Haiti, 2006

I am

honoured to address the Assembly on behalf of the

Government and people of Haiti. Allow me, first, to

offer my heartfelt congratulations to Ms. Haya Rashed

Al-Khalifa on her election to the presidency of the

General Assembly in its sixty-first session. I am

convinced that her wealth of legal training, her

profound knowledge of public affairs, her national and

international career and her keen negotiating skills

mean that this session will be a success. Allow me to

reiterate to the President the full support of my country

and of the Haitian delegation in discharging her lofty

tasks.

I wish also to congratulate Ambassador Jan

Eliasson, whose practical spirit, his sense of

compromise and great know-how, meant that the

sixtieth session was a successful one. I wish him every

success in his new job as his country’s Minister for

Foreign Affairs.

I wish to convey to the Secretary-General, His

Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, sincere thanks for the skill

with which he has conducted the Organization over the

past 10 years. I congratulate him also on his continued

commitment to my country. The people of Haiti is

profoundly grateful to him for his subtlety and

determination demonstrated in the quest for viable

lasting solutions to the long crisis that has beset my

country in recent years. Mr. Annan deserves the full

appreciation of the international community for his

laudable, indefatigable efforts for peace, justice, human

rights, democracy and development.

On 3 July 2006, the Republic of Haiti regained its

seat in the Caribbean Community and Common Market

(CARICOM), thus putting an end to an absence of two

long years. We recognize that during this period our

brothers and sisters in the Caribbean never lost interest

in Haiti’s affairs. Quite the contrary: they were

strongly committed to finding appropriate solutions,

which have allowed my country today to have the

honour to participate side by side with them in the

great debates concerning the region. On 11 September,

Haiti finally rejoined the great family of the

Non-Aligned Movement, whose purpose is to

strengthen South-South cooperation. This was most

welcome. Those two events clearly show that we want

to be open to the world.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome

the accession of the Republic of Montenegro to

political sovereignty and to the great family of our

Organization.

Today, more than ever before, our world is facing

manifold threats that imperil its very existence. Despite

the Organization’s intensive efforts to make the world

more human and more liveable, the spectre of major

pandemics, poverty, hunger, organized crime,

terrorism, armed conflict, civil war and natural

disasters continues to haunt us. We therefore need to

redouble our efforts to refine our diplomatic

approaches and to give priority to dialogue, honest,

open negotiations, flexibility and compromise. Those

principles lie at the very basis of the creation of the

United Nations and reaffirm its strength and its raison

d’être. Our Organization remains the ideal forum, the

reference point for finding appropriate solutions to the

problems that beset our world. Nothing should make us

abandon that spirit.

The Republic of Haiti unreservedly supports all

of the international community’s initiatives to resolve

conflicts in Africa, in East Asia and in the Middle East

by finding peaceful negotiated solutions respectful of

the sovereignty of States.

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Terrorism is today assuming apocalyptic

proportions. The attacks of 11 September 2001 against

targets in the United States and subsequent attacks

elsewhere in the world were wake-up calls to us,

forcing us to silence our petty interests in order to face

this scourge which, unless it is swiftly curbed, will lead

to catastrophes with untold consequences. We cannot

make mistakes and we cannot hesitate. Recently, we

have been impotent, as we witness an infernal cycle of

violence, massive destruction of innocent human lives

and property. We are seeing attempts to annihilate our

institutions and our society. The very future of

humanity seems to be taken hostage by unbridled

groups that stop at nothing to destroy wherever they

can. The Republic of Haiti reaffirms once more its

resolve to fight terrorism in all its forms, using the few

resources that it has. It supports the preventive

measures taken against terrorism, measures taken in a

legal context. We encourage States to agree on a global

convention on terrorism based on a clear definition

acceptable to all.

Haiti welcomes the major steps taken to reform

the United Nations at the previous session. We are still

far from our goals, but some very significant progress

has, nonetheless, been made. We hope that the changes

decided on will continue to give our Organization the

resources it needs to carry out its global vocation. We

must adapt to new requirements, as we reaffirmed at

the World Summit of 2005. Accordingly, I applaud the

creation of the Peacebuilding Commission. It should

play an important part and its purpose is political

stability, creating sustainable foundations for

socioeconomic development in post-conflict situations,

as well as to help strengthen democratic institutions

and make them effective in a constitutional framework

and under the rule of law.

Similarly, I also welcome General Assembly

resolution 60/251, which created the Human Rights

Council. I congratulate the 47 members of the Council,

who were elected in May in order to put their

experience to use in promoting and protecting human

rights. I hope that this new body will, in many respects,

help to develop our society, to make it more open to

dialogue, understanding, mutual respect, social justice

and tolerance.

Haiti also welcomes the creation of the Central

Emergency Relief Fund. It will provide upfront

resources to enable the United Nations to finance

humanitarian relief operations, as soon as a catastrophe

occurs, in other words, to do more, faster.

My Government agrees with the idea of

revitalizing the Economic and Social Council. As one

of the main organs of the Organization, it should be

more involved in development activities in countries

that have been sidelined by history, especially the least

developed countries (LDCs). It should provide greater

cohesion in adopting the best approach for attaining the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The question

of harmonizing strategies and actions among the

entities of the United Nations system that work in the

area of development is, for us, a crucial one.

Through the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti of

the Economic and Social Council, my country enjoys

the support of the Council and, recently, at the high-

level substantive meeting held in Geneva last July, the

Council extended the mandate of that group through

July 2007, with the possibility of being renewed once

more. I welcome the idea that this extension will

enable various sectors involved in the sustained

development of Haiti to achieve tangible results for my

country.

