Ghana, 2011

Permit me to extend hearty

congratulations to you, Sir, on your election as

President of the General Assembly at this session. May

I also use this opportunity to express our sincere thanks

to your predecessor, Mr. Joseph Deiss, for the able

manner in which he presided over the sixty-fifth

session.

Ghana joins the rest of the world in welcoming

our sister country, South Sudan, to the family of the

United Nations. It is our fervent hope that South

Sudan, having taken its rightful place in this body, will

grow and prosper. We also want to congratulate the

Secretary-General on his appointment to a second term.

It is a clear manifestation of his excellent performance

during his first term.

It is a long-established fact that United Nations

peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities have

contributed immensely to the Organization’s efforts for

the maintenance of international peace and security

over the years. We observe, however, that this activity

continues to take on complex dimensions that require

long-term planning and urgent reforms in order to

enable the United Nations to tackle the challenges that

crop up.

It is in this connection that Ghana reaffirms its

support for the ongoing reform agenda being

undertaken by the United Nations in consultation with

the troop- and police-contributing countries. However,

we do want to emphasize that regular tripartite

consultations are needed among the United Nations,

the Secretariat, the Security Council and the troop- and

police-contributing countries.

As one of the top contributors of police and

troops to United Nations activities, Ghana remains

unwavering in its commitment to the ideals and

objectives of the United Nations. Accordingly, I want

to assure Members that as long as financial, human and

material capacities exist at the national level, Ghana

will continue to provide troops and police personnel

for United Nations operations.

But it is important that the burden and costs to

the United Nations of these activities be equitably

shared among Member States. We think that countries

such as Ghana that provide troops and police personnel

for these operations must be financially supported by

donor countries in a timely manner. We are aware of

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the financial constraints existing at all national levels,

but we want to encourage Member States to meet their

obligations to the United Nations so that the

Organization can execute its mandate.

Allow me to pay tribute to all United Nations

personnel — including those from my own country,

Ghana — who in the course of the year made the

ultimate sacrifice while on United Nations

peacekeeping missions. May their souls rest in peace

and their sacrifice be cherished and remembered.

Another issue that we are following with keen

interest is the proposed arms trade treaty. Ghana fully

supports this and thinks it is necessary. Hence our

satisfaction thus far with the outcomes of the meetings

of the Preparatory Committee for the United Nations

Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty held in New

York last year and in February and March this year.

As a nation, we consider a strong and effective

arms trade treaty to be an indispensable step in

preventing the flow of arms to destinations where they

can cause mayhem and wreak havoc by fuelling

conflicts that may in turn undermine national and

regional peace, security and development, or

exacerbate tensions that in the long run may create

situations that need the deployment of United Nations

peacekeepers.

For developing countries such as Ghana, the

illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons

and other conventional weaponry continues to pose a

serious threat to our national security and to our

socio-economic and political stability, given the

linkage to other crimes such as terrorism, organized

crime, drug trading and indeed human trafficking,

among others. It is therefore imperative that the

remaining meetings of the arms trade treaty

Preparatory Committee produce proposals that would

close the loopholes that allow the flow of these

weapons from legitimate to illicit markets.

The United Nations reached a significant

milestone with the launch of UN-Women — the United

Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the

Empowerment of Women. It is critical as member

States of the international community that we break

gender stereotypes, which after all are the root cause of

the myriad of gender-inequality challenges facing us

throughout the world. Ghana’s efforts are focused on

addressing gender imbalances and misconceptions and

on improving the living conditions of women and girls,

bearing in mind that in solving the gender issue we

would be taking concrete steps towards the attainment

of a majority of the Millennium Development Goals. It

is our expectation that the objectives of UN-Women

will be met.

On the occasion of the High-level Meeting to

commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Durban

Declaration and Programme of Action, Ghana

recognizes the progress so far made in this area by the

opportunity given to Member States to reaffirm and

strengthen their political commitment to the prevention

of and fight against racism and racial discrimination in

all its forms. We are confident that the effective

implementation of the outcome policy (see resolution

66/3) will indeed ensure the enjoyment of human rights

and fundamental freedoms by all, including the victims

of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and

related intolerance, in all societies.

It is noteworthy that the High-level Meeting of

the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of

Non-communicable Diseases focused on the developmental

drawbacks and socio-economic impact on developing

countries where the relevant facilities are not available.

