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

“We are coming to the end of 1999, a date that many see as the end of an epoch, given the proximity of the new millennium. The imminence of its arrival invites us to reflect on the history of men and women. It is with humility that Western nations, such as mine, consider the development of mankind, which well before our year one was recorded by other calendars during thousands and thousands of years, as homo sapiens began to create tools of wood and metal, began to bury their dead with dignity or to build empires and cultures ever greater, and also ever more ephemeral. Today we marvel at the mysterious paintings of prehistoric man, such as we find in Andorra and throughout the Pyrenees, or at the great architectural projects of ancient Egypt.”
1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)
“Secondly, I called for the greater participation of youth in the process of reform and the workings of the United Nations. This is a priority for our delegation: Let us make the future with those who will inherit it. I conclude my speech today with a call of hope and a vote of faith: faith in the United Nations and its capacity for transformation and improvement in its pursuit of peace and development; confidence in its Secretary- General, who has begun his mandate with firmness and decision, as he should; and, finally, an unshakeable belief in the irrepressibility of human progress. Through the United Nations, let us make the new millennium an age of enlightenment.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Let us consider together the appropriate public relations and communication strategies for the United Nations at this fifty-second session, a session of reform. Two months ago, during my participation in the General Assembly when the Secretary-General announced his reform, I wanted to underline two points of special importance for the Andorran delegation. Today I should like to reaffirm these two aspects. First, I emphasized the importance of the small countries during this process of reform. If the reform leads to a shift away from the founding principles of the United Nations, our Organization will cease to be universal. I concede that, without the bigger countries, reform is not possible, but without the support of small countries reform will only be partial.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Perhaps because it has an image problem. In these closing years of the century, let us link the United Nations to the peoples to which its Charter refers. Let us show these peoples that the diplomats of 1997 are not a club of ladies and gentlemen with little work who wander through the halls of this building. It might be a good idea — in emulation of the United Nations Children’s Fund, which has established a lively and effective presence in Andorra through its National Committee — for us to ask celebrities and leaders of opinion to serve as spokespeople for the United Nations in their countries and across the world. We have the message, the mandate, and indeed the successes, but have been less successful in communicating them and allow the public to forget our actions.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Today, I would like to stress the need for a general and ongoing effort to present the United Nations to the world. We live in a world of images, as the events of recent weeks clearly demonstrate. During this time, two great humanitarian figures have died: one who selflessly dedicated her life to the poor, the other who dared to embrace the sick whom nobody dared to touch. These two women, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Diana, Princess of Wales, both lived under the light of public interest and used it to spread their humanitarian messages. In Great Britain, the Princess of Wales Fund is becoming one of the largest in the world. And yet, it is difficult for us to gain public sympathy and donations for the United Nations, although it is the first and most important instrument for works beneficial to all humanity. Why is this so?”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“For this reason, I have asked my Ambassador to the United Nations to devote, as he has before, a large part of his efforts at Headquarters to the Third Committee of the General Assembly. I have also asked him to study carefully the ways in which the Third Committee might strengthen its procedures in order that the spirit of reform which permeates the United Nations during this time might extend to all its forums of deliberation. Andorra believes in the United Nations and, at the global level, supports the desire of the Secretary-General for reform. I have just explained our reasons for this, but, because people and States believe in the United Nations, we must better understand its functioning and its weaknesses — which are similar to those of any humanitarian organization — and especially its goals and its strengths.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“If we give it the means, the United Nations may become 3 a humanitarian and preventive force of the highest order. Andorra, which does not have and does not wish to have an army, is in the process of considering the establishment of a humanitarian force that will align itself with these objectives and with the words of international solidarity inscribed in our Constitution. There is no better way to prevent conflicts than to teach and advance human rights and democracy. Political scientists tell us that democracies do not make war with each other. Common sense tells us that people who respect and revere the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will always find a peaceful way to negotiate their differences.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Why do we not empower the Security Council to examine in its debates these difficult questions before a conflict arises and temperatures become inflamed beyond the burning point? Indeed, as we consider the reform of the Security Council, why do we not concentrate more on its deeper action, with a view to giving it the means to accomplish preventative diplomacy, as we consider its size and structure? It is truly a matter of regret that the United Nations is not the best instrument for armed intervention during a conflict, unless it is for humanitarian reasons. Perhaps this situation will change if we succeed in establishing a greater force with a greater capacity for military reaction. The United Nations can help the healing after a conflict.