France

I would like first of all to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the presidency of the fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly. It attests to the esteem in which the international community holds you and your country. I would like to include in this tribute the Secretary- General, who bears the weighty responsibility of promoting the universality of the Organization and the effectiveness of its action. Lastly, I wish to congratulate the three new Members of the United Nations. The great and fine ideal that the United Nations embodies is very much alive — of this I am firmly convinced. The United Nations is undertaking a grand civilizing endeavour, a task that is constantly being challenged but ever necessary. To unite peoples to work together for peace and development, to affirm a body of legal rules framing relations among States and to achieve common standards: that is the goal of the United Nations — a civilizing goal. That goal is achieved first of all through the peaceful settlement of conflicts. The role of the Security Council in this mission is more vital than ever, a pre-eminence it derives from the Charter. France will recall this fundamental rule as often as necessary. To be sure, there have been circumstances when an urgent humanitarian situation dictated we should act immediately, but such an 26 approach must remain an exception. We must take care, as in the case of Kosovo, to reintegrate this action into the context of the Charter. Our fundamental rule is that it is for the Security Council to resolve crisis situations. For that reason, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s new strategic concept recalls that the Washington Treaty recognizes the primary responsibility of the Security Council in the maintenance of peace. Indeed, the universal nature of the Organization is intangible. The United Nations must strive to respond to crises, wherever they may occur. While we have not hesitated to do precisely that in recent years and on several continents, I would like to express regret at the relative timidity of the Organization where Africa is concerned. The extent of the tragedies on that continent requires us to take more resolute action. Universality is compatible with complementarity in action. In the interests of efficiency, the United Nations must encourage, in every part of the world, regional arrangements among States capable of handling crises in the first instance. Such is the spirit of Chapter VIII of the Charter. Tasks should be realistically shared between the regional organizations and the Security Council without weakening the latter’s authority. For instance, my country has, through the RECAMP programme, along with others, strengthened African peacekeeping capabilities through assistance provided under United Nations auspices in cooperation with the Organization of African Unity. International security also demands continued disarmament in the context of multilateral and verifiable agreements. This is an ongoing objective for France, which hopes that the work of the Conference on Disarmament will be relaunched in the months prior to the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. France would like to see the prompt entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear- Test-Ban Treaty, the start of negotiations on banning the production of fissile materials for nuclear-weapon use, and the conclusion of a verification protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention. We would not support any development that might bring the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty into question and upset strategic balances. The United Nations mission is not limited to the settlement of conflicts between States. With humankind’s growing aspirations for greater freedom and responsibility, this mission extends to the safeguarding of human dignity, within each State and, when necessary — as the Charter allows — against States. State-instigated violence has spawned serious humanitarian crises over the past few years. Civilians have been targeted, whole populations have been forcibly displaced, and refugee camps are not longer secure. This is unacceptable. Consequently, we must uphold the principle of international intervention, under United Nations auspices, to assist the victims. Every crisis recalls the need for the founding principle of working for peace and for respect for the law and the human person. A case in point is the conflict in Kosovo. Security Council resolution 1244 (1999), which laid down the foundations of the settlement, illustrates these principles and this resolve. We have set ourselves ambitious objectives: ensuring security for all, organizing reconstruction, ensuring coexistence between communities, transferring authority to local leaders, and promoting democracy and pluralism. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative and the KFOR Commander have done remarkable work. Much, however, remains to be done. The atrocities must be stopped, the exodus stemmed and housing built before winter. On the political front, preparations must be made for the future, which will require establishing dialogue between the communities. Elections will, I hope, be held in the year 2000. France has made resolute efforts in this respect, alongside its partners in the European Union, which is providing half the international financing agreed upon by the conference of donors for Kosovo. In East Timor, another people is asking that its rights be recognized. Overwhelmingly, it chose independence through a referendum. Some have tried to oppose that choice with violence. I therefore welcome the adoption, on 15 September, of Security Council resolution 1264 (1999). It paves the way for the restoration of peace and should enable the democratic process to be successfully concluded. France is participating in the international force established by decision of the Security Council. Our Organization therefore remains true to the values we celebrated last year, on its fiftieth anniversary. But much effort is still needed for these values to be respected everywhere. To achieve this, it is essential to strengthen international criminal law. France actively supports the work of the international criminal tribunals of The Hague and Arusha. The establishment of the International Criminal Court will be a new and decisive step in the progress of law. France hopes that it will be set up quickly; to that end, it has already amended its own Constitution. 