On behalf of the Government and the people of the Republic of San
Marino, I join the unanimous tribute paid to you,
Mr. Srgjan Kerim, on your election as President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-second session by
expressing my most sincere congratulations on your
election to this high office. I am confident that you will
be able to give new momentum to the process of
renewal and reform of the United Nations.
In particular, I wish to express my gratitude and
appreciation to the outgoing President, Her Excellency
Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, who has carried out
with determination and commitment an intense activity
aimed at implementing the reform programme
undertaken by the Secretary-General.
The Republic of San Marino is deeply concerned
about the latest events in Myanmar and expresses its
solidarity to the families of the victims. We hope that
the violence will soon be stopped and a dialogue
immediately re-established.
The Republic of San Marino firmly believes in
the role and effectiveness of the entire structure of the
United Nations, as well as in the process of progressive
renewal of its main bodies, which is now more than
ever necessary, given time, evolution and the need to
best enhance the participation by the great family of
the Member States in the management of the
Organization.
A small country like San Marino gains
considerable strength and legitimacy from the major
international organizations in its efforts to make its
voice heard regarding the great issues and main
challenges of our time. We are still determined to play
this role and will continue to fulfil the commitments
undertaken, individually or in partnership with other
countries, to affirm those principles of solidarity and
the protection of rights, in which our history is rooted.
In this regard, we believe that forms of
cooperation among small countries can prove
undoubtedly useful to major projects and deliver
positive and effective messages of multilateral
cooperation, in a spirit of mutual belonging to an
international community, albeit still characterized by
large gaps.
In this context, an example is the commitment
taken by San Marino, together with a group of small
European countries, in favour of a United Nations
Children’s Fund project against HIV and destined for
children living in Gabon. At the same time, the small
countries are intensifying their contacts within the
United Nations to adopt further joint intervention
programmes, mainly of a humanitarian character.
The Republic of San Marino promotes and
supports, with the strength of its millenary history of
civilization, peace and respect for human rights, any
call advanced at a national or international level
entailing a moral and civil commitment to the
affirmation of specific ideological and cultural
identities, which, as is the case for San Marino, are
based on the principles of peaceful coexistence and
respect for others.
It is in this spirit that my country believes in and
actively commits itself to the promotion of
intercultural and interreligious dialogue, as a
fundamental instrument to prevent tensions and
conflicts arising from intolerance and to promote peace
based on the principles of respect for fundamental
human rights, justice and international cooperation.
During its six-month chairmanship of the
Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe,
which ended last May, the Republic of San Marino
based its activity on the promotion of a culture of
tolerance and mutual understanding by organizing
high-level meetings and debates aimed at fostering
dialogue among cultures and religions. In this context,
the conference organized last April in San Marino on
the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue in
Europe, a priority issue of the San Marino
chairmanship, met with great success. This conference
was attended by the representatives of the Council of
Europe member countries, religious leaders belonging
to the three major European monotheistic religions and
experts from civil society. At the end of its work, the
conference adopted a final document, which testifies to
the wide range of this debate and marks a significant
moment in the process undertaken by the Council of
Europe to promote, stimulate and develop intercultural
dialogue in Europe, with particular reference to its
religious dimension.
Among the initiatives taken in the last few
months on this issue, it is worth mentioning the
meeting organized by the Permanent Mission of San
Marino in New York on dialogue between religions,
with the presence and participation of the Secretary-
General, the President of the General Assembly and
representatives of more than 70 countries.
In line with its history of peace, which makes it
an ideal place for meeting and mediation, the Republic
of San Marino will coordinate, starting from next year,
the future meetings of the Council of Europe on the
religious dimension of intercultural dialogue. It is in
this spirit that I will take part next week in the High-
level Dialogue on Interreligious and Intercultural
Understanding and Cooperation for Peace, organized
by the presidency of the General Assembly.
My country welcomes the adoption of this
initiative, which further stresses the need for us to join
our efforts in support of dialogue among cultures and
religions, as an instrument to strengthen the climate of
confidence indispensable to promote peace, prevent
conflicts and combat the threat of discrimination,
racism, violence and terrorism.
The Republic of San Marino is particularly
sensitive to the issue of climate change, in the
conviction that addressing this problem is an
imperative for each member of the international
community, called upon to take action and share
common strategies to prevent and face situations of
degradation and extreme emergency, which are
becoming increasingly evident and require joint actions
that can no longer be postponed. We are witnessing
alarming phenomena that are deteriorating every
element of the environment, mainly due to human
activities. It is therefore necessary to develop
alternative strategies, which can protect the climate
from the increasingly serious threat posed to the entire
ecosystem.
The San Marino Government has expressed its
strong determination to progressively accede to the
major international instruments, adopted in the
framework of the United Nations, on environmental
protection and gas emissions, from the Vienna
Convention and Montreal Protocol thereto, to the
Kyoto Protocol, in the awareness that the consequences
of climate change are a serious obstacle to the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. At
a domestic level, San Marino is preparing legislation
promoting new technologies based on renewable
energy sources that will substantially modify the
energetic and environmental habits of the entire
country.
Just a few days ago, the Secretary-General
organized a high-level event on climate change, which
gave further momentum to the activity of our
Governments.
