Address by Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel at the Fifty-Third Session of the United Nations General Assembly New York, September 22, 1998

Mr. President,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election. I wish you good fortune and all of us a successful session. I would also like to thank Ambassador Udovenko for the dedicated way he conducted the business of the fifty-second session. He has advanced the reform process and kept it on the agenda. We can, and must, follow up these efforts.

I endorse the statement of my Austrian colleague Wolfgang Schüssel on behalf of the European Union.

Mr. President, this session of the General Assembly has a special significance for my country. It was twenty-five years ago almost to the day, on September&nbsp19, 1973, that Walter Scheel became the first Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany to address the United Nations. Describing our perception of the United Nations, he said that it meant "more than the mere security of states, more than the mere regulation of their diplomatic relations," that it concerned "the beginning and the objective of any rational policy - people."

That description of our role in the United Nations remains valid. United Germany, too, feels committed to a world free from fear and want, protected by the rule of law, a world in which every individual has his opportunity and which preserves the integrity of Creation for future generations. It is the vision enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights.

We have come a lot closer to that vision over the past twenty-five years. The division of Germany, Europe and the world has been healed. The world is developing ever more into the "one world" on the foundations of democracy and human rights. But it is also becoming increasingly clear that the human race have never been so bound up to gether in their common destiny, united by common challenges, as they are today.

The crises in Russia and Asia have shaken the world economy. The global scourge of drugs, organized crime and terrorism spread their tentacles around the globe. 1998 is the year of climate disasters. Two-thirds of Bangladesh is under water and the Yangzi floods in China have claimed thousands of lives.

No state, whether superpower or small island, can master these global challenges alone. And no one can escape them, least of all the suffering people - the homeless in Bangladesh, the drug addict in Europe, the victim of civil war in Africa.

We can shape our future only through joint efforts. We therefore need global action and global management for the global challenges of the 21st century - not tomorrow or the day after, but today.

This is a test not only for governments but also for the other global players: the non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations. Never were the NGOs so important as they are today. Without them, the Ottawa Convention banning landmines could not have been signed in December 1997. And let us not forget: 51 of the world's 100 largest economic entities are now companies and only 49 of them states. All this shows that the time has come for new alliances for peace, freedom and prosperity throughout the world.

Mr. President, the age of globalization is the age of the United Nations. Only here do all nations of the world come together. Only here can we find joint solutions to the global challenges of today and tomorrow.

This is why we Germans want to help get the United Nations in shape for the 21st century. We are facing up to this responsibility - as the second largest export nation and third largest economy in the world, and as the country with the largest population in the European Union.

We owe Secretary-General Kofi Annan our gratitude and support for his reform proposals. Now it is up to the member States.

The Security Council still mirrors the world as it was at the end of the Second World War, but not the enhanced status of Asia, Africa and Latin America with the Caribbean.

The same is true of the greater weight of Japan and united Germany. I wish to thank all member states who advocate a permanent seat for Germany on the Security Council. Security Council reform cannot be delayed any longer, otherwise the momentum will be lost.

Since the end of the cold war the United Nations has had more burdens to shoulder than ever. It therefore needs effective institutions and for this reason has a right to expect members to pay their dues on time. All - and especially the big members - must help according to their ability to ensure that the world organization can accomplish its tasks. Germany, the third largest contributor, will continue to meet its obligations.

Mr. President, we know from recent experience that we should not add to but rather ease the burden of the United Nations. This is a task especially for regional organizations like the OSCE and the OAU. If they succeed in settling conflicts locally the Security Council will not need to deal with them.

New avenues of joint action are therefore called for. To pretend globalization is not happening would be absurd. Only those who face up to the challenge can exploit the opportunities and cushion the risks. The impact of the crises in Russia and Asia shows that the world economy needs a reliable framework. That is not to say we need a global financial authority or fixed exchange rates, least of all a new wave of protectionism. But we do need better early-warning mechanisms, more transparency and more efficient banking systems, especially in the newly emerging economies.

This is not a task for governments alone. What is needed now is a global public-private partnership between governments, international financial organizations and corporations.

We therefore support the American initiative for a dialogue between the G8 and the newly emerging economies on a new international financial architecture. The IMF and the World Bank should not always have to serve as the stopgap when the opportunity for structural reforms has been missed.

Mr. President, managing globalization also means weaving a network of partnerships between the big regional groupings and the big countries. The regional groupings are the components of a new global order under the roof of the United Nations. The European Union's partnerships with regional organizations like ASEAN, Mercosur and SADC prove we are on the right course: We want an open not a confrontational kind of regionalism.

