Poland, 1995

At the outset, I

should like to express warm congratulations to the

President of the General Assembly, His Excellency

Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral, a distinguished statesman

and eminent jurist from friendly Portugal.

We also follow with particular appreciation the

actions of the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-

Ghali, whose dedication to the cause of peace and

economic and social development meets with universal

approval.

Three months ago, the celebrations of the fiftieth

anniversary of our Organization were inaugurated at a

meeting of Nobel Prize winners in San Francisco. Fifty

years have passed since the end of the Second World

War, which began with the aggression of the forces of the

Third Reich against Poland in the early hours of 1

September 1939. As a historian and also an eyewitness to

those days, I have a moral right to recall from this

rostrum that it was Poland that put a stop to appeasement,

a policy that was futile then and is futile today, a policy

which, in the long run at any rate, never pays, anywhere.

For Poland, the first victim of the Second World

War, that war lasted the longest: five years, eight months

and eight days. It ended in victory, but a victory which

did not bring the Polish people complete freedom. It was

only 45 years later that we achieved the goal for which

Polish patriots had fought with dedication: a free and

sovereign State in a new, democratic Europe.

5

Already during that most terrible of wars to date,

thought was being given to peace and ways of making it

endure. Mindful of their tragic wartime experiences,

peoples and States sought to rid the world once and for

ever of wars and the sufferings they inflict. That is how the

United Nations was born. From the very start, Poland, a

founding Member, has played an active part in the activities

of the Organization, whose principal purposes were to

preserve and consolidate international peace and security,

ensure peaceful social and economic development and the

right to a decent existence and promote respect for human

rights.

The cold war and East-West bipolarity swiftly dashed

the newborn hopes for the relaxation of tensions and peace

untroubled by political or ideological disputes. Although,

happily, a global nuclear cataclysm has not come to pass,

for which much of the credit is undeniably due to the

United Nations, post-war history abounds with tensions, and

humanity has, more than once, found itself on the brink of

total war. Instead of providing for recovery from the

ravages of war and for human well-being, increasing

resources were spent on maintaining a singular balance —

the balance of terror through the arms race. The world was

divided at Yalta into two hostile camps. Many States, in

Central Europe for instance, ended up in the Eastern bloc

against the will of their people. If I refer to Yalta, it is not

meant as a reproach for a pact that was so heinous for

Poland: it is as a warning against future Yaltas, wherever

they might be concluded or whomever they might threaten.

We want a Europe without political or other divisions, for

their consequences would be the same.

Following the geopolitical transformations that

originated in Poland in the 1980s and proved unstoppable

in the face of the aspirations to freedom of the peoples of

that part of Europe and of Asia, the world has become

infinitely safer. East-West confrontation has disappeared,

for ever, it is hoped, and the terms “East” and “West” have

regained their old, purely geographical connotations. Yet

the world, though no longer bipolar, has not been freed

from conflicts. Hitherto dormant or suppressed, tides of

nationalism have surfaced with renewed vigour, often

fuelled by intolerance, ethnic and religious strife or outright

racism.

Six years after the commencement in 1989 of great

changes in the world political map, the anticipated new

international order has failed to materialize. The United

Nations and all its Members are still actively looking for

effective and equitable answers to the new problems that

have emerged since the end of the cold war. These political

changes present a unique opportunity to build a new

system of peaceful cooperation, not of mere coexistence.

Our desire is to seek a new world order, one that will

ensure full security to all States and provide conditions

for their swift social and economic development, while at

the same time giving all individuals the opportunity to

exercise fully their human rights, to which they are

entitled. Of course, there would not be room for any kind

of intolerance, manifestations of ethnic, religious or racial

hatred, including shameful anti-Semitism.

