Slovakia

Mr. President, at the outset, I would like to congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty- second session. I also wish to thank your predecessor, Mr. Razali Ismail, for his excellent work during the last session of the General Assembly. The ongoing session of the General Assembly is crucial in terms of showing the capability of the United Nations to react adequately to changes in the global scene after the end of the cold war, mainly in connection with problems humankind faces on the eve of the new millennium. We all know that if the United Nations is to meet the expectations and needs of the new era, it must go through a process of reform. The Slovak Republic welcomes the Secretary-General’s report (A/51/950) entitled “Renewing the United Nations: a programme for reform” and supports his endeavours to streamline the work of the Organization in order to achieve greater unity of purpose, strategic deployment of resources, coherence of efforts and flexibility in response. The suggestions included in the Secretary-General’s report reveal a firm determination to transform the United Nations into a centre which takes an active part in governing international relations, in accordance with its main principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. Though one of the basic goals of the reform is to streamline the work of the Organization, along with cost-saving, the latter should not be the final goal of the reform, since this approach itself does not lead to the strengthening of the United Nations system. Any reform of the Organization which would lead to a weakening of its position is not acceptable. The financing of the United Nations is necessarily an integral part of its reform, since continuation of the current financial crisis has a grave impact on the performance of the Organization. We believe the principle of honouring legal obligations — in this case, the payment of assessed contributions — should be a basis for any solution to be adopted, although we understand that a number of countries are in arrears to the Organization because their rates of assessment do not reflect their capacity to pay. Slovakia belongs to a small group of countries — so-called good contributors — having paid its regular budget contributions in full and on time this year. With regard to our peacekeeping- budget assessment, the General Assembly decided to allocate Slovakia to group C of Member States for the period 1993 to 1996. We continue to believe that there is no need to limit this decision strictly to such a short period. Speaking in terms of capacity to pay, Slovakia simply belongs to group C of the Member States. For this reason, the General Assembly should no longer postpone its decision on the permanent allocation of Slovakia to group C of the Member States for the financing of United Nations peacekeeping operations. We expect that the General Assembly at its fifty-second session will take a decision confirming the permanent presence of Slovakia in this group. It was also on the understanding of the difficult financial situation of the United Nations that Slovakia, on the eve of the fifty- second session of the General Assembly, paid in full its arrears to the peacekeeping budget for the period 1993- 1996. The maintenance of international peace and security remains one of the main priorities of the United Nations and peacekeeping operations are a key instrument available in this regard. As experience in recent years has shown, the ability to respond quickly with adequate mandate and means is a prerequisite to the successful completion of peacekeeping operations. The Slovak Republic fully supports the Secretary-General’s efforts to build up the United Nations standby arrangement system and to establish a rapidly deployable mission headquarters team. We are ready to participate actively in this system while considering the allocation of appropriate means. Post-conflict peace-building is of crucial importance should a conflict resolution achieve lasting results. In recent years, the reconstruction of a conflict-torn society has involved a variety of actions. Many actors have been engaged in this process while lacking integrated coordination. Therefore, we welcome the decision of the Secretary-General to make the Department of Political Affairs the focal point for defining objectives, criteria and operational guidelines in this regard, as well as his intention to strengthen the role of a special representative of the Secretary-General to be responsible for the implementation of peace-building initiatives in the field. At the same time, in our view, it is still necessary clearly to define the competence, interaction and feedback between the Department of Political Affairs and the special representative of the Secretary-General. The contribution of the Slovak Republic to the work of the United Nations rests first of all upon the concrete fulfilment of the primary purposes of the Organization, such as the maintenance of international peace and security. Slovakia has been currently contributing its troops and military observers to the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) in Eastern Slavonia and to the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) in Angola. It also takes active part in the work of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, of which it became a member in April this year, and thus contributes to the improvement of the planning and control system of United Nations peacekeeping operations. On this occasion, I can state with full responsibility that the Slovak Republic is interested in and is ready to continue contributing to United Nations peacekeeping operations. Experience has proven that small and mid-size States are capable of bearing their part of the responsibility for stability and security in individual world regions. In this connection, the Government of the Slovak Republic has decided to present its candidature for a non-permanent seat in the Security Council for the term 2000-2001. We believe that the candidature of the Slovak Republic, which is not currently a member and has no representative in any of the principal United Nations organs, can win the support of the Member States in order to increase the representativeness and democratic nature of this body. Along with the reform measures initiated and undertaken by the Secretary-General within his competence, a discussion of important issues that reside within the jurisdiction of Member States is under way. A number of stimulating as well as antagonistic opinions reflecting the complexity of the process have been formulated. The most evident example of this is the question of Security Council reform. It is in all our interests that the Security Council’s composition and decision-making procedure reflect the significant changes that have taken place on the international political scene during the last three decades. The Security Council’s reform should result in an enhancement of its legitimacy and representativeness, while maintaining its ability to react promptly. In our view, a new geopolitical situation on the global scene should be reflected in a new concept of the Security Council. Apparently, a decisive part of the general membership is not ready for such a step and political circumstances have not sufficiently matured. At the same time, the efforts aimed at restructuring the Security Council within a predetermined timetable, even in the absence of a general agreement, might be counterproductive. Since Security Council reform is an extremely important and sensitive issue for the further existence of the Organization, Slovakia prefers a 2 continued and thorough discussion in this regard without an artificial acceleration of the whole process. The change of priorities in international politics after the end of the cold war, in particular the utmost necessity to solve