Philippines, 1993

I am most pleased to

convey to Ambassador Insanally my congratulations and

those of my delegation on his election as President of

General Assembly at this session. At the same time, I wish

to express our sincere appreciation to Mr. Stoyan Ganev of

Bulgaria for guiding with skill and dedication the work of

the Assembly at its previous session.

Let me pay a tribute to our Secretary-General,

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the vision and the energy he

has devoted to the leadership of our Organization at a

difficult but exhilarating moment in history.

Allow me to express at this point the deep sympathies

of my delegation for the people of India in connection with

the tragedy visited upon them by the earthquake that

devastated parts of the state of Maharashtra.

The President is presiding over the work of the

Assembly in a world that continues its amazing political

transformation. Since we met in this same Hall last year, a

period that is but the twinkling of an eye in the long history

of mankind, the world’s political landscape has been further

and radically transformed. That transformation is, above all,

reflected in and exemplified by two of the major

preoccupations that have exercised the Assembly and the

international community for decades - namely, the situation

in South Africa and the problem of Palestine.

The abhorrent system of apartheid, long the evil

foundation of the South African State, has finally crumbled

because of the unremitting efforts of the people of South

Africa and of the international community, not least of the

United Nations. In its place, multiracial negotiations - in

themselves an amazing phenomenon in that country - have

led to a specific programme with a precise timetable for the

conversion of South Africa, in the words recently uttered in

this Hall by that authentic leader of the South African

people, Nelson Mandela, "into a united, democratic,

non-racial and non-sexist country".

The whole situation in the Middle East, too, has been

transformed, a transformation symbolized by a single

handshake in Washington. That historic gesture resulted

from complex combinations of circumstances and

developments and presages further arduous negotiations and

determined efforts by the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and

their neighbours. But there is now, more than ever before,

reason to trust that in that long-afflicted part of the world the

politics of intolerance, hatred and despair is being replaced

by the politics of accommodation, enlightenment,

pragmatism and hope.

Thus, the international community’s political agenda,

and the substance and content, if not the item-titles, of the

Assembly’s agenda, have radically changed.

The global economy is being transformed no less

radically. Everywhere, obsolete obstacles to trade are

coming down, if not yet globally, then within the various

Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 13

regions of the world. To be sure, economic barriers

continue to be propped up by atavistic hands that seek to

reverse the tide and hold back the march of global economic

progress. The most obvious victim of these rearguard

actions is the Uruguay Round, which, after years of

frustrating negotiations and painstaking bargaining, has yet

to come to a conclusion. The ultimate victims are the global

economy and the livelihoods and standards of living of the

world’s peoples. Here, the accusing finger of history points

at certain developed countries, with their short-sighted

subsidies and protectionist devices. Nevertheless, the trend

towards trade and economic liberalization gathers

momentum. More and more nations recognize that that

trend can be reversed only at the peril of the well-being of

the world’s peoples.

Our region of South-East Asia has been a vital part of

the global political and economic transformation.

The conflict in Cambodia and the agony of the

Cambodian people long preoccupied this Assembly as well

as the Security Council. Going beyond the expectations of

so many, the Cambodian people have made their historic

decision for peace and reconciliation. We now call upon the

international community to extend its support to the

Cambodian people and their new Government so that they

will find surcease not only from war, but also from poverty

and want, and so that they will find not only peace, but a

life of dignity and freedom.

The Declaration by the Association of South-East Asian

Nations (ASEAN) on the South China Sea, which was issued

in Manila last year, has received the strong endorsement of

the United Nations and of individual Governments, and we

in South-East Asia have continued our measured effort to

build a regime of peace, cooperation and mutual confidence

in that disputed area.

Earlier this year we in ASEAN, joined by the other

nations of East Asia, including Viet Nam and Laos, and by

others with interests in the region, agreed upon an ASEAN

Regional Forum in which questions of regional security can

be periodically examined and discussed together.

In East Asia, the rapid advance of economic

liberalization has propelled the economies of the region to

achieve some of the highest growth rates in the world. The

commitment to the free market has found its most forceful

expression in the decision of ASEAN’s leaders to establish

an ASEAN Free Trade Area through the steady reduction

and eventual elimination of trade barriers within ASEAN.

