[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 26, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14279-S14281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SECRETARY CHRISTOPHER CALLS FOR U.N. REFORM

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, yesterday Secretary of State Warren 
Christopher delivered an important address to the U.N. General 
Assembly. Secretary Christopher's speech, which was made at the 
initiation of the 50th session of the General Assembly, was remarkable 
not only for the milestone it commemorated, but for the forward-
thinking approach it took to the issue of U.N. reform.
  Recent congressional debates have demonstrated that continued U.S. 
support for the United Nations hinges on the issue of reform. At a time 
when some members of Congress are questioning the fundamental utility 
of U.S. participation in the United Nations, it is imperative that the 
U.N. perform its duties effectively and in a cost-efficient manner. As 
Secretary Christopher said last night,

       It is time to recognize that the UN must direct its limited 
     resources to the world's highest priorities, focusing on the 
     tasks that it performs best. The UN's bureaucracy should be 
     smaller, with a clear organizational structure and sharp 
     lines of responsibility. Each program must be held to a 
     simple standard--that is, it must make a tangible 
     contribution to the freedom, security, and well-being of real 
     people in the real world.

  Mr. President, as one who was present at the creation of the United 
Nations, I have tried very hard to see the U.N. live up to its 
potential and have seen the good works of which it is capable. I 
underscore and applaud the Secretary of State's call for reform. His 
initiative has my full support, and I hope it will receive the support 
of the Congress as well. The very future of the United Nations, and the 
success of many of our own national security objectives, depend upon 
it.
  Mr. President, I commend the Secretary's address to my colleagues and 
ask unanimous consent that the full text of his remarks be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                         U.S. Department of State,


                                      Office of the Spokesman,

                                 New York, NY, September 25, 1995.

Remarks by Secretary of State Warren Christopher to the 50th Session of 
                  the United Nations General Assembly

       Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, 
     Distinguished Guests: It is a privilege to speak to you today 
     on behalf of the United States. A half-century ago, the 
     General Assembly first met in New York--across the river in a 
     converted skating rink at Flushing Meadows. In those modest 
     surroundings, our predecessors began to put into place an 
     ambitious framework they hoped would keep the peace as 
     successfully as they had prosecuted the war.
       In the years since, the United Nations has helped to bring 
     peace, prosperity and hope to countless people around the 
     world. Technological change has brought nations closer 
     together than the UN's founders could possibly have foreseen. 
     The United Nations itself has been challenged in unforeseen 
     ways. It has had to manage complex humanitarian emergencies, 
     from civil wars to the mass movement of refugees to health 
     epidemics. This evolution has placed great strains on the 
     organization, and revealed the necessity for far-reaching 
     change in how it is run.
       The Clinton Administration has vigorously made the case to 
     our Congress and our people for continued American leadership 
     at the UN. The United States made a commitment to the UN 
     Charter 50 years ago. We are determined to keep our 
     commitment, including our financial obligations.
       We will always remember that for millions of people around 
     the world, the UN is far from a faceless institution: It is, 
     as Harry Truman once said, ``a case of food or a box of 
     school books; it is a doctor who vaccinates their children; 
     it is an expert who shows them how to raise more rice, or 
     more wheat.'' To millions more, it is the difference between 
     peace and war.
       Economic and social development, as well as protection of 
     human rights, remain central to the UN's mission. But the UN 
     must change to meet these needs more effectively. When money 
     is wasted in New York, Geneva, or Vienna, and when time is 
     lost to bureaucratic inertia, the people who pay the price 
     are those most vulnerable to famine, disease and violence.
       It is time to recognize that the UN must direct its limited 
     resources to the world's highest priorities, focusing on the 
     tasks that it performs best. The UN's bureaucracy should be 
     smaller, with a clear organizational structure and sharp 
     lines of responsibility. Each program must be held to a 
     simple standard--that is, it must make a tangible 
     contribution to the freedom, security, and well-being of real 
     people in the real world.
       In the last two years, under the leadership of Secretary-
     General Boutros-Ghali, the groundwork for substantial change 
     has been laid. The UN has an office with the functions of an 
     inspector general, and a mandate to crack down on waste and 
     fraud. Under-Secretary-General Joe Connor has embarked on an 
     aggressive campaign to improve the UN's management culture, 
     and we fully support his work. The UN Secretariat has moved 
     in the right direction by submitting a budget that begins to 
     restrain spending.
       Now the momentum for reform must accelerate. Let me propose 
     a concrete agenda:
       First, we must end UN programs that have achieved their 
     purpose, and consolidate programs that overlap, especially in 
     the economic and social agencies. The UN has more than a 
     dozen organizations responsible for development, emergency 
     response, and statistical reporting. We should consider 
     establishing a single agency for each of these functions. We 
     should downsize the UN's regional economic commissions. We 
     should ensure that the functions of the UN Conference on 
     Trade and Development do not duplicate the new WTO. And we 
     should adopt a moratorium on big UN conferences once the 
     present series is completed, concentrating instead on meeting 
     the commitments of those we have held.
       Second, we need to streamline the UN Secretariat to make it 
     more efficient, accountable and transparent. Each part of the 
     UN system should be subject to the scrutiny of an inspector 
     general. The UN must not tolerate ethical or financial abuses 
     and its managers should be appointed and promoted on the 
     basis of merit.
       Third, we should rigorously scrutinize proposals for new 
     and extended peacekeeping missions, and we should improve the 
     UN's ability to respond rapidly when new missions are 
     approved. We must agree on an equitable scale of peacekeeping 
     assessments that reflects today's economic realities. And we 
     should have a unified budget for peacekeeping operations.
       Finally, we must maintain the effectiveness of the Security 
     Council. Germany and Japan should become permanent members. 
     We should ensure that all the world's regions are fairly 
     represented, without making the Council unwieldy.
       We welcome the formation of the high-level group on reform, 
     initiated under the leadership of outgoing General Assembly 
     President Essy. Our goal must be that a practical blueprint 
     for UN reform will be adopted before the General Assembly's 
     50th Session finishes work next fall. The way forward is 
     clear: We have already seen countless 

