Greetings! Let me begin
by congratulating President Ashe on his election to the
presidency of the General Assembly. He is taking the
reins at an important time. We wish him every success,
and he has New Zealand’s support.
The recent events in Kenya, Iraq and Pakistan show
how troubled the world can be. We commiserate with
the Governments and peoples of those countries and
extend our deepest sympathies to those who lost family
and friends in those tragic incidents.
For most of us, born after the Second World War, the
United Nations has been at the centre of our conception
of how the world organizes itself. But the reality of the
United Nations can be quite challenging. It is the one
place where the countries of the world meet, talk and
try to find solutions to global and regional issues.
Sadly, some of those discussions can become so
arcane that they are sometimes quite removed from the
issues they claim to be addressing. That is a concern in
particular for small States, to which the Organization is
so vitally important.
Even more sadly, the United Nations has too often
failed to provide solutions to the problems the world
expects it to resolve. The gap between aspiration and
delivery is all too apparent, as the situation in Syria
has again so brutally reminded us. But any failures of
this institution are less failures of the Organization
than they are failures on our part, as its Member States,
and on the part of those who have the responsibility of
leading those States.
There would be no dreadful humanitarian situation
in Syria if Syria’s leaders had upheld the commitments
made to the international community and to the Syrian
people when Syria joined the Organization and ratified
the human rights covenants.
The Organization would not also have been a
powerless bystander to the Syrian tragedy for over
two years if the lack of agreement among the Security
Council’s permanent members had not shielded the
Al-Assad regime, thereby reconfirming the fears of
New Zealand and others that had opposed the veto at
the original San Francisco Conference, in 1945.
New Zealand is pleased that the Security Council
has at last met on the situation in Syria. The Secretary-
General has advised the Council and the General
Assembly that the United Nations Mission has now
confirmed, unequivocally and objectively, that
chemical weapons have been used in Syria. The report
(see A/67/997) found clear and convincing evidence
that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve
agent Sarin were used on 21 August.
The information in the report also makes it very
clear that those rockets must have been fired by the
Syrian regime. As the Secretary-General has said, these
are war crimes, and those responsible must be brought
to account.
Those that try to cast doubt on the report’s
conclusions make themselves look foolish and do a
disservice to the United Nations.
It is imperative now that the Council act. It must
adopt a resolution that responds to the use of chemical
weapons. It must find a means to hold those responsible
to account and establish an effective mechanism
for the destruction of those weapons in line with the
proposal developed by the United States and Russia.
The resolution must also provide for the protection of
the civilian population.
While Syria necessarily commands our attention,
I also want to spend some time on some more positive
developments for both the Organization and its Member
States. I want to begin with my own country, New
Zealand, whose emergence as a fully independent State
has proceeded in parallel with the development of the
United Nations.
New Zealand was present at the founding in San
Francisco. We take pride in the fact that we were able
to influence the drafting of the Charter, particularly the
section on the Trusteeship Council, which paved the
way for a number of States to become full Members of
the Organization.
New Zealand has come a long way since the Charter
was adopted. Then, we were emerging from our status
as a dominion of the United Kingdom. Today we proudly
assert ourselves as a small but independent and diverse
country that has a wide network of friends and trading
relationships in all the major regions and markets of
the world. We value our traditional relationships with
Australia and the Pacific, and in Europe and North
America as we build new links with partners in Asia,
the rest of the Americas and the Caribbean, and Africa.
Building and sustaining political and commercial
links across the regions of the world is no small matter
for a country like New Zealand. We are surrounded by
the Pacific Ocean and located over three hours’ flying
time from our nearest neighbour, Australia, in one of
the least populated parts of the world. We share with
our Pacific island neighbours the challenges of distance
and isolation, and of having to hold our own against
much larger countries whose economies of scale
and proximity to markets give them a considerable
competitive advantage. These factors have reinforced
New Zealand’s approach to the United Nations and to
the other international organizations that have shaped
the post-Second World War environment.
We have a strong preference for a rules-based,
multilateralist approach, whether in the United
Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the
World Bank. We know that rules and standards set
internationally provide us the greatest certainty and
the greatest protection. We draw strength from global
agreements and from the collective commitment they
represent.
That is why we attach such importance to the
completion of the Doha Round. While New Zealand
continues to actively negotiate bilateral and regional
trade agreements, we acknowledge that free trade
agreements often leave least developed countries on the
sidelines. The benefit of the WTO, as with the United
Nations, is that the rules negotiated there apply across
the globe, irrespective of a country’s size or wealth.
Our preference for international rules reflects New
Zealand’s national approach to governance. We have
a robust and transparent system of Government and
sound financial institutions that have helped us ride out
the worst effects of the global financial crisis. That was
despite the significant economic and social challenges
we faced after the destructive earthquake that struck
Christchurch, our second largest city, in 2011.
As we work to restore the built environment in
Christchurch, New Zealanders are also conscious
of our dependence on and our responsibility towards
the natural environment. In policy terms, climate
change has been a challenge for New Zealand and
for the international community more broadly, but
New Zealanders know we must play our part, and we
have taken action. We have introduced an extensive
emissions-trading scheme. We are investing in the
Global Research Alliance to find new ways to manage
agricultural greenhouse gases, and we have committed
to reducing emissions to 5 per cent below 1990 levels
by 2020.
