Nicaragua, 2004

In

the middle of the nineteenth century railroads were

built all over the world. Steel at that time was not of

such good quality and for that reason wheels

sometimes broke, causing accidents and derailments.

To avoid those accidents, at every station stop there

was a brakeman who walked the length of the tracks,

hammer in hand, hammering on the wheels so that any

of the wheels that sounded broken could be changed.

Years passed and the quality of steel improved, but the

brakemen kept hammering on the wheels, heedless of

the fact that it was no longer necessary.

The world changes, and that means that we, too,

need to change in order to adapt to new circumstances.

Something similar is happening in the United Nations.

The Security Council, designed after the Second World

War to maintain peace in the post-war world, is not the

Security Council that the new century of information

technology and globalization needs. We must reinvent

the United Nations.

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Let us begin by making the reform of the United

Nations, on which we have already agreed, effective.

We have to broaden participation in the Security

Council to include other countries, both as permanent

members — which at the very least should include

Germany and Japan — and as non-permanent

members, in order to allow for more equitable and

democratic representation.

Our Organization needs to adapt to the new

challenges and realities of the present. Development,

for example, needs a new approach. What concerns us

most is to ensure that populations and individuals

participate more actively in the decisions shaping their

own future. As I said three days ago, in the “Action

Against Hunger and Poverty” meeting of world

leaders, development is a responsibility of States, but it

is also the primary responsibility of the individual.

I find the words of Nobel Laureate José

Saramago are appropriate here when he writes:

“As vehemently as we claim our rights, let us

also lay claim to responsibility for our duties.

Perhaps then the world will become a bit better.”

So it was a wise thing that our American

Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, signed in

Bogotá in 1948, established that equal to, and as a

counterpart to rights, there are also individual

responsibilities.

That includes instilling in the conscience of

citizens a culture of responsibility. Next to the right to

receive a State-sponsored education stands the civil

responsibility to make the most effective use of that

education and to obtain at least a primary education.

Next to the right of children to have a father and a

mother stands the duty of parents to care for, help,

feed, educate and shelter their young children.

Children, for their part, have the responsibility always

to honour their parents, help them, feed them and give

them shelter when they are in need. Next to the right to

employment stands the duty to provide efficient

service. Everyone has the responsibility to work, each

according to his ability and possibilities, in order to

obtain the resources for survival, thus achieving

personal progress and social development.

Along with the right to health goes the

responsibility to contribute to a healthy and clean

environment. With the right to enjoy the benefits of

progress goes the responsibility to contribute to

development. With the right to the freedom of

expression goes the responsibility of tolerating

differing opinions. In short, every right has a

corresponding duty or responsibility.

With the fall of the Berlin wall, the age in which

the State was expected to be responsible for everything

came to a close. Today, we must all participate together

in the search for new paths for our individual

development and for that of our countries and of all

humanity.

The passing of time motivates us to renew our

basic principles. I therefore propose that we once again

adopt an ethic of development based principally on

individual responsibility as well as on the

responsibility of nations.

The well-being and the development of nations

are the result of individual well-being and the

development of the people that make up that society.

Social well-being should not be measured by how

many people are assisted by social programmes

financed from national budgets but by how many

people leave those programmes because they have

become able to manage on their own.

In his book, Underdevelopment is a State of

Mind, Lawrence Harrison defines a negative attitude as

a barrier to development and a positive attitude —

based on the belief in one’s own ability to improve

oneself through individual effort — as a driving force

of development.

In order to bolster all the elements I have cited, it

is essential that the right to accede to public office

should be accompanied by the responsibility to carry

out one’s duties honestly. At the current session of the

General Assembly, several heads of State have

emphasized the need to fight corruption. It is a

responsibility that has rightly been gaining ground.

In Nicaragua, we have undertaken the arduous

fight against corruption. First, corrupt bureaucrats have

been brought to trial and sentenced, just as is

happening in other Latin American countries.

Secondly, we have brought before the National

Assembly a body of legislation to strengthen our fight

against corruption.

Thirdly, we have established a programme for

integrity and transparency that prevents corrupt

practices in the executive branch and which provides a

model for the other branches of Government in

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undertaking reform and increasing transparency. For

example, we have published on the Internet, for

everyone to see — for the countries extending

assistance, international organizations and the

media — both the Republic’s national budget and the

details of external assistance.

Fourthly, we have undertaken to fight the culture

of corruption, including by teaching values and

promoting the idea of the individual as the maker of his

or her own destiny.

We must work for a United Nations that reaffirms

its credibility and authority by taking the appropriate

effective collective action. Nicaragua recognizes the

importance of the proposals various countries have

submitted to this forum, in particular Spain’s proposal

to reduce external debt in exchange for initiatives for

social development, particularly in the area of primary

education, and the United States proposal to create a

fund for democracy. Nicaragua views with approval

that such a democracy fund would be partially

allocated to training and support for auditing and

judicial entities, given that corruption is the greatest

foe of democracy. As Secretary-General Kofi Annan

said yesterday, “They notice when we use words to

mask inaction”. Nicaragua’s energy and determination

are devoted to those efforts.

Recent world events have demonstrated once

again the evil nature of terrorism and how it breaks

down the values of humanity and civilization. I

reiterate my most sincere condolences to all those

countries and individuals around the world that have

suffered the effects of terrorism.

I underline that we deplore, to cite only the most

recent acts, those who caused the loss of the precious

lives of innocent children in the Russian Federation.

We also repudiate the attack against the Australian

Embassy in Jakarta.

The best way to defeat terrorism is to remain

faithful to our values of freedom, dignity and justice.

Terrorism rejects those values.

Nicaragua aspires to be elected as a non-

permanent member of the Security Council for 2006

and 2007. Nicaragua, a founding country of the

Organization, has known and suffered the horrors of

war and has undertaken the democratization of our

nation. It is by virtue of the valuable school of our

recent history that we can participate in the Security

Council. As I stated in this forum last year, whoever

knows the horrors of war can contribute more

effectively to preventing it.

I cannot fail to refer to the question of Taiwan’s

representation in the United Nations. That country,

with 23 million inhabitants, has a democratic

Government and maintains diplomatic, trade and

cooperative relations with many Member States of the

Organization. However, paradoxically, it lacks

membership. That exclusion is inexcusable.

At the beginning of this session, we heard the sad

messages from Haiti and the Dominican Republic,

which have suffered the devastating effects of nature. I

convey our solidarity, encouragement and hope to

those countries and to the victims of natural disasters

in the United States, Grenada, Jamaica, Panama, the

Bahamas, Cuba, Grand Cayman and other islands of

the Caribbean.

This afternoon, I began my address by speaking

of the responsibilities of citizens. That is the way for

our peoples to attain their hopes, expectations and

dreams.

May God bless the United Nations and may God

always bless Nicaragua.