Mr President,
First of all, I want to add my voice
to those who have already paid tribute to the SecretaryGeneral's visionary and
action-oriented report on the role of the United Nations in the 21st century.
We, the
member states, are crucial to any success or failure of the United Nations. Together, we
must determine what we want from the Organisation and each of us should be willing to
invest - politically and financially to
enable the Organisation to do what we want it to do. Not only do we need agreement on the
core functions of the United Nations. Such agreement also requires a realistic assessment
of its ability to perform them.
Reforms
are well underway, but we can and must do more. At this Summit we must renew our efforts
to bring prosperity, social justice and full recognition of human rights to all citizens
of the world.
Progress is needed on the issue of
Security Council enlargement and reform. Progress is also needed to put the United Nations
on a sound financial footing again.
Mr President,
Global governance needs to be
strengthened to keep pace with the major challenges presented by globalisation. The United
Nations, other multilateral organisations and their member states have a pivotal task to
perform if we are ever to tackle global concerns such
as the spread of infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
Closing
the gap between rich and poor is a task that cannot be left to the market or to individual
countries.
Globalisation should go hand in hand
with solidarity and security for all. The Secretary?o:p>General is right when he urges us to
focus on measures to achieve Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear.
The persistence of extreme
poverty is an affront to humanity.
The Second
World Water Forum, held in The Hague in March this year, agreed on realistic targets for
achieving major improvements in the availability of safe drinking water and basic
sanitation by 2015.
The
Netherlands will continue its efforts to help achieve these targets as well as the
development targets agreed at the major UN conferences:
- by supporting UN organisations that
function well;
- by urging multilateral organisations
to introduce performance measurement;
- by promoting the formation of network
alliances to ensure thematic and sectoral coordination at the global level and, last but
not least,
- by continuing to make its financial
contribution.
Equally
important is Freedom from Fear.
The United Nations should be in a
position to respond to a crisis in its early stages.
Improving the Organisation's
peacekeeping capabilities is essential.
The international rule of law needs to
be strengthened.
The International Court of Justice,
the Yugoslavia Tribunal and the Organisation for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons, all located in The Hague, contribute to that goal.
In the near future they will be joined
by the International Criminal Court. The Netherlands has also offered to be host country
for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Biological Weapons.
Mr President,
Our endeavours to achieve
freedom from want and freedom from fear for all should be guided and further inspired by
the ideas in the Secretary-General's report, which draw on the United Nations' Charter.
Finally,
I would like to re-emphasise that ensuring a strong UN requires the combined efforts of
all its Member States.
This Assembly can count on sound
contributions and sustained efforts by the Netherlands.
Thank you.
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