Ghana, 1997

The delegation of Ghana

congratulates His Excellency Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko on

his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at

its fifty-second session. His long experience in the affairs

of this Organization and the great qualities which he brings

to this high office assure us that under his wise guidance

the work of this session will be fruitful and constructive. To

that end my delegation pledges to him its full support and

cooperation.

My delegation also wishes to pay a special tribute to

his distinguished predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Razali

Ismail, who conducted the business of the fifty-first session

with remarkable zeal and efficiency. The promptitude and

energy with which he discharged his responsibilities as

President has left an enduring imprint on the work of this

Organization.

To our distinguished Secretary-General and my

compatriot, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, we wish to

express our deep appreciation for his sterling qualities of

leadership. The people of Ghana are indeed grateful to the

world community for having chosen a son to head this very

high and important body. Barely nine months after

assuming his onerous responsibilities, Kofi Annan has

demonstrated an indefatigable energy and commitment to

the reform and efficient management of the Organization

to enable it to measure up to the purposes and objectives

of its existence. We pledge to him our continued

unflinching support.

At the fifty-first session, Member States warmly

welcomed the conclusion of the Pelindaba and Bangkok

Treaties establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Africa

and South-East Asia respectively. We also welcomed the

adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty,

which has since been signed by the vast majority of

States, including my own. We view these as progressive

steps on the road to nuclear disarmament. We therefore

renew our call on the nuclear-weapon States to cooperate

with the rest of the international community for the

commencement and early conclusion of multilateral

negotiations on a universal and binding convention

prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and

use of nuclear weapons, and mandating the destruction of

the existing stockpiles.

We make these appeals not as an annual ritual but

because of our deep conviction that the elimination of

weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical

and biological weapons, will go a long way to promote

international peace and security, a principal purpose for

which this Organization was established.

While weapons of mass destruction deserve the

priority attention accorded them by this Assembly, the

question of conventional weapons cannot be ignored

either. The illicit transfer and use of this category of

armaments are a source of great concern, since they

constitute a threat to the stability of States and fuel the

numerous conflicts which bedevil the world today,

particularly in Africa. They also provide terrorists, drug

barons and other criminals the means with which to

pursue their illegal activities. We must adopt all available

means to curb the illicit traffic. In the same vein, we

support ongoing international initiatives to conclude a

treaty banning the production, transfer and use of anti-

personnel landmines, which continue to kill and maim

innocent people and disrupt the economic and social life

of millions, long after the end of the conflicts in which

they were laid.

Though the end of the cold war has greatly reduced

the threat of another global war, which twice in this

century brought untold sorrow to mankind, intra-country

conflicts and civil wars continue to wreak havoc in

17

several countries, with resultant loss of lives, destruction of

national infrastructure, displacement of innocent persons

and outflow of refugees into neighbouring countries. In

Afghanistan, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia, Somalia,

Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone and the Republic of the

Congo, we see the havoc caused by this new trend and its

potential threat to regional and subregional security.

We in Africa are all the more concerned. For while

the international community is prompt to react to conflicts

in regions of economic or geo-strategic interest to the rich

and industrialized world, conflicts in some developing

countries, particularly in Africa, I am sorry to say, fail to

elicit the same degree of response. Thus, peacekeeping,

which is a primary function of this Organization, has also

fallen prey to geo-strategic parochial considerations. We

hasten to warn that such double standards threaten the

concept of collective security which constitutes the very

foundation of this Organization.

In the West African subregion, we have endeavoured

to fill the gap left by international inertia and selectivity.

After nearly eight years of fratricidal civil war and the

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) intervention in Liberia,

countries of the subregion, with only the limited assistance

of the international community, finally succeeded in

supervising the conduct of presidential and legislative

elections in the country in July 1997, under conditions

generally acknowledged to be free and fair.

We are happy to welcome the worthy representatives

of the elected Government of Liberia to this Assembly. For

true and lasting peace in that country, we urge the

international community to stand by the people of Liberia

as they set out on the difficult road of national

reconstruction. We are proud to have been part of the

process to restore peace and legitimacy in Liberia, and pray

that the Liberian Government and people will continue on

the path of national reconciliation in order to consolidate

the hard-won peace, which is vital for social and economic

development.

While we applaud the return of peace to Liberia, we

deplore the onset of violence, disorder and destruction

following the unjustified overthrow of the democratically

elected Government of President Tejan Kabbah in Sierra

Leone. We call on the leaders of the coup to heed the

unequivocal condemnation of their act by the international

community and cooperate with the efforts of ECOWAS to

restore constitutional order in Sierra Leone.

