UNITED NATIONS, September 28. /TASS/. Western nations have launched a campaign to replace international conventions with rules they had created themselves, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during the General Debate of the 74th UN General Assembly on Friday.
"Universal conventions together with the SC resolutions are an integral part of international law. The West would like to substitute even them for its 'rules' as it happened in the OPCW whose Technical Secretariat was illegally granted 'attributive' functions through unlawful manipulations and unscrupulous pressure in direct violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and exclusive prerogatives of the Security Council," he said.
In his words, certain powers keep playing with Conventions obliging all countries to provide linguistic, educational, religious and other rights of national minorities.
"Even here our Western colleagues are guided by their "rules" - they turn a blind eye to the open denial of national minorities’ relevant rights and indulge the retaining of an ignominious phenomenon of statelessness in Europe," the minister said.
"The course for the revision of international law is more frequently observed in the persistent policy of rewriting the history of World War II, justifying an increasing number of manifestations of neo-Nazism, vandalism against the monuments to the liberators of Europe and Holocaust victims," he added. "The West also has its own "rules" regarding the Balkans where it is pursuing an open course for undermining the UNSC decisions on Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina settlement.".
Fragmented world
The international community is becoming more and more fragmented due to certain nations’ disregard for interests of others, Lavrov said.
He said that the United Nations was created 76 years ago "as a result of the Victory in World War II and the realization of the need for a collective mechanism to maintain international peace and security."
"The hope arose again almost 30 years ago when the Berlin Wall symbolizing confrontation of the two irreconcilable systems fell. It was the hope for the possibility to finally turn the grievous pages of wars - not only hot but also cold - and to join efforts for the benefit of all mankind," he said.
Lavrov continued that although World War III was prevented thanks to the UN, the number of conflicts on the planet has not declined and enmity has not weakened.
"New most acute challenges emerged - international terrorism, drug trafficking, climate change, illegal migration, the growing gap between the rich and the poor. It is getting harder to address these and many other challenges from year to year. The fragmentation of international community is only increasing," he warned.
"In our view, the reason for the current state of affairs lies, first and foremost, in the unwillingness of the countries which declared themselves winners in the Cold War to reckon with the legitimate interests of all other states, to accept the realities of the objective course of history," Lavrov went on.
Russia’s top diplomat said it’s hard for the West to put up with "its weakening centuries-long dominance in world affairs."
"New centers of economic growth and political influence have emerged and are developing. Without them it is impossible to find sustainable solution to the global challenges which can be addressed only on the firm basis of the UN Charter through the balance of interests of all states," he added.