First of all, I would like
to congratulate our President on her election to this
high post and to assure her of the full support of
Ukraine throughout her mandate. I would also like to
express our deep appreciation of her predecessor and
my good friend, Mr. Jan Eliasson, for his outstanding
contribution to progress in implementing the decisions
of the 2005 World Summit.
I would also like to pay special tribute to the
Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, who is about to
relinquish his important and noble mission. I praise Mr.
Annan for his valuable personal contributions and
devoted efforts to further all aspects of United Nations
activities and wish him the best in his further
endeavours.
We are convinced that the next Secretary-General
must be a person truly deserving of the post and who
will discharge this responsible duty with honour. I
would like to again emphasize the justified position of
the Eastern European States regarding the priority right
for a representative of this region to be appointed to
the top post at the United Nations. Eastern Europe
remains the only region that has never had a
representative serve as Secretary-General. In this
respect, we welcome the nomination of Ms. Vaira Vike-
Freiberga, President of the Republic of Latvia.
Our achievements in implementing last year’s
Summit decisions are quite impressive. The Human
Rights Council, of which Ukraine is an active member,
has started its work. The Peacebuilding Commission,
the Central Emergency Response Fund and the United
Nations Democracy Fund are all functioning and
making important contributions towards overcoming
disasters and injustice. All of these are notable
milestones in the process of reforming the United
Nations.
Still, we are far from ensuring the adaptation of
our Organization to today’s realities, let alone
preparing it for addressing tomorrow’s threats and
challenges. The reform of the Security Council, the
strengthening of the Economic and Social Council, the
promotion of the 2005 World Summit agenda for
development and improvement in the management of
the Secretariat have yet to be tackled.
It is well known that without the modernization
of the Security Council, an indispensable pillar of the
collective security system, reform of the United
Nations would be incomplete. From standpoint of the
Member States of the Eastern European Group, this
thesis could be paraphrased as follows: no enlargement
of the Security Council would be complete without
ensuring the enhanced representation of Eastern
Europe. The doubling of the Group’s membership since
1991, with, most recently, the Republic of Montenegro
joining the United Nations as its one hundred ninety-
second Member, supports our argument. At this point, I
would like to welcome the friendly Republic of
Montenegro to the United Nations family.
We need to unite our efforts so that the United
Nations — that is, all of us together — can adequately
respond to the broad spectrum of existing and future
challenges in the areas of security, development and
human rights.
Recent commemoration of the fifth anniversary
of the barbaric terrorist attack on this city, as well as
the growing number of terrorist acts in many parts of
the world, should leave no doubt that terrorism
continues to remain one of the most dangerous threats
of the present day.
Ukraine welcomes the recent adoption by the
General Assembly of the Global Counter-Terrorism
Strategy and is ready to make important contributions
towards its effective realization. This important
decision has become another strong signal that
terrorism will not be tolerated. The Strategy also
testifies to the readiness of the international
community to strengthen coordination and increase the
effectiveness of measures to combat this hideous
phenomenon, within the framework of a concrete
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action plan. On its part, Ukraine recently ratified the
Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of
Terrorism. We call upon Member States to make
additional efforts during the current session of the
General Assembly to elaborate on and adopt the
comprehensive convention on international terrorism.
Ukraine is deeply concerned with the situation in
the Middle East. Recent events in Lebanon and the
continuing Israeli-Palestinian crisis have shown the
need for more decisive international efforts aimed at
returning peace and stability to this region. Violence
and hatred cannot become the alternatives to the
restoration of dialogue and negotiations aimed at
achieving a comprehensive and lasting settlement of
the Arab-Israeli conflict on all of its tracks.
Ukraine therefore welcomes the adoption of
Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) on Lebanon.
Support of the resolution by all parties in the region
allows for hope that it will be fully implemented. As a
longstanding contributor to the United Nations
Peacekeeping efforts, including in the Middle East,
Ukraine made its concrete proposals on contributing to
the enhanced United Nations Interim Force in
Lebanon.
