Portugal

At the outset, I would like to state that Portugal, of course, endorses the statement made here by the presidency of the European Union. Portugal wishes the United Nations to fulfil the central role it rightly deserves in the community of nations. The United Nations is an indispensable international Organization. Without this body, of which we are all a part, the world would be more unstable, less predictable and a place where the universal dream of peace and freedom would be no more than a mirage on a far-off horizon. The United Nations was established in a distant historical context, but its ideas and basic values remain contemporary. Portugal has a habit of recalling them, on occasions such as this, because we feel that this common undertaking is based on solid foundations. “We the peoples of the United Nations” believe in the dignity and the value of the human being, in fundamental freedoms and in equality between men and women. We defend the primacy of international law and tolerance in relations between peoples. But we also believe that one should not distinguish between large and small nations, as we all have a common interest in social advancement and in the maintenance of international peace and security. These are the objectives of this Organization that need to be preserved and strengthened. This is, in good truth, our common cause, the cause of humankind. The month of September, in this city of New York, inevitably brings back memories of the horror of three years ago. It forces us to look at the challenges to peace that this Organization and all of us face today. The tragic events in Madrid, Beslan, Baghdad, Jakarta and other places show us that terrorism has entered the deepest and darkest of shadows. No cause, no idea, justifies acts of pure barbarism and the spilling of innocent blood. Terrorism is an enemy of humankind. Moreover, Portugal believes that it is up to the United Nations to contribute decisively to the establishment of a global strategy against terrorism — a strategy that takes into account not only the obvious security-related responses, but also other elements that may have the potential to generate violence. 33 Let us be unyielding in the fight against terrorism, but let us also engage ourselves in doing it collectively. Let us take into account the laws and the values in whose name we are fighting, and should be fighting, this evil. Hunger and poverty generate despair and may cause people to choose the path of violence. I would therefore like to express my appreciation for the Summit of World Leaders for Action against Hunger and Poverty, promoted by President Lula da Silva, which I had the honour to attend. We believe that that meeting was a fundamental step towards alleviating cases of extreme poverty, which are unsustainable in moral and political terms. If we act now, the world can change for the better; if we do not, its balance could become increasingly difficult to manage. Portugal wants to be at the forefront of the future. That is why we believe that the sustainability of development and the defence of natural resources are paradigms of a new era. We believe that the economic development of the twenty- first century will be sustainable only if it truly respects the balance of the planet and if the Kyoto provisions are truly implemented. Does it make sense that an Organization like the United Nations continues to work in the twenty-first century as it did 60 years ago? The United Nations was born at a time when there were no televisions, no computers, no cellular phones. Communications, technologies and means of transportation have all changed; DNA and the human genome have now been discovered; we surf the Internet on a global scale. And yet the Organization that brings together the peoples of the world has the same structure that it had more than half a century ago. The pace of change is breathtaking. The United Nations finds itself at a crossroads: while its relevance is not challenged, we may question its effectiveness. But that is an issue that should be placed primarily before Member States. After all, the United Nations is an expression of our collective will. The Organization cannot be seen as a distant reflection on which we project our individual expectations, which often exceed the limits of the mandates and the means that we make available to it. In that regard, we support the work of the High- Level Panel established last year by the Secretary- General to examine current challenges to peace and security. The strategies for strengthening the Organization to be recommended by the Panel aim at preserving what is best in the United Nations and at ensuring that it is equipped with the means necessary to promote real development, prevent conflicts and protect human rights. Portugal unequivocally supports reform of the Security Council. We support its enlargement so that it will better reflect the world of today, through a rebalancing of its representativity. We have already stated before this forum — and we reaffirm today — our support for an increase in the number of permanent and non-permanent members. Portugal’s support for Brazil, Germany and Japan has been known to the General Assembly since 1993. We have already expressed our support for India’s application for candidacy, and, on behalf of the Government of Portugal, I take the opportunity to express our commitment to seeing the African continent represented by a permanent seat on the Security Council. But we also want to improve the relationship between the Council and other organs and agencies of the United Nations, as well as promoting greater transparency in its decisions. The democracy that the Organization defends is not compatible with obsolete working methods that often have a negative impact on the image and the credibility of the United Nations and lead to its paralysis. Preventing conflicts is more important than solving them. We should be aware that the usefulness of the United Nations will ultimately be judged by its capacity for conflict prevention. The proliferation of crisis situations has led to the current deployment of approximately 60,000 Blue Helmets in peacekeeping operations, and that number