Qatar, 1997

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you, Sir, on your

election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty-

second session. I am confident that your political

experience will help you conduct the work of the session

wisely and successfully.

I should also like to commend your predecessor, His

Excellency Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia, for the

excellent way in which he presided over the General

Assembly at its fifty-first session.

I also wish to extend our congratulations to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, on his election to his

current position, and to express our appreciation for his

programme for the reform of the Organization. He can be

assured of our full support for any measures he takes to

that end.

As we approach a new millennium, the world is

witnessing a series of internal and external conflicts that

represent a great regression when compared to the

optimistic expectations that followed the end of the cold

war and the collapse of ideological conflicts. A new

world characterized by balance and equitable relations

among States was expected to emerge, with a view to the

creation of innovative cooperation among our States and

peoples in different areas of concern. However, I regret

to say that the world is still facing severe problems, such

as political conflict, poverty, famine and intensive

migratory movements. These are the result of poor

economic conditions, refugee flows caused by wars, the

deterioration of the environment, trafficking in illicit

drugs and the proliferation of organized crime.

In the context of these changes, and more than half

a century after the United Nations was established, there

is an urgent need for the Organization to undergo drastic

reforms, both structural and functional, so as to establish

rules and principles for a new international order free of

double standards. Such a new order would allow us to

rise to the new challenges and achieve the goals set forth

in the Charter more than 50 years ago for the

maintenance of international peace and security and the

intensification of international cooperation for the benefit

of the peoples of the world.

To this end, the process of reform must begin by

activating the role of the General Assembly and enabling

it to fulfil its duty in an effective manner that would give

its democratic resolutions vitality and credibility before

international public opinion. The Security Council must

also be reformed, so that it can carry out the role it has

been entrusted with, because it has a special status among

the United Nations bodies, as defined in the Charter. In our

view, this cannot be achieved except through a general

agreement that would regulate the use of the veto power,

limiting such use to cases covered by Chapter VII of the

United Nations Charter, namely, threats to international

peace.

In order for the Security Council to reflect the new

political and economic realities of a changing world, it must

increase the number of its non-permanent members to

provide for just and balanced representation and to enable

the Council to deal with the new international realities and

shoulder its responsibilities by becoming more democratic

through the adoption of a rotation system, not limiting

membership to certain States, and by giving all States the

opportunity to participate in its work and assume their share

of international responsibility.

Although we understand the opinions advocating an

increase in the number of permanent members, we believe

that the coexistence of permanent members that have the

power of veto with permanent members that do not, plus

non-permanent members, runs counter to the concepts of

equality among States, geographic and cultural

representation and international participation. It also runs

counter to the principle of democratic decision-making. In

order to achieve the required balance, fairness, justice,

equality and reason call for an increase in Security Council

membership for Asia, Africa and Latin America. Together,

those three continents have the majority of world population

and States. Nevertheless, their representation on the

Security Council is less than 50 per cent. In order for the

Secretary-General to be able to carry out the reforms that

fall within his competence, the financial crisis of the United

Nations must be addressed by making Member States

honour their legal commitments and pay their dues without

delay. In this regard, we would like to express our deep

gratitude to Mr. Ted Turner for his generous donation to

some United Nations humanitarian programmes. We hope

this will be an encouraging initiative for others to follow.

The task of maintaining international peace and

security has particular importance. Therefore, measures

recommended by the General Assembly or taken by the

Security Council should not be limited to post-conflict or

war situations. More attention should be given to

appropriate and timely preventive measures, because we

believe that early measures adopted by the international

community are the ideal way to avert the outbreak of

conflicts and wars and to avoid taking the necessary

political and military measures in the aftermath of the

conflict — let alone imposing half solutions that are often

unfair.

The question of disarmament plays an essential role

in building the foundation of international peace and

security. To achieve this goal, we believe that renewing

the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

(NPT) indefinitely is a decision that requires more support

and endorsement, so that the Treaty can acquire a

universal character, with the adherence of all States. In

this context, the State of Qatar affirms that Israel should

adhere to that Treaty and should place its nuclear

facilities under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s

safeguards regime. This will be a basic step towards

establishing a zone free from nuclear and other weapons

of mass destruction in the Middle East. It would also

contribute to achieving equitable and balanced peace and

stability in that important area of the world so that there

would be no multiple criteria for defining the conduct of

States.

