New Zealand, 2004

Fifty-nine years ago the

United Nations was established by nations determined

to work collectively to find alternatives to conflict as a

means of resolving disputes and to create a stable,

secure and more just and prosperous world. Devastated

and exhausted by world war for the second time within

25 years, nations put their faith in multilateralism and

in this body in order to avoid future wars. The name

'United Nations' evoked the unity of humankind, in

which our shared needs and common humanity were

more important than our differences.

It is obvious as we consider the world today that

we have achieved that vision only in part. Yes, world

wars have been avoided. International covenants have

set out universally agreed human rights standards

against which the performance of governments can be

measured. International law has been developed and

strengthened. As Kofi Annan emphasized this morning

(see ), putting the rule of law into effect at

home and internationally is essential to achieving a

fair, just and civilized world. Cooperation has achieved

advances in meeting social, economic and

environmental needs.

But much more remains to be done. War, more

often within than across the boundaries of States, has

taken the lives of tens of millions of people since 1945,

most of them civilians. Weapons of mass destruction

have accumulated and access to them has spread to

more countries. New diseases such as HIV/AIDS have

emerged, with devastating consequences. The gap

between rich and poor countries has widened, not

diminished.

This year the Secretary-General's High-Level

Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change will put

forward proposals for reforming and strengthening the

United Nations, aimed at ensuring its relevance and

effectiveness in addressing these issues. It is critical

that we seize this unique opportunity to institute

positive reforms and not squander it by adopting

narrow, self-interested and inflexible responses. Nor

will a lowest-common-denominator approach achieve

what we all require.

Reform is long overdue. The composition of the

Security Council cannot go on reflecting the world as it

was in 1945. An expanded Security Council and reform

of outmoded electoral groupings is necessary for the

Council to be representative of the international

community as it is today. Those changes will

strengthen the Councilís mandate and enhance its

credibility as the pre-eminent organ of the United

Nations. No solution, of course, will satisfy the

viewpoint of every Member nation. A willingness to

compromise on a package of proposals will be

essential. But clearly, enhancing the representation of

areas such as Asia, Latin America and Africa must be

an objective, and account must be taken of the

significant contributions to the United Nations of

nations such as Japan.

While the High-Level Panel will focus on reform

of the United Nations and security considerations,

development goals to create a fairer world and promote

economic and social progress in the developing world

are further vital considerations for the United Nations

in the year ahead. For hundreds of millions of people,

starvation, disease and poverty are more immediate

threats than the concerns others of us have about

terrorism and security.

We are now at a turning point in achieving the

Millennium Development Goals. Improving the quality

and quantity of development assistance is crucial.

However, real and lasting progress to meet

development challenges is also dependent on building

a fairer, more open and equitable global trading

system. Countries of the Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development (OECD) spend

$360 billion each year on subsidizing agricultural

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production in a way that excludes opportunities for the

developing world to export - not only to OECD

countries, but to third markets as well. That sum

dwarfs the amount the OECD countries provide in

development assistance.

New Zealand welcomes the progress made at the

World Trade Organization General Council meeting in

Geneva in July, which put the Doha Development

Agenda back on track. Agriculture is at the heart of the

round; the European Union and United States

agreement to eliminate all agricultural export subsidies

is particularly welcome.

The United Nations must also adapt itself to the

changing nature of security and humanitarian concerns.

The concept of national sovereignty being paramount

and standing in the way of international intervention in

local conflicts cannot be sustained. As the Secretary-

General has challenged us,

'if humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an

unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should

we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica - to

gross and systematic violations of human rights

that offend every precept of our common

humanity?' (A/54/2000, para. 217)

The International Commission on Intervention

and State Sovereignty concluded two and a half years

ago that sovereign States have the responsibility to

protect their own citizens from avoidable catastrophe:

from mass murder and rape, from starvation. When

they are unwilling or unable to do so, that

responsibility must be borne by the broader community

of nations.

We are today witnessing a humanitarian and

human rights catastrophe in Darfur. The World Health

Organization reports that up to 10,000 people a month

are dying or being killed. The very young and the

elderly are most vulnerable.

A few days ago, by its resolution 1564 (2004), the

Security Council resolved to support an enlarged

African Union monitoring mission, demanded that all

parties cease all violence and human rights violations

and threatened further steps against the Government of

the Sudan if it fails to disarm the militias and protect

civilians.

