Norway, 1993

It gives me great

pleasure to congratulate Ambassador Insanally on his

election to the high office of President of the General

Assembly.

I should also like to welcome the new Members of our

Organization: Andorra, Eritrea, the Czech Republic,

Monaco, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and

Slovakia.

The historic and courageous breakthrough in the Middle

East tells us that even the deepest trench can be bridged.

Conflict has tormented that entire region for most of this

century. It has brought super-Powers to the brink of war.

It has placed enormous burdens on the United Nations itself.

It has deprived families of their dear ones and held people

under the ominous spell of fear.

Now we must seize the moment. Now we are at a

turning point for the United Nations as well. Now we must

answer the clarion call and mobilize our collective political

and financial resources to help move the peace process

forward.

The time has come to let the divisive, acrimonious

Middle East debates and decisions of the past fade into

history. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have made reality of

the seemingly impossible. We would fail abysmally in our

duties should we falter now in our efforts to support the

process of prying peace out of the knot of conflict, a process

which men and women of vision have dared to think, dared

to do.

Due to our long-standing relations with the parties, both

our friendship with Israeli leaders and the mutual trust we

have established with the Palestine Liberation Organization

(PLO), Norway was privileged to contribute to these

defining dramatic events.

In this spirit, we shall go to Washington on 1 October,

committed to help in building peace. For the peace process

to succeed, it must be consolidated and stabilized by the

economic development the two parties have agreed to

undertake together.

The fruits of peace must become tangible and real for

the women, men and children of Gaza and the West Bank.

The process of implementation could change the perspectives

and expectations of the parties, convert interdependence into

a sense of community, and make possible solutions and

visions which today seem beyond reach.

The economic situation in Gaza and on the West Bank

is dramatic and calls for immediate and extensive economic

aid. Now we must respond to the just but unfulfilled

aspirations of the Palestinians: for job opportunities and for

schools, hospitals and universities. Now we must assist in

building houses, roads and water supplies, and make

reconciliation pay, so that new generations of Israelis and

Palestinians may grow up without fear, as good neighbours,

in a life of dignity.

A period of healing is needed in which all peace-loving

countries, the United Nations itself, the Bretton Woods

institutions, other financial institutions and the European

Community join financially - and substantially - in a

coordinated, immediate investment-for-peace programme. I

pledge and confirm that Norway’s assistance will be

substantial and that we shall be honoured to play a

continuing political role should the parties so desire.

A period of renewal and change must also embrace

South Africa and our relations with that country. South

Africa is in desperate need of peace and reconciliation.

Fixing a date for democratic elections in April next year is

a beacon of hope that the post-Apartheid system will finally

gain the democratic legitimacy which the South African

Government cannot claim today.

Until the day when black South Africans can enjoy the

human rights of which they have been oppressively deprived,

until the day when violence is ended and joint political

control has been established over the military and police

forces, until that day South Africa will remain a country in

imperative transition.

The outside world and the United Nations must, in

time, recognize the potential of post-apartheid South Africa -

at peace with itself and endowed with immensely rich

natural and human resources - for the whole region of

southern Africa. Education and training are needed for

generations which are now ready to assume an equal role in

the economy of their country. We must now act forcefully,

encouraging proponents of peace and transition, and

Forty-eighth session - 27 September l993 21

discourage the shrill voices of hatred and interposition so

that one day - soon - the South African man and woman

may be free at last.

We must never lose hope that peace can be achieved.

But our hope has been severely tested by the protracted

atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There seems to be no

limit to the brutality that human beings are capable of

mobilizing in the service of a nationalistic goal. Such acts

have been committed in the name of a doctrine - the

doctrine of the ethnic state - and thus prolong the sinister

existence of doctrine as a source of war and contention in

this century.

Ethnic nationalism is a threat to peace and stability

everywhere. The ethnic mosaic of Europe does not lend

itself to such reduction. A doctrine of the ethnic state is a

prescription for war. Our task is to build communities

which include rather than exclude and to make all

multi-ethnic regions safe refuges of enlightened diversity.

A military victory in which aggression appears to pay

in Bosnia will be noted in those parts of the world where

different nationalities are sharing territory and political

organization. In the former Soviet Union alone, ethnic

tensions are reaching critical mass or have already erupted,

as in Nagorny-Karabakh and Abkhazia.

