Slovenia, 2011

I start by congratulating

Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, President of the

General Assembly at its current session, on his

election, and express our belief that with his wisdom

and experience he will guide the Assembly well.

I also express our sincere gratitude to the

outgoing President, Mr. Joseph Deiss, for his important

contribution to the work of the General Assembly and

the United Nations.

Obviously, I wish to pay special tribute to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and to thank him

for the vision and dedication with which he works for

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the United Nations and for his tireless efforts to

promote the spirit of the Charter. We deeply appreciate

his leadership and wish him continued success in his

second term in office as he guides the United Nations

in these challenging times.

Slovenia welcomes the President’s decision to put

the theme of mediation at the centre of our

deliberations at this session. Indeed, no other theme

seems more timely at this moment of search for an

approach towards a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict. The European Union, to which

Slovenia belongs, is currently fully engaged with high-

profile mediation in this context. The mediation under

way has two aims.

The first is the revival of the peace process with a

view to finding an early solution — a genuine and fair

peace agreement involving two States, Israel and

Palestine, which would live side by side in peace and

security. Secondly, an immediate task relevant to the

United Nations is to find an adequate status for

Palestine within the ranks of our common, global

Organization. Those two aims are genuinely linked,

and the latter should be understood as supporting the

former.

Our common Organization, the United Nations, is

committed to its inclusive character and the

universality of its membership. This is the spirit in

which we see some of the significant developments of

this year.

We welcome the Republic of South Sudan as the

newest Member of the United Nations. Our

Organization should render every assistance to the new

Member in its efforts to establish its structures and to

serve the wellbeing of its people.

We also welcome the decision of the General

Assembly to grant the seat of Libya to the

representatives of the National Transitional Council of

Libya. This has established a much needed link

between the United Nations and the people of Libya in

their effort to build legitimate, democratic and

effective institutions and to pursue the path of

economic, social and political development, in

accordance with the wishes of the people.

Yesterday, at a special High-level Meeting we

discussed the forms of assistance in some detail. Today

we can say that there is a fair chance of success for

effective cooperation between the people of Libya and

the United Nations as well as the regional

organizations — in particular, the African Union and

the Arab League. Together we shall be better able to

assist. Slovenia is willing to continue to do its part in

this framework.

Political and security concerns are always an

important priority for the United Nations. But they

have to be considered against the background of other

priorities, both long-term and short-term. The

Organization has developed its engagements in the

most important and the most difficult issues of

environment and sustainable development. We need to

take resolute steps towards a new and effective system

to mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure the

necessary adaptation.

We hope that the Conference of the Parties to the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change, to be held in Durban later this year, will bring

us a step closer to final agreement. The negative

impacts of climate change are disproportionate. We

should pay particular attention to the unique challenges

faced by the small island developing States, whose

characteristics make them among the most vulnerable

in the world to climate change.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development, to be held next year, will be an

opportunity to secure renewed political commitment to

sustainable development, to assess the progress of

implementation of agreed commitments, and to address

new and emerging challenges. We should strengthen

our efforts to develop a new concept of development

that will capture economic growth, social development

and environmental protection. It is our duty to make a

difference, and making a difference requires a more

comprehensive definition of development.

Maintaining our focus on the successful

implementation of the Millennium Development Goals,

we should pay particular attention to the special needs

of Africa, especially those countries most in need. The

Istanbul Programme of Action offers concrete solutions

for improving progress in the least developed

countries.

In times of economic crisis in the donor

countries, which seems to continue unabated,

increasing aid proves difficult to attain. Improving aid

effectiveness is crucial.

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There can be no gain in the field of development

if other policies, such as trade, agriculture, migration,

climate change and so on, cancel out the positive

effects of development policies. In this regard, let me

convey our hopes for the successful deliberations of

the High-level Forum to be held in Busan later this

year.

Recent experience in the exercise of development

activities has strengthened understanding of the links

between development and human rights. The concept

of the right to development is gaining in substance and

recognition. Moreover, specific development tasks

have provided further evidence of the importance of

this link. The role of women in development is a

pertinent example. Experience and research by the

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United

Nations, for example, have shown that empowerment

of women in agriculture can reduce hunger by 30 per

cent — a very impressive result by any measure.

Gender equality and the empowerment of women

are essential to promoting peace, security and above all

development. Slovenia strongly supports the work of

UN-Women, which will help to significantly boost

United Nations efforts to promote gender equality,

expand opportunities and tackle discrimination against

women around the globe.

Another priority in the field of human rights that

Slovenia values highly relates to the rights of the child

and to human rights education. This year, as President

of the Executive Board of UNICEF, Slovenia worked

tirelessly to attain universal ratification of both

optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of

the Child. The objective should be to ensure, through

United Nations instruments and national action,

effective protection of the rights of the child and to

improve the wellbeing of children in all parts of the

world.

An important segment of this work relates to

human rights education, which helps to empower

young people in their efforts to secure their rightful

place in society. I remember when Slovenia and Costa

Rica launched a human rights education campaign in

the Third Committee almost 20 years ago. It is

gratifying to see that today human rights are

increasingly being included in official school

curriculums. But there is still much more that we need

to do to incorporate human rights learning into

societies as a lifelong process. The United Nations, its

Human Rights Council and the General Assembly will,

I am convinced, continue to make a significant

contribution.

I would like to express satisfaction over the

adoption of the draft declaration on human rights

education and training by the Human Rights Council

during its March session this year. I call on all States to

support this important declaration, which I am

convinced the General Assembly will adopt —

hopefully, unanimously — later this autumn.

Human rights concerns are most tragic in the case

of humanitarian disasters. The current famine in the

Horn of Africa is a sad example. It is a crisis of human

existence and human rights. All actors of the

international community, including my country,

Slovenia, are already trying to help. But more help is

needed; humanitarian assistance must expand.

I have briefly referred to some of Slovenia’s areas

of particular importance, particular engagement and

particular activity. Our commitment to the United

Nations is strong and will remain strong.

The United Nations is an Organization of all and

for all. For almost 20 years now Slovenia has been

working as a devoted Member State. We have made

proposals for specific action and enjoyed working with

all other Member States — large and small,

geographically close and geographically distant. We

have worked together on specific proposals and

decisions and on implementation.

We have also proposed a set of ideas for reform

of the Security Council. We hope that the coming year

will see more resolute steps in that regard, and that

more progress will be made than there has been so far.

The United Nations is an important hope — a

hope for the world — and an opportunity for its

Member States to bring the reality, complicated and

onerous as it may be, closer to our hopes. It is in this

spirit that Slovenia has presented its candidature for a

non-permanent seat on the Security Council. We hope

for broad support.

If we are elected we shall be a faithful United

Nations Member State, aware of the responsibilities of

the Security Council and all its members towards the

entire Organization and all Member States. We pledge

our efforts, our judgement and our sense of fairness as

a contribution to the United Nations. And fairness is a

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commodity, a principle, a value, that the international

community needs most of all.