Poland, 2000

Allow me

first of all to congratulate Mr. Harri Holkeri on his

election as President of the Millennium session of the

General Assembly. The Polish delegation expresses its

satisfaction that the presidency of this session has been

entrusted to an eminent statesman from Finland, a

country with which we have ties of friendship and

cooperation based on common values and aspirations.

He may count on my delegation's full cooperation in

the performance of his important tasks.

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My congratulations also to the Assembly's

outgoing President, Minister Theo-Ben Guribab, for the

outstanding commitment and skill he displayed during

his presidency.

On behalf of Poland, allow me also to welcome to

the United Nations the new Member, Tuvalu.

I should also like to express my appreciation to

the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for the

outstanding manner in which he has demonstrated his

qualities of leadership and good judgement, and in

particular for his inspirational report, “We the peoples:

the role of the United Nations in the twenty-first

century”.

Although the start of the new millennium is still a

few months away, a new era actually began a little

earlier. It was marked by the demise of the world's

ideological polarization into East and West and

division into three worlds, and by the emergence of the

world economy. Humankind enters this new era, the

age of globalization, with the immense opportunity to

expand the spheres of freedom and prosperity brought

by the triumph of democracy and advances in

technology, especially the achievements of the

information revolution.

Behind us we have left the twentieth century, an

age of extremes and profound contradictions. It was an

age of man's triumphs and downfalls, alternating

setbacks and advances in the evolution of the

international community. On the one hand, we have

witnessed of amazing scientific, technological and

material progress, the spread of human rights and

democracy and the development of universal

international institutions. On the other hand, it was also

an age of the most horrendous dramas in contemporary

human history, of the tragedies, atrocities and

devastation of two world wars, of the utmost contempt

for the human being, and of genocide and blind

violence perpetrated by utopias intent on thus building

“brave new worlds”. The Polish poet and Nobel

laureate in literature in 1980, Czeslaw Milosz, wrote in

The Witness of History that the twentieth century's

original contribution to the history of the human race

was “the near disappearance of the concept of values”

and concluded: “The extermination camp became the

central fact of the century.”

Nonetheless, the end of this century seems to

bring more optimism. This is not only the assessment

of the Foreign Minister of reborn and democratic

Poland. It is also the personal feeling of a man who,

having been a prisoner of two totalitarian systems, the

Nazi and the Communist — incidentally, I am, I think,

the only Foreign Minister to hold this “distinction” —

has known the sufferings specific to this century, and it

reflects the hope ingrained in human nature. But as

well as destruction and hatred, I have also been, since

as long ago as the days of the Holocaust, a witness of

and participant in a struggle for the dignity and the

rights of the human being and the process of my

country's recovery of independence and arduous

construction of democracy.

My history of active participation in transforming

the conditions of human existence, in its individual and

collective dimension, began in the yard of the

concentration camp of Auschwitz. Later, enlistment in

the Polish resistance and, in particular, participation in

assistance for the inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Next, the unimaginable inferno of the Warsaw uprising

in 1944 and the death, as it seemed at the time, of

Warsaw. Finally, the end of the war. I remember the joy

and hope with which we greeted the United Nations

Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights. They gave me strength when I found myself

having to survive the ordeal of years in Communist

jails. From them, too, I drew inspiration on the journey

that eventually led me and my political friends to

Gdansk, the city for which our allies were unwilling to

die in 1939 and in which the next great turning-point in

the history of the past century was launched in 1980.

Indeed, two weeks ago we celebrated in Poland

the twentieth anniversary of the foundation of the

Solidarity movement, the Polish revolution that was at

first suppressed at gunpoint by the totalitarian regime

but that, becoming an emblem of hope, weathered

repression and an unfavourable set of international

circumstances. The rebirth of Solidarity in 1989 and

the Polish Round Table opened the way to historic

changes, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the

collapse of the Communist bloc, and in consequence

set in motion a sweeping transformation of the

international system. Having been involved for over 60

years in these processes, as a writer, historian,

university lecturer and, currently, Foreign Minister, I

feel — if the Assembly will forgive the personal tone

of this confession — as if I were a living, physical

symbol of humanity's stormy voyage through the

history of the past century.

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But let me also say that the traumatic experiences

of my nation have made the Poles exceptionally aware

of the value of peace and any manifestations of good

that are lastingly present in international life. Making

our contribution to the positive culmination of the

twentieth century and working towards the

revitalization of the message of the United Nations,

and thereby opening up new prospects for the

Organization, we see ourselves as full and active

members of the global family of nations. A further

source of the sense of security and confidence that

fortifies us in this role within the United Nations is that

we have become a member of the North Atlantic

Alliance and are forging ever-closer ties with the

European Union, which we expect to join in the near

future.

