I
have the honour to speak on behalf of the President of
the Swiss Confederation, Mr. Pascal Couchepin, who
had to cancel his trip to New York at the very last
minute.
Since its foundation, the United Nations has
embodied the hope of all people to live in peace,
freedom and dignity. As Members of the United
Nations and as representatives of our peoples, we are
under an obligation not to disappoint those hopes.
Three years ago in this Hall, we decided in the 2005
World Summit Outcome to ensure that human beings
would live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty
and despair. We ought now to ask ourselves the
following questions: Have we kept that promise? Have
the expectations been fulfilled? Have we done enough
to bring about peace and security, development and the
realization of human rights?
According to a recent World Bank report, the
number of people living in poverty has fallen by 500
million since 1981. Their proportion of the total
population has fallen from 52 to 26 per cent.
Nevertheless, 1.2 billion people still have to get by on
less than a dollar a day. Twenty-five thousand people a
day are dying as a result of starvation and poverty.
There are still 67 million refugees and internally
displaced persons on the planet. No State, however
wealthy or powerful, can tackle all these challenges
alone. Common solutions are required. A strong United
Nations is needed, a United Nations that focuses on
that which unites rather than on that which divides.
Cooperation across cultural and religious borders
is not always easy. Swiss history has shown that this
type of cooperation is most likely to bear fruit when
specific problems are tackled and solutions are sought
through open dialogue. This approach is reflected in
Swiss peace policy. We support projects the purpose of
which is to bring together people with different values
and cultural backgrounds to enable them to coexist in a
positive way. This approach also characterizes our
activity in the United Nations-sponsored Alliance of
Civilizations.
Although dialogue is necessary, it is nevertheless
only one of the means of promoting the fundamental
values to which we are all devoted. I am thinking first
and foremost of human rights, access to a decent
standard of living and personal development for
everyone.
In this context, Switzerland is participating
actively in the work of the Human Rights Council. Let
us recall that the usefulness of the Council will
ultimately be judged by the specific contribution that it
makes to the protection of human rights on the ground.
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The Universal Periodic Review and its special
procedures provide the Council with two effective
tools, and those tools must be used. Switzerland will
continue to advocate in favour of a constructive and
critical Universal Periodic Review, the independence
of special procedures and the autonomy of the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights.
Next year, the Review Conference on the
implementation of the Durban Declaration and
Programme of Action will take place at Durban. For
Switzerland, the fight against racism is a priority. That
is why my country will play its part in this process.
However, we expect the preparatory phase to be
characterized by a constructive spirit that helps us
achieve a balanced outcome. In particular, the Review
Conference should confine itself to the evaluation of
the implementation of the Durban Declaration and
Programme of Action. It should not call into question
the normative advances set out in the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination. And finally, it should deal with
different subjects relating to racism in a balanced
manner, without becoming a platform that focuses on a
particular situation.
Last week, the Assembly also discussed the
implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.
We all know that the implementation of the Goals is
slow and arduous. Collectively, we could have done
more. We should have done more, and Switzerland is
no exception. But we are trying to assign our limited
resources to actions that meet the needs of recipients,
that make a difference to the poorest, that help people
to help themselves and that complement, but do not
replace, the efforts of recipient countries.
Development assistance should be characterized
by lasting effectiveness and coherence. The Follow-Up
International Conference on Financing for
Development, to be held in Doha, will give us an
opportunity to renew and to deepen this alliance
between developing and industrialized countries.
Progress towards the achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals requires that the
world’s poorest be better protected legally. Only if they
can defend themselves against injustice and have equal
access to justice, property, work and markets will
development ultimately be possible. The Commission
on Legal Empowerment of the Poor presented its report
a few months ago. It deserves careful study and follow-
up by the Assembly.
The food crisis has undoubtedly made achieving
the Millennium Development Goals more difficult.
Like some other countries, Switzerland has responded
to the crisis by increasing its contribution to the World
Food Programme. But the causes of food price rises
also need to be addressed. The causes are diverse and
range from changing eating habits to increased
cultivation of agrofuel crops and neglect of agricultural
production. Measures to resolve this crisis will have to
be both numerous and varied. In this regard, we
welcome the efforts made by the High-Level Task
Force on the Global Food Security Crisis in providing
a coherent and efficient response.
