Benin, 2004

Allow me

first of all to address my warmest congratulations to

Mr. Jean Ping on his election as President of the

General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. Allow me

also to pay a well-deserved tribute to Mr. Ping’s

eminent predecessor, Mr. Julian Hunte, whose great

vitality enabled him to relaunch the discussion on the

revitalization of the General Assembly and to give a

new impetus towards coordination among the

Organization’s main bodies. Finally, I would like to

express to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, the

great appreciation of the people and Government of

Benin for his work as head of our Organization; we

commend him for his courage, his skill and his vision

of world affairs.

People from every corner of the planet are

placing great hope in our work over the course of this

session to give hope and life to their legitimate

aspirations. That can only be achieved if we all work

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together, with conviction and determination, to

consolidate our commitment to multilateralism.

Yes, in order to survive, our world, more than

ever before, needs multilateral cooperation based on

the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United

Nations. Yes, more than ever before the principles of

the Charter must be implemented with an acute sense

of responsibility and a clear understanding of their

purpose, which is to promote international peace and

security and economic and social development as

essential prerequisites for the promotion and protection

of human dignity.

Yes, it is now on the basis of human dignity that

we are to measure the validity and accuracy of any

national or international policy. We therefore urge

every Member of the United Nations to examine their

consciences and to make changes accordingly, so that

we can give that approach its fullest meaning. It is on

this issue that the challenges are the greatest, as can be

seen by the blind abuse and violence that is carried out

on a massive scale by terrorists and armed groups

against innocent civilians.

With respect to armed conflicts and their

consequences, we must redouble our past efforts to

enhance our ability to act preventively, doing all we

can to quickly and effectively defuse potential sources

of conflicts and neutralize the seeds of conflict

situations before they germinate. As we have no other

choice but to cure — since we have been unable to

prevent — we have to considerably increase United

Nations capabilities in the areas of peacekeeping and

management of post-conflict situations.

We would like to reiterate our deep gratitude to

the Secretary-General for his personal commitment in

seeking a rapid solution to the Ivorian crisis within the

framework of the Accra III accords. The international

community — despite the erratic evolution of the

situation — must stay the course with Côte d’Ivoire in

its efforts to respect its commitments and to ensure a

smooth transition towards the restoration of peace, by

stabilizing the situation so that that country can find its

place within the development dynamic in the West

African subregion.

We also encourage the international community

to focus particular attention on the Great Lakes region,

which remains a source of concern. The situation there

also requires a regional approach — one that can be

best effected by holding the proposed international

conference on the Great Lakes region.

We reiterate our firm support for the Secretary-

General’s recommendations to substantially reinforce

the troops of the United Nations Organization Mission

in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to

help consolidate the peace process in that country.

The situation in Darfur has highlighted the urgent

need to realize programmes to establish an independent

operations management unit for peacekeeping within

the African Union in order to facilitate the rapid

deployment of African forces to stem conflicts as soon

as they break out.

Conflict prevention can only be effective if we

take into consideration the disturbing question of the

proliferation of small arms and light weapons, which is

a dangerous destabilizing factor. The illicit circulation

of small arms and light weapons considerably reduces

the ability of national communities to peacefully

resolve their disputes.

The same applies to disarmament, which Benin

considers crucial to the establishment of peace and the

promotion of development. We call for the total and

verifiable elimination from our planet of the threat of

nuclear arms, as well as other types of weapons of

mass destruction.

Since 11 September 2001 international terrorism

has become one of the great challenges of our time.

The international community must condemn terrorism

and combat it in all its forms with determination —

attacking the problem with a renewed political will to

seek a lasting solution to the serious international

problems that terrorism feeds on. We must, however,

remember that in prosecuting that struggle it is

imperative that we preserve the democratic freedoms

that have been so dearly won by our citizens, and the

open society, which is the essence of democracy.

Indeed, terrorism is not the monopoly of a single

religion or nationality, much less that of a given

civilization. It is not the concern of one particular

category of countries. It is a global threat and, as a

result, requires a global response. My country is

sparing no effort to join the efforts of the international

community in that area. It is in that spirit that we

signed and carried out the ratification of 12

international conventions regarding the fight against

terrorism and organized crime.