[[Page S 14280]]
     studies and reports. The time has come to act on the best proposals.
       As you know, in my country there have been serious efforts 
     to curtail our support for the United Nations. The Clinton 
     Administration believes it would be reckless to turn away 
     from an organization that helps mobilize the support of other 
     nations for goals that are consistent with American and 
     global interests. But to sustain support for the UN among the 
     American people and the people of other nations, it is not 
     enough that we defend the institution. The best argument 
     against retreat is further reform. Tangible progress will 
     help us win the battle for UN support that we are waging in 
     the United States.
       The United Nations must emerge from the reform process 
     better able to meet its fundamental goals, including the 
     preservation of peace and security. From Korea, to the 
     Persian Gulf, to Haiti, the UN has provided a mandate to its 
     members as they carried out this responsibility. The UN's own 
     blue helmets have helped nations create the basic conditions 
     of peace in some of the most difficult situations imaginable, 
     even though they have not always fully achieved their 
     intended purpose.
       Recently, a young Haitian father was asked what 
     peacekeeping forces had achieved in his country. ``We walk 
     freely,'' he answered. ``We sleep quietly. There are no men 
     who come for us in the night.'' In Haiti, as for example in 
     Cambodia, Mozambique and El Salvador, the UN has shown that 
     peacekeeping, for all of its limitations, has been an 
     enormously useful instrument.
       Our region where UN forces and the international community 
     have played a critical role is the Middle East. Another 
     historic milestone will be marked this Thursday in Washington 
     when Israel and the Palestinians sign their agreement to 
     implement phase two of the Declaration of Principles. That 
     agreement will bring to life a goal first set in the Camp 
     David accords--that is, to protect Israel's security and to 
     give Palestinians throughout the West Bank control over their 
     daily lives. The international community and the UN must 
     continue to support this process politically and 
     economically.
       Without a doubt, the UN has never undertaken a mission more 
     difficult than the one in the former Yugoslavia. The 
     limitations of that mission are well known. But we must also 
     recognize that it has provided relief for hundreds of 
     thousands of people and saved thousands of lives. Today, with 
     diplomacy backed by force, the United States and the 
     international community are moving forward on a track that is 
     producing genuinely hopeful results. The United Nations and 
     NATO are working together effectively to bring peace to the 
     region. On September 8 in Geneva, the parties to the conflict 
     accepted the fundamental goal the Security Council has often 
     expressed--namely, the continuation of Bosnia-Herzegovina as 
     a single state within its current internationally recognized 
     borders. When I meet with the foreign ministers of Bosnia, 
     Croatia, and Serbia later today, I will urge them to maintain 
     momentum toward peace and to establish constitutional 
     structures for Bosnia.
       The framers of the UN Charter created this institution to 
     meet threats to peace and security posed by aggression and 
     armed conflict. These threats are still very much with us. 
     But the world also faces a set of new security challenges, 
     including proliferation, terrorism, international crime and 
     narcotics, as well as the far-reaching consequences of damage 
     to the environment. These have assumed a new and dangerous 
     scope in a more interdependent world. As President Clinton 
     said in San Francisco in June, the ``new forces of 
     integration carry within them the seeds of disintegration and 
     destruction.''
       While new technologies have brought us closer together, 
     they have also made it easier for terrorists, drug dealers, 
     and other international criminals to acquire weapons of mass 
     destruction, to set up cocaine cartels, and to hide their 
     ill-gotten gains. The collapse of communism has shattered 
     dictatorships. But it has also left the political and legal 
     institutions of newly liberated nations even more vulnerable 
     to those who seek to subvert them.
       Although these threats are sometimes sponsored by states, 
     they increasingly follow no flag. Each of us must vigorously 
     fight these enemies on our own. But we will never be truly 
     secure until we effectively fight them together. That is the 
     new security challenge for the global community. It must be 
     the new security mission of the UN.
       There is no area where the UN can make a more significant 
     contribution than in nonproliferation. Fifty years ago, the 
     United States was the only country capable of making a 
     nuclear bomb. Today, many countries have the technology that 
     would enable them to turn a fist-sized chunk of plutonium 
     into a bomb as small as a suitcase. That is one reason why 
     more than 170 countries agreed to extend for all time the 
     Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty last May, at the conference 
     chaired here by Ambassador Dhanapala. We must build on that 
     achievement.
       First, we should have a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ready 
     for signature by the time we meet here next year. As 
     President Clinton announced last moth, the United States is 
     committed to a true zero-yield test ban. We urge other 
     nations to join us in that commitment.
       Second, we should immediately start negotiations on a 
     Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty. Those who have been most 
     vocal in calling for nuclear disarmament should recognize 