It is worth reiterating that we take a strong stance
against the death penalty on the basis of political and
moral principles. Indeed, the death penalty denies the
right to life, and we deem it a groundless deterrent, as
do an increasing number of countries, which are
progressively abolishing it from their legal systems.
The Republic of San Marino expresses its satisfaction
at the steps taken in this direction at a multilateral level
and supports the new interregional initiative. We are
convinced that by promoting first of all a moratorium,
each and every country can gradually achieve a
moderate attitude and eventually reach the decision to
abolish the death penalty.
San Marino fully shares the commitment
undertaken on a global scale to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals and is ready to offer its own
contribution and its partnership to eradicate endemic
problems, by fully recognizing the fundamental rights
of the most vulnerable groups of society, such as the
elderly, women, children and disabled people.
In this regard, I would like to underline in
particular the value of the action carried out by the
United Nations in favour of social policies addressed to
persons with disabilities, which has led to the adoption
of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol. In
this context, the Republic of San Marino was one of
the first States to subscribe to these instruments.
To achieve these objectives, which were also
among the main issues included in the programme of
the recent chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers
of the Council of Europe, my country has launched
some awareness raising and effective intervention
campaigns, such as the campaign on violence against
women and in favour of children’s rights.
I wish to refer in particular to the protection of
children’s rights, to which my country pays special
attention, prompted by the conviction that only the
mobilization of Governments and societies can save
children all over the world from today’s sufferings and
from enduring conditions of underdevelopment and
poverty. My country has promoted legislative measures
and solidarity initiatives with the precious contribution
of institutions and civil society, and it commits itself at
a political, moral and social level to providing any
possible instrument of protection and guarantee in
favour of minors.
It is in this spirit and in full agreement with the
principles contained in the detailed study on violence
against children, drafted by United Nations expert
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, that the Republic of San Marino
will soon sign the Convention on the Protection of
Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual
Abuse, adopted by the Council of Europe and aimed at
involving the States in the drafting and implementation
of an international plan to prevent and counter these
phenomena.
San Marino is fully aware of the need for the
United Nations to maintain and strengthen its own
structure by revitalizing the main bodies, to attain
improved efficiency and progressive adjustment to a
broader multilateral context.
In the light of the above and well aware of its
status as a small country, San Marino is however
intensifying its activities within the major international
organizations. It has responsibly taken on the task of
facilitator assigned to it and to Senegal by the
President of the sixty-first session of the General
Assembly in the revitalization process of this organ.
This task, performed by the San Marino
Permanent Mission in New York, attributes to this tiny
State a delicate and important role at an international
level, which certainly represents a significant
recognition of the work done since 1992 to the present
and of the commitment with which the Republic
participates in the life of the international community,
with its renewed efforts to enhance dialogue and
cooperation.
The objective of revitalizing the General
Assembly is a priority in the reform and modernization
process of the main bodies of the United Nations, since
the General Assembly is the main representative and
decision-making body of the Organization, where all
States are permanent members and can and must play
an important role by virtue of the principles of
democracy and equal representation enshrined in this
Organization.
The Republic of San Marino believes it necessary
to strengthen the role of the General Assembly by
enabling it to act efficiently and to cooperate with
other statutory bodies in a more coordinated manner. In
this regard, San Marino expresses the hope that, in
order to fully support the activities of this body, which
is responsible for the whole process of standardization
and codification of international law, the international
community will commit itself to increasingly receiving
and implementing its resolutions.
At the same time, it reiterates the need to reach
the broadest possible political agreement on the reform
of the Security Council. This agreement should be the
result of a concerted and open vision in view of any
adjustments that may be required in the years to come.
For many years, San Marino has constantly paid great
attention to this issue of topical interest, because of its
strategic and structural implications. In this regard, I
believe that today the presidency of the General
Assembly deserves our unanimous gratitude for its
report, which represents an excellent basis to continue
to consider this item on the agenda of the sixty-second
session.
On behalf of a State, the Republic of San Marino,
that has always based its peaceful coexistence with
other States and the spirit of its profound national and
international solidarity on aspirations for international
peace and security, I would like to express my
complete confidence in the long-term effectiveness of
the United Nations system. Each and every State must
try to make a political and ideological contribution
through concrete proposals to that system, on which
every State continues to place high expectations
because of the impact of its activities at a national and
international level.
Allow me to conclude my statement by offering a
brief reflection, by virtue of the fact that I come from a
country without any macroeconomic or military
interests, or any interests regarding the political
balance among the great Powers. I believe that the
space and attention we all devote to the international
commitment and contribution made by every State,
even the smallest, can be a positive investment in the
future of the United Nations, a future characterized by
increased understanding, closer cooperation and the
promotion of dialogue and mutual respect, upon which
the foundations of this Organization rest.
This renewed momentum will therefore provide
large countries with the opportunity to demonstrate
their full respect for international justice and will show
small countries how useful their activities are in the
community of nations activities that translate into
continuous efforts aimed at achieving peace, mutual
understanding and better living conditions for all
peoples.
With those hopes in mind, I express to you, Sir,
my most sincere wishes for a successful presidency of
this greatest of world assemblies, and I assure you that
you can fully rely on our support throughout the sixty-
second session.