Philippines, 1994

Please allow me to

congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the exalted

office of President of the General Assembly. Your

distinguished career and your experience in international

affairs, together with your outstanding personal qualities,

assure us of wise and skilled leadership at the forty-ninth

session of the General Assembly.

As we approach the fiftieth year of the life of our

Organization, let us look back to the first principles of its

existence. Let us see how we can apply those principles

to the dynamic realities of our time and, to the extent that

human discernment will allow, to the uncertain

circumstances of the next half century.

Emerging from the unspeakable horror and devastation

of untrammelled global conflict, the international

community brought forth the United Nations as an

instrument, above all, for preventing conflict and keeping

the peace. This mission was to be carried out, if possible,

through the encouragement of the peaceful settlement of

disputes by the contending parties themselves or, if

necessary, through the interposition of armed force by the

United Nations.

As with any human institution, the United Nations

record in this regard has been mixed. We find that the

United Nations has been effective in keeping the peace in

those cases in which both the parties to the disputes and the

major Powers involved have turned — or have been

compelled to turn — to the international community to

separate the contending forces and allow them a respite

from war. This we have seen in such places as Cyprus,

Angola, Mozambique, Liberia and certain parts of the

Middle East, including Lebanon.

In recent years, a singular success was achieved in my

own part of the world when in Cambodia, upon the resolve

of the international community and the Cambodian parties

themselves, the United Nations not only enforced the peace

but also managed the transition to a regime of peace and

national reconciliation.

Contending with matters of war and peace has

engaged the greater portion of the attention and

preoccupation of the United Nations and of the international

community. However, our founding fathers recognized

from the very beginning that it is not enough to head off

crises and intervene in conflicts, but that the roots of war

and peace lie in the human condition and the human mind.

It is thus there, at their roots, that mankind must deal with

questions of war and peace.

As we look back at this half-century, we see with

extraordinary clarity that the enduring triumphs of the

international community have come not with the imposition

of outside force but when the deepest concerns of the

nations and peoples involved are addressed and resolved.

In the past year, two such triumphs brightened, like twin

comets, the history of the human community, forcefully

demonstrating yet again this essential reality. These

triumphant achievements came in precisely those two areas

that had most deeply engaged the United Nations for the

greater part of its existence — South Africa and the

Middle East.

In South Africa, national peace and reconciliation in

a regime of democracy emerged victorious after decades

of struggle, led by the United Nations, against apartheid

and on behalf of human dignity, racial equality, majority

rule and political pluralism. This happened only after

most of the political forces in the country recognized

these universal values as essential to the survival of the

South African nation.

In the Middle East, the dramatic breakthrough

worked out by Israel and the Palestine Liberation

Organization (PLO) has opened the doors of hope for an

end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. This was made possible

by the tenacious insistence of the international

community, mainly through the United Nations, on the

right of the Palestinian people to govern themselves and

on the right of all States in the region to a secure

existence within internationally recognized boundaries. It

finally occurred because the leaders of Israel and the PLO

and other Arab leaders recognized the essential nature of

these rights.

Sadly, savage conflicts continue to ravage lives in

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, Rwanda and other

areas experiencing similar tragedies, mainly because

people of influence among the various ethnic groups,

tribes and clans have not accepted the fundamental truth

of their common humanity.

For a long time, the United Nations has advanced

the proposition that economic development — raising the

income of a nation as a whole — was vital to peace and

stability in the world. The United Nations is certainly

right to emphasize this important reality. In many cases,

extreme poverty has led to despair and to a sense of

outrage over the perceived injustice of living in penury

and deprivation in a world of affluence and profligate

consumption, of being inadequately compensated for the

use by others of one’s nation’s human and natural

resources, and of being doomed to a chronic inability to

shake off an unpayable debt to foreign creditors.

Fortunately, many developing nations — and the

Philippines is proud to take its place among them — have

made hard political decisions and adopted economic

policies favourable to dynamic and sustained economic

growth.

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These are thus hopeful times for economic growth, at

least for those countries in a position to take advantage of

a more liberal international trading regime. However, as

many countries, and the United Nations itself, have

realized, economic development by itself is not enough.

Raising the overall income of a nation is not enough. A

larger gross national product does not necessarily mean a

better life for the individual citizen. A bigger economy by

itself does not satisfy the individual person’s aspiration to

human fulfilment.

Indeed, economic growth cannot be sustained for long

unless the individual citizen and the individual community

have a stake in that growth and unless they are mobilized

and empowered to take active part in the process of

development. Economic growth would be meaningless to

the individual who does not share in its benefits or whose

community is destroyed by it. Development is empty for

persons who are deprived of their individual rights and

freedoms. A society cannot find fulfilment in growth, and

indeed the development process itself is severely hampered,

if it does not take adequate care of its vulnerable groups:

women, children, ethnic minorities, the handicapped, the

homeless. Development cannot be sustained unless the

nurturing qualities of the natural environment are conserved

for future generations.

Care for citizens’ fulfilment as human beings, for their

community and for society cannot wait. It cannot wait for

total peace to be achieved or for a certain level of

development to be attained. All these — peace,

development, and the quality of society and of human

life — must proceed simultaneously.

