Chile

First of all, Sir, I wish to express our pleasure at seeing the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Honduras — a country with which we have long-standing and well-established ties of friendship and with which we are currently working in the Security Council — preside over this meeting. I would also like through you to convey my Government's congratulations to Ambassador Razali Ismail on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-first session. This is a transitional period for the United Nations and is therefore not devoid of complexities and uncertainty. Yet we still have confidence in the ability of Member States and in the privileged forum provided by this Organization to develop new policies and management structures to deal with the gamut of emerging international problems. As this session of the General Assembly begins, we once again renew our commitment to the principles and purposes of the Charter, the living instrument essential to the future work of this Organization. The United Nations is an Organization which, through its nature, principles and objectives, transcends any individual or national interests to represent, instead, the interests of all. Not even those who criticize the United Nations in the hopes that they can weaken it or shrink its role have ever been able to propose any better way for us to come together to address the major problems of an increasingly interdependent world. That is why we are convinced that, far from becoming weaker, this Organization will be called upon to play an increasingly important role in this new era of globalization, in which cooperation is the only possible option for a true international order. International peace and security, free trade, social development based on growth with equity, environmental protection, democracy and human rights are the basic components of the future work of our multilateral system. These are the areas of action of our Organization to which Chile attaches the highest priority and in which we will try, within our means to make our greatest contribution. It has often been said that the end of the super-Power confrontation that characterized the first 50 years of the life of this Organization makes it easier than ever to shape the conditions for peace and stability. And yet, the challenges of bipolar confrontation have been replaced by new ones posed by the emergence of numerous local conflicts. These are often characterized by mass violations of human rights, uncontrolled population flows and humanitarian emergencies that threaten the security of individuals and States and eventually may affect the international system as a whole. Our participation in the work of the Security Council is aimed at contributing our fair share to the maintenance of international peace and security. We encourage preventive diplomacy, consensus solutions, the implementation of measures to contain conflicts, the promotion of peaceful solutions through peace-keeping operations, conciliation, good offices and, in particular, the protection of affected populations and victims. At the same time, it is indisputable that peace and security are not simply the absence of tensions and conflict between States. Harmony between people within the same border has now become a fundamental factor in international peace and security. Chile has suggested that the Security Council should act in cases where there is a real or potential risk of mass and systematic violations to which the international community has reacted strongly and when earlier mechanisms or bodies trying to resolve the problem have been exhausted. Recent measures adopted by the Council, such as resolution 688 (1991) on protecting the Kurdish minority, 770 (1992) on providing assistance to victims of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resolution 986 (1995) on alleviating the burden of sanctions on the civilian Iraqi population, are a few examples of a broader and more progressive interpretation of what constitutes a threat to peace and establish valuable precedents for helping the Security Council to deal with these kinds of conflict. These criteria also guided us in our active participation on the question of Burundi, which led to the adoption of resolution 1072 (1996) establishing procedures for the various parties to the conflict to be able to agree on a political path to a peaceful resolution of their differences. We must continue to pay close attention to developments in this situation. The international community, the United Nations and the Security Council cannot risk another tragedy like that of Rwanda and must exhaust all possible means of averting such a tragedy. Today we would also like to express our great concern at the serious crisis that has arisen in the last few 6 General Assembly 11th plenary meeting Fifty-first session 26 September 1996 hours affecting the peace process in the Middle East, a process we have supported from the outset. We urge the parties to the conflict not to waste what has been built up in the last few years and to resume dialogue within the context of respect for agreements reached and for the beliefs of the peoples involved. Establishing stability requires clear commitment to disarmament and arms control and limitation. My country has played an active role in this area, as shown in the recent ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, membership in the Conference on Disarmament, which Chile had long aspired to, ratification of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and our unstinting support for nuclear-weapon-free zones. Last Tuesday, 24 September 1996, I had the honour to sign on behalf of my country the Comprehensive Nuclear- Test-Ban Treaty. Just one year ago, this Assembly was discussing the nuclear-weapon tests still being conducted in the South Pacific and Asia. Today we are meeting to sign a Treaty that eliminates those tests once and for all and is the combined effort of almost all the countries in this Assembly, including all the present nuclear-weapon States. When the United Nations is criticized for its alleged inefficiency I think we should also vaunt our successes. These initiatives, along with progress in the area of conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction, help to create the right conditions for peace and security and enable the international community to concentrate its efforts and material resources on the development of nations and environmental protection. Peacekeeping operations are one of the most important instruments of this system. Peacekeeping forces have to strive for results in the framework of clear and well-defined and legitimate mandates. Chile has participated in peacekeeping operations in