Ireland

Let me begin, Mr. President, by warmly congratulating you on your election and extending the best wishes of the Irish Government and the Irish people for a successful term in office. It is indeed a very great honour to participate in this general debate and to share this unique global platform. Ireland cherishes its membership in the United Nations. We believe strongly in the purposes, the principles and the potential of this great global Organization of ours. And we are proud of the role we have ourselves played in developing that potential over the past five decades. We are determined to maintain this role and to remain steadfastly at the service of the United Nations. Rarely have the challenges facing the global community been as formidable, or as pressing, as those of today. And rarely has the need been greater for collective action and for the facilitating framework that is uniquely provided by the United Nations. Our discussions in New York over the past week have highlighted some of the most urgent issues on the Organization’s agenda at present, including climate change, global poverty and hunger, and nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. We are also confronted with the global financial and economic crisis — the most severe in a generation — which is leaving its mark on every family and community across the world. Governments everywhere are facing a daunting task, as they work to mitigate the effects of global recession and economic turbulence and to limit the impact of the crisis on those in greatest need. Once again, the United Nations provides a framework for the development of collective responses and solutions. The summit of world leaders hosted by Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon in New York last week on climate change displayed the strength of international commitment on this issue. The Secretary-General has been a powerful advocate of collective action to tackle this major threat to our planet and our future generations. It now falls to us, the Member States, to redouble our efforts to ensure a successful outcome to the Copenhagen Conference in December. The promise that the United Nations embodies to tackle all these global threats can only be realized through continuing efforts to make this a stronger and more effective Organization. Ireland has played, and will continue to play, an active role in championing the reform agenda at the United Nations. In the area of system-wide coherence, the reform agenda is already producing good results and helping to deliver a more effective and relevant United Nations. The One United Nations Initiative is delivering improved development performance at the individual country level. Ireland warmly welcomes the progress being made in the General Assembly and, in particular, the recent decision to establish a new gender entity to promote gender equality. I encourage early action to make the new entity operational during the Assembly’s current session. The need for greater progress on other parts of the United Nations reform agenda still remains. A positive start has been made to the intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform. But more urgency is required in transforming the Council to make it more representative and reflective of twenty- first century realities, as well as to improve its functioning and increase its transparency. I would like to devote some time today to discussing the critical issue — indeed the scandal — that is hunger in our world today. Tonight, over one billion people will go to bed hungry and malnourished. That is one in seven people inhabiting the planet today. This scandal represents perhaps the biggest collective failure of mankind. In the last few days — during the past week in the General Assembly — world leaders have come together to discuss the most complex and 09-52604 4 daunting of global challenges, including climate change and non-proliferation. Yet, the simple challenge of putting food into the mouths of everybody on the planet still remains beyond us. I speak today as the representative of a country that has experienced famine and hunger and whose population was decimated by the Great Famine in Ireland in 1847. A year ago this week I accompanied our Prime Minister — our Taoiseach — here to the United Nations Headquarters to present to Secretary- General Ban the report of our Hunger Task Force. The key recommendation in that report was a call for global leadership to tackle hunger. I was therefore greatly encouraged last Saturday to see such leadership by Secretary-General Ban and United States Secretary of State Clinton aimed at constructing a road map to translate rhetoric and commitment on hunger into real action — and real action on the ground. The Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security initiative holds the promise of contributing to a world free from chronic hunger. It is clear what we must do. We must tackle hunger in a comprehensive way and address the fundamental causes of hunger. We need to invest in agriculture and agricultural research and, in particular, to support women farmers. We need to invest in rural infrastructure, enhance nutrition and support national and regional plans. Ireland has placed food security and related sectors as a cornerstone of our aid programme. By 2012 we will ensure that 20 per cent of our aid programme is hunger-focused. We are well on our way to meeting this objective. But above all we need, at a global level, to summon