Let me start by
congratulating you on your election, Madam President,
and by wishing you every success in the coming
months of hard work. The outgoing president of the
General Assembly, Mr. Eliasson, left an impressive
track record of progress on a number of reform issues.
It is my expectation that you will continue to meet the
high standards set by him.
Behind many of the changes here at the United
Nations over the past decade we have noted the light
and decent hand of one distinguished person, Mr. Kofi
Annan. As he prepares to leave his position at the helm
of the Secretariat, I would like to take this opportunity
to thank him most cordially for all he has done. He has
made it very difficult and challenging for his successor
to do the job with the same vigour, skill and
dedication.
To choose the right successor to the Secretary-
General will definitely not be an easy task, but I do not
want to leave the Hall without stating clearly the
preferences of my country. No one from my own
regional group has thus far occupied this important
post. We think that time has come to seriously consider
such an option. Mrs. Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia is
an excellent candidate who qualifies perfectly well for
the position of Secretary-General. She can count on our
full support.
Let me also welcome a new Member of the
United Nations, the Republic of Montenegro, whose
presence here brings us closer to the goal of a truly
universal United Nations.
The President of Finland spoke on behalf of the
European Union (EU) a few days ago. The Czech
Republic fully associates itself with that statement. The
EU has made an enormous effort to contribute to the
preparations for this session, and my country was an
integral and active part of that process. I shall therefore
limit myself to sharing with the Assembly just a few
ideas and comments on issues that are at the forefront
of our interests.
I strongly believe that all of us want the world to
be a safer place. That is the bottom line. Yet, the
absence of safety and security seems to be almost
omnipresent. There is a lack of support for billions of
people suffering from hunger and disease in developing
countries. There is a lack of protection for many people
exposed to various environmental risks and natural
hazards. There is a widening debate regarding energy
security. There is lack of freedom and dignity for many
women and men living under oppression. There is a
lack of peace, and a sense of vulnerability vis-à-vis all
kinds of armed conflict.
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On top of all that there is the ominous threat of
terrorism — often fed by Islamist extremists — which
is creating fear and striking targets around the world,
including their very own countries. All that makes it
imperative for us to continue to adapt our security
systems; otherwise we will not be able to face that
threat. And we need to be efficient.
To make the world a better and safer place is a
complex challenge. It involves individual States as
well as various international organizations. But, at the
global level, the role of the United Nations in
responding to that challenge is irreplaceable. The
Millennium Summit of 2000 and the 2005 World
Summit contributed enormously to shaping our agenda
to that effect by, inter alia, balancing security,
development and human rights concerns. We know
what should be done. But we often fail to deliver
because our collective will is not strong enough to
support the implementation of designed measures and
actions. We often know the diagnosis. We know the
right remedy. And, yet, we are unable to apply it.
Two weeks ago, we commemorated the fifth
anniversary of the horrible terrorist attacks against not
only the United States but, dare I say, against our
shared values. The world after 9/11 is not what it was,
and the United Nations has had to adapt accordingly.
On the eve of that chilling anniversary, we succeeded
in adopting the landmark United Nations Global
Counter-Terrorism Strategy (resolution 60/288),
building on previous efforts by both the Security
Council and the General Assembly. I hope that the
Strategy will provide more than guidance, and that it
will become a real tool that provides real help for those
who fight the scourge of terrorism in the field.
There is general agreement that the international
community and the United Nations should do much
more for States and territories recovering from conflict
and disorder. We now have the United Nations
Peacebuilding Commission. There is a spirit of hope
that the Commission will lead the efforts in generating
both the political will and the means to assist countries
in post-conflict environments while promoting the rule
of law and democratic values and preventing those
countries from slipping back into conflict. The Czech
Republic stands ready to assume its duties as a member
of the Commission beginning in January 2007.
Peacebuilding has to maintain strong ties with
peacekeeping. Indeed, we are facing a surge in demand
for that service provided by the United Nations, with
Lebanon as the most recent example. But even if the
number of Blue Helmets were to be multiplied, there
would still be room for meaningful engagement with
regional organizations in assisting the United Nations
to maintain peace and security. I welcome recent
debates on the role of those organizations, which
already shoulder a fair part of the burden in
Afghanistan, the Balkans, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo and the Sudan. From our trans-Atlantic
perspective, I particularly applaud the intensifying
cooperation among the United Nations, the EU and
NATO. I am proud to say that my country plays an
active part in that regard. We have a strong presence in
the Kosovo Force and the International Security
Assistance Force in Afghanistan. We are prepared to
explore other forms of support where we are not
directly involved.