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“The world calls such action preventive diplomacy. It is all too easy to dismiss the existence of small countries as improbable and irrelevant accidents brought about by historical providence. We do not appreciate sufficiently the troubles through which many of those States — Andorra among them — have struggled at certain historic moments and that might have resulted in their disappearance from the face of the Earth. Not having an army and not using force, we have learned by necessity the importance of diplomacy. In the United Nations we must use such diplomacy by choice and by desire. Why should we not consider, among other possibilities, the establishment of a reliable and discreet system of information to measure the political temperature of points of tension throughout the world?”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“If the Earth dies during the coming centuries, it will take all of us with it, rich and poor, peoples of the North and the South. In his inaugural speech last week the President pointed to the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl as a disaster that continues to haunt not only his own country, but all of us as well. We therefore approve of the Secretary- General’s plan to transform the Trusteeship Council into a body for protecting the integrity of the global environment and of shared areas such as the atmosphere and outer space. We also believe in the mission of peace that the Secretary-General has foreseen for the United Nations. For every conflict there is a “before”, a “middle”, and an “after”. Andorra has learned during its seven centuries of peace that it is better to take action during the “before” stage.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“We therefore applaud the Secretary-General’s initiative to reform those practices leading towards development. Andorra supports him in his goal of reducing duplication and increasing the coordination of resources. In the next decade we must bring to the United Nations the most brilliant minds on the planet and put them to work in a shared spirit of rationalization in order to understand both the causes of underdevelopment and the path to follow in order eradicate it in the twenty-first century. Just as the World Health Organization eradicates diseases that afflict the citizens of the world, so too must the United Nations serve as a catalyst for the eradication of those evils that afflict the world’s peoples. We share the Secretary-General’s particular concern for the natural environment, which is the common denominator of the world.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“On a planet that is capable before the third millennium of producing machines that travel to the moon and to Mars, sophisticated computers to help us, travel networks that link Ulan Bator with Johannesburg or Andorra La Vella with Lima in the space of a few hours — on this planet of limitless advances — the dawn of the year 2000 reveals the existence of hundreds of millions of poor people and a worrisome decline in our environment. How can we go from speeches to acts, from bemoaning the problems of the world to commitment, and undertake those actions which will bring an end to the present degradation? Only the United Nations, as a global Organization, possesses the structure to realize those projects needed to bring about global development in the long term.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“We are, after all, touching on an important topic: the confidence that we have or do not have in the United Nations. Andorra has full confidence in the United Nations. Even though we believe that the creation of a revolving fund of $1 billion is only a temporary remedy for a financial situation that should never have existed, we are prepared to add an additional 10 per cent of our annual contribution to this emergency fund if the other Member States are equally supportive and on the condition that the debtors — whether they be large or small — pay their debts in the future. The Secretary-General asks us to consider the promotion of sustainable development as a central priority of the reform of the United Nations.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Let us be clear: the delay in making payments to the United Nations acts as such a heavy weight on any attempt at reform that it will be nearly impossible to make progress if the conditions of payment are not met. I would like to emphasize that my country, Andorra, pays its assessments to the budget of the Organization dependably and on a per capita basis, as do many other countries. If each citizen of my country contributes almost $2 annually to the regular budget of the Organization, 2 why can the people of other developed countries not do the same, even when the per capita amount that is asked of them is significantly less than that of Andorra? Happily, there are admirable and exemplary citizens who are able to make up for the insufficiencies of their own countries.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Another point which I would like to emphasize concerns the decision of Secretary-General Annan to shift the work of the United Nations towards concrete objectives within specific time-frames. This strategy of working towards objectives will probably save money for the United Nations and serve as a model for the efforts needed to achieve development. That is the strategy which we follow in Andorra in the area of administration, and which every day becomes more accepted by many countries throughout the world. It is well understood that these structural and functional reforms will lead to significant savings in the budget of the United Nations. However, it is of primary importance that Member States pay their debts to the Organization as they agreed to do in acceding to the Charter of the United Nations.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“It seems that during this decade in which budgets have imposed the need for cutbacks, many Governments have learned that it was necessary to reorganize resources, establish the proper relationship between work and goals and find the means to reorganize their bureaucracies and render them more efficient with regard to the work of their administrations. This was often inspired by the strategies used in private enterprise. I thank the Secretary-General for having had the courage to begin this difficult task in the Organization. We in Andorra will try to find inspiration in the principles which will lead the Secretary-General in his reforms in order to make our own administration in Andorra more efficient.