Paraguay, 1997

It

is a great honour for me to address this great Assembly in

my capacity as President of the Republic of Paraguay. I

take this opportunity to express my deepest thanks to the

President of the General Assembly at its fifty-second

session, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine,

Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko. Also, I would note the excellent

work done by Ambassador Razali Ismail, who so efficiently

guided the work of the last session. In addition, I should

like to extend my best wishes to Mr. Kofi Annan, in

connection with his responsibilities as he exercises his

functions as Secretary-General of the Organization.

For the people of Paraguay, throughout the long

struggle to acquire and strengthen their democratic

institutions, the United Nations has always been a

universal forum that ensures the free debate of ideas and

the participation of all the peoples of the world, without

exclusion or discrimination, the vital issues involving

development, equity, the maintenance of peace and the

preservation of the environment.

Because of the great importance my country attaches

to this forum, we recognize the urgent need to support the

institutional reform of the United Nations by

strengthening the General Assembly and democratizing

the Security Council — adding both permanent and non-

permanent members — so that this institution will be able

to respond appropriately to the new challenges facing the

international community.

Last August last I had the great honour of chairing

in Asunción the eleventh summit of the Heads of State

and Government of the Permanent Mechanism for

Consultation and Policy Coordination — the Rio

Group — the members of which are Argentina, Bolivia,

Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Guyana,

Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and

Venezuela. There a Declaration was adopted on the

strengthening of the United Nations and the reform of

Security Council, stressing certain principles and

guidelines that I shall now describe.

The Declaration of Asunción expresses, first, full

support for multilateralism, sovereign equality of States

and steadfast respect for the rule of law.

Second, it expresses support for the Secretary-

General’s initiative in putting forward a broad programme

for reform, presented on 16 July of this year, particularly

reforms designed to strengthen the effectiveness of the

Secretariat and to emphasize activities to promote economic

and social development.

Third, it notes the relevance of the process of

increasing the membership of the Security Council and to

reforming it to correct the imbalances in its current

membership, improve its decision-making mechanisms,

make it more transparent so that it will reflect in a more

legitimate and representative manner the overall

membership of the Organization.

Fourth, it states that, because of its legal traditions and

contribution to the cause of peace, the Latin American and

Caribbean region should be given special consideration in

any proposal to increase the membership of the Security

Council.

Fifth, it expresses the conviction that reform of the

Security Council must respect the principles of equitable

geographical distribution and the sovereign equality of

States, and that any reform that entails discrimination by

developed countries against developing countries would be

unacceptable.

Sixth, it expresses the ideal of moving towards the

total elimination of the veto and, as a first step, limiting its

use to actions taken under Chapter VII of the United

Nations Charter.

Seventh, it expresses the importance of transparency

in management and decision-making in the Security Council

and increasing the number of open meetings and orientation

meetings at which the Secretary-General or his special

representatives present reports.

Eighth, it considers that the increase in the Security

Council’s membership, the reform of its working methods

and the question of the veto are integral parts of Council

reform and must be addressed in the same agreement.

Ninth, it expresses the explicit resolve of our

Governments to continue to participate actively in the

Working Group in order to reach general agreement on this

matter.

Let me say once again that this increase in the

permanent and non-permanent membership of the Council

must necessarily envisage the presence of Latin America

and the Caribbean and other geographical groups without

any form of discrimination whatsoever. In this connection,

Paraguay reaffirms its support for permanent membership

for Brazil, Germany and Japan.

It is also important to note that the process of

reforming the Organization must include a plan to

eliminate unnecessary expenditures and an attempt to

merge programmes designed to further the development

of our peoples, which will lead to an optimum utilization

of available resources as well as to the elimination of

duplication in the use of human, technical or economic

resources. The serious financial problems of the United

Nations deserve sincere and determined consideration.

I am pleased to say that my country has always, in

so far as it has been able, honoured its international

commitments, aware that the Organization’s proper

functioning requires the appropriate and equitable

distribution of its administrative costs among all Member

States.

This moment in history is indeed a very special one.

Alliances are now being replaced by complementarity.

Isolationism and confrontation have given way to

globalization and cooperation. We no longer speak of

rivalry and struggle but, rather, of honest and creative

competition. The asymmetries in the world order that

have historically meant that some nations have been

subordinate to others are now themselves being

subordinated to this influx of solidarity and mutual

assistance.

It is of course true that many serious conflict areas

continue to exist, but Paraguay is pleased to note the

commendable efforts that the United Nations has made in

the maintenance of peace in various areas of tension, and

we have followed closely the Organization’s initiatives in

such new areas of conflict as Cambodia and Sierra Leone,

for whose peoples my country most sincerely wishes the

immeasurable benefits of peace and harmony.

We have also followed with keen interest the

disturbing developments in the Middle East situation, and

we urge the parties there to redouble their efforts to seek

a lasting and stable peace. We warmly welcome the

actions taken by the mediating nations, which untiringly

continue to participate in all negotiations.

