Lesotho, 2000

On behalf of the

Government and people of Lesotho, I extend our most

sincere congratulations to the President on his election

to preside over the fifty-fifth session, and wish him

every success in the discharge of his duties. We are

confident that his personal, diplomatic and leadership

qualities will guide us through the session, and assure

him of our support and cooperation at all times. Let me

also pay a well deserved tribute, and express our thanks

and gratitude, to his predecessor, our colleague,

Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab of Namibia. We thank him

in particular for his statesmanship, sterling guidance

and effective organization during the difficult times of

the fifty-fourth session.

We also remain deeply indebted to Secretary-

General Kofi Annan for his continued dynamic

leadership and commitment to our Organization, and

for his relentless efforts in achieving the Organization's

goals.

The admission of a new Member to our

Organization is always a moment of joy, and that of

Tuvalu is no exception.

19

This, the first session of the General Assembly in

the new millennium, offers an opportunity for us to

reflect on the challenges and threats we face as we

enter the new century, a century that has ushered in a

revolution that future generations will likely

characterize as one that had the greatest impact on

human civilization since the advent of the telegraph,

radio and television. The world is indeed witnessing a

revolution in the information systems and their

integration into the lives of men, women and children,

leading to the term “information age “. The information

age of the twenty-first century is taking root as it

impacts on the lives of all sectors of society at both the

national and international levels.

There can be no doubt that for some information

technology and globalization are beginning to turn

theoretical possibilities into fact, as the use of

computers and computer-dependent systems have

resulted in improvements in basic health conditions and

increases in life expectancy, efficiency and

productivity, thus offering tremendous economic

potential and prosperity. Unfortunately, the majority of

others who have been left out of that prosperity

continue to live in conditions of extreme poverty,

remain embroiled in unending conflicts and are

ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other

diseases.

The challenge for the United Nations of the

twenty-first century is to eliminate those disparities by

bringing poor countries into the digital age, thus

making them extract value from globalization instead

of watching globalization extract value from them.

Education remains the key for the attainment of these

objectives. In fact, our message from Lesotho here is:

education, education, education.

A disturbing phenomenon for the international

community, and in particular for Africa, is that while

the rest of the world is experiencing an increased flow

of financial resources Africa's development prospects

continue to be hampered by unsustainable debt

servicing obligations. Just as we have placed poverty

eradication at the centre of economic and social

development, it is equally necessary to accord similar

importance to the debt problems of developing

countries. In our view, that would be a vital

contribution to the realization of the goal of halving the

proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a

day by 2015.

Lesotho falls into the category of countries that

are not eligible for debt relief under the existing

framework. In our Millennium Summit Declaration we

made pledges to grant more generous development

assistance to poor countries that plan to apply their

resources to poverty reduction and to deal

comprehensively with their debt problems. We need to

concretize these pledges by adopting measures to

accelerate debt relief such as the cancellation of the

official debt of those countries and the expansion of the

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative. This

would assist us in ensuring that by 2015 the majority of

our people have access to safe drinking water, that all

children complete a full course of primary education,

and that joblessness is reduced among our youth. It

would also help us curb the spread of HIV/AIDS and

assist the children orphaned by this scourge.

The Government of Lesotho adopted poverty

reduction as its highest development priority in its

sixth and seventh National Development Plans. We

have taken firm measures to reduce poverty. Based on

our democratic dispensation and peaceful environment,

we have successfully embarked on an aggressive

investment promotion campaign for job creation. I am

pleased to report that we are experiencing initial

success in attracting foreign investment.

We believe that South-South cooperation is an

important tool for developing and strengthening the

economic independence of developing countries. To

this end, we in southern Africa have made modest but

encouraging progress with respect to South-South

cooperation by accelerating the entry into force of the

Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Trade Protocol, which encompasses deeper economic

cooperation, cross-border investment and trade, free

movement of factors of production, and free movement

of goods and services.

The Third United Nations Conference on the

Least Developed Countries, to be held in Brussels next

year, is both timely and crucial. Since this body

recognized, some years ago, the least developed

countries as the poorest of the developing countries,

there has not yet been any improvement in the weak

economic situation of those countries, whose numbers

have instead increased from 25 in 1971, to 48 in 1997.

Lesotho therefore looks forward to the

Conference, which will review the internal constraints

to the development of the least developed countries and

20

the adequacy of international support measures in the

critical areas of official development assistance, debt

relief, market access and trade.

The High-level International Intergovernmental

Event on Financing for Development, to be held in

2001, will come to naught unless we are resolved to

undertake it armed with the requisite political

commitment and global solidarity to achieve our

development goals nationally, regionally and

internationally.