However, there is also a positive side to this
crisis. Rising food prices may also represent an
opportunity for farmers in developing countries. But
for farmers to benefit from the rise in food prices they
need access to land and property, financing and seed.
Likewise, they need international rules against the
flooding of their sales markets by subsidized
agricultural products, as well as better access to the
markets of industrialized countries.
A positive conclusion of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) discussions could have been a
positive sign of movement in this direction.
Switzerland therefore regrets that it was not possible to
reach agreement at the Ministerial Meeting held in
Geneva in July. The challenge now is to ensure that the
progress already made is not jeopardized and that
confidence among WTO member States is restored, so
that the Doha Round can be brought to a successful
conclusion.
Climate change is another major source of
concern. We in Switzerland are particularly aware of
this fact because our alpine glaciers are rapidly melting
away. In other parts of the world, this phenomenon
takes the form of changing precipitation patterns,
droughts and floods. The reports of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
clearly show that all these disasters have a point in
common: they are the result of climate change and are
caused by human beings, and particularly by the
consumption of fossil fuels.
The time for never-ending talks has passed.
Switzerland will achieve its emissions reduction goals
for 2012. For the years after 2012, we need a new,
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ambitious and internationally accepted climate regime.
Such a regime should be based on the principle of
common but differentiated responsibilities. Switzerland
has put forward a proposal for a global carbon dioxide
tax which meets that criterion and would ensure the
financing of the necessary adaptation measures. I
would like to invite the Assembly to carefully study
this proposal in the framework of the ongoing climate
discussions.
The efforts of the industrialized countries alone
will not be enough, however, to solve the problem of
global warming. Each country will, according to its
own capacities, have to contribute to the reduction of
CO2 emissions. In so doing, we are united by a
common concern: that of shouldering our responsibility
to future generations.
Today, many countries are still in situations of
armed conflict. In many cases, respect for international
humanitarian law has declined. That is why
Switzerland calls again on all conflicting parties to
comply with the provisions of international
humanitarian law and to guarantee humanitarian
organizations swift and unhindered access to the
victims of conflicts.
Conflict prevention is one of the central tasks of
the United Nations. Switzerland is particularly active
on two levels. First, we wish to pay closer attention to
the connection between armed violence and
development. Together with other partners, we intend
to submit a draft resolution on this subject during this
session of the General Assembly. Secondly, we
strongly advocate the strengthening of the Secretariat’s
mediation capacities. The mediation efforts in Kenya,
for instance, have demonstrated that this form of
conflict prevention can work.
That brings me to the subjects of the
responsibility to protect and of prevention of genocide.
Switzerland welcomes the fact that these subjects have
been institutionally anchored more firmly within the
United Nations.
The concept of the responsibility to protect was
recognized in September 2005 in the framework of the
World Summit. It is obvious that the operational
implementation of the concept can only be realized
progressively. Nevertheless, Switzerland will commit
to ensuring that the concept is not partially assimilated
into that of humanitarian intervention, thereby calling
into question the consensus achieved in 2005.
Justice is necessary for building lasting peace. In
other words, peace and impunity are incompatible in
the long term. The arrest and extradition of Charles
Taylor and Radovan Karadzic to The Hague have once
again confirmed the importance of international
criminal justice. Alleged war criminals must not be
allowed to live in serenity. They must answer for their
acts in a fair trial. That is the preventive effect of the
international criminal justice system, and it should not
be underestimated. Switzerland therefore supports the
work of the International Criminal Court and advocates
its independence.
At the beginning of my speech, I stressed the
great importance of the United Nations. The world is
changing, however, and international relations are
constantly developing. The United Nations will also
have to change. Those who focus only on the past will
no doubt miss the future.
There is a need for reform in all United Nations
bodies, but particularly in the Security Council. Given
the power that it exerts, the expectations of the
Security Council are very high. If its decisions are to
be accepted and supported by the entire international
community, the Council will need to adapt to the
realities of the twenty-first century, namely, the new
balances that characterize our world at the political,
economic and demographic levels.
Moreover, it is important that the views of
important actors that are not members of the Council
should be better taken into account in decision-making.
Switzerland has for some time advocated an
improvement of the Council’s working methods and
will continue to work for greater participation and
transparency.
Peace is not a given. It is an ideal that has to be
pursued every day. The United Nations is the
predestined venue for achieving that goal. We are
willing, within our capacities, to make our contribution
to that pressing collective task.