San Marino, 1998

On behalf of the Republic of San Marino

and on my own behalf, I wish, first of all, to congratulate

Mr. Didier Opertti on his election as President of the

General Assembly and to wish him all success in his work.

I also wish to assure him and the Secretary-General of the

full support of my Government for their unceasing and

valuable efforts.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank

Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko for his work as President during

the last session of the General Assembly.

1998 is an historic year for our Organization. We are

celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, which has always been, and

today remains, a milestone for democracy and for the

safeguard of the inalienable rights of human beings.

The Republic of San Marino, during the more than 16

centuries of its existence, has always promoted respect for

human rights. Today more than ever before, the principles

contained in the Declaration represent the essence of a

civilized way of living together in modern society.

Therefore my Government decided to finance the

project of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights entitled “Global Dissemination of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. This project aims

at making the Declaration accessible and understandable to

a wider number of people, by preparing a compendium of

translations of this important text into 250 of the world’s

most widely spoken languages. With this small but

meaningful gesture, San Marino wishes to celebrate the

fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration and to make a

contribution to the dissemination of the fundamental

humanitarian principles contained therein.

Experience has taught us, at a high cost, that where

there is no peace, there is no respect for human rights. I

believe the United Nations should play an active role in the

maintenance of peace, especially where it is weakest and

most precarious. This is vitally important. It should be the

personal responsibility of every human being to carry out

his or her own duty in the context of the international

community.

Sadly, we have recently once again confronted

another dramatic issue: the problem of terrorism. We

must all cooperate to prevent it from spreading any

farther. We must combat terrorism and condemn it,

always and by all possible means.

Nuclear tests in the Asian region are a new and

worrying problem, one that is going to be characteristic

our era. This problem could represent the beginning of a

new season of anxiety and danger for all mankind if the

international community, and the United Nations in

particular, is unable to prevent it. The Republic of San

Marino, like many other States, is against any initiative

aimed at provoking an escalation of the nuclear threat and

will do all in its power to prevent this from happening.

Our generation, and the ones to come, must not know

these fears or the destructive ambitions that could

annihilate our entire planet.

Unfortunately, in our opinion the present

international legal instruments have proven insufficient to

fight the proliferation of nuclear weapons. This

proliferation has taken on a new profile because of the

will to acquire a more influential and prestigious position

at the national and international levels, while the peaceful

and constructive uses of this energy are forgotten or

deliberately denied.

My country deems that the United Nations must lead

the international community to strengthen those

instruments capable of preventing and repressing

international crimes which until now have merely been

the object of moral condemnation. With this in mind, our

Republic took part in the Diplomatic Conference on the

Establishment of an International Criminal Court in Rome

last June and July. San Marino contributed to the work of

the Conference because it is convinced that such a court

could represent an effective and strong deterrent to crimes

against peoples or any ethnic group. The court established

by this Conference will represent not only a hope for but

also an instrument of protection for the victims of

oppression, as well as a point of reference for all those

who believe in the absolute value of justice and in respect

for human beings.

San Marino follows with particular attention the

debate on the death penalty. Our civil and cultural

consciousness entitles us to do so. In 1865, San Marino

became the first country in Europe to abolish capital

punishment, though in fact it had not been applied for

centuries. The Government and people of San Marino

deeply believe that death imposed by law cannot represent

19

a valid protection for society, nor can it be a deterrent to

crime.

Our criminal code, in which sanctions have a

rehabilitative as well as a punitive function, rejects capital

punishment, defining it as “a residual of vindictive justice”.

For these reasons, I wish to express the support of the

Republic of San Marino for all initiatives that, like the

resolution adopted this year by the Commission on Human

Rights, aim at the abolition or limitation of the death

penalty.

The nations of the world differ geographically,

ethnically, economically and culturally, but all of them have

a common substantial and undeniable responsibility towards

young people. If we are not able today to put an end to

wars and poverty, future generations will have to fight

arduous and complex battles arising from the degeneration

and wounds that currently afflict humanity, as it moves

towards the third millennium.

It is a question not only of doing away with age-old

geopolitical imbalances but, and primarily, of rediscovering

values and principles that are capable of offering all people

of the world, and especially young people, the cultural

means to fight for freedom, development and mutual

understanding. That is a challenge based on solidarity and

personal values. Given that perspective, San Marino

considers the moral and professional growth of young

people to be a priority. Our school system is based on

personal development, focuses on the job market and

respect for environment and encourages young people to

take part in the social lives of their communities.

The need for reform in the United Nations is a

concept widely shared by all Members of this Organization,

thanks in particular to the input of the Secretary-General,

who started a slow but irreversible process which will lead

to the rationalization and updating of all its principal

organs. Some of those reforms, such as the reform of the

Security Council, must, because of their significance, be

approved by consensus only — a consensus that sadly is

yet to be reached. We have confidence in the steadfast

commitment of the President of the General Assembly and

in his substantial role in leading the Working Group on the

reform of the Security Council to an equitable and

unanimous solution that fully respects the principles of the

Charter.

San Marino is among those countries that are strongly

convinced of the need for reform so as to guarantee for the

United Nations the functions and the role that form the

basis of its nature and its existence. We are absolutely

aware of how important it is for the Organization to

strengthen its presence and its prestige, which derive from

more than 50 years of activity in the service of peace and

the protection of human rights. We are moreover

convinced that this noble mandate has today its own

raison d’être, and that it must be supported with

determination, consistency and loyalty. We should also

have the courage and humility to be able to give up

something in the name of the higher interest of all

countries and all peoples who form part of the

international community.