Uruguay

Allow me first of all, Mr. President, to congratulate you on your election to preside over this new session of the General Assembly. We are sure that the experience you have gained in your years of activity in the Organization, together with your personal qualities and technical skills, will, under your mandate, contribute to the strengthening of this most important body of the Organization. Allow me also to express our congratulations to the outgoing President, Ambassador Razali, for the work he performed, which certainly contributed to the strengthening both of the presidency and of the role the General Assembly is called on to play in the United Nations. Undoubtedly, the central focus of our attention will continue to be the issue of the reform of the Organization, the essence of which is now contained in the document submitted by the Secretary-General. My country fully supports and has every confidence in the appointment and endeavours of the Secretary- General, Mr. Kofi Annan. We have thus paid the greatest attention to the package of reforms he has submitted, and we are prepared to promote deliberations on them so that they can be concluded as soon as possible. 4 We understand that the document is aimed at the objective of equipping the Organization with an administrative structure that will permit more flexible management, prevent duplication of functions and secure coordination among its organs and programmes, all of which will result in an improvement in terms of both economy and management. Within the overall issue of reform, the specific topic of the Security Council is one of the most important because of the political significance that organ has had and will continue to have within the structure of the United Nations. Uruguay endorses an enlargement of the Council because it believes that its structure should be adapted to the new realities in the world, which differ substantially from those that existed when the Organization was established, since at that time account was taken of the power structure resulting from the Second World War. In this regard, we support an increase in the number of both permanent and non-permanent Members of the Council, to a total of not more than 25, so that efficiency is not impaired. Our country particularly supports an increased presence of developing countries to ensure a better balance in the membership of this singular organ of our Organization. We believe that the newly created seats should be occupied on the basis of real equality of opportunity for all States. However, my country believes that the reform of the Council should not be confined to the topic of its membership. Equally important is ensuring that its activities are transparent and that information provided to and communication with the States that are not members of the Council flow freely and are up to date. The Eastern Republic of Uruguay has expressed strong support for progressively limiting the right of veto, and to that end we have submitted a proposal to the effect that on certain subjects, the right of veto could be suspended by the General Assembly by a majority to be determined. That mechanism, essentially democratic in nature, would thus help reduce the absolute power of the right of veto as currently provided for in the Charter, while at the same time it would strengthen the competence of the General Assembly. Nonetheless, our country will be ready to analyse any other proposal that might be submitted aimed at limiting the absolute individual veto. While the reform of the Security Council and the possible revision of the scale of assessments have recently been, and continue to be, the focus of political attention, we should also study the question of strengthening the General Assembly. A calm and dispassionate analysis of the organizational structure and respective areas of responsibility of our Organization shows that the forum where the principle of juridical equality of States reigns supreme is undoubtedly the General Assembly. There has been and still is much discussion regarding the composition of the Security Council and the exercise of the right of veto, in the context of the new parameters of international realities. That is all well and good, but at the same time, we need to find practical ways of revitalizing and invigorating the activity of the Assembly. The General Assembly is a unique body in international institutional machinery. In it, representativity is practically universal. States participate on an equal footing without regard for their size or power, and the ideal of international democracy attains its clearest expression, at least in formal terms. The decisions of this body have great moral and political force and accordingly, it is essential to formulate them better and make them more timely. For these reasons, the General Assembly not only needs to function more flexibly and utilize its resources more rationally, but also, and essentially, requires greater substance. Only thus will we be able to give its resolutions greater operative force. Consequently, we should take a new approach and open a new chapter in the reform process, not confining our reflections and aspirations to reforms of the Security Council or to reforms of a financial nature, but extending them to the organ that brings together the international community as a whole, namely, the General Assembly. After 52 years of the Organization's existence, the maintenance of international peace and security continues to be one of its essential functions. Peacekeeping operations, to which my country is proud to have been a contributor from the outset, must be fully maintained while adapting to new kinds of conflicts. Uruguay is prepared for this, and, accordingly, we reaffirm here once again our commitment not only to continue to make our traditional contribution but also to 5 diversify it in order to adapt it fundamentally to peace- building. In this connection, we welcome the signing, with the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, of a memorandum of understanding regarding our contributions to the United Nations standby arrangements system. This will contribute to facilitating the planning of future peacekeeping missions in the shortest possible time. The General Assembly's recent adoption of the resolution putting an end to the use of “gratis personnel provided by Governments and other entities” fulfils one of my country's long-standing aspirations and does justice to the principles of equitable geographical representation and the equality of Member States, both enshrined in the Charter. Similarly, the recent General Assembly resolution adopting uniform and standardized rates for payment of awards in cases of death or disability sustained by troops in the service of the United Nations peacekeeping operations seems to us an important step that puts an end to an unjust situation. We fully support the Middle East peace process initiated at Madrid in October 1991 and continued at Washington, and the Government of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay