GENERAL ASAMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS

FIFTY FIFTH PERIOD OF SESSIONS

SEPTIEMBRE 14, 2000

NEW YORK

Mister President,

Mister Secretary General,

Excellencies,

Allow me in the first place, Mister President, to congratulate you for your well-deserved election to preside over the work of the General Assembly, which responds both to your valuable personal qualities as well as to the admiration that the International Community has for your nation, Finland. Similarly, allow me to express our gratitude to His Excellency Mister Theo Ben Gurirab, Foreign Minister of Namibia, for his excellent work.

Just a week ago, in this same hall, our Heads of State and Government held the Millennium Summit. That historical event served as the framework for a deep consideration of the role of the United Nations in the next century and to reiterate, at the highest political level, the universal support to this Organization.

Now, it falls upon us to elaborate on our leaders' observations, and identify whatever is necessary to build a more prosperous future, a more just society and an increasingly more human civilization.

At the outset of the new millennium, scientific and technological achievements in all fields make us capable to glimpse on a more luminous future, however, the progress towards such a goal is under a double threat. On one hand, it is endangered by irregular growth, which overshadows the future with the ghost of a greater divide between the wealthiest and the poorest peoples. It is indispensable to adopt effective measures to create a more just and equitable society and international community.

On the other hand, the future is also threatened by the temptation of absolute materialism, understood as the danger of shrinking development just to the satisfaction of material needs. The risk of transforming the human being into a commodity and the temptation of seeking wealth instead of happiness threaten us continuously. We must establish a new society whose goal should be the promotion well being of all reflected in their full physical, intellectual and spiritual development. We must create a society center on ideas, creativity and ability and not on power or wealth.

Mister President,

The United Nations could and should play a central role in the construction of such a new society. However, we must note, honestly and courageously, that, until now, the United Nations and the International Community as a whole has endured innumerable limitation, restrictions and failures.

Over fifty years ago, at the founding of this Organization, we committed ourselves to eradicate the scourge of war and we obliged ourselves to promote social progress and better conditions of life for all.

Unfortunately, until now, the Untied Nations has been unable to respond fully to these pleas. We react to political crisis with weak declarations to the press. We condemn gross violations to human rights with procedural resolutions, which are forgotten in the libraries. We create organs, committees and tribunals without real capacity for action and lacking the necessary resources to fulfill their mandates. We convene summits, conferences and meetings that reduce themselves to repeat empty declarations and passing commitments. We send military observers unable to maintain peace because we do not provide them with the indispensable resources or political support. Over and over again we adopt inadequate measures to solve the emergencies while we hope that they will perform miracles. We send international experts with development programs that do not respond neither to the needs nor the desires of the recipients. This Organization has imposed sanctions that impinge on the innocent civilians at the same time that they, unwillingly, strengthen criminal regimes.

Undoubtedly we recognize that many of the United Nations' activities have been successful and praiseworthy. We cannot ignore the work of the High Commissioner for Refugees (ACNUR) or the UNICEF in favor of the victims of war and the children. We could never forget the heroic sacrifice of countless blue helmets and humanitarian personnel. We must always keep in mind the valuable good offices and mediation efforts provided to defuse armed conflicts. It is indispensable to learn from those peacekeeping operations that have been crowned by success in spite of all the difficulties. We must recall and revere the progressive codification of Human Rights and of the best standards of life.

However, the world waits for greater leadership from the United Nations. The peoples claim for the firm and decided action of the International Community and humanity calls upon us to fulfill the high goals that we undertook when we founded this Organization.

For the abovementioned reasons, it is indispensable to establish new basis for the action of the United Nations. It is necessary to provide it with a renewed political and philosophical paradigm that will enable it to gather the political and material support from all States and, thus, allow it to fulfill effectively its goals. At this moment, the United Nations demands all our support. Each one of us is individually and collectively obliged to provide the best conditions of life possible to all our fellow citizens.

