Norway

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Ambassador Insanally on his election to the high office of President of the General Assembly. I should also like to welcome the new Members of our Organization: Andorra, Eritrea, the Czech Republic, Monaco, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Slovakia. The historic and courageous breakthrough in the Middle East tells us that even the deepest trench can be bridged. Conflict has tormented that entire region for most of this century. It has brought super-Powers to the brink of war. It has placed enormous burdens on the United Nations itself. It has deprived families of their dear ones and held people under the ominous spell of fear. Now we must seize the moment. Now we are at a turning point for the United Nations as well. Now we must answer the clarion call and mobilize our collective political and financial resources to help move the peace process forward. The time has come to let the divisive, acrimonious Middle East debates and decisions of the past fade into history. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have made reality of the seemingly impossible. We would fail abysmally in our duties should we falter now in our efforts to support the process of prying peace out of the knot of conflict, a process which men and women of vision have dared to think, dared to do. Due to our long-standing relations with the parties, both our friendship with Israeli leaders and the mutual trust we have established with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Norway was privileged to contribute to these defining dramatic events. In this spirit, we shall go to Washington on 1 October, committed to help in building peace. For the peace process to succeed, it must be consolidated and stabilized by the economic development the two parties have agreed to undertake together. The fruits of peace must become tangible and real for the women, men and children of Gaza and the West Bank. The process of implementation could change the perspectives and expectations of the parties, convert interdependence into a sense of community, and make possible solutions and visions which today seem beyond reach. The economic situation in Gaza and on the West Bank is dramatic and calls for immediate and extensive economic aid. Now we must respond to the just but unfulfilled aspirations of the Palestinians: for job opportunities and for schools, hospitals and universities. Now we must assist in building houses, roads and water supplies, and make reconciliation pay, so that new generations of Israelis and Palestinians may grow up without fear, as good neighbours, in a life of dignity. A period of healing is needed in which all peace-loving countries, the United Nations itself, the Bretton Woods institutions, other financial institutions and the European Community join financially - and substantially - in a coordinated, immediate investment-for-peace programme. I pledge and confirm that Norway’s assistance will be substantial and that we shall be honoured to play a continuing political role should the parties so desire. A period of renewal and change must also embrace South Africa and our relations with that country. South Africa is in desperate need of peace and reconciliation. Fixing a date for democratic elections in April next year is a beacon of hope that the post-Apartheid system will finally gain the democratic legitimacy which the South African Government cannot claim today. Until the day when black South Africans can enjoy the human rights of which they have been oppressively deprived, until the day when violence is ended and joint political control has been established over the military and police forces, until that day South Africa will remain a country in imperative transition. The outside world and the United Nations must, in time, recognize the potential of post-apartheid South Africa - at peace with itself and endowed with immensely rich natural and human resources - for the whole region of southern Africa. Education and training are needed for generations which are now ready to assume an equal role in the economy of their country. We must now act forcefully, encouraging proponents of peace and transition, and Forty-eighth session - 27 September l993 21 discourage the shrill voices of hatred and interposition so that one day - soon - the South African man and woman may be free at last. We must never lose hope that peace can be achieved. But our hope has been severely tested by the protracted atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There seems to be no limit to the brutality that human beings are capable of mobilizing in the service of a nationalistic goal. Such acts have been committed in the name of a doctrine - the doctrine of the ethnic state - and thus prolong the sinister existence of doctrine as a source of war and contention in this century. Ethnic nationalism is a threat to peace and stability everywhere. The ethnic mosaic of Europe does not lend itself to such reduction. A doctrine of the ethnic state is a prescription for war. Our task is to build communities which include rather than exclude and to make all multi-ethnic regions safe refuges of enlightened diversity. A military victory in which aggression appears to pay in Bosnia will be noted in those parts of the world where different nationalities are sharing territory and political