New Zealand, 2000

I begin by joining

others who have congratulated you, Mr. President, on

your election. I also assure you of the New Zealand

delegation's full cooperation as you carry out your

important duties.

I also welcome the admission last week of our

neighbour and friend Tuvalu into the United Nations.

The admission of four new Pacific nations in the space

of a year contributes to the truly universal character of

the Organization.

This general debate is taking place at the start of

a new century and a new millennium. Secretary-

General Kofi Annan has called upon the Member

States of the United Nations to harness the symbolic

power of the millennium to meet the real and urgent

needs of people in every part of the world. This is an

appropriate time to recommit ourselves to the beliefs,

the values and the principles that led to the birth of the

Organization 55 years ago.

Like many other Members of the Organization,

New Zealand is a small country that tries to take a

principled and independent view of the world. In 1945,

in San Francisco, we played an active part through the

Labour Prime Minister of the day, Peter Fraser, in

framing the Charter in which heads of State and

Government reaffirmed their faith here last week.

We have always viewed the maintenance of

international peace and security, and the practical task

of peacekeeping, as key roles of the United Nations.

We are currently making our largest-ever contribution

to the United Nations peacekeeping operation in East

Timor. This commitment underlines our full support for

the central role of the United Nations in building a

stable, democratic and economically viable East Timor

in partnership with its people. So do the non-military

personnel and development assistance we have

provided to help the East Timorese create essential

services.

Just over a year ago, the East Timorese people

voted overwhelmingly for an independent future, and I

had the privilege of being part of the United Nations

Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) group that oversaw

that electoral process. We recall the horrors which

followed as pro-integration militias laid waste to the

territory, slaughtered innocent people and forced

thousands of East Timorese into West Timor.

Relative calm and stability has been restored in

most of East Timor, and we remember here today the

sacrifices made by peacekeepers from Australia,

Bangladesh, Nepal and my own country who in recent

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months laid down their lives to help achieve this. But

the militias continue to hold sway in the border areas

among the refugees in West Timor. Unless brought

under control, these militias will destabilize both West

and East Timor.

The murder last week of three United Nations

humanitarian workers in Atambua in West Timor

repelled us all. New Zealand was able to respond

quickly, along with Australia, to the United Nations

call for help in evacuating their colleagues and non-

governmental organization personnel from Atambua.

We committed helicopters with security and medical

elements from our forces serving on the border with the

United Nations Transitional Administration in East

Timor (UNTAET). This airborne evacuation, which had

the cooperation of Indonesian forces, was successful.

But the pain and the outrage we feel at the murder of

three United Nations humanitarian workers remains

undiminished.

The Security Council, in its resolution 1319

(2000), insisted that the Government of Indonesia

disarm and disband the militia immediately to ensure

safety and security in the refugee camps and for

humanitarian workers, and to prevent cross-border

incursions into East Timor. It also called for those who

have carried out attacks on international personnel to

be brought to justice. These are binding obligations.

The world awaits action to implement them without

further delay.

Besides East Timor, New Zealand is at present

contributing to 12 other peacekeeping operations,

including in Kosovo, on the borders of Syria, Israel and

Lebanon, in the Prevlaka peninsula and in Sierra

Leone. New Zealand personnel also serve with the

Peace Monitoring Group in Bougainville, the

Multinational Force Organization (MFO) in Sinai and

with the Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Bosnia. Being

conscious of the many challenges faced by the United

Nations in meeting its peacekeeping responsibilities,

we greatly welcome the Brahimi report. We trust that

the report's important recommendations will receive

serious and expeditious consideration during this

Millennium Assembly session, with a view to their

early implementation.

As the Brahimi report points out, weak mandates

and poor resourcing underlie most of those operations

which did not succeed in their objectives. We are

concerned too at the tendency to rely overly on

“coalitions of the willing” to carry out operations that

should be undertaken by the United Nations. The

failure of some Member States to pay their assessed

contributions on time, in full and without conditions

imposes an impossible burden on the Organization and

on troop contributors. We agree that the scale of

assessments for peacekeeping needs revision to make it

more equitable and transparent. Any revision must be

established in accordance with the longstanding

principle of apportioning expenses according to

Member States' capacity to pay.

Heads of State or Government agreed at the

Millennium Summit to intensify their efforts to achieve

a comprehensive reform of the Security Council in all

its aspects. In the past seven years of debate on this

matter, it has been shown just how difficult an issue it

is, especially in regard to how the Council might be

enlarged. There is no agreement on this aspect at this

time. And yet I am sure that most Member States

would agree that the Council must be made more

representative of today's membership as well as more

transparent in its working methods and more

democratic in its decision-making. If there is to be

progress towards an overall package deal on reform,

then compromises will have to be made.

At the heart of any reform, in New Zealand's

view, must be the curtailment of the veto, if indeed it

cannot be eliminated. We have argued this case since

1945, and we believe that it is even more relevant

today. A device which 50 years ago might have had the

utility of preventing the permanent members from

using the Organization to make war on one another has

in recent times served to frustrate the will of the wider

membership. I believe there is very broad agreement in

the General Assembly on the need to deal with the veto

urgently, so that the Security Council can be more

effective in carrying out its important responsibilities.