Since 1945, date of the creation of the United

Nations, of which my country was a founding Member,

the international landscape has undergone profound

change. However, after more than sixty years, the

institutional framework of the Security Council has

remained the same. Any reform of the Organization

would, therefore, be incomplete were it not to include a

reorganization of the Security Council. The

composition of the Security Council must, therefore,

reflect the realities of the twenty-first century and

include Member States that are capable of shouldering

responsibilities of area of the maintenance of

international peace and security. In this new desirable

configuration, it is crucial that developing countries

from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean

enjoy equitable representation.

In February 2006, Haiti held historic, fair and

democratic elections. This process will be completed at

the end of the year by municipal elections and

territorial elections, which will help restore democracy

and open the way to political stability. The people of

Haiti as a whole decided in favour of change capable of

giving it security and improved living conditions. I

welcome the activities of the international community

for the support and assistance it gave and has continued

7 06-53958

to give to Haiti. I salute the Group of Friends of Haiti

and all Members of the Organization that have spared

no effort or sacrifice to support the United Nations

Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) by

providing it with military or police personnel.

I also welcome the adoption of Security Council

resolution 1702 (2006) of 15 August 2006, which

renewed the mandate of MINUSTAH. I hope that this

mission, which is doing a very difficult job —

sometimes a dangerous, but noble job — will, together

with the national police of Haiti and the Government,

manage to control the wanton insecurity that is

besetting Haitian society. I therefore call upon the

mission to work closely with the Haitian authorities to

make the necessary changes depending on the priorities

of the moment.

I hope that international assistance will also focus

on reforming the judicial system, on the

professionalization of the police and on strengthening

democratic institutions, such as the parliament,

municipal bodies and the territorial collectives.

To the parents, friends and colleagues of

peaceworkers who died in Haiti in the line of duty, I

would like to reiterate the pain and sorrow of our

Government and the Haitian people, who recognize the

importance of the United Nations presence in Haiti, the

ultimate goal of which is to help the country to recover

its stability.

The new team that the head of State of Haiti,

Mr. René Garcia Préval, has the privilege of leading

since he assumed office in May, has embarked on the

long-term task of rebuilding the country. The task is to

restore security, to build a modern State, to strengthen

democratic institutions and to offer favourable

conditions for investment in order to create wealth that

benefits everybody. In order to attract investors and

create conditions that favour sustainable development,

the implementation of basic infrastructure projects is

imperative, e.g., the building of roads, ports, airports,

providing electricity to the main towns of the country,

improving telecommunications networks, all of which

requires the support of the international community.

Lack of security is a fertile ground for all kinds

of temptation. It favours destabilizing elements that

exploit the subhuman conditions under which a large

number of our poor live, by arming them to sow death

and destruction in the Haitian family, thus imperilling

the very future of our Republic. Attacking this lack of

security and the climate of violence marked by

dramatic kidnappings and deadly clashes between

armed gangs and the police is one of the top priorities

of my Government. Dialogue, on the one hand, and

toughness, on the other hand, are necessary in finding a

viable solution to banditry, which in recent times has

been spreading in the country, causing a flight of

capital as well as a brain drain. Accordingly, the

technical and financial support of the international

community is therefore essential in the effective

implementation of the disarmament, demobilization

and reintegration programme. We are aware that Haiti

is not a classic case, but that does not mean that we

should do nothing.

In order to provide speedy relief to the sufferings

of the masses and to reduce, even eliminate, the

sources of gang recruitment, my Government has

launched a social pacification programme. This

programme provides for the establishment of a

database of more than 300 projects and actions in

various sectors of our national life and throughout the

territory. It will help create labour-intensive jobs and

will enable the State to reduce unemployment, to

guarantee some relief and thereby to reduce

wrongdoing.

Moreover, in order to create a climate conducive

to good governance our head of State initiated an open,

honest dialogue with all political sectors upon his

election to the presidency. They understood the

urgency and responded positively to the invitation by

agreeing to participate in the current outward-looking

Government, which includes members of various

political parties, which are also represented in

parliament. The point is to achieve social cohesion and

political reconciliation, which are essential for

stability, security, economic recovery and the

rebuilding of an inclusive society.

The international conference for the economic

and social development of Haiti, which was held in

Port-au-Prince on 25 July 2006, produced promises of

financial commitment by the international community.

My Government intends to carry out a long-term

development plan. That attests to our strong

commitment to take control of the destiny of the

country, and that of our international partners to

respect the priorities defined by the Government.

In order to facilitate the task of the Government

to create the necessary conditions for true economic

06-53958 8

and social development, I call upon donors to live up to

their promises and to support Haiti in the long term.

Financial aid from the international community will

facilitate the consolidation of democracy and will help

us to establish the basis for sustainable development.

In order to attain those results and to strengthen its

credibility, the Government is determined to comply

with the requirements of good governance, to ease the

poverty of the disadvantaged and to continue the

ceaseless fight against insecurity and corruption in

order to facilitate private national and foreign

investment.

In conclusion, I would note that the Government

of Haiti is counting on the active cooperation of the

international community to assist it in its quest for

peace and socio-economic development. Throughout

the general debate and listening to the statements made

by our many friends from CARICOM, the Americas

and all over the world, Haiti has been aware of the

keen desire of our partners to work side by side with

Haiti in order to meet the challenges faced by our

Government. Here, I wish to express the gratitude of

the Government of Haiti. Haiti is faced with a daunting

challenge, but there is no lack of political will. My

country will — with our Organization and with all of

us working together — attain our goals.