New Zealand, 2013

Greetings! Let me begin

by congratulating President Ashe on his election to the

presidency of the General Assembly. He is taking the

reins at an important time. We wish him every success,

and he has New Zealand’s support.

The recent events in Kenya, Iraq and Pakistan show

how troubled the world can be. We commiserate with

the Governments and peoples of those countries and

extend our deepest sympathies to those who lost family

and friends in those tragic incidents.

For most of us, born after the Second World War, the

United Nations has been at the centre of our conception

of how the world organizes itself. But the reality of the

United Nations can be quite challenging. It is the one

place where the countries of the world meet, talk and

try to find solutions to global and regional issues.

Sadly, some of those discussions can become so

arcane that they are sometimes quite removed from the

issues they claim to be addressing. That is a concern in

particular for small States, to which the Organization is

so vitally important.

Even more sadly, the United Nations has too often

failed to provide solutions to the problems the world

expects it to resolve. The gap between aspiration and

delivery is all too apparent, as the situation in Syria

has again so brutally reminded us. But any failures of

this institution are less failures of the Organization

than they are failures on our part, as its Member States,

and on the part of those who have the responsibility of

leading those States.

There would be no dreadful humanitarian situation

in Syria if Syria’s leaders had upheld the commitments

made to the international community and to the Syrian

people when Syria joined the Organization and ratified

the human rights covenants.

The Organization would not also have been a

powerless bystander to the Syrian tragedy for over

two years if the lack of agreement among the Security

Council’s permanent members had not shielded the

Al-Assad regime, thereby reconfirming the fears of

New Zealand and others that had opposed the veto at

the original San Francisco Conference, in 1945.

New Zealand is pleased that the Security Council

has at last met on the situation in Syria. The Secretary-

General has advised the Council and the General

Assembly that the United Nations Mission has now

confirmed, unequivocally and objectively, that

chemical weapons have been used in Syria. The report

(see A/67/997) found clear and convincing evidence

that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve

agent Sarin were used on 21 August.

The information in the report also makes it very

clear that those rockets must have been fired by the

Syrian regime. As the Secretary-General has said, these

are war crimes, and those responsible must be brought

to account.

Those that try to cast doubt on the report’s

conclusions make themselves look foolish and do a

disservice to the United Nations.

It is imperative now that the Council act. It must

adopt a resolution that responds to the use of chemical

weapons. It must find a means to hold those responsible

to account and establish an effective mechanism

for the destruction of those weapons in line with the

proposal developed by the United States and Russia.

The resolution must also provide for the protection of

the civilian population.

While Syria necessarily commands our attention,

I also want to spend some time on some more positive

developments for both the Organization and its Member

States. I want to begin with my own country, New

Zealand, whose emergence as a fully independent State

has proceeded in parallel with the development of the

United Nations.

New Zealand was present at the founding in San

Francisco. We take pride in the fact that we were able

to influence the drafting of the Charter, particularly the

section on the Trusteeship Council, which paved the

way for a number of States to become full Members of

the Organization.

New Zealand has come a long way since the Charter

was adopted. Then, we were emerging from our status

as a dominion of the United Kingdom. Today we proudly

assert ourselves as a small but independent and diverse

country that has a wide network of friends and trading

relationships in all the major regions and markets of

the world. We value our traditional relationships with

Australia and the Pacific, and in Europe and North

America as we build new links with partners in Asia,

the rest of the Americas and the Caribbean, and Africa.

Building and sustaining political and commercial

links across the regions of the world is no small matter

for a country like New Zealand. We are surrounded by

the Pacific Ocean and located over three hours’ flying

time from our nearest neighbour, Australia, in one of

the least populated parts of the world. We share with

our Pacific island neighbours the challenges of distance

and isolation, and of having to hold our own against

much larger countries whose economies of scale

and proximity to markets give them a considerable

competitive advantage. These factors have reinforced

New Zealand’s approach to the United Nations and to

the other international organizations that have shaped

the post-Second World War environment.

We have a strong preference for a rules-based,

multilateralist approach, whether in the United

Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the

World Bank. We know that rules and standards set

internationally provide us the greatest certainty and

the greatest protection. We draw strength from global

agreements and from the collective commitment they

represent.

That is why we attach such importance to the

completion of the Doha Round. While New Zealand

continues to actively negotiate bilateral and regional

trade agreements, we acknowledge that free trade

agreements often leave least developed countries on the

sidelines. The benefit of the WTO, as with the United

Nations, is that the rules negotiated there apply across

the globe, irrespective of a country’s size or wealth.

Our preference for international rules reflects New

Zealand’s national approach to governance. We have

a robust and transparent system of Government and

sound financial institutions that have helped us ride out

the worst effects of the global financial crisis. That was

despite the significant economic and social challenges

we faced after the destructive earthquake that struck

Christchurch, our second largest city, in 2011.

As we work to restore the built environment in

Christchurch, New Zealanders are also conscious

of our dependence on and our responsibility towards

the natural environment. In policy terms, climate

change has been a challenge for New Zealand and

for the international community more broadly, but

New Zealanders know we must play our part, and we

have taken action. We have introduced an extensive

emissions-trading scheme. We are investing in the

Global Research Alliance to find new ways to manage

agricultural greenhouse gases, and we have committed

to reducing emissions to 5 per cent below 1990 levels

by 2020.