Bolstered by our accomplishments in the past

decade, having reclaimed our place on the international

stage, we are eager to participate together with other

nations in this generally perceptible shift towards

values. A yearning for a world imbued with moral

values is visible in all civilizations and religions. This

is especially evident in the waning of the unlawful use

of force in international life. The recent outbreaks seen

here and there are an echo of divisions and conflicts

that are fading along with the twentieth century. This

positive tendency can be observed in Europe, in the

Middle East, in North-East Asia and in other parts of

the world. Contributing to it is a growing respect for

human rights and appreciation of the economic and

social factors involved in their full achievement.

Against this background, the Polish people hold

in great esteem the peace mission of John Paul II, the

Pope from Poland — a Pope whose pontificate, like the

whole course of his life, personifies, beacon-like, an

unwavering adherence to values and, through the

symbol of open arms, understanding and reconciliation.

The Pope's position not only fills us with pride but is

also a model for our international behaviour. The

bearings guiding our actions, including here in the

United Nations, are tolerance, openness and respect for

the dignity and rights of the individual, minorities and

whole nations. We are determined to oppose every kind

of discrimination and prejudice, whether on ethnic,

national, religious or social grounds. In this cause,

Poland is and will continue to be a staunch ally of the

United Nations.

We are entering the twenty-first century with the

immense potential generated by the newest phase of the

revolution in science, technology, mass

communications, the opening up of frontiers, the

development of inter-societal ties and the

universalization of democracy and human rights. Most

of these phenomena are encompassed by the common

term “globalization”. For a number of years,

assessment of their consequences has, especially in the

wake of regional financial crises, been growing

increasingly contentious. Sometimes they are treated as

a force of nature sweeping all before them, as morally

neutral processes that can do good or harm and that

eventually will bring prosperity to all peoples or be a

source of crises, inequality and instability within

nations and on an international scale.

Globalization has unquestionably beneficial

effects in the sphere of trade, production, the spread of

modern technologies and capital flows. The

liberalization of international trade, the growth of

world output and the prosperity of societies should

bring a more equitable sharing of the benefits of

globalization. At the same time, there are looming

dangers, harmful side-effects and new problems whose

scale and nature we are not yet capable of identifying

correctly. The challenge facing us is to work together

to steer these processes in such a way that it is their

blessings that are mainly felt by humanity, and that

they are prevented from creating new divides in the

world. We must do everything in our power, including

here at the United Nations, to ensure that these

processes mean the globalization of good.

Faced with the opportunities, but also the threats,

presented by the evolution of human civilization at the

threshold of the third millennium, the international

community needs to organize around a question of

basic importance to the direction of its future

development. That was the purpose of the Government

of Poland when it decided, together with the

Governments of Chile, India, the Republic of Korea,

Mali, the United States and the Czech Republic, to

initiate broader international collaboration in the cause

of consolidation and promotion of democracy in the

world.

In this gathering there is no need to argue the

virtues of democracy. No one disputes the positive

interrelationship between democracy and human rights,

internal and international peace, economic growth and

prosperity and better realization of the principles of

justice and solidarity. At the same time, we cannot

ignore the threats to democracy, which are primarily of

31

an internal nature. They affect countries in the process

of democratic transition as well as so-called mature

democracies. They cover a wide spectrum, ranging

from poverty and economic underdevelopment, ethnic

conflicts and organized crime to corruption and the

exclusion of whole sectors of public life, notably

finance and the media, from democratic control, which

saps the foundations of democracy and demeans it in

the eyes of society. Democracy, its condition and

prospects, can and should be no less a legitimate

subject of international debate and cooperation than the

other great issues of our times: human rights,

disarmament, the environment and the like.

Imbued with this belief, we embarked, in

conjunction with a number of other States, on

organizing in June of this year an international

conference, “Towards a Community of Democracies”.

A total of 107 States accepted our invitation. Speaking

at the Warsaw conference, Secretary-General Kofi

Annan said,

“One of the greatest challenges to

humankind in the new century will be the

struggle to make the practice of democracy

equally universal. In that struggle, nations in

which democracy is already well established will

need to be vigilant in preserving that

achievement”.

The participants in the conference adopted the Warsaw

Declaration, in which they reaffirmed their

commitment to its catalogue of democratic values and

standards. They also undertook to pursue informal

cooperation to strengthen and promote democracy in

various international organizations. For obvious

reasons, the key question will be what can be done to

advance this cause in the framework of and through the

United Nations.

