I would first like
to congratulate Mr. Kutesa on his election to the
presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth
session.
In the opening sentences of our Charter, we read
that the United Nations was set up to save succeeding
generations from the scourge of war and to reaffirm
faith in fundamental human rights and in the equal
rights of nations large and small. In the year marking
the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World
War and the seventy-fifth of the start of the Second
World War, those words hold a particular resonance for
us — for Poles, Europeans and every society affected
by those tragedies. Both wars were waged partly on
Polish territory; the second began with Nazi Germany’s
aggression in collaboration with the Soviet Union. Our
past compels us to reflect on the Charter’s words and
those events of twentieth-century history, which form
the backdrop to our decision-making at the national
level, and similarly bind together the entire international
community gathered here at the United Nations.
One result of the First World War was to foster the
dream of a world without war. That belief and general
desire bore fruit in the League of Nations, the first
collective security system in history. It included all
the factors needed to make a positive mark on history
and to maintain peace and security. It functioned on
a foundation of important rules that prohibited war
and encouraged the peaceful settlement of disputes. It
had shared bodies, disarmament conferences and an
international judiciary.
Despite all those institutions, however, we were
unable to make a world without wars. The League
eventually became an easy target, if not an object of
ridicule. Yet it was not the League itself that failed. It
was failed by its members, and chiefly by the Powers
that had been entrusted with special responsibility for
implementing its principal task. They failed their test in
the face of the expansion of totalitarian regimes on both
the left and the right. The emergence of communism,
national socialism and many militaristic dictatorships
was in part due to the First World War. Those systems
fed on conflict, because ideological war and war against
other peoples — against other men — were part of their
identity.
Those threats could have been resisted in time,
but the democratic world failed, choosing a short-
sighted policy of appeasement and the satisfaction of
dictatorships’ appetites at the expense of weaker States.
The price paid for that negligence was the Second World
War, and the whole of humankind had to pay a price
that would once have been unimaginable. It is from
the horrible experience of that war, of the Holocaust,
that the legal notion of genocide stems. Its originator
and the author of the Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was a Polish
lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, who understood the criminal
nature of both kinds of totalitarianism even before the
war.
After the hecatombs of the war, the international
community decided once again to build a system of
collective security. I am glad that next year we will be
celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the foundation
of the United Nations. There are very few now who
remember the world without our Organization, and
it would be difficult to imagine the world without
its activity. During the nearly seven decades of its
existence, the United Nations has had a track record of
amazing achievements, but also many failures.
Today, however, the situation is especially
worrying, as symptoms of the problems that once
brought down the League of Nations are reappearing.
We are witnessing a rebirth of the super-Power, a return
to the thinking that divided the world into categories
of geopolitical zones of influence and that has already
led the international community into a morass of
hatred, confrontation and conflict. The United Nations
should remain vigilant in the face of a return to such
attitudes— it should tolerate no departure from the
principles of security and international relations laid
down in the Charter. Tolerance of such attitudes always
ends badly and not infrequently leads to catastrophe.
We cannot overemphasize that the occupation
of Crimea and the aggression in Ukraine violate
the standards of international law and trample on
the fundamental values of the United Nations. The
ideological background of the conflict is a return to
the rhetoric of the first half of the twentieth century,
a return to the logic of zones of influence, of might is
right, and of ruthless imperial domination of weaker
neighbours, which are apparently obliged to be obedient
satellites of a Power redesigning the foundations of the
civilized international order.
The Security Council, the organ responsible
for peace, proved to be ineffective when faced with
conflicts in Ukraine and other regions of the world,
partly due to its rules of operation. We are threatened
by a further descent into powerlessness if such rules are
not amended. It is salutary that the General Assembly
rose to the challenge when, in resolution 68/262, of
27 March 2014, it took the side of the weaker party that
was being targeted in an act of imperial aggression.
