YouSaid · the spoken record

Albert

lines on the record: 62
first: 1997-09-24
most recent: 2002-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
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

“A collective morality that is universal in scope cannot exist without institutions to disseminate it, implement it and ensure its respect. The adoption of a Convention on anti-personnel landmines, which continue to inflict their savagery on civilian populations, has long been one of our goals. Is not respect for the dignity and physical integrity of human beings one of the most essential and universally recognized values, one that underlies both human rights and humanitarian law? The meeting convened by Canada last October and the series of meetings held in Vienna, Bonn and Brussels this year, as well as the diplomatic conference that recently took place in Oslo have led to the drafting of a text, which, in the spirit of resolution 51/45 S, prohibits not only the use but also the development, stockpiling and transfer of such mines.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“The Council might also be entrusted with the ongoing task of considering the great transformations that would be entailed by predictable advances in science and technology. We must hope that the proposed reforms will be speedily enacted, so that the Millennium Assembly proposed by the Secretary-General for the year 2000 will indeed be an occasion for celebrating an updated and modernized United Nations. The Principality, which this year is celebrating the 700th anniversary of my family's dynasty in Monaco, can only wish long life to a United Nations strengthened and more open to civil society. Turning now to the nearer future, allow me to emphasize the importance that my country attaches to concluding the work on the international criminal court, which should lead to a plenipotentiary diplomatic conference next year in Rome.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“In tandem with the improvement already begun in the functioning of the Economic and Social Council, some considered attention also appears to be necessary to the 2 Trusteeship Council. The suggestions made by the Secretary-General seem to us to be wise and far-sighted. The Principality of Monaco could support the idea of entrusting that organ with new trusteeship responsibilities in the spheres of the environment and the protection of the common human patrimony. Outer space, the atmosphere, the high seas, as well as the free zones of the Arctic and Antarctic — especially in the spirit of the 1959 Treaty — would all stand to gain, under certain conditions, by being placed within its competence.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“The Security Council has already taken steps to improve information services and exchanges with Member States that are not members of the Council and with the international community at large. These steps are useful and welcome and are beginning to bear fruit. The important question of enlarging the membership of that principal organ, which depends on a decision from the Member States, is also of great interest to us. The High-level Working Group on that subject has worked tremendously hard under the leadership of successive Presidents of the General Assembly and the dedication of its Vice-Presidents. We convey to them our warmest thanks. The Principality of Monaco is ready to endorse unreservedly any commitment or solution that might be achieved, including the creation of long-term seats lasting six to 10 years, for example.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“The special team dedicated to reorienting information activities highlights, in the Secretary- General's report, a need which we understand: to improve and enlarge the United Nations capacity to communicate at the country level through innovative local partnerships. The establishment of honourary United Nations representatives would be one way to follow up that suggestion on a practical and affordable level. As the Secretary-General points out, public interest in the United Nations could also be sharpened by the organization of high-level thematic debates within General Assembly bodies. We agree with this, given that such debates would receive more attention from the press and public opinion than those currently held and would lessen the need for large world conferences.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“It is an ideal response to the current needs to concentrate and better coordinate operational activities, while promoting a strong and cohesive image of the entire system. We strongly encourage the Secretary-General to pursue this approach, which has recently been undertaken in South Africa. For those States that will not have the opportunity to host such Houses, might we not consider establishing a United Nations presence in the form of a volunteer honourary representative: a national figure mandated, alongside the authorities, to disseminate information and heighten general awareness? The widespread practice of appointing honourary consuls could, in this respect, serve as an example.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“The Emergency Relief Coordinator entrusted with humanitarian assistance must also enjoy the greatest autonomy and the means necessary to allow him to intervene effectively and promptly when necessary — a task that the Government of the Principality accords the highest priority. This autonomy must, more generally, touch the entire international civil services. The independence of United Nations agents — the Secretary-General first among them — is the guarantee of the quality of their service and of the trust which the international community places in them. The decision to bring together all the field programmes and information centres in common premises, to be known as United Nations Houses, is both rational and symbolic.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Mary Robinson, who has just assumed her office — and whose arrival we welcome sincerely and confidently — must be given sufficient human and financial resources, as well as the decision-making autonomy, necessary to fulfil the essential duties that have fallen to her. Next year's celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be an opportunity to recall the commitments undertaken by the Member States when they adopted that text on 10 December, 1948, and, a few years later, on 16 December 1966, the two international human rights agreements which, I am pleased to say, the Principality has recently ratified.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“In our view, it is rational to concentrate and better coordinate the Organization's missions around the five great pillars of its Charter responsibilities: international peace and security, development, humanitarian affairs, economic and social affairs and human rights. The promotion and protection of human rights, which the Secretary-General very rightly proposes to strengthen, receive the intersectoral treatment which their multidisciplinary nature naturally evokes. That nature must not allow us to forget, however, that this fundamental area of the Organization's competence requires the strengthening of its appropriate structures. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“During the 52 years of its existence, the United Nations has regularly been challenged by the requirements of an ever changing world and has thus been led to develop or create new structures — without, however, always reducing or suppressing old ones. The current exceptionally broad changes in the political, economic and social spheres irresistibly call for a profound transformation of multilateral cooperation. They require the Organization to make an ineluctable effort to adapt that cannot be delayed without jeopardizing its prestige and seeing its international role inexorably wither. Thus, we can only endorse the will demonstrated by the General Assembly at the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations and the recent initiatives undertaken.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“It is in fact an important session because, upon the invitation of the Secretary-General, it is being devoted largely to an exchange of views, which I hope will be productive, on the reform of the Organization. The document before us, entitled “Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform”, is of the greatest interest to my country's authorities. The desire to make the Organization, and above all its Secretariat, more efficient by improving the coherence and coordination of its activities is the very judicious inspiration for the proposed reform process. That desire is easy to understand and endorse, given its obvious responsiveness to current real needs.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“It is a great pleasure for me to congratulate you, Sir, on your outstanding election. Your competence and your vast experience in multilateral diplomacy, to which you have devoted a large part of your professional life, together with your personal qualities assure us that our work will be conducted properly and be successful. I should also like to take this opportunity to pay a well-earned tribute to Ambassador Razali of Malaysia for the effective way in which he conducted the fifty-first session of our General Assembly. I congratulate, also, the members of the Bureau, who I am convinced stand ready to do their utmost to ensure the success of this important session.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)