I wish to offer you my
heartfelt congratulations, Sir, on your election to
preside over this sixty-second session of the General
Assembly. Your experience in international affairs and
your first-hand knowledge of the Organization make
you particularly suitable for this important post. At the
same time I sincerely thank your predecessor,
Ms. Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, for her wise and
dedicated leadership of the Assembly.
I want to begin my statement where I left off last
year, with Italy’s decision to defend human rights in
the world and to oppose the death penalty. In recent
months, Italy has worked very hard to enable the
Assembly to adopt a resolution on a universal
moratorium on the death penalty, with a view to its
complete abolition. It has been a source of great
satisfaction to see support for our initiative growing
day by day in Europe and in every other region of the
world. We have now reached a decisive moment.
I trust that we shall all be united in this battle,
which is supported by Nobel laureates, statesmen and
stateswomen, and free men and women throughout the
world, and that the “growing trend in international law
and national practice toward a phasing out of the death
penalty” to quote Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
(Press release SG/SM/10839) will be officially
sanctioned by this General Assembly’s adoption of the
draft resolution we are about to submit together with
many countries from every regional group and from the
European Union. If genuine politics means showing
foresight, we shall perform a great political act through
the adoption of that draft resolution. It will
demonstrate that humankind is capable of making
progress not only in science, but also in the field of
ethics.
A United Nations resolution against the death
penalty will prove that human beings are better today
than they were yesterday, even in moral terms. An
outcome with enormous consequences, heralding a
more just future, and a society that has at last freed
itself from the spiral of revenge, demonstrating that it
has heeded the ancient admonition: if you want peace,
you must work for justice.
Last year we welcomed the ceasefire in Lebanon
and the launch of the new United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which has been under
Italian command for several months now. Today,
thanks in part to our common commitment, Lebanon is
in a better situation, although it has not yet solved its
problems, as the brutal attacks of recent days have
unfortunately demonstrated.
We must continue to support the Lebanese
reconciliation process and help the country to regain its
unity through the election of a new President. We must
do this without ignoring the root causes of the conflicts
afflicting the Middle East, first and foremost the
Palestinian question. In short, we must continue to
mobilize support for reconciliation among peoples and
within a single people.
Restoring peace to the Middle East is the top
priority of the international community, because if one
day this region should find greater peace, freedom and
prosperity, we shall all live in greater peace, freedom
and prosperity. I am therefore delighted that the United
States has promoted a new international meeting. We
are ready to provide our input and we are already
preparing it, knowing that the more countries in the
region that are behind this meeting, the greater the
possibility of success.
Italy will continue to play its part in the rest of
the region too, beginning with dialogue. For it is
through dialogue that the most difficult issues can be
resolved. I have never seen a lasting solution to a
problem when the solution was imposed from above or
from outside.
Today’s challenges, such as bringing peace to the
Middle East, are complex. If we wish to overcome
them we must rise to their dimensions. In other words,
we have to set aside all partisan interests in a world
that is increasingly shaped by global processes.
This applies also to climate change, to which this
session is most appropriately dedicated. As I said
yesterday at the panel convened by the Secretary-
General, Italy considers climate change a priority
issue. We are among the European supporters of a
unilateral 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions by 2020. We have made similar
commitments on energy efficiency, renewable energy
sources and biofuels. In Europe we have already made
various strategic decisions, but it is obvious that any
post-Kyoto agreement can only be achieved within the
United Nations, because when speaking about global
warming we are speaking about the pre-eminent global
problem of our day.
National approaches to solving the world’s
problems no longer exist. The era of making and
unmaking national borders is long over. It is only
through multilateralism, by marshalling everyone’s
energies, that we can hope to do good.
Our task today is to adapt the multilateral
structures at our disposal to a changing world and to
think of new forms of global governance, for there is
no other way to manage global processes.
The challenge facing Europe today is not to
become resigned to the world as it is, but to seek to
improve it based on the values in which Europe
believes: freedom, democracy, respect for others, and
respect for the rules of peaceful coexistence. That is
why we are adapting our founding treaties. That is why
we are building a common foreign and defence policy.
That is why we have invented a new citizenship,
European citizenship, to which we are entitled by
choosing to share certain values, not by virtue of
kinship or nationality.