organization. In the former Soviet Union alone, ethnic tensions are reaching critical mass or have already erupted, as in Nagorny-Karabakh and Abkhazia. The authority of the United Nations is seriously undermined if there is vacillation on where and how to use the "Blue Helmets". We should admit that there have been failures along the way and learn from experience. Our main thrust must be to aim for a negotiated solution based on known elements. The alternative to a negotiated settlement is continued bloodshed. The alternative to peace is war. Norway fully supports the efforts of Thorvald Stoltenberg and David Owen. All parties must now cease hostilities and allow time for the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina to heal so that we can start slowly to build a foundation for peace. Let us be inspired by the Israelis and the Palestinians, and let us all send a message to the parties in Bosnia: enough! Peace is possible. The time for a settlement is long overdue. The situation is already disastrous, and another winter of war is bound to take a severe toll of lives. Norway is among the major providers of humanitarian assistance to the area. International attention is focused on the terrible ordeal of the Muslims, but there are Croats and Serbs who suffer greatly as well. We should be even-handed in our humanitarian assistance, making a clear distinction between, on the one hand, warlords and war criminals and, on the other, those on all sides who are without a voice and without a choice, those who are victimized and whose only hope is the assistance we can provide from the outside. It is absolutely imperative to improve on the coordination and cooperation between United Nations peace-keeping operations, United Nations humanitarian agencies and non-governmental humanitarian organizations. Somalia is an obvious case in point. For Norway it is a priority issue to move such coordination forward. We shall convene a conference before the end of the year with the aim of improving our capacity to organize real peace operations incorporating both humanitarian and military tasks. We should all support our Secretary-General’s proposals for a necessary strengthening of the Department of Peace-keeping Operations. The management organization for United Nations peace-keeping operations here in New York is manifestly inadequate. The result is that troop- contributing nations exercise direct control, which radically reduces coherence and effectiveness. The situation is aggravated by the Security Council’s propensity to make ambitious decisions but fail to provide the Secretariat with the means to implement them. Failing to provide financial, human and technological resources undermines both peace and the authority of the United Nations. We know what needs to be done. We must focus on the following: There must be realistic mandates for new United Nations peace-keeping operations whose goals and means must be clearly defined. We must have proper stand-by arrangements for troops and equipment from Member States, and Norway is prepared to contribute in concrete terms to a collective stand-by effort. We need improved training and analysis of past experience; our training facilities should be linked in a consortium for United Nations peace-keeping training. There must be an immediate and substantial increase in the United Nations reserve fund for peace-keeping; moreover, a unified peace-- keeping budget must be introduced which allows the Secretary-General to obligate at least 20 per cent of the estimated cost of peace-keeping operations once they have been approved by the Security Council. We need improved financing for peace-keeping operations and financial discipline among Member States. Indeed, the whole financial situation of the United Nations is disgraceful. As the eighth-largest contributor to the United Nations system in absolute terms and by far the largest in per capita terms, we find it exceedingly difficult to 22 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session understand how so many countries fail to honour their obligations. The Secretary-General has said that "the Organization lives from hand to mouth." (Statement by the Secretary- General to the Fifth Committee, 26 August 1993). The permanent members of the Security Council have a special responsibility. But we should also ask ourselves if countries should be eligible at all for the Security Council if they have not paid their contributions. The post-cold-war patterns of risks and uncertainties have brought about a wider recognition and understanding of the need to address the serious economic and social inequalities in the world and their implications for global security. Core issues such as environment and development used to be seen as side issues by the prime movers of international affairs. There is a new hope that this could be changing. The Secretary-General points out in his report that without sustainable development peace cannot long be maintained and that political, social, educational and environmental factors must all be part of development. Unsustainable production and consumption patterns still prevail and can be counteracted only by changing how and in which fields our economies continue to grow. If current forms of development were employed, a further fivefold to tenfold boost in economic activity would be required over the next 50 years to meet the