At the outset, allow me to
congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of
the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session and to
wish you every success in your important duties.
Let me begin with a quote by Edward Wilson:
“The great challenge of the twenty-first century
is to raise people everywhere to a decent standard
of living, while preserving as much of the rest of
life as possible.”
To preserve life and the sustainability of the planet
for every human is not pure theory. It is a practical
question for our future and for that of our children.
The Millennium Development Goals, the post-2015
framework and the challenge of climate change must
form much more than the theoretical basis for our
discussions. Those goals must identify, address, offer
a solution to and solve problems that in one or two
generations may bring the human race to the brink of
its own existence.
Seventy years ago, when the Second World War
caused tens of millions of deaths, consuming all of
the principles of humanity, the patriots and democrats
in my country, Slovakia, took up arms and put their
lives at risk to fight against evil and for liberty and
democratic values. They fought together with many
other nations to establish the foundation for new global
cooperation, given shape a year later with the adoption
of the Charter of the United Nations. The horrors of
the Second World War, the failure of the international
community to maintain world peace, the direct threat
on the part of larger countries to use force against
smaller ones and the absence of an international order
and rules that are be universally accepted and respected
were a painful lesson for us all.
Cooperation among nations has come a long way in
the past seven decades. The United Nations has played
an important role on that road, but we have not gathered
here to celebrate a false sense of success. We have to
go much further than simply to identify challenges. It
would be a lost opportunity if political correctness and
diplomatic language were to limit us from openly and
freely naming and discussing the problems that plague
our world and the continents, countries and citizens that
we represent. We must not betray the commitments that
we all made to the principles of democracy, peace and
security for every single citizen of our planet. We must
look into the mirror to see what we are doing, how we do
it, what we are doing or have done wrong and what we
can do better. We believed that the number of conflicts
would gradually decrease as our civilization matured
and developed. However, today, we are confronted
with the opposite reality. Instability is increasingly
becoming the new status quo. Instability, poverty and
hatred are the fertilizers and catalysts of terrorism, and
terrorism is a threat to which no one is immune.
A year ago, we Europeans could hardly imagine
that, after investing so much effort in achieving peace
and stability in our continent, a new armed conflict
would arise in our neighbourhood. Conflict is dangerous
both in its nature and in its consequences. Twenty
years ago, Ukraine abandoned its nuclear programme
in exchange for the security and territorial integrity
guarantees granted by the United States, the United
Kingdom, China, France and the Russian Federation.
Today, instead of marking a major anniversary of
achievement in the area of security and stability on the
European continent, we are witnessing armed conflict
and political instability. Instead of building a world
without weapons of mass destruction, we encourage
those countries that seek security under the lethal
nuclear umbrella.
Slovakia strongly denounces violations of the
territorial integrity of any State. That is a trademark
of our foreign policy. It is a pillar for the stability of
the geopolitical architecture. We support that principle,
and Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimea are
not an exception. We are nevertheless convinced that
dialogue and diplomatic efforts, with the participation
of Russia, will lead to sustainable peace in Ukraine.
We must respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and
the sovereign right of its people to decide their fate in a
free and independent manner. The United Nations plays
a crucial role in that matter. What Ukraine needs today
is to restore peace and stability, implement reforms
and be reassured of the strength of the guarantees for
the inviolability of its territory. Slovakia is ready to
participate in that process.
Diplomatic language is full of allegories, but
even the nicest language cannot hide the naked truth
when people are being killed. Acts of barbarism and
cruelty have become a freely available article. They are
broadcast live to our homes. They make us insensitive
to violence far away. At the same time, they create the
feeling of having being born into an unsafe world, in
which people ask: where is the effective protective
umbrella of the United Nations?
