Cameroon, 1995

The delegation of Cameroon congratulates Mr. Diogo

Freitas do Amaral on his election to the presidency of the

General Assembly at its fiftieth session. We wish him well

as he guides the work of this historic session, which

coincides with the commemoration of the fiftieth

anniversary of the Organization. Knowing as I do

Mr. Freitas do Amaral’s distinction as an educator and a

statesman, I welcome his election.

Moreover, the President represents a friendly country,

Portugal, whose involvement in Africa is of long standing

and which shares with Cameroon a part of our history:

When he alit on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea in 1472,

the Portuguese Fernando Po was much impressed with the

abundance of shrimp in the waters off what is now the city

of Douala and named the place “Rio dos Camarões” —

Shrimp River — from which Cameroon takes its name.

We also convey our appreciation to His Excellency

Mr. Amara Essy, Minister for Foreign Affairs of

Côte d’Ivoire, for the way in which he carried out his

responsibilities as President of the General Assembly at its

forty-ninth session.

Finally, we pledge to the Secretary-General,

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, our constant support in his

tireless efforts to enable the Organization to attain its

noble purposes.

It is of enormous significance that the present

session of the General Assembly should coincide with the

fiftieth anniversary of the Organization. The United

Nations, which sums up and expresses the deep-felt

aspiration of the peoples and nations of the world to

peace, freedom and progress, has become an

indispensable conclave of nations. The Organization’s

universality makes it the ideal forum for governing the

world order.

The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary should

therefore be a source of satisfaction to the entire

international community. It provides an opportunity to

gauge how far we have come since the beginning and to

consider our views on the future of the Organization.

When they created the United Nations after the Second

World War, the founders affirmed their determination to

save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.

Fortunately, for more than half a century the

North — once the epicentre of most of history’s major

conflicts — has been a place of peace and cooperation;

and, despite the build-up of weapons of mass destruction,

the rivalry between the two great ideological and military

alliances did not drag international society into a third

world war, which would have sealed the fate of mankind.

Aware of the danger to the world posed by the arms

race, the United Nations encouraged the conclusion of the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and

its indefinite extension; it has promoted the creation of

denuclearized zones, inter alia in Africa, and the

conclusion of the Convention on the prohibition of

chemical weapons; and it has given decisive impetus to

multilateral negotiations on disarmament.

We are glad that, in its ongoing quest for peace, the

Organization has been able when necessary to adapt the

Charter to the realities, including by devising the notion

of peace-keeping operations, which have defused many

conflicts and created favourable conditions for dialogue

and negotiation.

By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to United

Nations peace-keeping forces on 29 September 1988, the

Nobel prize committee paid tribute to the devotion and

courage of the more than half a million men and women

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who since 1948 have served the cause of peace all over the

world.

Even if in recent years peace-keeping operations have

had mixed results and have been accused of consuming the

lion’s share of United Nations resources to the detriment of

development, it must be recognized that while the path has

not always been smooth, these operations have on the

whole yielded positive results. The “Agenda for Peace”,

then, remains relevant, and must continue to be the

foundation of United Nations peace-keeping operations.

Cameroon supports the recommendations of the

Working Group to strengthen these operations by defining

in advance precise objectives, the timeframe for the

intervention, and the resources needed for implementation.

Similarly, and as we have always said, the United Nations

must strengthen its cooperation with regional and

subregional organizations by making available the means

necessary to enable them to discharge their peace-keeping

mandate. That is why we welcome cooperation between the

United Nations and the Organization of African Unity in

the area of prevention, management and settlement of

conflicts on a continent riddled with crises and conflicts of

many forms and many dimensions.

This applies also on the subregional level: to the role

in the area of peace-keeping of the Standing Advisory

Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa, which

deserves support, as the Committee, which was created with

the assistance of the Secretary-General, brings together

11 Central African countries which have decided to set up

within their national armed forces units specializing in

peace-keeping operations to be carried out under the

auspices of the United Nations and the Organization of

African Unity. Cameroon trusts that the United Nations will

show greater interest in this available force of more than

10,000 soldiers, which could serve as reserve forces for

peace missions.

