Philippines, 2002

As we welcome our

newest members, Switzerland and East Timor, we

reaffirm our faith in the United Nations and in the

principles of the Charter.

Today, the United Nations faces more challenges

and must respond to far more demands than were ever

contemplated by its founders. Yet the Organization

remains the single most important universal and viable

forum for States to interact, for nations to work

together and for countries to cooperate in preserving

peace, in avoiding conflict and in promoting stability.

We believe that Iraq took a step in the right

direction when it agreed yesterday to the unconditional

return of United Nations weapons inspectors. But the

immediate challenge facing the Organization and our

world is the looming confrontation that could be

brought about by the need for Iraq to comply, totally

and unconditionally, with the relevant Security Council

resolutions. We credit the diplomatic skills and the

sheer determination of Secretary-General Kofi Annan

and of the members of the Arab League with this

welcome development. We will, therefore, await clear

proof of sincerity in action.

But this is just a beginning. We believe that we

are far from a true resolution of this issue. We must

remain vigilant and must continue to have faith in the

Security Council. The Philippines has full confidence

in the Council process. We believe that the Council

will act in accordance with the imperatives of world

peace and security and that it will find the most

expeditious and effective way to serve those

imperatives.

Consistent with its national interest, and in

accordance with its Constitution, the Philippines is

prepared to extend political, security and humanitarian

assistance to the United States and to the international

community in the pursuit of their most vital interest,

which coincides with our own vital interests: to defeat

terrorism. The case for compliance is compelling. The

charges are highly credible and have serious

implications for global security. The Security Council

should give those charges the most urgent and

profound consideration. The international community

has put the onus on Iraq to comply with the relevant

Council resolutions, especially with regard to the

elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

Yet we certainly live in a world of consequences

that can be avoided. Poverty, intolerance and inequality

provide the breeding ground for terrorism. But we need

not make terrorism an unavoidable consequence of

those factors. We have learned that in the one year

since the shocking and tragic events of 11 September.

In that short span of time, we have learned that

terrorism cannot defeat us and that it cannot overcome

our resolve to fight it, and we have learned the full

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measure of the bravery of the men and women who

stand on the front lines in the war against terror. In that

short span of time, we have established new strategic

partnerships and have retooled and rearmed existing

strategic partnerships. Those partnerships are based on

the belief that the world will never be secure unless

terrorist lairs are exposed and destroyed and unless

terrorist supporters are brought to justice.

In the realm of what is just and what is fair, we

know that globalization can contribute to the

comprehensive and sustainable development of the

developing world. Indeed, in some cases it has done so.

But the gap between the rich and poor countries

continues to widen.

Let us again remind ourselves of the stark reality

that 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day; 1.1

billion people lack access to safe and affordable

drinking water; and 130 million school-age children,

the majority of whom are girls, lack the means to stay

in school.

The uneven spread of opportunities for the

creation of wealth, and the increasing income

inequality within and between countries, have pushed

larger numbers of people to the margins of existence.

We in the Philippines are building an open

economy. We are taking concrete measures to create an

open trade and investment environment in our own

country and in our region. We have adapted to the

realities of globalization, fully aware of the

concomitant risks, particularly those that impinge on

the well-being of our vulnerable and disadvantaged

groups.

We firmly believe that, in general, developing

countries accept the need for good governance in their

public and corporate sectors. We are continuing our

institutional reform, guided by our national priorities,

requirements and capabilities. We are taking great

pains to restructure our economy, often at high political

cost.

Capital is what developing countries lack most in

their pursuit of sustainable development. The Food and

Agriculture Organization has estimated that an

additional annual public investment of $24 billion must

be made in poor countries in order to halve the number

of hungry people by the United Nations millennium

target date of 2015.

Developing countries need more foreign direct

investment, particularly in areas that will promote the

sustainable use of the environment and sustained

growth. We also need improved access to foreign

markets.

Many developing countries must also effectively

compete in areas where their comparative advantage is

great, such as agriculture. However, developing

countries do not have the resources to match the

subsidies that agricultural producers receive in rich

countries, such as the 40 billion euros that European

Union farmers receive each year or the additional $170

billion that United States farmers will receive over the

next 10 years. We can only wonder what the liberating

impact would be on development if the subsidies of 23

cents per dollar for farm goods in the United States or

the 36 cents per dollar on farm goods in the European

Union were instead invested in developing countries.

We need to reverse the decline in official

development assistance, which remains below the

target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product. But we

should also not lose sight of the fact that, aside from

increased funding sources for developing countries, the

flip side of the development coin should be greater

restraint, care and flexibility in the use of

conditionalities. Enhanced and effective debt relief,

including for middle-income countries, is also needed.

Efforts to reform the international financial

architecture and to strengthen the development

dimension of the global trade and investment regime

should be sustained.

Globalization has provided more opportunities

and greater choices for people who want to travel the

world in search of a livelihood. Some 10 per cent of the

people of the Philippines are outside its border. Their

safety and welfare is of paramount importance to us,

particularly in times of actual or potential conflict. The

welfare of migrant workers should be placed higher on

the United Nations agenda now, before the migrant

issue turns into a serious humanitarian problem. We

can start by becoming States parties to the United

Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of

All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

It is also important for developed nations to support the

important work of humanitarian assistance agencies

like the International Organization for Migration.

Despite the unprecedented wealth created in the

last decade of the twentieth century, one out of every

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five people lives on less than $1 a day. The 32 poorest

African countries do not earn much more than the

richest man on earth, the title unofficially bestowed

upon Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft, in the

United States. Despite the grinding poverty in which

billions of people live, the world spends incredible

sums for military purposes for armies and weapons

of mass annihilation.

Those bent on fomenting hate and violence will

find willing adherents, particularly among the helpless,

and hopeless poor, the dispossessed and the

disenfranchised. The hungry, the young people who do

not go to school and those living in the margins of

society can become easy prey to the siren songs of

terrorists and the perpetrators of violence. Poverty

alleviation and development are therefore key

strategies in preventing conflict and fighting terrorism.

Terrorism has become a major cause of violence

and instability in our world. But this is not the only

menace to our collective security. Organized crime,

environmental degradation and contagious diseases

continue to threaten international peace and security.

The proliferation of conventional and non-conventional

weapons, including small arms, is continuing. Civil

wars and inter-State conflicts remain major causes of

instability and underdevelopment. The United Nations

must therefore continue to play its important

peacekeeping and peacemaking role.

Durable peace and progress with freedom can be

achieved only through international partnerships and a

renewed faith in the United Nations, which should

guarantee meaningful participation by developing

countries in global decision-making. The challenges of

the world today potential and actual conflict,

terrorism, violence, environmental degradation,

organized crime and contagious diseases recognize

no boundaries and affect all.

In the eloquent language of the Philadelphia

Declaration of the International Labour Organization,

poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity

everywhere'. That is the case because humanity and

human destiny has become a seamless whole. No

man is an island, and the bell tolls for us, too. This is

the timeless vision of the United Nations, validated by

all who have spoken here at the fifty-seventh session of

the General Assembly. It is a vision and a bond that

should unite all nations as we face new dangers and the

unmarked frontiers of our collective life on this small,

endangered planet. Indeed, the United Nations

continues to be the last best hope of mankind.