Nepal

First of all, on behalf of the Government and people of Nepal and on my own behalf, I should like to extend to you, Sir, our warmest congratulations on your election as President of the fifty- second session of the General Assembly. I am confident that with your rich experience in international affairs you will guide the work of the Assembly to a successful conclusion. I wish also to assure you of the full cooperation of my delegation in the discharge of your responsibilities. I would like to take this opportunity to offer our deep appreciation and thanks to the President of the General Assembly at its fifty-first session, Ambassador Razali Ismail of the friendly country of Malaysia, for the enthusiasm, dedication and zeal he brought to bear on the work of the previous session. To Secretary-General Kofi Annan, I bring greetings and best wishes from Nepal. In every way, he is proving himself worthy of the great trust the membership has placed in him. Having shown his deep commitment to United Nations reform from the day of his appointment as Secretary-General, he has presented us with a set of very serious and far-reaching proposals of impressive breadth and scope, with a view to reshaping the United Nations so that it can better serve humanity in the years ahead. The Secretary-General has asked us to make this session of the General Assembly one of reform. We agree with him that United Nations reform is the shared concern of all Member States and that the purpose of the reform is to strengthen the role of the United Nations and enhance its efficiency. In the aftermath of the end of the cold war, the world situation is continuously undergoing profound changes, evolving progressively towards a world 25 of multipolarity which reinforces the core of the United Nations Charter: peace and development in larger freedom. The universal cause, therefore, is to make the United Nations a more vibrant world Organization that is more properly equipped, institutionally and financially, to meet the evolving challenges of the next century. The proposals of the Secretary-General complement the ongoing intergovernmental process regarding the revitalization of the United Nations, particularly financial reform and reform of the Security Council. The United Nations, if it is to perform the mission set out in its Charter, cannot limp from one year to another on the verge of bankruptcy. No country should bear an excessive burden, but the fundamental principle of any scale of assessments should be the capacity to pay, calculated on the basis of the country’s share of global gross national product. It also does not make sense that half the total membership is assessed the same amount in contributions. A change in the scale of assessments is overdue. Countries, rich and poor, must pay their assessed share in full, on time and without conditions. With regard to the reform of the Security Council, the organ which bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, Nepal’s position coincides basically with the position taken by the Non-Aligned Movement, as reflected, in particular, in the Cartagena summit Declaration and the subsequent Declarations of the meetings of Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement. The Security Council should better reflect changes in contemporary political and economic realities. It should be more representative in composition and more transparent in its functioning. It must be more democratic in character. It must be more reflective of balance between the North and South. It must, above all, be capable of prompt action when peace is threatened. The contribution of Member States to international peace and security should be the guiding criterion for the selection of Members of the expanded Security Council in both permanent and non-permanent categories. Since the Security Council is the principal instrument of the international community in the area of collective security, I must emphasize here that any reform must be the fruit of ratifiable global consensus and must in no way diminish the Council’s capacity for prompt and effective action to maintain international peace and security. In the view of my delegation, the reform proposals of the Secretary-General, which deserve our appreciation and support, are categorized in three broad areas: management of conflicts and peacekeeping; strengthening and integration at headquarters, and field levels of United Nations development activities; and protection and promotion of human rights. Too often in the past, the United Nations has suffered from a sore need for a capacity to act in the face of conflicts. The Secretary-General must be encouraged and supported financially to make use of his high office for the resolution of emerging conflicts. When peacekeeping operations are mandated by the Security Council, the capacity of the Secretary-General to organize and mount them in time should be strengthened. Peacekeeping, to be effective, is dependent largely on the maintenance of elements within the national armed forces of Member States that can be made available promptly to the United Nations. Sixty-six countries are now participating in United Nations standby arrangements, and I am happy to say that Nepal is one of the 10 countries to sign the Memorandum of Understanding which commits my country to contribute 2,000 troops, including doctors, engineers, observers and headquarters staff and 200 civilian monitors for peacekeeping purposes, at short notice. It is high time that the rapidly deployable mission headquarters became operational. Nepal is confident that the Secretary-General’s proposals for a new United Nations Development Group and a United Nations Development Assistance Framework will provide clearer focus and direction to United Nations development activities aimed at sustainable development and the eradication of poverty. In Nepal, many of the development activities carried out by the United Nations are already practically integrated at the field level. Care has to be taken, however, that in the name of integration or merger, the demonstrated strength of individual programmes, funds or agencies is not lost. We also find the proposal for a Special Commission to look at the division of labour among the various specialized agencies across the United Nations system very interesting and deserving of careful consideration. With a view to achieving greater harmonization of international development efforts, Nepal feels the need for a closer relationship between the United Nations and international financial institutions and the World Trade Organization. Since peace, progress and humanity are the core concern of the United Nations, Nepal, as a functioning democracy with a deep commitment to human rights, appreciates the intention of the Secretary-General to strengthen and broaden the capacity of the United Nations 26 in the field of human rights. We welcome the strengthening of the Human Rights secretariat and the choice of Mrs. