YouSaid · the spoken record

Marc Forné Molné

lines on the record: 101
first: 1996-09-24
most recent: 2004-09-24
sittings or episodes: 5
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That good sense has been inherited by the new generations of young Andorrans — women and men who are very well prepared for the world of today, open to knowledge of new technology and full of legitimate pride in being members of a small State in which they have every chance of being the main agents of their future, but who are, at the same time, perplexed by the growth of new religious fanaticism and exclusiveness and by the return of old fanaticisms, which we had considered forgotten. At this, the dawn of a new era, we must pass on to them the trust which we have placed in the United Nations and in the supremacy of law over force. This our fathers taught us, and this our children must learn if they are to be worthy members of humankind.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“When I read Andorran documents from past centuries, I recognize how deeply ideas of independence and respect for others have guaranteed our well-being and our security. Given the bloody course of European history during previous millenniums, we hold this as a remarkable accomplishment. We have never had an army, nor have we produced one single offensive weapon of any type. Our only weapon has been the wisdom and prudence of our forebears, who had the good sense to keep out of all neighbouring conflicts.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Through the 1993 constitution, we keep their successors — the President of the French Republic and the Bishop of Urgell — as our heads of State in a personal, joint and indivisible manner. The continued existence of Andorra over the centuries has, indeed, been the result of a skilful and constant will to negotiate between our people and their powerful neighbours. The democratic process which began with the setting up of the Council of the Land in 1419 was essential for our survival as a free community. Although conflicts have also threatened Andorra during its history, mutual understanding has protected us better than have the high peaks of the mountains which surround us or the rigorous winters which isolate us from the outside world for weeks and weeks at a time.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The Secretary- General’s statement yesterday was the best, by far, of all of them. Although Andorra joined the United Nations just 10 years ago, our country is not a new one. Quite the contrary — the Principality of Andorra is one of the oldest and most peaceful nations in the world. Our frontiers have not changed for centuries, and we have practised parliamentary democracy for over half of that time. In fact, we have had uninterrupted peace since 1278. In the thirteenth century, during the violent period of the Cathar heresies, which created upheaval in our part of the world, two powerful lords — the Count of Foix in the north and the Bishop of Urgell in the south — managed to overcome religious and political differences to negotiate an agreement which made the Andorran State possible.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Yet the essential issues facing us are not restricted to just one part of the world; nor can they be defined in terms of the advantages or interests of a single nation. Preserving the environment and maintaining a strong global economy, dignified standards of living and safe and peaceful political relationships all require a concerted effort. The task will not be easy. It will require all the courage, energy, diplomatic talent and communication skills that we can bring to bear. Our joint task has never been as important as in the coming year. Yesterday, I listened carefully to the words of the Secretary-General, who set a very high standard for all in his opening speech. I would like sincerely to congratulate the Secretary-General for the courage of his words. I have heard many impressive speeches in this Hall over the past 10 years.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Although that represents a great effort for us, as a small country, I am happy to inform the Assembly that that commitment will be honoured. I am also sure that my successor as head of Government will continue to increase Andorra’s contribution to the objectives of development until we reach 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product. We will also become a member of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and help to make its worthy mission a reality. We live in a world of limited resources and opportunities. Competition for them is increasing with the growth of globalization. The worst outcome of the inevitable future competition would be increasingly violent demands on the part of one nation or another.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Our efforts averted worse bloodbaths, greater harm to the oppressed and ever more extreme trauma and despair. What good is this Organization if we lack the wisdom and moral strength to attempt to reconcile our fellow nations? How could we continue to hope for peace and justice in the world if the United Nations ceased to press forward with its mission? Andorra has never been a wealthy country, though its inhabitants have always been free. In this respect, we have a privileged history. Other nations have endured greater privations and fratricidal wars, have lost customs and traditions and have had its citizens flee into exile. 37 Conscious of the moral debt which we owe to others, three years ago we proposed to increase our development assistance to 0.7 per cent of our budget for next year.