Indeed, we are of the opinion that the effective

prevention and control of non-communicable diseases

not only helps to reduce poverty but also decreases

health-care costs, thereby improving productivity and

ultimately helping with rapid economic development.

Efforts in Ghana to improve the health-care

system include the completion of the health-care

infrastructure in several parts of the country, the

scaling-up of the National Ambulance Service to cover

all districts and the training of emergency medical

technicians. We have re-engineered our policies in

order to give more meaning to health-care delivery.

Ghana recognizes and appreciates the

contribution of youth to nation-building and the growth

and sustenance of our democracy. We believe that the

adoption of the political declaration urging Member

States to adopt comprehensive plans and measures to

give meaning to youth development is commendable,

especially since this is the International Year of Youth.

In Ghana we are implementing policies that are

intended to situate young men and women in the centre

of nation-building.

One of the main reasons for our relentless fight

against drug trafficking is to ensure that we secure the

future of our young men and women, who, after all,

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will be the future leaders of our dear nations. As we

continue to invest heavily in our youth by expanding

educational opportunities and making it possible for

the disadvantaged to have access to formal schooling,

we believe we are laying the right foundation. The

provision of free school uniforms, free exercise books

and the elimination of more than one thousand schools

under trees, turning them into brick-and-mortar

structures, should be ample evidence of our

determination to brighten the future of youth. Certainly

Ghana’s oil and gas find should present us with a

greater opportunity to create the conditions under

which we will be able to create more jobs to solve

youth unemployment in our country.

Climate change is the defining human

development challenge of the twenty-first century and

one of the greatest threats to sustainable development

in Africa. Although as a continent we contribute only

4 per cent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, we

are the most vulnerable when it comes to climate

change. Therefore urgent and concerted action is

needed to enable us to maximize the opportunity that

climate change offers.

We believe that with the right investments in

technology, institutions and infrastructure by the

international community and nation-States, we will be

able to unleash the potential of agriculture, harness the

maximum benefit from water resources, expand access

to modern energy sources, fight diseases and conserve

tropical forests.

As we move closer to the climate change

negotiations scheduled for Durban, South Africa, it is

our expectation that the critical political questions that

could not be answered during the United Nations

Climate Change Conference at Cancún will be

addressed. With regard to mitigation, we believe that

we need political commitment, a high sense of

flexibility and strong leadership to ensure that at the

Durban Conference the second round of commitments

under the Kyoto Protocol will be addressed or some

transitional arrangement made.

Again with regard to mitigation, we believe that

all pledged commitments and actions should be

quantified, monitored and verified by the international

community. We commend the obvious progress made

in the design of the institutions of adaptation, such as

the Green Climate Fund. What remains to be done is to

determine the sources of funding for the Fund and also

to empower the Conference of Parties to the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to

have control over the Green Climate Fund.

On the political and security fronts, Ghana

notices a paradigm shift, or at least a shift in emphasis,

from national security to human security. We agree that

interventions targeted on human security will

eventually define our national security. We are

therefore implementing measures that will help us

make this concept take form through the adoption of

the necessary legislative measures, institutions and

reforms. We are taking steps to expand our adherence

to the rule of law, the promotion of transparency and

good governance, the maintenance of the independence

and integrity of the judiciary, and the promotion of a

free media. We also subscribe to the global norm of the

responsibility to protect, and we promise to work hand

in glove with member countries, the United Nations

and others to achieve this.

A little over a year from now Ghana will be going

to the polls to elect a President and Members of

Parliament for another four years. To ensure that the

elections are free, fair, transparent and credible, our

Electoral Commission — which has successfully organized

the last three elections, since the year 2000 — has put in

place the necessary measures to enable Ghanaians to

make their choices in a free atmosphere. Our

democratic credentials stand tall, and we would not

want anything to affect the standard that we have

achieved.

Just as the United Nations and the rest of the

international community kept an eye on the 2008

elections in Ghana, I should like to invite you,

Mr. President, and all others to come and do the same

in connection with the 2012 elections. We want to

make sure that people are given the right to vote and

choose their own leaders, instead of having leaders

imposed on them or come in through unauthorized

means.

Finally, I wish to reaffirm Ghana’s total

commitment to the aims, objectives and ideals of the

United Nations. I also want to advocate that all

Member States muster the necessary political will to

ensure that the United Nations functions more

effectively.