I would not want to suggest that there has been no

progress at all on Council reform. There have, in fact,

been some major steps forward in opening up the

Council's meetings and briefings to participation by

non-members. We are grateful for that. I would also

like to reaffirm New Zealand's strong support for the

Open-ended Working Group on Security Council

reform, whose deliberations have contributed to this

progress. In our view, the Working Group continues to

be the appropriate forum in which to pursue efforts

aimed at reforming the Council, because it is essential

for the health of the Organization that any reform

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package enjoy the widest support and buy-in. Council

reform is too important a matter for back-room deals.

The Millennium Declaration contains some

important guidance on human rights, democracy and

good governance. For example, all countries are

enjoined to strengthen their capacity to implement the

principles and practices of democracy and respect for

human rights, including minority rights. This could not

be more timely for my own region, the South Pacific,

where over the past year we have seen the collapse of

democracy and governance in some countries in the

face of disputes over land and economic disparities and

as a result of ethnic tensions.

There are no easy solutions to some of the

problems the region faces, but one thing is clear, and

that is that the answer to these problems is not to adopt

political systems that discriminate against particular

ethnic groups, as some in Fiji this year have sought to

do. To do so simply breeds a deeper sense of frustration

and exclusion, which is a recipe for further instability.

Small States, especially small developing countries like

our neighbours in the Pacific, face particular challenges

from globalization. They are uniquely vulnerable to

external impacts. We need to find fresh and more

effective means to development.

It is essential to help countries build for

themselves inclusive and democratic forms of

government that in turn take account of cultural values.

Underpinning this must be robust and accountable

institutions, respect for the rule of law, independence

of the judiciary, an effective press, strong civil society

and, above all, greater public education to foster a

more widespread understanding of democratic values

and processes.

The Millennium Summit provided heads of State

or Government the opportunity to take action on a

range of treaties which are fundamental to the

development of international human rights law and

international humanitarian law. My Prime Minister

took action in respect of six, and I record here in

particular New Zealand's ratification of the Optional

Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All

Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Rome

Statute of the International Criminal Court, and the two

Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of

the Child.

The practices of child prostitution, child

pornography and the appalling exploitation of children

to fight wars are a disgrace and a crime against

humanity which must be expunged. We encourage

others also to sign and ratify these agreements. I should

also add that we greatly welcome the recent decision

by the Economic and Social Council to establish a

Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

At the Millennium Summit, world leaders agreed

to strive for the elimination of weapons of mass

destruction, particularly nuclear weapons. The outcome

of the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty

on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in

May, where the five nuclear-weapon States gave an

unequivocal political undertaking to accomplish the

total elimination of their nuclear arsenals, demonstrates

a new determination to achieve a world free of nuclear

weapons. This is a matter of real urgency. We must

promote the implementation of the new commitments.

New Zealand, with its new agenda partners, will submit

a draft resolution during this session of the General

Assembly.

New Zealand will also, in partnership with Brazil,

promote a southern hemisphere free of nuclear

weapons. In addition, we will, along with Australia,

Mexico and Japan, urge all countries that have yet to

do so to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-

Test-Ban Treaty. We will also support further

preparations for the United Nations Conference on the

Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All

Its Aspects and join calls for adherence to the Ottawa

Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,

Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and

on Their Destruction.

New Zealand urges caution regarding decisions

on missile developments that could impact negatively

on nuclear disarmament, lead to a new nuclear arms

race or be inconsistent with the commitment to the

total elimination of nuclear weapons. This is no time

for complacency. The United Nations disarmament and

arms-control machinery must engage again in

negotiations and other work on the new programme of

action agreed at the NPT Conference.

Leaders also declared their resolve to minimize

the adverse effects of United Nations economic

sanctions on innocent populations. Sanctions are an

important tool at the Security Council's disposal to

encourage compliance with its resolutions, but they

must be appropriately targeted for maximum effect.

They should not impose blanket measures which harm

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innocent populations and even strengthen the grip of

despotic regimes. We support efforts within the

Organization to develop proposals for smarter, more

effective sanctions which apply pressure where it we

will have maximum impact.

The Millennium Declaration also speaks of the

need to protect our common environment. My Prime

Minister announced during the Summit our intention to

become party to the Kyoto Protocol to the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by

mid-2002. I also wish to recall a particular

achievement over the past year in the holding of the

inaugural session of the United Nations Open-ended

Informal Consultative Process on Ocean Affairs and

the law of the sea. This is a significant step forward in

providing an appropriate forum for discussion of cross-

cutting oceans issues. The success of this process

should be judged by the extent to which there is

enhanced global understanding of oceans issues and an

increased willingness to cooperate and coordinate

cross-sectorally to address them.

Finally, the Millennium Declaration sets some

key goals for development and poverty eradication and

urges meeting the special needs of Africa. This year,

New Zealand was able to increase its core funding of

the United Nations Development Programme by more

than a third and of the United Nations Children's Fund

by almost a half. We believe that the United Nations

has a key role to play in the coordination of official

development assistance delivery. The preparations for

the event on financing for development are an excellent

demonstration of leadership by the Organization and a

significant step forward in furthering cooperation with

the Bretton Woods institutions. The crushing and

seemingly never-ending debt burden, especially on the

countries of Africa, must be urgently reduced. We must

also address more effectively the scourge of

HIV/AIDS.

Leaders at last week's Summit provided this

Millennium Assembly with a clear direction and a

strong mandate. Our countries have delegated us the

responsibility to realize that vision of a better world

and we must ensure through our efforts and

determination that we do not fail them.