We in the Philippines have learned this lesson the hard

way and are now applying it faithfully. We have secured

peace and national reconciliation through a peace process

that includes having sincere discussions with dissident

elements and extending a generous amnesty to them. We

have granted a substantial degree of autonomy and self-rule

to our ethnic minorities, particularly the Muslim

community. We have devolved extensive authority,

responsibility and resources on local governments and

communities, and we have restored the system of

democratic pluralism, through which the people and their

groups can thrash out their grievances and advance their

interests in peace and with civility.

At the same time, we have pursued a purposeful

programme of economic development through the

liberalization of the conditions governing trade, investments,

and banking and finance, and through the privatization of

Government enterprises. We have provided infrastructure

facilities and generous incentives for domestic and foreign

investors. These, together with the restoration of political

stability, have placed us back on the road to economic

recovery and self-sustaining growth.

Simultaneously, we have adopted a social agenda

through a broad national consensus. In accordance with

that agenda we have endeavoured to improve the quality

of life of our people, not only because such an

improvement is their inherent right, and not only because

the ultimate purpose of development, in our view, is the

welfare of the individual and his community, but also

because we know that the best way to spur economic

development is to afford the people a stake in it and

because we recognize that the people are an economy’s

most vital resource.

We are thus jealously safeguarding the individual

Filipino’s fundamental rights and freedoms. Part of this

effort is the importance that we place on human-rights

education for all, including the armed forces and the

police, a mission that is mandated by a unique provision

in our Constitution.

We are expanding the empowerment of our people

and their communities, particularly of the most vulnerable

groups. We have devoted attention and resources to the

concerns of women, including women workers, and of

children, particularly those of the poor. We have

protected the rights and culture of our ethnic minorities.

And we have allocated substantial resources to health and

education for the development of our people as our most

valuable asset.

We in the Philippines believe that this simultaneous

and balanced approach to peace, development and the

quality of individual lives must be applied in the

international community as well as within nations, in the

family of man as well as in national societies.

The expansion of the global economy is important

for peace in the world and the progress of nations, but it

is not enough. Each country must have a stake in this

expansion and an enlarged share of it.

Even this is not enough. The international

community must go beyond nations in its ministrations.

It must devote greater attention to care and respect for

people and to the recognition of the inherent equality of

all human beings — regardless of gender, of age, of race,

of religion, of language, of culture or of nationality.

20

We must all remember that the sources of conflict do

not lie only in disputes over territory or resources. As we

know only too well, they arise also, and it seems

increasingly, from intolerance of other people’s beliefs and

cultures and from the less than human treatment of people

from other lands.

Mankind has made progress in advancing the truth that

there are certain things that transcend national boundaries

and are the common heritage, the common concern and the

common responsibility of all nations and of mankind as a

whole. Among these are the environment and the oceans

and their resources.

There is something else that transcends national

boundaries and summons global responsibility, something

that is of infinitely greater worth than even the environment

or the oceans. I am speaking of the world’s most

vulnerable human groups. I speak specifically of migrant

workers, refugees, children, the aged and the disabled, and

the special concerns of the world’s women.

The transnational migration of workers is an

increasingly prominent phenomenon of international life in

our time. This is the result of supply and demand for

workers seeking equilibrium. Migrant workers, however,

are more than a commodity to be traded in the international

market-place. They have the same dignity and rights as

any of us in this Hall. Moreover, they make a vital

contribution to the economies and societies of the countries

in which they live and work.

And yet, many countries, including developing

countries, treat migrant workers as being less than the

human beings that they are. At best, these workers are left

unprotected by the law governing labour and employment.

The international community, the United Nations, cannot

allow the abuse of these vulnerable and valuable members

of the human family to continue.

We urge member States to ratify or accede to the

International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of

All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families as an

expression of their recognition of the common humanity

that they share with migrants and their families.

The Secretary-General might form a group to submit

recommendations to the Assembly at our next session on

improving coordination of the various efforts of the United

Nations on behalf of migrant workers. And I call upon the

High Commissioner for Human Rights to make the rights

of migrant workers one of his priority concerns.

I reiterate the call for a global conference on

international migration and development, which was

supported by many delegations at the recent International

Conference on Population and Development, held in

Cairo.

Natural and man-made disasters have created

large-scale flows of refugees around the world. While the

distinction between refugees and economic migrants has

to be resolutely made, genuine refugees must be given all

the protection that international conventions call for.

Children, by their very nature, have a claim to

mankind’s protection and care. That claim is special in

the case of street children, children coerced into drug

addiction, refugee children and children in the areas of

armed conflict or natural disasters. National societies and

the international community must ensure that such

children are provided with adequate food, medical care,

shelter and education. We may need to draw up a

convention dealing with the sale of children, child

prostitution, child pornography and the nefarious trade in

body parts of children.

The rights, education and empowerment of women

around the world are of special importance to the United

Nations and to the world, as they have everything to do

with some of mankind’s most vital concerns — the health

and education of children, the advancement of the

economy, the preservation of the environment and the

management of the country’s and the world’s population.

