REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO

STATEMENT

Mr. Gabriele Gatti

Minister for Foreign Affairs

of the

at the

General Debate

of the

55th General Assembly

UNITED NATIONS

Saturday, September 16th, 2000

Mr. President,

Mr. Secretary General

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me first of all congratulate with you on your appointment as President o the 55^th General Assembly I am certain that, under your guidance this session of the General Assembly will reach important results.

Let me congratulate most sincerely the Secretary General on his comprehensive and detailed Report outlining the most important challenges facing the international community in the twenty‑first century.

I would also like to welcome Tuvalu, who joined the United Nations this year, thus becoming the 189^th Member of the organization, I am particularly proud because the presence and contribution of small States will become increasingly meaningful.

The Heads of State and Government of the UN Member Countries drew inspiration from this important document for the Millennium Summit just concluded, where they expressed their collective commitment and determination to adopt policies in favor of a globalization process benefiting the entire world population.

The international cooperation among Governments paved the way for an increasingly integrated system where all States are inevitably involved, thus bridging the gap among all peoples of the world.

San Marino believes that a wider globalization process of a juridical, ethical and cultural nature, where solidarity is a major concern, is a sine qua non for the achievement of a real economic globalization.

The Republic I represent is fully convinced that the management of economic and social development, as well as of threats to international peace and security, is a responsibility of all Countries of the world, and that the United Nations must play a central role in shaping our common future.

In the light of the above, the issue of the least developed Countries burdened with a huge foreign debt must be re‑examined, in the conviction that debt relief must form an integral part of the contribution offered by the international community to a worldwide development.

Since the economic and social development of many Countries is hindered, without remedy, by debt problems, international solidarity is an imperative for everybody, as human rights and dignity must not be violated in the name of market laws.

At the dawn of the third millennium, it is unacceptable that half of the world population still lives in extreme poverty, with an income of barely two dollars a day. The indifference to this problem is a shame for the entire humanity, since we are all well aware that poverty often triggers domestic and international conflicts and leads to exploitation and underdevelopment.

Against this gloomy background, characterized by blatant contrasts, the international community must concentrate its efforts on the protection of the most vulnerable, who bear the heaviest burden, and must pay special attention to women and children as main victims of poverty, violence and exploitation.

Prompted by the conviction that legal co‑operation, at an international level, is crucial to the protection of the rights of the child, San Marino was the first Country to sign, this year, the Protocol on child pornography and the second Country to sign the Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflicts. The Republic is actively preparing to participate in the World Summit to be held in September 2001, when progress made over the last decade in the protection of children will be reviewed. On that occasion, the international community will lay the foundations for ensuring that children enjoy their full juridical status.

Well aware that legal equality between men and women has become a major concern both nationally and internationally, San Marino welcomes the results of the 1995 Beijing Conference, a milestone on the way to gender equality and its mainstreaming into national legislation, as well as those of the review Conference, held in New York last June.

The technological revolution, among the most important ones of the last decades, has caused radical changes in international relations. We all hope that information technology and the Internet will be increasingly used by the poorest Countries as instruments of economic and cultural development.

In this context, I wish to reiterate my Country's commitment and willingness to take part in the latest UN projects aimed at reducing illiteracy through computer science and promoting the knowledge and use of new technologies in developing Countries. In this way, new technologies, far from widening the gap between rich and poor Countries, will benefit everybody.

In this spirit, the international community as a whole has the duty to contribute to the consolidation of democracy in Africa and to help its populations, under the aegis of the United Nations, in their struggle for a lasting peace, poverty eradication and the achievement of a just and sustainable social development.

The international community has a moral and civil obligation to put an end to the conflicts afflicting many African Countries and to counter the growing instability caused by ethnic and territorial divisions in some of these States or regions. In fact, if international peace is to be attained, the right of each individual to live in peace and security must be guaranteed.

The numerous and cruel acts of genocide witnessed by the twentieth century recently led the international community to set up an International Criminal Court in order to avoid that the authors of crimes against humanity remain unpunished.

San Marino, the first European Country to ratify the Statute of the Court, hopes that other Parliaments will add to the 19 having already deposited their instruments of ratification, so as to reach the minimum number enabling the Court to be operative and become a juridical and moral Authority.

On behalf of my Country, I wish to thank the Secretary General for having made the Organization more efficient and modern through a series of reforms. Yet, with regard to the reform of the Security Council, Member States could not make any decision in the absence of a general agreement. In this regard, let me express my sincere hope for a comprehensive, democratic and fair reform of the Security Council.

Mr. President,

At the beginning of a new millennium, the consolidation of a more efficient and representative governance, at an international level, bridging the gap between the haves and have‑nots, is our common expectation.

Being globalization an irreversible process, we rely on the power and capacity of this Institution, in which we believe and which we have to strengthen.

Thank you.