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We have all acknowledged the need for reform,

and for more than a decade have been involved in a

multidimensional discussion in order to bring the

institutional architecture of the United Nations system

and its operating methods up to date in accordance

with the changing realities the elements of the system

were devised to confront.

The ultimate goal of reform is to better serve the

ideals of the Organization and better meet the

legitimate expectations of the people of the world in

the face of the dangers confronting them today.

With respect to Security Council reform, most

Member States have expressed the hope that the

Security Council will become more representative of

the international community as a whole, in the light of

the considerable increase in the number of Member

States — which have grown from 51 to 192 since the

creation of the United Nations — and in the light of the

fact that the new States have a certain weight

demographically, economically and militarily.

I take this opportunity to extend my thanks to all

Member States of the United Nations that, on 23

October 2003, voted for my country, Benin, to become

a non-permanent member of the Security Council for

the period 2004-2005.

In the context of current discussions on Security

Council reform, Benin believes that any reform of the

Council must take into consideration the legitimate

aspirations of the developing countries, in particular

African countries, while maintaining the Council’s

effectiveness and good functioning.

Benin has no objection to the friendly countries

of Japan, Germany and Brazil becoming permanent

members of the Security Council. However, the extent,

the nature and the modalities of the increase in Council

membership should be based on the principles of

equitable geographic distribution and the sovereign

equality of States. Clearly, there cannot be a partial or

selective increase in the number of permanent and non-

permanent members of the Council that works to the

detriment of the developing countries. In that context,

Africa, like all regional groups, must have two

permanent seats on the Security Council. Any other

solution would cause a de facto disequilibrium and an

overrepresentation of one regional group to the

detriment of others. In other words, Africa justly

demands two permanent seats and two non-permanent

seats, in addition to the three it currently holds.

The right of veto should be extended to the new

permanent members of the Security Council. In

addition, the non-permanent members of the Council,

in rotation, could be accorded the veto power during

the month they hold the presidency, given the

importance of that position.

The link between development and peace can be

seen more clearly now than in the past. We are used to

hearing those two concepts linked in the time-honoured

saying that “development is the other name for peace”.

As national revenue grows, Governments have greater

manoeuvring room to adopt social and economic

policies that promote national integration and regional

equilibrium.

Today, two years after the World Summit on

Sustainable Development, held at Johannesburg, we all

agree on the importance of the progressive and

harmonious attainment of the goals of sustainable

development, in accordance with the outcome of our

work at Johannesburg. If the environment is important,

in no way can it be treated separately from other

aspects of sustainable development. Rather, it is by

reinforcing national development capacity, while

supporting the activities of communities through high-

impact programmes such as microfinancing, as

proposed by the United Nations Development

Programme and the Global Environment Facility, that

we can wage a radical campaign against extreme

poverty and reduce the number of people living in

poverty by 2015, as established in the Millennium

Development Goals.

Those programmes provide opportunities to help

us better protect natural resources. However, we will

not allow the protection of the environment to become

a limit to our country’s economic growth. Sustainable

development, properly understood, consists of

integrating all dimensions into a coherent national

policy.

In developing countries, in particular the least

developed countries and especially Benin, where many

efforts have been made to reinforce democracy,

strengthen the decentralization process and fight

poverty, communities and non-governmental

organizations must be strengthened to decentralize

management of the environment and thus promote

development at the local level.

Also to fight poverty and better manage natural

resources, we must remember that the Johannesburg

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Summit identified the United Nations Convention to

Combat Desertification as one way to fight poverty and

as a tool available to the international community to

achieve the Millennium Development Goals. When, at

its sixtieth session, the General Assembly examines the

progress made towards achieving those Goals, my

delegation hopes that the Convention to Combat

Desertification will take its rightful place in the

discussions on the Millennium Project, led by

Professor Jeffrey Sachs.

With respect to financial resources, we call on the

international community to make the fourth

replenishment of the Global Environment Fund even

greater than the third and call for the issue of soil

degradation and desertification to receive all the

attention it deserves.