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“We hide our vulnerability behind a kind of rigid certainty or moral righteousness. Ignorance and the unwillingness to recognize differences give rise to xenophobia and racism. There is not much use in wondering now if the results would have been different, and the dangers facing us today less severe, if different policies had been applied after the criminal and unforgivable attacks of 11 September 2001; if the peace process in Israel and Palestine had been more successful; or if we in the United Nations had been able to play a different role. Granted, our response, as the United Nations, to other international crises has been imperfect, and we are constantly striving to rectify the way in which we approach such issues. But the results have been invaluable.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“I call in particular on the States that are permanent members of the Security Council to think long and hard about what they can achieve together, with the support of all other United Nations Member States, to preserve international order and models of civilized behaviour, which this Organization represents and which it has taken humankind so many millenniums of suffering and progress to achieve. In this context, Andorra would support an increase — up to 24 — in the number of members of the Security Council so as to guarantee a more accurate representation of the reality of today’s world in that important decision-making body. I believe that the energy that feeds the cycle of violence is the result of the abstractions behind which we hide — abstractions of nation, religion or race.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Instead of isolating one nation from another, instead of moralizing and self-serving political posturing, instead of giving in to fear, we must recognize that our common vulnerability goes hand in hand with a humanity that we also share. Helping every member of the international community to realize that what happens to others can also happen to us creates a basis for tolerance and understanding. How much stronger we, all the countries represented at the United Nations, could become in the fight against terrorism if we truly acted together. A Security Council strengthened by a common will to root out terrorism could do much more than individual actions supported by a few Governments. We must give back to the United Nations its sense of determination and help it to help us all in the crucially important fight against terrorism.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“We, the people of Andorra, were very directly affected by the attacks in Madrid six months ago. Very recently, Russia has been added to the list of disasters. But sympathy alone cannot break the cycle of fear and violence. We need to address the causes of terrorism and comprehend the forces that give it power in order to respond together in compliance with the rule of law. Tomorrow, my country will deposit instruments of ratification for four conventions against terrorism, and the rest are scheduled to be ratified in the coming year. Mr. Kazykhanov (Kazakhstan), Vice-President, took the Chair. We cannot allow terrorism to unbind the rule of law, since that would mean undoing the tissue of civilized behaviour, which serves as a safety net in modern culture.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Should the conventions of international law be cast aside by 36 Members of the United Nations, as they are by lawless terrorists? What I would like to do today is reflect on the things we can learn from the past that can guide us towards a more promising and safer future. For countries with a deep respect and admiration for the history of freedom of the United States — and Andorra counts itself among those countries — it is a source of consternation to note that the doctrine of pre- emptive attack has generated a level of distrust among Governments and peoples. After the worldwide outpouring of sympathy following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, that changed perception is profoundly troubling. Neither can anyone claim that sympathy is enough. Worldwide sympathy was the reaction to the attacks on New York and Washington.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“But it must be admitted that it is becoming more and more difficult to think in that way and to believe that the principles that inspired, for example, the founding of the United States of America, can still prevail. That is because the notion of pre-emptive war has now shaken us all. The principle of attacking before one is attacked is no new invention. But it had seemed to be a tribal memory or a type of behaviour belonging to other, none too remote times in the history of Europe itself. The big questions are: what justifies a pre- emptive attack? Which country or countries pose a sufficient threat to allow taking such a risk? Why attack one country and not another, perhaps equally dangerous one? Are the sufferings of some people more meaningful than the sufferings of others, and consequently more deserving of action?”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Every day, the media shows images of innocent people and soldiers losing their lives in those conflicts. The stakes continue to rise, yet the cause of world peace seems increasingly vulnerable. The almost instantaneous arrival in every home of images of the most dramatic events taking place everywhere is even becoming banal. The privilege of being able to come so many times to the Assembly on behalf of my country has produced in me states of mind that have gone from initial curiosity and the wish to know and learn to a much more sceptical phase, by way of periods in which large question marks were placed on the role we are all playing in this game. We want to be positive and optimistic and not to betray the heritage of peace, harmony and open welcome that are the essence of the life of the Andorrans, both women and men.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“A decade ago I was elected the Head of Government of my country. It was 1994, a time of hope for the world and for the Organization of the United Nations. The collapse of the communist system and the iron curtain and the appearance of new democracies in the world, combined with a positive economic outlook enabled us to imagine a better future for humankind in the twenty- first century. Ten years later, we are living with considerable concern in a world that is becoming more and more violent, in which terrorist attacks are met with a military response and those military responses seem to generate new terrorist attacks. It would seem that we are caught up in a terrible settling of scores and in a spiral of hate, fanaticism and senseless bloodshed.