Uzbekistan, 2005

First of all, let me take this opportunity to congratulate

Mr. Jan Eliasson on his election to the high position of

President of the General Assembly and to wish him

every success in guiding the work of the session. I

would also like to thank his predecessor, Mr. Jean Ping,

for his able leadership as the President of the General

Assembly at its fifty-ninth session.

It is obvious that the years-long process of

reorganizing the entire system of international

relations, in particular reform of the United Nations,

has been unreasonably delayed. The 2005 summit was

an important stage in exploring mutually acceptable

formulas and in adopting goals whose implementation

will lead us to the achievement of development and

security.

Some of the decisions taken at the summit were

medium-term and others long-term in nature. But, in

our view, our primary task is to ensure their full

implementation and not to allow inertia to impede this,

as has been the case in the process of implementing the

Millennium Development Goals.

Strengthening the capacity of the United Nations

to achieve its goals in the three areas of development,

security and human rights requires appropriate and

active adaptation of the entire United Nations system.

In this connection we consider it important to make the

following comments. First, regardless of how

important it is to reform and modernize the United

Nations, there is, at present, no alternative to the

Organization.

Secondly, further delay in reform of the most

important bodies of the Organization will negatively

impact its role in the modern world. There is a real

danger that if the United Nations fails to take action, its

coordinating role will gradually pass to other

international structures, which lack the degree of broad

representation that the United Nations enjoys.

Thirdly, the reform of three main bodies of the

United Nations — the General Assembly, the Security

Council and the Economic and Social Council —

should provide balance in their work. In that regard, we

consider it to be in our common interest that Security

Council reform not be prolonged. It should be carried

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out during the main part of the sixtieth session, before

the year is out.

Fourthly, regional approaches should be given

priority in dealing with development, security and

human rights issues. The effectiveness of the principle

of moving from regional to global approaches has

already been proved on many occasions.

At present, Uzbekistan is implementing its

national goals for economic development. It is carrying

out economic reforms and taking measures to

strengthen regional economic cooperation. However,

any national efforts need to be supported by

international economic structures. It is important that

genuine conditions for an equal and fair international

economic order be established. International donors

must provide their full support for regional

cooperation, and interested developing countries, in

turn, need to make that kind of cooperation an integral

part of their national strategy.

We believe it important for the concerned

regional commissions of the United Nations — the

Economic Commission for Europe and the Economic

and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific — to

strengthen their work to assist economic development

in Central Asia, with a view to the greater and broader

involvement of the countries of the region in

international economic relations and investment

cooperation. We are of the view that the international

community, including the United Nations, should pay

serious attention to the question of creating a Central

Asian common market capable of ensuring the rational

and effective use of the rich potential and resources of

the region.

Uzbekistan supports all efforts to ensure

sustainable development. Member States should pool

their efforts to tackle problems of environmental

degradation, shortages of water resources and drinking

water and the deterioration of environmental

conditions in cities and industrial zones. The global

environmental agenda also calls for the pressing issues

of desertification, biodiversity and climate change to

be addressed.

Acts of terrorism carried out in many regions of

the world, including Central Asia, have once again

reminded us of the need for a critical assessment of the

practice of international cooperation, including within

the United Nations, to counter that plague of the

twenty-first century, which threatens rich and poor

States alike. It is unacceptable to further delay taking

measures against those international centres of

terrorism and extremism that — under the guise of

espousing universal human values — in fact develop

and disseminate ideologies of fanaticism. In that

connection, we welcome the Security Council’s most

recent counter-terrorism resolution — resolution 1624

(2005) of 14 September 2005 — on the suppression of

incitement to terrorist acts. At the same time, we

believe it is crucial not to allow double standards in the

implementation of that instrument. Those

considerations should also be concerns in the process

of drafting a universal convention on international

terrorism.

A powerful accomplice of international terrorism

is drug trafficking. Unfortunately, no actual progress

has been seen in reducing drug production in

Afghanistan. On that issue, we need to move urgently

from words to action. In that connection, we are

counting on the international community’s firm support

for Uzbekistan’s initiative to establish a Central Asian

regional information and coordination centre to counter

transboundary crimes related to drug trafficking.

The President returned to the Chair.

Together with the pressing problems of

development and security there is the issue of human

rights. That issue is central to forging a new path in

international relations, and to United Nations reform,

in particular. In his report, “In larger freedom”

(A/59/2005), the Secretary-General notes that

international treaties adopted over the past six decades

form an impressive normative basis for ensuring full

international acknowledgement and respect for human

rights and freedoms. There is no doubt that protection

of human rights needs to be one of the core tasks for

the United Nations.

Uzbekistan is a party to all the major

international human rights instruments and it is

steadily moving towards democracy and the formation

of a civil society. One important step in that direction

was the decision to abolish the death penalty in the

country, as proposed by Uzbekistan’s President Islam

Karimov.

We are convinced that reform of the United

Nations human rights system needs to be carried out

step by step, consistently, and taking into account the

concerns of all interested parties. Along with political

rights, it is necessary to strengthen other human rights,

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including socio-economic and environmental rights.

We reiterate our position that it is unacceptable to

politicize the issue of human rights or to be selective in

reviewing human rights situations, even more so when

United Nations bodies or mechanisms are involved.

The establishment of a stable and long-lasting

peace in Afghanistan is of strategic value for

Uzbekistan. In that context, we welcome the

parliamentary elections that were held in Afghanistan

on 18 September. That event has become another

important step towards restoring statehood to

Afghanistan. Uzbekistan supports the efforts aimed at

the prompt stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan.

Considering Afghanistan to be a part of the Central

Asian region, we encourage its active participation in

regional integration processes. Uzbekistan is providing

broad support to the Afghan people, as well as to

relevant mechanisms of the United Nations and other

international organizations, to aid the reconstruction

process in that country.

Five years after the Millennium Summit, Member

States have adopted an historic decision to launch

reform and renovate the mechanisms of the United

Nations. We have a unique opportunity to carry out

more far-reaching reforms to adapt the Organization to

new realities. The aim of those reforms is to ensure the

well-being and prosperity of all our peoples. Today the

time has come to make decisions and take action. Any

protraction of the process could seriously paralyse the

system of international relations, allow current threats

and challenges to become irreversible, and lead to a

situation in which the international community is

unable to take timely and appropriate measures.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate the

readiness of Uzbekistan to cooperate actively with

other States in creating more effective and just United

Nations.