Another area where United Nations action has been

particularly significant is decolonization. Thanks to that

action and to their own peoples’ emancipation struggles,

many colonial Territories have gained independence and

sovereignty; today they make up more than half of the

membership of the Organization. More than any other

continent, Africa is proud to have unswervingly promoted

the process of its own total liberation, which was recently

completed with the end of apartheid in South Africa.

Here we recall with gratitude that it was under United

Nations auspices that Cameroon attained sovereignty after

having been first a German colony, then a Territory under

League of Nations Mandate, then a United Nations Trust

Territory. It is our hope that the few Territories remaining

under foreign administration will freely exercise their

inalienable right to self-determination, so that the United

Nations objective of the complete eradication of

colonialism by the year 2000 may be realized.

Also to the credit of the Organization are the

promotion of human rights, the ongoing development and

codification of international law, and achievements in all

the areas covered by the specialized agencies.

The promotion and protection of human rights in

general and those of the most vulnerable and

disadvantaged in particular are at the centre of our

concerns and those of the United Nations. The creation of

the Centre for Human Rights, the convening at Vienna of

the World Conference on Human Rights and the

appointment of a High Commissioner for Human Rights

all enable the United Nations to follow progress in the

area of human rights throughout the world and to assert

certain principles by which States must abide. Cameroon

welcomes this, and attaches great importance to

recognition of and respect for all human rights, including

the right to development.

As regards humanitarian assistance, our Organization

has been active on all fronts where it has been needed,

providing aid to victims of catastrophes and natural

disasters and war.

At this stage, I would like to mention and welcome

action taken in the field by the United Nations through

the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Office

of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR), the United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP) and other organizations, such as the World

Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO) and the International Labour Organization

(ILO).

On another matter, we would like to welcome

progress by the United Nations in the fight against the

scourge of drugs. The United Nations International Drug

Control Programme is a result of concerted efforts by the

United Nations and Member States in the fight against the

production, sale, demand for and traffic in, and the

unlawful distribution of, drugs and psychotropic

substances. Cameroon pledges and invites other States to

pledge unreservedly their support for the United Nations

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Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and

Psychotropic Substances in order to stop the scourge of

drugs.

We would like to emphasize the considerable efforts

exerted by the United Nations to focus the attention of the

international community, in the context of world

conferences, on other questions of interest that require

collective action, which should be taken by the entire

community of nations. These concerns have been

manifested through the World Summit for Children, the Rio

Conference on Environment and Development, the World

Conference on Human Rights at Vienna, the International

Conference on Population and Development at Cairo, the

World Summit for Social Development at Copenhagen, the

Cairo Conference on the Prevention of Crime, and Fourth

World Conference on Women at Beijing. On the question

of women, it is highly desirable that all States immediately

follow up on the decisions and recommendations of the

Beijing Conference.

But these successes of our Organization that I have

just mentioned may not have met the expectations of all

peoples.

First, in the area of international peace and security,

the Organization has not been able to prevent the spread of

sources of tension and conflicts throughout the world. Until

recently, it has been practically powerless in the face of the

tragedies of the former Yugoslavia, Somalia and Rwanda.

In the economic arena, the Organization,

notwithstanding the declaration of four United Nations

decades, has not succeeded in adopting declarations,

programmes of actions and other strategies to bring about

progress and economic and social development in

developing countries. The proof is that conditions in these

countries are still unfavourable, and, in order to experience

growth once again, they must engage in policies of

structural adjustment, the social burden of which has been

a source of major concern to their Governments. This is

true also of the high price they must pay to join the

mainstream of world trade in order to avoid further

marginalization.

Development is primarily the responsibility of States

and the peoples concerned. Cameroon nevertheless believes

that the United Nations should, because of its universality

and in the best interest of the international community as a

whole, help to ensure global solidarity and interdependence

with a view to promoting development for all. This means

that we must stop inveighing against Africa in uniformly

pessimistic, not to say doomsday, tones. This style is all

too familiar and suggests that our continent is, in the

history of the world, nothing but a passive onlooker. But

who, in all seriousness, can place at the sidelines of world

events an entire continent, with 700 million inhabitants

today — 800 million in the year 2,000 — and with

immense natural, human, cultural and spiritual wealth? In

this connection, the Holy Father, speaking of Africa, on

the occasion of his recent second visit to Cameroon,

appealed in his post-synod apostolic exhortation for

avoidance of any blanket condemnations of an entire

population, an entire nation or, still worse, an entire

continent.