     that it is essential to ban future production of fissile 
     material for nuclear weapons.
       Third, we should push forward with the historic reductions 
     of the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the 
     countries of the former Soviet Union. I call on the U.S. 
     Senate, as well as the Russian Duma, to approve the START II 
     Treaty so that we can lock in deep cuts in our strategic 
     nuclear arsenals. In addition, Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin 
     are working together to ensure the safety, transparency and 
     irreversibility of nuclear arms reductions.
       As part of this process, President Yeltsin will host a 
     Nuclear Safety and Security Summit in Moscow next spring. The 
     Summit should have an ambitious agenda, including a 
     declaration of principles on nuclear reactor safety. We look 
     to the summit to address the worldwide problem of nuclear 
     waste management, including ocean dumping. The Summit should 
     also promote a plan of action to Safeguard nuclear materials. 
     That plan should include new measures to prevent criminals 
     and terrorists from acquiring nuclear material for use in 
     weapons.
       Finally, we should push for the earliest possible entry-
     into-force of the Chemical Weapons Convention. President 
     Clinton has urged the U.S. Senate to act promptly on its 
     ratification, and to stop holding it and the START II treaty 
     hostage to unrelated issues. The world has witnessed the 
     effect of poison gas too many times in this century--on 
     European battlefields during World War I, in Ethiopia and 
     Manchuria during the 1930s, and against Iranian soldiers and 
     innocent Kurdish civilians in the 1980s. The Chemical Weapons 
     Convention will make every nation safer, and we need it now.
       The UN is also playing an invaluable role in focusing 
     attention on pressing regional poliferation problems. In Iraq 
     UNSCOM and its chairman Rolf Ekeus continue to uncover 
     horrific details about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass 
     destruction.
       Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq developed a deadly biological 
     weapons capacity hidden from view. It was conducting research 
     to turn some of the most toxic substances known to man into 
     weapons of war. We know Saddam succeeded in putting anthrax 
     and botulism in bombs and missile warheads. In December 1990, 
     he deployed these with every intent to using them against the 
     international coalition and innocent civilians. He was 
     dissuaded only by the steadfast determination of the United 
     States and the international community.
       In light of what Ambassador Ekeus has uncovered, we can 
     only conclude that for the last four and a half years Saddam 
     Hussein has lied about the full scope of Iraq's weapons 
     programs. There should be no easing of the sanctions regime 
     until the Iraqi government complies with all the demands of 
     the Security Council and demonstrates that it has changed its 
     ways.
       The UN should also promote responsibility and restraint in 
     the transfer of conventional weapons. Last year at the 
     General Assembly, President Clinton proposed, and the 
     Assembly approved, the eventual elimination of antipersonnel 
     landmines. On my recent trip to Cambodia, I saw the terrible 
     damage these hidden killers can do. This year, we will again 
     call on other countries to join us in ending the export of 
     landmines.
       Two years ago, President Clinton called on the 
     international community to devise a true international system 
     that governs transfers of conventional weapons and sensitive 
     dual-use technologies. I am pleased that the Russian 
     Federation has joined with the United States and 26 other 
     countries to agree on common principles to control the build-
     up of dangerous conventional arms. We hope to activate this 
     global regime, called the New Forum, by the end of this year.
       The proliferation of weapons has added a disturbing 
     dimension to another threat we all face: international 
     terrorism. Indeed, this year's sarin gas attack in Tokyo is a 
     grim warning of what can happen when terrorists acquire 
     weapons of mass destruction.
       More nations are joining the fight against those 
     individuals and groups who attack civilians for political 
     ends. The United Nations has supported this effort in 
     important ways. The UN Security Council recognized the 
     importance of countering state-sponsored terrorism by 
     imposing sanctions against Libya for the bombing of Pan Am 
     103 and UTA 772.
       Terrorists should be treated as criminals and there must be 
     no place where they can hide from the consequences of their 
     acts. States that sponsor terrorists should feel the full 
     weight of sanctions that can be imposed by the international 
     community. Let us not deceive ourselves: Every dollar that 
     goes into the government coffers of a state sponsor of 
     terrorism such as Iran helps pay for a terrorist's bullets or 
     bombs. Iran's role as the foremost state sponsor of terrorism 
     makes its secret quest for weapons of mass destruction even 
     more alarming. We must stand together to prevent Iran from 
     acquiring such threatening capabilities.
       The United States has taken a leading role in meeting the 
     international terrorist threat. We have intensified our 
     sanctions against Iran. Last January, President Clinton also 
     issued an Executive Order prohibiting financial transactions 
     with terrorist groups and individuals who threaten the Middle 
     East peace process. We are urging our Congress to tighten our 
     immigration and criminal laws to keep terrorists on the run 
     or put them behind bars.
       The United States strongly supports the counter-terrorism 
     measures the G-7 and Russia announced at the Halifax Summit, 
     and 

