Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at the celebration of Finland’s 50th anniversary as a member of the United Nations, held at Finlandia Hall on 14 December 2005

Finland became a member of the United Nations in the middle of the Cold War, though not during the worst years, admittedly. Our membership application was submitted back in autumn 1947, when the peace treaty entered into force. We had to wait to become a member until 1955.

The Finnish UN Association was founded a year before that, in 1954. One of the Association’s aims was to support Finland’s membership of the UN. The Association was founded by 15 Finnish NGOs. Today, there are about 70 member organizations. Education and information services, education aimed at internationalization and exerting influence are among the important functions of the Finnish UN Association. NGOs bring a valuable addition to the work of the UN and help make the work of the UN known to the general public. The business sector, too, should be brought into closer cooperation.

The United Nations has successfully united the nations of the world to work for a world of freedom, security and equality. I have always highlighted the necessity and importance of a multilateral system. Promoting a world order based on multilateral rules – which the UN represents at its best – will continue to be a principal guideline of the Finnish foreign policy.

An active role in the UN has been important for Finland from the very beginning of our membership. UN membership made multilateral diplomatic relations a permanent part of our foreign policy. For Finland, multilateralism has since become a key means for exerting international influence.

Finnish expertise has been put to good use in various UN activities. Let us think about the challenging tasks of such persons like Sakari Tuomioja, Helvi Sipilä, Martti Ahtisaari, Harri Holkeri, Elisabeth Rehn and Pekka Haavisto – and not forgetting the many other Finns who have worked for the UN in many different capacities.

* * *

One of the biggest successes of the United Nations is unquestionably its peacekeeping operations. Since 1956, when the first troops were sent to Suez, it is estimated that almost a million soldiers, policemen and civilians have served in UN operations around the world. These operations have been far from easy. The United Nations is still needed today to continue to discharge this fundamental task. The members of the UN must rise to their responsibility and provide the UN with the resources needed for efficient peacekeeping. In practice, this means that the members must continuously take part in crisis management operations and provide resources for the UN to use. More and more members should share this burden among themselves.

In Finland, we are accustomed to even refer to ourselves as a peacekeeping superpower, and this is not really an exaggeration. Next year, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of our participation in UN peacekeeping operations. Since the Suez operations, Finland has taken part in dozens of UN-mandated peacekeeping operations with a total of about 47,000 peacekeepers. Peacekeeping is still part of our foreign and security policy. At present, there are some 800 Finnish peacekeepers stationed around the world on different operations.

Operations have become more demanding over the past few decades, as crises take on increasingly varied forms. By taking part in military and civilian crisis management, Finland is involved in maintaining stability and security in the world in the spirit of the United Nations Charter. I consider it essential to take a broad perspective on the prevention and control of conflicts. Civilian and military crisis management and rebuilding after the conflict are a set of interconnected issues, where the means that are best suited to the situation must be used at each different stage of the conflict. We must develop the synergy and cooperation between civilian and military crisis management. We must also ensure that the different policy sectors, such as security policy, trade policy and development policy, are all compatible and that their aims do not clash.

In recent years, in addition to the United Nations, attention has also focused on the key role of regional organizations in crisis management. In fact, I see the natural division of labour in international crisis management in the future as a situation where the regional organizations do their share and support the UN’s traditional role as peacekeeper. This is an approach which has already been adopted by the European Union and the African Union with its growing capacity — both in close cooperation with the United Nations and primarily with a focus on needs indicated by the UN.

Crisis management in UN operations today is based on defending a broad concept of security. The UN possesses the resources necessary for promoting security and development. Achieving peace is not enough on its own. After a war or conflict, peace conditions must also be stabilized and the foundations for society must be built. This includes democratic and functional national institutions, a system that respects human rights and the principles of the rule of law, and the economic and social structures needed to support these. The humanitarian actions of the UN have stood as a guarantee for getting reconstruction started in many areas that have been hit by conflicts or disasters. We must be prepared to support this and work together to make it more effective in the future too. The link between development, security and human rights must be reinforced.