Poland is aware of, and acknowledges, the

momentous role which the United Nations plays in the

realization of these goals. An Organization founded by 51

States has grown to become a universal structure

embracing almost all the countries of the globe. It is,

however, not only the number of Members that has

changed: its tasks have also kept growing steadily. While

originally the political military question and

decolonization predominated, in time the scope of United

Nations interests widened, and today it would be hard to

identify a single domain where the United Nations system

is not involved. Expectations of the United Nations have

grown likewise, often excessively, since they were not

backed by sufficient political will to provide the

Organization with appropriate instruments, which are

indispensable if it is to live up to these expectations. I

have in mind one of the basic fields of United Nations

activities — conflict prevention and settlement. Here the

United Nations lends itself relatively easily to attack. One

overlooks, however, how much the character of conflicts

now confronting the international community has

changed. Conventional conflicts between States are now

increasingly giving way to internal conflicts, as in

Rwanda, in Somalia and, up to a point, in the former

Yugoslavia. The traditional mediation role of the United

Nations peace-keeping forces, discharged with the consent

of the parties to a conflict, has frequently become

impossible in present-day conditions. In many cases,

United Nations peace-keeping missions come up against

the dilemma of having to depart from the principle of

non-interference in the internal affairs of a State torn

apart by civil war. Should one remain indifferent and

ignore human suffering in such a situation? It is we, the

States Members of the United Nations, which are often

called upon to answer this question unequivocally, and we

are not always able to do so. Inevitably, this adversely

affects the success of the mission, the blame for which is

all too often and all too easily placed on the United

Nations. One tends to forget that we are the United

Nations.

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Poland takes the view that when a direct threat is

posed to international peace and security, the United

Nations — if it is to be an efficient instrument of collective

security in accordance with the Charter — must be

equipped to do its job. We can draw up a long list of

conflicts and wars which were brought to an end thanks to

United Nations efforts. Millions of human lives have been

saved, owing to humanitarian relief action organized by the

United Nations — but an equally long list can be produced

of undertakings which ended in failure. The fiftieth

anniversary should, no doubt, prompt critical reflection on

the subject. Defeats and mistakes must not lead to the

abdication of efforts. They should encourage the taking of

steps to reform and remodel what must be changed, and

thus make the United Nations a truly modern Organization,

adapted to new circumstances and measuring up to the

requirements of the period and its challenges.

In today’s interconnected and interdependent world,

even the most powerful nations cannot cope alone with

such global issues as, for example, the proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction, the spread of drugs, hunger

and poverty, the pollution of the environment, acquired

immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and increasingly

rampant terrorism — in short, all the ills that are appearing

as we approach the end of the century. Consequently, we

need to bolster the trend towards enhancement of

multilateral institutions, including the United Nations and its

system. It was in this spirit that the President of Poland,

Lech Walesa, spoke at San Francisco last June when he

referred to the Organization’s shortcomings in critical

terms.

Poland is not only playing its full role in this process:

the creation of a new international order is the focal point

of its foreign policy at the subregional, regional and global

levels. Fully sovereign and independent, today’s Poland is

one of the largest and most populous countries in Central

and Eastern Europe. It strives actively to contribute to

ensuring the stability of a region of importance to

Europe — a region that forms a natural geographical,

cultural and economic bridge between Europe’s historically

evolved parts. Hence, the basic task of the foreign policy of

the Republic of Poland is active participation in, and a

creative contribution to, the building of a new Europe —

one without divisions and conflicts, ensuring well-being and

security to all its inhabitants.

In practice, this policy is manifested in unremitting

efforts to integrate Poland into European and Atlantic

structures, in acknowledgement of their role as guarantors

of the security, stability, democracy and economic

development of our continent.

The priority of our foreign policy agenda is entry

into the European Union. The Union had its origins in the

days of the Marshall Plan, to which Poland declared its

accessibility; this was subsequently withdrawn under

pressure from outside. Because of the systemic

differences and the delay in economic and social

development that ensued in the intervening years, the

process of adaptation is bound to be difficult, costly and

protracted. We are, however, convinced that this is not

too high a price to pay for joining a regional organization

which, more than any other in history, has been able to

ensure its members — apart from political integration —

prosperity, a high level of social security and the highest

standards of protection of individual rights and freedoms.

Expansion eastwards by the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO) and the European Union is

synonymous with the consolidation of the zone of

stability in this once conflict-prone region.

In a foreign policy statement in the Polish

Parliament four months ago, I said that Poland was not

pursuing, and would not pursue, two different foreign

policies: one Western and the other Eastern. In other

words, while seeking to join Western European structures,

we attach great importance to cultivating friendly relations

and all-round cooperation both with our immediate and

with our more distant neighbours. We are pursuing

cooperation with these States within the framework of the

existing subregional organizations and are working for its

expansion. We are bound to our neighbours by treaties of

good-neighbourly relations, friendship and cooperation.

We will spare no effort to eradicate as soon as possible

all vestiges of mutual prejudice and any grievances still

harboured by our societies.