India, Pakistan, the Middle East, Cambodia and Kuwait, and we are currently taking part in the activities of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in Iraq. However, there is no doubt that this mechanism needs to be tailored to dealing with current political circumstances. To this end, Chile is active in deliberations on how to improve planning and rapid-reaction capacity to deal with incipient conflicts. In all these aspects, a multilateral approach, action that enjoys the consent of the parties and financing through the Organization all help to ensure success in our work. We hope to increase significantly our contribution to operations such as the ones I have just described. A broad understanding of the maintenance of international peace and security requires decisive action in the area of social development, democracy and the promotion of human rights. The world order of the next century will need broader basic freedoms. The global society of the next century is appearing as an open, heterogenous one, rich in material potential and new developments. What is needed now is to create conditions to enable people and States to make the most of this new setting, with increased access to the goods that are the fruit of rapid technological development. In this respect, the six recent world conferences and summits on the environment and development, human rights, population and development, women, social development and, most recently, human settlements, have all been geared towards promoting protection of the individual and gradually creating a framework for social rights. One tangible result of these meetings, in the social area, was the emergence of national coordinating bodies to implement the agreements signed. But these efforts are not enough, given the tragic reality of most of the less developed peoples, which means that the United Nations system must play an ever stronger role in the international social area. We must speed up the process of implementation within the context of the United Nations and of the agreements that emerged from Rio de Janeiro, Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing and Istanbul. The first steps have now been taken within the various bodies of the system, particularly in the Economic and Social Council and its functional commissions. It is encouraging that the Economic and Social Council bodies dealing with sustainable development, women, social development and population have adopted multi-year agendas as a follow-up to the conferences. Similarly, the agreements reached at the World Summit for Social Development include the decision to hold a special session of this Assembly in the year 2000 to assess the implementation of the agreements. In this connection, Chile wishes to propose the establishment of a working group of this Assembly that, with that special session as its basis, can provide follow- up to the six conferences, taking into account the Agenda for Development, so that in the year 2000 the General 7 General Assembly 11th plenary meeting Fifty-first session 26 September 1996 Assembly can take up a very wide-ranging and coordinated assessment of the implementation of the commitments of the 1990s and make the necessary recommendations for future work. In recent years Latin America has taken major steps forward with regard to free trade. This Assembly has already heard about progress in the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR), Chile's recent accession to that agreement and MERCOSUR’s decision to negotiate similar agreements with the Andean Group and Mexico. Taken alongside the progress made by other subregional groups, such as the Central America Common Market (CACM) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), these achievements all go to show the new impetus in Latin America for integration based on economic ideas that differ from those of the past but that remain true to the political will for unity that has always existed among our peoples. However, none of these regional developments in which Chile has been very active constitutes an alternative to multilateralism. Chile continues to believe that a multilateral system to establish standards and practices to ensure free trade throughout the world, with clear institutional machinery for negotiations and dispute settlement, is the best option for the global economy and for each of our countries. For this reason we have always insisted that our negotiations fit into the multilateral framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Latin America wants to be integrated so that it can become more of a part of the global economy, not cut off from it. Our bilateral and regional agreements are based on open regionalism. The best proof that this is being put into practice is that during this period of increased integration, external tariffs in the countries of our region have also fallen considerably, compared with those of the rest of the world. One of the most promising developments of recent years has been the strengthening of the multilateral trade system through the establishment of the WTO. The existence of a standing multilateral forum means that more energy can be devoted to implementing the agreements reached and provides an institutional framework for continuous progress in negotiations and for opening up world trade. In this connection, Chile attaches great importance to the follow-up meeting to the Uruguay Round, to be held in Singapore in December 1996. This, the first biannual meeting in the framework of the WTO, will be crucial in determining how effective the new mechanism is. In the last few years many regions and countries in the world have made major progress towards broadening and consolidating democracy and respect for human rights. Latin America in particular has been experiencing a rapid movement towards democracy that is unprecedented in its history. This is accompanied by a considerable increase in political dialogue and regional coordination, evident mainly in the Rio Group, which has been active and fruitful for 10 years now. Far from making us complacent, this emphasizes our concern that in many parts of the world there are still situations of massive violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sometimes these situations relate to the peace and security problems we mentioned earlier. As democracies develop, the support given them by the people depends more and more on their ability to ensure stable, efficient and transparent governments. The legitimacy of democratic governments is closely related to their accountability, but in many countries there is still corruption, inefficiency and insensitivity to social needs. This erodes the legitimacy of democracy and highlights its fragility. The