The authority of the United Nations is seriously

undermined if there is vacillation on where and how to use

the "Blue Helmets". We should admit that there have been

failures along the way and learn from experience. Our main

thrust must be to aim for a negotiated solution based on

known elements. The alternative to a negotiated settlement

is continued bloodshed. The alternative to peace is war.

Norway fully supports the efforts of Thorvald Stoltenberg

and David Owen. All parties must now cease hostilities and

allow time for the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina to

heal so that we can start slowly to build a foundation for

peace. Let us be inspired by the Israelis and the

Palestinians, and let us all send a message to the parties in

Bosnia: enough! Peace is possible.

The time for a settlement is long overdue. The

situation is already disastrous, and another winter of war is

bound to take a severe toll of lives. Norway is among the

major providers of humanitarian assistance to the area.

International attention is focused on the terrible ordeal of the

Muslims, but there are Croats and Serbs who suffer greatly

as well. We should be even-handed in our humanitarian

assistance, making a clear distinction between, on the one

hand, warlords and war criminals and, on the other, those on

all sides who are without a voice and without a choice, those

who are victimized and whose only hope is the assistance

we can provide from the outside.

It is absolutely imperative to improve on the

coordination and cooperation between United Nations

peace-keeping operations, United Nations humanitarian

agencies and non-governmental humanitarian organizations.

Somalia is an obvious case in point. For Norway it is a

priority issue to move such coordination forward. We shall

convene a conference before the end of the year with the

aim of improving our capacity to organize real peace

operations incorporating both humanitarian and military

tasks.

We should all support our Secretary-General’s

proposals for a necessary strengthening of the Department of

Peace-keeping Operations. The management organization

for United Nations peace-keeping operations here in New

York is manifestly inadequate. The result is that troop-

contributing nations exercise direct control, which radically

reduces coherence and effectiveness. The situation is

aggravated by the Security Council’s propensity to make

ambitious decisions but fail to provide the Secretariat with

the means to implement them. Failing to provide financial,

human and technological resources undermines both peace

and the authority of the United Nations.

We know what needs to be done. We must focus on

the following: There must be realistic mandates for new

United Nations peace-keeping operations whose goals and

means must be clearly defined. We must have proper

stand-by arrangements for troops and equipment from

Member States, and Norway is prepared to contribute in

concrete terms to a collective stand-by effort. We need

improved training and analysis of past experience; our

training facilities should be linked in a consortium for United

Nations peace-keeping training. There must be an

immediate and substantial increase in the United Nations

reserve fund for peace-keeping; moreover, a unified peace--

keeping budget must be introduced which allows the

Secretary-General to obligate at least 20 per cent of the

estimated cost of peace-keeping operations once they have

been approved by the Security Council. We need improved

financing for peace-keeping operations and financial

discipline among Member States.

Indeed, the whole financial situation of the United

Nations is disgraceful. As the eighth-largest contributor to

the United Nations system in absolute terms and by far the

largest in per capita terms, we find it exceedingly difficult to

22 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

understand how so many countries fail to honour their

obligations.

The Secretary-General has said that "the Organization

lives from hand to mouth." (Statement by the Secretary-

General to the Fifth Committee, 26 August 1993). The

permanent members of the Security Council have a special

responsibility. But we should also ask ourselves if countries

should be eligible at all for the Security Council if they have

not paid their contributions.

The post-cold-war patterns of risks and uncertainties

have brought about a wider recognition and understanding of

the need to address the serious economic and social

inequalities in the world and their implications for global

security. Core issues such as environment and development

used to be seen as side issues by the prime movers of

international affairs. There is a new hope that this could be

changing.

The Secretary-General points out in his report that

without sustainable development peace cannot long be

maintained and that political, social, educational and

environmental factors must all be part of development.

Unsustainable production and consumption patterns still

prevail and can be counteracted only by changing how and

in which fields our economies continue to grow. If current

forms of development were employed, a further fivefold to

tenfold boost in economic activity would be required over

the next 50 years to meet the needs and aspirations of 10

billion people.

