Libya, 2007

At the outset, I would like to congratulate

the President on his election as President of the

General Assembly at its sixty-second session. I am

confident that, thanks to his experience and wisdom, he

will lead the work of this forum to the best results. I

would also like to take this opportunity to express our

satisfaction with the manner in which Sheikha Haya

Rashed Al-Khalifa conducted the deliberations of the

General Assembly at its previous session and the

efforts she made for United Nations reform and, with

regard to several controversial issues, to arrive at

solutions acceptable to all. I also wish to express our

gratitude for the efforts exerted by His Excellency

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, since his appointment as Secretary-

General, to implement the resolutions of the United

Nations and to achieve the purposes of the Charter.

The reform of the United Nations has been the

central issue in our deliberations in the General

Assembly and in a number of other forums over the

past two years. We were able to move forward towards

achieving our goals on some aspects of the reform

process. However, there is still a long way to go,

especially in the absence of real progress towards

reforming the Security Council and enhancing the role

of the General Assembly.

That issue has been the subject of intensive

consultations in which many ideas were put forward,

some of which were realistic and based on the

principles of equal sovereignty for all nations and

equitable geographical representation. Other ideas,

however, involved consolidating the control of the

powerful States over the United Nations bodies and the

concept that those with privileges in the Security

Council should maintain those privileges and reject any

active role for other actors in that respect. That latter

attitude cannot lead to any true reform contributing to

the realization of the purposes embodied in the Charter

of the United Nations.

A realistic assessment of progress made in the

process of United Nations reform, especially in light of

the impasse in negotiations regarding Security Council

reform, leads us to the conviction that there is an

urgent need for a new world summit conference that

would push forward the reform process and bring to a

conclusion the work that we began two years ago.

In order to achieve this, Libya calls, from this

podium, for a high-level summit meeting to be held at

the United Nations in Geneva within the framework of

the sixty-third session of the General Assembly, in

2008. Such a meeting would be devoted to the reform

process of the United Nations and the expansion of the

Security Council. Holding such an important meeting

in Geneva, a city that lies at the centre of the world,

would provide the opportunity for all world leaders to

attend, to present constructive proposals and to

participate in decision-making regarding this thorny

issue that concerns the entire world.

True reform of the United Nations means putting

decision-making powers in the hands of all of its

Members, that is to say, in the hands of the General

Assembly, where all countries have equal vote. The

Security Council would thus become an instrument for

implementing General Assembly resolutions and we

would overcome the obstacles caused by the veto,

which puts international decision-making power in the

hands of the permanent members of the Security

Council and greatly encourages selectivity and double

standards in dealing with international problems.

In our efforts to reform the Security Council, we

must consider a new formula for permanent

membership in which membership would be awarded

to geographical groups and not to specific countries. In

this regard, we demand that the African Union since

Africa is the only continent which has no

representative among the permanent members be

granted permanent membership in the Security Council

with all the privileges enjoyed by other permanent

members.

While we encourage the current negotiations

regarding reform of the Security Council, we stress the

fact that Libya adheres to the Common African

Position, issued at the fifth African Union Summit,

held in Sirte on 4 and 5 July 2005. This position was

confirmed at subsequent African Union summit

conferences. It calls for the African continent to be

granted five non-permanent seats and two permanent

seats with all the privileges that other permanent

members enjoy, including the right of veto.

Libya seeks the support of all Member States for

a seat on the Security Council so that it may continue

to carry out its efforts to achieve the objectives of the

United Nations, building on its experience of non-

permanent membership in 1976 and 1977. Libya has

therefore submitted its candidature for non-permanent

membership for the coming period 2008-2009. This

candidature enjoys the support of the African Union as

expressed in its resolution EX.CL/DEC. 308 (IX)

issued in Banjul on 29 June 2007, of the Organization

of the Islamic Conference in its resolution ORG 33/2

issued in Baku on 21 June 2006 and of the Arab

League in its resolution on 6 September 2006.

Libya’s firm commitment to the purposes and

principles of the United Nations Charter, its notable

contribution to international peace and security and its

support for development, especially in Africa,

demonstrate that Libya is highly qualified for

membership in the Security Council.

As a member of the Council, Libya would strive

to emphasize the central role played by the United

Nations in achieving international peace and security;

to strengthen respect for international law and the

provisions of the United Nations Charter; to enhance

pluralism in international relations through the United

Nations; to strengthen cooperation between the United

Nations and regional organizations in solving

international problems; to contribute to United Nations

reform; to work to increase cooperation and

coordination between the Security Council and the

other organs of the United Nations, particularly the

General Assembly; to encourage swift and effective

international cooperation and coordination in disaster

management and in the protection of human rights; to

contribute to the creation of permanent solutions to

international problems based on justice, equity, and

respect for the principles of international law and to

encourage further cooperation between the United

Nations and the African Union in the areas of conflict

resolution, consolidation of peace and support for

development in Africa.

Libya strongly believes in the objectives of the

United Nations and consistently meets its obligations

to the Organization. Among Member States, Libya was

the second-largest African contributor to the United

Nations budget and to the budget of peacekeeping

operations in the biennium 2004-2006. Furthermore,

Libya provides a large share of voluntary contributions

to serve the goals of the United Nations.

Moreover, Libya is one of the countries that have

most often resorted to the mechanisms of the United

Nations to resolve international disagreements. For

example, it resorted to the International Court of

Justice to resolve its border problems with Chad,

Tunisia and Malta and has accepted and implemented

the rulings of the Court.