various socio-economic problems, seems to have shifted arms control and disarmament issues out of sight. Concerned about this negative trend, we feel that disarmament should again be given priority in the United Nations agenda. Recently, the Slovak Republic, as a new member of the Conference on Disarmament, was honoured to chair that unique multilateral disarmament forum. We are convinced that the Conference on Disarmament must play a further, indispensable role in solving the most important issues of international security, stability, peace, arms control and disarmament. Besides the opening of concrete negotiations on the prohibition of the production of fissile materials for weapons and other explosive devices, we find especially important the question of a global and comprehensive ban of anti-personnel landmines. We understand the efforts to bring this issue to the Conference’s agenda and the Ottawa process to be fully complementary. We highly appreciate the agreement on the text of the Ottawa convention reached recently in Oslo. The Slovak Republic has been continuously engaged in a number of activities that contribute to the alleviation of the consequences of the use of anti-personnel landmines. Reflecting the provisions of the Ottawa convention on the prohibition of anti-personnel landmines, we would like to offer our assistance in mine-clearance programmes by putting at the United Nations disposal a mine-clearance unit that would follow up on the very successful performance of the Slovak Engineer Battalion in former Yugoslavia. We welcomed with satisfaction the conclusions reached at the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the Sixth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). It is important that the technical and formal approach to the work of the Preparatory Committee has been altered, thus establishing favourable conditions for the success of the Review Conference. The Slovak Republic, which uses nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes, has supported all steps designed to lead to the elimination of nuclear weapons. As one of the 44 countries needed to ensure the Convention’s entry into force, the Slovak Republic is prepared to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) before the end of this year. I would also like to state that Slovakia has been honoured to chair the Preparatory Commission for the CTBT Organization. This year’s entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention can undoubtedly be considered the most significant event in the field of disarmament. The Slovak Republic has been striving to strengthen the Convention through its active approach to the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. We are proud to state that some of the Organization’s inspectors were trained in facilities provided by the Slovak Republic. We are interested in continuing these activities in order to help the Organization fulfil its verification and preventive functions. Support for economic and social progress is one of the basic missions of the United Nations. We welcome the creation of a new Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and we believe that this will lead to its further streamlining and efficient performance. The Organization is a unique forum that can facilitate close cooperation and partnership for development among Governments, civil society, the private sector and regional and global organizations. The role of the Economic and Social Council, as set forth 50 years ago in the United Nations Charter, needs to be revised. In a time of changing social and economic- development philosophy, it is necessary to strengthen the policy-management and coordination roles of the Economic and Social Council, as well as its position in the macroeconomic-policy-coordination dialogue. The reform of the subsidiary bodies of the Economic and Social Council and the rationalization of their structure, work and functions require, in our opinion, a careful approach, one to be taken with full respect for their autonomy while aiming at their further rationalization and consolidation. The steps taken so far by the Secretary- General in this field are pointing in the right direction. Slovakia, as a member of the Commission on Sustainable Development and the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme, devoted considerable attention to the nineteenth special session of the General Assembly. Although the special session has not brought the expected results, we consider it an 3 important step in the global discussion on the strengthening of the principles of sustainable development. We look forward with anticipation to the special session of the General Assembly on drugs. That session, which will be held next year, should yield concrete results with regard to combating the production of and trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. As we all know, drugs pose a real threat, mainly to younger generations. Since the Slovak Republic’s establishment as an independent State, it has been participating actively in the work of one of the most important multilateral development bodies, namely, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Slovakia has been a member of the UNDP Executive Board since 1993. The UNDP regional centre for Central and Eastern Europe was established in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, in June of this year. The creation of this centre is a concrete example of the achievement of United Nations reform, in this instance of UNDP’s efforts for decentralization at the country level and cutting the burden of administrative costs. The centre’s foundation has been actively supported by Slovakia, and use has been made of my country’s advantageous position as a bridge between UNDP secretariat activities at Headquarters in New York and UNDP efforts in the countries of Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States region. We are convinced that the presence of the UNDP regional centre in Bratislava will enable Slovakia to be even more active in development cooperation within the United Nations development group. Human rights are a matter of the highest priority among the activities of the United Nations. Slovakia stresses the need for the consistent implementation of relevant United Nations resolutions. In this regard we support the role of special rapporteurs appointed to selected countries where systematic human rights abuses occur. We acknowledge the results the special rapporteurs have achieved in this field. The Slovak Republic supports the ambitious proposals for restructuring United Nations institutions dealing with human rights in order to create effective conditions for improved protection of human rights. In this connection, we consider it appropriate and necessary to harmonize the activities of the Commission on Human Rights with the work of the relevant expert committees established pursuant to international human rights treaties. At the same time, the Slovak Republic supports the creation of effective conditions for tripartite cooperation among Governments, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. Human rights abuse has been the cause of a number of conflicts in many places on our planet, which are often followed by a humanitarian crisis on a massive scale. Women and children are the most fragile sectors of any afflicted population. We must not forget this fact while pursuing the purposes of the United Nations. I believe that the United Nations reform process will be successfully completed in next few years. I find the Secretary-General’s programme for reform to be an important step in this regard. The Slovak Republic is prepared to contribute to this process so that the United Nations can approach the next millennium as a modern, viable, global body with the adequate authority to fulfil the purposes embodied in the United Nations Charter.