In spite of the serious difficulties that it must

overcome, Africa is determined to shoulder responsibility

for its future. The sweeping changes which it is

experiencing today are nothing but the forerunners of a

nascent order whose purpose will be to integrate our

continent into the world of the third millennium. This

process of transformation is already yielding fruit in most

of our countries.

As regards Cameroon, I would like in this

connection, to emphasize our irreversible pursuit of the

process of democratization begun by Presidency Paul

Biya at the very moment he assumed power in 1982.

Between now and the end of this year, there will be

significant progress in this process with the adoption of a

new Constitution allowing for greater democratic

participation by the citizens of Cameroon in the

management of their own affairs, and a better balance

among the various powers of Government.

I would like to mention the impact our measures of

recovery and economic liberalization have had on various

sectors of activity. Cameroon is enjoying self-sufficiency

in food, and is beginning to enjoy growth again. Inflation

has been halted and macroeconomic balance in major

areas has been re-established. In a word, there are signs

of life in economic activity. Strengthened by the

credibility confirmed — had that really been needed —

by the recent signing of the agreement with the

International Monetary Fund, my country is widening its

action for the acceleration of its economic recovery.

Our Organization is confronted with a sudden and

unexpected acceleration of history. Never has there been

such an acute sense of upheaval. The same questions keep

cropping up everywhere: Will the world in the future be

meaningless? What will the world order be like in the

future? Will the Organization have a hand in this new

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order? And, finally, will it have the ability to be the melting

pot for this? But, when all is said and done, the end of the

cold war has brought fair weather.

However, it is clear that, 50 years after its creation,

the Organization needs to turn over a new leaf. That being

so, might it not be highly desirable for it to re-think its

role, its tasks, its functions, with a view not just to adapting

to this new context, but to responding better to the ever-

increasing and ever-more-insistent aspirations of the peoples

to peace and well-being? In any case, this is the desire of

Cameroon.

These are the responsibilities we would like the

Organization to shoulder in order to ensure a better world

and a better future for the generation of the next

millennium. In this connection, the manner in which the

United Nations discharges its responsibilities, or rather the

success of United Nations missions, will depend on the real

collective political will of its Member States.

For its part, Cameroon feels that the current thinking

on the restructuring of the Security Council augurs well for

the revitalization of the Organization. The same is true of

the successful outcome of peace-keeping efforts made

possible by United Nations action and the concerted action

of the international community in Cambodia, Central

America, Angola, Haiti, Mozambique and Eritrea. On the

same lines, the new diplomatic deals that are evolving in

the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East are undeniably

very encouraging developments.

In the final analysis, then, there is no reason not to

believe that in the near future the peoples of regions where

conflicts are continuing will, like so many others, have their

rendezvous with peace.

In all of these cases, Cameroon has the feeling that a

lasting solution will have to come through a meeting of the

political wills of the chief protagonists and the collective

will of the international community.

In spite of the difficulties that have impeded action in

the areas both of peace-keeping and of economic and social

development, the balance sheet of the Organization —

though certainly uneven — is not as negative as some

would have us believe. The celebration of the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations gives the international

community an ideal opportunity to consider the ways and

means available to our Organization to carry out the

collective work of ensuring peace, security and prosperity

for all.

This anniversary must also be taken as an

opportunity for renewal, for highlighting and praising the

wealth of universality in the diversity in our Organization.

This is an opportunity to renew our pledge and

commitment to the purposes and ideals of the Charter.

This pledge and this commitment must be translated into

a strengthening of our determination and our ability to act

collectively so that, as was the wish of the founding

fathers, we can save future generations from anguish,

fear, poverty, suffering and all sorts of uncertainty, and so

that we may finally move forward along the path of

transforming the tools of war into the tools of peace.

Cameroon, for its part, is prepared to contribute.