembly

on disarmament in order to undertake a comprehensive

assessment of progress towards global disarmament.

Like the rest of the international community, Nepal

looks forward to the early conclusion of a comprehensive

treaty prohibiting nuclear tests in all atmospheres. A non-

discriminatory and effectively verifiable test-ban treaty

would have a positive impact on the success of the

Conference on the review and extension of the Treaty on

the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which is due

to be held in 1995.

In addition to pursuing confidence-building

measures, the United Nations role in arms control and

disarmament needs to be effectively strengthened. In this

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context, the United Nations Regional Centres for Peace and

Disarmament can play an important role, as they provide

much-needed forums for the exchange of views. The United

Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in

Asia and the Pacific has already held several meetings to

promote such a process of dialogue and interaction.

Nepal is firm in its conviction that peace-keeping

operations, though extremely important, especially in this

post-cold-war period, are no substitute for the peaceful

resolution of conflicts through political dialogue and

mediation. Application of Chapter VII of the Charter of the

United Nations in the restoration and maintenance of

international peace and security should be invoked by the

Security Council only as a last resort, fully respecting the

principles of impartiality and non-selectivity. Nepal has

supported fully the Secretary-General’s initiative in

expanding preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution.

We have consistently committed our troops to the peace-

keeping operations undertaken by the United Nations

through the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and

the United Nations Protection Force.

Besides serving in Cambodia during the critical stage

of democratic elections there, Nepal has also sent civilian

police monitors for electoral assistance in Mozambique.

Nepal has also sent troops to Somalia, despite the heavy

loss of life and casualties suffered by our young men. We

would like to pay tribute to those Nepalese soldiers and to

the others who gave their lives in the relentless pursuit of

international peace and security. Prime Minister

Giri ja Prasad Koirala, in a recent statement to the

roundtable on United Nations peace-keeping operations in

Kathmandu, stated:

“While the Government (of Nepal) has raised its

voice at the United Nations and in appropriate

international forums for more effective mechanisms

for the safety and protection of our personnel, the

Government reaffirms its commitment to continue to

participate in such operations with a sense of

responsibility and solemn obligation.”

Since peace-keeping operations have become more

complicated and more expensive in recent years, there is

greater urgency to make those operations cost-effective and

efficient. Peace-keeping contributions must be paid in full

and on time so that the troop — contributing countries may

be in a better position to maintain the most critical element

in peace-keeping operations — the troops. My Government

holds the firm view that the death and disability

compensation to all troops should he based on equity. We

hope to review the current guidelines on this matter in

order to arrive at a standard compensation package

applicable to all.

Every peace-keeping operation should be devised

with a clear mandate, a realistic time frame and a correct

assessment of the situation. Furthermore, we would like

to reiterate that timely consultations with troop-

contributing countries are essential elements for the

enhancement of the peace-keeping capability of the

United Nations. Nepal welcomes the Secretary-General’s

initiative on stand-by arrangements for peace-keeping.

We are studying the proposal seriously, especially in view

of current events that highlight the need for the

establishment of such an arrangement.

Since the threat to security lies, inter alia, in

non-military sources such as the lack of economic and

social development, Nepal stresses the need for timely

implementation of Agenda 21 for ensuring the

sustainability of the planet for present and future

generations. The Commission on Sustainable

Development has made a good start. It must not be

allowed to falter or to be turned into a discussion forum

only. The Commission should build a bridge between the

North and the South to enable the developing countries to

follow the path of sustainable development. By providing

additional financial resources and transferring

environmentally sound technology to developing

countries, the international community can surely reach

the goals set in Agenda 21. In our view, the level of

consumption and wastage in most industrialized countries

also needs to be moderated if we are to achieve the goals

of sustainable development.

The success of population and socio-economic

development programmes hinges on the full

empowerment of women. The focus given to the

empowerment of women in decision-making, especially

in planning the size of a family, at the recent International

Conference on Population and Development is a mater of

satisfaction to my delegation. However, the success of

the Plan of Action as adopted requires increased financial

resources. The developing countries, despite their severe

resource constraints, have been committing significant

amounts in population activities at the cost of other

important areas that are required for economic growth and

development.