In recent years, my delegation has had cause to

express its concern and regret at the continued imposition

of unjust sanctions on Libya by the Security Council, in

defiance of the expressed wish of the vast majority of

States represented in the League of Arab States, the

Organization of African Unity and the Non-Aligned

Movement. We note that Libya has fully met the

requirements of Security Council resolution 731 (1992)

and is willing to cooperate with the other parties

concerned in the dispute. We urge the Security Council to

revisit the issue and ensure a peaceful solution of the

conflict and an end to the sanctions.

We also reiterate the call of the Non-Aligned

Movement and other States on the United States of

America to put an end to the economic, commercial and

financial measures and actions unilaterally imposed on

Cuba, in contravention of the United Nations Charter and

all principles of international law.

We urge the people of Korea to work together in

peace to realize their aspirations. Since the end of the

cold war peace on the peninsula has needlessly been

under threat on a number of occasions.

On the question of Western Sahara, we maintain our

confidence in the power of direct dialogue, under the

auspices of this Organization, as the best means by which

the Settlement Plan can be revived to enable the Sahrawi

people to exercise their right to self-determination,

through a free, fair and impartial referendum. The news

that the Secretary-General’s personal envoy, in the worthy

person of His Excellency Mr. James Baker III, has

succeeded in brokering a compromise agreement through

such direct talks is reassuring, and we hope that very

soon, this long, drawn-out conflict will be amenable to

successful resolution.

May I also avail myself of this opportunity to

express my Government’s regret that the Middle East

peace process has been put in grave jeopardy by the

actions of the Israeli Government, which, defying

international outcry, continues its settlement activities in

East Jerusalem. For these are the very actions which

encourage extremists among the Palestinians to organize

terrorist acts against the Israeli population. We would also

urge the Palestinian leadership to continue more

assiduously in its efforts to achieve the objectives of their

treaty with Israel through non-confrontational means.

Many a representative has drawn attention to the

continued and widespread growth of the global economy

18

as we move towards the close of the century and to the

broadening of the reach of economic growth in developing

countries to include an increasing number of low-income

countries. Indeed, many African countries have achieved

stronger growth of output and incomes in 1996 and 1997.

This encouraging trend has been achieved through the

adoption and pursuit by Governments of policies and

measures aimed at ensuring, among others, macroeconomic

stability, inflows of foreign direct investment, open and free

markets and stable and transparent legal and regulatory

frameworks.

However, it is pertinent also to point out that despite

these efforts, many African countries, and especially the

least developed countries, continue to face important policy

challenges, particularly in the areas of enhancing resource

mobilization and allocation, strengthening savings and

investment and financing development. The difficulties

inherent in these challenges are compounded by the adverse

impact of globalization and liberalization. These countries

have not participated in, nor benefited from, globalization.

On the contrary, they have become even more marginalized

in the global economy for the very simple reason that they

lack the physical, financial and human resources as well as

the institutional infrastructure necessary for effective

competition and integration in the international markets.

In specific terms our countries, despite various

structural reforms, have been unable to attract in sufficient

quantities the necessary capital inflows for investment, and

are confronted at the same time with domestic supply-side

constraints which limit our export potential, an

unsustainable debt which swallows a great part of our

national income, and declining levels of official

development assistance, among others. The “prosperity-

poverty” gap, or gulf, between the haves and the have-nots

is ever more yawning.

Under these circumstances, what we need is a new

development strategy based on genuine partnership between

the developed and developing countries and which takes a

holistic view of development, combining within itself all

the tools of development, including trade and investment as

well as official development assistance and South/South

cooperation. Such a strategy will also necessitate the

democratization of international relations, particularly in the

economic sphere; the establishment of open, equitable and

transparent international regimes; the creation of fair

opportunities for all; and the protection of the weakest

members of our community.

It is in this context that we welcome the successful

conclusion and adoption of the Agenda for Development,

which is intended to serve as an initial framework for

renewing and strengthening the partnership for

development on the basis of mutual benefits and genuine

interdependence. While acknowledging and affirming our

commitment to the primacy of national policies and

measures to achieve our development goals, we wish to

stress the importance of the fulfilment by all parties of the

global commitments aimed at supplementing national

efforts. In this connection, we express the hope that the

commitments and internationally agreed targets reached at

recent major United Nations conferences will be fully

implemented by all parties. It is also our view that the

United Nations must be strengthened and adequately

equipped to carry out its important role in development.