The primary objective of the Untied Nations in the XXI century must be the promotion of the full respect of Human Rights. Fifty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the continuous violation of those rights, through inexcusable killings for political, religious or ethnic motives and the displacement of millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, is a matter of extreme concern. We are likewise distressed by the fact that thousands of persons perish daily of starvation and easily curable illnesses. We are anxious by the fact that thousands of persons are still persecuted or incarcerated because their political opinions and that hundreds are subject to the most degrading tortures and extreme poverty.

The continued existence of war is the cause of recurrent humanitarian crisis and atrocities. The true victims of wars are not the deceased soldiers but the displaced or refugee children and elderly, the raped women, the murdered youngsters, the mothers that loss their income, the innocent workers whose industries are destroyed, the students whose schools are bombed, the sick people that cannot go to a hospital because there are no bridges nor medicines. In the contemporary world, every armed conflict, every civil war, every gross violation of Human Rights, every humanitarian emergency, caused either by man or nature, calls for the coordinated action of the International Community through this Organization.

In this context, all States must support the United Nations' activities to eradicate the scrooge of war politically and financially. This Organization must seize again its leadership in maintaining International Peace and Security. It is imperative that all States adhere themselves firmly to the prohibition of the use of force.

For these reasons, one of our tasks is to revitalize the Security Council in order to increase its legitimacy and capacity for action. This organ should never transfer, abandon or renounce to its primary responsibility to maintain International Peace and Security. On the contrary, it is essential to secure that it will perform its functions satisfactory by providing it with the necessary resources and political support.

The Security Council cannot renounce its role simply because it is unable to find a short term or inexpensive solution to the crisis that it faces. We cannot accept the establishment of peacekeeping operations deprived of personnel and resources, to the point of being irrelevant. We cannot accept either that personnel lacking training or motivation, which becomes an easy victim of the conflicts, is sent. By no means we can give our consent to the imposition of sanctions that affect the innocent population. When establishing peacekeeping mission, the Security Council must have realistic but ambitious goals, in such a way the mandates and resources given are proportional to the actual requirements of the crisis that they are to face.

Mister President,

Armed conflicts and political crisis are many‑sided phenomena. Every emergency situation presents a series of political, military and economic problems. True peace can only be attained when proper living conditions are secure for all citizens, when there is a sufficiently high level of economic development that all persons are able to satisfy their basic needs, when their Fundamental Human Rights are respected and when their interests and individual rights are guaranteed by democratic means.

The United Nations must promote not only peace but also social justice, democracy and development. The action of this organization should incorporate vigorously the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Untied Nations Program for Development (UNDP). We advocate, in particular, the strengthening of the role of ECOSOC in order to enable it to effectively monitor and coordinate the implementation of the United Nations' activities the economic, social, cultural and environmental fields as well as that of all its organs.

In this regard, International Cooperation plays a central role in supporting local initiatives for development, democratization and the promotion of Human Rights. Unfortunately, we have become aware of a diminution in the amount of international assistance given in these fields while that the demands continue to grow. To address this situation, each one of our nations has to take into its own hands the task of creating the necessary conditions to attain peace, development and justice.

We believe that only if Human Rights are fully respected it will be possible to create and secure the necessary conditions for the development of all men and women. In parallel, the promotion of democracy and social and economic development constitute indispensable instruments to generate the material, social and spiritual conditions for required this comprehensive development.

Our experience has taught us that democracy alone provides the necessary framework for the full respect of Human Rights. Only democracy, which grants to all citizens equal rights and opportunities to participate in the political process, secures true peace. Only a democratic system, which bestows on all people equal opportunities to receive the benefits of economic development and personal accomplishment, will make possible a sustainable and just development. For this reason we celebrate the democratic consolidation that, due to their recent elections after a long period under the same ruling party, is being enjoyed by Mexico and the Republic of China in Taiwan, which deserves an adequate space in the international fora.

Additionally, our national evolution has taught us that the first step in this policy is the elimination or reduction of the military budgets. Costa Rica abolished its army over fifty years ago and, thereafter, has been free from armed conflicts with its neighbors and from military oppression over its population. A diminution of the military expenses is especially valuable for developing States whose resources are limited and cannot be mismanaged. In this context, the armies constitute a heavy burden upon our budgets and a constant source of tension and repression. Would not it be better to devote to health the one hundred and ninety one billion dollars that developing countries waste on their armed forces? Would not it be preferable to allocate to education the twenty two billion dollars that are spent in arms transfers to the third world? Our historical experience has made us a witness and an example of the many‑sided and positive relationship between disarmament and development.