Happily, the dawning of a new era of peace and the

promise of prosperity in our region have found a bright

reflection in my country. President Ramos’ policy of

national unity and reconciliation has replaced the politics of

division. Dissident elements have been drawn back into the

fold of society. Peace talks with the remaining disaffected

groups are being held. Amnesty has been offered to all.

The economics of selfishness and greed is being

replaced with reforms to secure economic fairness and social

justice. The Philippine economy is ruled no longer by the

tyranny of excessive regulation or of corporate monopoly but

by the invigorating regime of market forces and free

competition.Global competitiveness, in place of political

contention, is now the watchword throughout the land.

All this is being carried out with the most meticulous

respect for human rights in accordance with the national

consensus and the deepest convictions of our people. It is

being achieved within the framework of our democratic

institutions. For we are convinced that there is no substitute

for respect for human rights and democracy in the

achievement of long-term stability and progress, as well as

in the assurance of human dignity and the fulfilment of

human aspirations.

The new situation in the world gives us new hope and

a brighter promise. But grave dangers and tragic situations

remain. Old scourges continue to torment the human family;

new agonies confront it.

Religious intolerance and the rise of nationalist

ambitions have supplanted ideological fanaticism as the fuel

for the fires of conflict that now burn in too many places in

the world. The collapse of empires has let loose the savage

impulse to settle historical scores, redress ancient ethnic

grievances, and set right real or imagined injustices over

national borders, the treatment of minorities, or the control

of resources.

The tragedy of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the

worst and most dangerous of these barbarities.

Despite - in certain cases, because of - the onset of a

climate of peace, trafficking in the weapons of war

sometimes continues unabated, dissipating resources,

endangering people, imperilling the peace. The Philippines

steadfastly supports measures to promote greater

transparency in arms transfers and military expenditures,

including the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms.

14 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

The Philippines urges the nuclear-weapon States, in the

strongest terms, to restore the recently broken moratorium on

all nuclear testing, and hopes that the international

community will decide, through a comprehensive test-ban

treaty, to cease for ever the testing of nuclear devices, which

so gravely threaten the very existence of the human family.

The Philippines favours the extension of the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and calls upon all to

abide strictly by its provisions, including the safeguards

agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

At the same time, we urge the nuclear-weapon States to

fulfil their own obligations under the Treaty and further

reduce their stocks of such weapons until they are no more.

Amid the rising tide of economic liberalization, the

siren song of protectionism continues to entice nations with

its fraudulent promise. Legitimate concerns over health,

food safety, the environment, workers’ welfare, and even

human rights, including the rights of indigenous peoples -

and now "social dumping" - are being invoked to clothe in

various guises policies of naked protectionism.

Decisions on global finance continue to be made by a

few, with the rest of the world standing by even though it is

vitally affected. The burden of foreign debt continues to be

a millstone round the necks of many developing countries,

and the problem is often aggravated by decisions on interest

rates and exchange rates in which those countries have no

voice.

The Philippines continues faithfully to fulfil its external

financial obligations, regardless of the extent to which that

policy holds back our economic growth, constitutes a burden

on our people, and imposes a heavy domestic political cost

on our leaders. But we wonder whether the world has tried

hard enough to devise creative solutions to this economic

plague upon the developing countries. After all, some

nations have been favoured with decisive - even radical -

measures to alleviate their foreign debt, such measures

having become politically useful to the creditor countries.

The ravages that the profligacy of man has wrought

upon the Earth’s delicate environment continue to endanger

our fragile planet and many nations. The Philippines has

kept faith with the commitments made by us all at the

United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development because of its conviction that development

cannot be sustained if the world’s - and the

country’s - natural riches and the balance between them are

destroyed.

No less destructive is the accelerating increase in the

illicit trafficking in drugs, which destroys the lives of our

people in the vigour of their youth. It gives rise to

lawlessness and crime. It knows no national boundaries.

We therefore appeal for the full and effective

implementation of the United Nations International Drug

Control Programme and the Global Programme of Action.

In situations of conflict, women, as well as children,

become the most tragic victims by virtue of their inherent

vulnerability. The systematic rape and murder of women

and girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina is only the most

outrageous instance of this abhorrent reality.