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“I therefore lend my support, on behalf of Andorra, to reinforcing the role of the Executive Committees established in January of this year, as well as to the creation of a forerunner to an executive cabinet, the Senior Management Group. I share the Secretary-General’s desire to see an evolution towards greater efficiency and productivity in the management of the United Nations. As many others have done, I take this opportunity to congratulate Under-Secretary-General Joseph Connor for having brought a spirit of good management to our Organization.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“This innovation will probably have the following consequences: the Secretary- General will be considered as the statesman and the Deputy-Secretary-General as the manager. This seems to me to be a good division of labour. What must be avoided, however, is that the Deputy-Secretary-General become a counter-force to the Secretary-General. The Deputy- Secretary-General must always be a faithful representative of the ideas of the Secretary-General in order to avoid administrative tension at the United Nations. The reorganization of the management structure of the United Nations is a prerogative that we must recognize as belonging to the Secretary-General.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“To reach our goal of an age of enlightenment, we must count on the United Nations and its ideals, and we must also count on the small countries, which will never fail to defend it. The proposals for the reform of the United Nations presented by the Secretary-General are conscientious, fair, innovative and practical. I will not comment at length on the new administrative structure proposed by Mr. Kofi Annan. To benefit from the assistance of a Deputy- Secretary-General appears to us a natural aspiration. All of those who serve a country at the highest level know how much time must be allotted to issues of protocol and to small meetings. It is necessary for the United Nations that the agenda of the Secretary-General be lightened so that he can concentrate on larger problems.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Indeed, many people have been surprised to discover that we have for centuries democratically elected our Government, and that we last used the death penalty over 50 years ago. In short, Andorrans are capable of resolving their problems without the use of force. And thanks to this legacy, without any misplaced pride or privilege, we wish to promote those reforms that will enable the United Nations to be the best hope for our peoples. Immanuel Kant, in an essay dated 1784, stated: “If it is now asked whether we at present live in an enlightened age, the answer is: No, but we live in an age of enlightenment'.” At the end of the twentieth century, are we now living in an enlightened age? The crises of development and the military conflicts that still afflict our planet make us believe the opposite.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“We also have more liberty than many other States to dedicate ourselves to the goals of peace and progress that were set, in a utopian spirit, by our forefathers in San Francisco. For we are small and humble, and have no vast territories across the seas, no uranium mines on the other side of the world, no reserves of oil beneath our soil. Our interests go no farther than our own boundaries. After all, we possess the record for peace in the world — some 700 years. For all these reasons, Andorra and other small countries have the liberty to reflect on the future of mankind and the well-being of peoples as we approach the third millennium — without, I hope, any suggestion of the occult.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“I have no doubt, therefore, that your presidency will be a great success and will bring about the consolidation of the reform of the United Nations, which we are beginning this year. Likewise, I extend my congratulations to the members of the General Committee, who are beginning their term as Vice- Presidents. On 16 July, in this same Hall, I spoke after Secretary-General Annan for some minutes in order to show Andorra’s support for his call for reform. The Principality of Andorra supports unconditionally the proposed reform of the United Nations, since we believe the Organization to be indispensable. As a small State, weak in a world of stronger Powers, it is in line with our national interest for us to desire that law and dialogue prevail over force and military strength.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“I should like first to thank for his work the outgoing President, Ismail Razali. My Ambassador, the Andorran Vice-President for the fifty- first session of the General Assembly, was a firsthand witness to both the diplomatic skill and dedication of his Malaysian counterpart. On behalf of the Government of Andorra and the Andorran people, I should like to pay tribute to his work and to thank him publicly for the trust he placed in my representative to the United Nations during this year — a year of great change and enormous challenges for the Organization. Allow me to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the fifty-second session of the General Assembly. Andorra recognizes your reputation as a diplomat and your extensive experience.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Today I reiterate the promise that President Kennedy made to the United Nations: “To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last, best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run”.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“One year ago, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Andorra concluded his statement before this Assembly with some words by Robert Kennedy. Previously, my predecessor in the presidency of the Andorran Government borrowed from John Fitzgerald Kennedy the expression “Ich bin ein Berliner” to declare himself an Andorran in a speech on the particularities of small States. To make reference to the Kennedys is to make reference to an optimistic decade imprinted with the ideals and dreams that a young American President spread around the world. It was also a decade of harsh realities and contradictions, as in the world today. Ideals, however, last because there is always a new generation to adopt them.