Mexico

My country is pleased at the election of Mr. Harri Holkeri to preside over the work of the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly. We are certain that, with his talent, ability and experience, the efforts of this extremely important Assembly session will be highly productive. My delegation would also like to extend its recognition to Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab for his outstanding work as President of the Assembly at the session that has just concluded. Last Friday, during the Millennium Summit, the leader of the Mexican nation, Ernesto Zedillo, stated his personal commitment and that of the Mexican people to the values and principles that sustain the activities of our Organization. Today, through me, the Mexican Government renews its willingness to continue working and participating constructively to strengthen the United Nations, the reason for those historic meetings. We will do this guided by our traditional policy in the multilateral arena: by encouraging dialogue, consensus, and unrestricted respect for international law. We will do this convinced, as well, that we must make good use of this opportunity to give renewed impetus to the United Nations, so that it can progress in solving the challenges that we confront, and can fulfil the goal of building, in this new century, a safer, more just and equal world for all. As the President of Mexico stated, we will do it confident that we Mexicans have the necessary foundation to do our share in achieving the targets contained in the report of the Secretary-General and the Millennium Declaration. My country is convinced that the practice of democracy is indispensable for the development of nations and to guarantee respect for individual freedoms. But we are also sure that democracy is sustained by the sovereign will of its citizens and is, therefore, a domestic process that cannot be imposed from the outside, although, without a doubt, it can and must be nourished by international dialogue between countries and by the cooperation that can be provided by the United Nations. Mexico is also convinced that, just as the predominance of democracy within the membership of our Organization is imperative, it is essential that relations between nations follow democratic practices as well, and that these, in turn, be reflected in organizations such as the United Nations that we, the peoples of the world, have created to organize our coexistence. Today we find ourselves with an extraordinary opportunity to advance in that direction: to cover further ground in the democratization of our Organization; to achieve a level of democratization that allows the United Nations to successfully fulfil the mission with which we entrusted it in San Francisco, the validity of which we seek to renew today, a level of democratization that reinforces the legitimacy of our Organization and invigorates its initiatives, a level of democratization that supports the domestic processes that many of our countries are undertaking and will consequently be enriched by them. Mexico has stated on various occasions that strengthening the General Assembly, the international community's most representative universal forum, is indispensable to guarantee the full democratization of the United Nations. We have also asserted that it is necessary to modify the structure and operation of the Security Council, so that it can fully shoulder its responsibilities in the maintenance of peace and international security. It is for this reason that my country has repeatedly proposed that we undertake a profound reform of the Security Council; a reform that is not limited to modifications of its composition; a reform that also considers the Council's working methods and decision-making process; a reform that allows that important organ of the United Nations to reflect the plurality and diversity of our Organization; a reform that takes into account the transformations of the political landscape in recent times; a reform that does not lead to the creation of new centres of power and privilege; a reform that regulates and limits the scope of the veto, avoiding its abuse or selective application; a reform that institutionalizes the relationship between the Security Council and the General Assembly so that their links, contacts and exchanges of information are clearly regulated; in short, a reform that guarantees that the Security Council's decisions have the legitimacy that can come only from the universal assent of the General Assembly. 30 Based precisely on this unwavering faith in the universality of international law, which Mexico fully shares, my country has engaged in its most important battles in this world Organization. Mexico has always been ready to participate in codifying international law, but we have continually insisted that progress along this path should involve all of the countries that make up the community of nations. This is the only guarantee for preserving legality and for ensuring cordial, constructive and mutually beneficial relations between all of us. The humanitarian crises in Kosovo, East Timor and Sierra Leone, to refer to only a few recent cases, have made us reflect on the scope of and limits to current international law. These crises have made us see that it is imperative to find a balance between the urgent need to respond adequately to humanitarian emergencies and the need to respect the sovereign integrity of all States. These crises, in short, have alerted us to the need to transform ourselves into a true assembly that analyses and proposes new paths, and they have alerted us to what holds us back from becoming an authentic forum where different positions are heard and where answers that realistically reflect the possible consensuses are found. We must therefore move forward and begin a process of further codifying our international law; a process based on the sovereign equality of States as a living reality, not just a theoretical principle; a process in which the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor, and the small and the large can express themselves openly. A process that clearly establishes the rules of the game. A process that enshrines democracy as the only way in which to reach truly legitimate agreements. Because we believe in these democratic values, Mexico has always opposed the legitimization, in practice, of any type of interference, especially when it is based on unilateral decisions or the decisions of a small group of countries. To the contrary, we have reiterated that the United Nations must be provided with a modern political structure that permits it to confront the new challenges to international peace and security brought by the end of the cold war. For this reason, we have insisted on the need to begin, as soon as possible, a broad process of consultation; a process that is absolutely democratic; a process that allows for the discernment of the mood of our community of nations in order to respond correctly and in timely fashion to humanitarian crises without weakening the Organization by doing so. I call upon the President of the General Assembly to formally begin, as soon as possible, this broad process of consultation that will allow us to reflect together on this issue of crucial importance for the United Nations. Mexico stands ready to continue contributing to the ongoing process of codifying international law to which I have referred. We will do so with the same confidence with which, in recent years, we have adhered to a significant number of international instruments proposed by this, our most important world Organization. We will do so with the same will with which we Mexicans have committed ourselves to modifying our national legislation in order to comply with the obligations that derive from those instruments. Such is our trust in international law and its advancement. With this trust, only a few days ago my country signed the Statute of the International Criminal Court, as well as the Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. With this trust we ratified, this year, the Convention on the Status of Refugees and its Protocol, as well as the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. With this trust, last week Mexico deposited its ratification instrument for the Kyoto Protocol. Some months ago, we did the same with regard to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. With that same trust, Mexico continues its fight to achieve the total elimination of nuclear weapons and tests, and reiterates the call made last April, by the group of countries, including Mexico, that are part of the new agenda for disarmament initiative, for the nuclear Powers to commit themselves to the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals. Future generations deserve a world free of nuclear weapons. They deserve a world that is also free from the uncontrolled manufacture and trafficking of conventional arms. They deserve, without a doubt, a world where anti-personnel landmines cease to claim thousands of innocent lives. Our commitment to the protection and preservation of the human race extends also to 31 combating the pandemics of our time. Today, a fatal disease, AIDS, threatens to cut off the existence of millions of beings on the planet. This is why only two days ago, the women Secretaries and Ministers for Foreign Affairs of 13 countries sent a letter to the Secretary-General in support of his call to stop and reverse the spread of AIDS by 2015 and to provide special assistance to children orphaned by this scourge. I want to renew the appeal of our 13 nations to all the Members of the United Nations to support the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and to resolutely launch the common efforts that are necessary to fight this global scourge. As is well said in the report of the Secretary- General and in the Declaration of the Millennium Summit, the protection of our common environment, the fight against transnational organized crime, the promotion of human rights, attention to vulnerable individuals, including children, the fight for disarmament, and international aid to respond to the demands of the least developed countries these are the foundation for allowing the people of the world to live not only free of fear and misery, but also with hope. These are also the challenges that our Organization and its Members must respond to, by consolidating an international architecture that is sustained by democracy and not by the concentration of power; an international architecture based on respect for international law, and not on unilateral decisions; an international architecture that encourages the universal character of our community and not selfish individualism; in short, an international architecture that emphasizes solidarity and cooperation as the values that give sustenance and permanence to the Organization.