Let me begin by
congratulating you, Madam President, on your
appointment and assuring you of Ireland’s full support
for the coming year.
This session of the General Assembly is the last
under the stewardship of Secretary-General Annan. I
salute his achievements and pay tribute to his
leadership. He has carried out his heavy
responsibilities with wisdom and dignity. He can step
down from office fully satisfied with the service he has
given to the peoples of the United Nations. I was proud
last year to act as one of his envoys in the vital reform
agenda that he pioneered.
Since the 2005 World Summit significant
progress has been made. The Peacebuilding
Commission and the Human Rights Council have been
established. But there is more to be done. Management
reform is essential to revitalizing the Organization and
ensuring that the Secretariat can focus on the priorities
we all share. It is in the interest of us all — developed
and developing countries alike — for it to succeed.
The continuing stalemate over the reform of the
Security Council leaves it insufficiently representative
of the world as it now is. That serves those who for
their own reasons would challenge its legitimacy. This
situation cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely, so
I welcome recent efforts to restart negotiations on
possible options likely to win widespread support.
The true test of the United Nations is, however,
not the efficiency of its structures, but the effectiveness
of its actions. As the Secretary-General said last week,
three key challenges face the world: first, achieving
sustainable development and the elimination of poverty
and disease; secondly, the promotion of universal
human rights and the rule of law; and, thirdly, ensuring
security, the prevention of conflict and the ending of
war.
In setting our own national aid target of meeting
the goal of 0.7 per cent of gross national income by
2012, three years ahead of the European Union
schedule, Ireland has put the Millennium Development
Goals at the heart of its aid programme, with a special
focus on Africa, poverty reduction, tackling hunger,
and HIV/AIDS. Last week we published a White Paper
which sets out clearly and in detail how we aim to
achieve our development objectives. Sustainable
development must include addressing the immense
global threat of climate change. Development is also
the key to addressing the enormous challenges posed
by migration.
Ireland is deeply committed to Africa. Despite its
huge problems, there are encouraging signs. We are
inspired by the efforts to shape new institutions and
more cohesive societies in the aftermath of conflicts
and cruelties in Sierra Leone, Burundi, Rwanda,
Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ireland is honoured to assist these and other countries
through their difficult transitions, including through aid
and the presence of our troops in the United Nations
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Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). We particularly support
the efforts of the African Union to bring peace and
prosperity to Africa, helping to place Africans firmly in
control of their own destiny.
However, not all of our collective efforts have
met with success. The suffering of the people of Darfur
shames the world. There has been human tragedy there
on a massive scale, with the intimidation, rape and
murder of hundreds of thousands of innocents and the
displacement of vast numbers from their homes. Just
two months ago I visited a displacement camp myself,
in Aboushouk in Darfur. I have seen how precarious
the lives of the people are there and also their
determination to return home to a better future for
themselves and their children.
The people of Darfur have three essential needs.
First, humanitarian aid must be delivered safely and
without restrictions. Secondly, there must be an
international peacekeeping force with a robust
mandate. As set out by the Security Council, it should
be a well-equipped and substantial United Nations
force. I again appeal strongly to the Sudanese
Government to agree to the deployment of such a
force, and to all those with influence on it to persuade
it so to do. I cannot emphasize enough the urgency of
this. Pending the arrival of a United Nations force, the
African Union force — whose continuation I
welcome — should have the resources necessary to
play a more effective role. Thirdly, long-term security
can only be guaranteed by the full implementation of
the Darfur Peace Agreement.
Last year the World Summit defined the
international community’s responsibility to protect
populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic
cleansing and crimes against humanity should national
authorities fail to do so. It would be a disgrace if this
major advance became an exercise in empty rhetoric.
The Government of Sudan has fundamental
responsibility for the safety of its own people. The
international community must find ways to persuade it
to live up to that responsibility, if need be including
further measures against it. We cannot indefinitely
stand by and watch with horror from the sidelines.
There can be no lasting development or security
without full respect for human rights. The human rights
of the most vulnerable are especially important. I
strongly welcome the recent conclusion of negotiations
on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities. The Human Rights Council must, in
developing its new ways of working, build on the
achievements of its predecessor. It must demonstrate
that it can provide strong leadership, particularly in
dealing effectively with grave human rights abuses.
The human rights situation in Burma/Myanmar remains
particularly grave. I again call on the regime to move
towards democracy and to release all political
prisoners, in particular Aung San Suu Kyi.
The centrality of the United Nations to
international peace and security is once again
underlined by the issues dominating the debate in the
Assembly. The question is not whether the United
Nations is relevant, but, rather, whether it can respond
effectively to all the situations which clamour for its
attention. The Peacebuilding Commission adds an
important new dimension. It must be properly
resourced, and Ireland is pleased to be contributing
€10 million to that fund.
The single greatest challenge to international
peace and security is the situation in the Middle East.
The dreadful events of recent months have again
brought before the eyes of the world the continuing
suffering being borne by the peoples of the region.
Frustration at the long agony of the Palestinian people
creates and sharpens wider divisions across the world.