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“When optimism does not conceal reality, but instead tries to transcend it, it is the best remedy against the apathy that can affect the human heart in a world full of conflict. I have spoken of youth and its optimism, and of the need to focus our attention on the problems affecting youth. I have lauded the successes of the United Nations, but I have also noted the difficulties we will have to overcome if the United Nations, is to enjoy qualitative growth. I have advocated the teaching of human rights, of democracy, of tolerance, and of social and individual responsibility for the progress of human communities. Four years before the new millennium, we must give our youth optimism and confidence in the future.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“In accordance with article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Andorra signed and ratified less than a year ago, thus contributing to the universal process of ratification so desired by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), it is vital that Governments ensure that tolerance and human rights are taught freely and comprehensively at school in order to rear new generations that are much more sensitive to the universality and relevance of these rights. We must also encourage States still using other forms of government to adopt democratic processes, and make the rule of law a priority for leaders in the coming years. There are no peoples unprepared for democracy, only leaders with little aptitude for fostering it. I wanted to introduce a spirit of optimism in my speech today.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“This notwithstanding, Governments continue to have a fundamental role in the internal activities of States, so that few United Nations efforts and initiatives can really be effective without their active cooperation. For this reason, the leaders of States who, year after year, gather in this Assembly Hall must leave here convinced of our unavoidable responsibility to promote human rights within our own borders and social and economic development in our States.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“In its preamble, the Andorran people declare themselves eager to make every effort to promote values such as freedom, justice, democracy and social progress, to maintain and strengthen Andorra’s harmonious relations with the rest of the world on the basis of mutual respect, coexistence and peace, and willing to bring their collaboration and effort to all the common causes of humankind. At present, States, large or small, within the framework of the United Nations, have a duty to provide a source of inspiration for the ideals of youth, prevent isolationism and look beyond their borders, share experiences and show solidarity with States in distress.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“In the same fashion, not very long ago we gave top priority to acceding to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons with the hope of promoting that text of peace. Peace! The cry of alignment for the traditionally neutral States, one of the most noble cries, is — let us not fool ourselves — still far from being answered. The CTBT is only the first step, and an essential one, towards more efforts to ensure nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and the reduction of other types of arsenals — goals to which Andorra will devote much attention. To help achieve these objectives, the Government of Andorra has a mandate of solidarity which is enshrined in our Constitution.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“Our responsibility is to ensure that the period of history we have entered in the nineties rejects the obscurantism produced by the fear perpetuated by human beings, and reflects the qualities humanity holds highest. The framing of a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which I will sign tomorrow on behalf of the Andorran Government, along with many of the representatives here, is an achievement of which the United Nations Organization can feel proud and a clear example of what we can do when the peoples of the world unite with the strength of an ideal of peace. Andorra, an initial co-sponsor of the resolution that brought this Treaty to the General Assembly, adheres to 11 its principles in full, principles which provided the basis for the founding of our country.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“When the media tell us that the United Nations is a potential terrorist target, we become even more conscious of our commitment to strengthening efforts more effectively to publicize the task of our Organization. The energies of our youth must not be directed towards violent expressions of social discomfort. We must therefore channel them, as I have stated before, towards creativity in one’s work and promoting confidence in humanity’s potential. When, a few years ago, the political scientist Francis Fukuyama, as witness to the end of the cold war, wrote about the end of history, he forgot about the immense creativity of human beings. When one period of history ends, another one begins.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“If in a particular State some people, be it only a few, no longer suffer torture or repulsive abuse when they are arrested; if in some parts of the world blood is not shed because international shame projects itself on those countries; if in other places, nuclear tests will not shatter the peace of the people living there because we have signed a treaty prohibiting such actions, then the United Nations deserves all our support. We must foster confidence in the future of men and women, not cynicism towards international organizations. If we do not, we run the risk of encouraging movements that seek to express this cynicism through violence and terrorist acts. We have no choice but to consider the means democracy gives to its enemies that they can use to destroy it, particularly through terrorism.