I wish you success during
your presidency, Sir.
This year began with a tragic earthquake in Haiti
that took the lives of more than 200,000 people,
including United Nations staff and peacekeepers.
Unfortunately, several months later, Pakistan was
affected by floods with catastrophic effects. I would
like to pay tribute to those women and men who lost
their lives while working for the United Nations. I
would also like to salute those who provided assistance
to the victims. Those dramatic and very painful events
highlighted the essential role that the United Nations is
capable of playing in our lives and the extraordinary
performance of an Organization that many seem to take
for granted.
The universal character of the United Nations
enables Member States to carry out activities and
achieve agreed goals, regardless of their form of
Government or culture. One cannot underestimate the
contribution of the United Nations to peacekeeping and
peacebuilding, its role in the promotion of the rule of
law and human rights, or its contribution to the
codification of international law.
Poland has always been a firm and reliable
supporter of the United Nations. Effective
multilateralism is an objective reflected in the policies
of my Government and a guiding principle of the
European Union (EU). We note both the heightened
expectations and the criticism with respect to the
United Nations and other international organizations.
We are therefore raising the issue of reform, as we
want the United Nations to be more efficient and better
adapted to the new global environment. If it fails to
meet the hopes and expectations of its Members, it will
suffer marginalization, which might negatively affect
multilateralism, as well as certainty and predictability
in international relations.
Poland has been participating in the ongoing
process of reflection on the accommodation of the
United Nations to contemporary and foreseeable risks
and challenges. In our opinion, the United Nations
should improve its ability to cooperate with other
institutions and organizations, particularly on a
regional basis.
Poland supports efforts aimed at reforming the
Security Council, an organ tasked with preserving
peace and security. We need to take into account
changes in the international system brought about after
the end of the cold war and, at the same time, preserve
the Council’s cohesion and the feasibility of its
decision-making process. We favour an additional
non-permanent seat for the Eastern European group.
We also find interesting and worth discussing the idea
of EU representation. In general, we attach much
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importance to the role of the EU in the United Nations
system. That is why we would encourage non-EU
Member States to support our efforts to ensure a proper
place for the EU, an observer in the General Assembly,
in the form of a resolution.
We attach great importance to the enhancement of
the credibility of United Nations action in the field of
democracy and human rights. Let me remind the
Assembly of the successful meeting of the Community
of Democracies in Krakow in July 2010. Poland is
convinced that promoting universal respect for human
rights throughout the world contributes to security and
to social and economic progress.
In this respect, we applaud the establishment of
the new consolidated gender entity of the United
Nations, UN Women. We also believe that the review
and reform of the Human Rights Council, of which we
are a member, will strengthen the effectiveness of that
body.
Our planet is exposed to an increasing number of
existential threats. Experience shows that no country
can solve the world’s problems alone. A global
response is therefore necessary to meeting global
challenges. The United Nations has the capacity to
justify and, in many instances, generate such a
response. We expect excellence as a standard feature of
the United Nations. In the final analysis, it is only with
the consent and support of its Member States that the
United Nations can deliver such excellence.
The latest world economic crisis demonstrated
the need for globally coordinated economic and
financial policies. These are currently being debated by
the General Assembly’s Second Committee and by the
specialized agencies and United Nations-related
organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank. Poland expects the United
Nations to be the key forum for multilateral debate on
the issues pertaining to the crisis. We hope that the
current crisis will not hinder United Nations Member
States from achieving the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).
Various political, economic, social and
environmental problems are making States increasingly
open to deepened cooperation. The complicated nature
of new challenges demands sophisticated expertise and
the integration of efforts. The United Nations
safeguards both. Poland deems the United Nations to
be an appropriate body to address the global issues of
security and economy.
Peace and security are a fundamental issue. Our
goal is a world without nuclear weapons and other
arms of mass destruction; a world without terrorism;
and a world capable of diffusing the threats of war and
conflict. The United Nations should strengthen its
involvement in meeting these objectives, anticipate and
prevent conflicts, where possible, and develop the
capacity to resolve them effectively once they break
out.
The engagement of the United Nations in
peacekeeping operations continues to produce visible
and desirable effects, especially in its political and
humanitarian dimensions. The experience we have
gained from the increased engagement of recent years
allows us to better understand its complexity and
limitations and the challenges ahead. We believe that
peacekeeping reform must continue. We support efforts
that will bring new quality to peacekeeping, and in this
regard we are committed to working towards achieving
a wider consensus on its strategic aspects through a
renewed partnership among all stakeholders.
This year will, we hope, be associated with major
progress in the area of disarmament and non-proliferation.
The success of the Review Conference of the Parties to
the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons (NPT) proved that a consensus is possible in
this specific area of international cooperation. Efficient
and practical implementation of the outcome of the
NPT Review Conference remains a crucial task. We are
convinced that the initiative launched recently by
Australia and Japan, which involves the participation
of Poland and 10 other countries, will contribute to this
goal.
We perceive the NPT Review Conference, the
New START treaty and the Nuclear Security Summit as
significant steps forward, but regard the
implementation of their decisions as a challenge.