I am confident the European Union will be an anchor of stability in the 21st century. By introducing a single currency on the first of January 1999 it is focusing its energies. Its global role will increase. It is about to begin further negotiations on accession with associated partners. What Willy Brandt said about Germany in 1989 applies today to the whole of Europe: "What belongs together is now growing together."

NATO, too, is gradually opening its doors to the new democracies. In the year of its fiftieth anniversary it will admit Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Together with Russia, Ukraine and the other CIS members we are developing a comprehensive security partnership. True, the Russians are having a rough time at present, but the world needs a democratic and stable Russia which will play the role commensurate with its size, its status and its potential.

Russia faces a Herculean task of consolidating its economy and maintaining social stability. All responsible must face up to the challenge: President, government, parties and business. I know from my talks with Prime Minister Primakov last week that Russia intends neither to change course nor go into reverse. The crisis in Russia affects us all. We won't abandon Russia. It can count on us.

The Kosovo conflict remains a thorn in Europe's side. A humanitarian disaster is looming. The situation of the refugees, more than 250,000 of them, is desperate. International organizations, the EU, the United States and Russia are coordinating their efforts to enable those who have been driven out to return to their villages. Time is getting short; winter is just around the corner. Most of the responsibility for this drama lies with Belgrade, with President Milosevic. He must realize that the international community will react with military force if necessary. We still seek a political solution for Kosovo, i.e. self-administration within the Yugoslav Federation. It cannot be achieved without Belgrade and Pristina. So the weapons must now be silenced. We condemn the use of force by the Yugoslav security forces and the KLA.

NATO is prepared to provide the backing for a political solution. Yugoslavia and Kosovo are a part of Europe. Their future can only be a European one. The history of Europe in this century shows that we can overcome hatred and mistrust.

In Bosnia too we have seen that animosity is slowly being replaced by trust and cooperation. Recently I paid my twelfth visit to Sarajevo. That tormented city is slowly beginning to blossom again and the country's reconstruction is progressing. Nonetheless, the peace process must continue to be buttressed by NATO and SFOR. No matter what the result of the elections, the international community will not tolerate any reversal of the peace agreement's implementation. Furthermore, genuine peace will not return until the presumed war criminals and enemies of peace - Karadzic and his lot - have been brought to trial in The Hague. Only when those guilty of crimes against humanity, torturers and terrorists all over the world have been brought to justice will we all be able to sleep peacefully.

Thus the establishment of the International Criminal Court on July 17 was a major step towards a world order in which the force of law, not the law of force, prevails. Germany was the driving force. I appeal to all countries to sign and ratify the Court's statute.

Mr. President, no one stands more at the mercy of those who wield power than the refugees. At present more than twenty million people worldwide are in flight: despairing elderly people, women and children and the sick, homeless, destitute and with absolutely no idea what is going to happen to them. I have been to many refugee camps - in Albania, Africa and the Middle East. Every refugee's case is a story of inmeasurable human suffering.

Germany is today the country with the second largest number of refugees. 150,000 from Kosovo alone have found refuge in Germany.

The misery of the refugees is a humanitarian and political challenge to the international community as a whole. What is now needed, therefore, is a global refugee policy. The United Nations, too, has to do something about it. This means specifically: first, a more equitable distribution of the refugees, as I recommended here in the General Assembly already in 1993. We cannot leave the poorest countries to their own devices in trying to cope with the refugee problem. Second, greater efforts will have to be made to remove the causes of flight and expulsion.

Mr. President, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has declared the 21st century a century of prevention, and with good reason. To wait until a situation gets so bad that people have to take flight is to make oneself partly responsible. Trouble must therefore be nipped in the bud. This is the task of preventive diplomacy, of human rights observers and peace-keeping forces.

Mr. President, striking at the root of mass flight and migration also means eliminating the economic, ecological and social causes. The gap between rich and poor grows wider. The wealthiest 20cent of the world population consume 86cent of all goods, the poorest 20cent only 1.3cent. This equity gap must be closed. Every individual has a right to live in dignity, free from hunger and want. All nations must be given a fair chance in global competition, the poorest ones in particular. Hence it is up to the rich countries to help the poor make the most of their opportunities for development.

Our aim is a social world market economy. This is why in 1997, Germany spent 10.25marks on bilateral and multilateral assistance measures - an investment in peace and stability.

Africa shows what can be achieved when the international community and the countries concerned pull together. Today, democratic elections are held in more than half of the African countries. In twenty African countries economic growth is between 4 and 6 cent and in eleven it is higher still. We want the Africans to know: We will not abandon this vast continent with its 800people despite the heavy burdens it still has to bear.

