PERMANENT MISSION

OF THE PRINCIPALITY OF ANDORRA

TO THE UNITED NATIONS

MILLENNIUM SUMMIT OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Address

of S.E. M. Marc Forné Molné, Head of Government,

to the Millennium Summit

United Nations - New York

September 6,7,8, 2000

Mr President,

Mr Secretary General of the United Nations

Your Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are meeting today in New York, at the seat of the United Nations, to celebrate two thousand years of our calendar. One thousand years ago, the roads had become unsafe, the philosophies of the ancients had been put to one side to await the renaissance, and human beings eked out an existence in fear and poverty in a divided and unsafe Europe.

Now, in the year 2000, science has freed us from many diseases and some superstitions. The bloody wars of the 20th century and the atomic age have made us aware of our immense and brutal capacity for self destruction. The rationalism and liberalism of the 18th and 19th centuries and the failure of authoritarian and totalitarian models have led to the advance of modem democracy which is indisputably the best system of government for human communities.

One hundred and eighty nine sovereign nations are meeting under the auspices of the United Nations in a spirit of planetary solidarity at a time of globalization and instant communication. Mankind has never been closer to the promised land but at the same time we have never been so aware of the dangers hindering us from reaching it.

The peace of nations cannot be built, as in the year 0, on the supremacy of an empire, whether this be political or economic. The governments of the world must lead globalization to areas of true co-operation between north and south, between large and small. Because political globalization cannot come into being at the cost of small countries. Small size human communities such as the Principality of Andorra, the peaceful heirs of a long history of democracy, must be able to maintain their presence without losing their identity. If political globalization does not include the small states, we shall be less in all possible meanings of the word.

The year 2000 should be remembered as the year of courage and not as the year of fear, like the year 1000. The greatest assembly in the history of the rulers of the earth is to be found in this chamber. Today we know where good and evil lie. The San Francisco charter and the 1948 declaration of human rights leave no room for doubt.

In the coming years we must have the courage to speak out frankly. We must have the courage to condemn dictatorships even if these have been set up in countries which are important for our economy. We must have the courage to opt jointly for policies of solidarity rather than reasons of state. This must be the year of ethics and courage and the beginning of a century of valour.

The attendance of high representatives at international conferences must be visible and continuous. I am sorry to have to regret the lack of interest aroused by the conference on social development held in Geneva on 27 June this year, unlike the session at Copenhagen in 1995 where nearly all of us were present in the photo.

Andorra, ladies and gentleman, gives its full support to the report for the millennium of the Secretary general, Kofi Annan. There must be fair globalization, reduction of the abject poverty which grinds down half of mankind, a safer world which acts more to prevent conflicts than to react to them; there must be much less military expenditure and much more medical research against AIDS which is killing thousands in Africa and all over the world.

We also want more awareness and defence of the natural environment. But although we in the small states are making great efforts for respecting nature to the maximum, we shall always feet that the big states have to do the real work. And the fact is that they are not doing it. Quite the opposite, they are refusing to sign protocols and to limit the unsustainable growth which characterizes them. And like this they are changing the climate of the whole world. And it is obvious that we are all to blame in some measure when we follow blindly along the road of industrial consumption. In this meeting these questions which will condition life in the century we are beginning will have to be spoken of.

We have taken note of the invitation of the Secretary General in his report and we are taking advantage of this summit meeting to sign the two conditional protocols to the Convention on the rights of the child concerning the participation of children in armed conflicts and the sale and prostitution of children and the their being used in pornography.

We have also given our support to the initiative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, with regard to the declaration entitled "Tolerance and diversity: a vision for the 21st century" because our land, Andorra, has a lot to say about questions of diversity and tolerance. We have lived through the wars of our neighbours and of Europe: refugees always found help and peace with us. In the second half of the twentieth century Andorra was host to immigration which multiplied its population by more than eight times. And all of us who live there try to make tolerance and respect for diversity more than just a word.

We must learn how to welcome the diversity of human beings and of nations and at the same time to establish global values of what is legitimate and what is not. This is the great challenge of the future history of mankind: to manage to respect everyone's cultural diversity and at the same time not to accept excuses based on culture or religion for not applying all the norms of democracy and human rights.

Thank you.