Mexico

The United Nations has embarked on an irreversible process of profound transformation. Efficiency and flexibility will be the defining features of this process. But an effective United Nations must continue to be in the service of peace and development. The United Nations of the next century must not be a mechanism, however efficient, for balancing the interests of the most powerful. The Organization must move ahead as the world’s primary instrument for promoting development and solidarity among nations and among men. Our Organization is first and foremost a body of sovereign nations. It does not and cannot have any other will than that expressed here by Member States. The drastic increase in the number of Members over the last four years, something that had not been seen since the days of 18 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session decolonization, underscores this characteristic and is also proof of the confidence that we States place in the United Nations. This community of nations now wishes to internationalize certain issues which in earlier times fell exclusively within the internal jurisdiction of States. Mexico, as a country aware of its international responsibilities, is acting within the requirements of the new consensuses. But we must repeat time and again that we reject the idea of international action developing to the detriment of national sovereignty. All the peoples represented here must participate in forging the Organization of the future. Mexico sees in any reforms a historic opportunity to strengthen the democratic life of this Organization. The question of equitable representation in the Security Council plays a central role in the reform of our Organization. There is a consensus on the need to increase the number of seats in the Council. Whereas in 1945 there were 51 Members of the United Nations, today there are 184 of us. For this reason, we should perhaps try, at the very least, to double the number of seats in the Council. But simply increasing the membership would not be enough. The restructuring of the Council must take into account, first of all, the fact that the Council lacks authority of its own. It acts by the mandate of those of us who have decided, as sovereign States, to delegate our authority to it for the delicate task of maintaining world peace. The question of the Council’s composition must be addressed having regard to the overriding need to guarantee the legitimacy and transparency of the Council’s actions. Those who make the greatest contributions to the maintenance of peace, not necessarily those who are the largest producers and exporters of the world’s weapons, should be members of the Council. Carrying out peace- keeping operations is not simply a question of placing military contingents at the Council’s disposition. We must recognize the efforts of all those countries which have brought about the peaceful settlement of international disputes. The recent frequent recourse to the Security Council has tended to hide the fact that our first obligation is to resolve differences by peaceful means. A representative body must be democratic. The right of veto is not democratic, and therefore Mexico has never supported it. Together, we must seek new ways to control the exercise of that right and ensure that no permanent member alone can decide or obstruct the Council’s action. Transparency in the working methods of the Council will restore to the General Assembly the primacy derived from its universality and pluralism. We propose that a General Assembly working group be established to make recommendations on all aspects of the Security Council’s reform. In recent years peace-keeping operations have increased considerably. This shows that the world has not yet managed to resolve its most pressing problems. Nationalisms persist. Xenophobia and racism are on the rise. Extreme poverty has increased. Mexico sees peace-keeping operations as an excellent instrument for containing the effects of conflict situations. Such operations exist to create the conditions for a political solution to be reached by peaceful means. They are an opportunity for peace, but they are not peace itself. Before the Security Council decides to set up a peace- keeping operation, all parties to the conflict must have given their consent. Only in this way can we guarantee the inviolability of the sovereign rights of States and respect for their internal jurisdiction. A clear mandate is also indispensable. Precisely because their functions have become diversified, the Blue Helmets must have clearly delimited fields of activity. My Government is concerned that the scope of activity of the members of those forces can be widened in situ, and that their areas of competence are confused with other collective actions based on the enforcement measures outlined in Chapter VII of the Charter. In Somalia United Nations forces should only ensure that the international humanitarian aid reaches its intended beneficiaries. The international community’s support for peace-keeping operations and humanitarian relief depends on their impartiality and transparency. Mexico makes an urgent appeal to Member States immediately to lay down parameters regulating all aspects of the establishment and functioning of peace-keeping operations. No force can replace political will in finding solutions to international conflicts. This is demonstrated by the Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 19 agreement between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the State of Israel regarding autonomy for the occupied territories. Mexico congratulates both the parties involved, as well as those who assisted them in this great success of political intelligence, of concertation and respect for the rights of the other side. Weapons are yielding to the rule of reason. The self-determination of peoples and the right of every State to live within secure and recognized boundaries - principles to which Mexico has always subscribed - are beginning to gain strength in the Middle East. In contrast to the signs of hope we are seeing in the Middle East, the failure of the efforts to bring peace to the former Yugoslavia is clear. Peace plans come and go, but there has been no end to the killing and suffering of innocent people. Mexico urges all the parties to the conflict to agree on concrete confidence-building measures which will allow the conditions for a broad, lasting agreement to be created. Mexico welcomes the recent decision by the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Russia unilaterally to extend the moratorium on nuclear testing. This decision will make it possible for the Conference on Disarmament finally to begin negotiations to ratify a treaty completely banning these tests. We hope that all the nuclear Powers, including China, will join the moratorium. This historic decision, inspired and encouraged from the beginning by my country, will be a vital step in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Mexico stresses the priority of the negotiations, both on their own merits and because of the effect they will have on the next Non- Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which will determine the future of this important international instrument. For Mexico, the complete cessation of nuclear tests is inextricably linked to the fate of the non-proliferation regime. The community of nations must now confront another danger: drugs. Now the largest illegal business in history, they are putting an end to human lives, corrupting the forces of order and harming political institutions, and they can even affect the stability of States. We cannot question the merit of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, an instrument which has served to guide State policies and coordinate international cooperation. Certain local and national battles have been won as a result of them. But the war has not been won, and it is now a world war. In view of the uncontrollable spread throughout the world of the dirty business of drugs, of their consumption, production and traffic, and all the related illegal