Currently, the vast majority who are poor make only a

minimal claim to our natural resources, while the more

voracious North is consuming in a few decades what it has

taken the planet billions of years to accumulate. The

Norwegian Minister of the Environment raised the issue of

production and consumption patterns in the industrial part of

the world at the first session of the Commission on

Sustainable Development. Early next year Norway will host

a meeting on these issues as a contribution to the next

session of the Commission.

The rapid population growth in many parts of the world

is a ticking time-bomb. Ninety per cent of this increase is

taking place in developing countries, many of which are

unable to feed their present populations. We may soon be

facing new famine of a magnitude dwarfing even Malthus’

gloomiest predictions. There may be mass migration and the

destabilization of countries and regions as people compete

for ever-scarcer land and water resources.

The International Conference on Population and

Development, to take place in Cairo in September 1994,

must address the complex root causes of the population

explosion.

The agreements reached at the United Nations

Conference on Environment and Development in Rio last

year, however imperfect, set a sound, ambitious agenda for

action to ensure sustainable development. Yet, I regret to

say, the momentum generated in Rio has been allowed to

lose some of its force.

The world will not forget, and our children will long

remember, that the industrialized countries committed

themselves in Rio to providing new and additional funding

to combat climate change and safeguard biological diversity.

So far, however, contributions have been small-scale.

The aid fatigue continues despite enormous needs and

a more fertile ground for development in countries which

have made sacrifices and taken the bitter but crucial

medicine of structural adjustment, and despite the reduction

of military budgets to levels where countries again should be

deemed creditworthy.

Far, far more serious, and not only for the developing

world, is the gambling with the Uruguay Round holding the

prospects of global free trade hostage to narrow national

interests. For most countries, strongly dependent as they are

on international trade, an agreement, even if each and every

provision may not be ideal, is absolutely necessary. I urge

the major parties to live up to the expectations created at the

Group of 7 meeting in Tokyo that before the end of the year

the deal will be closed.

Environment and trade must be the next agenda item.

We should be more outspoken about conflicting interests and

more receptive to the fact that we do not have the option to

go our separate ways.

We must develop a sound, scientific basis for managing

our natural resources in a sustainable way. In a politically,

culturally and socially diverse world, science and knowledge

can be the only basis for sound and lasting cooperation in

this field.

And while we reduce our strain on finite natural

resources, the environmental agenda is constantly widened

by the unveiling of the ecocide almost committed by the

former Communist countries.

Forty-eighth session - 27 September l993 23

The nuclear threat is not confined to that inherent in the

remaining arsenals of nuclear weapons. Increasingly, our

security is threatened by the enormous deposits of nuclear

waste on land and at sea. Large-scale international

cooperation is required to eliminate this threat.

Nuclear weapons have not disappeared, and the capacity

to make them is broadly present. Proliferation of weapons

of mass destruction and the means of their delivery

constitutes perhaps the greatest threat to international peace

and stability. It is a matter of utmost priority to broaden and

deepen the non-proliferation regime to comprise a broader

pattern of commitments and cooperative behaviour. In this

connection, Norway urges the nuclear-weapon States to

redouble their efforts to conclude a comprehensive test-ban

treaty. We expect that they will refrain from any testing

while negotiations proceed. We also urge North Korea to

submit fully to the safeguard regime of the International

Atomic Energy Agency and to adhere to the Non-

Proliferation Treaty.

Development without democracy and respect for human

rights will never be sustainable. Democracy is indispensable

for promoting and upholding respect for human rights, for

social and economic development, for peace and security,

and for liberating the human creativity which is so vital to

any social and economic development.

I urge this Assembly to create the post of high

commissioner for human rights and to agree on a quantum

leap in the allocation of resources for the United Nations

human-rights activities. This is a modest price to pay for

strengthening the basis for peace and stability.

The lines between foreign and domestic policies have

long since vanished. Narrow-minded forms of nationalism

will not serve us. We must move towards an inclusive

enlargement where the powerful are just and the weak

secure. Only the United Nations can provide the framework

of a better-organized world, which today is too fragmented

and uncoordinated. More and more causes are common, as,

indeed, is our whole future.

The Middle East breakthrough gives us the hope that no

challenge is too difficult and the belief that we can make

this world a civilized place.