Mr. President, poverty and refugee problems are also exacerbating the situation in the Middle East. The people in Israel and in the Palestinian territories long for peace more than anything else on earth. The peace process requires fresh impetus. The Israelis and Palestinians must move towards each other again and rediscover the lost mutual trust. We Europeans will continue to support this process with our American friends. We back Israel's legitimate claim to security for its state and citizens. The Palestinians have recognized that claim; now words must be followed by deeds. They must see to it that terrorism has no chance. But Israel too must show compromise as regards a further partial withdrawal. Neither side should put any new obstacles in the way of a deal - that includes allowing new settlements in the occupied territories.

Mr. President, particularly in the Middle East we have time and again seen that terrorism leads to a dead end, destruction and suffering. We must pit all our strength against the cynics who advocate violence, the fanatics and ideologists - the dead of Omagh, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam serve as a warning. Those who plant bombs and murder people must be brought to justice.

Drying up the sources of terrorism - poverty, ethnic conflict and fundamentalism - is our common responsibility. But to fight terrorism is not to fight Islam. Islam is one of the great world religions. Nothing could be further from the truth than the cliché that Islam equates with fundamentalism and violation of human rights. We want a dialogue of cultures and religions, especially with Islam. There exists an ethic of humanity which unites us all. It is based on the inalienable dignity of every individual, as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Human Rights Covenants of the United Nations. These are the benchmark for our joint action in the 21st century.

Violations of human rights are no longer an internal matter of states. They concern us all. Anyone who, like the regime in Kabul, denies women their basic human rights place themselves outside the international community of common values.

As Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said, the world of tomorrow will be judged by how we treat our children today. Yet the rights of many children are still being trampled underfoot. Millions of children are forced to work. Particularly appalling is the fact that every year some two million children all over the world are sexually abused. Only through joint action can we stop child prostitution, traffic in children and child pornography, including that proliferated via the Internet.

I therefore propose that the United Nations set up a contact point to coordinate worldwide efforts to eradicate sexual abuse of children. The supplementary protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child designed to afford better protection against sexual exploitation should be quickly adopted and quickly put into effect. Children are small people who need big rights. Protection for children during armed conflicts must be improved, also by outlawing their use as soldiers.

Mr. President, we all hoped that with the ending of the East-West confrontation the danger of a nuclear conflagration would be gone forever. This has proved to be an illusion. The threat of proliferation of means of mass destruction hovers over the human race. We can only safeguard world peace in the 21stif we keep such terrible weapons under control.

In Geneva India and Pakistan have agreed to negotiations on a cut off. That's a good sign, but not nearly enough. It must be followed by their accession to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. All nations should now sign the Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Test Ban Treaties. This also applies to the conventions banning chemical and biological weapons. The adoption of a verification protocol to the convention on biological weapons is now urgent.

Next March, the Ottawa Convention imposing a worldwide ban on anti-personnel mines enters into force - a great success. Only if all countries now sign it will these diabolical devices soon be wiped from the face of the earth. It is our common task to get rid of the 100mines still remaining using state-of-the-art technology. This also applies to the uncontrolled accumulation of small arms in many parts of the world.

Mr. President, we must also radically rethink our attitude to nature. The victims of the floods in China and Bangladesh are a warning. We must swing the wheel round now. This we owe to our children and grandchildren. We can save our blue planet and its ecosystem together or not at all.

Take the world climate. The Kyoto Protocol launched a global effort to protect it. That was a big step forward. But time is getting short. We have just had the warmest half-year this century. At the fourth Conference of Parties scheduled for Buenos Aires in November, we shall have to agree on the instruments with which to achieve the objectives of Kyoto.

Take water. Water is irreplaceable; it is more important than oil. Yet in more than eighty countries it is in short supply. Two billion people have insufficient or no access at all to clean drinking water. Finding joint solutions for the peaceful use and conservation of water, the source of life, is one of the great tasks of the 21st&nbspcentury. The pursuit of this scarce commodity must not be allowed to spark fresh conflicts.

Germany intends to remain in the vanguard of the international campaign to protect the environment. I am gratified to note that our commitment has been acknowledged by the appointment of Klaus Töpfer as Executive Director of UNEP.

But we are not going to rest on our laurels. A few days ago I opened an international conference in Potsdam on early-warning mechanisms for natural disasters. The conference has shown that progress can be achieved if we want it. Specifically, it is now a question of

1. establishing effective global early-warning systems for environmental crises and natural disasters, and

2. developing emergency management arrangements for the coordination of international relief measures.

We must now get down to this task, and the United Nations is the right place to do so. 463 days from now the 20th century comes to an end, a century of unprecedented violence and destruction. The coming century must be a century with a humane countenance - a wonderful vision. But talking about it is not enough. Only if we act together will we survive together.

The United Nations is indispensable to this task. Strengthening it to secure a peaceful and more equitable world - that is our responsibility. This we owe to coming genera tions. My country will devote every possible effort to this task.

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