Similarly, in situations of extreme poverty, women -

particularly migrant workers - are the most vulnerable to

abuse. Detached from the family, away from their

homeland, often living in their employer’s home, unprotected

by the country where they work, women migrant workers are

especially susceptible to maltreatment. The abuses to which

they are exposed, and often subjected, are a veritable litany

of woe - denial of their rightful wages, excessive deductions

by their employment agencies, intolerably long working

hours, insufficient food, lack of medical care, the absence of

any avenue for the redress of their grievances, physical

attack, rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

We call upon the Assembly to keep among the areas of

its concern the condition of women, who make up half of

the world - in particular, the migrant workers among them.

And we call upon the Governments concerned to enact laws

and other measures for the protection of these migrant

workers. We ask these Governments to cease the callous

treatment of migrant workers as commodities that are subject

only to the law of supply and demand.

These scourges of mankind - mass poverty, external

debt, environmental damage, illicit drugs, abuses against

women, the mistreatment of migrant workers - would be

more effectively addressed if Governments, societies and the

international community were to place people at the centre

of development and international cooperation. This is what

the World Summit for Social Development is intended to do.

We urge the world’s leaders and their Governments to

ensure maximum participation in this milestone event in

Copenhagen in 1995.

The world has changed radically, largely for the better.

But old problems remain, and new challenges confront us.

To respond to these problems under the new circumstances,

and to deal with these new challenges, our Organization, the

United Nations, must renew itself.

Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 15

In few aspects of the work of the United Nations is this

need for renewal more evident than in the Security Council.

The structure of the Security Council was formulated at the

very birth of the United Nations, at the end of the Second

World War and the beginning of the cold war. Forty-eight

years have passed. Massive changes have occurred in the

world, particularly in recent years. Empires have crumbled.

The ideological division of the world has melted away. The

cold war has ended. The membership of the United Nations

has multiplied from 51 at the time of its founding to 184

today.

And yet, apart from the enlargement of its membership

30 years ago from 9 nine to 15, the Security Council has not

changed. It has remained small, unrepresentative,

undemocratic, opaque. We recognize the reality of

continuing imbalances in world power and the necessity for

the Security Council to reflect this reality. But, surely, we

must also recognize the reality of the worldwide trend

towards, and the people’s desire for, democratization and

transparency in political affairs. Surely, the Security

Council, the United Nations body with the greatest impact

on international peace and security, must also reflect this

reality in its size, in its structure, in its procedures, in its

relations with other United Nations bodies, including the

General Assembly.

We are, therefore, in favour of a searching reassessment

of the structure, role and procedures of the Security Council

with a view to its reform. And we urge that, in view of the

repercussions that such a reform would have on other United

Nations bodies and activities, this reassessment be carried

out within the context of a thorough review of the Charter.

The sober, rational and

realistic proposals propounded yesterday by the Foreign

Minister of Singapore might serve as a useful starting-point

for our consideration of this important matter.

The entire United Nations is, in fact, in need of reform.

In the new international situation, the enlarged demands

upon the United Nations and the constraints on the available

means require that the resources of the United Nations be

carefully husbanded for their most efficient use. The

concept and substance of management - and by that I mean

the science of management - must be imposed upon the

United Nations bureaucracy. Funds and other assets must be

most meticulously safeguarded and effectively utilized.

Duplication must be avoided, costs drastically cut, waste

radically reduced, and corruption abolished.

I am sure that many developing countries share our

desire that the United Nations should impose upon itself the

austerity and discipline that are required of many of us by

the international financial institutions.

We pay a tribute to the Secretary-General’s attention to

this aspect of his work. We welcome in particular the

creation of the new post of Assistant Secretary-General for

Inspections and Investigations as an indication of his

determination to address this problem.

The Philippines is up to date in its contribution to the

finances of the United Nations. It may be a small amount

in the totality of the Organization’s resources, but it is

substantial in proportion to our financial capacity. We

would not want to see it squandered. We cannot afford it.

Neither can the United Nations.

May I propose, then, that a group of men and women

with both extensive experience and skill in corporate

management and extensive exposure to the special

requirements and problems of the United Nations be

commissioned to study this question in greater depth and

detail and with greater objectivity, and to make the

appropriate recommendations. There are many in this Hall

right now who would be eminently qualified to perform this

task. The Philippines will explore the possibility of a draft

resolution to this effect at a suitable time.

This is a matter of great and urgent necessity. For

reforms in the United Nations will place the Organization in

a better position to deal with the demands upon it in the

second half-century of its existence and to fulfil in the next

millennium the vision that its founding fathers had for this

great and indispensable Organization.