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“We must therefore make an effort to provide information so that the public has an accurate idea of what really happens behind the flags that adorn this building. We must make the successes of the United Nations known, not just its shortcomings. We must highlight its efforts to promote international law, a body of law that will guarantee negotiated solutions instead of shows of strength, a principle that is essential for the survival of small States. We must recognize the small, quiet steps humanity takes day by day in United Nations committees, steps geared towards the promotion and application of human rights.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“My Minister of Foreign Affairs reminded us last year, in this Assembly Hall, of the considerable increase in military personnel deployed for the United Nations in recent years. At the beginning of 1988, there were just over 9,000 Blue Helmets in the world engaged in peacekeeping operations. Seven years later, there are over 70,000 — this in spite of the fact that the military and logistical means of immediate action are not in the hands of this international Organization. Ultimately, we — the States that decide how this Organization shall act — are the ones responsible for failing to end or prevent conflicts. Criticism must be constructive. When we accuse the United Nations of a lack of action in Bosnia, let us ask ourselves why the policies of the members of the Security Council are so divergent and difficult to coordinate.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“— feels solidarity with these young people of Bosnia, upon whom has fallen the responsibility for building a new coexistence and for erasing from the collective consciousness these past years of propaganda and demagoguery and for breaking with the history of confrontation that afflicts the Balkans. Bosnia is not the only place where we have witnessed difficult times. Angola, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Haiti, Guatemala, El Salvador, Burundi, Rwanda, Iraq and many other places have in recent years been affected by conflicts of great complexity. Some of these problems have already been solved or attenuated, often thanks to United Nations action. Developments in the situation in El Salvador are a good example. Other conflicts continue, a cause of great consternation to the international community.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“I should like for a moment to pay a tribute here to a generation of young people which the media has of late characterized as being “lost” — the young people of Bosnia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia who, not so many years ago, were confident children of Europe and who have now spent their youth amidst fratricidal struggles and “ethnic cleansing”, with all the revulsion inherent in that expression, a youth spent between death and barbarism. Andorra, which, during the Spanish Civil War and later during the Second World War, was a land of welcome and refuge for other lost generations of other wars — also fratricidal, and, indeed, if all human beings are brothers, what war is not fratricidal?”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“Intergenerational solidarity accompanied by dialogue, is an integral theme of any policy geared to the support of the young. Indeed, when we talk of giving primary attention to youth, that must not mean a glorification of the first decades of human life to the detriment of old age. On the contrary, it should mean a recognition of the 10 determining role that young people play in what will happen later.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“Earlier, at the March 1995 Copenhagen World Summit for Social Development, Andorra proposed a full and specific commitment asking the Governments of the world to foster dialogue between generations and achieved its incorporation into the Declaration by Heads of State and Government. Given the lack of specific references in many United Nations texts, this provides a good basis for subsequent studies on youth-related themes. At this juncture, I should like to say that the fact that we concentrate our attention on youth must never lead us to forget members of older generations, particularly the elderly. Dignity in ageing must be recognized and promoted, particularly today, when the progress of medicine is making possible the lengthening of human life.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“States Members of the United Nations must collaborate with the Secretariat in defining the Programme’s possibilities and putting it into practice in a concrete way so that its message reaches all nations. What we do with today’s youth will define the twenty-first century. For the past year Andorra has actively participated at the United Nations in the debates involving the young. On 26 October of last year, in commemorating the tenth anniversary of the International Youth Year, our Ambassador spoke in this Hall on the benefits of teaching tolerance and human rights to young people in schools. Andorra has also contributed to the United Nations Youth Fund.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“I would also mention as an example of successful action the educational measures for young entrepreneurs that some Latin American States have taken with a view to the creation of new, small companies. At the United Nations, States must give direct support to young people and to the programmes related to them. More specifically, I am thinking of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond. That Programme, which was adopted by the General Assembly on 14 December 1995, defines some of the problems that affect the world’s young people and indicates medical, educational and job-oriented priorities for the next few years. We must enlarge on that text.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“This joint effort is most appropriate when we recall that we are living in an era in which society realizes that big government and its programmes sometimes give rise to more expenditure than advantages and that fiscal responsibility is of more benefit to the economy than is the multiplication of governmental departments, especially in the developing countries, where the public sector is still suffering the consequences of large-scale programmes that have not produced the results expected. In those States, Governments will find it to their advantage to acknowledge the value of fostering microcredits for young people with entrepreneurial projects. The example of Bangladesh, where such credits have enabled many women to achieve financial independence, is noteworthy in this respect.