Madam President, I bring to you the greeting of the
people and Government of the Eastern Republic of
Uruguay to this Assembly. This Assembly is the
broadest and most representative and important forum
in the world today.
Madam President, may I express my personal
satisfaction at seeing you exercise such an important
function and I am sure that as a woman you will be
able to add to the office an additional share of
moderation and restraint.
In Uruguay, like the United Nations, we feel that
it is very important to preach by example. That is why
the Government I represent has also assumed, among
its many tasks, that of elevating the status of women
and increasing their participation in various areas.
Likewise, I am very happy to bring to you a
special message from the President of Uruguay,
Mr. Tabaré Vásquez, for the Secretary-General,
Mr. Kofi Annan, to thank him for his unrelenting
efforts to drive the immense process of reforming the
Organization. My country and the other Members of
this house are fully committed to this reform.
On the occasion of the sixteenth Ibero-American
Summit that will take place in Uruguay, the countries
of the conference will express to the Secretary-General
their thanks for his outstanding work. I would also like
to say that the main subject of the Summit will be
migration and development. Recently, we had a very
constructive high-level dialogue on this subject in this
house.
A year ago, during the sixtieth session of this
forum, the President of our country said that the
commitment of Uruguay to the United Nations
Organization is both demanding and hopeful.
Our commitment is demanding because of the
challenges that the current world faces and because of
the opportunities implicit in the present, upon the
management of which our future depends.
Our commitment is hopeful. Although we realize
that there are difficulties and limitations on the
international scene and at the regional and national
levels, we believe in human beings, we believe in
society, we believe in democracy as a common house
and in freedom as the mother tongue of humanity.
The Eastern Republic of Uruguay reaffirms the
principles that characterize our foreign policy, namely,
our commitment to peace, sovereignty, democracy and
solidarity; a firm rejection of all types of terrorism,
violence and discrimination; the inalienable right of
countries to have stable and secure borders and to fully
exercise their sovereignty and self-determination; the
respect for international law as a guarantee of
sovereignty of peoples and their peaceful cohabitation;
non-intervention in the internal affairs of States;
multilateralism as a way of strengthening international
law and as a way to organize the role of the United
Nations; and the recognition of the indivisibility of all
human rights, be they political, social, economic, civil
or cultural, including collective rights, such as the right
to development and the environment. Consequently,
our country feels that progress in reforming the
Organization must be achieved and we are making our
contribution to that process, which will enable the
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United Nations to fulfil its tasks with greater
effectiveness.
Greater effectiveness should also be sought by
the important recently created bodies, the Human
Rights Council and the Peacebuilding Commission.
Uruguay is already actively participating in the Human
Rights Council and we hope to join the organizing
committee of the Peacebuilding Commission.
As a country that is a major contributor of troops
and in support of the goal of peacekeeping, we have
participated in peacekeeping missions since the
creation of this Organization. The most recent example
of this our active undertaking and participation in the
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
(MINUSTAH), which is an essential mechanism for
securing a lasting peace and for restoring the social
fabric of a dear Latin American nation.
Likewise, Uruguay would like to renew its active
commitment to the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) as agreed to by the Heads of State and
Government. When I say “active”, I say this as a
reflection of how much progress has been made
towards the goals set forth in the agreement signed in
September 2005.
I cannot refer now to each of these goals at this
time, but one of the main goals is “the eradication of
extreme poverty and hunger”. In Uruguay, by means of
the interaction of various governmental programmes,
we have implemented an emergency social plan that
deals with the most basic needs of those in extreme
poverty.
Poverty has begun to decrease, dropping from
32.6 per cent of the recorded population in 2004 to
29.8 per cent at the end of 2005. We feel that this is
still not sufficient, but it is progress, not only in terms
of social protection, but also in terms of social
integration.
This is so because the great problems that have
produced poverty in our country, as in other countries,
are not just hunger, the lack of housing, illiteracy,
academic failure or teenage pregnancies, but also
discrimination, stigmatization, insecurity and despair,
indeed, situations that indicate being integrated in
society is much more than subsisting.