27 To carry out its mission, the United Nations needs assured means. In order to deal with financial difficulties and prevent these from becoming a pretext for inaction, all Member States must meet their financial obligations vis-à-vis the Organization. France does so completely and unreservedly. A responsible attitude on the part of contributing States would advance the necessary reform of the Organization, including that of its Security Council. I should like to share with the Assembly my second firm conviction: that the United Nations is admirably suited to meeting the challenges of our new world. Indeed, its mission is strengthened by globalization. Initially, the idea of organizing relations between States at the world level may have seemed utopian to some. It was merely before its time. Indeed, I consider the United Nations to be modern for the following reasons. Our global and unstable world needs organization and the goal of the United Nations has always been to seek a better organization of the world. The United Nations is in step with a networked world. It is itself a network, a rich and unique panoply of specialized but independent and coordinated agencies. In half a century, the United Nations has made a tool for action which can be adapted to our world. The United Nations has not aged; it has grown with the world. It must allow us to face the new challenges emerging in today’s world. A contradictory state of affairs has replaced the euphoric illusion which followed the end of the confrontation between blocs 10 years ago. Globalization is not monolithic. While it is unifying, it also divides. While it generates remarkable progress, it also leads to unacceptable inequalities. While it opens societies to one another, it carries with it the threat of creating uniformity. While it frees up energy, it also releases negative forces that must be brought under control. The movement of populations and the clash of cultures are therefore accompanied by rising fears as to identity, by religious intolerance and by xenophobia. France, which has a presence on five continents and is itself a land of immigration, has had experience of such confrontations in its history. It knows the risks they entail and the wealth they bring. We will give our full support to the world conference on racism, to be held in 2001. Preventing the emergence of prejudice, which too often has deadly consequences, will prepare the way for peace for future generations. The fruits of globalization are not shared equally. The opening of economies, the increase in trade and the acceleration of technological progress all fuel growth. But inequalities are growing between countries and within each economy. Nearly one in four human beings lives in great poverty. We cannot leave matters as they stand. The rapid expansion of communications networks does not benefit everyone. Yet the multiplication of sources of information, the increased circulation of ideas and the profusion of new inventions are full of promise. Lower communications costs made possible by the Internet can be an asset for businesses in countries in the South. But inequalities in education hinder access to these technologies. These impressive instruments for furthering knowledge may become formidable factors in inequality. Communication is also a right. It is essential that this right not be threatened by the concentration in just a few hands of sources of information and the means of production and distribution. France will staunchly defend cultural diversity. Globalization must encourage all of us to take account of the fragility of our world — our Earth and our commonweal. Our environment is not a product, a simple stock of raw materials on which we can draw without giving thought to future generations. True development is sustainable development. Since the Rio Summit in 1992 this realization has been behind the adoption of important commitments with regard to the climate, biodiversity and desertification. The Kyoto Protocol on climate change and the current negotiations on a protocol on biosafety attest to the importance of the achievements. But the uncertain future of climates and the recurrence of natural catastrophes urge us to make further efforts. The Earth is fragile, but so, too, is the human species. The spread of new epidemics endangers the health of entire populations. Inequalities in development exacerbate those scourges. Some 40 million people live with the AIDS virus today, the majority of them in developing countries. The spread of the pandemic in Africa is a matter of major concern for us. I shall come back to that issue. Globalization is changing the nature of organized crime, an area in which there has been a real explosion. The much greater fluidity in movement allows criminal networks to exploit the inconsistencies between one national law and another and the weaknesses of some of them so as to hide from justice. My country is ready to make every effort to combat this scourge. The President of the French Republic made that clear last year at the special session of the General Assembly devoted to that issue. The United Nations has long been engaged in the 28 fight against international drug-trafficking, building up expertise, establishing specialized services and drafting a body of doctrine and a legal framework. These must be strengthened. But, above all, States must be more committed to action. In January negotiations began in Vienna on a convention against transnational organized crime. We must bring this to a satisfactory conclusion in the year 2000. Faced with globalization, we have a choice to make. We can either go along with the supposedly universal economic laws, and in so doing abdicate our political responsibilities, or we can seek to impose order on globalization and thereby achieve control of our collective future. For my part, I believe that global problems call for global responses and that an unstable world needs to be regulated, requiring what our Anglo-Saxon friends might call “rules and regulations”. This world needs rules. It needs the United Nations. This choice is also a matter of sovereignty. As the Secretary-General