Sweden

The past year has been a difficult one for the United Nations. Its principles have been challenged. Its relevance has been questioned. Still, at the end of the millennium, we have proved ourselves unable to prevent war between Ethiopia and Eritrea and unable to prevent genocide in Rwanda or ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. Still, we see flagrant disrespect for international law, humanitarian law and human rights. Children are used as soldiers in Sierra Leone, women are denied all rights in Afghanistan, fundamentalist forces have demonstrating students arrested and possibly sentenced to death in Iran. Other tragic examples can be found in almost all parts of the world. We can change all that, if only there is political will. It is up to us, the Member States, to ensure that the United Nations and the Security Council are able to uphold international law and their responsibility for international peace and security. I would like to highlight four key areas that we, the United Nations and its Member States, need to address to make the United Nations truly relevant: the questions of intervention; early action and prevention; nuclear disarmament; and human rights. To succeed, the United Nations system also needs to be reformed, and I will come back to that. When it comes to intervention to secure peace, regional organizations and arrangements, as well as so- called coalitions of the willing, can have important roles, together with the United Nations, as we have just seen in East Timor. But it is for the Security Council to provide the legal foundation — the mandate — for such action, in particular when force has to be used. Without such a legal foundation, we run the risk of anarchy in international relations, and in fact we undermine the prospects for peace and security; and that long-term perspective must never be lost. Our responsibility for international peace and security implies that necessary action by the Security Council should not be hindered by a veto. If the Security Council in an urgent situation is paralysed by a veto or a threat of veto, this may undermine the authority and the relevance of the United Nations itself. It also presents the international community with a difficult dilemma. When human life is threatened on a massive scale, it is not possible to remain passive. Humanitarian intervention has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, in view of the values at stake and whether all other means have been exhausted. The effects on international law and international security at large have to be considered as well. As the Secretary-General said yesterday, we must ensure that the Security Council is able to rise to the challenge. It must negotiate in earnest, with creativity and without the threat of veto, to define threats to peace and security at an early stage, and to deal with a crisis before an emergency situation arises. Council action does not necessarily mean the use of force. The use of force almost inevitably causes suffering for the innocent. It should, therefore, only be the last resort. There are many other tools available. The United Nations Charter offers several options. The most obvious alternative to the use of force is conflict prevention and early action. Member States, in particular the permanent members of the Security Council, must share information on conflict situations and early warning signals with the Secretariat. The Secretary- General should be invited to react to such reports and to propose appropriate and timely action to the Security Council. The United Nations offices in the field and early fact-finding missions dispatched to areas of potential conflict could help the Secretary-General formulate such proposals. Academic institutions and non-governmental organizations could also be helpful in this regard. The Swedish Government has adopted a programme of action to facilitate and contribute to the prevention of armed conflict. It is our hope that this action plan will stimulate a debate on how to change the focus from crisis management to early preventive action in order to promote a culture of prevention. When considering peacekeeping operations, the Security Council should not be hampered by short-term budgetary considerations. This sends a very negative message and runs counter to the need for early and 32 preventive action. All countries must pay their assessed contributions in full, on time and without conditions. Naturally, that also goes for the host country. The United Nations must be given the necessary resources to be able to act swiftly upon decisions by the Security Council. The danger of nuclear devastation has not faded. On the contrary, we are faced with new threats. Last year the positive trend set by Argentina, Brazil and South Africa having joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was reversed by India and Pakistan, which both tested nuclear weapons. Their actions have endangered international peace and security, as well as stability in the region, and are a serious setback to our hopes for a world without nuclear weapons. Sweden will follow up its call of last year for a new agenda for complete nuclear disarmament. India and Pakistan have taken us further away from that goal. We call upon them, and all other States which have not yet done so, to give up their nuclear ambitions. All countries should become parties to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the NPT. The five nuclear-weapon States also have a responsibility to complete nuclear disarmament. Deployment of national missile defence systems in the future would create uncertainties and have a negative impact on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. We encourage the United States and Russia to re-establish a new momentum in the stalled START negotiations, and especially we call upon Russia to ratify the Start II agreement without further delay. Reductions should be extended to non-strategic nuclear weapons. Furthermore, we urge the three nuclear-weapon States which have not yet done so to ratify the CTBT. All this should be done in an effort aimed at the elimination