Speech by the President of the Republic of Slovenia Dr. Janez Drnovšek at the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly
New York, 15.09.2005 | speech
Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary-General,
Esteemed Heads of State and Government,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Sixty years from the founding of the United Nations, and five years after the adoption of the Millennium Declaration on development goals, mark both an opportunity and our duty to take a close and critical look at the reality of humanity’s situation today and the effectiveness of United Nations. This is our responsibility to humanity, to this planet and to future generations.
The question arises of whether today we can be satisfied with the situation attained and the trends, firstly regarding the state of humanity and secondly regarding the effectiveness of the operations and responses of the United Nations Organisation to the current issues of human development. My answer to both questions is, sadly, no. I think it would make little sense for this high-level jubilee meeting to be just one more of the many where we politely exchange friendly words, adopt some general declaration and go our various ways leaving nothing substantially changed.
The findings of experts in the area of achieving some of the Millennium Goals are frightening. World poverty is not diminishing, but is in fact growing. More than a billion people live below the threshold of absolute poverty.
Mr. President, the reasons for this are known.
 Access for developing countries to rich and developed markets, and their access to financial institutions, to new technologies or medicines is still being prevented or at least significantly limited. Global trade relations are also unfair. The pressures of agricultural policy, especially from the developed countries, are such that they are literally destroying agriculture in the developing countries. As the calculations at Oxfam indicate, an improvement in access to world markets of a mere one percent each for Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Latin America could raise as many as 128 million people out of poverty.
Financial relations are extremely unfair. Developing countries today are paying enormous sums just to service the interest on debts. Much of this debt has never been used for the benefit of people and has therefore been classed within the definition of illegitimate or "odious" debt. Lenders knew very well that they were making loans to corrupt regimes and that these would not help people in hardship. Repaying such debts has rendered poor countries even poorer. And we should not deny that in recent months and years some significant efforts have been made. The recent writing off of multilateral debt for the poorest countries of the world is welcome, but not enough. For numerous countries that are struggling to attain the Millennium Goals, their debt should be written off without any further conditions.
Official development aid is growing extremely slowly. While we welcome the recent agreement on increasing aid up to 2010, we must be aware that this commitment was first made in 1970 and has not been honoured right up to the present day. In recent years several innovative proposals have been made to increase development funds. Yet none of them has broken through the inertia of the financial institutions. And it is completely clear that we cannot expect any positive breakthroughs with the existing financial instruments.
Mr. President,
poverty is not the only danger that burdens the world. Our very existence on the planet is under threat. I wish to draw attention to climate change, to atmospheric warming. There would appear to be an emerging consensus among scientists that each year we are witnessing increasing numbers of catastrophic events linked to global warming: hurricanes, floods and droughts. It is in this area perhaps most illustrative and clear to everyone that on this Earth we are in fact all connected and interdependent. Under the aegis of the United Nations we must therefore work together in the world to find more effective, more determined solutions and to contribute to raising the general awareness of people, and especially politicians. For this reason the United Nations must take a decisive step towards seeking consensus among the member states. I believe, therefore, that the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations provides an occasion for us to turn our attention seriously to these issues.
Mr. President,
one could reel off staggering facts and figures ad infinitum. The consequences of a world without balance are becoming increasingly catastrophic. Global imbalances are increasing and are now at their highest level in the history of humanity. It is therefore an illusion to expect that the world will be balanced, that there will be no wars, no terrorism, corruption and crime of the most brutal dimensions, if such trends continue.
No kind of security measure and no kind of protection against terrorism and global threats can give anyone complete security. We will all be defeated. So burying our heads in the sand is a reflection of our lack of responsibility to humanity today and to all future generations. A decisive role here should be assumed especially by the developed world, the biggest and most advanced countries and all those international organisations, together with the United Nations, that have a decisive impact on the current trends of humanity and bear the responsibility for its development. There is an extraordinary responsibility of all of us participating today at this high-level session of the United Nations.
If we wish to hand down a more just, sustainable and humane world to the next generation, we must be prepared to significantly alter our habits and beliefs. We have to be aware of the suffering of a large part of humanity and strengthen our sensitivity towards people around the world who live in distress.
Thank you.
Address by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Janez Drnovšek at the 60th anniversary of the FAO
Rome, Italy, 17.10.2005 | speech
1. Despite the many documents, commitments, conferences and practical efforts devoted to it, hunger and malnutrition continue to represent a global tragedy. In Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, hunger is increasing, and it also remains persistent in many other regions of the world. More than a quarter of the children in the developing world are malnourished. Halving hunger is the Millennium Development Goal on which we are falling behind – a fact, which remains largely neglected or ignored.