continues to increase. Portugal has been with the United Nations in many of its peacekeeping operations around the world. Here, I would like to pay tribute to my compatriots and to all others who have served on peacekeeping missions, particularly those who have given their lives for our common ideals. It is our hope that the Organization can better develop its work in the field of conflict prevention. However, we still lack an efficient instrument for the development of that policy. Therefore, at the last session of the General Assembly, Portugal proposed the creation of a commission to promote peace and 34 development, under the authority of and in collaboration with the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. Its objectives would be to regularly monitor countries in crisis or at risk and to ensure the cooperation6 of regional and international institutions. We believe that our proposal remains relevant, and we thank all those who have already improved it through suggestions and comments. This is an idea on which we have worked in particular with our partners in the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, which I would like to warmly acknowledge on this occasion. Indeed, the Portuguese language is the unifying factor among hundreds of millions of people on five continents. So that it can have strength as a vehicle of communication and culture in the twenty-first century, the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries needs its members to make a clear commitment to the connection between the past, the present and the future. The fact that Portugal is the cradle of the Portuguese language does not lead us to claim it for ourselves alone with any special rights. The communities that one joins as a result of specific interests, however legitimate, can never erase one’s own community — one’s family, spirit, language, culture and identity. “Know thyself” was already inscribed at the foot of the Temple of Delphi. Nowhere are we confronted with such a huge predicament regarding the ability of the United Nations to act as in Iraq. Iraq needs the support of the international community. The Iraqi people, ravaged by decades of dictatorship and war, deserve such support. And we should give the United Nations the necessary means to fulfil in its entirety the mandate provided by the Security Council. But we must also understand clearly that the international presence in Iraq — approved by the Security Council and by the Iraqi Interim Government — is by its own nature provisional. It is time for the international community to unite in its efforts to ensure that the Iraqi people again find the path towards peace and development. We cannot change the past, but we must assume that the future can still be influenced in a positive way. Thus, we must quickly restore unity if our Organization is not to suffer permanent collateral damage as a result of the Iraqi crisis. For democracy to succeed in Iraq, and for that country to maintain its unity, it is essential that its people have a say, through elections, regarding the way they wish to be governed. It is also important that the agreed political timetable be honoured, or we may seriously compromise the rightful expectations of the Iraqi people and Government. We cannot allow those who generate instability through unthinkable acts of terrorism to have the power to veto the establishment of a democratic regime in Iraq. Elections are the only way to enable the Iraqi people to meet the destiny of democracy and freedom to which they are entitled. Peace, freedom and democracy are also at stake in other parts of the world we inhabit. We cannot look away from the tragedy unfolding in Darfur. Our collective security also requires the effective international control of the production of nuclear, chemical and bacteriological weapons and the means to deploy them. For the maintenance of international security, it is also essential that the Organization continues to push for the resumption of the Middle East peace process. The existing status quo is unacceptable. Israel and Palestine need to learn to coexist in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders and without artificial partitions. We cannot replace the dichotomy between liberalism and collectivism with another between liberty and peace on the one hand and terror and dictatorship on the other. The world has already entered a new era. The peoples of the whole world, as referred to in the Charter of the United Nations, demand a new contract between the governed and those who govern. The three classic powers of Montesquieu are no longer the only ones in the government of the peoples. Those who believe so are lost in time. There is nothing worse than erring in our perception of reality. There are powers that are not as they were and others that Montesquieu, Locke and the drafters of liberal revolutions could not know of, because they did not exist or because, over time, they have changed configuration. One need only think of the power of the media over people’s lives today. Our peoples want to feel strength in the present and faith in the future. For that reason, I shall end my address the way I began: stressing the indispensability and the centrality of the United Nations in the daily 35 lives of free and sovereign nations. We belong to an Organization that has restored hope to many peoples and human beings by bringing the light of freedom to those who lived in oppression. Timor-Leste is an excellent example of the ability of the United Nations to do good. But one should also stress the attention the United Nations has given to the vulnerable, children and the disabled and to the promotion of gender equality. For this Organization, humankind is not an abstract entity. The dialogue between cultures, civilizations and religions, which Portugal upholds, is an integral part of the daily work of the United Nations. We are part of an Organization dedicated to making peace and preventing war. We are party to a collective project in the service of human rights and fundamental freedoms. We have the strength of our convictions. And, as Pope John Paul II has stated, we know that peace is not weakness, but strength.