Statement by Mr.Dick Spring Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ireland

about the International Permanent Court

New York, 28 september,1994

/..../

The roots of civil disorder and internal strife are ofted complex and deep - deeper and more complex indeed than the causes of interstate war. Recent experience has shown that recourse to chapter VII action alone is inadequate, and that outside involvement, unless carefully prepared and sensitively executed, can add to rather than diminish the crisis.

We must learn the lessons of this. And realise that building a United Nations capable of meetin the challanges of the new era will require coordinated action in many areas.

I will mention seven points on which I believe there should be priority action:

we must reform the Security Council to make it more

representative of the UN's greatly expanded membership and to

reflect the great changes in the international relations in

the past fifty years

we must develop the Organisation's capacity for early-warning

and mediation, and for timely intervention in disputes before

they escalate out of control

we must enhance the UN's peacekeeping capabilities to make

them more flexible and responsive when crises erupt

we must develop the UN's operational capacity in the human

rights area. In particular we need a more developed system of

human rights monitors

we must act to establish a permanant international

criminal court

we must intensify our efforts to eliminate the rootcauses of

many conflicts - inequality, social injustice, and poverty -

by acting on the Secretary-General's Agendafor Developement

and we must restrict the international flow of the

instruments of war and oppression by adopting a code of

conduct for Conventional Arms Transfers.