I
sincerely congratulate His Excellency Mr. Nassir
Abdulaziz Al-Nasser on his election to the post of
President of the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth
session. I am convinced that his considerable
experience will contribute to the achievement of
significant results on behalf of States Members of the
United Nations and the entire Organization.
This year, the great family of States Members of the
United Nations was enriched by a new 193rd Member. On
behalf of Ukraine, I would like to express our support
for the Government and people of South Sudan in the
process of State-building, and to assure them of
Ukraine’s readiness to develop equal and mutually
beneficial cooperation with a new member of the
international community.
This is a special session given the number of high-
level meetings devoted to issues of a global scale —
nuclear safety and security, the prevention of
non-communicable diseases, desertification and land
degradation, racism and discrimination.
During this session, the delegation of Ukraine has
actively participated in discussions on the issues that
are most topical for our State — nuclear security and
disease control. With regard to the theme of the general
debate, “The role of mediation in the settlement of
disputes”, I note that the issue of preventing armed
conflict, and the loss of human lives and the suffering
triggered by them, was one of the cornerstones of
Ukraine’s first membership, as an independent State, of
the Security Council in 2000-2001.
Preventive diplomacy and mediation at the
regional and international levels, from the frozen
conflicts in the post-Soviet space to a peaceful
settlement in the Middle East and the restoration of
stability in North Africa, remain an integral part of
Ukraine’s foreign policy. We pursue that policy in the
United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, and will
continue to do so during Ukraine’s presidency of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in
2013.
Regrettably, conflict prevention efforts are often
not effective enough, and conflict settlement takes too
long. Our main duty in such cases is to save lives and
to alleviate the fate of civilians who find themselves in
danger. Ukraine will always provide help to those who
suffer. In addition to humanitarian efforts, we are ready
to support all constructive international peace
initiatives and preventive measures.
We believe that, in armed confrontations, top
priority must be given to respect for human rights, first
of all by ensuring the safety of civilians. Guided by
this principle, Ukraine was among the first to carry out
a humanitarian mission in Libya at the beginning of
this year. The Ukrainian amphibious landing ship
Konstantin Olshansky was used to evacuate almost
200 citizens of 20 nationalities, more than half of them
women and children, from the conflict zone.
Ukraine has just celebrated the twentieth
anniversary of its independence. Today, we are
assessing the road we have travelled and rethinking
some important moments in our modern history in
order to find effective solutions to the issues that have
remained unresolved for many years. It is precisely for
that purpose that I have initiated sweeping reforms in
the country, aimed at social and economic
transformations and at further strengthening the
democratic system and the rule of law in Ukraine.
The foundations of all reform processes in
Ukraine are the fundamental democratic values that
Ukrainians share with other Europeans. That is why the
guiding principles we have determined for the
modernization of the country are directly related to the
ambitious objectives contained in the future
Association Agreement between Ukraine and the
European Union.
The twentieth anniversary of our independence is
only an instant in historical terms, yet the roots of our
statehood can be traced back thousands of years. Since
ancient times, Ukraine has been developing a European
spirit and culture, while cherishing the traditions of
tolerance and inter-ethnic and intercultural harmony in
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our society. We believe that straightforward and frank
dialogue based on universal values is the only way to
find a common language in each country and in
international relations alike.
Ukraine’s position on the need to uphold human
rights at all times and everywhere as the highest value
has always been crystal clear. Examples of that
commitment are seen in Ukraine’s activities during its
two terms of membership in the Human Rights Council
from June 2006 to June 2011. We will not lessen our
attention to this subject and are planning to rejoin the
Council in 2018.
As Chair of the Committee of Ministers of the
Council of Europe from May to November this year,
Ukraine is focused on the issues of children’s rights,
the development of local self-governance and the rule
of law. We are convinced that the rule of law and
respect for human rights, as the bases for building a
society, are needed to counter many contemporary
threats, including the complex challenges of terrorism.
Recently, the world shuddered from the attack on
the United Nations building in Nigeria, which offered
yet further proof that the ugly face of terrorism is
becoming more repulsive and brazen. The blow was
struck directly against our Organization, which is of
particular concern and requires increased security for
United Nations premises.
As one of the State initiators of the Convention
on the Safety of United Nations and Associated
Personnel, and as a party to all universal anti-terrorist
conventions currently in force, Ukraine resolutely
condemns any manifestations of terrorism. We believe
that all terrorist acts, regardless of who commits them
and where or why they are committed, violate a
fundamental human right — the right to life — and
therefore constitute a crime against humanity. I pay
tribute to the memory of those killed 10 years ago, on
11 September 2001, as well as to all other victims of
terrorist attacks.
