Poland, 2014

I would first like

to congratulate Mr. Kutesa on his election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth

session.

In the opening sentences of our Charter, we read

that the United Nations was set up to save succeeding

generations from the scourge of war and to reaffirm

faith in fundamental human rights and in the equal

rights of nations large and small. In the year marking

the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World

War and the seventy-fifth of the start of the Second

World War, those words hold a particular resonance for

us — for Poles, Europeans and every society affected

by those tragedies. Both wars were waged partly on

Polish territory; the second began with Nazi Germany’s

aggression in collaboration with the Soviet Union. Our

past compels us to reflect on the Charter’s words and

those events of twentieth-century history, which form

the backdrop to our decision-making at the national

level, and similarly bind together the entire international

community gathered here at the United Nations.

One result of the First World War was to foster the

dream of a world without war. That belief and general

desire bore fruit in the League of Nations, the first

collective security system in history. It included all

the factors needed to make a positive mark on history

and to maintain peace and security. It functioned on

a foundation of important rules that prohibited war

and encouraged the peaceful settlement of disputes. It

had shared bodies, disarmament conferences and an

international judiciary.

Despite all those institutions, however, we were

unable to make a world without wars. The League

eventually became an easy target, if not an object of

ridicule. Yet it was not the League itself that failed. It

was failed by its members, and chiefly by the Powers

that had been entrusted with special responsibility for

implementing its principal task. They failed their test in

the face of the expansion of totalitarian regimes on both

the left and the right. The emergence of communism,

national socialism and many militaristic dictatorships

was in part due to the First World War. Those systems

fed on conflict, because ideological war and war against

other peoples — against other men — were part of their

identity.

Those threats could have been resisted in time,

but the democratic world failed, choosing a short-

sighted policy of appeasement and the satisfaction of

dictatorships’ appetites at the expense of weaker States.

The price paid for that negligence was the Second World

War, and the whole of humankind had to pay a price

that would once have been unimaginable. It is from

the horrible experience of that war, of the Holocaust,

that the legal notion of genocide stems. Its originator

and the author of the Convention on the Prevention

and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was a Polish

lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, who understood the criminal

nature of both kinds of totalitarianism even before the

war.

After the hecatombs of the war, the international

community decided once again to build a system of

collective security. I am glad that next year we will be

celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the foundation

of the United Nations. There are very few now who

remember the world without our Organization, and

it would be difficult to imagine the world without

its activity. During the nearly seven decades of its

existence, the United Nations has had a track record of

amazing achievements, but also many failures.

Today, however, the situation is especially

worrying, as symptoms of the problems that once

brought down the League of Nations are reappearing.

We are witnessing a rebirth of the super-Power, a return

to the thinking that divided the world into categories

of geopolitical zones of influence and that has already

led the international community into a morass of

hatred, confrontation and conflict. The United Nations

should remain vigilant in the face of a return to such

attitudes— it should tolerate no departure from the

principles of security and international relations laid

down in the Charter. Tolerance of such attitudes always

ends badly and not infrequently leads to catastrophe.

We cannot overemphasize that the occupation

of Crimea and the aggression in Ukraine violate

the standards of international law and trample on

the fundamental values of the United Nations. The

ideological background of the conflict is a return to

the rhetoric of the first half of the twentieth century,

a return to the logic of zones of influence, of might is

right, and of ruthless imperial domination of weaker

neighbours, which are apparently obliged to be obedient

satellites of a Power redesigning the foundations of the

civilized international order.

The Security Council, the organ responsible

for peace, proved to be ineffective when faced with

conflicts in Ukraine and other regions of the world,

partly due to its rules of operation. We are threatened

by a further descent into powerlessness if such rules are

not amended. It is salutary that the General Assembly

rose to the challenge when, in resolution 68/262, of

27 March 2014, it took the side of the weaker party that

was being targeted in an act of imperial aggression.