We in the Philippines look forward to the Fourth

World Conference on Women, and call for the inclusion

in its platform of action of measures for the protection

and advancement of women’s rights, particularly of

women in positions of great vulnerability, including

women migrant workers, women refugees, and minority

women. We also call upon the Ninth United Nations

Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment

of Offenders to take steps towards making gender-based

violence a crime, especially violence against women

migrant workers and the victims of the traffic in women.

Underlying the need to safeguard the welfare of

these vulnerable groups is the fundamental issue of

human rights, the issue of respect for all people and their

rights, the issue of their inherent equality as human

beings. The United Nations has adopted numerous

international instruments on human rights, beginning with

the Universal Declaration. The Philippines is party to 21

of these.

21

The United Nations must renew its commitment to

foster compliance with these solemn covenants, always with

respect for the sovereignty of nations. Since the concept of

the inherent rights and equality of human persons resides in

the minds of people, United Nations efforts in this regard

must begin with education. As our Constitution proclaims,

human-rights education is itself a human right.

Our delegation reaffirms its full support for a proposal

introduced last year for the declaration of a United Nations

decade on human rights education. At the same time, the

United Nations human rights machinery must be

strengthened, particularly the new office of the High

Commissioner for Human Rights and the Centre for Human

Rights.

Even as we refocus our concerns on basic human

needs, we should not lose sight of the continuing, and even

increased, importance of peace-keeping in the mandate of

the United Nations. We must, however, make sure that the

peace-keeping function does not divert resources from

economic and social development, is not used by the major

Powers simply to pursue their respective agendas, and is

carried out in a transparent and democratic manner.

The Philippines fully supports an approach to

international peace and security that is based on securing

friendly relations among peoples of different political,

cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds, respect for

international law, and the peaceful settlement of disputes.

We believe that the maintenance of international peace and

security should not rest primarily on the use or threat of

sanctions, armed force, or other coercive measures. Nor

should peace-keeping operations, important as they are, take

the place of the political settlement of disputes.

In light of this, and because of the growing number

and complexity of United Nations peace-keeping operations,

we in the United Nations have to agree on a set of guiding

principles for the establishment and conduct of such

operations. Such a set of guidelines would not only

contribute to the effectiveness of the peace-keeping

operations but also broaden the base of active support for

them. The maintenance of international peace and security

is a collective responsibility. The United Nations must

ensure the international nature of all peace-keeping

operations if it is to maintain their credibility.

It is in this spirit that we approach the live question of

the reform of the Security Council. It is ironic that, in the

midst of the rapid spread of democracy within nations in

recent years and the expanding membership of the United

Nations, the Security Council remains unrepresentative in

its size and in the geographic distribution of its

membership and undemocratic in its decision-making and

working methods.

Clearly, while the composition and methods of the

Security Council must reflect the realities of political and

economic power, we have to redress the imbalance in its

composition and increase the participation of the general

membership and other United Nations organs in its

decision-making, if we are to enhance its effectiveness

and its accountability. This would involve both enlarging

the Council’s membership and reforming its methods and

procedures.

Specifically, we believe that the Council’s

membership should be better balanced in terms of

geographic distribution and increased representation of the

developing countries. At the same time, the Security

Council has to improve the transparency of its working

methods and decision-making processes, which, in turn,

would enhance its working relationship with the general

membership and the other principal organs of the United

Nations, especially the General Assembly. We look

forward to early action on this aspiration by the working

group of the General Assembly dealing with the

expansion of the Security Council and related matters.

The General Assembly, for its part, must revitalize

itself if it is to carry out its functions and discharge its

responsibilities under the Charter, including those

pertaining to the maintenance of international peace and

security in which it must assert its role as the only

principal organ with universal membership. In the past

two years, the General Assembly adopted two resolutions

to this effect. Let us begin implementing their key

provisions.

Revitalization of the United Nations is demanded by

the new circumstances and challenges of today’s dynamic

world. Let us, at the very least, do our very best to

uphold and strengthen the principle of universality in our

Organization.

It is in the interest of revitalizing the United Nations

that the effective management of the Organization

assumes enormous importance. The Philippine delegation

welcomes the creation by the General Assembly of the

Office of Internal Oversight Services. We suggest,

however, that the Assembly consider the possible

establishment of an independent advisory group to

oversee the work and receive the reports of this Office.

22

This would provide the checks and balances so necessary

in a large organization such as the United Nations.

As the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations

approaches, we must ensure that the balance is maintained

among the principal concerns of the Organization — the

maintenance of peace and security, the promotion of

economic progress and the advancement of social

development.

Because it has lagged behind the first two of the

preoccupations of the United Nations, I suggest that we

now pay closer attention and turn our efforts more to the

third of our Organization’s principal concerns — the social

component of the basic needs of the human community and

the human person.

As we approach this important milestone of the

Organization, it is altogether fitting that we focus the work

of the United Nations on the human person and society,

whose interest and welfare, after all, are the ultimate reason

for the existence of the United Nations and the final

objective of its works.