Mr President,
On behalf of the Government of South Africa I would like to thank the Secretary-General for his comprehensive report on the work of the Organisation (A/54/1). The report has provided us with ample food for thought in areas of central importance to the Organisation.
In his address prior to the start of the General Debate on 20 September 1999, the Secretary General chose to focus specifically on the prospects for human security and intervention in the next century. My delegation would like to use the opportunity presented by today's debate to endorse the Secretary-General's decision to emphasise the significance of this topic, and to assure him of our support in guiding the United Nations through these difficult times.
The Secretary-General has challenged us to think anew about how the United Nations responds to political, human rights, and humanitarian crises around the world.
Perhaps in addressing this challenge, we need to separate the discussion into two parts. First we must consider discussing the principle of humanitarian interventions. Secondly, we need a more detailed discussion on the practical implications of such interventions. To do justice to both, we may need time for more reflection and should not seek hasty consensus on these issues.
Mr President,
For South Africa, the principle of a commitment to humanitarian action holds especial historical significance. South Africa joined the United Nations as a founder member on 7 December 1945. The then South Africa was ruled by a white minority regime which practised a national policy of racial discrimination known as the "Colour Bar" - later to be refined as Apartheid.
At that time, several delegations to the United Nations, among them most notably the Government of India, began challenging South Africa's racially discriminatory "Colour Bar" policies. In response, the South African minority regime argued that the issue was an internal matter. Shamefully, many Members of the United Nations agreed.
It was not until the beginning of the end of colonial rule in the late 1950s, which saw Africa's Nations become independent, led by Dr Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, that voices against Apartheid became louder. The Belgrade Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961 saw an emphatic rejection of Apartheid as an internal matter. This was after the world had witnessed the massacre of 69 people demonstrating against Apartheid in Sharpeville on 21 March 1960. Slowly, the United Nations was forced to deal with Apartheid. Of course, the role since played by the United Nations and its Members in contributing to the struggle against Apartheid, and its ultimate defeat, is well known.
For South Africa, however, the questions still remain: Would early humanitarian intervention have made a difference in our struggle against Apartheid? How much less would have been the damage and suffering to our people? Are we better off having gone through the experience of fighting apartheid?
Only history will answer these questions.
Instead, what we know for certain today is that the statement made by the Secretary-General on 20 September 1999 has deep resonance for us in South Africa.
Mr President,
The Secretary-General's statement, taken together with the contents of his valuable report, represents a timely and necessary call for a forthright and earnest debate on the significance of human security and intervention in the next century.
My Government believes that for the Member States of the United Nations to collectively address potential and actual crises, our national interests must be more consistently aligned to the core Charter values of democracy, pluralism, human rights, and the rule of law. At the same time, we need to ensure that the system of international relations is democratised, stating with the correct restructuring of this Organisation.
In this context we must also include the long-outstanding issue of the reform of the Security Council. Six years is too long for us to talk unendingly, and still fail to agree on a basic understanding of what we are trying to do. As was noted by the Secretary-General, when forceful interventions are deemed necessary, the Security Council - as defender of the common interest - should be able to rise to the challenge. At this time, however, it could be argued that the Security Council is not truly representative of the world.
We believe that only through such meaningful reforms will the Security Council be able to act in a consistent, democratic, legitimate and transparent manner.
The South African Government agrees with the Secretary General that this Organisation's commitment to humanitarian action should be universal if it is to be legitimate. A key factor in this regard is prompt and early preventive action to ensure that most potential or actual crises are dealt with by peaceful means. The United Nations should opt for resolving conflicts before the necessity arises to send in peacekeepers.
In order to effectively and legitimately address the prevention and ending of conflicts, including systematic and grave violations of human rights, the Security Council should be made more democratic and accountable to the broader membership. The situation should not be allowed to continue where Africa, and other developing regions, do not have adequate and appropriate levels of representation on the body charged by Members of the United Nations with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Furthermore, South Africa remains extremely concerned at the deteriorating financial situation of the United Nations. The lack of financial means and the equally serious lack of moral and political will-power in this regard continues to severely limit our capacity to prevent and end conflicts, to sustainably reconstruct post-conflict societies, and to meet the real challenges posed by engaging the process of globalisation.
It is imperative therefore that all member states must pay their assessed contributions in full, on time, and without preconditions.
Mr President,
Next year the United Nations will host the Millennium Summit and Assembly. It is incumbent upon all of us here to begin to rise to the challenge of answering questions that will ultimately define the new vision we have for the United Nations in the 21st Century, and the sort of existence that we wish to offer all human beings.
In his recent statement to the General Assembly, President Mbeki noted that the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights actually provide us with all the vision we need to succeed in our work.
In particular, President Mbeki called for a practical programme of action, stating :
"What is necessary is that we match the beliefs we profess with the necessary action... action that will, practically, address the related issued of peace, democracy and development."
ISSUED BY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS ON BEHALF OF SOUTH AFRICA'S MISSION
TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Pretoria
7 OCTOBER 1999