A year ago, we could not imagine the sudden rise
of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),
which has become a global threat in a short time. It has
overshadowed the long-term effort of the international
community in Iraq. The ideology and acts of ISIL
represent an unprecedented level of brutality and the
twisted use of the media for their self-promotion. It
represents the dangerous ideology of forcing violent
changes to State borders. It embodies ethnic and
religious cleansing, which will not stop at the borders
of Iraq, Syria or the neighbouring countries, but has the
ambition to spread beyond the region of the Middle East.
The entire global community has the responsibility to
act in order to end the suffering of the innocent victims
of violence and to protect children and women. Today,
we must to stand united in Iraq and prevent ISIL from
taking root in the territory it has occupied and from
consolidating its military and economic power.
Autocratic and totalitarian ideologies always bring
suffering, the restriction of rights, internal conflict,
injustice and death. We are all too familiar with
their ultimate price and catastrophic consequences.
Among the many tasks facing the United Nations
are the prevention of such ideologies from becoming
successful, the protection of human rights, the adoption
of every possible preventive measures to prevent
conflict and the establishment of sustainable peace.
Slovakia, with its own first-hand experience of
transitioning from a totalitarian regime to democracy,
supports efforts to create the conditions necessary for
sustainable peace. We promote security sector reform
as one of the key factors for success in the peaceful
development in regions emerging from conflict, as
well as for States going through a regime change to
democracy. Stable security institutions such as the police
and military can better fulfil their duties to safeguard
human rights and protect their citizens, especially
society’s most vulnerable members, including women
and girls.
The Slovak Republic actively fulfils its commitments
to Afghanistan. The United Nations Assistance Mission
in Afghanistan is led by a diplomat from Slovakia. We
remain convinced that in the aftermath of the recent
presidential election, the new Afghan leadership will
be able to create the conditions needed to achieve
national and social unity and to continue supporting
international assistance. I am pleased to note that the
two former presidential candidates have reached an
agreement, and we believe that that will contribute to
Afghanistan’s stability. Slovakia is ready to continue
to do its part in assisting the Afghan people in that
endeavour.
Disarmament is key to eliminating potential
sources of tension and conflict. Last year’s signing of
the Arms Trade Treaty was an important step towards
establishing common legal standards for regulating
and monitoring international trade in conventional
weapons. The Slovak Republic was among the first 50
countries to ratify the Treaty, and we are hopeful that
its implementation will contribute to eliminating the
dangers of the illegal arms trade and thus strengthen
global security.
Last but not least, peace, security and stability
are preconditions for development. The rule of law,
democratic governance and human rights are essential
for every single citizen. But we must address, respond
to and solve the global issues that may be as deadly
for humankind as a nuclear war — the changes that
are occurring on our planet. Globalization has created
borderless opportunities for entrepreneurship, but it has
also created new challenges that we must deal with if we
are to make life on Earth sustainable — climate change,
inequalities in development and in the distribution of
goods and services, poverty and unequal access to
health and education.
Slovakia is and will remain a responsible member of
the global community. We participate in the discussion
on financing sustainable development, offering our own
experience of economic transition. Global challenges
require global action and national responsibility. We
are ready to do our share.
The peoples of the world have vested in the United
Nations an exclusive and global responsibility: to
respond to violations of peace, ensusre respect for
international law, protect human rights and deal with
threats to humanity. Let us all make sure that it is able
to continue to carry out those responsibilities. For
decades, the Organization has been the forum where we
can name those responsible for the murder of their own
citizens on a massive scale, the leaders who worship a
cult of hatred and intolerance, and those who favour
arms over agreements and international law. But in the
cases where we have failed, our failure has caused the
suffering and death of innocent people.
We, the United Nations, should not give up on
the ideal of being the conscience of the world. Our
Organization should be the authority with the ability
to define, prevent and solve conflicts and problems.
Together we must convince people around the world
that we are safeguarding the international norms and
principles that the United Nations is built on. If we fail
to accomplish that within the United Nations itself,
we will not be able to guarantee to humankind that
totalitarianism, injustice, impunity and amorality will
not prevail.