Within the General Assembly, countries must

work together in a united and determined way to

enforce those provisions and prevent the tragedy that is

unfolding. History will not forgive those who stand in

the way of protecting 1.5 million refugees in that

region and allowing them to return safely to their

homes. It is also important that those responsible for

the mass murders and the abuse of human rights there

be held to account for their actions. There must be no

impunity for such crimes.

That is true in Darfur, and is also true of those

responsible for the destruction of East Timor and the

murder of people there in 1999. The ad hoc tribunals in

Indonesia have failed to bring to justice those who are

responsible. That failure can only encourage such

people to commit further atrocities, believing that they

will never be held responsible for their actions.

New Zealand welcomes the establishment of the

International Criminal Court and the role that it will

now play in dealing with genocide, war crimes and

crimes against humanity. It urges all countries which

have not yet done so to accede to the convention

establishing that body and to recognize its jurisdiction.

In the area of conflict resolution, we face today

two major challenges: in Afghanistan and in Iraq. New

Zealand has strongly supported efforts to bring security

and stability to Afghanistan. As a small country we

have contributed more than NZ$80 million in military

and development assistance. We welcome progress

towards presidential elections next month and the

essential democratic mandate that they will provide to

the Government.

Strong international support, however, will be

necessary to meet the challenges which lie ahead. That

includes ending the production and trading of drugs.

Afghanistan provides about 75 per cent of the world

trade in opiates. The money derived funds warlords

and organized crime and undermines the ability of the

legitimate Government to function.

New Zealand deplores the violence in Iraq, which

continues to harm or take the lives of so many people,

and the circumstances which have contributed to that

violence. We call on those responsible for taking the

lives of innocent people to end their violence. They

now have access to a political process which they

should use to promote their views and interests. A

credible election process is vital to creating an Iraqi

Government which has a popular mandate. The United

Nations has a key role to play in that process, but

adequate security and a safe environment are first

necessary for that to occur. New Zealand will continue

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to support the interim Iraqi authority and the United

Nations in their efforts to restore security, peace and

prosperity to the Iraqi people, who have suffered for so

long.

In Iraq and elsewhere, close attention also needs

to be given to the protection of United Nations staff.

The General Assembly this year will consider an

integrated security strategy for the United Nations,

which will incorporate a system-wide review of the

United Nations security apparatus, accountability and

resources. The Convention on the Safety of United

Nations and Associated Personnel must be

strengthened and supported by all States Members of

the United Nations.

New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism and

will continue to contribute strongly to the campaign

against terrorism. In particular, we condemn the

inhumanity of terrorists in Beslan who sacrificed

children as pawns in pursuit of their political

objectives. However, attempts to suppress terrorism by

force will not by themselves be enough unless we also

address the causes which drive people to support,

finance or be recruited into terrorism.

In that regard, no action will be more important

to the undermining of terrorism today than finding a

just and sustainable solution to the conflict between

Israel and the Palestinian people. The international

community must work with those countries to

overcome the failure of leadership, the lack of resolve

and the cycle of violence and retaliation which stand in

the way of solving that conflict.

Finally, in the Pacific region, New Zealand's own

neighbourhood, we can celebrate the progress which

has been made in Bougainville and in the Solomon

Islands in ending conflict and re-establishing the rule

of law. In both cases, a concerted regional response

with the support of the United Nations has been

effective. In Bougainville, that response created peace

from a situation where a 10-year civil war had resulted

in widespread devastation and the loss of thousands of

lives.

In the Solomon Islands, the intervention of the

Regional Assistance Mission has restored the rule of

law by its elected Government in place of the anarchy

created by armed militias. More than 3,500 weapons

have been collected and destroyed, social services and

a credible budgetary progress restored and militiamen

and corrupt elements from the police and Government

arrested and charged.

Much however, remains to be done to meet the

wide-ranging challenges which confront the Pacific

region, including environmental threats, ethnic

conflict, poor law enforcement and governance and the

threat of disease. Regional solutions are being applied

by the Pacific Islands Forum through greater

collaboration and integration in addressing problems.

International cooperation through processes such as the

10-year Review of the Barbados Programme of Action

set to take place in Mauritius next year will also help.

In conclusion, 59 years from the end of the

Second World War and the establishment of the United

Nations, the world continues to face major challenges

to its security and well-being. The opportunity exists

this year for us to consider and improve the ways by

which the Assembly can address the problems faced by

humanity and make a difference. Success or failure to

do so will be the collective responsibility of all of us.