I feel all the more sad and concerned uttering

the foregoing words, since we are celebrating the

joyful twenty-fifth anniversary of the abolishment

of communism and the collapse of the Soviet bloc

in Poland, which is also being celebrated in other

countries of the region. That “spring of nations”, the

second in the history of Europe, brought freedom to

the nations of Central and Eastern Europe and respect

for human rights and good democratic governance. At

the time, changes for the better took place throughout

Europe, and even worldwide. The Iron Curtain fell and

so did the bipolar division of the world. The Cold War

confrontation and its accompanying threats of nuclear

conflict became things of the past.

That historical change began in Poland with the

establishment of the 10 million-strong Solidarity

movement, a peaceful opposition movement against

totalitarian oppression and the violation of nations’

rights. The victorious parliamentary elections of 4 June

brought about the formation, on 12 September 1989,

of the first non-Communist Government in our part of

Europe since the Second World War, the Government of

Tadeusz Mazowiecki.

Just two weeks later, on 25 September, precisely

25 years ago, the Minister for Foreign Affairs in that

new Government, Professor Krzysztof Skubiszewski,

addressed the Assembly from this very rostrum (see

A/44/PV.4) and proclaimed that the new Poland would

not respect the logic of zones of influence. He further

revealed that we would respect existing treaties and

obligations, as well as the security interests of other

States, and none of that would result in any limitations

with respect to choosing or changing the system of

polity.

That new logic of international relations has

been most beneficial for Europe, where a great wave

of unification has been set in motion thanks to the

strengthening of the mechanisms of integration of the

European Community and its expansion to include

many new States. In our region, the European Union

is a synonym for peace. It was established so that

there would be no more wars on a continent that had

previously been notorious for them. And indeed, the

European Union has become a significant force for

peace in Europe and far beyond its borders, to which

Poland has contributed in a highly active way.

We had the right to hope that the benefits of the end

of divisions in Europe and of the logic of imperial zones

of influence would be shared by a growing number of

States and nations — and not only in Europe — and that

they would be able to decide their fate democratically

and build their lives in peace and prosperity, free from

external domination. We have hoped and continue to

hope for a democratic modernization of Russia. But

what happened six months ago in Eastern Europe

dealt a blow to that hope and threatened security

on our European continent. In our part of Europe,

people are again asking themselves whether war as a

method of obtaining a political goal will also be the

long-term European reality. We cannot acquiesce to

the brutalization of international life anywhere in the

world — far less so in Europe, where the wounds of two

World Wars are still healing.

Yet wars and conflicts are also continuing in other

parts of our globe and are creating countless victims,

suffering and destruction. We have all been surprised

by the rapid development of the so-called Islamic

State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The brutality of

the actions of its fighters, who are murdering and

persecuting people of every faith, including those who

profess Islam, must inspire terror and trigger a response

from the international community. ISIL’s barbarism is a

challenge for all of humankind, irrespective of religion,

ethnic origin or political viewpoint. We, the States

faithful to the United Nations Charter, cannot shirk our

responsibility for providing security. We are responsible

for protecting those threatened by cruel violence. Yet

everything must be done to ensure that the actions we

take do not contravene the United Nations Charter.

We express our concern and sympathy for the

civilian victims of the conflicts and tragedies in Syria,

Libya, Israel, the Gaza Strip and many African States.

All those conflicts, and to an even greater degree the

civil wars in some African countries, are accompanied

by humanitarian catastrophes. The United Nations,

and especially the super-Powers that can influence

the participating parties, should do everything to stop

them.

Nobody could ever take the place of the United

Nations and its agencies in providing aid to refugees

and other victims of humanitarian tragedies. On

behalf of Poland, I hereby express appreciation for

them. and recognition for the thousands of courageous

members of humanitarian organizations, United

Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations

who, amid all the dangers and frequently at the cost of

their own lives, hurry to the aid of those who suffer

persecution. They help those whose security and health

is threatened — those left alone, without a roof over

their heads, who are far away from homes to which,

due to destruction, many will never be able to return.

An ever-increasing number of people are experiencing

suffering and cruelty linked to military conflicts.

That horrifying trend must be stopped by our common

efforts.

