I would like to
express my deepest appreciation and most sincere
gratitude to the Secretary-General, His Excellency
Mr. Kofi Annan, for the invaluable work and tireless
dedication with which he led this Organization into the
twenty-first century. The Secretary-General has led the
United Nations well and he will be remembered with
praise for it. May I use this opportunity also to state
our full support to his successor, who will have to deal
with the difficult challenges the United Nations is
going to face.
Before proceeding to my remarks, I would like to
point out that Slovakia fully subscribes to the statement
delivered earlier by the President of Finland on behalf
of the European Union.
It gives me great pleasure to address the General
Assembly today, even more so as it is the first time I
am speaking from this rostrum as the Prime Minister of
Slovakia. My Government — formed only three
months ago — is committed to a foreign policy that
emphasizes effective multilateralism and promotes
democracy, international peace and security, greater
respect for human rights — including the rights of
persons belonging to national and other minorities —
rule of law, social equity and environmental protection.
We are focused on building a social state where
economic growth goes along with the growth of the
standard of living of the people.
All of us know that the United Nations is once
again at a crossroads, as we face the historic test of
multilateralism. The humanitarian disaster in Sudan,
recent conflict in Lebanon, continuing dispute over the
Iranian nuclear programme, violence in East Timor,
increasing military activity in Afghanistan and
Somalia, along with the negative developments in other
conflict regions, remind us that we live in a world of
evolving threats and challenges.
Modern threats could not have been anticipated
when the United Nations was founded in 1945. In fact,
the United Nations is challenged, as never before, to
deal with ethnic and other inter-State conflicts, weak
and failed States, genocide and ethnic cleansing,
complex humanitarian disasters and poverty, along
with threats of nuclear terrorism, transnational
organized crime, infectious diseases and environmental
degradation. The major challenges of today cannot be
managed by sovereign States acting alone. Hence, the
key challenge for all of us is to learn how to
collectively manage the complex issues of the world of
today and how to ensure the relevance of the United
Nations and its leadership in the process.
Slovakia, as a smaller country, is a strong
believer in multilateralism. Our present experience as
an elected member of the Security Council fully proves
that only through effective multilateral action can the
world community successfully address modern threats
and resolve current conflicts. But — and I underline
that “but” — as long as the international community,
acting through the United Nations, is unable to take
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decisive action to protect populations from genocide,
war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against
humanity, as in the case of Rwanda or Darfur, as long
as the United Nations ignores regressive developments
and violations of human rights in some parts of the
world, as long as it is unable to fight terrorism more
effectively and intervene in situations that do not yet
pose a threat to international peace and security but
have the potential to swiftly reach that stage, respect
for the United Nations will decline in the eyes of our
citizens.
Slovakia is, therefore, a strong supporter of
United Nations reform. We must continue building on
what has been achieved so far, including the
establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission,
adoption of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and
progress in management reform. We need to focus on
reducing tensions between developed and developing
countries and on building consensus regarding the
future direction of reforms. It is unrealistic to expect
that all States will share and promote a single version
of United Nations reform. But we have to overcome
the zero-sum mentality and continue with the reform
debate, with a view to achieving mutual concessions
and compromises on specific issues.
We particularly welcome the creation of the
Human Rights Council as a step towards realizing the
idea of three equal councils embodying three equal
pillars of the United Nations. But we ought to be
cautious and avoid slipping back into the old habits
that made its predecessor so dysfunctional.
Revitalization of the General Assembly,
enhancement of the role of the Economic and Social
Council and reform of the Security Council remain
unfinished business. The reform of the Council should,
first and foremost, address the issue of increasing its
capacity to act preventively and to take decisive action
early enough to prevent conflicts. The Security Council
must become more representative, more effective and
more transparent.
For its part, Slovakia is ready to engage
constructively in meaningful negotiations to achieve
those goals. Slovakia, as the co-chair of the ad hoc
committee on mandate review in the Security Council,
is working hard together with our partners to achieve
tangible results in the near future. We hope that visible
progress of the process within the Security Council can
inspire other United Nations bodies.