The second step in the path to peace and development is to devote as much resources as possible to education and health. Only an educated people can live in freedom, only healthy people can work for development, only a cultured people can insert itself into the contemporary globalize world. For these reasons, we must invest intensively and systematically on our human resources while we strive for economic development, social justice and democratic institutionalization.

The third step towards the future is to secure the respect of Human Rights and Democracy to enable the people to choose freely its own destiny and to facilitate the harmonization of all social actors. In my country, we have committed ourselves deeply to these principles both in the national sphere, through constitutional provisions, and in the international arena through various international conventions and treaties.

In this regard, the issue of migrations has the greatest importance to my country. Costa Rica has given emphasis to the need to relocate peacefully and orderly the nationals of each country in order to satisfy their specific needs of immigration and emigration; to the movement of qualified human resources to promote economic, social and cultural progress in the countries of reception; and to the orderly reintegration and resettlement of persons that, for one reason or another, have been obliged to abandon their country of place of origin or have been forced to leave a nation that has prevented them from exercising their right not to emigrate. In consequence, we appreciate the key role of the International Organization for Migrations and we advocate, in particular, the amendments of the domestic legislation of those states that have not yet done so, in order to secure this right to all human beings.

There are three elements in this process towards development that we believe require greater attention. In the first place, we should reconstruct society and its values, specially through a renewed effort to acknowledge and protect the value of the family as society's basic cell. Unfortunately, the family is the first victim of political and economic crisis that force its dissolution by disbanding its members. For this reason, we must emphasize that the families are the schools were the basic values of coexistence and respect for the dignity of all other persons are taught and that, without them, it is impossible to create a stable society.

On the second place, it is necessary to make greater efforts to pursue sustainable development in all areas of human endeavor. In this sense, we are pleased report that Costa Rica has achieved significant accomplishments in the environmental field regarding the preservation of its rich biodiversity and the promotion of development in harmony with nature. We have been one of the first nations to undertake the fixing of carbon and the sale of oxygen as an additional source of income for development, on the basis of the sustainable use of our forests and an estimation of the economic value of the environmental services that they provide to all humanity. In the same vein, we have incorporated the provisions of the Kyoto protocol into our domestic legal system. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go towards a fully sustainable development.

Similarly, Costa Rica is honoured to be the seat of the Earth Council and the University for Peace that are working jointly to promote a concept of development in greater harmony with the environment. At this moment, we reiterate our pledge to offer our country as the seat of the Secretariat of the United Nations Forum on Forests. We are confident that this new organ will secure, finally, the coordinated and comprehensive action of the International Community towards forests.

On the third place, it is necessary to make certain that the economic development is sustainable. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to modify the international economic order with the view to make it more just and balanced, so that it will grant to the smaller developing countries greater access to the benefits of the globalization process and to the opportunities for development that it makes available to us. Open commercial mechanisms, that enable commerce and investment to be engines for economic growth, should be established. In parallel, we should target our developmental policies towards a more efficient use of the digital revolution, which provides us with multiple occasions to compete in the global market and to increase our production. In short, we must democratize the globalization.

We are convinced that knowledge and the opportunities to access information and the new technologies are essential to generate well‑being. In the current world, marked by new technological frontiers, our endeavors should be also directed towards the reduction of the digital divide. We should seek to provide a more just and equitable access to the opportunities available to us in order to transform the economic and social activities. Directly in accordance with this thesis, Costa Rica has recently initiated the program "communications without frontiers" thus becoming the first nation to provided free email to all its population.

Mister President,

Democracy, Sustainable Development and Human Rights constitute the three fundamental elements upon which the United Nations' action must be based, as well as that of each one of our nations. None of them is an end on itself, but only a mean to secure better living conditions to all people. The true goal of our action in the human being: to secure greater happiness to all persons, the greatest respect to their dignity and the necessary condition for their fullest physical, intellectual and spiritual development.

Thank you.