We made that commitment under the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

rather than the Kyoto Protocol. We did that because,

while the Kyoto Protocol once seemed to provide a path

forward, things have changed. The Protocol now covers

only a small percentage of global emissions. We need a

single legal framework that commits all major emitters.

While climate change is an important issue, it pales

in comparison to the problems faced by many Member

States. One of the most intractable is that of Israel and

Palestine. As long as that problem is left unresolved,

there can be no assured peace in the Middle East and no

security for the wider region. There can be no resolution

without the Israeli and Palestinian peoples both being

assured of viable homelands within secure borders.

New Zealand pays tribute to the tenacity of United

States Secretary of State Kerry and to the courage of

President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu in

agreeing to resume the Middle East peace process.

In our own region, we have celebrated the successful

conclusion of the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste

and the transition of the Regional Assistance Mission

to the Solomon Islands from a military to a police-led

operation. We look forward with intense interest and

cautious hope to the reinstatement of democracy in

Fiji. We acknowledge the positive developments there,

including with regard to election preparations and voter

registration. The countries of the Pacific, including

New Zealand, want and need Fiji to be successful,

democratic and well-governed.

Earlier this year, New Zealand withdrew the bulk

of its forces from Afghanistan, following the closure of

the New Zealand-led provincial reconstruction team in

Bamian province, which provided security and helped

bring about a significant improvement in governance

and development. Schools and hospitals were rebuilt and

health centres re-opened. Mortality rates for children

under 5 were halved. Maternal deaths are now a quarter

of the Taliban-era levels. Girls now make up half the

number of primary-school-age children. New Zealand

expertise also helped substantially improve agricultural

yields through the implementation of modern farming

techniques. We are building the largest solar energy

system in Afghanistan, which will bring a renewable

source of electricity to much of Bamian township. That

was a big commitment by a small country situated far

away. It also came at a considerable cost: 10 of our

servicemen and women lost their lives while on duty

there. Even so, we are proud of what we achieved in

partnership with the people of Bamian and hope that

those gains can be sustained in the years ahead.

In Africa we see a continent where many countries

have faced real challenges. However, as the President of

Nigeria reminded us earlier this week (see A/68/PV.5),

the new story of Africa is the growing number of

countries in the region that are enjoying the benefits

of good governance, sound economic growth and

development, driving positive change throughout the

continent. All of that is good news for Africa and for

the world. New Zealand will do what it can to help

with targeted assistance in areas where we have real

expertise to offer, namely, in the fields of agriculture,

renewable energy and good governance. New Zealand

also recognizes and supports the critical roles of the

African Union and Africa’s subregional bodies in

ensuring Africa’s security and future prosperity.

New Zealand recognizes the importance to Africa,

the Caribbean and our own region of the Arms Trade

Treaty, adopted in April and signed by New Zealand

and many others on 3 June The Treaty should curb the

flows of small arms and other weapons, especially to

conflict regions, and help arrest the deaths and human

misery that they cause.

I want to also applaud the progress made in

implementing the Millennium Development Goals,

while at the same time acknowledging the fact that

much work remains to be done. We now need to work

together on a post-2015 development agenda focused on

creating economic opportunities and the eradication of

poverty.

Many of the same issues will be addressed at

the Third International Conference on Small Island

Developing States, which Samoa is to host in 2014.

New Zealand is pleased to be a major supporter of that

important United Nations effort and, with the rest of

the Pacific, looks forward to welcoming the world to

our region.

We need to remind ourselves that sound governance

arrangements and transparency of process are also

vital virtues for international organizations, including

the United Nations. By any objective assessment, the

Organization has not been equipped with the structures

and rules it needs to operate as it should. Yet there has

been deep resistance to efforts to make things better.

That needs to change. The rationale for United Nations

reform is clear. Membership has quadrupled since 1945,

yet over the same period its key organs — particularly

the Security Council — have become hostage to their

own traditions and to the interests of the most powerful.

From the 1950s to the 1990s, we could blame the

Cold War when the Security Council did not act. That

does not wash today. The problems are more systemic

and relate both to the composition and the formal and

informal processes of the Council. We now seem to have

a practice whereby the permanent members not only

can block Council actions through the use of the veto,

but also appear to have privileged access to information

and can stop the Council from meeting if it does not

suit their collective purposes. Such behaviour damages

the reputation and credibility of the wider Organization

and must be challenged. Such issues are not necessarily

matters of Charter reform, which we know is difficult,

but have to do with the effective functioning of the

Organization — an issue in which we all have a stake.

New Zealand is not advocating revolution, but we

are asserting that the Council can and must do better in

the way it conducts its business. That is the approach

New Zealand will bring to the Security Council if we

are elected next October. If successful, it will be 21

years since New Zealand last served on the Council — a

long time ago, but not so long that we have forgotten the

lessons learned during our last term. At the top of that

list is the imperative that members have to be engaged;

they must listen to the concerns of others and have a

view and a voice if they are to be relevant. There is

no point in joining the Council simply to make up the

numbers. Sometimes there is a need to speak up and

shine a light on what is going on, or not going on, even

when that may be inconvenient to others. That applies

whether the issue was Rwanda, Somalia, Yemen or

Yugoslavia in 1993-94, or is the Democratic Republic

of Congo, the Sudan or Syria in 2013 to 2014.

My hope is that when Member States make their

decision on whom to vote for in October 2014, they will

look at New Zealand’s record and know that we will be

a credible, positive influence on the Security Council

and a voice for the interests of the wider Organization.