2. Because hunger occurs in many forms, only some forms of hunger can be seen on television during crisis situations, such as the one recently in Niger. But many people around the world are suffering from chronic malnutrition that cannot be seen on television. Even today, as we speak, it is predictable that in the coming months the hunger crisis will re-emerge in West African countries with poor harvests. Will we lose the race against time again?
3. Hunger is both the cause and effect of poverty. It coincides with and reinforces the problems of health, education and gender exclusion. In order to get the Millennium Development Goals back on track, a significant immediate increase of financial assistance, technical assistance, improved access to rich and developed markets, along with greater debt relief, is necessary. The developed part of the world must allow global markets in agriculture to finally start working for the world's poor, too.
4. In my speech at the UN in September I emphasized the need to reach a fair agreement in the Doha Round by the end of this year, with no additional conditions on the developing countries attached. In the area of agriculture, ending export subsidies, reducing import tariffs and abolishing the illegal practice of dumping, which drives down the price of local producers, could help improve farming prospects in many developing parts of the world. Non-tariff barriers to rich and developed markets must also be eliminated. As calculated by Oxfam, improving access to world markets by just one percent each for Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Latin America could lift 128 million people out of poverty.
5. The current international trade regime is unfair and unjust. Agricultural subsidies, import tariffs and dumping of agricultural surpluses show the extent of the double standards of the developed part of the world. Therefore, the European debate on the new financial perspective must be closely linked with the debate on the future development of agriculture in the developing world. The only remaining areas for limited financial support of agriculture in Europe should be organic farming, environmental protection and rural development in remote areas. There is no reason not to include developing countries' farmers in the schemes of support for organic farming, food safety and quality. European agriculture reform must take place now. According to the OECD, as a result of agriculture reform in 2003, the average tariff-equivalent of agriculture protection fell by just 2 percentage points, from 57 to a still unacceptably high 55 percent.
6. Intensive negotiations in the Doha Round continue. It is possible to agree with the US Trade Representative that without deeper tariff cuts the Doha Round cannot be successful. The EU should accept this challenge. Sensitive products on both sides of the Atlantic, such as cotton in the US and sugar, milk and dairy products in the EU, must be addressed, too; otherwise, the Doha Round becomes too narrow in scope. According to World Bank economists, 92 percent of the benefit from agricultural liberalization to the developing countries will come from tariff cuts by the rich countries. On the other hand, we must be careful to include not only the most competitive agricultural producers in the developing countries, but also those who currently cannot compete on the world markets. Special attention must be dedicated to the urban and suburban poor in the poorest countries of the world who may suffer in the first period of agricultural liberalization. Despite all the complexities of the Doha Round, the developing part of the world is entitled to a fair agreement that would substantially boost its prospects for development.
7. In making efforts to complete the Doha Round, we should bear in mind what Mr. Kevin Watkins, the director of UNDP's Human Development Report Office has said: "...unless the Doha Round negotiations get serious, whole sections of humanity will be denied a share in the prosperity created by global integration."
8. Climate change will continue to deteriorate the already abysmal conditions of farming in many of the developing countries.
9. The hunger crisis expanded this year. According to certain leading international experts, donor countries and international financial institutions require that the developing countries cut their investments in basic village infrastructure and vital inputs for farming in order to secure debt repayment. Impoverished villages cannot cope with drought, the high cost of organic and chemical fertilizers, irrigation and long-term climate change. As some leading experts realize, the help of rinecessary; however, providing financing, water-management techniques, improved seed varieties and sound agricultural advice would be better to secure the long-term sustainability of these villages, millions of farmers and their families.
10. The present global imbalances are not only disastrous, but also unsustainable. Hundreds of millions of people in different developing countries suffer from hunger, malnutrition and disease. Impoverished villages throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Asia cannot produce enough food for their families and for the markets. Only a systematic long-term approach, generous financial support, technical support and improved access to the markets can change this sad picture. The world has the resources, knowledge and capabilities to raise the developing countries out of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. And the world has the responsibility to do so. We are all interconnected in this world. It is not possible to continue the present patterns without increasing international problems, tensions. And finally, the suffering would spread from the developping countries to the developped world. We must act together and in time.
Thank you.
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