Slovenia, 2000

Let me take this

opportunity to congratulate you, Sir, and your country,

Finland, on your election as President of the General

Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. I would also like to

thank His Excellency Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab of

Namibia for his work as President of the General

16

Assembly at its fifty-fourth session, and to commend

him for the guidance he provided throughout the year.

I would also like to commend the Secretary-

General, Kofi Annan, for his inspiring contribution to

the noble goals of peace, justice, development and the

strengthening of our Organization.

Last week, world leaders gathered here to direct

the Organization for the next century. The golden

thread of the Millennium Summit was concern for the

well-being of all human beings and the common

determination to free each and every nation and each

and every human being from want and fear, to sustain

the future of humanity and to renew the United Nations

accordingly. The common goal of all the discussions

was to provide for human security in all its complexity

and to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality,

equity, solidarity and tolerance at a global level.

The United Nations has the obligation to protect

the civilian population, particularly the most

vulnerable children, women, the elderly and the

disabled against gross and systematic violations of

human rights and humanitarian law, whether in inter-

State or intra-State conflicts. The strengthening of

international law is an important element in achieving

this goal. Special attention should be given to

exploring new methods of conflict prevention, as well

as to making better use of those that have proved to

have had good results. We should all be engaged more

decisively in building a culture of prevention and

modernizing and equipping the United Nations for the

task.

It is also imperative for the United Nations to

elaborate a doctrine for humanitarian intervention

based on a modern interpretation of the Charter and in

line with new international relations and norms. We

listened with interest to the statements made by the

Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of

Canada in this Hall on the establishment of an

independent international commission on intervention

and State sovereignty.

There is nothing in the Charter that could

possibly justify crimes against the civilian population.

Neither is there anything in the Charter that could

possibly justify the fact that large parts of the world are

still living in poverty or that some States are stagnating

due to the debt burden, while the rest of the world is

enjoying a state of well-being. Technological and

economic development does bring the world together,

but globalization also brings problems closer and

increases the mutual responsibility for finding

solutions to them.

At the Millennium Summit, we adopted a

comprehensive and far-reaching Declaration. Leaders

put before us difficult but achievable goals. Member

States should now look carefully into how they can

contribute nationally to the implementation of the goals

at the global level. As a responsible Member of the

Organization, Slovenia intends to prepare its plan of

action for the implementation of the goals set out in the

Millennium Declaration. I want to take this opportunity

today to mention some of the efforts that we intend to

make.

As a country that has just joined the donor

community, Slovenia will look closely at how it can

organize better in order to extend more assistance to

the developing countries and the countries in the

region, thus contributing to the goals regarding

development and poverty eradication.

We have just signed the Optional Protocols to the

Convention on the Rights of the Child, while the

National Assembly is supposed to ratify the Statute of

the International Criminal Court by the end of the year.

Both documents are among the most important building

blocks for ensuring greater protection for civilians in

conflict situations. We are looking forward to the early

functioning of the International Criminal Court in order

to ensure the more effective, equitable and efficient

delivery of international justice.

Slovenia is determined to help in the process of

strengthening the Organization as an indispensable

foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and just world.

Once again, we want to stress the need for the

enlargement of the Security Council in its permanent

and elected membership, as well as with regard to the

reform of its working methods. The credibility of the

United Nations depends on its ability to carry out its

responsibilities in full, especially with regard to

maintaining peace and security. We therefore welcome

and commend the report of the Panel on United

Nations Peace Operations and we are looking forward

to the early implementation of its recommendations.

In this context, we believe that the reform of the

financing of United Nations peacekeeping operations is

a necessary condition for a renewed role for the United

Nations in this field. A new scale of assessments that

more accurately reflects the capacity to pay should be

17

adopted during this session. I have the honour to

announce that the Government of Slovenia has decided

to voluntarily relinquish the discount it is no longer

entitled to with regard to its financial contribution, and

that, starting from next year, it is ready to pay its share

for peacekeeping operations in full.

Slovenia is also gradually increasing its

participation in peacekeeping operations those of

the United Nations, as well as regional ones. We are

committed to further increasing our support to these

operations, not only with military personnel, but also

with civilian police and humanitarian personnel.

The basic aim of United Nations actions should

be to ensure human security, with security being

physical, economic and social, rather than legal. We

note with satisfaction that the interests of individuals

are, indeed, rightly at the very centre of the Millennium

Declaration. Slovenia will continue to participate in the

group of like-minded countries, which is determined to

give full meaning and specific, practical expression to

the concept of human security.

The problem of the illicit arms flow of small arms

and light weapons is such that it requires additional

efforts. We hope that the forthcoming international

conference on small arms and light weapons will pave

the way for regulating and controlling the proliferation

of unimpeded access to small arms and light

weapons the weapons most used in today's armed

conflicts.

Member States should also continue to improve

the efficiency and effectiveness of mine action

programmes, as well as to strengthen all steps and

activities in mine action and mine victim assistance.

For its part, Slovenia will continue to support the

efforts of its International Trust Fund for Demining and

Mine Victim Assistance to extend its activities to the

whole region of South-East Europe. The results

achieved in recent years are promising for the activities

of the Trust Fund in the future.

I would also like to briefly address the situation

in the region of South-East Europe. We are all aware

that there will be no self-sustaining peace and stability

in the region without the full cooperation and

integration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. For

obvious reasons, this cannot be expected of the current

regime in Belgrade. The international community must

cooperate with, support and encourage the forces

within the country that are striving for democracy,

peace, reconciliation, economic recovery and a return

to simple normalcy. We share the hopes of seeing the

new democratic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia soon

as a part of a stable and prosperous South-East Europe.

We also share the hopes that this country will soon join

us in the United Nations, as well as in the other

international and regional organizations, in accordance

with the usual procedures and practices for admission

of new members to these organizations.