the political will to end this scandal. Nothing short of the complete eradication of hunger on the planet should satisfy us. Peacekeeping and the maintenance of international peace and security have always been central to the role of the United Nations. Ireland is deeply proud of the long-standing contribution that we have made to United Nations peacekeeping operations across the world. For over half a century, there has been a continuous tradition of Irish peacekeepers serving the cause of peace under the United Nations blue flag somewhere in the world. This goes to the very heart of our commitment to the United Nations and the values it represents — a commitment that is, I should say, an integral part of our foreign policy and that helps to define us as a nation. It is clear, however, that both the Organization and contributing countries are being severely stretched in terms of the demands made by a steadily escalating number of peace support operations around the world. The Secretary-General’s paper, “A New Partnership Agenda: Charting a New Horizon for United Nations Peacekeeping”, is therefore a very welcome initiative, and we look forward to contributing to its early consideration by the General Assembly. Regional organizations, such as the European Union and the African Union, play a vital role in helping the United Nations to fulfil its peacekeeping responsibilities. As the Secretary-General acknowledged when he visited Dublin last July, without the unique contributions of regional organizations such as the European Union, United Nations operations would not be able to achieve their goals and could, in fact, fail entirely. The successful transition earlier this year from the European Union-led force in Chad and the Central African Republic (EUFOR) to the United Nations Mission there shows how important and effective this partnership has become, as does the similarly successful transition to the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo. In Ireland we have known the terrible human cost of conflict. The Irish Government has been developing over the past years a focus on conflict resolution work, building on our own practical experiences with the Northern Ireland peace process. Complementing the work of others, especially the United Nations, we hope that we may be able to make a distinctive contribution to conflict resolution efforts in other parts of the world. As one example, we are engaging actively in Timor-Leste, using lessons derived from our own peace process to help increase confidence in policing and security arrangements in that country. I am also proud that, in relation to Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), the Irish Government is sponsoring a major lessons-learned exercise involving interactions between women from Timor-Leste, Liberia and Northern Ireland. Building peace and ending conflict cannot be accomplished without also removing the very means of conflict. Last year, Ireland was proud to host the diplomatic conference that adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a historic agreement aimed at banning the production and use of these most destructive of weapons. I warmly welcome the 5 09-52604 considerable progress that has been made this year towards the Convention’s entry into force. We now need fewer than 10 further ratifications to achieve this, and I urge all Governments that have not yet signed and ratified the Convention to do so at the earliest opportunity. Ireland has always been strongly supportive of the leading role played by the United Nations in working to promote non-proliferation and remove the threat posed by nuclear weapons. Indeed, Ireland was the first country to sign and ratify the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Next year’s Review Conference will be of critical importance for efforts to help strengthen the international non-proliferation system, at a time when the threats it faces have perhaps never been greater. We encourage all Member States to work actively and constructively to achieve a successful outcome, and Ireland will engage fully in that effort itself. Ireland also applauds and welcomes the renewed focus on nuclear disarmament. We encourage the United States and Russia particularly as they work towards a legally binding follow-on arrangement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires at the end of this year. Ireland would like to see the active engagement of the United Nations in monitoring human rights situations around the world maintained and strengthened. The Human Rights Council and other human rights mechanisms must be enabled to address the most difficult human rights situations in a timely and effective manner. Continued support will also be needed for the International Criminal Court and the international tribunals in their efforts to promote justice and combat impunity. Ireland urges the fullest cooperation by all Member States in this regard. At the 2005 World Summit, the Assembly endorsed the important concept of the responsibility to protect. It is now imperative to take that work forward to put this concept into practical effect, based on the consensus resolution at the end of the sixty-third session (resolution 63/308). Let me turn now for a moment to the situation in the Middle East. Ireland very much welcomes and supports the renewed international efforts made in recent months to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process with a view to bringing about a comprehensive