continues to encourage the necessary holding of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority. It is essential for both parties to respect in good faith the commitments entered into in the Madrid and Washington declarations. Our Latin American continent does not want an arms race; it wants, on the contrary, to be free of nuclear weapons and of other sophisticated weapons of mass destruction that can create instability. We want to work in peace, allocating the largest possible amount of resources to our economic and social development. However, this should not be an obstacle to limited purchases of arms by our armed forces solely for the purpose of replacing their obsolete equipment, thereby fully discharging their constitutional mandates. We must work to ensure a continuation of the mutual confidence and security that prevails in the region today, without third countries weakening and taking advantage of our continent through the sale of sophisticated weapons. Uruguay will continue to support with firm conviction all disarmament processes, and, accordingly, we recently signed in Oslo the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, those lethal weapons that have caused not only death and serious injury to soldiers but also the loss of thousands of innocent lives. Protection of human rights has been and will continue to be one of the priority objectives of both our domestic and international policies. Without full exercise of human rights, there can be neither peace nor security, neither economic prosperity nor social equity, and the existence of a democratic system of government will therefore also be impossible. In addition, there can be no full exercise of human rights without a minimum economic, social and educational base, and my country will be prepared to contribute to ensuring the existence of such a base. In this connection, we fully support the restructuring proposed by the Secretary-General while at the same time endorsing the philosophy on which it is based, embodied in his idea that the question of human rights should be part of all the substantive spheres of the Secretariat's programme of work: peace and security, economic and social affairs, development cooperation and humanitarian affairs. The financial crisis the Organization is experiencing, which has no counterpart in its history, stems primarily from the failure to pay assessed contributions. While not intending to justify any delay in payment, Uruguay believes that the current scale of assessments requires adjustments to make it fairer, more transparent and better based on the capacity of States to pay. That should not, however, mean that developing countries would assume new and additional commitments today; that would, in our view, be unjust and unacceptable. The system of contributions should be based on objective criteria of financial responsibility. We agree that there is a need to correct and manage the budgets of the Organization in order to reduce expenditures and increase efficiency, thus striking a balance between expenditure on peace and security and expenditure on development, each of which is a cornerstone of the other, without weakening operating and information activities. We cannot but express our public satisfaction at seeing the importance the Secretary-General attaches to development, which he regards as one of the priorities 6 and essential functions of the Organization. There can be no peace without development. On the threshold of a century that is already taking shape and that, unfortunately, seems to be marked by growth without equity, uncertainty in employment and a proliferation of crises and conflicts, good management of development assistance is today more necessary than ever before. At a time when human concerns seem to be alien to us, it is essential, in Uruguay's view, to support an Organization that holds that people must be placed at the very heart of the development process if we want growth to be compatible with the human condition and development to be conducted by and for people. In this context, we consider it very important to maintain unconditionally the principle of universality and the right of all developing countries, without exception, to benefit from international cooperation and to receive technical assistance with a view to achieving sustainable human development. Uruguay considers international technical cooperation essential for consolidating the processes of development and integration in the various regions. It is a fundamental tool for attaining greater economic growth. We support the development of South-South cooperation as an important tool for promoting the improved development of nations. We believe that a new concept of technical cooperation will have to respond to traditional demands, such as humanitarian affairs, as well as others associated directly with the process of integration into the international economy, such as, for example, the redefinition of the role of the State, its modernization and its decentralization. We believe that a positive contribution to political and democratic stability and to economic growth is made by processes of regional and subregional integration. In our case, the Southern Cone Common Market — composed of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and our country — is a clear example of democratic stability and expansion of trade, within and outside the region, compatible with the rules of the World Trade Organization. Uruguay continues to assign to international law a primordial role as a regulator of relations among States. Respect for and compliance with international law are essential for peaceful coexistence. For this reason, we support the holding of an international conference to discuss a draft convention establishing an international criminal court for autonomous and independent hearings on certain crimes, such as genocide and others which, because of their seriousness, are roundly condemned by the international community. We also support the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on the elaboration of a convention for the suppression of terrorist bombings. In times of change, which we all see as appropriate and inevitable in order to revitalize the Organization, we nevertheless identify more than ever before with the essential purposes and principles established 52 years ago. These bind the Organization together and, despite the time that has elapsed and the important changes that have since taken place in the world, continue to constitute and must continue to constitute, today as yesterday, the goal and objective of all the changes the United Nations will have to face at the dawn of the twenty-first century. People, simple people, call for us to be effective and efficient in our activities and bold in our decisions in preventing conflicts, and to act on their behalf in rebuilding civil societies. The citizens of every nation, of every country of the world, call on us today to be firm in our commitment to the Charter and to adapt our new activities to the changing times.