With regard to the particular case of the Republic of

China on Taiwan, Paraguay welcomes the attitude adopted

by that country’s Government and expresses its hope that

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there will be movement towards reconciliation and that it

will be possible to resolve the differences with the People’s

Republic of China.

In keeping with the principle of the universality of the

United Nations, all States that meet the requirements set

forth in the Charter have the right to seek admission or

membership. In this respect, we believe that it would be

advisable to reconsider General Assembly resolution 2758

(XXVI), which completely denies the 21 million inhabitants

of the Republic of China on Taiwan the fundamental right

to participate in international organizations and their

activities.

The challenges of peace, security and equilibrium are

more relevant to us today than ever before, and they are an

absolute imperative for building a world that guarantees

development to nations in a context of universal harmony.

On the crucial issue of world disarmament, allow me

to reiterate Paraguay’s position of support for United

Nations efforts in this sphere. My country welcomes

optimistically the preparatory work for the Review

Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to be held in the

year 2000, hoping that by then the Treaty will have become

universal. That Treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-

Ban Treaty, the efforts of States to reduce their arsenals

and the establishment of new nuclear-weapon-free zones are

all important elements that will help prevent the

proliferation of nuclear weapons and eventually achieve

general and complete nuclear disarmament.

True to its pacifist principles, the Republic of

Paraguay has been following the Ottowa process with great

interest. We recently took part in the Oslo Diplomatic

Conference, which adopted the definitive text of the

Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,

Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on

Their Destruction, and we supported the majority position

of the principal States to seek appropriate and effective

legal mechanisms to prohibit the manufacture, use and

distribution of the cruel devices of death and pain that are

anti-personnel landmines.

We congratulate the international community on that

decisive step, and we reaffirm our unswerving decision to

sign the Convention. We urge other Governments to do the

same without any doubt or delay, so as to ensure its earliest

possible entry into force.

I should also like to reaffirm my country’s

unswerving commitment to continue the struggle against

terrorism, a destabilizing force that negates human rights

and threatens to undermine the very foundations of

security in our regions.

It is fitting here to stress that Paraguay, along with

the entire international community, is concerned about the

growth of drug trafficking. We therefore firmly reiterate

the Paraguayan people’s determination to combat that

scourge and its resolve to take integrated and concerted

action, within the context of international cooperation and

in conjunction with producing, transit and consuming

countries.

In this connection, I am pleased to inform the

Assembly that in October 1996 my country’s Parliament,

at the initiative of the Executive, adopted a law that

establishes norms and punishments for the crime of

laundering money or goods derived from illicit traffic in

narcotics, psychotropic substances or dangerous drugs,

thereby significantly improving the legal framework for

combating such crimes head on.

On 10 December 1998 we shall celebrate the fiftieth

anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, a major landmark in the

history of humankind and its endless struggle to ensure

dignity and reciprocity among human beings. Much of

what we have achieved along the way has been the

product of blood and pain, but with due satisfaction we

can now confirm that the principles and objectives of the

Declaration are increasingly being put into effect and that

the concept of a State based on the rule of law is

gradually becoming part of our national realities.

Moreover, the new culture of democratic solidarity has

managed convincingly to combat any aspirations for a

return to anachronistic times in our political history

characterized by authoritarianism and the denial of human

rights.

For Paraguay, the road to freedom and the

establishment of an institutional basis which sits well with

our republican ideals has been long. During this journey,

my Government has helped make the dream of every

Paraguayan a reality: the establishment of a system

guaranteeing full freedom and a strengthened democracy

allowing the peaceful transfer of the presidential mandate

to another candidate, elected by the people, who will take

up the office of President of the Republic in August 1998.

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This is in keeping with the undeniable

achievements of the World Conference on Human Rights

held in Vienna in 1993, which reaffirmed the universality

and indivisibility of human rights, while recommending that

greater attention be paid to the links between democracy,

development and the satisfaction of the basic needs of the

most disadvantaged sectors of the population.

My Government has therefore tried to strengthen the

interrelationship between democracy, development and

human rights, thus combining these democratic

achievements, through a plan for social action designed to

create opportunities so that all citizens, through their own

efforts, can enjoy all the benefits of human development.

Obviously, a central feature of democratic governance

is concern for social problems. If our democracies do not

adapt to these new realities, not only will they be

impossible to govern, but they will remain on the sidelines

of history. Even worse, that all the sacrifices made to

strengthen our institutions may have to yield to populist and

Messianic pressures.

I am pleased to state today that my Government has

been able to lay the foundations for true development,

without making any Messianic promises or pandering to the

populists. I should highlight the significant progress made

in the institutional framework of this process, with electoral

reform that has enabled us to move satisfactorily through

all the stages of the democratic schedule. Equally historic

is the balance achieved in civil and military relations,

following the successes of April 1996, when popular

pressure and the enormous weight of solidarity on the

continent thwarted attempts to take us back to outdated

forms of autocracy.