It was very unfortunate that last year’s Summit
was not able to find common language on disarmament
and non-proliferation. The uncontrolled spread of the
illicit trafficking in conventional weapons, their use
against civilian populations and the deadly existence of
landmines all serve to continue to fuel conflict, human
suffering and insecurity around the world. My country
supports all efforts — as well as several
programmes — aimed at bringing the arms trade and
the use of arms under strong controls. But there is an
even greater threat: the possible proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction.
We welcome the fact that the Security Council is
increasingly engaged in those matters. Council
resolution 1540 (2004) was a major step forward. It
was recently followed up by strong messages addressed
to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Iran.
Both those countries should fully comply with the
nuclear non-proliferation regimes and abandon any
ambitions going beyond the peaceful use of nuclear
power.
There is no freedom or security where masses of
people are plagued by poverty, hunger and unhealthy
living conditions. The Government of the Czech
Republic therefore attaches great importance to
development cooperation and to achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Following the
economic transformation of the 1990s, we have
steadily increased our development aid every year. For
example, in 2005 Czech development assistance
increased by 16 per cent in real terms — reaching a
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level of 0.11 per cent of our gross national income.
That likely makes us the leading country providing
development assistance among new EU members. Our
humanitarian aid grew even more sharply and we are
determined to continue that trend. My country also
supports other measures that could provide additional
assistance — a fair solution to the debt problem for
poor countries, limiting agricultural subsidies and
creating more open conditions for trade. In that, we
associate ourselves with the goal of a global
partnership for development.
Development assistance is more effective in an
environment of stable and predictable conditions, the
rule of law, democratic structures, a successful fight
against corruption and respect for human rights — not
to mention that those qualities attract donors as they
are inherently worth supporting and cultivating. The
attention paid to those issues by the United Nations has
grown significantly over the last decade, resulting,
inter alia, in the establishment of the United Nations
Democracy Fund last year. My country was one of the
first contributors to the Fund. We are thus on the right
track, and I feel that we should go even further along
that road.
It was also decided at the United Nations Summit
last year — as part of the overall United Nations
reform — to transform and upgrade the Commission on
Human Rights, which became the Human Rights
Council. We have to work hard with others in Geneva,
to make it a beam of hope for millions of people living
under oppression and deprived of their rights in
different parts of the world.
However, the transformation of the United
Nations human rights machinery will be a failure,
unless the new body is stronger and more effective
than the old one, unless it succeeds in enhancing its
special procedures and country-oriented activities,
unless it finds the ways and means to respond where it
is needed, and unless it secures full international
cooperation in enforcing elementary standards of
fundamental human rights.
Regimes that behave contrary to all democratic
principles, use their power against their own citizens,
imprison their opponents arbitrarily and violate
elementary standards of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights must be confronted with an efficient
system. It is one of the sad ironies of our time that
Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in
Myanmar, 15 years after being awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize.
We cannot remain silent when members of
peaceful democratic opposition in Cuba, who are
calling for national dialogue and reconciliation, are
still jailed and harassed as alleged enemies of the State.
We also have to raise our voice of solidarity when a
presidential candidate of democratic forces in the
recent presidential elections in Belarus, Aleksandr
Kozulin, is sentenced to a term in prison for alleged
incitement to disorder.
Over several years, “reform” was one of the most
frequent and often misused words in our United
Nations vocabulary. But, even skeptics must admit that
the United Nations in 2006 is profoundly different
from the United Nations 10 year ago. While some
reform projects were put aside, a number of others
were carried out. Some projects — most notably the
long overdue reform of the Security Council —
continue, however, to wait for the green light.
This year’s highlight is management reform and
the reform of the United Nations development
machinery in the interest of system-wide coherence. If
we succeed in those areas, the United Nations could
become stronger, leaner, less bureaucratic and more
operational. Let us hope, that the changes will be
backed by the adoption of a new and fairer scale of
assessments, by adequate budget and payment
discipline, and last but not least, by progress in
implementing the Capital Master Plan.
In conclusion, let me assure you, Madam
President, that my country is ready to fulfil, in a timely
and orderly manner, all its obligations as a Member of
the United Nations, including our increased share of
the overall budget and our contributions to the
peacekeeping operations. We acknowledge and honour
our share of responsibility. More than that — we
continue to increase our volume of humanitarian aid
and to engage ourselves in assisting peace and security
in a number of areas around the world. I believe that
qualifies my country as a strong candidate for an
elected seat on the United Nations Security Council for
the term 2008-2009.