I start by congratulating
Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, President of the
General Assembly at its current session, on his
election, and express our belief that with his wisdom
and experience he will guide the Assembly well.
I also express our sincere gratitude to the
outgoing President, Mr. Joseph Deiss, for his important
contribution to the work of the General Assembly and
the United Nations.
Obviously, I wish to pay special tribute to the
Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and to thank him
for the vision and dedication with which he works for
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the United Nations and for his tireless efforts to
promote the spirit of the Charter. We deeply appreciate
his leadership and wish him continued success in his
second term in office as he guides the United Nations
in these challenging times.
Slovenia welcomes the President’s decision to put
the theme of mediation at the centre of our
deliberations at this session. Indeed, no other theme
seems more timely at this moment of search for an
approach towards a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. The European Union, to which
Slovenia belongs, is currently fully engaged with high-
profile mediation in this context. The mediation under
way has two aims.
The first is the revival of the peace process with a
view to finding an early solution — a genuine and fair
peace agreement involving two States, Israel and
Palestine, which would live side by side in peace and
security. Secondly, an immediate task relevant to the
United Nations is to find an adequate status for
Palestine within the ranks of our common, global
Organization. Those two aims are genuinely linked,
and the latter should be understood as supporting the
former.
Our common Organization, the United Nations, is
committed to its inclusive character and the
universality of its membership. This is the spirit in
which we see some of the significant developments of
this year.
We welcome the Republic of South Sudan as the
newest Member of the United Nations. Our
Organization should render every assistance to the new
Member in its efforts to establish its structures and to
serve the wellbeing of its people.
We also welcome the decision of the General
Assembly to grant the seat of Libya to the
representatives of the National Transitional Council of
Libya. This has established a much needed link
between the United Nations and the people of Libya in
their effort to build legitimate, democratic and
effective institutions and to pursue the path of
economic, social and political development, in
accordance with the wishes of the people.
Yesterday, at a special High-level Meeting we
discussed the forms of assistance in some detail. Today
we can say that there is a fair chance of success for
effective cooperation between the people of Libya and
the United Nations as well as the regional
organizations — in particular, the African Union and
the Arab League. Together we shall be better able to
assist. Slovenia is willing to continue to do its part in
this framework.
Political and security concerns are always an
important priority for the United Nations. But they
have to be considered against the background of other
priorities, both long-term and short-term. The
Organization has developed its engagements in the
most important and the most difficult issues of
environment and sustainable development. We need to
take resolute steps towards a new and effective system
to mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure the
necessary adaptation.
We hope that the Conference of the Parties to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change, to be held in Durban later this year, will bring
us a step closer to final agreement. The negative
impacts of climate change are disproportionate. We
should pay particular attention to the unique challenges
faced by the small island developing States, whose
characteristics make them among the most vulnerable
in the world to climate change.
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development, to be held next year, will be an
opportunity to secure renewed political commitment to
sustainable development, to assess the progress of
implementation of agreed commitments, and to address
new and emerging challenges. We should strengthen
our efforts to develop a new concept of development
that will capture economic growth, social development
and environmental protection. It is our duty to make a
difference, and making a difference requires a more
comprehensive definition of development.
Maintaining our focus on the successful
implementation of the Millennium Development Goals,
we should pay particular attention to the special needs
of Africa, especially those countries most in need. The
Istanbul Programme of Action offers concrete solutions
for improving progress in the least developed
countries.
In times of economic crisis in the donor
countries, which seems to continue unabated,
increasing aid proves difficult to attain. Improving aid
effectiveness is crucial.
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There can be no gain in the field of development
if other policies, such as trade, agriculture, migration,
climate change and so on, cancel out the positive
effects of development policies. In this regard, let me
convey our hopes for the successful deliberations of
the High-level Forum to be held in Busan later this
year.
Recent experience in the exercise of development
activities has strengthened understanding of the links
between development and human rights. The concept
of the right to development is gaining in substance and
recognition. Moreover, specific development tasks
have provided further evidence of the importance of
this link. The role of women in development is a
pertinent example. Experience and research by the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, for example, have shown that empowerment
of women in agriculture can reduce hunger by 30 per
cent — a very impressive result by any measure.
Gender equality and the empowerment of women
are essential to promoting peace, security and above all
development. Slovenia strongly supports the work of
UN-Women, which will help to significantly boost
United Nations efforts to promote gender equality,
expand opportunities and tackle discrimination against
women around the globe.
Another priority in the field of human rights that
Slovenia values highly relates to the rights of the child
and to human rights education. This year, as President
of the Executive Board of UNICEF, Slovenia worked
tirelessly to attain universal ratification of both
optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child. The objective should be to ensure, through
United Nations instruments and national action,
effective protection of the rights of the child and to
improve the wellbeing of children in all parts of the
world.
An important segment of this work relates to
human rights education, which helps to empower
young people in their efforts to secure their rightful
place in society. I remember when Slovenia and Costa
Rica launched a human rights education campaign in
the Third Committee almost 20 years ago. It is
gratifying to see that today human rights are
increasingly being included in official school
curriculums. But there is still much more that we need
to do to incorporate human rights learning into
societies as a lifelong process. The United Nations, its
Human Rights Council and the General Assembly will,
I am convinced, continue to make a significant
contribution.
I would like to express satisfaction over the
adoption of the draft declaration on human rights
education and training by the Human Rights Council
during its March session this year. I call on all States to
support this important declaration, which I am
convinced the General Assembly will adopt —
hopefully, unanimously — later this autumn.
Human rights concerns are most tragic in the case
of humanitarian disasters. The current famine in the
Horn of Africa is a sad example. It is a crisis of human
existence and human rights. All actors of the
international community, including my country,
Slovenia, are already trying to help. But more help is
needed; humanitarian assistance must expand.
I have briefly referred to some of Slovenia’s areas
of particular importance, particular engagement and
particular activity. Our commitment to the United
Nations is strong and will remain strong.
The United Nations is an Organization of all and
for all. For almost 20 years now Slovenia has been
working as a devoted Member State. We have made
proposals for specific action and enjoyed working with
all other Member States — large and small,
geographically close and geographically distant. We
have worked together on specific proposals and
decisions and on implementation.
We have also proposed a set of ideas for reform
of the Security Council. We hope that the coming year
will see more resolute steps in that regard, and that
more progress will be made than there has been so far.
The United Nations is an important hope — a
hope for the world — and an opportunity for its
Member States to bring the reality, complicated and
onerous as it may be, closer to our hopes. It is in this
spirit that Slovenia has presented its candidature for a
non-permanent seat on the Security Council. We hope
for broad support.
If we are elected we shall be a faithful United
Nations Member State, aware of the responsibilities of
the Security Council and all its members towards the
entire Organization and all Member States. We pledge
our efforts, our judgement and our sense of fairness as
a contribution to the United Nations. And fairness is a
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commodity, a principle, a value, that the international
community needs most of all.