In the same context, we cannot fail to mention the

special importance of the Convention to ban anti-

personnel mines, which was finalized in Oslo recently. It

will be ready for signature in Ottawa next December. We

hope it will be signed by all States.

The world has witnessed fundamental economic

changes, such as the end of State control of economic life

in many States, the withering away of numerous restraints

on international trade, the easy transfer of capital and

huge investments across the world. Meanwhile, many

economies in developing countries are still deteriorating.

This requires that urgent and effective solutions be

provided by the international community to enable those

States to progress and develop their societies through

building strong and effective economies. Such an

endeavour requires us to take a new look at expenditures

on armaments, in order to save such huge sums and

allocate them to supporting education and health

programmes. This would also enable us to address the

problems of poverty and the environment and to develop

the economies of developing nations. This is an absolute

necessity for any new international economic order based

on integration and balance, and is capable of devising

desired solutions for the aforementioned problems. The

problems of poverty, backwardness and lack of access to

education and medical care are among the problems that

affect developing countries. The societies of such States

also suffer from a population explosion that is

disproportionate to their resources. At the same time,

fortunes are being wasted on armaments, arms races or

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luxuries. This causes huge discrepancies in consumption

rates between the peoples of rich countries and those of

poor countries.

Such problems compel us to be fully aware of the fact

that solving them requires reconsidering the question of

military expenditures. It is no secret to anybody in authority

that while the programmes implemented by the United

Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Development

Programme and the World Food Programme cost less than

$4.6 billion a year, Governments all over the world are

spending about $800 billion every year on armaments,

while 1.3 billion people are still living in a state of abject

poverty.

Now I would like to address the situation in the

Middle East and the crisis of the peace process.

The Israeli Government is still stalling in the

implementation of agreements and putting impediments and

obstacles in the way of achieving a just and comprehensive

peace. Israel is undermining the peace process by building

settlements, reneging on agreements and commitments

reached with the Palestinian Authority, imposing a blockade

on the Palestinian people, depriving them of their rights and

flouting international legality. This generates violence and

counter-violence. The Israeli policy runs counter to General

Assembly resolutions and Security Council resolutions,

especially resolutions 242 (1967), 271 (1969), 298 (1971),

478 (1980) and 672 (1990). They all provide that all

legislative and administrative measures taken by Israel

aimed at altering the legal status and demographic

composition of the occupied Arab territories, including the

city of Jerusalem, are null and void, and have no legal

relevance. They also run counter to the Fourth Geneva

Convention of 1949 concerning the protection of civilians

and their properties in time of war. Therefore, the

international community is called upon to exert pressure on

the Israeli Government to make it desist immediately from

implementing the policies that jeopardize the peace process

as a whole.

The Arab leaders affirmed last year at the Cairo

summit that peace in the Middle East is a strategic option.

They underlined the importance of having all the parties

committed to the Madrid formula that calls for a peace

based on the principle of land for peace. This means that

Israel should withdraw completely from all the occupied

Palestinian and Arab territories, including East Jerusalem,

to enable the Palestinian people to establish their

independent State, with Arab Jerusalem as its capital. It

should also withdraw completely from the Syrian Golan and

from southern Lebanon to the internationally recognized

borders, in keeping with Security Council resolutions 242

(1967), 338 (1973) and 425 (1978).

There has been a noticeable improvement over the

last five years on the road to achieving a just and

comprehensive peace in the Middle East. It started with

the Madrid Conference and moved on to Oslo and the

subsequent peace accords. Several economic conferences

were held to promote the Middle East peace process and

to contribute to moving it forward by underscoring the

common interests of the peoples of the region.

To that effect, arrangements are being made to hold

a fourth economic summit conference for the Middle East

and North Africa next November in Doha, the capital of

my country. In this connection, I would emphasize that

the State of Qatar has no private interest in acting as host

for this conference. Our interest in holding it is based on

the following reasons.

First, we believe that peace is a strategic choice that

the Arab countries have adopted since the Madrid

Conference.

Secondly, such a conference would manifest our

desire for the peace process to continue. Failure of the

peace process would have serious implications and would

threaten peace both at the regional and at the international

level.

Thirdly, our region has witnessed many wars in past

years, the last of which was the 1991 Gulf War, which

have impeded economic and political progress in our

region and imposed on us huge expenditures on

armaments at the expense of the social development and

well-being of our peoples.

Fourthly, at the 1995 Amman Economic Summit the

State of Qatar committed itself to acting as host to the

fourth summit conference, and honouring that

commitment is a question of our credibility as a State that

respects its commitments.

