It is
generally considered that the struggle of ideologies has
passed into history together with the collapse of the
bipolar world order. Yet in reality the world continues a
painful quest for a system of ideas that could ensure its
security, justice and prosperity. The 2005 World
Summit and the current General Assembly debate are
good evidence of this quest. Nowhere else but on this
rostrum does one have such an acute sense that ideas
and the struggle for them are no abstract matter. They
permeate the flesh and blood of millions and billions of
people.
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I hope that many of those present will agree that
free self-determination is the main ideology of the
modern world. Is it not absolutely clear that as long as
there is no independent Palestinian State, peacefully
coexisting with all its neighbours, and that as long as
Iraq is not free from occupation, then terrorism and
extremism will remain inevitable and invincible?
Attempts to solve the problems of self-determination
by violent measures, whether military or of any other
kind, from the outside will result only in increasing the
ranks of the ruthless disciples of terrorism and
extremism.
In the modern world free self-determination is not
only an issue of State independence and sovereignty. It
is also an issue of recognizing — not in word, but in
deed — a diversity of ways for countries and peoples
to progress. We must provide the Palestinians, Iraqis,
Lebanese and other peoples with the possibility of
building their own homes in the way they want. Any
help should come only then and in such manner as they
wish, not as deemed appropriate by the ideologues of
crusades in some capitals. There are no clever and
foolish, no superior and inferior, no righteous and
vicious peoples and religions; there are just people of
the planet who are equally eager for happiness,
uncomplicated and dignified.
The five years that have passed since
11 September 2001 have proved with painful clarity
that ideology and the practice of crusades do not bring
peace and democracy. They lead to the devastation of
States, the destruction of the fabric of life of entire
nations, and the death of children, women and innocent
civilians. They also result in an upsurge of terrorism,
swelling the ranks of its followers and supporters. In
the same way, religious intolerance and the rejection of
the beliefs and conventions of other people do not
bring spiritual harmony and unity. They cause an
outbreak of radicalism, fanaticism and extremism.
Encouragement of religious tolerance within societies
should become a responsibility of political and state
leaders.
International security and global stability are
inseparable from the solution of the world’s
development problems. Security and development are
inseparable. This is not some artificial linkage created
in the halls of the United Nations. Its real nature has
been clearly shown by the events in the suburbs of
Paris. Are we, here in the General Assembly, and our
colleagues in the capitals of the richest countries,
waiting for an even more alarming signal? Are we
waiting for the spiralling extremism caused by the lack
of prospects for the future?
The situation is as clear as it can get. And it is
clear that inadequate reflection of the priorities of
development and development assistance in the 2005
World Summit Outcome document (resolution 60/1)
was a serious mistake by the international community.
How can we correct this mistake? We can do so
only by earnest and not hypocritical practical efforts to
implement the Millennium Development Goals. Before
too long we will see new proposals based on the results
of the large-scale study on raising system-wide
coherence and coordination of actions of the agencies
of the United Nations system in the field of
development assistance. Our task is to implement these
important initiatives in deed.
The Millennium Development Goals are clear.
None is easily achievable. These problems are too old
and too deep-rooted to be solved by incremental and
shallow methods. Nobody treats a dangerous infection
with aspirin. A serious task requires serious tools. That
is why the time has come for deep transformation of
the Bretton Woods institutions. They were established
in a different era and for different purposes. They
should be changed and made to serve the cause of
global development. A special role in making
development a success and not a problem will belong
to the Economic and Social Council, as the major
United Nations coordinating body on development.
Special responsibility will rest on the shoulders of the
members of the Council.
Belarus is a candidate for membership of the
Economic and Social Council for the period 2007-
2009. I appeal to Member States to support Belarus in
the elections to be held during the current session. The
Assembly may rest assured that the Republic of
Belarus will not fall short of its expectations. As a
Member of the United Nations since 1945, Belarus has
never wavered in its devotion to the purposes and
principles of the Charter. As a member of the Non-
Aligned Movement since 1998, Belarus stands actively
and resolutely for the implementation of the goals and
principles of the Movement and the practical
strengthening of its role in international affairs.
Our responsibility and concern for the destiny of
the world are sincere. There is much evidence to prove
that. In its region the Republic of Belarus is a donor of
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international security. Belarus was the first country in
the world to voluntarily renounce the possession of the
nuclear weapons it had at its disposal.
Despite all the difficulties of the transition
period, our country was among the first to respond to
the plight of people struck by the tsunami in the Indian
Ocean in 2004, and provided humanitarian assistance
to the disaster-stricken countries of south-east Asia.
