SPEECH BY H.E. PROF. GUIDO DE MARCO, PRESIDENT OF MALTA, ENTITLED "THE UNITED NATIONS: WHAT FUTURE ?" ? HELD AT SAINT KLIMENT OHRIDSKI UNIVERSITY OF SOFIA, REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am glad to have the opportunity to exchange some views with you at the Saint Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia, the oldest and most prestigious seat of higher education in the Republic of Bulgaria.

This is my first visit to a country that has shed the shadows of a not so distant past, asserting its identity through political stability and moderation in a region where civilisations met, often in conflict. Bulgaria, like Malta, is a crossroad, a bridge amidst different peoples, religions, cultures and traditions. My visit to your country testifies the closeness of ideals and goals, of cause and purpose.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The topic at hand is neither simple nor easy. It is an issue which the politician and the academic have sought to grapple with for years. An international institution which is over half a century old necessarily embarks on a soul-searching exercise – to assess its strengths and weaknesses – to see where it has succeeded and where it has failed – to examine its past in the hope of a better future.

Before embarking on this journey, we must first ponder the origins of this Organisation. Because like many an institution it is born of the vision of its founding members but also as a product of history.

The Concert of Europe and the balance of power resulting from the Congress of Vienna of 1815 ensured a century of relative peace amongst the powers of the day. However, surveying the twentieth century is an exercise in unfolding tragedies: from the senselessness of the First World War to the subsequent failure of the League of Nations, from the rise of disastrous ideologies and dictatorships to the catastrophe of the Second World War, from the precarious stability of the Cold War to the many localised conflicts that have claimed the lives of millions of innocent civilians. The Wars in the Balkans remain a pertinent reminder of a tumultuous century.

The United Nations Organisation was born of the ashes of the failed League of Nations and on the ruins of a shattered world. Immediately after its founding, the divide between East and West became a gulf of incomprehension and mistrust. Founded to avoid future generations the scourge of war, the United Nations found itself embroiled in the dialectics of confrontational bloc politics, with the result that its increasing membership could not make full use of its potential as a common platform for dialogue and consensus.

I speak of an increasing membership in the knowledge that the process of decolonisation was a partial success for the United Nations. However, its being mired in the grip of a Cold War mentality did not lead to many other similar outcomes.

The main organs of the Organisation were established to function within the political and geo-strategic realities existent at the end of Second World War. Today, there is broad consensus that those socio-political contexts have changed. There is a different agenda on the table dictated by rapidly developing challenges. No longer have we to align or non-align ourselves within a bi-polar balance of power. In this dawning millennium, the emergence of new powers make it likely that a uni-polar or mono-polar world will eventually give way to a multi-polar international scenario. The good news is that the essence of multipolarism is that of seeking and acting within relative parameters of broad consensus.

The promise posed by the end of the Cold War should however not be accompanied by complacency. We must continue to guard against the divide in a new world order – one which from East to West pushes the borders between North and South.

The end of the Cold War, merely a decade ago, can be taken as a watershed in the development of modern history. The end of the power-bloc stand-off thrusted us into an age of transition, an age characterised by changing internal and international socio-political contexts.

Just as the international community was getting grasp of a changed political context, the invasion and subsequent liberation of Kuwait provided us with an opportunity to demonstrate a new will for concerted action in upholding the principles of the United Nations Charter.

Merely a decade later, events seem to have jeopardised that dawning broad international understanding. The apparent by-passing of the United Nations Security Council in issues of international peace and stability could have the effect of erecting new divides harking back in history. Healing problems of incomprehension requires considerable endeavours.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Speaking about the future of the United Nations, one has to assess the overall challenges that lie ahead of us.

Notwithstanding the great scientific advances during the past hundred years or so, new strains of diseases and viruses, among which the modern-age plague of HIV-AIDS, are still beyond cure. United Nations-sponsored initiatives, as well as those of non-governmental organisations, aimed at delivering basic medical needs to underdeveloped regions, are worthy causes that merit all our support.

Natural disasters, directly or indirectly linked to man-made causes and to the phenomenon of global warming, have also taken their toll. Sustainable development is often seen as an expensive option. What we should fear more are costly delays and inaction that could eventually exact a heftier price from us all.

Underdevelopment gives rise to threats directly emanating from such an environment. We have been bewildered witnesses, often with a sense of near absence and distant concern, to the evolving tragedies of the wars of so-called liberation, civil wars and fratricidal conflicts that have claimed the lives of millions in Africa and elsewhere through direct armed conflict and the resulting corollary effects. One such effect has been the dramatic rise in the number of refugees and internally displaced persons that today account for a great part of the effort of the United Nations. Costly peace-keeping operations often accompany or follow this trajectory of events.

