Mr. President, I
wish to congratulate you on your election as the head
of the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session and
to assure you that the delegation of the Republic of San
Marino will do its utmost in collaborating with you
throughout the session.
In my first speech before this Assembly as
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of San
Marino, I would like to express my most sincere thanks
to the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Ban
Ki-moon, for guiding this Organization with great
energy and extraordinary dedication. I wish to mention
his admirable commitment in the area of reform and
his constant and important involvement in world
affairs.
The United Nations reform process is fundamental
to ensuring future world stability and must remain a
priority in our efforts, not only because we have the
duty to guarantee that the Organization and all its
activities are fully effective, but in particular in order
to preserve its primary and essential value. We cannot
afford to witness a decentralization of the substantial
role of the United Nations caused by the impossibility
of reaching agreement on measures to be implemented
for the improvement of its functioning.
Moreover, I would like to express the
appreciation of San Marino for the work accomplished
in the General Assembly with the contribution of all
States Members of the United Nations, as well as for
the attention paid to particularly relevant issues, such
as the world economic and financial crisis, climate
change and the global food crisis.
The Republic of San Marino supports the process
of the revitalization of the General Assembly. That
process is a political reform necessary to reaffirm the
Assembly’s role as the most representative body of the
United Nations, as well as the role and leadership of its
President. San Marino believes that the reform should
make the activities of the General Assembly more
efficient and effective, improve its relations with the
other main United Nations bodies to avoid duplication
of work and aim at the effective implementation of its
resolutions.
The Security Council reform process, which the
Republic of San Marino has been following with
commitment and interest since the beginning, is also
very important. We are grateful to the Afghan Chair for
the important activity carried out and for the way in
which it has presided over the intergovernmental
negotiations aimed at reaching the widest possible
political agreement on Security Council reforms.
San Marino believes that the aims of the reform
should be to make the Security Council more
democratic, transparent, efficient, accountable and
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representative, to restore the balance between the
Security Council and the General Assembly, and to
enhance its cooperation with the Secretariat. It is
important that this process allow for the development
of a sense of belonging to the Security Council among
all Member States, thus avoiding the risk that it could
be perceived as an isolated body within the United
Nations. Moreover, the reform should take into
consideration the legitimate interest of all States, big
and small, in being elected to the Security Council.
San Marino participates with commitment and
interest in the intergovernmental negotiations on the
reform of the Security Council and regrets that, to date,
no reasonable compromise has been reached to make it
more representative, democratic and possibly less
paralyzed by cross-vetoes concerning fundamental
issues.
Mr. Acharya (Nepal), Vice-President, took the
Chair.
The reforms of the General Assembly and the
Security Council are encompassed in a wider process
of transformation and strengthening of the role of the
United Nations within the global governance system.
San Marino believes that the United Nations plays and
must continue to play a pivotal role in managing the
global governance system and that the United Nations
reform process must be aimed at reaching this
objective.
Today’s world is characterized by marked
differences in terms of power, wealth, income and
social well-being among nations and peoples, and
within individual nations. Unfortunately, the world is
beset by numerous ethnic and interreligious conflicts,
which are sometimes fuelled by economic and
geopolitical factors originating outside the area of the
conflict. Moreover, global warming, which is also a
consequence of indiscriminate energy consumption in
developed and developing countries, is one of the
major causes of disasters and is leading, inter alia, to a
reduction in agricultural yields in tropical and
subtropical countries. Furthermore, this year in
particular the world economy has undergone one of the
most devastating financial crises in history, whose
consequences are clear to everyone.
These challenges can be faced only through
global and coordinated action, and the United Nations
has the responsibility and the duty to be at the centre of
this process. Only by tapping into the rich and varied
cultures and traditions represented by the United
Nations is it possible to manage the global governance
system in such a way as to achieve sustainable human
development. That the United Nations might relinquish
its role as leader of the global governance system in
favour of other bodies would be a defeat for all.
Unfortunately, the widespread poverty that affects
such a large percentage of the global population,
causing hunger, disease and underdevelopment, is one
of the most endemic problems faced by States. Despite
the efforts made and the commitments undertaken at a
global level, poverty continues to plague the whole
planet.
San Marino values the efforts and success of the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) over the last
60 years and is proud to host Jacques Diouf, FAO
Director-General, as the official speaker at the
investiture ceremony of the new Captains-Regent, the
heads of State of the Republic of San Marino, which
will take place on 1 October 2009.
