BRAMA, Sep 19, 2005, 10:00 am ET
UN Photo: Foreign Minister of Ukraine Borys Tarasyuk Addresses General Debate 18 September 2005
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Statement
by H.E. Mr. Borys Tarasyuk,
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
at the 60th Session of the UN General Assembly
18 September 2005
New York
Mr. President,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the outset I wish to express my congratulations on the election
of our President of the General Assembly at its 60 th session. You may
rest assured of full support and co-operation of the Ukrainian delegation.
Let me also pay tribute to your predecessor H.E. Mr. Jean Ping for
his tireless efforts in the preparation of the World Summit.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The World Summit 2005 has just come to its conclusion. Its Final
Declaration provides us with clear guidelines. It is our common task to
implement ambitious goals for building a safer and more prosperous
world.
Talking about implementation, I wish to emphasize two key
elements, indispensable for the follow-up activity of the United Notions
and, in fact, for a success of a global peace endeavour.
They are credibility and democracy. Or rather – credibility based
on democracy.
We know that the way ahead is beset with serious threats and
challenges. We have to make sure that the lack of unity may not belong
to such challenges. Every nation likes to sing its own song. It takes our
fundamental values and a lot of human wisdom to perform the role of a
tuning fork in the global chorus of so many different voices.
Credibility of the United Nations is indispensable to accomplish
our missions in the new Millenium. Effectiveness, capacity, rapid
response, financing development and all the rest of it will come along
with credibility.
UN Security Council reform is a vivid example of how difficult it
is to accommodate the interests of 191 nations. It reminds me of a joke
about distribution of committee posts in the Ukrainian parliament. They
say that we should have 450 committees — that is the number of
members of the parliament — in order to make everyone happy and feel
important.
Unfortunately we can not afford to apply a similar approach in the
case of the Security Council, since its powers exceed by far those of any
other UN body.
The official position of Ukraine on the matter is clearly reflected
in the statement of President Yuschenko during this Summit. Ukraine highly appreciates the
job done by experts exploring various options of the Security Council
reform. We may not abandon hope and should continue to seek
consensus.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ukraine has fully supported the UN Secretary General's bold
initiative to reform the organization and actively participated in this
process. We re-iterate our support for the strengthening of the position
of the Secretary General.
In view of the forthcoming election of the Secretary General in
2006 we would like to remind the distinguished delegates that
throughout the 60 year old history of the United Nations only the
representatives of our Eastern European regional group has never
occupied this highest post.
Therefore, we believe that the Eastern European group has the
priority in nominating its candidacy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Building this statement around the words "credibility" and
"democracy", I cannot but stress the key function of our Organization,
which is to maintain international peace and security.
The memory of Rwanda, Srebrenica or quite recently Darfur
should guide us to look for urgent remedies.
One of them can become the "Responsibility to Protect" concept,
which Ukraine fully endorses. We may not remain passive observers of
genocide, crimes against humanity or gross and flagrant violations of
human rights.
Like it happened in 1932-1933, when Ukrainians experienced the
Great Famine with devastating effects. The horrible memory of this
man-made calamity lives today in every Ukrainian family, including my
own. 20 000 innocent souls a day, half a million a month, ten million
altogether were reaped by the death toll of Stalin's favourite ethnic
policy.
The Ukrainian government will never tire of making the
international community abandon hypocrisy and finally recognize this
act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation.
It was therefore with much earnest and hope that Ukraine followed
the deliberations on the new concept. Early warning, prevention and
rapid response are key to ensure success and durability of our concerted
actions. An expert combination of diplomatic, political and assistance
tools has to suffice to avert future humanitarian disasters.
Only should such measures fail to stop atrocities, the Security
Council must be ready to act swiftly and resolutely, including the use of
force, as the final resort.
I would like to reiterate the position of Ukraine that apart from
self-defense as provided in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter,
only the Security Council may take legitimate decisions on the use of
force.
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Peace and stability go hand in hand with human rights, the rule of
law, freedom of the media.
Credibility of governments rests on these fundamental values.
We were all aware of malfunctions in the Commission on Human
Rights. Poor mechanisms led to poor results. Credibility of the entire
Organization was at stake.
Therefore, Ukraine welcomes establishment of the Human Rights
Council. We firmly believe that this important achievement of our
Organization will be reflected in its further activity and not only in the
change of the name.
Likewise, Ukraine supports establishment of the United Nations
Democracy Fund.
Another matter of significance that should enhance credibility of
the United Nations is the creation of the Peace Building Commission. It
is evident that any conflict resolution needs a complex approach. The
institutional gap between prevention, settlement and post-conflict
rehabilitation has to finally be eliminated.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To save your time at this late our, forgive me for not mentioning
many areas of co-operation and many regions of the world that
genuinely require our undiminished attention and actions.
Be it non-proliferation, hot and frozen conflicts, AIDS, fight
against poverty, Middle East or Iraq -- it is most often the issue of
democracy of governance, or credibility of policies, or both.
As concluding remarks, let me recall the phenomenon of the
Orange Revolution in my country, for it was the quintessence of what our Organization
stands for.
It was not a one-time act. It is the process.
It is not country specific, but part of the global heritage of
democracy. An unselfish gift to all the nations striving for freedom around the
globe.
I thank you very much for your attention.
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