Spain

May my first words be to congratulate the newly appointed President of the Assembly, Mr. Joseph Deiss, to whom I wish great success in his conduct of the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly. September is an important month in the agenda of international politics since the middle of the last century because it marks the beginning of the new session of the United Nations General Assembly, which has the city of New York as its backdrop. Far removed is the San Francisco Conference, which turned the page on global conflicts and opened the way for international cooperation by establishing a new Organization, the United Nations, an Organization geared towards promoting peace, justice and a better 10-55109 20 life for all humankind. Far removed, as well, are the times of the Bretton Woods Agreements, which established free trade rules for commercial and financial relations among the most industrialized nations of the world in order to achieve peace. In the first decade of this century we witnessed events that have shaped the future of international relations and caused a new world to emerge, as we saw in New York in the month of September. On 11 September 2001, the cities of New York and Washington suffered terrorist attacks that stunned the world and were among the most traumatic in the history of the West. In September 2008, New York was the centre and focus of a panic created by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, while just a few weeks ago, our host city experienced tensions related to intercultural coexistence and saw the relaunching of the most ambitious programme of international cooperation in history, the Millennium Development Goals. These events mark the true beginning of the twenty-first century, which is unfolding in an environment of accelerated global and interdependent transformation. We are at a historic crossroads where we must promote awareness of the reform of the United Nations system and the establishment of new mechanisms for global governance that modernize the system of international relations, consolidate multilateralism and security, and strengthen global economic recovery, while providing accountable management of growing interculturalism. Effective multilateralism is the method that will enable us to tackle the challenges of the twenty-first century. It is a method that stems from the efforts of the General Assembly and from the commitment and work of the leaders of the States represented here. It is a method based on respect and understanding in order to build new alliances and common strategies and policies. On many occasions, we hear speeches that emphasize the incapacities and weaknesses of the United Nations system. But I prefer not to preach classic doom and gloom here; rather, I would acknowledge the work and success of the United Nations as well as its capacity to respond, as seen in its response to the natural disasters suffered by Haiti and Pakistan. The capacity to take action and effectively coordinate the efforts of all countries through a multilateral approach is a path that the international system should continue to follow at this time of great challenges before us. On 11 September, the concept of security was transformed and expanded. In September 2006, the Member States approved the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, a resolution and annexed Plan of Action (resolution 60/288) which presumed for the first time to define a common strategic approach agreed by all States Members of the United Nations. This strategy was presented by Secretary-General Kofi Annan one year after the brutal and traumatic attacks of 11 March 2004 in Madrid. Since that time, the intensity and number of terrorist attacks have decreased, and we have improved security, although we are far from having won the war against international terrorism. This year we have also seen very significant advances in the area of security, disarmament and nuclear non proliferation. The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty makes it possible to reduce by 30 per cent of the nuclear warheads in the United States and Russia and represents the greatest nuclear agreement in 20 years. Last May, 189 countries signatories of the Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons approved the convening of a conference in 2012 to transform the Middle East into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction. We are beginning to come out of the worst financial and economic crisis since the 1930s. The negative fallout of this crisis will be felt through time by millions of people, especially in terms of decent employment. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008, the international financial system has required States and international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to intervene at an unprecedented level in order to maintain worldwide demand and financial markets. The lack of international regulation helped to bring about the crisis of the financial entities and has required strengthened coordination, making the Group of 20 a new forum for economic governance. The lesson of the crisis is that, for their development, international markets need not only the invisible hand, but also a global regulatory system. That is what we have understood in Europe, where we have adopted measures to harmonize the legislation of member States, so that regulatory authorities would be able to 21 10-55109 exercise both executive and disciplinary powers. Since the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, Europe is now on a path to cohesiveness in the area of foreign policy and should be seen as a single interlocutor with its own voice in the international community. It should therefore enjoy an appropriate status in the General Assembly. My Government, the Government of Spain, is in the vanguard of the fight against hunger and poverty. It has proposed in the United Nations, together with other Member States, the creation of a tax on international currency transactions whose proceeds would be used for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. While the Food and Agriculture Organization has provided us with encouraging data — we have seen hunger decrease in the world for the first time — the figure of 925 million hungry people in the world is morally and politically unacceptable. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon knows that he can count on Spain for the mobilization of efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Indeed, fighting poverty cannot be a casualty of the economic recession because, despite the crisis, it is not material conditions but political will that will be the key to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The time has come to take responsibility for combating climate change. To face this challenge, we need to change the way in which we perceive development and economic growth. A greater effort is required to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependency on fossil fuels, and to commit to renewable energy and efficient and responsible consumption. