Libya, 2004

It is my pleasure to congratulate you, Sir,

on your election as President of the General Assembly

at its fifty-ninth session. Your election is a testament to

the greatness of our African continent.

I am pleased to address the Assembly and share

the views of my country, Libya, on a number of serious

and sensitive issues that we deem important for joint

international action and increased universal

cooperation.

Last year, we relinquished our right to speak to

the President of the African Union in the expectation

that he would speak for the entire Union. It seems,

however, that the African Union has no post of Foreign

Minister and that the Ministers of member States were

therefore compelled to speak instead. Thus, I am

obliged to speak now.

All States obviously agree that the current

structure and the rules of procedure of the United

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Nations are flawed, and all States agree on the need for

reform. Indeed, before we can discuss reform in the

Middle East, the former republics of the Soviet Union

or any other area of the world, we must first reform the

United Nations. Before we speak about lack of

democracy in the world, we must first recognize the

lack of democracy in the United Nations. Furthermore,

because the General Assembly is the parliament of

parliaments and the Security Council is the government

of governments, we have no right to talk about

democracy and reform in the world unless we first

reform the structure of the United Nations.

The past 59 years have demonstrated that the

General Assembly is merely a decorative body without

a soul and that the authority lies with the Security

Council, which controls all the work of the United

Nations. It is the one and only authority. My country

therefore proposes that the upcoming sixtieth session

of the General Assembly should be decisive and

important, and that invitations should be extended to

all world leaders to participate. We should announce

that decisions on radical reform for the United Nations

will be taken at the sixtieth session. God willing,

President Muammar Al-Qadhafi, in what will be his

first visit to the General Assembly, will attend that

session, which will be a historic milestone involving a

confrontation with the grave and unjust situation

currently prevailing at the United Nations.

We propose that the sixtieth session be held in

Geneva — the geographical centre of the world — to

facilitate the attendance of all world leaders and

presidents, even if additional funds have to be

allocated in order to convene the meeting in Geneva.

My country is ready to contribute financial support for

that endeavour.

There are two options before us. Our first option

is to transfer the authority to invoke Chapters VI and

VII of the Charter from the Security Council to the

General Assembly. If that cannot be done, we have no

choice but to declare the General Assembly null and

void and to stop pouring money into this moribund

body.

Our second option is to increase the membership

of the Security Council by allocating seats to new

entities such as the African Union, the Association of

Southeast Asian Nations and Latin America. In

addition, the right of veto will have to be reviewed and

made subject to new rules at the same time as the

membership of the Security Council is expanded.

We warn that, unless these reforms are

implemented, the United Nations will cease to exist, as

unilateral actions are taking place outside the confines

of the United Nations.

The African Union must have a permanent seat

on the Security Council. That seat will be held by the

Union’s members in rotation.

As the sixtieth session of the General Assembly

approaches, Libya is presenting a unique, bold and

strong initiative to eliminate its programmes of

weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear and

chemical weapons, and hand over related equipment to

the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Libya played the central role in the establishment

of the African Union and contributed effectively to the

liberation of colonized and oppressed peoples. Libya,

with its 2,000-kilometre coastline along the

Mediterranean Sea, is at the centre of the world and is

both a place of conflict and a haven for tourism. The

Mediterranean Sea without Libya is inconceivable, as

is the south Mediterranean coast without Libya. Libya

gave birth to the third universal theory — the middle

ground between capitalism and communism — and

presented the world with the Green Book, which

resolves the political, economic and social problems of

society in its three sections. Accordingly, Libya

deserves to have a permanent seat on the Security

Council.

Colonel Muammar Al-Qadhafi presented a

proposal to world leaders, which they all approved.

The proposal calls for the establishment of a committee

of wise men, consisting of President Nelson Mandela,

President Mikhail Gorbachev and President Bill

Clinton, that would serve as an authority for resolving

the conflicts of our world. The United Nations should

adopt a resolution supporting that proposal.

We must all continue to combat terrorism. If we

want to eliminate terrorism, we must first eliminate its

causes and not simply pursue its isolated operations.

We must attack its root causes.

If we want oil supplies and prices to remain

stable, we must prevent wars and potential conflicts

from occurring near oil fields.

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Finally, Colonel Al-Qadhafi will soon address the

issue of United Nations reform on his web site: www.

alqadhafi.org.