Let me take this opportunity to recall another

Polish initiative that also falls within the current of

responses to the harmful side effects of globalization

processes. In 1996, at the General Assembly, Poland

submitted a proposal to frame a universal legal

instrument, the first of its kind, that could help us

combat one of the greatest dangers of our times:

international organized crime. At this session the text

of that Convention will be presented to the General

Assembly for its approval.

The central issue of successive international

agendas is security. Though preserving international

peace and security is the main purpose of the United

Nations, States have also looked to other ways to

ensure their security: through creation of balance-of-

power systems, arms races and even the use of force.

Today we are trying to achieve such goals by different

means. Anachronistic doctrines of geopolitics and

spheres of influence are now fading into history. The

Roman maxim, “If you want peace, prepare for war” —

Si vis pacem para bellum — is becoming irrelevant.

Nevertheless, the problem of security remains a

pressing one, as the numerous conflicts and

humanitarian dramas in various parts of the world

make all too clear. In addition to crises and wars

inherited from the old international order, we are

plagued by conflicts which spring from poverty, ethnic

and religious strife or the atrophying of States' ability

to perform their basic functions: providing the people

living within their borders with internal security and

decent conditions of existence.

This new situation, in which security depends not

so much on purely military factors as on social

stability, on observance of human rights and the rights

of national minorities or on access to drinking water,

enhances the role of the United Nations, which can

draw on unique experience and a wide range of non-

military instruments for ensuring security. Fuller

involvement by the United Nations in the security

sphere as provided in the mandate deriving from its

Charter requires determined continuation of reform of

the Organization in this field, starting with a practical

redefinition of the role of the Security Council that

would extend its purview to non-traditional threats to

international security.

The Security Council must do what, in

accordance with the Charter, is expected of it by

Members and respond more decisively to signs of

budding conflicts or humanitarian disasters. The

Kosovo drama, like many others, could have been

avoided if Security Council members had displayed

sufficient imagination and resolve at the right time.

That would also have enabled us to avoid last year's

arguments and controversies over the issue of

humanitarian intervention. The inability of the Security

Council to respond robustly in such situations will

open the way to further precedents for sidestepping the

Charter and United Nations mechanisms in the security

sphere and could thereby lead to disintegration of this

system.

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The success and effectiveness of the proposals

and recommendations contained in the Secretary-

General's Millennium report will depend on the

determination of the Security Council as the system's

lynch-pin. Poland endorses the report's perspective on

international problems and approach to tackling them.

We are in favour of stronger legal instruments for

stabilizing the international order; this refers to

situations involving threats to security and use of force,

to respect for human rights and to arms control and

limitation. In all these areas we must preserve the

primacy of the United Nations system over regional or

unilateral measures, which are acceptable only in the

exceptional circumstances in which the Security

Council and United Nations mechanisms are found

wanting.

In this context I should also like to pay tribute to

the Brahimi report on United Nations peace operations.

As a long-standing and very active participant in

United Nations peacekeeping missions, Poland is in

favour of streamlining the machinery for conducting

them — from decision-making to presence in the

field — and ensuring their greater effectiveness by

widening and making more adequate the array of

instruments with which such operations are equipped.

This means both the possibility of the use of force by

the units deployed in an operation and a wide spectrum

of peace-building and post-conflict rehabilitation

capabilities. I refer also to action aimed at advancing

human rights and laying the groundwork for democracy

in the institutional and civil society sphere. In our

view, in further work on the recommendations of the

report, greater emphasis should be put on the question

of cooperation between the United Nations and

regional organizations, an area in which lie many

hitherto untapped opportunities, as well on as a more

creative approach to conflict prevention.

We no longer seek foundations for a future

international order in military capacities, but to an ever

greater degree we are trying to build it on fair and

respected laws. The maxim Si vis pacem para iustitiam

which adorns the facade of the Palace of Justice in The

Hague no longer has quite the idealistic ring that it had

several decades ago. But we are also aware that though

administering justice through law is an indispensable

condition of peace, it is not yet a sufficient condition.

Our times, in which conflicts and instability are often a

result of poverty and underdevelopment, require the

application of a new maxim, a contemporary

paraphrase of the old ones: Si vis pacem para

solidaritatem.

Here, we are entering the domain of the

international economic order, in particular its financial

and trade dimensions. This is a sphere in which the

United Nations system must be much more active than

hitherto or run the risk of being sidelined by the new

and powerful non-State actors in international life. The

recently fashionable, if ill-defined, formula of global

governance should at the practical level be developed

in the United Nations framework or in concert with,

not parallel or counter to, the United Nations. First and

foremost, it is essential to intensify international efforts

to promote stability and predictability in international

economic relations, which includes strengthening the

new international financial architecture of a system and

institutions based on transparent rules.

What is also needed — and this is a point that

clearly emerges from the reports of the main

international organizations, the Secretary-General's

report included — is a new approach to development.