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Let us try and make some use of these long debates and speeches which we applaud with diplomatic courtesy, often without even hearing them. Too much is at stake for all of us.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“The insignificant part of the Andorran budget devoted to the purchase of weapons resulted in the composer and singer Pete Seeger dedicating a song to us in the 1960s. His verses still echo today, just as they did when he made a whole generation sing “We shall overcome. We shall live in peace”. Many things have happened since those days and Andorra no longer allocates so much as $4.50 towards its defence budget. We do not spend a penny. In this diverse and contradictory world, with all that is squandered on new weapons and old, the whole of mankind could live decently. We could eliminate all diseases. Education and culture would be made available to all. Thus, we could end fanaticism and all those who abuse the ignorance of the people would end up without victims or lackeys.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Since 1995, we have regularly increased our budgetary contributions and hope to devote 0.7 per cent of our budget to third-world aid within two years. Our philosophy of development supports the institutions of the United Nations, looking to small-scale solutions that foster self-reliance and local initiative. We are particularly enthusiastic about projects aimed at children, education and those who help women to establish their own businesses. We are also committed to encouraging sustainable farming because we recognize that proper farming practices provide the best defence against catastrophic crop failures. To that end, Andorra also proposes within the next year to become a member of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“As we become smaller, the need to combat poverty and suffering has become all the more important. We cannot forget that images from more fortunate countries are beamed into the lives of people existing in difficult or even life-threatening circumstances across the world. No matter that these images may be propaganda and distortions of the truth — our modern technology, the source of so many comforts and advantages, is also demonstrating the full scale of our differences. We must learn to treat all members of the world as we would like to see our own citizens treated. We need to insist on a decent life for everyone, for all mankind. 19 Andorra is committed to aiding development around the world.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Pollution and global warming concern us all. The strange climactic shifts of recent years, the pollution of our great oceans and lakes, threaten our environment. Perhaps most dangerously, nuclear weapons threaten the life of everyone on the planet. All of these calamities, present or looming, demand international cooperation if we are to survive. It is most sad that some of those who could do most to prevent the degradation of life on Earth continue to look in another direction — at the balance sheets of the big companies that contaminate the Earth most egregiously — and continue to apply an energy policy based on the uncontrolled exploitation and low cost of limited resources. We have become a little world. We have become like a small country, rather like Andorra, where everybody knows everybody else’s business.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Such was its beauty that it was not destroyed when the Christians captured the city, but converted into a Cathedral, just as the great basilicas of Constantinople became the great mosques of Istanbul when that city fell to the Ottoman empire a century later. What if we could learn from the events that have marked history, making use of the lessons of peaceful coexistence, avoiding past mistakes and appreciating the moments of openness between cultures in previous centuries? We live in a world of vast contrasts where technological progress, used dangerously or simply without precaution, has made life more perilous on a global scale. Where once the great plague took years to make its way across Europe, modern plagues — be they biological viruses or computer viruses — travel across the globe in a matter of hours.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“We need to advance, in all moral seriousness, an ethic of diversity that goes beyond recognizing the value of tolerance and multiculturalism and strives to implement shared ethical values in the service of world understanding. In 1278, the strategic importance of Andorra lay in its proximity to the border between Catholic Europe and al-Andalus, Islamic Spain. The road that led to the great city of Cordoba — where the philosophy of Aristotle was retranslated from Greek and Arabic into Latin and re-entered the thought of the Christian West in the renaissance of the twelfth century — passed close by our country. In the centre of that city, the Muslim rulers built an astonishing mosque with a forest of columns, made all the more beautiful by the presence within it of a synagogue.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Whereas the Church once summoned councils to struggle over the problems of heresy, we now gather at the United Nations not to insist on one form of belief, but to recognize and sustain the common ethical base that unites all beliefs, all ideologies, under the unshakeable canopy of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are now in the twenty-first century and not in the Middle Ages, but those who then were fundamentalist Christians and who resolved everything with anathemas, crusades and exiles have given place to those who practice other forms of religious intolerance of different persuasions. It is shameful to see that, even today, people are being killed or kill in the name of their God. The work that the United Nations accomplishes, therefore, does not simply pay lip service to diversity.