Poland attaches major importance to the

consolidation and expansion of such all-European

organizations as the Organization for Security and

Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe,

and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

(ECE). We support the OSCE role in resolving armed

conflicts in our part of the world, in cooperation with the

United Nations. We therefore welcome with satisfaction

the Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal established by

the OSCE last May. Our active participation in the work

of the Council of Europe results from our strong belief

that it is of enormous importance in the process of

dissemination, reinforcement and development of

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democratic institutions and mechanisms for the protection

of human rights on our continent.

Finally, reference must be made to Poland’s

contribution to the work of the United Nations Economic

Commission for Europe. Thanks to its long experience in

efforts to overcome the economic divisions that Europe

inherited from the recent past, the ECE has a role to play

in the process of the economic integration of Europe.

At the same time, I wish to declare Poland’s strong

support for the useful activities of the regional commissions

in general. They should be responsible for coordinating, in

each region, the local projects of the United Nations

system, especially its specialized agencies, and become

regional focal points for the promotion of sustainable

growth and human development. The same applies to such

subregional initiatives as the Central European Initiative,

the Council of the Baltic Sea States, and the Central

European Free Trade Association.

While concentrating, understandably enough, on

problems connected with the transformation of our political

and economic systems, Poland is paying due attention to

development processes and trends in the world at large. We

are systematically expanding our economic and political

contacts with nations on other continents. We are

increasingly concerned at the scale of the economic

problems looming in North-South relations. The

development disparities and contrasts in this area call for an

urgent intensification of the efforts of the whole world, and

the more advanced countries in particular. We are not

always in a position to provide developing countries with

aid matching their expectations, but we shall provide it to

the extent we can.

We note with satisfaction the vitality of the Non-

Aligned Movement, which has been cooperating with the

United Nations for many years and which, despite so many

changes, remains unfailingly active on the international

stage. This Movement played a paramount role in bringing

the era of colonialism to an end, has successfully assisted

young nations to secure their rightful place in the world and

is now laying the foundations for a new era of post-cold-

war relations between States, free of global confrontation.

Over the last three years, under the presidency of Indonesia,

the Non-Aligned Movement has ably redirected its priorities

in order to focus its attention on economic development. It

embarked on this task on the basis of fruitful dialogue with

the developed countries and has greatly contributed to

narrowing the gap between the latter and the nations it

represents. We take note in particular of the spectacular

progress made by the Association of South-East Asian

Nations (ASEAN) in terms of development, and we

acknowledge its efforts to extinguish old conflicts and

prevent new ones, to build confidence and to search for

new security formulas. Poland is interested in political

dialogue and economic cooperation with this group of

States, both bilaterally and within a broader Europe-Asia

formula. Central Europe also has many characteristics and

interests in common with the States of Latin America and

their groupings. At the last session of the Economic and

Social Council we gave forceful expression to our

solidarity with Africa. We believe that cooperation with,

and the provision of assistance to, the African continent

is in the best interests of the international community.

For its part, Poland is fully conscious of its

obligations to the world community, as manifested by its

active participation in the work of the United Nations —

an organization where States, large, small and medium-

sized, like Poland, participate democratically, as far as

they can, in a mutual effort to transform the world. We

are prepared to assume additional obligations in regard to

international peace and security. That is why we have put

forward our candidacy for non-permanent membership of

the Security Council in the elections to be held during the

current session of the General Assembly.

Consistent with the obligations embodied in the

Charter of the United Nations, the maintenance of

international peace and security is central to Poland’s

foreign policy. Proof of our commitment to this goal has

been the participation, since the 1950s, of soldiers and

officers of the Polish army in United Nations peace-

keeping operations, and more recently in those launched

under the auspices of the OSCE.

For many years now, Poland has traditionally been

among the 10 States fielding the largest contingents in

United Nations peace-keeping operations, despite its

mounting financial problems due to the growing delays in

the reimbursement of the expenses incurred. Poland is

gravely concerned at the increasingly frequent instances

of disregard for the status of peace-keeping personnel,

such as Blue Helmets being attacked or taken hostage for

use as human shields, a practice of which United Nations

military observers from Poland have also been the

victims. It is for this reason that the entry into force of

the relevant Convention and its rigorous observance are

extremely urgent.