In facing demands for the eradication of poverty, and debt relief, the international community has to deal with all aspects, especially those that can annul any valid action in this respect. The United Nations is the most credible body through which we can promote good governance, democracy and human rights, as well as initiatives aimed at alleviating the burden of least developed countries.

Other broadly destabilising developmnents are the rise of over-zealous religious and political factions, transnational organised crime and terrorism.

This is the context within which the United Nations has to act and propound its ideals. This is a context that is both cause and result of the process of globalisation.

The question is whether these problems will determine a change in United Nations structures or whether a timely reform could effectively curb the negative aspects of these problems.

Beyond doubt, new and age-old challenges necessitate a meaningful reform of the main organs of the United Nations. Reforms have to be aimed at retaining the relevance of this Organisation in world affairs, especially in issues that directly affect the peace and stability of its membership. The Organisation cannot only be called upon for reckoning as a remedy to faits accomplis.

Time and again, I have stressed the prime importance of the revitalisation General Assembly as the central organ of the United Nations. The General Assembly is the most universally representative of multilateral fora, where sovereign states can have avoice in matters that directly affect them. It is of the essence that the General Assembly demonstrates active interest and engagement in trouble spots all around the world. The Middle East is one such example that beckons to receive the appropriate attention within the General Assembly even though it has been a constant issue of concern facing the international community for over half a century.

The Security Council also needs to undergo serious reform to be able to respond to today's realities as well as acquiring dexterity to deal with fast-changing circumstances. Under consideration is the building of a more transparent decision-making process and the use of veto.

One particular proposal that Malta made during the Forty-fifth Session of the UN General Assembly, was that concerning the reform of the now practically defunct Trusteeship Council. Today, there are no more territories to hold in trust. We argued the validity of altering the mandate of this body which is one of the main organs of the United Nations; namely, we contended that the Trusteeship Council should be mandated with holding in trust the common heritage of mankind. I maintain the validity of this proposal, a proposal that is an example in creative thinking for the reinvigoration of the United Nations.

For the United Nations, addressing the expectations and perceptions of "we the peoples" is a must as much as the ability to respond effectively and efficiently to the challenges mentioned earlier and those that will definitely crop up in the future. Failure to do so will lead to a general disenfranchisement and cynicism on the part of public opinion for the actions undertaken on behalf of the United Nations, which could be perceived as emasculated enterprises, no matter how good their causes might be.

Added to these considerations, there lies the fact that military or other actions, in response to threats to international peace and stability, taken outside of the ambit of the United Nations, could dent the credibility of the United Nations as an Organisation with the primary responsibility towards the maintenance of international peace and security.

Credibility and relevance are of utmost importance. The regaining and reaffirming of credibility and relevance rests upon the reforms of its main organs.

Reforms are crucial to this process, the success of which rests in the hands of its membership – with each and every single state, large or small.

I have mentioned earlier discussions centering on the reform of the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Trusteeship Council. One can also take into consideration the application of Article 109 of the Charter, whose language recognises the fact that the founding members thought it inevitable that changes would have to be effected if the Organisation is to remain crucial to the writing of history.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Malta is proud of its engagement, since independence thirty-six years ago, within the United Nations. Through the United Nations and other regional organisations such as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, we have consistently pursued and augmented our efforts towards ensuring a better climate of understanding between opposing shores of the Mediterranean, more often than not a troubled and dividing sea.

Bulgaria experienced at first hand the realities of the Cold War, the effects of divisive intransigence and the fear of the enemy without.

I believe that Malta and the Republic of Bulgaria, as small and medium sized countries, can appreciate more the importance of a relevant United Nations through which they can ensure a global environment conducive to stability that enhances cooperation at multiple levels.

The United Nations was born of history. Its membership today is nearly universal. The principles it expounds in the Charter are universal and remain the beacon of hope for those millions whose lives have been shattered by hunger or strife. We should ask ourselves what our options would be in the absence of such a universal organisation. None too convincing, I believe.

The United Nations and the member states which comprise it have an opportunity ahead – that of being proactive rather than reactive. The main challenge for the United Nations will remain its ability to become a crucial player in the writing of our future, as an institution which can mould our present and our future, and make of suffering and strife a memory of the past.

Through reforms and the ensuing added relevance of the United Nations, this Organisation can truly transform itself into one that can shape the future for generations to come. It can move from being a product of history to one that can effectively shape our common future.

This is not only our shared hope but a belief in the great potential of the United Nations, and in the future of mankind.