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Legend has it that Andorra was founded by Charlemagne, who, let us recall, was one of the key 18 historical players in the battles between Islam and Christianity. In the thirteenth century, however, it was the religious tension between the Count of Foix, who was a Cathar sympathizer, and the Catholic bishop of Urgell that led to a balanced agreement resulting in the independence of Andorra. Andorra came into existence partly as a buffer State between two powerful lords and between two approaches to Christianity: the orthodox and the Cathar. The Cathars are only a distant memory now, but I raise this issue here because it points to the battleground of belief.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Here the lessons of national self-interest must give way to an international understanding. In this university of the world, our previous studies, by which I mean our own political careers, can only help us in the short term. But what we study together here are long-term lessons that can ensure the long-term survival of the world we share. Although Andorra is small in scale, like many partners in the United Nations, what we smaller nations have to contribute is larger than our proportionate geographic scale or the relative size of our population. Indeed, our small size has made us by necessity careful observers of the needs of others and our centuries of independence have taught us responsibility to our citizens and our neighbours. We have never forgotten the bonds that link us to the world. Our history has taught us this.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“In this regard I wish to express our confidence in the United Nations to bring an end to this complex and cruel conflict, a crucial step for the stability of the region and an important matter for the future of mankind. The United Nations will know how to find new ways and adequate solutions and will play a leading role in the establishment of new paths. As politicians, we pride ourselves on our knowledge of the needs of our citizens. We are students at the university of the national will. The most successful among us have cultivated a keen sense of the everyday desires, frustrations, and goals that are important to our citizens. If we live in a democratic State, and ignore those needs, the voters will quickly look for others who do not. The United Nations is a different kind of university.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Secondly, to what degree will its Member States be willing to work within the framework of the United Nations? Perhaps a cooling of passions will enable us to address these difficult issues clearly. We are all too aware of the difficulties and dangers that beset both the citizens of these countries and the troops of Member States who are working to bring stability to these places. We hope for a rapid solution to the myriad difficulties involved in ending the series of sad and painful events that have taken place within these countries over the past few years. The United Nations has a critical responsibility in fostering a constructive outcome for the Afghan and Iraqi people and also in resolving tension throughout the Middle East.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“One of the proud moments in the long history of our country was the day in 1993 — ten years ago — when we became a Member State of the United Nations. We joined with great hopes and all these years we have believed in its crucial role, despite the crises that may have cooled that belief. The terrorist attack on the United States of America marked the beginning of a very complex stage in relations among nations and of a difficult equilibrium among different areas of our planet. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were both set in motion by this attack; one had the support of the United Nations while the other did not. While there is no point in returning to that debate, two questions must be addressed. First, can the United Nations effectively respond to threats to world stability?”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“It was not only our small size and isolation that kept us apart from the wars that ravaged Europe; rather, our desire for independence, the unity of our people, and also our ability to get along with our powerful neighbours made Andorra one of the oldest democratic States in the world. In the past half-century, since the founding of the United Nations, the world has changed, and Andorra with it. Less than a century ago it was only possible to reach Andorra by horse. Now roads bring us 12 million tourists each year. Telephones, computers, satellites and airplanes bring the world to Andorra and we in turn have reached out to the world. In the time of my grandparents, Andorrans never travelled far from their mountains. Now we are world travellers.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“During the past two years, the attacks of 11 September 2001 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as in Africa, have brought turmoil to the world. The United Nations has never been more necessary, yet perhaps never has its efficacy been so questioned nor, until the bombings last month in Baghdad, have its people been the object of such massive direct attack. In the Principality of Andorra, encircled by the high mountains of the Pyrenees, we have lived peacefully and democratically between our neighbours for over 700 years. Since 1419, our Parliament has met to debate the problems of our people.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“For I believe that, as the Nobel Prize Winner William Falkner said: “man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.””