of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction, which still pose a threat to human beings all over the world. Any regime violating human rights paves the way for crisis and armed conflict. The defence of human rights is a legitimate concern for the Security Council and the international community. It is our duty to react when the rights of individuals are violated, wherever it happens. Still, disrespect for democracy and human rights is obvious in many parts of the world. The events in East Timor show how the will of the people can be totally ignored by armed thugs. In Kosovo, innocent civilians are attacked for belonging to a certain ethnic group. Still, poverty and social injustice deprive people of health and education. Still, women and girls are facing discrimination. The brutalizing and killing of women is carried out with impunity in many countries. In wars, rape is used as a means of terror. Often women are deprived of their right to earn their own living or participate in the economic and political life of their countries. I urge all countries to adhere to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, without reservation. Still, 10 years after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the hopes of children for the future are overshadowed by daily hardship and fear. Too often their talents and skills are buried in poverty or diseases which are curable but not attended to. Too often they are denied proper education, or suffer from discriminatory school systems. The recruitment of child soldiers is a shameful practice that causes individual suffering and will harm the security and development of societies for many years to come. I appeal to all Governments to assist in the conclusion of the two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in order to prohibit sexual abuse of children and the use of children below the age of 18 in armed conflict. The use of the death penalty has no place in a civilized society. Sweden welcomes moves taken in a number of countries to put an end to this repugnant practice. The abolition of the death penalty would enhance human dignity worldwide. Still, the ugly face of racism appears in all parts of the world. Manifestations of racism are an affront to the fundamental principle of non-discrimination and a threat to the fragile fabric of peaceful relations between people in an increasingly global community. The preparations for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance provide an important opportunity to identify concrete and action-oriented ways to combat racism. Another important manifestation will be the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, to be held in January 2000. The early entry into force of the Statute of the International Criminal Court would send a clear signal that the international community is determined to end the culture of impunity for the most heinous crimes under international law. Sweden is committed to early ratification, and we urge all countries to be similarly committed. 33 As I said at the outset, in order to have an efficient and relevant United Nations, not paralysed by the veto and able to cope with the challenges of conflict prevention, nuclear disarmament and the protection of human rights, we also need reforms. In particular, we need to strengthen the United Nations capacity for conflict prevention and to address root causes of conflict. This is a moral imperative as well as a humanitarian, political and economic necessity. The Security Council should be enlarged to better reflect the realities of today’s international relations. A geographical balance is important in this regard so that the Council can become truly representative of the international community. The use of the veto, or even the threat of its use, hampers the work of the Council. We support the proposal that as a first step the right of veto should be limited to decisions on enforcement action under Chapter VII of the Charter. We would also like to see the five permanent members agreeing on a moratorium on the use of the veto. The Security Council should be more transparent and open. This would contribute to the acceptance and legitimacy of its decisions. The Council should be able to hear the views of all relevant parties to a conflict without the implication of political recognition. The involvement of humanitarian organizations in the Council’s deliberations would enhance the quality of its decisions. The humanitarian consequences of Security Council action should always be taken into consideration. This is particularly important when sanctions are imposed. Sweden welcomes the Secretary-General’s efforts to reform the Secretariat and modernize its management culture, and we appreciate the improved efficiency that has followed. Reform is not only about cost-cutting. The aim must be to revitalize the Organization and the multilateral system to cope with the many challenges before us. Long-term security is closely linked to sustainable development and the eradication of poverty. We need to strengthen not only the United Nations capacity to provide humanitarian assistance but also its long-term social and economic development efforts. A basic problem is the lack of funds. The donor community needs to ensure sufficient and predictable financial resources to allow the reforms to produce long- term results. Sweden is one of only four countries that meet the United Nations aid target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product. Development requires a true partnership between countries, ensuring sufficient external resources, sound use of internal resources and good governance. The reform process has to continue, and we look forward to the Millennium Assembly and the summit next year as an opportunity to accelerate the work. We all have a tendency to blame the United Nations for our own failures and shortcomings. In fact, when the United Nations fails, it is because we fail. If the United Nations loses its relevance, we lose. There is no real alternative to global cooperation to cope with increasingly global problems, and for this, we need the United Nations — but a strengthened and reformed United Nations.