The values upon which the Organization was founded,
65 years ago, are still appropriate for overcoming the
global challenges we face today. Whether in fighting
poverty, protecting the environment and conserving
biodiversity, building peace in conflict areas, helping
populations affected by natural disasters, promoting
human rights, the rule of law and democracy in the
world, making progress towards disarmament and
non-proliferation or combating terrorism, we need to
work together today more than ever before.
You yourself, Mr. President, have quite rightly
organized the general debate under the theme
“Reaffirming the central role of the United Nations in
global governance”. As a founding Member of the
United Nations, Luxembourg fully endorses the
Secretary-General’s assessment that only the United
Nations has the scope, knowledge and legitimacy
necessary to develop and implement effective policies
in order to address global challenges, which require
urgent and collective responses. However, we cannot
content ourselves with that simple article of faith. We
need to draw the necessary conclusions and take
responsibility for them. Those responsibilities are both
individual and collective ones, especially for members
of the international community and our universal
Organization.
At the High-level Plenary Meeting on the
Millennium Development Goals, which was held
earlier this week, we reiterated our collective
determination to do everything possible to free
humankind from hunger, illiteracy and disease and
ultimately to free the Earth of inequalities — between
and within continents, regions and countries and
between men and women.
Luxembourg welcomes this renewed commitment
to combat poverty in its manifold dimensions. The
establishment of a true partnership for development is
based upon shared responsibilities for both donor and
recipient countries. Although we rely on stronger
action from developing countries on good governance,
the rule of law, capacity-building and development
ownership, developed countries must fulfil their
commitments in terms of aid quality and quantity. This
is a needed basis for such a partnership, particularly
with regard to Africa.
I am proud to say that Luxembourg is among the
countries to have kept its promises. We strive to be a
reliable international partner, even in times of crisis.
By 2000, Luxembourg’s official development
assistance (ODA) had reached the threshold of 0.7 per
cent of gross national income (GNI), and in 2009, our
ODA surpassed 1 per cent of GNI. Our Government is
committed to maintaining this effort, both in terms of
volume and percentage of gross national income. That
effort is necessarily linked to steadily growing quality
of aid.
The duty to prevent, contain and resolve violent
conflict is a central aim of our Organization. The
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Charter calls on us to unite our forces in order to
maintain international peace and security. With more
than 120,000 men and women deployed, peacekeeping
operations have reached an unprecedented scale in
recent years. While the stabilizing role of United
Nations forces is undeniable, the changing nature of
conflicts and the increasing complexity of mandates
have also revealed the limits of the system, structures
and basic tools of our Organization.
The mass rapes and sexual assaults that took
place in North Kivu this summer and the inability of
the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to protect
civilians are stark reminders of the difficulty of
maintaining peace in conflict areas in the absence of
adequate resources and mandates. Those atrocities
compel us to urgently continue the debate on the future
of peacekeeping operations and to overcome our
differences and divisions on this particular issue.
They also serve to underscore once again the
importance of substantial United Nations action to
eradicate the use of sexual violence as a weapon of
war. In that regard, I welcome the appointment of
Ms. Margot Wallström as Special Representative of the
Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. In
this, the tenth anniversary year of Security Council
resolution 1325 (2000), on women and peace and
security, such heinous acts and flagrant violations of
human rights can no longer be tolerated. Impunity must
also be brought to an end.
While the primary responsibility for the safety
and safety of its citizens and for combating poverty and
establishing the rule of law lies within the Congolese
Government, the international community must do
everything possible to support that Government in its
efforts to ensure that those responsible for these
horrendous crimes are actively sought out, tried and
punished. Combating impunity must also lead us to be
far more attentive to the report on violations of human
rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
between 1993 and 2003, the publication of which the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights has announced for 1 October 2010.
As I said at the Review Conference of the Rome
Statute, held in Kampala in May, combating impunity
for the most serious crimes should not be an abstract
goal any longer, but become a tangible and concrete
reality. All of us must cooperate to ensure success in
that regard.