I am convinced that our fledgling democracy has

gathered new strength since those events and that it will be

an insuperable obstacle to any attempts to bring down our

institutions. Furthermore, the changes to the administration

of justice, with a multiparty Supreme Court, prevent any

manipulation or distortion of the mechanisms laid down by

the Constitution and the laws of the Republic.

Management by parliament has become part of the

process of joint cooperation in government, and this has

been an enriching experience in the democratic life of the

country.

Paraguay has a young population which is eager to

learn. Current and future generations must be able to equate

a free economy with democracy and democracy with a

State based on the rule of law, with guarantees for human

dignity.

During the Eleventh Summit of Heads of State and

Government of the Rio Group, which was held in my

country, I spoke enthusiastically about the need for a bold

strategy to back up the ideals of democracy, sustainable

development, equity and integration, and placed particular

emphasis on what I called “education for democracy”.

The training of young people in this emerging world

must include guidelines based on sound ethical and

doctrinaire principles. The young must be given

experience in how to handle modern technological tools,

so that they can deal with the requirements of the new

political, economic and social processes which are

defining the current and future development of our

nations.

Further thought needs to be given to the

environmental issue. Five years after the Rio Conference,

the Republic of Paraguay is building on the increasing

awareness of the need to preserve the ecosystem, whose

priority nature is reflected in the 1992 Constitution. But

I must also emphasize how urgent it is to give full effect

to the principle of common but differentiated

responsibility put forward in Rio. If it is to be valid, this

principle must enjoy the support of richer countries in

terms of financial and technical assistance, so that we can

put an end once and for all to the “ecology of poverty”

which forces many sectors of poor countries to destroy

their environmental basis with the simple and tragic aim

of ensuring their subsistence from day to day.

I have every reason to be satisfied that my

Government has been able to institutionalize various

instruments to improve the quality of the environment in

our country — in particular, the strategy for managing,

using, preserving and protecting natural resources in the

context of the programme for change in Agenda 21,

whose basic aim it is to strengthen the process of

sustainable development.

Highlights of the new environmental legislation now

in force include laws on evaluating the environmental

impact, on wildlife, on protected rural areas and on

penalties for ecological offences. In the context of the

Agenda for Change, we are ratifying international

agreements, and taking account of the importance of

international cooperation on the environment. With regard

to the United Nations Convention to Combat

Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious

4

Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa, we

submitted the legal instrument for ratifying the instrument

in January this year. In this context, the countries that share

the Gran Chaco Americano — Paraguay, Bolivia and

Argentina — have entered into a new relationship based on

a model of cooperation for sustainable development in this

vast region.

There is an old saying that nobody is so rich that he

does not need anything and nobody is so poor that he has

nothing to give. In line with those words of wisdom, every

Member State of this Organization has given and received.

In the particular case of Paraguay, I have to point out that

international cooperation has played a decisive role, and its

true dimensions can therefore be assessed and appreciated.

For this reason, I am particularly grateful to the United

Nations, whose presence in Paraguay, through its various

specialized agencies, has been and continues to be so

positive and dynamic.

Just over six years ago the Argentine Republic, Brazil,

Paraguay and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, and later,

the Republic of Chile and the Republic of Bolivia, as

associated members of the Southern Cone Common Market

(MERCOSUR), decided to cooperate in a spirit of solidarity

in order to gain an increasingly advantageous position in

this globalized and dynamic world. In that context we have

reached undeniably relevant milestones for the present and

future of our peoples.

Today, it is recognized that in MERCOSUR we are on

the right path, and we are receiving an encouraging

message from the outside world concerning our integration.

Our efforts are focused on trying to establish a common

market, within a gradual and continuous process in which

the basic stages still need to be rounded off, improved and

studied in depth.

MERCOSUR’s experience is expanding. This is an

important regional bloc. We have opened negotiations with

the Andean Community and the United Mexican States, and

we hope that by the end of this year agreements will be

signed allowing for trade preferences in the region.

Moreover, MERCOSUR participates in the Free Trade Area

of the Americas, and there are proposals to conclude shortly

a hemispheric free trade initiative involving the 34 countries

of the Americas.

MERCOSUR is also expanding towards the European

Union. We are making progress in defining political

decisions which would encourage the establishment of a

free trade zone between the two customs unions.

This has been my third address to the General

Assembly as President of the Republic of Paraguay. I am

here today to reconfirm on behalf of my country — a

founding Member of the United Nations — our

commitment to the lofty ideals that inspire us. Our

Organization needs to be adapted and reformed so as to

be able to respond effectively to the major challenges of

the next millennium. Paraguay undertakes to make its

contribution to attaining those noble objectives.

At this very special moment I warmly embrace the

Assembly, not only in the name of my people, but also on

behalf of myself, Juan Carlos Wasmosy, a citizen with

faith in democracy, struggled for his country’s freedom

and won.