The European dream is thus the child of the
universal dream of the United Nations. In the past year
the United Nations has continued to play a central role
in resolving international disputes. The cases of
Lebanon and Darfur demonstrate that if Member States
are willing to give the United Nations a strong central
role, the Organization is today up to the task. We have
to ask ourselves what the United Nations needs in
order to fulfil its worldwide mission and to be equally
effective in different crisis areas.
First and foremost, we need an Organization
capable of renewal and adaptation. In the past two
years the revival of the reform process produced its
first positive results. One essential aspect of reform
relates to the General Assembly, which remains the
main decision-making organ of the Organization. I
never tire of repeating that we have to restore the
General Assembly’s central position, and exploit its
political guidance potential and, above all, its
universality.
The principles of democracy and the
representation of every Member State underpin the
United Nations system. That is why we are opposed to
any concept of Security Council reform that would
establish new permanent members. The growing
contribution of a growing number of countries to the
Organization should not be wasted by introducing
elitist and selective reforms.
It is clear that reforming the Security Council
means addressing one of the fundamental pillars of the
global security architecture. The Council’s central role
and its nature as the paramount source of international
legitimacy impel us to seek shared political solutions.
Last year, in this very Hall, I advocated that
negotiations be started to break the deadlock and help
strengthen the Organization. I spoke of the need to start
negotiations based not on imposing predefined models
and positions, but rather on the search for solutions
based on the widest possible consensus.
I am therefore delighted that, one year later, the
General Assembly has decided to make every effort,
through intergovernmental negotiations among others,
to reach a general agreement on Security Council
reform that we all hope will open a new chapter with a
view to an agreed solution, a solution that I hope can
include strengthening the presence of the leading
regional stakeholders in the Security Council. My
country is ready and will not fail to demonstrate
commitment and to contribute ideas in this new phase
of the Security Council reform process.
Reform is also intended to make the Organization
more effective in the areas and on the issues where, by
history and vocation, it can provide greater added
value: Africa and development issues.
The United Nations is deeply engaged in Africa.
Over two thirds of the Blue Helmets are deployed in
Africa on peacekeeping missions. Italy will pursue this
goal through the establishment of the African Peace
Facility fund, which will complement its European
counterpart fund. Darfur and Somalia remain two of
our central concerns.
But it would be a mistake to look only at the
negative side and forget the many encouraging signs of
development and unity coming from Africa. I am
referring to the growth of the economy and to the hope
that has arisen in many parts of the continent.
In Europe we are now preparing for the second
Africa-Europe Summit. I hope that it will be held
successfully before the end of the year. Italy is working
above all to ensure that the Summit will spark a
European policy for Africa that is worthy of the name.
That brings me to development. It is the
responsibility of the United Nations to keep
development at the top of the international agenda. It
will take more than lip service to the Millennium
Development Goals to achieve them. We all have to
work for their attainment. I have already expressed my
willingness to sit at a table next year for a progress
report on the implementation of the commitments we
made seven years ago.
We can no longer ignore the reality around us:
one half of world trade and investment benefits 14 per
cent of the world’s population; the 49 poorest countries
in the world receive 0.5 per cent of the global product;
and 90 per cent of the planet’s wealth lies in the hands
of only 1 per cent of its inhabitants. Efforts are needed
from everyone, particularly those who have more to
give. The G-8 can play an important role in this area.
Here and now I pledge to make this issue the
centrepiece of the Italian presidency in 2009.
The principles of solidarity and cooperation
underlying this Organization are as sound today as they
were 62 years ago. The spread of democratic values
and greater attention to the protection of human rights
should not make us forget that these principles and
values are still threatened and violated in far too many
parts of the world. What is more, insecurity leads more
and more people and countries to close themselves off.
The danger is that this sense of insecurity can
cause societies to regress. Even the most free and
democratic nations, if they feel they are under threat,
may adopt measures that will undermine peace and
with it, the civil and political rights of their citizens.
In the face of such risks, the principles and values
of the United Nations are our beacons and our stars.
They make it possible for us to navigate even by night
and in rough waters. Staying on course is not just a
political imperative. It is above all a moral imperative
for all of us.