Year after year, in this very forum, we express
our hope to see peace established in the Middle East.
We once again call for a solution based on the
coexistence of two States, Israel and Palestine, living
side by side in peace and security. We urge the parties
to assume their responsibility to create through their
actions the framework for a lasting settlement of the
conflict. To date, as we know, such calls have mostly
been in vain.
The resumption of direct talks between Israelis
and Palestinians on 2 September 2010, however, once
again gives me hope that we will finally reach a final
settlement that ends the occupation that began in 1967
and leads to the birth of an independent, democratic,
viable and contiguous Palestinian State living in peace
and security with Israel and its other neighbours. I
genuinely hope that the call by President Obama to
work to achieve a Palestinian State in 2011 will
become a reality.
However, we must not be distracted by the
enemies of peace and those who seek to sabotage peace
talks. It will be important for both parties to show
determination, courage, calm and restraint, and to act
solely according to international law. Hence the
importance of ending all settlement activities. They are
illegal, contrary to international law and clearly
constitute an obstacle to peace. Why is that so? While
the material fact of building on another person’s land is
in itself to be condemned, it is also a symbol of
domination and humiliation that cannot be accepted. As
a European, I am heartened that the European Union
persists in its strong unanimous call for a prolongation
of the moratorium beyond next Sunday, 26 September
2010. President Obama’s position is clearly and
unambiguously along the same lines.
Meanwhile, it will be of paramount importance to
find a lasting solution for the situation in Gaza and to
revive its economy. The blockade continues. I hope
that the calls by the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East will at
last be heard. In that context, I welcome the launching
by the Secretary-General of an international
investigation into last May’s incident involving the aid
flotilla en route to Gaza. A full, honest, impartial,
balanced and transparent investigation consistent with
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international standards is of great importance. It also,
of course, entails the credibility of our Organization.
In the Sudan, the implementation of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement is entering its final
phase with the referendum on the self-determination of
Southern Sudan and Abyei. After more than two
decades of confrontation, the prospects for a settlement
are taking shape at last. The road ahead nevertheless
remains fraught with difficulties. It is our collective
responsibility to help the Sudan steer through this
critical period and carry out a process that at last leads
to lasting peace for its people. We must ensure that the
elections are conducted in a transparent and peaceful
manner, regardless, of course, of the outcome.
Increased efforts are also needed to support the
current initiatives of the African Union and the United
Nations towards a political solution involving all
parties in Darfur in order to address the root causes of
the conflict and ensure the protection and promotion of
human rights, justice and reconciliation. The
continuing violence in Darfur threatens the stability of
the whole of the Sudan and of the larger region.
A comprehensive approach is also needed in
Somalia, a country that has for too long been
synonymous with civil war and bloody conflict. Only a
comprehensive approach will put an end to the terrorist
threat that armed groups pose to Somalia, the
subregion and the entire international community, as
well as permanently eradicating piracy and establishing
the rule of law in Somalia.
My country seeks to play its full effective role in
the global efforts to resolve the crisis in Somalia. To
that end, Luxembourg actively participates in
Operation Atalanta to deter, prevent and suppress acts
of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast, as
well as in the military mission to help train security
forces of the Transitional Federal Government — two
operations launched by the European Union in support
of Security Council decisions. Together with our
European and African partners, we intend to continue
our support for the Djibouti peace process and for the
search for a lasting political solution.
Allow me for a moment to address another issue
that I believe it is important not to overlook when
discussing ways to guarantee and strengthen peace,
security and stability at the international level:
disarmament and non-proliferation. The success of the
eighth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, held
here in New York in May, brought us closer to our
common goal of a world safer for all and free of
nuclear weapons. It will now be important to maintain
the political momentum and to ensure the full
implementation of the decisions taken, including that
relating to the holding by 2012 of a conference on a
nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. I am
certain that progress in this area will not remain
without implications for other actors and for other
issues.