I feel all the more sad and concerned uttering
the foregoing words, since we are celebrating the
joyful twenty-fifth anniversary of the abolishment
of communism and the collapse of the Soviet bloc
in Poland, which is also being celebrated in other
countries of the region. That “spring of nations”, the
second in the history of Europe, brought freedom to
the nations of Central and Eastern Europe and respect
for human rights and good democratic governance. At
the time, changes for the better took place throughout
Europe, and even worldwide. The Iron Curtain fell and
so did the bipolar division of the world. The Cold War
confrontation and its accompanying threats of nuclear
conflict became things of the past.
That historical change began in Poland with the
establishment of the 10 million-strong Solidarity
movement, a peaceful opposition movement against
totalitarian oppression and the violation of nations’
rights. The victorious parliamentary elections of 4 June
brought about the formation, on 12 September 1989,
of the first non-Communist Government in our part of
Europe since the Second World War, the Government of
Tadeusz Mazowiecki.
Just two weeks later, on 25 September, precisely
25 years ago, the Minister for Foreign Affairs in that
new Government, Professor Krzysztof Skubiszewski,
addressed the Assembly from this very rostrum (see
A/44/PV.4) and proclaimed that the new Poland would
not respect the logic of zones of influence. He further
revealed that we would respect existing treaties and
obligations, as well as the security interests of other
States, and none of that would result in any limitations
with respect to choosing or changing the system of
polity.
That new logic of international relations has
been most beneficial for Europe, where a great wave
of unification has been set in motion thanks to the
strengthening of the mechanisms of integration of the
European Community and its expansion to include
many new States. In our region, the European Union
is a synonym for peace. It was established so that
there would be no more wars on a continent that had
previously been notorious for them. And indeed, the
European Union has become a significant force for
peace in Europe and far beyond its borders, to which
Poland has contributed in a highly active way.
We had the right to hope that the benefits of the end
of divisions in Europe and of the logic of imperial zones
of influence would be shared by a growing number of
States and nations — and not only in Europe — and that
they would be able to decide their fate democratically
and build their lives in peace and prosperity, free from
external domination. We have hoped and continue to
hope for a democratic modernization of Russia. But
what happened six months ago in Eastern Europe
dealt a blow to that hope and threatened security
on our European continent. In our part of Europe,
people are again asking themselves whether war as a
method of obtaining a political goal will also be the
long-term European reality. We cannot acquiesce to
the brutalization of international life anywhere in the
world — far less so in Europe, where the wounds of two
World Wars are still healing.
Yet wars and conflicts are also continuing in other
parts of our globe and are creating countless victims,
suffering and destruction. We have all been surprised
by the rapid development of the so-called Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The brutality of
the actions of its fighters, who are murdering and
persecuting people of every faith, including those who
profess Islam, must inspire terror and trigger a response
from the international community. ISIL’s barbarism is a
challenge for all of humankind, irrespective of religion,
ethnic origin or political viewpoint. We, the States
faithful to the United Nations Charter, cannot shirk our
responsibility for providing security. We are responsible
for protecting those threatened by cruel violence. Yet
everything must be done to ensure that the actions we
take do not contravene the United Nations Charter.
We express our concern and sympathy for the
civilian victims of the conflicts and tragedies in Syria,
Libya, Israel, the Gaza Strip and many African States.
All those conflicts, and to an even greater degree the
civil wars in some African countries, are accompanied
by humanitarian catastrophes. The United Nations,
and especially the super-Powers that can influence
the participating parties, should do everything to stop
them.
Nobody could ever take the place of the United
Nations and its agencies in providing aid to refugees
and other victims of humanitarian tragedies. On
behalf of Poland, I hereby express appreciation for
them. and recognition for the thousands of courageous
members of humanitarian organizations, United
Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations
who, amid all the dangers and frequently at the cost of
their own lives, hurry to the aid of those who suffer
persecution. They help those whose security and health
is threatened — those left alone, without a roof over
their heads, who are far away from homes to which,
due to destruction, many will never be able to return.
An ever-increasing number of people are experiencing
suffering and cruelty linked to military conflicts.
That horrifying trend must be stopped by our common
efforts.