activities, we must give thought to the ineffectiveness of the strategies we have followed, and we must adopt a new course. We must intensify our political determination, imagination and strategic creativity and, above all, international cooperation in which there is respect for sovereignty and no one claims preeminence, in order to stop the growth of this terrible social cancer. Another central issue of our times is the great migratory currents which are developing with renewed vigour as the century draws to a close. The great international migrations are a result of the polarization of wealth and well-being. They are a problem which affects the entire world, exceeding the capacity for action of individual States. We need new plans for international cooperation to seek solutions to the most distressing problems relating to economic underdevelopment. Every wave of migration throughout history has its own explanations, and the explanations are not necessarily related. However, they always include the search for a better life. Changes in the world’s structure are both a brake on migration and an encouragement. In 1989, 1 per cent of the world’s population - more than 50 million people - lived outside their country of origin. In 1992, only three years later, this figure had doubled. At the beginning of the 1990s, the number of refugees in the world had reached 17 million. Those countries which, because of their economic development and social peace, seem to be able to accept new groups of migrants are today undergoing internal conflicts at times expressed through manifestations of ethnic and religious intolerance. During this period of difficult transition towards a new ordering of power and balance in the world, internal tensions, protectionist tendencies, the global recession and the disintegration of numerous States have combined to make certain countries perceive the phenomenon of migration as a threat to their national security. Let us keep this phenomenon from overwhelming us by adopting restrictive measures that are only superficial palliatives. Mexico proposes that the Assembly begin serious thought on this subject as soon as possible. 20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session The national plans of any State must be based on policies which make it possible for the inhabitants to live in a dignified manner in their own country. Only in this way can we ensure that whole peoples will not try to leave in search of better economic opportunities. Extreme poverty has increased in all areas of the world. For as long as the richest one fifth of the world’s population represents 83 per cent of total income, we will have failed in our efforts at economic cooperation. The countries of Latin America and those of Central and Eastern Europe have made special efforts to make internal adjustments to bring about economic reforms that would have been hard even to imagine a few years ago. The problem of critical poverty, however, cannot be left to the whim of market forces. In Mexico the State has not abdicated its social responsibility. Indeed, we have strengthened our development policies based on solidarity. President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has said, time and time again, that in order to consolidate any programme of adjustment and economic stability, the promotion of social programmes is indispensable. He has also stressed that the expansion, modernization and proper orientation of educational programmes was the only way, in the long term, to increase productivity and raise the living standards of the people. The convening of the World Summit for Social Development in 1995 shows that the United Nations has acknowledged the priority nature of this item on the international agenda. Mexico is already participating with enthusiasm in preparations for this important event. In the course of this year the World Conference on Human Rights was held at Vienna. The agreements reached must lead to a strengthening of already existing legal instruments. The community of States participating in the Conference expressed their political determination to implement these agreements in a non-selective manner, with objectivity and respect for universality. This is a fundamental aspect of the protection and promotion of human rights throughout the world. Mexico would repeat before the Assembly that full respect for human rights requires us to direct our efforts towards the weakest groups: those that live in conditions of poverty, refugees, ethnic minorities, and all those people in need of respect for their way of life and their culture. Mexico’s total trade with the United States of America and Canada is equivalent to 20 per cent of its gross national product. For this reason it signed the North American Free Trade Agreement and parallel agreements. On that basis we hope to promote, regulate and ensure trade flows, services and investments among these three countries. In due course this will be the largest free-trade area in the world: 360 million people with a product worth $7 trillion, a moving force of principal importance for the world economy. But Mexico is also a substantial and proud part of Latin America. We have our cultural links and historic alliances in Latin America. We give priority to our cooperation with Central America and with the countries of the Caribbean. We participate actively in the Rio Group and in the Latin American Economic System (SELA). We, together with Colombia and Venezuela, are involved in negotiations on free trade with the Group of Three, and we hope that these will be completed this year. With Chile we already have an agreement which has been in existence since January 1992. We are also having talks with other countries in the area. We participate actively in the Ibero-American Conference, which is gaining the kind of standing that befits an organization of 21 Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in America and Europe. As an Atlantic country we feel very close to Europe, where we have our principal partners and friends. We feel especially close to the European Community, with which we have a standing dialogue. We are also a Pacific country and have significantly expanded the number of our representatives and our trade with Asian countries. We appreciate the support that has been given to us by the countries of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Council to help us to enter that body very soon. We have also been invited by the 24 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We appreciate the invitation. We are working out the details of our entry into this prestigious group. We congratulate the leaders of South Africa, President De Klerk and Nelson Mandela, on the agreements that they have reached and we are ready immediately to initiate full relations with that Republic. We recognize and fully support the efforts that have been made in Haiti. Our Ambassador has now returned to Port au Prince. We reiterate our offer to the Secretary- General to give technical and economic resources for the general recovery of Haiti. Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 21 We wish to continue to be respectful friends of each and every one of the States that are Members of the United Nations. The central strategy of the foreign policies of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari are diversification and the deepening of our relations with all regions and countries of the world. Mexico has already begun preparations for the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. In my country this will not be an occasion for meaningless celebrations and self-congratulatory gestures. We are making a serious effort to give serious thought to the future of the Organization. The first question that we must answer, however, is: What functions do we want the United Nations to perform in the coming century? All the rest will follow by accretion. If in truth we have an opportunity - as has so often been said since the end of the cold war - to turn the Organization into the cornerstone of a truly new, more just international order, then let us take action.