pointed out on 8 December last year in Paris, the first words of our Charter, “We the Peoples of the United Nations”, make it an expression of popular sovereignty. But in order for the sovereignty of peoples to be affirmed they must find the means to acquire the mechanisms, the means of control and the benefits of globalization. That is my third conviction. The more the world becomes globalized, the more it needs rules. Faced with the temptation of unilateralism, it is more necessary than ever to base our action on multilateral rules respected by all. First of all, these concern the economy. We must define the rules of the game so that everyone can benefit from globalization. We must define the rules of the game between the industrial and developing countries and between the major economic actors, small and medium- sized business and the citizens of our countries who work and produce. In the financial sphere, we have to strengthen the stability of the monetary and financial system by ensuring the political legitimacy of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), involving the developing countries more closely in the adoption of common rules and making private financial operators liable for the consequences of their decisions for countries in crisis. Real progress has been made since the crises of 1997 and 1998. France contributed to this by its proposals, especially in regard to hedge funds and fiscal havens. It will continue to work to this end, as much remains to be done. These rules of the game have to be based on better coordination among international institutions. Since 1945, international cooperation has respected the principle of specialization of institutions. In the future, the task is to make them more complementary. Economic and trade rules cannot disregard the most elementary social and environmental norms. Accordingly, France supported the adoption by the International Labour Conference a year ago of a declaration on the fundamental principles and rights involved in labour. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is an irreplaceable forum for dialogue between government and social partners and for the formulation of minimal standards. It is desirable that it establish close relations with other organizations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank. For these rules of the game to be better respected, appropriate cooperation has to be established with the poorest countries. Their debt burden continues to be the primary obstacle to development. At their meeting in Cologne, the G-7 countries pledged to grant further debt relief. France contributed to this. Three principles will be applied: solidarity, which calls for us to grant the poorest countries the most favourable debt treatment; fairness, which requires the rich countries to share the financial effort in a balanced way; and responsibility, whereby the countries benefiting from this aid undertake policies directed towards sustainable development and the fight against poverty. For these countries, official development assistance remains indispensable. France will continue to advocate greater effort on the part of the richest countries. Our action should be increasingly inspired by the affirmation of common values and rules. Human rights are central to this approach. I am referring in particular to the weakest children. The ILO Convention which outlaws the worst forms of child labour is a new case in point. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child must be supplemented as soon as possible by the two protocols now being negotiated, one against the recruitment of children in armed conflicts, the other against the sale of children and child prostitution and pornography. To affirm the rights of women is to recognize their decisive role in education, in the production of wealth and in development. But it is also to combat the discrimination and violence which they suffer. France has made equality between women and men one of the cornerstones in the renewal of its public life. The additional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination 29 of All Forms Discrimination against Women, submitted to the General Assembly for approval, offers women the possibility to assert their rights in an individual capacity. That is a major step forward. The special session of the General Assembly in June 2000 will highlight the progress that has been achieved since the 1995 Conference in Beijing. Reaffirming the right of all human beings to health means combating pandemics everywhere. In December 1997, in Abidjan, France proposed the establishment of a “therapeutic solidarity fund” to mobilize the international community to care for and treat AIDS sufferers. The countries of the South and associations involved in combating the disease welcomed the proposal warmly. But the impact of AIDS on development remains dramatic. We must intensify our efforts to reduce this plague. Only the United Nations can give these efforts the necessary breadth. The principle of precaution has to be the basis for our action regarding the environment and health safety. The Montreal Protocol for the protection of the ozone layer, based on the principle of differentiated commitments between the North and South, is an example of well- conceived international action. These efforts must be continued. We will do so by advocating, with our European Union partners, a world convention on forests and by redoubling efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. Precaution must also be the guiding principle in monitoring food safety. The combination of concern for sustainable agriculture, the quality of products and the preservation of food traditions in each country explain the intensity of recent reactions. France therefore intends to see these demands taken into account at the forthcoming WTO negotiations. In order to address and overcome the world’s problems, to derive the best from globalization, we need nations to be aware of their responsibilities, and we need also to have “more” of the United Nations. Through an Organization strengthened by a renewed sense of mission, supported by sovereign States and regional organizations, we will be able to further respect for human rights, promote democracy, work for sustainable development and help all to achieve their potential.