Among issues related to nuclear disarmament,
there is one that clearly stands out: the status of
sub-strategic nuclear weapons, the reduction and
elimination of which have not yet been covered by any
legally binding international instrument. A world
without nuclear weapons cannot be achieved if this
challenge is not dealt with.
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The Conference on Disarmament requires our
special attention. We applaud the efforts of the
Secretary-General, who convened a few days ago a
special summit devoted to disarmament. Poland
attaches considerable importance to that body and calls
on all States to redouble their efforts to invigorate the
Conference as a platform for multilateral disarmament
and non-proliferation negotiations.
The impact of the economic and financial crises
continues to affect most countries. The scarcity of
high-quality jobs has become an issue of primary
importance. Efforts are necessary to mobilize resources
and provide opportunities for the benefit of the most
vulnerable segments of society. Satisfying basic needs
is once again at the forefront of global concerns.
The energy sector has become an area of major
attention. Costs, security of supplies and reducing
pollution are some of the sensitive issues. We face the
challenge of making clean energy not only a social
preference but also a market choice.
We need a shift in our thinking about the North-
South dichotomy in order to allow the international
community to move effectively forward. Allowing
ourselves to be defined by our differences is a recipe
for disaster. It is therefore important to focus on
common elements and on the diversity of conditions
and situations of States and to move away from a
claims mentality.
The pace of market globalization exceeds the
capacity of many Governments to ensure global
economic stability. The growing interdependence of
national economies increases the risk of the
transmission of destabilizing shocks between countries.
Economic activities within the United Nations are
today scattered among many institutions. This often
leads to overlapping powers between them. The role of
the United Nations might be to coordinate the
objectives and ensure coherence between the activities
of major international organizations, to provide the
necessary political leadership and long-term strategic
policy framework, and to promote stable and
sustainable development.
The High-level Plenary Meeting on the MDGs
that ended on 22 September reconfirmed the
importance of development cooperation and restated
the commitment of the international community to
attaining the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
The Meeting recognized the crucial role of the United
Nations and the United Nations system in the field of
development cooperation and commended their
continued engagement and efforts.
Poland reiterates its support for implementing the
MDGs. They constitute a primary point of reference for
our programme of foreign assistance. We are also
bound by the provisions of the Paris Declaration and
the principle of aid effectiveness expressed therein. We
strongly support coordination among all development
partners.
Our official development assistance is oriented to
serve the pro-growth policies of our partners. The
mobilization of domestic resources, foreign direct
investment and good economic policy are the basic
drivers of development. Development policies should
therefore be implemented in accordance with the
principles of sustainable development and good
governance. We welcome the progress on the MDGs,
which is largely a result of continued efforts by
developing countries. With regard to development
assistance, it is extremely important that the principles
of national ownership and leadership, as well as of
mutual accountability, be strengthened and fully
respected. Poland is actively involved in promoting
global development cooperation.
We are committed to United Nations activities in
the field of poverty reduction and the promotion of
sustainable development. We note with satisfaction the
positive results of the One United Nations reform and
the increased efficiency of assistance provided by the
United Nations. We support the activities conducted by
the agencies of the United Nations agencies, in both
the development and the humanitarian fields.
Poland expects an ambitious, forward-looking
and action-oriented outcome of the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012. We
look forward to attaining all the principal aims of the
Conference, which should also bridge the trust gap
between developed and developing countries evident in
the climate change negotiations. Its outcome should be
a focused political document, universal in nature,
aimed at identifying concrete actions for all countries.
It should be linked to the MDGs, taking into account
the specific needs of developing countries. We call for
a redoubling of the efforts to ensure that institutions
involved in implementing the sustainable development
agenda become more effective and efficient through
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improved synergies and the provision of adequate
resources.
Poland, which played host to the fourteenth
session of the Conference of the Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) and the fourth meeting of the Parties to the
Kyoto Protocol, will continue its efforts aimed at
building international consensus on a comprehensive
global post-2012 agreement. The role of the United
Nations system is essential to maintaining an effective
and efficient response to challenges posed by climate
change.
In this regard, we would like to thank the
Secretary-General for putting climate change at the top
of the agenda of the United Nations system and for his
numerous efforts to address the negative impact of
such change. Climate change is a global challenge that
can be addressed effectively only through a global
effort within the UNFCCC framework.
Poland believes that the international community
should continue to focus its attention on improved and
enhanced implementation and monitoring of the three
Rio Conventions, developing synergies among them,
and on increasing the efficiency and coherence of the
United Nations system. The consultative process
inaugurated at the eleventh special session of the
Governing Council of the United Nations Environment
Programme on the reform of the international
environmental governance system was an important
contribution to the debate on environmental
governance in the context of the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development. While being
realistic and pragmatic, we should also be ambitious.
In conclusion, I wish to say a few words about
solidarity. It is necessary to understand the relevance of
international solidarity, working closely together,
building new coalitions and bridging old divides to
arrive at common objectives. Our common future is at
stake. There is no guarantee of success, but surely we
risk failure if we do not take action. New partnerships,
building confidence in policy objectives, and positive
engagement among partners are the necessary
elements.