One has to agree with those who maintain that there is

no greater challenge today than global sustainable

development and that United Nations success or failure

will be crucial to the outcome of efforts by the

international community.

One of the key challenges facing the international

community as it enters the twenty-first century is

poverty reduction, especially in the least developed

countries. Success in this field requires wide

application of the principle of solidarity in

international economic relations. If globalization is to

be harnessed to development and poverty reduction,

more is needed than just better coordination among the

organizations active in the socio-economic sphere. It is

also necessary to stop perceiving development and

poverty reduction solely as technical problems. To

attack them effectively, there has to be a coherent

policy that comprises not only financial and technical

assistance but also substantive measures in the sphere

of education, culture, good governance, rule of law,

democratic institutions, etc.

International solidarity will not deliver results in

the shape of building up the production capacities of

the poorest countries and enabling them to reap

benefits from globalization processes without serious

efforts on the part of these countries themselves, in

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particular rational economic policies and the ability to

make effective use of development aid.

Poland is joining in international endeavours to

further effective management of international

interdependence, with an appropriate role played by the

United Nations system and a key role by international

financial institutions in the organization of

international economic and financial cooperation. In

the framework of a poverty reduction strategy, we are

participating in the implementation of the Heavily

Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Poland also

supports the European Union proposal that World

Trade Organization (WTO) members, including in the

first place the industrialized countries, should within a

year of the conclusion of a new trade round abolish

import tariffs and quotas on basically all exports from

the least developed countries.

It is precisely in order to stress what we believe

to be the crucial significance of solidarity in

maintaining peace, security and solidarity throughout

the world that the Polish Government, mindful of the

experiences of our recent history, will — together with

a few other countries — propose that the United

Nations proclaim 31 August as “International

Solidarity Day”; it is the date of the establishment of

the free and independent Solidarity trade union in

Poland in 1980.

The qualitatively new feature of the situation at

the turn of the century is not only the extent but the

greater complexity of the tasks facing our

Organization. Greater still are the expectations

associated with it of individuals, diverse groups,

nations and the whole international community. It is

essential that we not only understand the nature of the

new problems but also deal more effectively with the

matters that have to be tackled by the United Nations,

whether or not they form an explicit part of the

mandate deriving from the Charter. In roles ranging

from preserving peace to human rights, and from

development to protection of the natural environment,

the United Nations is irreplaceable. It is precisely

because of the nature of threats such as environmental

degradation in the contemporary world that a speedy

and comprehensive response by the United Nations is

needed. The sense of “one earth, one human race”

requires solidarity-driven and responsible action by all

the system's participants.

The tasks and expectations associated with the

United Nations require that its role in international

relations be strengthened. The system must continue to

be the legal and institutional infrastructure of the

international order. No other formula provides

sufficient legitimization for the performance of this

role. The United Nations Charter and Organization are

indispensable, in the first place, to small and medium-

sized countries. Marginalization of the United Nations

would lead to anarchy, in which the only law would be

the will of the great Powers and increasingly powerful

non-State actors.

The extremely positive trends towards

involvement of non-governmental organizations in

United Nations activities — a trend steadfastly

championed by Poland — must remain consonant with

the intergovernmental character of the Organization,

whose universal mandate stems from the legitimacy of

the States which are its Members. Within this system

we must, however, be mindful not only of the rights of

States but also of their obligations.

Accountability does not apply only to individuals,

though here we are in favour of prompt entry into force

of the treaty establishing the International Criminal

Court. We cannot allow the United Nations to tolerate a

situation of non-accountability of States for violations

of international law.

The successes of any organization, its usefulness

and effectiveness, are not only a matter of the

determination and unanimity of its members. Much

also depends on the resources at its disposal, the

efficiency of its procedures and the competence of the

people operating them. In the past, United Nations

officers have provided innumerable examples of their

dedication in pursuing the Organization's activities, of

their commitment to serving the ideals actuating the

United Nations. Better use needs to be made of their

potential through constant adaptation of the

Organization's structures and mechanisms to changing

tasks. That will also make for much better disposition

of the Organization's budget.

In our drive to rationalize the United Nations

budget, our focus should not be on ways of reducing it.

The real problem is that there is not enough money to

do all the things that everyone expects the Organization

to be doing. The United Nations budget should be

tailored to the tasks that we ask it to perform, but also

more effectively. We are also aware that the

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Organization's regular budget and its peacekeeping

budget should be based on the principle of the ability

to pay and on realistic economic indicators. Poland is

prepared to accept any reasonable and fair changes that

may be agreed on the future scale of contributions. We

will play a constructive part in negotiations on this

problem.