Libya has been a key mediator in the resolution

of a number of conflicts and disputes, especially in

Africa, and has dispatched peacekeeping forces to the

Central African Republic, monitored the border

between Chad and the Sudan and taken part in the

United Nations mission in Darfur. Libya has also

begun to nominate personnel from the Libyan police

force to serve in United Nations missions in a number

of African places.

Libya has established partnerships with a number

of countries, in the field of development, particularly

in Africa. Additionally, in cooperation with the Food

and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,

Libya is implementing numerous projects that provide

food in a number of African and Arab States.

In cooperation with Cuba and Nigeria, Libya

established the South-South Programme for health care

in Africa and, in 2006, launched the Gaddafi

Programme for African women, children and young

people, which provides health care and educational

services in Africa.

Libya has provided humanitarian aid to numerous

countries in order to alleviate the effects of disasters.

Recipient countries have included Niger, Chad, the

Sudan, Somalia, Palestine, Indonesia, Pakistan and

Mauritania. Libya has also provided substantial aid to

several African countries to combat desert locusts.

In the field of disarmament, Libya believes that

comprehensive and complete disarmament, beginning

with the elimination of weapons of mass destruction

(WMDs), is an essential prerequisite for the

consolidation of international peace and security. For

this reason, Libya initiated its voluntary abandonment

of all programmes related to WMDs and their means of

delivery. Libya hopes that all nations that possess such

weapons or related programmes will follow its

exemplary behaviour.

International cooperation, under the auspices of

the United Nations, has achieved good results in the

fight against terrorism. However, concentrating on the

fight against this phenomenon, while ignoring its root

causes, will not bring terrorism to an end. Libya was

among the first countries that called for coordination of

international efforts to fight global terrorism. Since

1992, Libya has called for a special session of the

General Assembly to study this phenomenon and to

take the necessary measures to combat it by eradicating

its root causes.

We believe that the time has come to heed this

call and establish a precise definition of terrorism that

would protect human rights and halt the practice of

confusing terrorism with the legitimate right of people

to fight against foreign occupation and to exercise self-

determination and attain independence.

Ending terrorism will require practical measures

to eliminate its root causes, including effective action

to promote human rights for all peoples, putting a stop

to acts of aggression and the occupation of the land of

others, fighting poverty and encouraging democracy.

Foreign occupation is the worst form of

terrorism, because occupation forces subject entire

peoples to measures which violate the most basic

principles of human rights and commit daily crimes

against those peoples in order to maintain their

occupation. In our campaign to fight terrorism, it is

imperative that we coordinate our efforts to finally put

an end to foreign occupation, enable peoples to

exercise their right to self-determination and prevent

interference in internal affairs.

We urgently need to implement the pledges that

we adopted in the Millennium Declaration, the Doha

Declaration and the outcomes of the Monterrey and

Johannesburg conferences so that we can make ideal

use of our planet’s resources, end conflict, poverty,

illiteracy and disease, provide all people with safe

drinking water, safeguard the environment and achieve

sustainable development.

It falls upon the shoulders of the United Nations,

in particular the Economic and Social Council, to

establish international partnerships for development

which can achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Such partnerships should facilitate dialogue between

North and South on the basis of respect for

sovereignty, equality and sharing of benefits, and

should ensure that we reach the agreed goal of

devoting 0.7 per cent of the developed countries’ gross

national income to official development assistance

(ODA) to developing countries. Such partnerships must

likewise ensure the appropriate application of all

multilateral free trade principles and must strengthen

World Trade Organization measures regarding

preferential treatment for developing countries,

including making it easier for developing countries to

join that organization.

Countries with a colonial past bear the largest

share of responsibility to provide aid to developing

countries and to compensate them for the damage they

suffered during the colonial era. Similarly, countries

that waged war on the territories of other countries

have a responsibility to remove the mines, unexploded

ordnance and explosive remnants of war they left in

those countries. They must provide the necessary maps,

equipment and technical know-how to reclaim and

rehabilitate damaged land in those developing

countries.

I call upon all Member States to aid the African

Union in its efforts to ensure that all African countries

achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

The Palestinian people have lived in great misery

for more than half a century, since their land was

seized. More than half of them were displaced to

various parts of the world and those who remain have

been subjected to a bloody and vicious Israeli

occupation and to systematic violations of international

humanitarian law: houses are demolished, lands are

confiscated and Palestinian agricultural land is

bulldozed. Under siege and denied food and medicine,

inhabitants are expelled and unarmed citizens killed

while the building of an apartheid wall continues. The

oppression to which the Palestinian people are

subjected and the failure of the United Nations to

protect them and to aid them in attaining their rights

the right of return, the right to self-determination and

the right to establish an independent State on all

Palestinian land are factors that prevent the

restoration of peace and security in the region. It is

time to address the issue of Palestine more seriously

and to refrain from attempts to impose a fait accompli

on the Palestinian people, depriving them of their

legitimate rights.

The tragedy that has befallen brotherly Iraq and

that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi

deaths, injuries and refugees, requires an urgent United

Nations initiative to stop the bleeding, resolve the

crisis, ensure the withdrawal of the occupation forces,

restore Iraq’s stability and sovereignty, maintain Iraq’s

territorial integrity and empower the Iraqis to control

their own resources and freely decide their own

destiny, while enabling all citizens to participate in the

administration of their country without the

marginalization of any group by any other group, so

that peace, security and prosperity may prevail in that

country.