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“We have a great chance to change this world so transformed by globalization. Do not forget, however, that at the end of this century marked by the worst excesses of humanity, the United Nations represents our charitable spirit and at its centre there is not a machine, but human beings, albeit exceptional ones: the first among them, Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General; Didi Opertti, the outgoing President of the General Assembly, whom we thank with all our hearts for work well done; Theo-Ben Gurirab, the new President, whom we congratulate on his election; and many other persons who bring their individual beliefs to this common house for humanity. It comforts us to think not about systems, but rather about those people who, indefatigable, work for a better world. Let us therefore have the optimism to believe in our species.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“The server computers installed at the Mission function at a good rhythm and other regional groups have asked for information in order to establish a similar system. I therefore reiterate the offer I made last year concerning the cooperation of Andorra with any other interested regional groups. The United Nations is certainly imperfect, but it is the best organization that we have to orient this unpredictable world of the third millennium towards a culture of peace and international solidarity and also along the path of development. There are many labours left unfinished: the reform of the Security Council, the new tasks of the Trusteeship Council, the revitalization of the Economic and Social Council, the increase in possibilities for peacekeeping operations, among others.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“My country 25 intends to continue to contribute to initiatives such as these in order to express our solidarity with the actions for peace of the United Nations. It is right that a small country such as mine, which has been blessed by 721 years of uninterrupted peace should participate in the United Nations in those acts which bring about a culture of peace. The last time I visited the Headquarters of the United Nations, during May of last year, I did so to present a programme of computerization for the archives of the Group of Western European and Other States to the high- level working group on informatics. I am happy that the diplomatic mission of a small State such as ours can bring about the realization of this project, aided by the National Computer Science Centre of Andorra.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“I am aware that it is not an enormous contribution, but it is much greater than that which each inhabitant of the biggest countries with a high income pays or should pay. A good part of this figure was for voluntary contributions towards disarmament. An exhibition on children and small arms opened recently. Prepared by the Department of Under-Secretary-General Dhanapala and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and sponsored by Andorra, it will move to different sites in the world to raise consciousness concerning the tragedy brought about by the presence of small arms in areas of conflict, especially for the young. We have also made contributions towards programmes designed to collect small arms in some of those countries that suffer from an infestation of this plague.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“This preparation will ensure that our contribution will measure up to the noble work of the Council, notably in the war against poverty. Still on the economic plane, Andorra's candidature for the World Trade Organization represents one of the most important current challenges for my country, alongside the relationship we are exploring with our neighbours in the European Union. As a small State which tries to understand its economic opportunities, we find the flows of global commerce, and our participation in them, of particular interest. In 1998 each Andorran gave around $6 to our annual budget for contributions to the United Nations; this is the per capita figure for the Andorran contribution to the Organization.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“This represents an important goal for us in our international life, and we are pleased to inform the Assembly that Andorra has started its preparatory work for its presence in this organ, so important to the United Nations. The deliberations of the next session of the Economic and Social Council which will take place in New York in the year 2000. For the session to take place in 200l in Geneva, where we will participate as full members, the recent extension of our Permanent Mission to the Geneva Headquarters will assure our being able to carefully follow the proceedings. To this end, I have asked our Permanent Representative to establish at this session which of the members of his team, and in what capacity, will be responsible for the Economic and Social Council in 2001 for Andorra.