I am sincerely proud of the significant
contribution of Ukraine to the peaceful coexistence of
humankind. I refer not only to our voluntarily
abandoning nuclear arms and large stockpiles of highly
enriched uranium. The awareness of the global scale of
the effects of the Chernobyl disaster was the impetus
for my initiative to convene the Kyiv Summit on the
Safe and Innovative Use of Nuclear Energy in April.
The Summit enabled us to enhance international
cooperation in strengthening nuclear safety and in
responding adequately to accidents and emergencies. I
sincerely thank all the participants in the Kyiv Summit
and all of the donor countries that announced their
contributions to Chernobyl projects.
We also welcome the holding of the high-level
meeting on nuclear safety and security, scheduled for
tomorrow. We are committed to jointly working further
on this issue. Our country has unique experience in the
rehabilitation of the area and the population victimized
by the Chernobyl disaster. We are ready to share this
experience. Ukraine consistently supports efforts to
ensure gradual and irreversible nuclear disarmament
for the purpose of completely eliminating nuclear
weapons from the world. We continue to insist that
security assurances for non-nuclear and non-aligned
States should be enshrined in a legally binding
international instrument. I urge the leaders of other
States to consciously follow the example of Ukraine
and its practical actions to promote disarmament and
non-proliferation.
Ukraine is actively participating in United
Nations efforts to maintain international peace and
security. Throughout its 20 years of independence, over
34,000 Ukraine’s soldiers and police have taken part in
peacekeeping missions in more than 20 operations
under the United Nations mandate. Ukraine is a
dedicated supporter of United Nations peacekeeping
reform, the goal of which is to strengthen the
Organization’s capacity and eliminate existing
shortcomings. Utmost attention should be paid to
ensuring the mobility of aviation resources in United
Nations peacekeeping, as well as to enhancing legal
protection for Blue Helmets. We are grateful to
Member States for their support of Ukraine’s initiatives
in this area, and we hope for effective joint work to be
undertaken in this direction.
One year ago, we held a High-level Plenary
Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals.
Ukraine is committed to its obligations in achieving
national development goals. Among our main priorities
are poverty reduction, ensuring quality education,
environmental protection, improving health and
reducing child mortality, curbing the spread of
HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and ensuring gender
equality.
Working on today’s immediate tasks, we believe
it is necessary to pay greater attention to the
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increasingly acute issue of climate change and
environmental protection. We endorse the idea of
creating an effective international mechanism for the
environmental protection of Earth as our common
planet — a global environmental organization with
universal membership functioning on a permanent
basis. We also call upon Member States to study the
idea of developing a new universal instrument that
could serve as a so-called environmental constitution,
give all countries clear guidelines from the cultural
perspective, and identify compulsory principles for the
sustainable development of the global green economy
and the environmental safety of the planet.
We consider it necessary to work on improving
global energy security. We encourage the development,
under United Nations coordination, of an effective
multilateral cooperation mechanism aimed at achieving
development goals in the energy field.
In overcoming the impact of the global economic
crisis, we must avoid new challenges to the financial
sector that affect trade and investment. It is our belief
that economic and social development should be
facilitated by the further liberalization of trade.
In recent years, we have come to see how
vulnerable any one nation can be to various security
threats and natural or manmade disasters. All these
examples have shown us the need for effective
international mechanisms for combating such
phenomena. It is high time that the United Nations and
its specialized agencies seriously strengthened their
role in coordinating international efforts aimed at
preventing, responding to and overcoming the impacts
of catastrophes and severe humanitarian crises. We
look forward to strengthening the specialized United
Nations agencies and improving their effectiveness.
Ukraine stands ready to continue its active involvement
in the practical humanitarian efforts of the World Food
Programme. A few days ago, Ukraine decided to
provide, through the United Nations, humanitarian
assistance in the form of wheat for the purpose of
combating hunger in the Horn of Africa.
Ukraine supports the greater involvement of the
General Assembly in international life and
strengthening its voice in addressing a wide range of
global issues. The modern world is presenting the
United Nations with new, complex and increasingly
difficult issues. We will not be able to improve the
effectiveness of our joint work, however, without
comprehensive reform of the Organization and its
principal bodies, including the Security Council.
Ukraine is open to discussing all progressive
concepts of reform that can bring Member States to the
broadest possible agreement. The consideration of the
interests of every regional group is an indispensable
component of the process of reforming the Council.
Ukraine believes that at least one additional
non-permanent seat of an expanded Security Council
should be given to the Group of Eastern European
States.
I am confident that the sixty-sixth session of the
General Assembly will strengthen the United Nations
in the face of global challenges and threats, reliably
guaranteed by our strong political commitment and a
clear vision of our common goals. I believe in our
shared success.