AMBASSADOR ROSARIO GREEN

 
               MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF MEXICO
                                  
 
                         IN THE GENERAL DEBATE
 
                AT THE FIFTY-FIFTH REGULAR SESSION OF
 

            THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS

 
 
                        NEW YORK, 13 SEPTEMBER 2000
 
 
 
 
 

 
Mr. President:
 
      My country is pleased at the election of the distinguished Mr. Hard Holkeri to
preside over the work of the 55th session of the General Assembly. We are certain that,
with the talent, ability and experience of Mr. Holkeri, the efforts of this extremely
important Assembly will be highly productive. My delegation would also like to extend its
recognition to Theo-Ben Gurirab for his outstanding work as President of the session
that has just concluded.
 
      Last Friday during the Millennium Summit, the leader of the Mexican nation,
Ernesto Zedillo, stated his personal commitment and that of the Mexican people to the
values and principles that sustain the activities of our Organization. Today, through me,
the Mexican Government renews its willingness to continue working and participating
constructively to strengthen the United Nations, the reason for this historic meeting. We
will do this guided by our traditional policy in the multilateral arena: by encouraging
dialogue, consensus, and unrestricted respect for international law. We will do this
convinced, as well, that we must make good use of this opportunity to give renewed
impetus to the United Nations, so that it can progress in solving the challenges that we
confront, and can fulfill the goal of building, in this new century, a safer, more just and
equal world for all. As the President of Mexico stated, we will do it confident that we
Mexicans have the bases to fulfill our share in achieving the targets contained in the
Report of the Secretary General and the Millennium Declaration..
 
Mr. President:
 
      My country is convinced that the practice of democracy is indispensable for the
development of nations and to guarantee respect for individual freedoms. But we are
also sure that democracy is sustained by the sovereign will of its citizens and is,
therefore, a domestic process that cannot be imposed from the outside although,
without a doubt, it can and must be nourished by international dialogue amongst
countries and the cooperation that can be provided by the United Nations.
 
      Mexico is also convinced that, just as the predominance of democracy within the
membership that make up our Organization is imperative, it is essential that relations
among nations follow democratic practices and that these, in turn, are reflected in the
Organizations such as the United Nations that we, the peoples of the world, have
created to organize our co-existence.
 
 
 

       Today we find ourselves before an extraordinary opportunity to advance in that direction.
To cover further ground in the democratization of our Organization. To achieve a democratization
that allows the United Nations to successfully fulfill the mission with which we entrusted it in San
Francisco, the validity of which we seek to renew today. A democratization that reinforces the
legitimacy of our Organization and invigorates its initiatives. A democratization that supports the
domestic processes that many of our countries are undertaking and is consequently enriched by
them.
 
       Mexico has stated on various occasions that strengthening the General Assembly, the
international community's most representative universal forum, is indispensable to guarantee the
full democratization of the United Nations. We have also asserted that it is necessary to modify the
structure and operation of the Security Council, so that it can fully comply with its responsibilities in
the maintenance of peace and international security.
 
       It is for this reason that my country has repeatedly proposed that we undertake a
profound reform of the Security Council. A reform that is not limited to modifications of its
composition. A reform that also considers the Council's working methods and decision-making
process. A reform that allows this important part of the United Nations to reflect the plurality and
diversity of our Organization. A reform that takes into account the transformation of the political
landscape in recent times. A reform that does not lead to the creation of new centers of power and
privilege. A reform that regulates and limits the scope of the veto, avoiding its abuse or selective
application. A reform that institutionalizes the relationship between the Security Council and the
General Assembly so that its links, contacts and exchanges of information are clearly regulated. In
short, a reform that guarantees that the Security Council's decisions have the legitimacy that can
only come from the universal assent of the General Assembly.
 
       It is precisely based on this unwavering faith in the universality of international law, with
which Mexico fully identifies, that my country has engaged in its most important battles in our
world Organization. Mexico has always been ready to participate in codifying international law, but
we have continually insisted that progress along this path involve all of the countries that make up
the community of nations. This is the only guarantee for preserving legality and for ensuring
cordial, constructive and mutually beneficial relations between all of us.
 