needs and aspirations of 10 billion people. Currently, the vast majority who are poor make only a minimal claim to our natural resources, while the more voracious North is consuming in a few decades what it has taken the planet billions of years to accumulate. The Norwegian Minister of the Environment raised the issue of production and consumption patterns in the industrial part of the world at the first session of the Commission on Sustainable Development. Early next year Norway will host a meeting on these issues as a contribution to the next session of the Commission. The rapid population growth in many parts of the world is a ticking time-bomb. Ninety per cent of this increase is taking place in developing countries, many of which are unable to feed their present populations. We may soon be facing new famine of a magnitude dwarfing even Malthus’ gloomiest predictions. There may be mass migration and the destabilization of countries and regions as people compete for ever-scarcer land and water resources. The International Conference on Population and Development, to take place in Cairo in September 1994, must address the complex root causes of the population explosion. The agreements reached at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio last year, however imperfect, set a sound, ambitious agenda for action to ensure sustainable development. Yet, I regret to say, the momentum generated in Rio has been allowed to lose some of its force. The world will not forget, and our children will long remember, that the industrialized countries committed themselves in Rio to providing new and additional funding to combat climate change and safeguard biological diversity. So far, however, contributions have been small-scale. The aid fatigue continues despite enormous needs and a more fertile ground for development in countries which have made sacrifices and taken the bitter but crucial medicine of structural adjustment, and despite the reduction of military budgets to levels where countries again should be deemed creditworthy. Far, far more serious, and not only for the developing world, is the gambling with the Uruguay Round holding the prospects of global free trade hostage to narrow national interests. For most countries, strongly dependent as they are on international trade, an agreement, even if each and every provision may not be ideal, is absolutely necessary. I urge the major parties to live up to the expectations created at the Group of 7 meeting in Tokyo that before the end of the year the deal will be closed. Environment and trade must be the next agenda item. We should be more outspoken about conflicting interests and more receptive to the fact that we do not have the option to go our separate ways. We must develop a sound, scientific basis for managing our natural resources in a sustainable way. In a politically, culturally and socially diverse world, science and knowledge can be the only basis for sound and lasting cooperation in this field. And while we reduce our strain on finite natural resources, the environmental agenda is constantly widened by the unveiling of the ecocide almost committed by the former Communist countries. Forty-eighth session - 27 September l993 23 The nuclear threat is not confined to that inherent in the remaining arsenals of nuclear weapons. Increasingly, our security is threatened by the enormous deposits of nuclear waste on land and at sea. Large-scale international cooperation is required to eliminate this threat. Nuclear weapons have not disappeared, and the capacity to make them is broadly present. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of their delivery constitutes perhaps the greatest threat to international peace and stability. It is a matter of utmost priority to broaden and deepen the non-proliferation regime to comprise a broader pattern of commitments and cooperative behaviour. In this connection, Norway urges the nuclear-weapon States to redouble their efforts to conclude a comprehensive test-ban treaty. We expect that they will refrain from any testing while negotiations proceed. We also urge North Korea to submit fully to the safeguard regime of the International Atomic Energy Agency and to adhere to the Non- Proliferation Treaty. Development without democracy and respect for human rights will never be sustainable. Democracy is indispensable for promoting and upholding respect for human rights, for social and economic development, for peace and security, and for liberating the human creativity which is so vital to any social and economic development. I urge this Assembly to create the post of high commissioner for human rights and to agree on a quantum leap in the allocation of resources for the United Nations human-rights activities. This is a modest price to pay for strengthening the basis for peace and stability. The lines between foreign and domestic policies have long since vanished. Narrow-minded forms of nationalism will not serve us. We must move towards an inclusive enlargement where the powerful are just and the weak secure. Only the United Nations can provide the framework of a better-organized world, which today is too fragmented and uncoordinated. More and more causes are common, as, indeed, is our whole future. The Middle East breakthrough gives us the hope that no challenge is too difficult and the belief that we can make this world a civilized place.