In seeking to achieve our goals, we the countries of

the developing world need to cooperate more among

ourselves as a means of strengthening our self-reliance

and complementing international development

cooperation. We therefore need to strive to enhance

cooperation at all levels — bilateral, subregional, regional

and interregional — in the important areas of trade,

investment, finance, science and technology, environment,

human resources development, and information and

communications. This, in the view of my delegation, will

constitute an important strategy for facilitating the

effective participation of developing countries in the

global economy.

The review and appraisal of the implementation of

Agenda 21 last June revealed worsening trends for

sustainable development, as well as the continued

deterioration of the state of the global environment as a

result of the failure of the international community to

fulfil the commitments it undertook in 1992. This is a sad

state of affairs. But even sadder still was the failure of the

review session to make any significant progress on the

critical issues of Agenda 21, owing to the unwillingness

of Member States to establish time-bound and quantified

commitments. It is absolutely necessary that we all

recommit ourselves to the global partnership established

at Rio in 1992 and to the fulfilment of the obligations

voluntarily assumed under Agenda 21.

Ghana has in various forums indicated its support for

the establishment of an international criminal court. We

are gratified that the Preparatory Committee for the

establishment of the Court made significant progress in

that direction at its last two sessions. We hope that with

the same determination and spirit of compromise which

19

has characterized the work of the Preparatory Committee

since its inception, the establishment of the Court will soon

become a reality. We wish to recognize the useful

contributions of the various non-governmental organizations

which have worked closely with governmental delegations

on several difficult aspects of the proposed international

criminal court.

Progress on the Law of the Sea also deserves mention.

With the establishment of the Commission on the Limits of

the Continental Shelf, all institutions envisaged by the

Convention have now been put in place. It is our hope that

adequate resources will be made available to these

institutions to enable them fully to attain the objectives for

which they were set up. It is also our hope that cooperation

between the appropriate United Nations agencies and

developing countries in the sphere of the Law of the Sea

will be intensified to enable developing countries fully to

utilize the benefits conferred on them by the Convention on

the Law of the Sea.

The critical financial situation of the Organization is

a major source of concern to my delegation, as it places our

Organization in jeopardy at a time of challenge and of

opportunity to promote the objectives and purposes of the

Organization. It is regrettable that a number of countries,

including some of the largest contributors, are neither

paying their contributions nor making good on their arrears,

while some even wittingly aggravate the situation by

attaching unacceptable conditions or benchmarks to the

discharge of their Charter obligations in this regard. My

delegation strongly believes that support for the United

Nations must be demonstrated not only by an eagerness to

promote reforms but more importantly by the willingness of

Member States to pay all their assessed contributions

promptly, fully and unconditionally to ensure that the

Organization is financially sound and can meet its mandates

and other commitments.

Ted Turner, an individual with no obligation

whatsoever to support the United Nations, has demonstrated

support in a dramatic and yet effective manner. He has

offered to pay the United Nations $1 billion over 10 years.

What excuse has any country got, then, to say, “We will

not pay”, or “We will pay only if ...”? On behalf of His

Excellency the President of Ghana and of the people of

Ghana, I say thank you to Ted Turner for showing us the

way, for pricking our consciences and for being such a

good citizen of the world.

Today at the fifty-second session, perhaps more so

than ever before, the General Assembly is confronted with

the complex problem of the reform of our Organization.

On the threshold of a new millennium, the United Nations

cannot continue to conduct its business as usual. It has to

adopt bold and imaginative measures to overhaul its

structure and working methods with a view to removing

the obstacles that impede its effectiveness not only as an

instrument for promoting international peace and security

but also as an indispensable agent for resolving the

world’s socio-economic problems.

It is in this context that Ghana has carefully studied

the Secretary-General’s wide-ranging and far-reaching

proposals presented to Member States for their

consideration and reaction. We warmly congratulate the

Secretary-General on his bold initiative. The Secretary-

General has thrown a momentous challenge to all of us,

and we should do everything possible to measure up to

the test by manifesting the necessary breadth of vision

and objectivity of outlook. The United Nations remains

the only international body available to us in our search

for peace, progress and prosperity as well as in the

resolution of differences among nations.

For us as a nation, we are particularly interested in

the new sense of purpose and dynamism that the

proposals seek to inject into United Nations development

activities to make them more coherent and output-

oriented. We support the setting up of an effective

machinery to study the various proposals and how to

implement them, and we stand ready to participate in any

such effort.