It is also essential to streamline the functioning of

peace-keeping operations. We note with satisfaction the

8

progress already made in this field. However, recent events

in the former Yugoslavia demonstrate the need for further

steps to be taken to ensure the effectiveness of action,

especially in emergency situations. This issue is particularly

topical in view of the multiplication of extremely bloody

and dangerous internal armed conflicts. The evident

impotence of the international community in such situations

is due to the fact that, as numerous examples in the last few

years bear out, international organizations, by their very

nature, are not prepared for active intervention in internal

conflicts. These examples also demonstrate that the only

possible basis for the resolution of an internal conflict is an

accord between the warring parties. We therefore believe

that the primary task of the United Nations is to strive

unflaggingly, as it has often done so effectively in the past,

to bring the parties to a conflict to the negotiating table, to

broker an agreement between them and to supervise its

implementation. The relevance of preventive diplomacy to

both intra-State and international conflicts, and the United

Nations role in that respect, were rightly recalled by my

Australian colleague, Senator Gareth Evans.

Another key facet of international security is the issue

of disarmament. In this area we welcomed, with joy and

relief, the indefinite extension of the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, arrived at last May

by consensus. We pay tribute to the wisdom and

farsightedness displayed by all participants, without

exception, at the Review and Extension Conference in New

York.

The road that has brought the world to an unbelievable

build-up of nuclear arsenals was long and costly. Today we

realize that embarking on this same road in the opposite

direction, towards disarmament, will be equally long, costly

and complicated. The indefinite extension of the NPT was

an act of enormous significance. The next task — no less

difficult and just as momentous — will be the conclusion

of a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty, which should

take place no later than in 1996. Special importance, in our

view, should also be attached to the entry into force and

practical implementation of the Convention on the

prohibition of chemical weapons, an instrument which

Poland ratified last July. In all these matters, Polish

diplomacy has played, and will continue to play, an active

role.

Poland believes that progress in disarmament in the

field of weapons of mass destruction should be paralleled

by a simultaneous and equally tangible effort in the field of

conventional weapons, a category of arms that over the last

half-century has inflicted tens of millions of casualties in

countless regional and internal conflicts. The inescapable

conclusion is that the United Nations needs to go beyond

the limited aims of the United Nations Register of

Conventional Arms and that the problems of conventional

arms control and disarmament have to be put on the

agenda of the Conference on Disarmament. This is

important not only because of the specific nature of the

contemporary conflicts the United Nations has to deal

with, but also because of the need to put an end to the

mounting wave of internal and international terrorism in

an increasing number of countries. There can be no doubt

that terrorism and organized crime in general, as well as

illegal traffic in radioactive materials and drugs, represent

today a serious threat to security. Determined action is

therefore needed. Its success will depend on broad

international cooperation within the United Nations

system — I refer to the Vienna institutions — as well as

outside the United Nations system.

Economic development is an extremely important

and, in recent years, increasingly significant sphere of

activity of the organs of the United Nations system.

Economic development problems, together with social

issues, have been the subject of a number of major

international conferences. The agendas of conferences

already held and those of the ones to be convened in the

next two years address virtually all development-related

problems. What is now indispensable is to concentrate

efforts on the conscientious and coordinated

implementation of their decisions, a matter of which

account should also be taken in the planned reform of the

United Nations system.

We appreciate the incipient changes that are

appearing in the attitude of the Bretton Woods institutions

with regard to the question of the social dimension of

development processes, especially the elimination of

poverty and unemployment. These issues clearly stood out

at the Copenhagen social summit and at the session of the

Economic and Social Council held in Geneva earlier this

year. This bolsters the hope that the efforts of the poorer

countries to cope with the contingencies of socio-

economic development will obtain external financial

support. We do not share the view that developing

countries or, for that matter, nations that, like Poland, are

in the throes of transformation, are contributing to

unemployment in the more developed parts of the world.

We do not accept the argument that trade with low-wage

countries might threaten the economic stability of such

developed countries. According to the findings of the

latest studies by the Organisation for Economic

Cooperation and Development, the less-developed

9

countries represent, first and foremost, new markets that are

of interest to multinational corporations. Let me note in this

connection that Poland has been recently classified as one

of the world’s 10 biggest emerging markets.

Specific opportunities have also been created by the

conclusion of the Uruguay Round and the establishment of

the World Trade Organization. In the short term, however,

the liberalization of world trade could be too great a

challenge to the weakest partners, especially in Africa. We

are in favour of safety-net arrangements for countries in

this category.