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, as High Commissioner for Human Rights. There could hardly be a better choice. I wish to congratulate the new High Commissioner and express the confidence of my delegation that she will be an independent and credible defender of human rights. We welcome her determination to narrow the gap in the perception of human rights. She has rightly observed that collective and individual rights are not mutually exclusive and that the scope of human rights is interlinked with social, cultural and economic issues requiring a broad approach. As a signatory of all basic international human rights instruments and a participant in the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Nepal looks forward to the fiftieth anniversary next year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Together with freedom of speech and belief, the Declaration characterizes freedom from fear and freedom from want as the highest aspirations of human beings. Along with concerns for peace and sustainable development, it is right that concerns for human rights should also be made an integral part of the work of the United Nations. Peace in many parts of the world continues to remain fragile. Nepal is deeply concerned over the setbacks in the peace process in the Middle East. The settlements policy has retarded the process. Nor has the spate of violence in the region helped restore the mutual confidence without which no peace process can succeed. Without a resolution to the Palestinian problem, no comprehensive, just and lasting peace will be possible in the Middle East. We urge the concerned parties not to deviate from their professed commitment to resolving the problem through peaceful means. The extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty represent a fine moment in the history of nuclear-arms control and disarmament. The Convention on Chemical Weapons has come into force, to our great satisfaction. With the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones in South-East Asia and Africa last year, we hope that efforts to create such zones in other regions, such as the Middle East and South Asia, will be relentlessly pursued. Disarmament, particularly nuclear disarmament, means nothing if it does not provide security to nations and peoples. Only a complete elimination of nuclear weapons will provide such security. It is in this spirit that we have supported the programme of action advanced by 28 NAM and neutral countries, members of the Conference on Disarmament, for the elimination of nuclear weapons through phases over a period of time. We are disappointed by the complete lack of progress in this year’s session of the Conference on Disarmament. Nepal is in favour of strengthening the role of the Conference on Disarmament as the principal global disarmament negotiating forum. Nepal welcomes the agreement in Oslo this month on the text of a convention for the total ban on anti- personnel landmines and will seriously consider signing the convention in Ottawa in December. Landmines should not be allowed to be used indiscriminately and to maim and take innocent lives, including those of women and children. While the importance of the issues of weapons of mass destruction cannot be overemphasized, it is to be noted that it is conventional weapons that have killed the most people throughout history. Therein lies the importance of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. The work of the United Nations Panel of Experts on Small Arms, one of whose sessions was hosted in Kathmandu this year, has laid the foundation for future United Nations action in this area. Confidence-building measures and regular dialogues in informal settings represent an indispensable element in the long and arduous efforts undertaken on behalf of disarmament and security. I am pleased to note that the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, located in Kathmandu, has been found to be a useful forum for such informal dialogues on disarmament and security issues. Nepal’s consistent participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations reflects our abiding faith in the ideals of the United Nations. Over the past four decades, Nepal’s peacekeepers have served with pride in all regions of the world under the United Nations for the cause of peace. Many of the Nepalese Blue Helmets have lost their lives and limbs in the pursuit of peace. Nepalese soldiers have served the United Nations with dedication and professionalism. Nepal will continue to serve the cause of peace by responding positively and promptly to every call for assistance from the United Nations. 27 The adoption of An Agenda for Development this year, following protracted and tortuous negotiations over a period of three years, is a welcome sign for the renewal of development cooperation between the North and South. The Agenda identifies groups of countries in special need: least developed countries, Africa, landlocked developing countries, small island developing countries and countries with transitional economies. The usefulness of the Agenda will be measured only in terms of its faithful implementation. The provision of additional resources on an assured and predictable basis is a prerequisite to the sustainable development of the least developed and landlocked countries. The decision of the General Assembly last year establishing the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty represents the long-awaited recognition by the international community of the pervasive nature of poverty, which today is the greatest threat to peace, sustainable development and human rights. The eradication of poverty, therefore, should be a core activity of the United Nations. We recognize that this is the principal thrust of the reform measures and proposals of the Secretary-General. I wish once again to pledge my country’s full support and cooperation to the Secretary- General in this regard. Poverty alleviation is the priority area of sustainable development planning in Nepal. A massive programme is needed to reduce poverty in a meaningful way. The rapid decline of living standards today in almost all the least developed countries and developing landlocked countries is an ironic testimony to the gross marginalization of those countries, despite the new trade regime that is supposed to usher in an era of prosperity throughout the world. This anomaly is further compounded by the accelerating reduction of official development assistance to the least developed countries. For the least developed countries, and the landlocked among them, which suffer from additional physical handicaps, foreign direct investment cannot be a substitute for official development assistance for some time to come. I would like to affirm Nepal’s unreserved condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and our determination to prevent terrorists from deriving benefit from their acts. It is our firm position that terrorism is a threat to both internal and international security and to peaceful relations between States. It is, moreover, a threat to the growth and functioning of democratic institutions and to the enjoyment of human rights all over the world. Nepal will never allow its territory to be used by terrorists against other countries. Nepal holds the view that States should create an environment in which people do not have to be displaced or flee their countries as refugees. The number of such people is in millions and, in the words of the Secretary- General, unquantifiable. Nepal is also bearing the burden of refugees. Nepal being a least developed and landlocked country struggling to cope with the rising aspirations of its people in a parliamentary set-up with deep human- rights commitments, the burden is painful for us. We have received international humanitarian assistance, for which we are grateful. The magnitude of the problem for us can be judged by the fact that one in every 200 people in Nepal today is a refugee. We uphold the right of the refugees to return to their home in peace and honour. His Majesty’s Government of Nepal is determined to solve the problem peacefully by dialogue. Nepal is a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Nepal is actively pursuing a policy of promoting regional cooperation and understanding under the umbrella of SAARC, an Association which forms a critical part of our broad policy of peace, friendship and cooperation with all countries of the world in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations and non-alignment. The seven countries of the region are engaged in various areas of cooperation, including the suppression of terrorism and drug abuse, environmental preservation, poverty alleviation and the promotion of regional trade. We are endeavouring to harmonize the policies of the seven member countries on important global issues. We did so during the nineteenth special session of the General Assembly devoted to environment and sustainable development. Many ministerial meetings in the region are now annual events. Foreign Ministers of the region will be meeting in New York in an informal setting during the annual session of the General Assembly. SAARC has lagged behind other similar associations, but the countries of the region are persevering in their efforts to develop both the habit and concrete measures of cooperation.