Slovenia, 2002

It was 10 years ago,

immediately following the admission of newborn

Slovenia to the United Nations, that I addressed the

Assembly for the first time. I did so with great pride,

with faith in the United Nations and with gratitude for

the chance given to my country to present to the

international community its own views on current

world affairs, with a sense of responsibility for its

actions not only towards its own citizens, but also

towards the entire international democratic community.

Looking back at the past decade, I can say

without the slightest reservation that, without the

United Nations, life on our planet would be even more

uncertain, social injustice would be even more

widespread and global disparities in prosperity even

more marked. There would be even more systematic

violations of human rights in many States and even

more wars.

In spite of its acknowledged weaknesses and

inefficiencies, this world Organization has done great

work. I daresay that, throughout its membership,

Slovenia, too, has contributed to this through its own

active pursuit of the principles of the United Nations. It

received widespread recognition for the work it

accomplished as a non-permanent member of the

Security Council; this is something of which we are

particularly proud.

2

The United Nations decisions at the historic

Millennium Summit have already placed the

Organization in the future realm of our global world.

The violence committed by States against their own

peoples is now faced with a new force: the ethic of the

democratic world. This ethic does not recognize

absolute State sovereignty or absolute non-interference

in internal affairs when systematic mass violations of

human rights, through State terror, occur.

The principle of humanitarian intervention is the

beginning of an important process of implementing

global ethics in the governance of this globalized and

increasingly interdependent world. It is also a clear

message to the authors of international law and to

international judicial institutions. It is one of the pillars

of the next phase of international law, as is the

International Criminal Court. No one any longer has

responsibility only towards themselves. State

sovereignty is no longer untouchable. Everyone, in

their actions, also has a responsibility towards global

society, for in an increasingly integrated world, the

actions of one easily affect others.

Certain measures of the global community of

States in response to the challenges of the twenty-first

century, such as the special session on the future of

children, the World Summit Sustainable Development

and the forthcoming meetings on a better future for

Africa are signs that the United Nations is gaining in

political and moral clout as an Organization common to

all States and as an organization capable of finding the

strength to carry out the announced internal reforms.

In that context, Slovenia supports the

implementation of the Millennium Declaration and the

Secretary-General's proposed reforms. That these

efforts are urgently needed became particularly

apparent last year on 11 September, a day of tragedy

not only for New York, Washington and the United

States in general, but for all humanity. The entire

democratic world joined in the fight against

international terrorism. Slovenia also did so with great

resolve. No one who cared for humanity just stood

aside.

But as time passed, it became increasingly clear

that even the best military weaponry of the anti-

terrorist coalition could not reach down to the social

roots of this horrendous evil. This evil is craftily taking

advantage of the apathy and the anger of people and

States without a future. This evil is trying to regain its

strength by playing on religious, cultural and

civilizational differences, intertwined with the great

social rifts in our global world. Evil, understood in this

way an evil that threatens to use the most atrocious

weapons of mass destruction can be eradicated only

through concerted action by democratic States under

the umbrella of the United Nations.

It is precisely in this context that the authority

and credibility of the United Nations are on trial. The

Organization has proven itself capable of reaching

common positions and decisions even on the most

demanding issues. We are capable of defining common

positions, even concerning the actions of those who do

not respect these common decisions. The United

Nations now must have the ability not only to speak of

those positions, but also to implement them through

concerted action. That is the responsibility that all of us

face today.

Globalization, with all of its positive and negative

aspects, is a given fact. Let us do more to transform

that fact into something that is in keeping with the

needs of the people and the rule of individual and

collective human rights. Certainly, this cannot be

achieved by trying to drive peoples, States, cultures,

religions and civilizations away from their own

identities, by trying to place them under the common

denominator of a single global identity. That would

signify the collapse of our human world, bearing

disastrous consequences. Today's world, where borders

between States and particularly between

civilizations are growing less rigid, is a world full of

plural identities and of clearly defined national,

cultural and religious entities that are beginning to

open up to one another.

This plurality calls for a unique integrating factor.

That factor can only be a global ethic based on the

ancient principle of reciprocity among human beings:

do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

In times of interdependence among each and every one

of us, such values are particularly important. The

global ethic should be developed based on this value,

for it is a value with deep roots in the world's age-old

great religions and civilizations. Based on this value,

we will be able to strengthen universal human rights

and global social justice, and without that justice, one

cannot expect the world to be a safe and peaceful place

offering people justified hope that our planet belongs to

all of humanity.

3

International terrorism has unveiled the negative

aspects of interdependence among our societies. We

must now do more to strengthen the positive aspects

and to create new ones. The environmental, economic

and ethical challenges humanity is facing today require

a radical rethinking of global governance and the

establishment of global responsibility. This is so much

more so since we are faced with the breakdown of

regulation and control in global trade, with an

inequitable global development machinery that

generates misery and humiliation, and that manifests a

relentless preference for economic and financial logic

over ecological, social and human demands. A positive

alternative must be found to these negative aspects of

our interdependence.

Present generations of statesmen, politicians,

academicians and civil society all have a duty to lay the

foundations of a global ethic and a United Nations that

offers stronger guarantees for a world that is no longer

so fiercely divided into peoples, nations and States

with the right to a future and those who are robbed of

that future by the technological and social gaps of our

planet.

I am convinced that there will be a kinder future

for our world and a more creative future for the United

Nations. It is with this in mind that I most warmly

welcome our new Member, Switzerland, and soon also,

Timor-Leste. These two new Members illustrate very

clearly all the disparities in our globalized world. I

firmly believe that their work in this Assembly will

help transform the United Nations into a community

for the entire world.