and lasting peace settlement. Particular praise is due to the United States Administration and to the United States Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, for their intensive engagement aimed at achieving the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well as the promotion of peace between Israel and all of its neighbours. We are of course fortunate in Ireland to have had the benefit of first-hand experience of George Mitchell’s formidable skills, patience and tenacity as a peacemaker, and we hope he can bring these unique skills to this particular process. With our European Union (EU) partners, we stand ready to work closely with our Israeli and Palestinian partners and to support the United States and the Quartet in their efforts. It is vitally important that all parties contribute to confidence-building by fully honouring their commitments and obligations under the Road Map. This must include real efforts to halt all settlement activities and improve the living conditions of civilians on the ground in the Palestinian territories. Ordinary people must see in their daily lives the benefits that will derive from peace and must be encouraged to take risks for peace. Nowhere is this more urgent than in Gaza. We wish to see all border crossings fully and immediately opened to normal commercial and humanitarian traffic. We have all been shocked by the violence and widespread civilian casualties that took place during the conflict in Gaza at the start of this year. There must be some form of accountability for the most serious violations of international law that occurred at that time. The Human Rights Council is now addressing this issue in considering the comprehensive report prepared by Justice Goldstone and his team (A/HRC/12/48). Like many others in the international community, Ireland has followed recent events in Iran with mounting concern. We urge Iran to comply fully with all of its obligations and commitments in terms of protecting the basic human rights of its own citizens. It is equally urgent that Iran respond to the demands of the international community to cease uranium enrichment and to answer satisfactorily all questions regarding its nuclear activities, particularly in the light of the latest revelations regarding the previously undisclosed nuclear site at Qom. The international community is ready to engage with Iran and has made generous offers to do so. It is for Iran now to decide whether it wishes to pursue the path of engagement or to opt for increasing isolation. We very much hope that 09-52604 6 the forthcoming discussions with Iran, to begin on 1 October, will mark the start of a constructive engagement on the major issues of international concern. The continuing humanitarian tragedy of Darfur horrifies world opinion and simply cannot be ignored. I want to pay tribute to the United Nations and international humanitarian staff, who are working tirelessly and selflessly under the most difficult of circumstances. I think in particular of Sharon Commins and Hilda Kuwuki, two brave and dedicated aid workers with the Irish agency GOAL, who were kidnapped in Darfur on 3 July. The Irish Government is grateful for all the assistance we have received from the United Nations and others in our efforts to secure the release of these two women. We fervently hope that the day of their release from captivity is not far off. The people of Darfur and of all Sudan richly deserve peace. We must all collectively continue working to promote the United Nations-African Union mediation in Darfur, to support full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and to ensure that justice and the defence of human rights prevail throughout Sudan. In Burma/Myanmar, Ireland condemns the recent conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi and again calls for her immediate release and that of all political prisoners and for the launching of a genuine, inclusive political dialogue. International pressure is needed on Burma’s leaders, notably from other countries in the region, to change course and move to democracy. In Sri Lanka, there remains an urgent need to improve the humanitarian situation of those fleeing the recent violence in the Tamil areas. The Sri Lankan Government must cooperate fully with the United Nations to alleviate the plight of those affected. It must also work for a political settlement which meets the aspirations of all communities in Sri Lanka. Let me say in conclusion that, as the international community faces a formidable array of challenges, there has never been a greater need for the United Nations itself. With each new challenge that appears, the value of common action to address it at a global level becomes ever more apparent. There is a much clearer appreciation of this Organization’s potential to deliver an effective response to these challenges. Let us seize the moment and work together to ensure that the opportunity we have at present is transformed into real achievement on the ground. We can all be justly proud of the record of the United Nations over the past half century. The challenge for us, the Member States, is whether we can mobilize the political will needed in order to ensure that the United Nations can deliver even more in the future. Ireland, for its part, commits itself to doing everything in its power to realize the full potential of the United Nations, this unique voice of the international community, in the pursuit of a much better and a much safer world.