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has created a point of reference to provide us with a regime that defines realistic solutions and responds to our concerns and priorities. In a few months, we will attend the Climate Change Conference and should be aware of the effort necessary to pave the way to the meeting in Cancún, where the very credibility of the multilateral system will be at stake. The Conference will be successful if we take a realistic approach demonstrating solidarity and generosity towards the most vulnerable States. It should lead us to an ambitious agreement by which States represented in the General Assembly can take ownership of the objectives and verifiable commitments contained therein. To bring these objectives to fruition, we need the equitable integration of almost half the world’s population — women. The tenth anniversary of the adoption of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), on women and peace and security, should provide us with an opportunity to enhance gender equality in the public arena, in institutions and in the economic, social and cultural spheres. We can and should move ahead with these reforms because there are positive indications that this mandate is dynamic, such as the recent creation of UN Women, led by former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, whom I congratulate on her appointment as Director of the new entity. With regard to human rights, Spain is firmly committed to abolishing the death penalty and introduced an initiative to the General Assembly two years ago to that end. The International Commission against the Death Penalty, proposed by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, will soon be established and begin its work. We believe that capital punishment is an absolute violation of human rights due to its irreversibility, which also makes it the most extreme case of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. My country unequivocally supports peaceful and negotiated solutions to all international conflicts, in accordance with United Nations resolutions. Achieving peace in the Middle East remains a strategic priority for Spain. That is why, on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the Madrid Conference, we continue to work resolutely to ensure that the process of direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians will finally lead to the two-State solution. The Israeli and Palestinian peoples know they can count on all our support at this time, when various thorny issues related to the conflict are being addressed. In this regard, I add my voice to the appeal made from this very rostrum by the President of the United States for the moratorium on building in the settlements to be maintained. In order to achieve a lasting, fair and comprehensive peace, it is vital to resolve the issues that relate to Syria and Lebanon and to work within a multilateral framework that creates a genuine global coalition for peace in the Middle East. We all know that stability in the Western Balkans and the full integration of its countries into the 10-55109 22 European Union is a basic priority for Europe. In 2010, we commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Zagreb Conference. Spain, which held the European Union presidency at the time, convened a high-level meeting in Sarajevo in May that was attended by all actors involved and at which the European Union reaffirmed its commitment to the region’s stability and European future. Recently, the consensus adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 64/298, sponsored by the 27 members of the European Union and Serbia on one of the region’s pending issues showed the willingness of all actors in the international community to achieve the aforementioned objectives. Spain reiterates its support for the mediation efforts undertaken by the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Mr. Christopher Ross. The conflict in that territory must be resolved by mutual agreement among the parties and pursuant to the United Nations resolutions calling for the self- determination of the Saharans. In our view, Ibero-America is undergoing unprecedented social and political change. At the start of the bicentennial commemorations of the independence of these republics, Spain wishes to join the celebrations by attending the Ibero-American summits and by strengthening its bilateral relations and relations between the European Union and Latin America. Cuba deserves special mention following the recent decisions taken by Cuban authorities. Embargos and unilateral attitudes that only disappoint new expectations are useless and make no sense. Africa is clearly one of the most important future challenges to the international community and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Progress achieved in the areas of good governance and democratization on the continent are cause for optimism and should allow it, with international cooperation, to overcome the crises in the Sahel, Somalia or the Great Lakes region. Spain reiterates its firm commitment to Africa. Coexistence in a globalized world should motivate us to strengthen the instruments for good governance and promote cultural and intercultural diversity, which are among the most pressing challenges of the twenty-first century. International consolidation of the Alliance of Civilizations, as a tool of preventive diplomacy, is now a fact and a resource we must use. More than 100 States, along with 23 international organizations, now belong to the Group of Friends of the Alliance of Civilizations. I take this opportunity to invite those countries that have not yet joined to do so. In a landscape of international economic crisis, intercultural tensions run the risk of exacerbation. This should impel us to continue working for the respect and understanding of cultures and civilizations in order to counter expressions of hatred, fanaticism, division and confrontation. The new world requires us to adapt and enlarge the international institutional architecture. As the Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset said, “men do not live together just because; they do so for the purpose of great undertakings”. Today the United Nations has a great undertaking: to complete the reform of our institutions and lay the foundations for global governance. Together, we can face the challenges and global crises of the twenty-first century and construct an international system that is fairer, more balanced and more sustainable. Bretton Woods in 1944 and the San Francisco Conference in 1945 were the results of half a century of crises and two world wars. Believe me, we are not doomed to wait another half century to reform and establish new institutions for the twenty-first century. We have already waited a decade, but we cannot continue to wait much longer, because we can feel history breathing down our necks.