Nor was our country an indifferent spectator of the
recent conflict in the Middle East. At the height of the
hostilities Belarus invited children from war-ravaged
States to come to Belarus for health rehabilitation.
The adherence of Belarus to the cause of
development is also sincere and firm. Implementation
of the international development agenda will be the
indisputable priority of our work in the Economic and
Social Council. What is most important is that we have
the know-how to do it. Having been left 15 years ago,
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, without natural
resources and foreign markets, without a national
currency and international assistance, we have
achieved our economic and social objectives. They
may be considered modest when compared to those of
the most developed countries, but they are of critical
importance as a stage in our movement forward, as
evidence of what a medium-sized State can achieve in
the most difficult of circumstances.
Among other hardships, we had to deal on our
own with the Chernobyl disaster, whose radioactive
contamination affected more than 20 per cent of our
population and made it impossible to use more than 20
per cent of arable land and 30 per cent of forests.
Chernobyl’s direct damage in Belarus alone is
equivalent to 35 annual national budgets. It is more
than appropriate to recall today, in the year of its
twentieth anniversary, the largest man-made disaster in
the history of mankind.
Having overcome a 50 per cent decline in the
economy, and having rejected formulas that the
International Monetary Fund tried to impose upon us,
Belarus was the first country of the Commonwealth of
Independent States to restore gross domestic product to
its peak Soviet value and then raise the level to 120 per
cent of that value. We have created a market economy
with a strong social emphasis. We have preserved free
education, including higher education, and health care,
as well as the high quality and availability of social
services for all people without exception. We have
reduced unemployment to 1.5 per cent, and we are
successfully curbing inflation.
I am confident that the experience, approach and
knowledge of Belarus will be a useful contribution to
the work of the Economic and Social Council on the
Millennium Development Goals. If the majority of
nations give us the credit of trust, we will most actively
and persistently work for a stronger role for the
Council in addressing the development challenges.
Together with those who share these approaches, we
will work to reform the social and economic sphere of
the United Nations. Reform measures are not working
yet. Without them the activity of different United
Nations funds and programmes at country level can
never be effective. To continue a “business as usual”
approach in these matters would mean leaving the
Millennium Development Goals on paper.
There is also a large debit balance in United
Nations activities outside the Economic and Social
Council. There has been no substantial movement
towards the enhancement of the role of the General
Assembly as a principal organ of the United Nations.
So far there has been no progress in reorganizing the
Security Council, a key element in United Nations
reform. The sluggishness of the Security Council in
addressing the situation in Lebanon has not only
caused sorrow and frustration, but once again
convinces us of the disparity between the Security
Council and the image of the world as we know it
today.
Having made right and important steps in the
human rights area after the 2005 World Summit, the
international community should take new actions at
this session. They should be aimed at a true promotion
of human rights and protection of the real victims of
human rights violations, and not at getting even with
disagreeable nations by abusing an unjust instrument of
country-specific resolutions.
As a major step towards the practical promotion
of human rights and the protection of victims of one of
the most acute and painful phenomena of the modern
world, Belarus has, together with a number of partners,
elaborated a draft resolution on improving international
coordination in fighting human trafficking, and will
present it to the Assembly at this session. The global
scale of that challenge requires from all of us not
shallow talk, but truly coordinated and purposeful
actions. We see the goal of these efforts as the
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elaboration of a United Nations strategy to fight human
trafficking. I ask the Assembly to support the
establishment of a systems-based approach to a global
partnership against slavery and trafficking in human
beings. Who else but the United Nations should care
about the dozens, hundreds and perhaps millions of
victims — above all, women and children — of
modern slavery? Who else but the United Nations
should encourage better international coordination in
eradicating this phenomenon, which is an utter
disgrace in our century?
At the World Summit many leaders spoke about
the spirit of San Francisco. The spirit of San Francisco
in 1944 and 1945 came from the sense of responsibility
of nations in dealing with the problems of the world,
not responsibility for their own narrow interests — that
is obvious and simple — but for a common cause. That
spirit became possible as a result of the huge disaster
of the Second World War, with about 60 million deaths
and the inconceivable suffering of hundreds of
millions. Do we also need a huge disaster to restore
that spirit? I am sure we do not. I hope that we have all
learned the lessons of history.
After an era of romantic ideals and their tragic
failure in the 1990s, mankind today is coming to a
more elaborate perception of what kind of world order
it needs. The Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in
Havana has demonstrated the clear aspiration of the
majority of the nations of the world to move from the
self-exhausted unipolar world to the multipolar world,
fair and stable, based on the interdependence of diverse
global and regional centres of power, to a world fit for
all. The Havana Summit has shown that humanity
should be humane. That should be the United Nations
motto for a challenging twenty-first century.