The inability to agree on a set of commitments
regarding disarmament and non-proliferation was one
of the major setbacks of the 2005 World Summit. More
than a decade ago Ukraine made a historic contribution
in this area when it unilaterally renounced the world’s
third largest nuclear weapons arsenal. Therefore, we
call upon Member States to strive for progress in the
areas of disarmament and non-proliferation in the
United Nations and other forums, for the sake of future
generations.
Lately, the international community has been
concerned with the nuclear programme of Iran.
Ukraine supports the efforts of those countries that
seek to gain Teheran’s return to full and close
cooperation with the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA). Appropriate levels of transparency
and cooperation with Iran on this issue would help to
ease the concerns of the international community.
Ukraine stands for the right of all nations to use
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes; however, in
realizing this right, nations must fully adhere to
commitments in the field of non-proliferation.
One of the most important tests of the ability of
the United Nations to deal effectively with inter-ethnic
conflict will be how the future status of Kosovo is
handled.
Taking into account the fragile situation in and
around Kosovo, the political process of determining its
future status should be handled with maximum
responsibility by all the parties involved. Any imposed
decision leading to a unilateral change of borders of
that internationally recognized democratic State will
inevitably destabilize the situation in the Balkan region
and set dangerous precedents in Europe and the entire
world. Unfortunately, we are already witnessing the
unfolding of an undesirable scenario created by
attempts to use the Kosovo settlement as a precedent
for claiming independence for several self-proclaimed
regimes within the boundaries of the former Soviet
Union. I refer to so-called referendums on
independence recently held in Transdniestria, Moldova,
and scheduled for the near future in South Ossetia,
Georgia. Ukraine and the international community do
not recognize these referendums, considering them
illegitimate and without legal consequences.
Ukraine supports the need for negotiations
between Belgrade and Pristina aimed at finding a
mutually acceptable solution based on Security Council
decisions, including resolution 1244 (1999). It is
extremely important to ensure that the decision of the
Security Council on the final status of Kosovo does not
impose a solution, which can be taken only with the
clearly expressed consent of both parties concerned.
As representative of Ukraine and Chair of the
GUAM — Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova
Group — Organization for Democracy and Economic
Development, I would like to thank the countries that
supported placing on the agenda of the sixty-first
session of the General Assembly item 27 on protracted
conflicts in the GUAM area and their implications for
international peace, security and development. It is an
important step that will help to draw attention to the
need for more active and effective steps by the
international community to achieve progress in settling
conflicts on the territory of Azerbaijan, Georgia and
Moldova. We call for implementing the initiative
proposed by the President of Ukraine on Transdniestria
entitled “To settlement through democracy”, the plan
for a peace settlement in South Ossetia presented by
the President of Georgia, and for implementing the
Security Council resolutions and OSCE decisions on
the conflicts in Nagorny Karabakh and Abkhazia.
These conflicts are among the main obstacles to the
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full-scale democratic transformation of the region,
which is among the core elements of Ukraine’s
regional policy.
Having gained a new level of integration during
the Kyiv Summit last May, GUAM member States set
as their main goals the strengthening of democratic
values, the rule of law, and human rights and
fundamental freedoms, the deepening of European
integration, and the achievement of sustainable
development and the greater well-being of their
peoples.
The Black Sea Economic Cooperation
Organization (BSEC) is another promising model of
multilateral political and economic cooperation.
During the 14 years of its dynamic existence, that
organization has proved its value as a framework for
regional cooperation. Because issues of energy security
are very important for Europe today, the Black Sea and
Caspian Sea regions take on special significance for
the secure, stable extraction and transportation of
energy resources. Ukraine is ready to take an active
part in promoting energy projects within the BSEC
framework. We are convinced that the BSEC can
effectively support the efforts of the world community
to combat terrorism, resolve the so-called frozen
conflicts in the region and combat trans-border crime.
It is necessary to coordinate BSEC activity with
corresponding programmes supported by the United
Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, the European Union and NATO.