Slovakia is concerned about the current situation
in the Middle East, in particular in Lebanon and the
Palestinian territories. We firmly believe that there is
no military solution to the Middle East conflict. The
only way to achieve a comprehensive and lasting
settlement is through peaceful negotiations and full
implementation of all relevant Security Council
resolutions, as well as the principles defined by the
Quartet. Also, only through negotiations and further
diplomatic efforts can we fulfil the vision of two
democratic States, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-
side in peace and security. New efforts must be
undertaken to revive the peace process based on full
respect for principles defined by the Quartet in the
adopted road map.
Another source of our deep concern is the
alarming security and humanitarian situation in Darfur,
which continues to deteriorate in spite of numerous
efforts of the Security Council, the African Union, the
United Nations Secretary-General and the international
community at large. We are talking here about a
humanitarian disaster of large scale; we, therefore,
urgently need to intensify our efforts and break the
long-lasting cycle of violence.
In particular, we need to make sure that the
Government of National Unity of Sudan finally gives
its consent to the planned transition to a United
Nations-led operation in Darfur. The concept of
“responsibility to protect” adopted at last year’s World
Summit applies to all Member States and to all
Governments. When peaceful means prove inadequate
and national authorities are failing to protect their own
citizens, the international community has the
responsibility to act collectively through the Security
Council to prevent another Rwanda or Srebrenica.
As a matter of priority, Slovakia has been closely
following developments in the Western Balkans. Our
involvement there is based on the principles of
transparency and impartiality. Our priority is to
strengthen the stability of the region and to support the
processes of democratization and integration.
As for the issue of the future of Kosovo, we
continue to believe that it is important to seek a
settlement through direct talks and dialogue and
compromise, from both Belgrade and Pristina. Only a
solution that reflects the concerns of all parties
involved and provides for the rights of members of all
communities, notably the Kosovo Serbs, can ensure
19 06-53005
lasting security and stability in the region. The Kosovo
issue is truly a sui generis case.
We are also deeply concerned about the nuclear
programme of Iran and the proliferation risk it presents
to international peace and security. We urge the Iranian
authorities to respond positively to the proposed
package of incentives and to suspend its uranium
enrichment activities. For our part, we are ready to
continue the dialogue with Iran in a constructive and
open fashion. However, Iran, like any other Member of
the United Nations, must comply with Security Council
resolutions and with all relevant decisions of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and must
fully cooperate with them.
The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
and related delivery systems technology continues to
threaten global security. This is a serious challenge,
and we must face it with all responsibility. It requires
joint multilateral efforts and a common and effective
response. In May of this year, Secretary-General Kofi
Annan told the Conference on Disarmament that the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
(NPT) regime, faces “a twin crisis, of compliance and
of confidence”. With regret, we have to acknowledge
that he was absolutely right.
We should work together to overcome deadly
links like that between armament and proliferation and
to create a progress-friendly atmosphere. We need to
restore confidence through compliance with all
relevant obligations and commitments. As the
Chairman of the Security Council Committee
established pursuant to Council resolution 1540 (2004),
Slovakia tries to facilitate the process of the full
implementation of all measures to prevent the
formation of a nexus between the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. We hope
that agreement on the Committee’s programme of work
will be reached as soon as possible.
We also preside over the Conference on
Disarmament, and we are working to intensify efforts
to reverse the process of repeated failure during the
recent period and undertake constructive dialogue,
which would bring about long-expected results. Our
aim is to help revitalize the Conference and give new
breath to that single multilateral disarmament-
negotiating forum of the international community.
In conclusion, I would like to draw attention to an
issue which is increasingly important in shaping
international programmes for development assistance,
the promotion of democracy, security cooperation and
post-conflict peacebuilding. I am referring to security-
sector reform. Slovakia seeks to stimulate a broad
discussion on the role of security-sector reform in the
United Nations context, with a view to increasing
understanding of the topic and suggesting possible
options for the development of a comprehensive and
coherent approach. Our wish is to give an impetus to
developing a comprehensive policy framework that
would guide United Nations security-sector reform
programmes and projects in a coherent, consistent and
sustainable way.
As Mr. Jan Eliasson stressed in his remarkable
speech at the conclusion of the sixtieth session of the
General Assembly (see A/60/PV.100), the test of
whether we have re-established the United Nations and
international cooperation as the best way to manage
our global affairs did not occur in the past year, but it
will occur in the years ahead.
My wish is that all of us will pass the test and
create a United Nations that can live up to the
expectations and aspirations of our peoples.