That important conference will be followed by the

World Summit for Social Development, the fourth World

Conference on Women and the 1996 United Nations

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Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II). This year

alone, we have participated in many important conferences:

on natural disaster reduction, on the sustainable

development of small island States, on combating

desertification and drought, and on population and

development. A question remains outstanding: that of the

availability of the critical resources for the successful

implementation of the recommendations of these

conferences. The developing countries find themselves in

an exasperating situation, trying to cope with their

responsibilities, as outlined in previous agreements and

resolutions, without the necessary actions from the

industrialized countries.

Nepal fully shares the Secretary-General’s view that

an alternative to the United Nations in the field of

development simply does not exist, especially in the light

of the new vision of development as inextricably linked

with peace and security. We reiterate our view that there

must be close cooperation and coordination between the

United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. The

main objectives of the proposed agenda for development

should he directed towards ensuring successful

implementation of existing programmes for the alleviation

of poverty. The agenda should be an instrument that looks

after the most vulnerable and the weakest nations of the

world.

The conclusion of the Uruguay Round and the signing

of the agreements at Marrakesh undoubtedly constitute a

historic breakthrough in the international trade regime. The

window of opportunity is now open for many developing

countries to enhance their trade and development. Once

again, the least developed countries will be left out, in spite

of this tremendous opportunity now available to many. The

lack of basic physical infrastructure and the absence of a

manufacturing base will prevent the least developed

countries from taking advantage of this new opportunity.

The least developed countries, including my own country,

have suffered for decades. These handicaps, however, have

not deterred us from our determination to cooperate fully

with the international community by instituting structural

adjustment programmes and economic liberalization

policies, including privatization.

Structural adjustment programmes lacking due

consideration for social safety nets have pushed a large

sector of the world’s population towards more misery and

discontent. Economic liberalization programmes without

adequate institutional and organizational set-ups have not

yielded the desired results in many countries. The major

purpose of the privatization programmes undertaken by

many developing countries — the efficient and productive

use of resources — has yet to be fulfilled. At the same

time, it may be appreciated that these inadequate

measures, resulting in higher inflation, a distorted market

system and increasing unemployment, may result in

greater social tension.

We are happy to note that in the context of the

follow-up to the Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action,

an open-ended Working Group of the Third Committee

has been established; we hope it will review the mandates

of existing human rights machinery, taking into account

the balanced emphasis between civil, political, cultural,

economic and social rights, as well as improving human

rights on the basis of the principles of impartiality,

objectivity and non-selectivity.

Violation or suppression of human rights within a

nation’s boundary have consequences outside its

boundaries as well. People unable to live in conditions

where human rights are suppressed are forced to flee their

own homelands and take refuge elsewhere. United

Nations agencies such as the Office of the United Nations

High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food

Programme, and international and non-governmental

humanitarian organizations, are well aware of this. My

delegation would like to commend the work of these

United Nations agencies. We also feel that the agencies

must be mandated to serve all the people in such difficult

situations.

The Constitution of Nepal enshrines the principle of

universal human rights. We believe that the right to

development is an integral part of human rights. Nepal

is now party to 14 international human rights instruments,

including all the major Conventions and Covenants. A

national action plan on human rights is being prepared in

line with the final document of the Vienna Conference on

Human Rights.

Nepal is also consolidating the multi-party

democratic system that was restored by the people

through a popular movement in 1990. Nepal participated

actively in the Second International Conference of New

or Restored Democracies, at Managua, Nicaragua, in July

this year. The Conference provided us with an

opportunity to share each other’s experience of nascent

democracy. In November this year the people of Nepal

are participating in our second general elections on the

basis of adult franchise. We are confident that this

exercise in democracy will give an impetus to the long-

term economic development of our country.

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The Charter of the United Nations captures the highest

ideals of mankind. However, much remains to be done to

put those ideals into practice. We look forward to

the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations as the

occasion to work for instituting dynamism and efficiency

in the United Nations. My delegation is fully confident

that our vision of the United Nations as a symbol of

peace, security, human rights and development will be

realized if Member States demonstrate the political will

and provide the necessary financial and material support

to the Organization.