San Marino endorses the Millennium Development
Goals — which have unfortunately become more
difficult to achieve because of the crisis we are
currently facing — and believes we must continue in
our commitment.
The strengthening of multilateralism — included
by the Assembly President in the theme proposed for
this general debate, namely “Effective responses to
global crises: strengthening multilateralism and
dialogue among civilizations for international peace,
security and development” — is, in my opinion, a
central element. In fact, international organizations,
and the United Nations in the first instance, promote
the affirmation of democracy, rule of law, freedoms
and human rights as a condition for economic and
social development, cultural growth and education.
The current world economic and financial crisis
is the greatest global disaster since the very birth of the
United Nations, all the more so because it has added to
a severe food crisis that has affected many regions of
the world. As this crisis concerns all countries and
regions indiscriminately, it is now one of the major
challenges our Organization has to face.
The Republic of San Marino, as a small State,
attaches great importance to the role of the General
Assembly in the lives of our nations. It has welcomed
the high-level Conference on the World Financial and
3 09-52598
Economic Crisis and has supported its outcome
document (resolution 63/303, annex), which is the
result of long and complex negotiations. However, I
note with regret that the uncertainty in the preparation
of the Conference and the difficulties encountered in
drafting the final document discouraged the
participation of many world leaders, whose presence
could have made that United Nations conference an
historic event.
The task of the United Nations is to find, through
coordinated and global action, the right methods to
mitigate the impact of the crisis and to achieve
sustainable economic growth and development, taking
into account the negative effects of the crisis on the
attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.
Climate change has become a central issue on the
United Nations agenda in the last three years, thanks to
the commitment and efforts undertaken by the
Secretary-General in this regard. Climate change,
which in the 1990s was already among the main
environmental concerns, has now become an absolute
priority on the political agenda of all States, including
the smallest ones like our Republic. The deep changes
caused by human intervention in the energy dynamics
of the climate system are indeed the elements of this
concern for the present and immediate future.
Therefore, urgent and significant changes in social and
economic development patterns cannot be further
postponed.
San Marino has recently submitted its first
national communication in accordance with the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
That communication represents the beginning of a
process, first of all of a social and cultural nature,
aimed at making all citizens of our country aware of
the need to face climate changes and effectively
commit to reducing as much as possible the impact of
these changes.
Among the most serious challenges we have to
face at national and international levels, terrorism in all
its forms and manifestations is of primary importance.
The Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the
General Assembly in 2006 represents a fundamental
initiative, because for the first time all Member States
agreed to a common strategic and operational approach
to counter terrorism. Such a strategy laid the
foundations for a coordinated response to this
emergency by envisaging preventive measures and the
strengthening of the role of the United Nations in the
fight against terrorism. It also recognizes that counter-
terrorism measures and the protection of human rights
are not conflicting goals; on the contrary, they are
complementary and mutually reinforcing.
However, an effective response to terrorism must
also be based on education in order to foster
understanding and respect for each other as a sine qua
non condition for achieving justice and peace. Indeed,
hatred, lack of understanding and injustice provide
breeding grounds for terrorist groups and organizations
to recruit new members.
My country focuses great attention, both at the
national and international levels, to the promotion and
protection of human rights, with special attention paid
to those of the weakest and most vulnerable groups. I
am pleased to recall that this year we celebrate the
twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a
fundamental instrument that has been ratified by a
large number of States. However, we must not forget
that still today 9.2 million children under the age of
five die every year from largely preventable causes and
more than 100 million school-age children do not have
access to education. Furthermore, many children are
robbed of their childhood, are victims of sexual
violence, are used by armies or armed groups as
soldiers or sold as sexual slaves.
San Marino applauds and supports the United
Nations and UNICEF for the efforts undertaken
worldwide in order to improve the life of these
children. We also actively endorse the United Nations
commitment to women’s rights.
Finally, the protection of human rights is strictly
connected to the need to guarantee every human being
and every population the possibility of living in peace
and justice. It is therefore necessary to give new
momentum to the disarmament process. An important
step was taken last year in this regard by adopting the
Convention on Cluster Munitions, an instrument that
will prove essential to protecting affected populations
from those weapons, which have devastating effects on
civilians. The Republic of San Marino attaches great
importance to this Convention, which is focused on
human dignity and the interests of victims, and hopes
that it will promptly enter into force. We therefore call
upon the States that have not yet ratified it to do so as
soon as possible.