Some are of the opinion that the conference should

be cancelled due to current Israeli policy that does not

respect undertakings and agreements, flouts international

legality and tries to marginalize the role of the United

Nations. Although we in Qatar understand the reasons

behind such an opinion, which calls for the cancellation

of the conference in response to the practices of the

Israeli Government, which has not respected its

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international commitments, we do respect our international

commitments, and we believe that no State should have

veto power with regard to the peace process. We have

therefore decided to act as host to the conference on its

appointed date. If it does not prove to be successful and

fails to achieve the desired results, the Government of Israel

will bear sole responsibility.

The State of Qatar welcomes the position of the

United States of America, as expressed by its Secretary of

State during our meeting in Saudi Arabia and here in New

York. We also welcome the resolve it has shown in dealing

with the disruption of the peace process in the Middle East,

as well as the fact that it has underlined the principle of

land for peace, the relevant resolutions of the Security

Council and the inadmissibility of taking unilateral

measures that run counter to the peace process.

My country also appreciates the position of the States

of the European Union, as well as the Russian Federation

for their support of the peace process in the Middle East.

The State of Qatar views with satisfaction and

appreciation the positions taken by States that support the

Middle East peace process and reject the Israeli settlement

policies that are obstructing that process. At the same time,

my country stresses the importance of the role of the

United Nations in the Middle East peace process and

opposes any attempts to exclude it.

The State of Qatar joins the other fraternal members

of the Gulf Cooperation Council in their endeavour to

promote security and stability in the Gulf region, which is

of strategic and vital importance to the entire world. The

State of Qatar is making a constructive effort in that

context with the aim of establishing good and constructive

relations with all countries of the region on the basis of

good-neighbourliness, mutual respect, non-intervention in

the internal affairs of others, respect for international

legality and the settlement of disputes through peaceful

means, dialogue and mediation or by arbitration under

international law. The State of Qatar supports the settlement

of the dispute between the United Arab Emirates and the

Islamic Republic of Iran over the three islands of Abu

Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb by those means.

My Government and people have expressed their

fraternal feelings and strong empathy towards the brotherly

people of Iraq, who are living in extremely difficult

circumstances resulting from the sanctions imposed on

them. We have therefore welcomed the oil-for-food

agreement between the United Nations and Iraq to alleviate

the suffering of the fraternal people of Iraq and to provide

them with such basic necessities as food and medicine.

My Government has also emphasized the importance of

respecting Iraq’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and

regional security. We condemn any foreign interference

in its internal affairs. In the same context, my

Government affirms the importance of implementation by

the Government of Iraq of the relevant resolutions of the

Security Council, in particular those concerning the

release of Kuwaiti prisoners and detainees and other

nationals in the same conditions. Such steps would help

the international community to lift the embargo imposed

on Iraq and would also enable Iraq to carry out a

constructive role in achieving security, stability and

rehabilitation in the region.

My Government also expresses its concern for the

suffering to which the brotherly people of Libya are being

subjected due to the sanctions imposed against that

country because of the Lockerbie issue. In that

connection, the State of Qatar calls for the creation of a

uniform and agreed regime for imposing sanctions and of

mechanisms to lift them subsequently in a manner that

does not distinguish among States and peoples and that

strikes a balance between international interests, on the

one hand, and the suffering to which peoples are

subjected, on the other.

Last week the Security Council devoted a meeting to

addressing the problems of disputes and wars in some

African countries. It considered ways of containing and

solving such problems. The State of Qatar, which has

fraternal relations with the African countries, is pained to

witness the current state of affairs in States such as the

Sudan, Somalia, the Comoros, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and

the Congo. We believe that the African States are capable

of overcoming their plight if they receive the necessary

international support, particularly for the purpose of

improving their economies and the transfer of technology

in an international partnership in which all would

participate.

My country was one of the first to welcome the

Dayton Peace Agreement because we believe in the

importance of peace and cooperation in the Balkans. We

have therefore supported the reconstruction of the

Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have also made

contacts with our neighbour countries to urge them to

cooperate with each other to help rehabilitate the region,

develop its resources, link it to the international economy

and improve the situation of its peoples.

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In conclusion, I would like to point out that in order

to solve the problems the world is facing it is imperative

for us to work together for the benefit of mankind.

Address by The Honourable Edison James, Prime

Minister and Minister for External Affairs, Legal

Affairs, Labour and Immigration of the Commonwealth

of Dominica