We made that commitment under the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
rather than the Kyoto Protocol. We did that because,
while the Kyoto Protocol once seemed to provide a path
forward, things have changed. The Protocol now covers
only a small percentage of global emissions. We need a
single legal framework that commits all major emitters.
While climate change is an important issue, it pales
in comparison to the problems faced by many Member
States. One of the most intractable is that of Israel and
Palestine. As long as that problem is left unresolved,
there can be no assured peace in the Middle East and no
security for the wider region. There can be no resolution
without the Israeli and Palestinian peoples both being
assured of viable homelands within secure borders.
New Zealand pays tribute to the tenacity of United
States Secretary of State Kerry and to the courage of
President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu in
agreeing to resume the Middle East peace process.
In our own region, we have celebrated the successful
conclusion of the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste
and the transition of the Regional Assistance Mission
to the Solomon Islands from a military to a police-led
operation. We look forward with intense interest and
cautious hope to the reinstatement of democracy in
Fiji. We acknowledge the positive developments there,
including with regard to election preparations and voter
registration. The countries of the Pacific, including
New Zealand, want and need Fiji to be successful,
democratic and well-governed.
Earlier this year, New Zealand withdrew the bulk
of its forces from Afghanistan, following the closure of
the New Zealand-led provincial reconstruction team in
Bamian province, which provided security and helped
bring about a significant improvement in governance
and development. Schools and hospitals were rebuilt and
health centres re-opened. Mortality rates for children
under 5 were halved. Maternal deaths are now a quarter
of the Taliban-era levels. Girls now make up half the
number of primary-school-age children. New Zealand
expertise also helped substantially improve agricultural
yields through the implementation of modern farming
techniques. We are building the largest solar energy
system in Afghanistan, which will bring a renewable
source of electricity to much of Bamian township. That
was a big commitment by a small country situated far
away. It also came at a considerable cost: 10 of our
servicemen and women lost their lives while on duty
there. Even so, we are proud of what we achieved in
partnership with the people of Bamian and hope that
those gains can be sustained in the years ahead.
In Africa we see a continent where many countries
have faced real challenges. However, as the President of
Nigeria reminded us earlier this week (see A/68/PV.5),
the new story of Africa is the growing number of
countries in the region that are enjoying the benefits
of good governance, sound economic growth and
development, driving positive change throughout the
continent. All of that is good news for Africa and for
the world. New Zealand will do what it can to help
with targeted assistance in areas where we have real
expertise to offer, namely, in the fields of agriculture,
renewable energy and good governance. New Zealand
also recognizes and supports the critical roles of the
African Union and Africa’s subregional bodies in
ensuring Africa’s security and future prosperity.
New Zealand recognizes the importance to Africa,
the Caribbean and our own region of the Arms Trade
Treaty, adopted in April and signed by New Zealand
and many others on 3 June The Treaty should curb the
flows of small arms and other weapons, especially to
conflict regions, and help arrest the deaths and human
misery that they cause.
I want to also applaud the progress made in
implementing the Millennium Development Goals,
while at the same time acknowledging the fact that
much work remains to be done. We now need to work
together on a post-2015 development agenda focused on
creating economic opportunities and the eradication of
poverty.
Many of the same issues will be addressed at
the Third International Conference on Small Island
Developing States, which Samoa is to host in 2014.
New Zealand is pleased to be a major supporter of that
important United Nations effort and, with the rest of
the Pacific, looks forward to welcoming the world to
our region.
We need to remind ourselves that sound governance
arrangements and transparency of process are also
vital virtues for international organizations, including
the United Nations. By any objective assessment, the
Organization has not been equipped with the structures
and rules it needs to operate as it should. Yet there has
been deep resistance to efforts to make things better.
That needs to change. The rationale for United Nations
reform is clear. Membership has quadrupled since 1945,
yet over the same period its key organs — particularly
the Security Council — have become hostage to their
own traditions and to the interests of the most powerful.
From the 1950s to the 1990s, we could blame the
Cold War when the Security Council did not act. That
does not wash today. The problems are more systemic
and relate both to the composition and the formal and
informal processes of the Council. We now seem to have
a practice whereby the permanent members not only
can block Council actions through the use of the veto,
but also appear to have privileged access to information
and can stop the Council from meeting if it does not
suit their collective purposes. Such behaviour damages
the reputation and credibility of the wider Organization
and must be challenged. Such issues are not necessarily
matters of Charter reform, which we know is difficult,
but have to do with the effective functioning of the
Organization — an issue in which we all have a stake.
New Zealand is not advocating revolution, but we
are asserting that the Council can and must do better in
the way it conducts its business. That is the approach
New Zealand will bring to the Security Council if we
are elected next October. If successful, it will be 21
years since New Zealand last served on the Council — a
long time ago, but not so long that we have forgotten the
lessons learned during our last term. At the top of that
list is the imperative that members have to be engaged;
they must listen to the concerns of others and have a
view and a voice if they are to be relevant. There is
no point in joining the Council simply to make up the
numbers. Sometimes there is a need to speak up and
shine a light on what is going on, or not going on, even
when that may be inconvenient to others. That applies
whether the issue was Rwanda, Somalia, Yemen or
Yugoslavia in 1993-94, or is the Democratic Republic
of Congo, the Sudan or Syria in 2013 to 2014.
My hope is that when Member States make their
decision on whom to vote for in October 2014, they will
look at New Zealand’s record and know that we will be
a credible, positive influence on the Security Council
and a voice for the interests of the wider Organization.