In addition, as I had the opportunity to say
yesterday at the ministerial meeting on revitalizing the
work of the Conference on Disarmament convened by
the Secretary-General, we must continue our efforts at
both nuclear and conventional disarmament. The
constant search for security at the lowest possible level
of armaments will make an essential contribution to
stability in the world.
In that regard, I welcome the entry into force, on
1 August 2010, of the Convention on Cluster
Munitions, which prohibits the use, production,
transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions. At the
national level, Luxembourg, which was among the first
countries to sign and ratify the Convention, has also
prohibited the funding of cluster munitions.
The progress made towards a legally binding
arms trade instrument under the auspices of the United
Nations is also to be welcomed. The problems linked to
the unregulated trade in conventional weapons and the
diversion of those weapons into illicit markets have the
potential to fuel instability, organized crime and
terrorism, thereby jeopardizing peace, security and
sustainable economic and social development. Hence
the importance of finally adopting a binding instrument
in this field.
Next week, together with other partners, my
country will hold a symposium in Boston on an arms
trade treaty. All United Nations Member States have
been invited to participate. We hope thereby to
contribute to the discussion and consideration of this
important issue.
If we believe in the relevance of a multilateral
approach based on the United Nations, we must give
the Organization the means to be the centre of
multilateral action and a real catalyst for change. We
need to push for decisive internal reforms, including, I
believe, reform of the Security Council. We are all
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aware of the need for Council reform to make it more
inclusive and more representative of today’s realities,
as well as more effective and more transparent.
Ensuring an adequate place for small States, which
now represent the vast majority of the Organization’s
Member States, is paramount in this regard.
We must review the instruments at our disposal,
be it peacekeeping operations, to which I referred
previously, the Peacebuilding Commission or the
Human Rights Council, including the necessary
integration of human rights in all aspects of United
Nations action.
The Peacebuilding Commission represents a key
asset for the operational capacity of the international
community in the vast peace agenda. Luxembourg fully
supports the philosophy behind the Commission and is
actively involved in the Guinea-Bissau configuration.
The Commission has begun to prove its usefulness.
However, we should consider how we can make its
results more tangible at the country level in order to
allow other countries to benefit from its achievements
and face emerging challenges. Our goals must meet the
expectations of post-conflict societies and peoples. In
that regard, I welcome the recent decision to include
Liberia on the Commission’s agenda.
We also need to overcome the systemic
fragmentation that has gradually developed since the
establishment of the Organization and enhance system-
wide coherence. An important step in that direction
was taken this year with the establishment of the
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women (UN Women). I would like to
warmly welcome the appointment of Ms. Michelle
Bachelet as head of UN Women. I have no doubt that
she will demonstrate a dynamic and unwavering
commitment to serve women and girls worldwide. She
will be able to rely on the full support of my country,
which has for many years pursued an integrated gender
approach and an active policy of promoting gender
equality, including in the area of development
cooperation.
As you rightly pointed out, Sir, when you were
elected to the presidency on 11 June (see A/64/PV.93),
our primary task is to work together to find
constructive solutions for the dignity, safety and
security and well-being of all. My country is ready to
continue to play its part at the national level, but also
as a member of the European Union. The willingness
of Luxembourg to assume its national responsibilities
can be seen in the concrete examples that I have just
given. It is also expressed in our bid for a non-
permanent seat in the Security Council for the period
2013 to 2014.
The commitment of Luxembourg is also a
European one, as I have just said. By strengthening its
capabilities and the increased synergy of its
instruments following the entry into force of the
Lisbon Treaty, the European Union is now more than
ever ready to be an active, effective and supportive
actor for the United Nations in all areas in which the
Organization is active. The European Union wants to
be such an active and supportive partner. Hence the
importance we attach to a resolution regulating the
effective participation of the European Union in the
work of our Organization. It is only together in the
United Nations that we can help build a better future
for all.