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“Governments must coordinate economic plans with training policies so that students can learn professions that they will have some chance of practicing, as well as to prevent, insofar as possible, an excess of graduates in saturated sectors. We must also give appropriate encouragement, through programmes of coordination and technical assistance when necessary, to the integration of young people into the community. Small communities, when they work in conjunction with non-governmental organizations, pay special attention to the management of resources and are well aware of the needs of their young people.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“In States still striving to achieve development, in which 84 per cent of the world’s population between 15 and 24 years of age lives, the situation is very worrying: AIDS, the rural exodus, poverty, hunger, medical shortcomings, sexual exploitation, juvenile delinquency — problems that also affect the developed countries — are particularly acute. Unemployment in developing countries is also a tragic evil. We know that more than 100 million new jobs will have to be created in the next two decades to satisfy the growing young and active population of the developing countries. In confronting these problems we who govern must assume our responsibilities and give priority to policies affecting the young, especially those geared towards fighting youth unemployment. One of the first areas we must encourage is obviously that of training.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“It is that aspect of the young that we must nourish if we desire a better world. Unfortunately, it is still very difficult for many young people to seek the good of mankind when in their own countries, cities or villages, 9 in their homes or in their families, they lack the most basic physical or spiritual necessities, when the education they are given is the official doctrine of a despotic regime and when — as was the case with their parents and their grandparents before them — what they eat today is the meagre wage of much sweat. In the developed countries, unemployment among the young crushes the hopes of a large part of today’s well-prepared generation, which will be forced to waste the education that decades of economic progress have enabled it to obtain.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“One of the principal reasons for that trust is probably the fact that a great part of our population is young and that our demographic pyramid is very different from those of our Western European neighbours. When human beings are young, everything seems possible. The energy we all possess allows us to look forward with strength, with courage and with hope. Raisons d’état, political evils, economic imperatives, the belief that the end justifies the means — all these have difficulty taking root in the young, since youth cares more about fidelity in friendship, more about making its imprint on society. Youth has idealism — something we too often criticize but something which feeds the genuine and vital fire that compels human beings to strive for dialogue and genuine coexistence — to aspire, for example, to the United Nations.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“It is the young people growing up in this latter part of the twentieth century who will pave the way to the third millennium. I should thus like to make them the main point of my statement this year in the Assembly’s general debate. Later, I will mention my State’s hopes for the young who are today being educated in an understanding of the challenges of the United Nations and of the need to promote democracy and human rights as the pillars of the peace, prosperity and justice for peoples that we are striving to attain, goals that, if we hurry in our task, we may be able to glimpse ourselves. Earlier, I indicated that Andorra trusts the future.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“One day, we would hope, that admirable action of the thirteenth-century Andorrans will be imitated by our century’s over-armed Powers, large, mid-sized and small. Our small population has been a good school for human understanding and our individual and collective aspirations, allowing for the precision of small-scale observation. Because we are small and peaceful, and because we have a lengthy history, we bring to the United Nations a vision of the world that is patient and optimistic, and it is our belief that if we have lived in our territory without bellicose conflict for more than 700 years, the same is also possible beyond our borders, for, in the end, the men and women who live in Andorra are different from the rest of mankind only in their collective historical experience.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“In order to advance towards these objectives of progress, we will have to count on the United Nations. Its reform, which the Secretary General, at the call of all the States, has promoted during these last years, will give us a more efficient Organization, with more coordination and less costly duplication, responsible in the financial sphere and concentrated on its mandate. My fellow citizens often ask me, “What can a small country like Andorra bring to the United Nations?” We are a State with very little land and with a population that we count in six tens of thousands, and we lack the political weight the force of arms normally provides. However, our small size has been our good fortune. We have opted to lack armies and cannons since we destroyed all our country’s fortifications in 1278.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“I do this with the satisfaction of congratulating an illustrious Portuguese, a brother from the Iberian peninsula who has been able to give this Assembly the necessary impetus to start off on the right foot and with hope for the new era of 50 years that must take us to the one hundredth anniversary of the United Nations. I wish also to convey to the new President, His Excellency Mr. Razali Ismail, my warmest congratulations and those of my country on his election, and I have the great pleasure of assuring him of the close collaboration of the Andorran Vice-President of the General Assembly, who will always be at his service. Andorra looks to the future of the world with optimism, sure that on this Earth men and women of good will will know how to overcome intolerance and injustice.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)