Peru, 1994

I should like sincerely to congratulate Mr.

Essy on his election as president over the forty-ninth

session of the General Assembly. His country and mine

maintain friendly diplomatic relations and close links

strengthened by the historic ties between Africa and Latin

America. I wish him success in his endeavours and offer

him the fullest cooperation of the Peruvian delegation.

We live in an age that confronts the international

community as a whole, and the United Nations in

particular, with big challenges. Representative democracy

and the market economy have spread throughout the world,

along with an intensification of integration processes and

the globalization of trade.

Nevertheless, international peace and security have not

yet been consolidated in all regions. We have witnessed

events such as the unexpected collapse of States that had

seemed to be solid, episodes of massive violence within

some countries and the tragic and complex situations that

resulted, persistent aggression against a Member of this

Organization and the exacerbation of nationalism in many

parts of the world. All these things challenge the present

capacity of the United Nations to respond.

Faced with such challenges, the United Nations must

reaffirm its central role as the indispensable leader in the

maintenance of international peace and security and in the

promotion of world-wide development. This is its duty, not

only because of the universal character of the United

Nations system, but also because of the contractual

significance of the instrument by which it was established.

In this respect, we must bear in mind that the

potential of the United Nations as the foremost

international Organization can be reinforced by increased

and more efficient coordination with the regional

organizations.

By the same token, we attach special importance to

the General Assembly’s exercise of the powers assigned

to it by the Charter, as well as to the expansion and

reform of the Security Council. With regard to the latter,

we should seek to correct the imbalances in its present

composition, improve its decision-making machinery and

make its working methods more transparent, while

striving to make its composition truly representative of all

Member States of the Organization.

As the Secretary-General pointed out in his reports,

"An Agenda for Peace" (A/47/277) and "An Agenda for

Development" (A/48/935), it now appears to be politically

feasible to respond to the multiple requirements of

international peace and security while encouraging

cooperation in the social and economic field, because the

complementarity of these elements is such that without

economic development there can be no peace or security.

"An Agenda for Peace" must therefore be complemented

by an agenda for development. In this way the United

Nations could lead the international community, in

accordance with the purposes and principles of its

Charter, and integrate the actions of our Organization with

the work of the Bretton Woods institutions, and above all

the World Trade Organization.

In this regard, we share the concern of the Secretary-

General, who has warned that the subject of development

is in danger of vanishing from the United Nations agenda.

We must therefore emphasize that the grave problems

related to development must be included in our

Organization’s work and that developed and developing

countries must agree on the need to address, urgently and

adequately, critical situations such as dire poverty.

The coming World Summit for Social Development

offers us an opportunity that we must seize. Peru, which

took part in the early stages of the process that led to the

decision to convene that Summit, will contribute to it the

national programme for social development that the

Government of President Fujimori has been carrying out,

a programme that gives priority attention to the basic

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services of health, education and the administration of

justice, particularly for the poorest.

In the same context, Peru believes that the internal

efforts of developing countries in the vital spheres of social

and economic advance must be matched by high-priority

multilateral and bilateral cooperation.

I must also observe that in most of our countries

social development also means stability. Therefore,

continuing democratization and modernization is largely

dependent on the assignment of high priority to this

inescapable challenge.

Along with the problems of development, the rapidly

evolving situation today presents us, as an international

Organization, with a number of particularly complex

subjects. Outstanding among them is the process of

reconciliation and peace in the Middle East, which will

have important effects on regional and world stability and

security, as well as on trade, regional cooperation and

disarmament. Peru supports this process, and believes that

resolutions adopted in the General Assembly must properly

reflect that reality and contribute to the maintenance of an

appropriate political climate to advance the negotiating

process.

We also welcome the new South Africa, which

embodies the fulfilment of the essential principles of the

Charter and which is a possible factor for regional stability.

It also provides an example of democratic change.

The tragic situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which

has made clear the serious limitations of multilateral

organizations, demands increased efforts by the

international community to ensure an early and lasting

peace.

I now wish to address a subject that we cannot ignore,

one that affects the international community as a whole and

that is particularly delicate for my own country: the drug

problem. Peru reiterates its resolve to continue to fight

illegal drug trafficking, as well as its conviction that this

serious problem urgently requires the unwavering political

commitment of the international community. That alone

will make it possible to adopt concrete and realistic

measures to stand up to this scourge in accordance with the

mandates of the Global Programme of Action adopted by

the General Assembly in 1990.

International coordination and cooperation against

drug-trafficking are indispensable. In that regard, I am

pleased to point out that the recent Summit of Presidents

of the member countries of the Rio Group accepted the

proposal of the President of the Republic of Peru, Alberto

Fujimori, to coordinate legislation to penalize money-

laundering, allow the confiscation of property linked to

drug-trafficking, establish swift extradition procedures,

promote judicial and police cooperation on this matter and

bolster cooperation for alternative development.

My country also pays special attention to human

rights. Their promotion and defence constitute an

inescapable obligation of the international community,

which must therefore reinforce and improve current

mechanisms of the system for the protection of human

rights, in order to increase their efficacy.

We are pleased to note the growing recognition and

support by this international Organization for those

countries that, like us, are continuing to struggle to defend

life and civilized ways of coexistence against the

unjustifiable and irrational violence of terrorism. For us,

this means that the international community has made

progress, by recognizing that in countries such as Peru

terrorist groups are the primary, the true, violators of

human rights.

In the current context of renewal, we supported the

creation of the post of United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights, in an effort to improve

United Nations measures to prevent and monitor

violations of human rights, whether the violators be

government agents or others. It is a matter of pride for

our region that a distinguished Latin American diplomat

is the first to fill this high office.

Within this chamber last year, the President of Peru

announced that the leader of the bloodiest terrorist

movement in the Western Hemisphere - caught as a result

of our successful campaign for national peace - had

acknowledged in writing the clear defeat of his totalitarian

aims and his bloodthirsty methods. Today I am pleased

to confirm that Peru is swiftly progressing towards

reconciliation and peace. The Peruvian strategy, which

involves the State and civil society, has borne fruit, as

evidenced by the mass desertions of terrorists as a result

of the "repentance law" passed on repentance and the

return of peaceful villagers to their homes, with the

support and backing of the State.

My country, having guaranteed democracy and

economic freedom, now has, after many years, excellent

prospects. We have established a new national

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environment by consistently applying economic, social and

pacification policies. The results prove that we have taken

the correct path, as shown by the growth in gross national

product - 7 per cent last year, and projected to be between

9 per cent and 10 per cent this year, figures which

constitute the highest growth rates in the hemisphere.

This new situation will allow us, for the first time in

decades, to give social issues the priority they deserve. The

economic policies followed in Peru have made possible a

social programme implemented through non-inflationary

investment, with our own resources. This programme has

the technical backing of international financial institutions

and is in line with the conceptual approaches on social

development promoted by the World Bank, the United

Nations Development Programme and a growing number of

non-governmental organizations that share a belief in

putting the human being at the core of development efforts.

To do otherwise would be to make sustainable long-term

growth impossible. This essential task for the whole of

Peruvian society requires the cooperation and support of the

international community.

My country’s contribution to change in the world has

been made possible by the efforts of our people, who have

enabled us to enjoy internal peace, security, stability and

economic growth. The path we are taking leads the most

tenacious nation in South America, a people of long-proven

creativity, on the threshold of a new millennium with the

enthusiasm, the ability and the necessary tools for its

development.