PERU
UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ORDINARY SESSION
Let me congratulate you for your election and your performance in this high responsibility of the United Nations, and extend this embrace from the Peruvian people and their government to the representatives gathered here, in an act that coincides with the remembrance of tragic moments that one year ago put to the test the feelings and solidarity of humanity.
Human beings cannot and should not seize, neither as individuals nor as a species, to make of history a rational construction. Only this effort that will grant a sense of freedom and justice to collective life will be precisely the only way to humanize it.
As President of Peru in this universal assembly I reaffirm the commitment of my government and its people to the international community to fight resolutely in favor of democracy and international security, affairs that my country considers fundamental for the development of every human being.
For the same reason, and driven by our democratic convictions, I wish to express the firm condemnation of the insanity of the terrorist attacks perpetrated against the people of the United States on September 11 of 2001, and reiterate the solidarity of the Peruvian people and government to this nation, our friend the United States of America.
My government will continue to accompany every effort that the international community undertakes to confront, always within the framework of international law, democracy and respect for human rights, the cruel and irrational ravages of international terrorism.
In this sense Peru commits itself to continue collaborating with the Committee against Terrorism of the Security Council, putting under its disposition the experts that are needed to fight with intelligence and decision the threat and acts of international terrorism, within the parameters compatible with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the Security Council resolutions.
Mr. President,
We are convinced that the Nations must weave a vast network of commitments to cooperate efficiently in all the areas with the goal of defeating terrorism and, with this objective, Peru supports the efforts of the Organization to reach a consensus in the negotiations of the Project for General Convention against Terrorism.
Peru belongs to the twelve United Nations conventions in the subject of the fight against terrorism and, in this sense, calls the nations that have not yet done so, so that they sign and ratify these conventions.
This subject refers especially to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings. In this way we would take a decisive step in the eradication of this calamity that threatens peace, security and democracy, creating instability that is detrimental to the development of people.
We do this from the perspective of a country that lived for more than fifteen years with the violence of terrorism, that cost more than 20 thousand lives and thousands of millions of dollars in material losses.
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Peace is the principal value that the nations share and it is an essential condition for human development.
Based on this conviction, our government promotes, as one of the axis of its foreign policy, the limitation on expenses for defense in the regional level with the goal of liberating resources to dedicate them to social investment and to the direct fight against poverty.
To attain this, we have been applying and deepening the measures to foment trust with our neighboring countries with the goal of eliminating any possibilities for conflict.
I should say with satisfaction that in regards to this objective we have advanced, and we congratulate ourselves with the achievements we have obtained in this area with our brother country Chile.
Peru considers that, today more than ever, the international community must make the commitment to the construction of 'a participatory and efficient system of collective security.
Acting towards that direction we have promoted the approval of the Andean Charter for Peace and Security, which was approved last June by the Ministers of Foreign Relations and Defense of the Andean Community . This document has the purpose of beginning the formulation of a regional common security policy and promotion of trust, establish a zone of Andean peace, perfect and expand the trust promoting measures, to reduce in this way the expenses used for external defense.
Peru is pleased to announce that, in accordance with its compromises derived from the Ottawa Convention, it has culminated in the destruction of its arsenals of anti-personnel mines and, currently, has been implementing the largest humanitarian de-mining operation in its border with Ecuador, since the signing of the Brasilia Accords in 1998.
In the same manner, our government supports and renews its compromise to create a South American Zone of Peace and Cooperation, declared in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the last July 27, during the Meeting of South American Heads of State and Government, and proposes the inclusion of the topic of the South American Zone of Peace and Cooperation in the agenda that will be discussed during the fifty eighth General Assembly of this Organization, promoting the approval of a resolution on this matter.
Mr. President,
With regard of the promotion of democracy, the Peru finds itself headed towards reestablishing fully the freedoms of the citizens, the strengthening of the democratic institutions and take on a decisive fight against corruption.
Our government has begun this task with full respect of democratic values, as well as the independence of each of the powers of the State.
I would also like to emphasize the efforts that we have be en carrying out to consolidate our democracy through mechanisms of coordination and political and social dialogue.
I am pleased to announce that, this past July, the government, the political parties, the business sector, workers, churches and other organizations of civil society signed the National Accord that contains 29 long -term policies of State, that will be carried out by the current and future governments in the next 20 years.
This Accord has unique characteristics in the history of Peru, be cause for the first time different political institutions and representatives of civil society have met and agreed to a compromise of continuity in the policies of State in the areas of democracy, equality and social justice, competitiveness and transparency in public issues.
In the same manner, the signing to initiative by Peru, to the Charter of Inter - American Democracy approved by the Organization of American States in September of 2001, constitutes an effective effort to systematize principles, norm s and mechanisms of collective action.
This system includes sanctions, in the cases of alteration or breaking of the democratic institutionalization, with the goal of promoting, preserving and defending democracy.
We have also promoted, in the framework of the United Nations, the adoption of the Resolution denominated New Measures for the Promotion and Consolidation of Democracy, which establishes for the first time in the system of the Organization, a set of criteria that define the existence or lack of a democratic regime, that adopts the so called democratic clauses and the legitimizing of the collective action for the protection and defense of democracy.
From another angle, and always with the same objective, the government of Peru considers that the construction of peace and good governance is an indispensable prerequisite for the preservation of liberty and to attain a more equal and supportive development.
In this sense, Peru is conscious of the urgent necessity to develop multilateral efforts for the strengthening of the democracies and for this reason reiterates its proposal to create a Mechanism of Financial Solidarity for the Defense of Democracy and Good Governance.
We have said that democracy is a value that transcends the vote, the urns and the institutions of the State, sustained in the deep aspirations of the majorities to reach development and well-being.
For the same reason the emerging democracies, plagued by instability and uncertainty require urgently obtain new resources that will allow them increase the levels of public investment within the region, in order to generate employment, energize and protect them from the adverse financial shocks.
Our proposal, that we are taking from door to door, from forum to forum, from soul to soul, is based on the conviction that Peruvian democracy .is not an island Latin America and the world and therefore we cannot judge it isolated from this global and multilateral reality.
We said it convinced that here is at risk more than the democracy of our country, the democracy as a system of civilized coexistence.
Mr. President,
My government, as I announced the day in which I assumed my duties as leader of the nation, yearns to go down in history as the one that strengthened, within democracy and full respect for all the fundamental freedoms of men and women, the development of Peru through productive and worthy work for all Peruvians.
We are committed to face the great problems and challenges of our time, through the construction of a democracy in a world more just and with more solidarity.
Today, in the beginning of the twenty first century, international democracy has a name: United Nations.
If the United Nations is weak, it should strengthen itself; if it is slow, it should be given the means to act with greater efficiency and speed. But we cannot do without the framework of the United Nations.
To attempt to connect democracy in the international level with the decision of one small group, is a mistake and for the same reason we always postulate a collective action in the face of the global evils and challenges.
For all these reasons and in the light of the debate during the last years, Peru supports the reform of the organization of the United Nations and of the Security Council, with the goal of democratizing its mechanisms for acting, especially in reference to its representation in the international community, as well as the relations between its most important bodies.
Mr. President,
As I finish and thank you for your attention, I wish to reiterate the firm compromise of Peru, first, to cooperate with all the States in the international fight against terrorism; second, to work for peace and development keeping our proposal to limit the defense spending in South America to dedicate the liberated resources to social investment; and third, to strengthen the democratic systems as one important step in the battle that we are fighting against poverty.
Thank you very much.