We also perceive a development paradox of our times:

cut-backs in agricultural production in some parts of the

world because of excessive stocks of food and for purposes

of checking falling prices are paralleled by the existence of

endemic famine areas in other parts of the world. In an

interdependent world such as ours, there is something

baffling in this situation. The United Nations should be the

forum in which to address this difficult and conscience-

troubling problem. The solution is not simply one of

redistribution. The crux of the matter lies in helping these

countries to help themselves by stimulating their capacity

for self-reliance instead of perpetuating their dependence.

Lastly, the third area crucial to the well-being of

future generations, to which Poland attaches particular

importance, is the question of human rights. Today, six

years into the process of democratic change, Poland can

pride itself on having a legal system which meets the most

rigorous international standards in the field of respect for

and comprehensive protection of human rights.

Poland has not confined itself to taking care of internal

problems in that regard. In the past few years it has been

pursuing wide-ranging activities in the United Nations

organs concerned with human rights and the development

of international mechanisms for their protection.

Undoubtedly, in this field the Vienna Human Rights

Conference of 1993 was a landmark event. Polish

diplomacy was extremely active both at the preparatory

stage and in the course of the Conference. From the outset

we strongly endorsed the establishment of the Office of

High Commissioner for Human Rights, which was one of

the principal achievements of the Vienna Conference. Since

the appointment of Ambassador Ayala Lasso to this

important post we have given him our full cooperation and

support.

Of its very nature, the United Nations does not have

the means to force either States or armed groupings to

respect the rights of citizens and to comply with

international obligations in this field. Violations of

humanitarian law and the laws of war are rife. The timid

response to the systematic reports by the Human Rights

Commission’s Special Rapporteur, the former Polish

Prime Minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, of drastic violations

of human rights in the former Yugoslavia resulted in his

resignation from his mission. We note with satisfaction

statements from this rostrum recognizing the significance

of his endeavours.

The upgrading of the status of human rights within

the structure of United Nations organs, the General

Assembly included, is essential. The basic tasks of our

Organization in this field should be the promotion of

permanent international dialogue on the protection of

human rights, the development of mechanisms for

overseeing compliance with international obligations and

the increase of technical assistance by rich and

experienced nations to countries which lack the necessary

resources. Appropriate funds for this purpose should be

made available to the High Commissioner and the Centre

for Human Rights in Geneva.

Ever since the foundation of the United Nations 50

years ago the tasks facing the Organization have grown in

number and complexity. The political and economic

environment in which these tasks have to be coped with

also keeps changing, as demonstrated by the decisions of

the latest major Conferences — in Cairo, Copenhagen and

Beijing. That calls for the continuous adaptation of the

organizational structures and procedures to new tasks and

changing circumstances. It is imperative to enhance the

methods of cooperation between the United Nations and

regional organizations like the Organization for Security

and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Organization of

African Unity (OAU), the Organization of American

States (OAS) and the Organization of the Islamic

Conference (OIC). Equally important is the effort further

to develop the system of international law so that it can

regulate more adequately and with greater precision the

rights and obligations of its subjects in the ever growing

number of areas of their mutual relations. The importance

of these problems, United Nations reform included, has

not escaped the attention of our distinguished Secretary-

General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The reform of the United Nations is therefore a

pressing task. It is necessary in respect of the principal

organs, the Security Council and the Economic and Social

Council in the first place, and the countless subsidiary

bodies. Poland appreciates the results of efforts made so

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far to enhance the work of the Security Council. As a

result, we have a Council which is both more efficient and

more than ever responsive to the need for greater

transparency in its proceedings. Poland wishes to express its

support for the acceleration of steps aimed at an appropriate

expansion of the Council’s composition, to render it more

representative without detriment to its effectiveness. The

reform of the Organization must aim at upgrading its

efficiency and remedying its financial situation, while

keeping intact the basic principle of the sovereign equality

of all its Members. However, the most important issue is

efficiency, without forgetting that, as an intergovernmental

Organization, the basic task of the United Nations is to

cement partner-like cooperation between its Members, and

recalling that it can act only on their authority. The ultimate

success of the reform will be the best contribution we can

make to the observance of the fiftieth anniversary of the

Organization.

Let me add the voice of Poland to all those statements

which, on the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations,

conveyed from this rostrum unequivocal assurances of

confidence in the future of our Organization and in its

ability to cope with the challenges that face us on the

threshold of the twenty-first century. For its part, Poland is

ready to participate in these efforts for the sake of future

generations so that, in contrast to my own, they will never

experience war, be it hot or cold, and so that they can live

in a world founded on principles of cooperation, good-

neighbourly relations and mutual trust.