On behalf of
the Government and the people of the Republic of San
Marino, I wish to congratulate Her Excellency Haya
Rashed Al-Khalifa on her election as President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-first session. I am
confident that her abilities and expertise will be key to
the success of this session. Along with my satisfaction
on the election to such a high position of a woman after
so many years, I add my best wishes.
I also wish to thank the outgoing President,
Mr. Jan Eliasson, for his valuable work and total
commitment and resolve in implementing the reform
programme started by the Secretary-General.
The Republic of San Marino firmly believes that
the role of the United Nations needs strengthening in
order to enable the Organization to operate as
efficiently as possible and with optimal coordination
among its bodies. With special reference to the General
Assembly, the most important decision-making body of
the United Nations, San Marino believes that it should
focus more closely on the actual implementation of its
resolutions and create mechanisms to make its
decisions more binding.
For the small and medium-sized countries that
represent the majority of the Member States, the
revitalization of the General Assembly — the main and
sometimes only forum in which they can make their
voice heard — is essential. Indeed, the General
Assembly is the organ that fully implements the
principles of democracy and equal representation upon
which this Organization is founded.
There is no doubt that Security Council reform is
the other major objective of the United Nations. San
Marino believes that it is necessary to resume dialogue.
In our opinion, the new Security Council should be
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founded upon a flexible base so that it can adjust
appropriately to future changes. The enlargement and
democratization of the Council can only improve peace
processes and thereby the defence of the weakest
Member States.
San Marino also expresses its deep satisfaction
with the new Human Rights Council, which is already
fully operational. We hope that there will be a clear
division of tasks between the Human Rights Council
and the General Assembly in order to avoid duplication
and ensure complementarity and efficiency in a
balanced relationship and mutual independence.
San Marino followed with great interest the
intense negotiations leading to the adoption on 30 June
of the resolution on the follow-up to the 2005 World
Summit, including the Millennium Development
Goals, and fully endorses the call of the President of
the Assembly to focus attention at this general debate
on setting up a global partnership for development.
That goal is a fundamental step towards the eradication
of poverty and the achievement of the other
Millennium Goals. To do so, however, cooperation at
all levels is essential and San Marino is ready to make
its own concrete contribution.
The development goals are also the key points of
the programme that San Marino will present when it
assumes the chairmanship of the Committee of
Ministers of the Council of Europe in mid-November.
During its chairmanship, which is extremely important
to the Republic, San Marino will also address other
global issues, such as intercultural and interreligious
dialogue.
The Republic of San Marino, in line with its
centuries-old history of peace, democracy and freedom,
is particularly sensitive to the need, in today’s
international context characterized by growing tensions
and violent contrasts, to promote dialogue among
cultures and religions based on respect for diversity
and universally recognized human rights.
In that regard, I wish to reiterate the
determination of the Government and institutions of
San Marino to guarantee all possible support to the
international community for the achievement of those
objectives. It is in that spirit that my country has
consistently demonstrated its solidarity with the most
disadvantaged people and circumstances and has
acceded to legal instruments particularly important to
the promotion and achievement of international
cooperation in the search for dialogue and the
affirmation of the principles of tolerance and
understanding. Thus, intercultural and interreligious
dialogue constitutes the basis of any peace process and
the most powerful tool to reject all forms of extremism,
which unfortunately, as we know, often turns into
terrorism.
During our chairmanship of the Committee of
Ministers, to begin in November, I will seek to
organize a meeting with the Assembly on that
important subject.
In that context, we cannot but think of the Middle
East, in particular the situation in Lebanon, where the
United Nations is committed to a new difficult peace
mission, which we sincerely hope will have a
successful outcome. Only a year ago, San Marino
expressed from this rostrum its confidence and hope in
the peace process and in the good will of the parties
involved in the protracted conflict. After a series of
violent attacks, mostly against civilians and innocent
people, as always, the only achievement so far has
been an unstable ceasefire. To help alleviate that
suffering, San Marino has decided, in line with its
centuries-old tradition of solidarity, to offer a special
contribution for humanitarian aid in Lebanon.
San Marino has welcomed with great satisfaction
the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission as
the ideal institutional response to post-conflict
situations. The history of my country is deeply rooted
in the values of peaceful coexistence among all
peoples, and the newly elected Government has
decided to include in its programme, for the first time,
a specific mandate for peace. The objective is to
promote, also in collaboration with volunteer
associations and by supporting international
cooperation, any useful initiative to affirm and
safeguard that important objective.
Therefore, the institutions of San Marino, in
response to the United Nations appeal, decided to
celebrate the International Day of Peace on
21 September. That occasion was also marked by the
opening of a public subscription to raise funds for the
victims of conflicts to be devolved to the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
My country will guarantee its active support for
the Pan-European Campaign on Violence against
Women, in particular domestic violence, which will be
launched during San Marino’s chairmanship of the
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Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, in
parallel with the celebration of the International Day
for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Moreover, it will strongly support the development of
the Council of Europe programme “Building a Europe
for and with Children”.
Another particularly important occasion will be
the participation of San Marino in the United Nations
Global Youth Leadership Summit, which will examine
the contribution of young people to the achievement of
the Millennium Development Goals, with particular
reference to sport, development and peace, and will
provide the youth organizations with the necessary
guidelines for future action.
San Marino greatly appreciates the successful
outcome of the work of the group established to draft
an international convention on the protection of
persons with disabilities. Indeed, my country is
becoming increasingly aware of and attentive to the
problems and rights of disabled people. In this regard,
only two weeks ago, the San Marino Parliament
approved an agenda inviting the Government to sign
and ratify the Convention as soon as possible and to
take measures in support of the principles contained
therein.
Let me underscore how, despite all the difficulties
and divisions, the United Nations still demonstrates its
ability to put in place all initiatives and activities
which are at the core of its very existence. It is,
therefore, a duty for all States to keep alive the flame
of ideals and the determination that constitute the
foundations of the Organization’s identity and, at the
same time, the crucial point of reference for all of our
actions, both at the national level and also in terms of
international cooperation.
Prompted by this conviction, and strongly
committed to guaranteeing a constant and constructive
contribution, we would like to express our best wishes
to the President, to the Secretary-General — to whom
we reiterate our most sincere appreciation and highest
esteem for his dedicated commitment during these
years at the helm of the United Nations — and to all
colleagues and representatives who share the same
conviction.