The Forum of the Community of Democratic
Choice (CDC), held in Kyiv in December 2005, is
another example of cooperation aimed at strengthening
European democratic values in Eastern Europe. The
CDC is a forum in which the States of the Baltic Sea-
Black Sea-Caspian Sea area with the Balkans discuss
their aspirations for the higher democratic standards
required for full-scale European integration. GUAM,
BSEC and the CDC are valuable contributions to the
creation of an Eastern Europe area akin to the
European Union area of democracy, stability and
prosperity.
Democracy, the rule of law and respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms are essential elements
of Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policies. That is why
we are proud to have been elected to the Human Rights
Council. As a member of that body, Ukraine is ready to
work with other States to bring about real change
through the promotion of human rights worldwide.
The international community is responsible for
protecting people threatened with genocide or other
violations of fundamental human rights. In two years,
we will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the United
Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide. One and a half decades
before the adoption of the Convention, and even before
the tragedy of the Holocaust, the Ukrainian people was
a victim of genocide. Deliberately organized by the
Communist totalitarian regime for the purpose of
destroying the vital core of the freedom-loving
Ukrainian people — its peasantry — the Holodomor in
Ukraine of 1932 and 1933 killed 7 million to 10
million innocent men, women and children, about
25 per cent of Ukraine’s population at that time. The
Communist regime tried to conceal the scale and tragic
consequences of that inhuman crime from the world
community, and they succeeded for a long time.
After Ukraine regained its independence, many
new appalling and horrifying facts were revealed. The
parliaments of a number of countries have recognized
the Holodomor of 1932 and 1933 as an act of genocide.
Ukraine calls on the United Nations, as the collective
voice of the international community, to contribute to
the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the
Convention by recognizing the Holodomor as an act of
genocide against the Ukrainian people. That step would
contribute towards making genocide and mass abuse of
human rights impossible in the future.
With the same aim, a number of events will take
place in Kyiv tomorrow to commemorate the sixty-fifth
anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy. The mass
executions by the Nazis there were among the first sad
pages of the evolving tragedy of the Holocaust. Etched
in the memory of the Ukrainian people, it also saw the
death of tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war of
various nationalities. This event will be yet another
important reminder of the lessons of history and the
need to prevent all manifestations of anti-Semitism,
xenophobia and intolerance.
Needless to say, we should focus on
implementing the Millennium Development Goals and
new commitments on the global development agenda
made at the 2005 World Summit. There has been mixed
progress in this area, and the commitments and
promises made have not yet been translated into action
06-53329 22
with direct impact on the lives of peoples in need. The
response to global threats should be effective and
timely. It took the international community nearly 20
years since the first recorded cases of AIDS to
recognize that this disease could threaten the very
existence of humanity. The twenty-sixth special session
of the Assembly initiated by Ukraine together with
other States, and held in 2001, was a turning point in
combating HIV/AIDS. I want to confirm Ukraine’s
commitment to implementing the Declaration of
Commitment on HIV/AIDS (resolution S-26/2) and to
express hope for continuing close cooperation in this
field with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria, with the World Bank and with United
Nations specialized agencies.
Lately, we have witnessed the emergence of a
new disease that potentially poses no less a challenge
to humanity than HIV/AIDS. Avian influenza threatens
the entire world and knows no borders. It is our joint
responsibility to ensure that all countries are protected
against this threat. Combating the spread of avian
influenza and preparations for a possible pandemic of
human influenza demand concerted action at the
national, regional and global levels. Should we repeat
the mistakes of the past or should we learn the lessons
and thus meet the challenge prepared? We believe that
the General Assembly should consider the problem and
provide the answer.
In the more than 60 years since its creation, the
United Nations has grown both in numbers — from 51
States to 192 — and in quality. Our Organization has
gained invaluable experience in changing the world so
that every person can enjoy more security, justice and
dignity. However, much remains yet to be achieved. I
believe that it is within our power and in our interest to
do all we can to ensure that the world is united not only
by a common past but by a common future as well.