The fact that, in so many places, we are witnessing
conflicts that entail human tragedy and the deaths
of thousands of people is due, as a general rule, to a
failure to observe fundamental human rights. Entire
communities and nations are denied influence over
political decisions. Power without control is, in most
cases, corrupt and self-loving, incapable of lifting
countries out of underdevelopment and poverty. That
is the background to the conflicts and rebellions in
Ukraine, Iraq, Libya and many other places in the world.
That is why we must increase our efforts to help by
offering development assistance to bring about social,
economic and political transformation. Otherwise, the
only alternative to dictatorship will be chaos.
Poland is especially attached to the role of
democracy in the life of nations, their development
and international activity. We know how much we lost
because of the absence of democracy under communism,
and we know how much we gained when we returned to
democracy as a means of achieving our civic aspirations
and an expression of our national sovereignty. It was
for that purpose that a broad international initiative by
the Community of Democracies was born in Warsaw in
2000. That is precisely why my country established the
international Lech Wa..sa Solidarity Award for activity
in support of democracy and fundamental freedoms.
Poland steadfastly believes that sustainable
development cannot be achieved without the rule of law
and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms for
all. We will strive to attain the appropriate inclusion of
those questions in the new United Nations development
agenda. Through our experiences over the past few
decades in our history, we have learned the importance
of solidarity, responsibility and involvement — the
triad of principles in the United Nations system we are
faithful to.
We fully acknowledge the involvement of the
United Nations in the improvement of the social and
economic situation in those regions of the world where
conditions are the most difficult. Poland actively
participates in the definition of the priorities and means
of implementation of the new development agenda that
will replace the Millennium Development Goals of
2000, and we will purposefully participate in making
it a reality. The new development agenda should fully
and coherently integrate the economic, social and
environmental dimensions of sustainable development,
while at the same time focusing on the reduction of
poverty and protection of the natural environment.
Reaching an international understanding on that
matter is a task that is as ambitious as it is difficult — yet
it is necessary and feasible. The output of the previous
Assembly session, worked on by the Open Working
Group on Sustainable Development Goals under
the highly efficient co-chairmanship of Kenya and
Hungary, defines the course of further discussion on
the matter. Poland will continue its active involvement
in a dialogue that should bring about the development of
a new, ambitious and universal post-2015 development
agenda.
It is vitally important to halt any further global
climate change caused by the development of human
civilization and to adjust to the changes that are already
irreversible. Here lurk existential issues pertaining
to security, the problems of economic development,
the maintenance of biological diversity in the Earth’s
ecosystem and quality of life. In its capacity as host
of the United Nations Climate Change Conference held
in Warsaw in November 2013, and as we still hold the
presidency of the Conference of the Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
Poland remains committed to achieving a successful
conclusion to the negotiations. We believe that it is
possible to achieve an understanding in a manner
that is fair to countries at various levels of economic
development. Agreement is possible, and I hope such
an understanding will be arrived at in the near future.
I would like to reiterate that, despite the hardships and
costs of economic transformation, Poland has decreased
its greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 30 per
cent since 1988 — that is, it has greatly exceeded the
reduction obligations stipulated in the Kyoto Protocol.
Poland is deeply involved in various fields of
activity covered by this Organization, ranging from
human rights to disarmament. That is why we know
perfectly well that nothing can replace the United
Nations system, which is continuously improvable.
Poland is currently assuming an increasing measure
of responsibility for cooperation in development,
humanitarian aid and climate protection. We are
ready to share our experience and our ideas as a
non-permanent member of the Security Council for the
period 2018-2019. We intend to support a reform of that
body that will increase its representative character and,
in parallel, reinforce its efficiency. The reform should
primarily concern the Council’s mandate in situations
involving the principle of the responsibility to protect,
which was approved by our community in 2005. The
idea must be to develop a mechanism that will provide
the Council with the capacity to act in such situations,
while at the same time making it impossible to use the
mandate of the Council for purposes other than the
discharge of that responsibility.
I have raised that idea from this rostrum twice
already. It should perhaps be combined with a broader
reform of the Council, the outlines of which were given
shape before the historic summit held in 2005. The
situation is unchanged from nearly 70 years ago — we
want to save succeeding generations from the scourge
of war and reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights
and the rights of nations, large and small.