Climate
change, at the centre of the high-level event a week
ago, constitutes one of the greatest challenges of our
generation. It puts to the test our ability to create the
collective political will necessary to counter a
phenomenon of potentially disastrous socio-economic
consequences. It also offers a great opportunity to
make the best use of the unique framework that this
Organization provides. The Bali meeting must bring
about a long-term commitment by all States to
launching an ambitious and practical road map towards
a gradually decarbonized global economy. We can
reach that goal if we translate today’s political
momentum into concrete action that goes beyond
tomorrow’s activities.
Climate change is but one of the areas of concern
to the international community, where it is absolutely
clear that the United Nations is today more than ever
an indispensable Organization. It appears indeed that
its unique nature and potential are more widely
recognized and accepted today than they were until
even very recently. In the words of Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, the pendulum is swinging back in our
favour. As a strong believer in multilateralism, we
welcome that development.
However, as true friends of the United Nations,
we must also continue to question the ability of the
Organization to fully use its potential and to fulfil the
purposes and principles of its Charter. Our record in
the area of reform, two years after the 2005 World
Summit, is mixed. We yet have to achieve certain
institutional reforms, and the principle of the
responsibility to protect must be translated into
concrete action, such as in the case of the oppressive
policies of the regime in Myanmar against its own
population. Of course, however, reform of an
organization with tasks as diverse and daunting as the
United Nations is never concluded. We must always be
prepared to make the adjustments that are necessary to
improve its impact, its legitimacy and its efficiency.
Today, such adjustments require a two-fold approach.
On the one hand, we must strengthen its operational
parts and, on the other hand, we must ground the work
of the Organization more firmly in its origins, namely,
the Charter of the United Nations.
The demands in the area of peacekeeping are
greater than ever before. That attests to the faith placed
in the United Nations, but it also makes the
deficiencies in the management of the Organization a
more pressing issue. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
was therefore right to propose changes to strengthen
institutional support for the Organization’s field
activities. We look forward to further progress in that
respect, in particular in the area of procurement. We
are not convinced that the lessons from the oil-for-food
scandal, which has done great damage to the United
Nations, have been fully absorbed, let alone fully
translated into concrete action. We must also credibly
improve the financial efficiency and accountability of
the Organization. That will, in turn, allow us to present
to our domestic constituencies the ever-increasing bills
for peacekeeping operations.
All the strengthening of the operational and
managerial capabilities of the United Nations will not
change the fact that, operationally and financially, this
is not a powerful Organization. Its budget will always
pale in comparison to what a number of States spend
on their defence budgets, to cite an obvious example.
The genuine power and strength of the Organization
lies in its foundation in international law. The Charter
itself can be regarded as the greatest achievement in
the history of international law. More important,
though, the United Nations has the unique ability to
bestow legitimacy and legality on international action.
In the eyes of the world, the United Nations
symbolizes the rule of law in international relations.
That is a tremendous asset that we must cherish
and promote wherever possible. The United Nations
and its organs must always be seen as the guardians of
international law. Given its central place in the
institutional architecture of the Organization, that
applies in particular to the Security Council. The
current practice of the Council with respect to the
listing and de-listing of individuals targeted by
sanctions is therefore a cause for concern. We believe
that disregarding international standards of due process
does nothing to improve the effectiveness of sanctions
regimes, but much to undermine the authority of the
Council itself.
Long years and much energy have been spent on
the reform of the Security Council. It would appear
today that we are as far from a solution as ever. We
believe that the legitimacy of the Council’s actions has
a number of sources, the most important of which are
the quality of its decisions and the extent to which they
reflect international law. In addition, the decisions of
the Council have the necessary legitimacy if they are
genuinely taken on behalf of the membership as a
whole, and therefore also on behalf of the vast majority
of States that do not serve on the Council. That can be
achieved through greater involvement by non-member
States, in particular if and when their interests are
directly affected. Finally, of course, the membership of
the Council must be more representative of the overall
membership of the Organization, and of the developing
world in particular.
The past few years have not brought about the era
of the rule of law that some had hoped for. Quite to the
contrary, there have been concerted, and ultimately
unsuccessful, attacks on the importance of the rule of
law in international relations. Nevertheless, we have
achieved very significant progress in some areas, in
particular in the area of international criminal justice.
The Security Council has led the way through the
establishment of international and hybrid tribunals. But
the crowning success, of course, was the establishment
of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The referral of the situation in Darfur to the Court
was a landmark decision, both legally and politically. It
was a strong message by the Security Council that the
international community does not accept impunity for
the most serious crimes under international law. That
message, however, needs to be backed up by
enforcement action, in particular by the arrest of all
indictees sought by the Court. We therefore call on all
States and the United Nations to cooperate with the
ICC to that end.
We will continue to take great interest in the work
of the Security Council. At the same time, of course,
we will focus our energy on making the General
Assembly a more relevant and more essential part of
the United Nations system. In that regard, my
delegation looks forward to the President’s leadership
and to closely cooperating with him on the priority
issues he has identified.