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“In particular, our delegation will follow with interest the work of the Commission on Human Rights during its meetings in Geneva. Andorra's desire to mark its opposition to the death penalty as punishment for a crime will again be expressed. We will also insist on the need to teach human rights to children, as is emphasized in Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We will also work this year on other United Nations Conventions concerning human rights to which Andorra has committed itself to adhere pending internal proceedings. The year 2001, as a result of the internal rotation of the Western Group, will allow Andorra to be a member of the Economic and Social Council.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“I have the pleasure to announce to the Assembly today that once the juridical analysis and translation from Catalan has been completed, my Government will give to the Consell General, our Parliament, a copy of the Statute for ratification. We hope, therefore, shortly to be one of the States that will permit the International Criminal Court (ICC) to become a reality by being one of the first countries to ratify the Statute for its entry into force. Another small European State, San Marino, preceded us towards this goal and we congratulate it on its speed and support for the ICC. The work of Andorra in the United Nations concerning the rights of man continues to occupy a special place in this fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“Support for the system depends on the United Nations having a real capacity for intervention so that peacekeeping is more effective. This was the point of departure for my series of observations. I can guarantee that Andorra, a small State that has been a United Nations Member only since 1993, will make every effort so that the desire to make the United Nations an instrument for positive globalization is not in vain. We are making increasing efforts within the Organization. Andorra's active participation in the Rome Conference to establish an international criminal court, where it was the second State, after Italy, to sign the Statute, which begins with words written by Andorra well illustrates the efforts of my country to aid and reinforce the rule of law in the world.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“The United Nations capacity for reaction and the mobilization of the forces of 24 the States that compose it is therefore essential. Here is the third aspect of the United Nations that must become more effective than it is at present. Peacekeeping must be conducted using more powerful and better organized mechanisms of intervention that allow for rapid action and guarantee the effective conversion of words into deeds. Globalization, a current reality, presents both opportunities and dangers. In order for it to be a tool of progress, it must be accompanied by a system that is both political — involving democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights — and economic — involving the goal of the eradication of poverty and encouragement of development.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“During the first years of the new century, it will be necessary to keep alive the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so that people everywhere are educated in the social responsibility of the individual and so that democracy is accepted as the only natural form of governance for all regimes. The recent conflict in East Timor is a good example of the opportunities as well as the dangers that the United Nations has before it. On the one hand, we find ourselves facing a long but productive process, in which a popular vote accepted by all the parties will lead towards an unequivocal resolution of a long-standing problem. On the other hand, once this democratic process was effectively carried out, violence broke out, and now we must react quickly in order to stop the massacre.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“A discussion of the responsibility of those States that administer economic aid returns us to the questions of political rights, the advancement of democracy, the transparency of the political and economic process and the consolidation of the rule of law. Models exist, and if they have been developed in specific nations of the earth, these models do not carry any copyright. Human communities are either free or not; there exists no other possibility. True democracy, the freedom to choose the people to administer the public good through regular elections, is the only form of democracy that can be defended. Today, with the information we have at our fingertips, nobody should dare defend tyranny by resorting to cultural arguments.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“The world has today more that 1.5 billion people who lack access to potable water and basic sanitation facilities and who are largely illiterate. What kind of global community will we be creating if these numbers do nothing but rise? The United Nations indicated what needed to take place after the Social Summit in Copenhagen in 1995. That conference traced a path that we have begun to follow, but that must now be followed with a firmer step. Why do we not, in the decades to come, try to apply the desires expressed in United Nations policy to economic organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank? We must do this. Otherwise, globalization cannot be any more than it is now: a dictatorship of the financial world over people and their legitimate representatives.