By adopting the 2001 Programme of Action for

the Least Developed Countries for the decade 2001-

2010 at the conclusion of the Third United Nations

Conference on the Least Developed Countries, held in

Brussels, the international community established the

key goal of doing everything possible to halve by 2015

the number of people living in extreme poverty and

suffering hunger and to promote sustainable

development in the developing countries.

In spite of the efforts made, the least developed

countries continue to suffer from the burden of debt,

leading to weakened measures for social protection, the

impoverishment of vulnerable segments of society,

rural migration and the depreciation of agricultural

products, among other things.

In his mandate as Global Chair of the Bureau of

the Least Developed Countries, President Mathieu

Kérékou of the Republic of Benin took part from 28 to

30 June 2004 in the 2004 high-level segment of the

Economic and Social Council’s substantive session,

devoted to mobilizing resources and promoting an

environment favourable to eliminating poverty, in the

context of the implementation of the Programme of

Action for the Least Developed Countries for the

decade 2001-2010. The high-level segment identified

real ways to mobilize external and internal resources to

eliminate poverty through microfinancing, the

promotion of small and medium-sized business and

land tenure security.

The least developed countries, in particular those

of Africa, must strive to strengthen partnerships with

the international community, given that the prospects

of their national economies raise the most doubts.

This year, Benin has again made its modest

contribution to international efforts by convening an

African Union regional conference on the family, in the

framework of the tenth anniversary of the United

Nations International Year of the Family.

At that conference, Africa established an action

plan on the African family, as well as strategies for its

implementation. The action plan is based on the

observation that Africa is undergoing three great

transformations and is faced with enormous challenges

that place increased pressure on families. In order to

meet those challenges, we must adopt an integrated

approach that places families at the centre of a

comprehensive development programme to preserve

the integrity of families.

African countries share the conviction that

implementation of the nine priority areas of that action

plan will make it possible to achieve the Millennium

Development Goals in the shortest possible time. The

action plan has been issued as a United Nations

document. We urge our development partners to give it

all the necessary attention in order to pool resources to

implement the plan, which can be considered a

supplementary effort to better focus on human beings

within their basic social milieu and according to their

principal needs, with a view to attaining the

Millennium Development Goals.

Encouraging efforts have been made in the areas

of official development assistance, managing the

foreign debt of heavily indebted countries and

multinational trade negotiations — in particular those

undertaken in the context of the New Partnership for

Africa’s Development. They must be coherently

pursued in order to achieve an overall improvement in

the foreign environment for developing countries, in

general, and for African countries, in particular.

I would like to take this opportunity to express

my appreciation for the extension of the expiration date

of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative,

as well as for the adoption of the general Framework

for Establishing Modalities in Agriculture for

multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Work

Programme, which is known as the July package. The

general framework of negotiations on that document

was based on the agreement of developed countries to

bring domestic subsidies for their farmers to a level

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that permits farmers in the least developed countries to

live off the fruits of their labours.

In that regard, I would like to emphasize that, as

far as the sectoral Cotton Initiative is concerned —

which should be the subject of separate and special

treatment within a subcommittee — the development

strategy for the cotton sector could encompass

identifying market opportunities, the possibility of

developing high-added-value activities and the

establishment of bodies or mechanisms that make it

possible to regulate and strengthen the market.

I would like to conclude my statement by

reminding the Assembly that Benin will assume the

presidency of the Security Council in February 2005.

As part of its presidency, we plan to organize a

ministerial conference in New York on the theme

“Thinking about the future situation of child soldiers in

Africa”. One of the objectives envisaged for that

debate will be to help find lasting solutions to the

problem of child soldiers in Africa and to begin the

process of developing an international legal instrument

to prevent the recruitment of children into armies.

Through that theme, we will hope to engage the

international community in a genuine alliance to

promote peace, security, political stability and

development in Africa. We count on the support and

participation of members of the Assembly in that

conference, which will make it possible for us to

defuse the time bomb represented by the issue of child

soldiers. I therefore invite all members to make a

contribution in order to bequeath a brighter tomorrow

to future generations.