The fact that, in so many places, we are witnessing

conflicts that entail human tragedy and the deaths

of thousands of people is due, as a general rule, to a

failure to observe fundamental human rights. Entire

communities and nations are denied influence over

political decisions. Power without control is, in most

cases, corrupt and self-loving, incapable of lifting

countries out of underdevelopment and poverty. That

is the background to the conflicts and rebellions in

Ukraine, Iraq, Libya and many other places in the world.

That is why we must increase our efforts to help by

offering development assistance to bring about social,

economic and political transformation. Otherwise, the

only alternative to dictatorship will be chaos.

Poland is especially attached to the role of

democracy in the life of nations, their development

and international activity. We know how much we lost

because of the absence of democracy under communism,

and we know how much we gained when we returned to

democracy as a means of achieving our civic aspirations

and an expression of our national sovereignty. It was

for that purpose that a broad international initiative by

the Community of Democracies was born in Warsaw in

2000. That is precisely why my country established the

international Lech Wa..sa Solidarity Award for activity

in support of democracy and fundamental freedoms.

Poland steadfastly believes that sustainable

development cannot be achieved without the rule of law

and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms for

all. We will strive to attain the appropriate inclusion of

those questions in the new United Nations development

agenda. Through our experiences over the past few

decades in our history, we have learned the importance

of solidarity, responsibility and involvement — the

triad of principles in the United Nations system we are

faithful to.

We fully acknowledge the involvement of the

United Nations in the improvement of the social and

economic situation in those regions of the world where

conditions are the most difficult. Poland actively

participates in the definition of the priorities and means

of implementation of the new development agenda that

will replace the Millennium Development Goals of

2000, and we will purposefully participate in making

it a reality. The new development agenda should fully

and coherently integrate the economic, social and

environmental dimensions of sustainable development,

while at the same time focusing on the reduction of

poverty and protection of the natural environment.

Reaching an international understanding on that

matter is a task that is as ambitious as it is difficult — yet

it is necessary and feasible. The output of the previous

Assembly session, worked on by the Open Working

Group on Sustainable Development Goals under

the highly efficient co-chairmanship of Kenya and

Hungary, defines the course of further discussion on

the matter. Poland will continue its active involvement

in a dialogue that should bring about the development of

a new, ambitious and universal post-2015 development

agenda.

It is vitally important to halt any further global

climate change caused by the development of human

civilization and to adjust to the changes that are already

irreversible. Here lurk existential issues pertaining

to security, the problems of economic development,

the maintenance of biological diversity in the Earth’s

ecosystem and quality of life. In its capacity as host

of the United Nations Climate Change Conference held

in Warsaw in November 2013, and as we still hold the

presidency of the Conference of the Parties to the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,

Poland remains committed to achieving a successful

conclusion to the negotiations. We believe that it is

possible to achieve an understanding in a manner

that is fair to countries at various levels of economic

development. Agreement is possible, and I hope such

an understanding will be arrived at in the near future.

I would like to reiterate that, despite the hardships and

costs of economic transformation, Poland has decreased

its greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 30 per

cent since 1988 — that is, it has greatly exceeded the

reduction obligations stipulated in the Kyoto Protocol.

Poland is deeply involved in various fields of

activity covered by this Organization, ranging from

human rights to disarmament. That is why we know

perfectly well that nothing can replace the United

Nations system, which is continuously improvable.

Poland is currently assuming an increasing measure

of responsibility for cooperation in development,

humanitarian aid and climate protection. We are

ready to share our experience and our ideas as a

non-permanent member of the Security Council for the

period 2018-2019. We intend to support a reform of that

body that will increase its representative character and,

in parallel, reinforce its efficiency. The reform should

primarily concern the Council’s mandate in situations

involving the principle of the responsibility to protect,

which was approved by our community in 2005. The

idea must be to develop a mechanism that will provide

the Council with the capacity to act in such situations,

while at the same time making it impossible to use the

mandate of the Council for purposes other than the

discharge of that responsibility.

I have raised that idea from this rostrum twice

already. It should perhaps be combined with a broader

reform of the Council, the outlines of which were given

shape before the historic summit held in 2005. The

situation is unchanged from nearly 70 years ago — we

want to save succeeding generations from the scourge

of war and reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights

and the rights of nations, large and small.