Government of our President, Eduardo Frei, has made democratic governance the main subject of the sixth summit of Ibero-American Heads of State and Government, to be held in Chile in November 1996. To this end, we have enjoyed the valuable cooperation of the United Nations, through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). We hope that our Organization's work in this area will spread to other regions in coming years. One of the most dramatic changes for mankind in the last few decades has been our awareness that nature is fragile in the hands of man. There is a vulnerability in nature we had not suspected until we saw the damage done, much of it irreparable. And so there is a new dimension to human responsibility to nature. The possibility of altering life on our planet for the worse means that our unbounded scientific and technological power must be accompanied by a new principle: and that is the idea of shared responsibility. The work facing us is hard, but the path was already laid out in 1992 at the Conference on Environment and 8 General Assembly 11th plenary meeting Fifty-first session 26 September 1996 Development. In Rio de Janeiro there was agreement on fundamental aspects. On the basis of the consensus, and the commitments reached there, my country is prepared to proceed. Since that Earth Summit, Chile has further developed its environmental legislation. We have embraced the principles of the Rio Declaration that we consider fundamental, such as preventing environmental pollution, cooperation and the primary responsibility of the polluter. The State has accepted its obligation to adopt the most suitable instruments for preventive environmental management. But we also believe that society must be given a leading role in protecting the environment, and to this end various social actors must be more committed and more responsible. My Government thinks it is also important to stress the political commitment of the world community to this issue that is by nature international and in many respects global. Hence, we attach great importance to the functioning of the bodies set up and to the monitoring of the agreements reached at the Earth Summit. Developments in the international arena, the increasing diversity of issues to be taken up and the number of actors involved in the United Nations — all of this revitalizing the reform process of our Organization essential in order to adapt it to emerging realities and challenges. Integrated and multidisciplinary focus must be given preference in dealing with these problems. This constitutes the conceptual framework of the Organization and a basis for the urgently needed process of reform. This requires a very thorough analysis of the content of our multilateral work, of the Organization's agenda, of the functioning of intergovernmental bodies, of our human and financial resources and of the structure of the Secretariat. By doing all that, we can carry out reforms that are more than rhetoric, that will enable us to take up the challenges of the next century with policies and organizations adapted to the new reality. Chile wishes to reiterate its appreciation for the work being done by the Secretary-General in this area. In difficult budgetary circumstances and facing a very difficult political situation, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali has decisively begun, within his purview, the process of reforming the Organization. We welcome all initiatives that can enhance the efficiency of our Organization, reduce its bureaucratic excesses or alleviate its financial problems. But we believe that United Nations reform should not be mistakenly identified with one single issue of administration or budgetary efficiency. There is quite a contradiction between saying that we need an Organization adapted to the new challenges and focused on the next century, and then reducing the practical debate simply to cost-cutting and better control of resources. We have to enhance administrative efficiency, but we must also appreciate substantive effectiveness. Our objective should be to strengthen the Organization as well as to streamline it. Before concluding, I cannot fail to mention a question of reform on this year's agenda that is more urgent than it was in previous years. The plethora of decisions taken by the Security Council has resulted in a growing desire on the part of the other Members of the United Nations to be more involved in Council decisions, so as to strengthen its legitimacy and the political support for its actions. Improving the working methods of the Security Council has opened up additional ways of enhancing its credibility. There has been progress, but much remains to be done, particularly in connection with consultations with countries that contribute troops to peacekeeping operations, consultations with countries neighbouring a conflict area that might be affected, and third States that are negatively affected by the application of sanctions. A second determining factor of legitimacy and political support for Council decisions relates to its membership. In this connection, Chile believes it essential to resolve once and for all the problems of increasing the membership of the Security Council, which have concerned the Assembly since 1992. We think there is a broad base of agreement for allowing Germany and Japan to become permanent members of the Council, and at the same time for giving developing countries one permanent seat per region, the occupants of which would be elected at the regional level. Also, in order to meet the need for representativity, given the great increase in membership of the United Nations in the last decade, the number of non-permanent seats should be increased from 10 to 15, with appropriate equitable geographical distribution. A membership of twenty-five members would not undermine the effectiveness of the Security Council but would enhance the representativity of its actions. However, we wish to emphasize that Chile is willing to act with maximum flexibility here. This means we are willing to consider other proposals by other Member States that also seek to combine the two fundamental elements that should guide our decision: recognition of the new international realities and a legitimate desire for representativity in the principal bodies of our system. We wished to touch upon those issues that, in Chile’s view, will be the Organization’s main tasks in the years to come, with a view to establishing the framework of stability and legitimacy necessary to achieve United Nations objectives. Chile commits its firm support to this difficult understanding, which will be attainable with the will and participation of all members of the international community.