Social integration is essential, too, because the
right to participate in social life also involves
recognizing individuals as active citizens and not just
as people who need to be helped.
And social integration is key, because the right
that our citizens are asking for — all of them, even the
poorest — is not just the right to live, but also the right
to be recognized as individuals and the right to live
together in society. This is called democracy and
citizenship.
Allow me from this important podium and on
behalf of the Government I represent to refer to three
matters of particular importance for our country. One
of them has to do with the facts of the recent past.
There can be no future without memory, no freedom
without justice. That is why, within the framework of
legislation in force, Uruguay is taking concrete steps to
heal the wounds caused by the violation of human
rights during the dictatorship that ruled the country
between 1973 and 1985. It has been difficult work and
it is also very difficult to learn and accept the truth, but
it does strengthen democracy as a form of Government
and condition in society. Moreover, truth and justice
help to ensure that the horrors of the past are never
repeated.
I am very happy to inform this General Assembly
that my country has taken one further step in the
promotion and defence of human rights. The
Uruguayan parliament has just unanimously approved a
bill on genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes
and cooperation with the International Criminal Court.
Another subject that relates to the current
situation and the future is climate change and the
degradation of the environment. Uruguay is a party to
the main international conventions in this area and,
while stressing the indispensable international
cooperation on this subject, we do particularly stress,
once again, the individual responsibility of each State
to actively protect the environment in its territory and
waters and to make the vigilant participation of civil
society a high priority.
It is not enough to simply protest pernicious
transfers of polluting industrial processes. It is
incumbent upon the State to act firmly to be vigilant
and monitor and to impose high environmental
standards on foreign and domestic companies.
Uruguay receives significant investment for
industrial development on its territory, but we have
very strict controls on the environmental aspects of
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those investments and we apply an internationally
recognized standard that reflects our motto “Natural
Uruguay”. We require the use of the most modern
technologies available, and we monitor effectively, on
the ground, the environmental effects of such ventures.
The Government of Uruguay reiterates its
commitment to the protection of the environment in all
parts of the world as a human right and as the
cornerstone for achieving true sustainable
development. In this sense, Uruguay calls upon the
international community, and particularly the donor
countries, to increase their cooperation in the area of
the environment for developing countries and assume
in a responsible manner global environmental goals
that involve shared but differentiated responsibilities
for everyone.
Finally, I would like to address our commitment
to the strengthening of the multilateral trading system
and the need to bring the Doha Development Round to
a successful conclusion, in order to ensure that the
development dimension is reflected in specific results
and not just programmatic measures. For that, it is
important to resume, as soon as possible, the
negotiations in Geneva, always bearing in mind that we
will not achieve satisfactory results without the
elimination of agricultural subsidies, in the form of
exports that receive internal support and the significant
opening up of access to markets, particularly in the
developed countries.
Everyone here in this Hall knows that there is no
peace in intolerance and terrorism, and there is no
freedom in poverty, nor democracy in inequality. We
reaffirm our conviction that these threats can only be
overcome if we join our efforts together and fully
appreciate the wealth of our own cultural diversity,
both among nations as well as within our respective
nations.
Among nations, we must rely on the respect of
our traditions and cultures and a broad-based dialogue
among them in order to find useful synergies. And
within each of our countries, we must rely on active
policies promoting social cohesion that embrace our
very cultural, ethnic and religious diversities. We have
to move from words to acts, from declarations to
action. This is not easy, but it is essential.
We are not starting from zero. The brief history of
this Organization is testament to that.
But we still have a lot of work to do. It is a large
task which, honestly, will never end and the results will
never be perfect.
But these zones of continuity and imperfection
establish the ideals that call on us to act and the
commitments that drive us forward.
If this sixty-first session of the General Assembly
of the United Nations is able to help us in this task, it
will have fulfilled its mission.