At the UN level, a new interesting response to this challenge could be the Peacebuilding Commission, which is to be set up by decision of the World Summit held in last September. History has shown that roughly half of the countries that have survived a crisis tend to fall into violence again within five years. What we need is an organ that can support the countries, which are recovering from a crisis, on their way to lasting peace and development – in part alongside any peacekeeping operations that may take place and in part after the end of these operations. In particular, I wish to stress the position of women and girls, which is often very difficult also in post-conflict situations. That is why I proposed at the World Summit that women’s are involvement in the work of the Peacebuilding Commission must be ensured. The gender dimension must be part of the social reconstruction.

* * *

Over the years, as one of the fundamental concepts of its membership of the UN, Finland has emphasized the importance of reinforcing the international legal system. One of the great achievements in this field is the founding of the International Criminal Court, whose operations Finland fully supports. Recently, the prevention of terrorism has emerged as a new type of challenge internationally, and we must respond with even more intensive cooperation. The UN has a key part to play in this work. In addition to this, it is more important than ever to strive for non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The human rights conventions were the result of years of work in the UN. The human rights conventions are widely accepted and even ratified, but we must focus now on ensuring their implementation and monitoring and on mainstreaming human rights in all policy sectors. At the UN World Summit in September, we took a decision to elevate human rights to the level in the UN system where the Charter originally intended them to be. The aim is to establish a new permanent organ — a Human Rights Council — to replace the present Commission on Human Rights. Negotiations concerning establishment of the new Council are in progress at present. Finland and the other Member States of the European Union are working actively to have this new organ established soon. Women will be needed in this new Council as elsewhere.

It is important to protect people from conflicts and fear, but it is equally important to protect them from poverty. This has been one of the greatest tasks of the United Nations during the past few decades. Once the Cold War had been left behind and progress made with decolonization, the problems of the developing countries entered the UN agenda. Finland, too, began to pay attention to issues such as racism, colonialism and international justice and economic order. Our global mindset that we take for granted today is actually developed during several decades.

The MDGs of the Millennium Declaration are the result of the joint political will of a partnership between developing countries and industrialized countries. I had the honour of co-chairing the United Nations Millennium Summit and helping to promote understanding and agreement.

The MDGs are ambitious and in order to attain them, individual governments must show political will and make a strong commitment. The developing countries must recognize their own responsibilities while the industrialized countries must step up their provision of aid, not just in quantity but in quality. Organizations within the UN are in an important position when it comes to moving forward on political decisions and recommendations. Their resources must not be cut; they must be increased.

The Finnish Government has made a commitment to the UN target of giving 0.7 per cent of GDP to international development cooperation by 2010. The target is an ambitious one, but in my opinion there is no room for compromise on a target set by the Government. All the Member States of the European Union have made a commitment to raising development aid by 2015, even if the targets of the new and the old Member States are somewhat different. The old Member States, and that includes Finland, have the target of reaching 0.7 per cent of GDP.

* * *

When I consider the future and the role of the UN, I feel confident. At the September World Summit, the world leaders reaffirmed that the core functions of the UN are to ensure sustainable development, human security and justice. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals is crucial. The most recent example of the functionality of the UN system is the outcome of the international conference on climate change in Montreal.

The World Summit also issued a mandate to reform the UN and make its work more effective. An overall reform of the UN will mean making the work of the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly more efficient in addition to setting up the new Human Rights Council and Peacebuilding Commission I mentioned before, and carrying out a management reform of the UN.

For many years now, it has been one of our main aims to make the operations of the UN more effective. One example of this is the previous joint Nordic reform projects. The natural continuation of these projects is to work actively for the UN reform that is now in progress. Finland gives the Secretary-General of the United Nations its full support in implementing the reform.

We have to be brave enough to move ahead with the UN, whose fundamental values are still extremely topical after sixty years. The UN is a unique forum for cooperation. “We, the peoples of the world” is a core element of the UN Charter. The United Nations brings together the nations of the world from north and south, east and west. A world that is developing ever faster and growing, and I hope fairer, globalisation require close contacts between nations and interaction across national borders.

The United Nations can help make the world a community where it is safer for people to live. Finland must be an active and responsible member of the UN. We must keep in mind the old truth: we have not simply inherited the world from our parents; we have it on loan from our children.