A comprehensive settlement of the interrelated
problems of the region is more urgently required than
at any time in the past 60 years.
In Lebanon there are signs of hope, but there is
no room for complacency. Security Council resolution
1701 (2006) offers a path to a stable peace, and good
progress is being made in its implementation. European
countries in particular have responded well to the call
for contributions to the United Nations Interim Force
in Lebanon (UNIFIL) II. Ireland will very shortly be in
a position to offer its own contribution to that force.
But the conflict between the Israelis and the
Palestinians will continue to generate surges of conflict
across the region until it is resolved. Any illusion that
there can be a unilateral or a military solution has
surely been shattered. This is a conflict about the
sharing of space. The only solution lies in a negotiated
outcome. It is time for a major international effort to
launch serious negotiations for a settlement — the
establishment of two sovereign democratic States
living together in peace and security.
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But to achieve peace there must be partners for
peace. Ireland strongly supports the continuing efforts
of President Abbas to create a national unity
government committed to the peace process and
reflecting the Quartet principles. If he succeeds the
international community must be generous and creative
in response. Israel’s absolute right to exist in peace and
security should be unchallenged. But, not least in its
own interests, Israel must engage seriously and openly
with the Palestinians. It must cease all activities, in
particular the expansion of settlements, which are
against international law and which make a lasting
peace harder to attain.
Ireland shares the Secretary-General’s continuing
outrage at the failure of last year’s Summit to make
any reference to nuclear disarmament. It is simply folly
to let this issue languish. In the next review of the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
we must do better. Ireland will work with like-minded
partners to keep this issue on the agenda. Dr. Hans Blix
has already offered us a range of fresh and practical
ideas from which we can draw. The world is right to
insist on nuclear non-proliferation, but progress on
disarmament would make that insistence still more
compelling. Ireland, with its European partners, wants
to see a diplomatic solution to the issue of Iran’s
nuclear programme, and we call on Iran to respond
positively and rapidly to the wide-ranging proposals
that have been put to it. We equally support efforts to
renew the six-party talks on North Korea.
The world must also act to reduce the supply of
small arms and light weapons, which facilitate the
escalation of local tensions into all-out conflicts.
Ireland strongly supports the negotiation of an arms
trade treaty. The disturbing reports from Lebanon also
highlight the need for further restrictions on the use of
cluster bombs.
On behalf of my Government, I pay particular
tribute to Prime Minister Blair for his commitment and
dedication to the peace process in Northern Ireland. He
and my Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, have
devoted almost 10 years to driving it forward. Credit is
also due to the parties in Northern Ireland, who,
despite deep and abiding divisions reaching far back
into our history, are committed to addressing those
divisions purely within the political arena.
In Northern Ireland the word has finally replaced
the weapon as the way to resolve disputes. The
Northern Ireland peace process is now at an important
juncture. We have worked hard to implement the 1998
Good Friday Agreement, but its capstone, a sustained
power-sharing government, has for far too long proved
elusive. The British and Irish Governments are
demanding that the political parties there agree by
24 November this year to form such a government.
That deadline is real, reflecting our shared belief that
drift and uncertainty on the political front are not in the
interests of peace and reconciliation, and cannot be
sustained.
If the parties fail to agree, both Governments will
deepen their cooperation to deliver improvements in
peoples’ daily lives. But that is not our preferred
option. We want local politicians in Northern Ireland
taking responsibility for the issues that concern their
people. The conditions for a power-sharing government
have never been more favourable. It is what the people
want. Inevitably it will happen some time. But if it
does not happen in November the opportunity may not
come again for a considerable time.
The great Irish writer George Bernard Shaw once
said that making war was hard, but that making peace
was infinitely more arduous. Peacebuilding and
conflict resolution are ultimately about psychology —
addressing fears, perceptions and beliefs about the past
and about the future. A conflict does not begin when
the trigger is pulled; it begins in the heart and mind of
the person who pulls that trigger. We have learned this
at first hand in Ireland. We know the pain and
difficulty of dealing with the legacy of division. But
over the years we have learned some things about
building peace, encouraging reconciliation, improving
human rights and the rule of law and addressing social
and economic alienation.
Our own national experience reinforces what we
have learned at the United Nations and from our
development programme. That is why we have just
established in Ireland an Irish Conflict Analysis and
Resolution Support Unit. It will seek to harness our
experience and help to share it. It will work closely
with the Peacebuilding Commission. We do not
overestimate what we can do, nor do we underestimate
the difficulty of peacebuilding, but I genuinely believe
that our track record means that we can bring
something distinctive to the table. I would encourage
all countries represented here to find ways of sharing
their own experience and exchanging and enhancing
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our collective knowledge of how to prevent and resolve
conflict.
Since the establishment of the United Nations the
world has been spared a repeat of the catastrophic
global conflicts that made the first half of the twentieth
century the bloodiest era in human history. But the
challenges ahead of us remain grave and pressing.
When we met here last year we agreed an ambitious
agenda for the twenty-first century. We have made
progress since then, but there is still so much to do. We
must now focus on making our ambitions real.