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“Many of these boys and girls will grow up with the same aspirations, instilled in them by a global culture, but once the age of adulthood is reached the possibilities for the exploitation of their potentials is not the same, and in this great injustice lie the seeds of new wars, exploitations and corruptions. For many of these children globalization has little meaning. We cannot turn our backs on the fact that 20 per cent of mankind lives in conditions of extreme poverty, and that many millions of others are very close to this state. What does global culture represent for all of these people? Perhaps simply a mirage of all that they might have had and taken pleasure in had they been born citizens of a richer country.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“What exists today are the indispensable economic and political precepts that our parents, survivors of the Holocaust and other terrors of the Second World War, gave to the United Nations and to the other international organizations allied to it. This Organization, which many love to criticize, while it may be distorted or weakened by the weakness of its Members, is at its core the expression of one of the greatest moments of the soul of humanity. The political power of the United Nations comes from the defence of the rights of man and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Its power in the economic sphere is based on an ethical cry for development. I spoke before of the children of the pampas or of Gabon, as I might speak of children of the American Midwest or of East Asia or the French Pyrenees or the Arab peninsula.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“For if their childhoods are no longer so culturally separate, the political and economic opportunities they have when they pass into adulthood should be equally similar. Globalization is probably the greatest opportunity for humanity, but it will not develop its potential if it is not accompanied by both principles and political action at the highest levels which allow for the establishment of new “post-national” communities with different cultures but with similar characteristics, communities that together can work towards a world of peace and economic progress. This will never be realized without the United Nations, the indispensable Organization. There are no indispensable nations, just as there are not men and women who are better than others because of the accident of their places of birth.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“Institutions are the pillars of our community: a democratic parliamentary system that began in 1419, a culture of peace that has continued uninterrupted since 1278. Perhaps, since the Andorran fatherland is the result of institutional and political ideas worked out in a unique historical experience, born out of 23 a pact, we can emphasize these ideas today in this speech so that here at the United Nations they can serve as unifying institutional elements, thereby promoting the idea that globalization should be shared by all in common progress. What is important in the new millennium is to know how to orient this globalization with international criteria, so that a son of the Argentine pampas or a daughter of Gabon can equally laugh and cry at the same cartoon, so that their freedom and ambitions can be equal and equally unconstrained.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“This phenomenon is of such importance that the General Assembly should reflect upon it, each of us according to his unique perspective. The universality of this international forum — where, because of the far- sightedness of its founders, all nations, large and small, have the same voice — makes it the ideal place for a sober reflection on globalization and its effects. The nineteenth century saw the birth of nationalism, which, in giving cohesion to human communities of all sizes, mythologized its unifying elements, often to an extreme. Andorra is a State, the fruit of a juridical agreement that defined it, long before the coming of nationalism. Our national essence is not based only on our language, Catalan, which we share with our neighbours to the south and to the north, or on other manifestations of modern nationalism.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“Our culture, our crafts, our way of life — all these have certainly changed; but our intellect, though more cultivated and filled with more knowledge, continues to grasp at the problems of our existence in the same way, with the same hesitations — caught between superstition, cruelty and fear on the one hand and optimism and hope on the other. In short, at the dawn of the year 2000 we remain essentially human and we can still discern in ourselves the traces of our ancestors who were born of natural evolution. However, the progress of human societies has so intensively transformed our environment that our era is intrinsically new and different from those that preceded it. This new world, so recent and so obvious to us that it appears it could not be otherwise, is the world of the new millennium. Globalization defines the spirit of the age.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)