[[Page S 14281]]
     we expect the P-8 Ministerial Meeting on Terrorism in Ottawa to produce 
     a concrete action plan to implement these measures.
       Other kinds of international crime also threaten the safety 
     of our citizens and the fabric of our societies. And 
     globalization brings new and frightening dimensions to crime. 
     The threat of crime is a particular menace to young 
     democracies. It weakens confidence in institutions, preys on 
     the most vulnerable, and undermines free market reform.
       Of course, every country must take its own measures to 
     combat these threats. The Clinton Administration is now 
     completing a review of our approach to transnational crime 
     that will lead to a stronger, more coordinated attack on this 
     problem.
       To help other states deal with criminal threats, the United 
     States and Hungary have created the International Law 
     Enforcement Academy in Budapest to train police officers and 
     law enforcement officials from Central Europe and the states 
     of the former Soviet Union. We are providing similar help 
     bilaterally and through the UN Drug Control Program to 
     countries whose laws are challenged by drug cartels.
       A particularly insidious form of crime and corruption is 
     money laundering. All nations should implement 
     recommendations by the OECD to attack money laundering. The 
     nations of this hemisphere should also advance the anti-money 
     laundering initiative introduced at last December's Summit of 
     the Americas. Together, we must squeeze the dirty money out 
     of our global financial system.
       Through the UN's conventions on drugs and crime, the 
     international community has set strong standards that we must 
     now enforce. We call on UN member states who have not already 
     joined the 1988 UN Drug Convention to do so. Those countries 
     who have approved the convention should move quickly to 
     implement its key provisions.
       We are increasingly aware that damage to the environment 
     and unsustainable population growth threaten the security of 
     our nations and the well-being of our peoples. Their harmful 
     effects are evident in famines, infant mortality rates, 
     refugee crises, and ozone depletion. In places like Rwanda 
     and Somalia, they contribute to civil wars and emergencies 
     that can only be resolved by costly international 
     intervention. We must carry out the commitments we made at 
     last year's Cairo Conference, and the Rio Conference three 
     years ago.
       Never have our problems been more complex. It has never 
     been more evident that these problems affect all nations, 
     developed and developing, alike. Only by working together can 
     we effectively deal with the new threats we all face.
       That is why, on this 50th anniversary year, we must shape 
     the UN's agenda as if we were creating the institution anew. 
     Just as the UN's founders devised a new framework to deter 
     aggression and armed conflict, the United Nations, in 
     particular the Security Council, must now assign the same 
     priority to combating the threat posed by proliferation, 
     terrorism, international crime, narcotics, and environmental 
     pollution. We should dedicate our efforts in the UN and 
     elsewhere to turning our global consensus against these 
     threats into concrete action. We must renew and reform the 
     United Nations not for its sake, but for our own.
       Thank you very much.
  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

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