       The humanitarian crises in Kosovo, East Timor and Sierra Leona, to refer only to a few
recent cases, have made us reflect on the scope of and limits to current international law. These
crises have made us see that it is imperative to find a balance between the urgent need to respond
adequately to humanitarian emergencies, and the need to respect the sovereign integrity of all
States. These crises, in short, have alerted us regarding our inability to transform ourselves into a
true assembly that analyzes and proposes new paths. To our limitations in becoming an authentic
forum where different positions are heard and answers that realistically reflect the possible
consensuses are found.
 
 
 

      We must, therefore, abandon this passivity in order to begin again the process of further
codifying our international law. A process based on the sovereign equality of States as a living
reality, not just a theoretical principle. A process in which weak and strong, rich and poor, small and
large, can express themselves openly. A process that clearly establishes the rules of the game. A
process that enshrines democracy as the only way in which to reach truly legitimate agreements.
 
      Because we believe in these democratic values, Mexico has always opposed the
legitimization, in practice, of any type of intervention, especially when it is based on unilateral
decisions or the decisions of a small group of countries. To the contrary, we have reiterated that
the United Nations must be provided with a modern political structure that permits it to confront
the new challenges to international peace and security brought by the end of the Cold War. For
this reason, we have insisted on the need to begin, as soon as possible, a broad process of
consultation. A process that is absolutely democratic. A process that detects the mood of our
community of nations in order to respond correctly and in a timely fashion to humanitarian crises
without weakening the Organization by doing so.
 
      I call upon you, Mr. President, to formally begin, as soon as possible, this broad process of
consultation that will allow us to reflect together on this issue of crucial importance for the United
Nations.
 
      Mexico stands ready to continue contributing to the on-going process of codifying
international law to which I have referred. We will do so with the same confidence with which, in
recent years, we have adhered to a significant number of international instruments proposed by
our most important world Organization. We will do so with the same will with which we have
committed ourselves to modifying our national legislation in order to comply with the obligations
that derive from these instruments. Such is our trust in international law and its advancement.
 
      With this trust only a few days ago my country signed the Statute of the International
Criminal Court, as well as the protocols of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. With this trust
we ratified, this year, the Convention on the Status of Refugees and its Protocol, as well as the
Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons.
 
      With this trust, last week Mexico deposited the ratification instrument of the Kyoto
Protocol. And some months ago, we did the same with the United Nations Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
 
 

      With that same trust, Mr. President, Mexico continues its fight to achieve the total
elimination of nuclear weapons and tests, and reiterates the call made last April by the
group of countries that comprise the New Nuclear Disarmament Agenda initiative, for
the nuclear powers to commit themselves to the total elimination of their nuclear
arsenals.
 
      Future generations deserve a world free of nuclear weapons. They deserve a
world that is also free from the uncontrollable manufacture and trafficking of conventional
arms. They deserve, without a doubt, a world where anti-personnel land mines cease to
claim thousands of innocent lives.
 
      Our commitment to the protection and preservation of the human race extends. to
combating pandemics. Today, a disease such as AIDS threatens to cut off the
existence of millions of beings on the planet. This is why only two days ago, the women
Secretaries and Ministers of Foreign Affairs of thirteen countries sent a letter to our
Secretary-General in support of his call to stop and reverse the spread of AIDS by 2015
and to provide special assistance to children orphaned by this scourge. I want to renew
the appeal of our 13 nations to all the members of the United Nations to support the
Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) and to launch the common efforts
which are necessary to fight this global scourge.
 
Mr. President:
 
      As is well said in the Report of the Secretary General and in the Final Declaration
of the Millennium Summit, the protection of our common environment, the fight against
transnational organized crime, the promotion of human rights, attention to vulnerable
individuals, including children, the fight for disarmament and international aid to solve
the demands of the least developed countries are the foundation not just of lives without
fear and misery, but lives of hope for the people of the world. These are also the
challenges that our Organization and its members must respond to, by consolidating an
international architecture that is sustained by democracy and not by the concentration of
power. An international architecture that rests on respect for international law, and not on
unilateral decisions. An international architecture that encourages the universal
character of our group and not selfish individualism. In short, an international architecture
that emphasizes solidarity and cooperation as the values that give sustenance and
permanence to the Organization.
 
      Thank you.