The Government of Lesotho remains keenly

aware that good environmental management requires

concerted efforts from all members of the community.

Therefore, we have established partnerships at the

international, regional and national levels to address

the problems of environmental degradation. We believe

that the environment is too important an issue to be left

in the hands of one Organization. In this regard, we

look forward to the process of the 10-year review of

the United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development (UNCED), at which we will share our

experiences with, and learn from, our counterparts in

the international community.

Regarding the integrated and coordinated

implementation of, and follow-up to, the major United

Nations conferences and summits, my delegation

values the review meetings because they offer us the

opportunity to evaluate our performance and to

consider the way forward. They also rekindle our

political commitment to achieving global

developmental goals. We therefore feel that the review

process should continue in the twenty-first century,

with a stronger emphasis on the evaluation of

achievements and constraints.

Like globalization of the economy, globalization

of human rights cannot be avoided. Today human rights

are well established as the legitimate concern of all

humanity. If, as the world agreed in Vienna in 1993,

“the promotion and protection of all human rights

is a legitimate concern of the international

community” (A/CONF/157/24,chapter III, section

I, para.4),

this calls for a more pragmatic approach in identifying

pertinent situations requiring the protection of

humanity, including in situations where a state has

collapsed or disintegrated.

Among the promising developments as we begin

the century is the growing world consensus on the need

to stop impunity by punishing those responsible for

genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, as

evidenced by the number of signatories and

ratifications to the Statute of the International Criminal

Court (ICC). This momentum has rekindled our hope

for peace and for an end to the persistence of human

rights violations. Lesotho's ratification of the ICC

Statute is a further clear indication of its commitment

to the protection of human rights and to bringing to

justice all those who commit gross violations of these

rights.

As we celebrate the fifth anniversary of the

United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women,

we must be reminded that the goal of gender equality is

far from being achieved. Despite pessimistic forecasts,

and despite different evaluations of the achievements

of the special session on women, the Beijing + 5

conference's adoption of a final document proposing a

series of actions and initiatives in the 12 critical areas

identified in Beijing is an indication of the

international community's renewed commitment to

women's rights. Implementation of the norms

enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All

Forms of Discrimination against Women remains

critical for the attainment of the goals set in Beijing.

As technology brings the peoples of the world

closer together, thus removing political and other

barriers, societies continue to be ravaged by racial

discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of

intolerance, exemplified by “ethnic cleansing”, racial

hatred and new forms of slavery. A challenge for the

United Nations is to define goals and global strategies

focused on urgent and effective measures to eliminate

racial discrimination and ethnic conflicts. Lesotho thus

welcomes the convening of the World Conference

against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia

and Related Intolerance, to be held in South Africa in

2001. This Conference will offer an opportunity for us

to develop action-oriented measures to rid the world of

these scourges.

Preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction — nuclear, chemical and biological —

remains one of the most important tasks facing

humankind in the twenty-first century, as these

weapons remain a major threat to world peace. The

pursuit of arms reduction and the challenge of

achieving sustainable disarmament thus remain the

21

only bulwark against the use or threat of use of

weapons of mass destruction.

While we welcome the nuclear-weapon States'

undertaking to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, their

failure to agree to a specific timetable for doing so is

regrettable. The challenge is to translate these

undertakings into concrete actions to eliminate all

nuclear dangers. We thus support the Secretary-

General's call for a new international conference on

eliminating nuclear dangers as a means of advancing

our disarmament goals. We also remain convinced of

the need and desirability of convening a special session

of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament.

Thanks to the efforts of all actors, both

governmental and non-governmental, the world is

beginning to witness tangible results as the production,

trade and use of landmines slowly drops, thus lowering

the number of casualties. This, however, should not

lead to any complacency, as evidence of the use of

mines in some conflict areas, particularly in Africa,

continues to surface. We look forward to a day when

the world will be free of these weapons and encourage

all those who continue to use mines, as well as those

who remain outside the Convention banning landmines,

to heed the rapidly growing international and regional

momentum for the ban on those weapons.

Lesotho supports the convening of a United

Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms

and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects in June and July

2001, as mandated by General Assembly resolution

54/54. We share the view that the outcome of the

Conference should be a global action plan with specific

timetables for the implementation of commitments on

issues such as codes of conduct, legislative and

regulatory measures, control, enforcement,

transparency, and tracing measures and mechanisms.

The proliferation of armed conflicts in Africa

continues to hamper efforts to achieve progress in

economic and social development. The lack of political

will to find lasting solutions to ongoing conflicts and

the emergence of new ones continues to effectively

cripple the productive activities of those countries as

well as further erode the poor social infrastructure that

exists in many countries. The illicit trade in arms,

diamonds and other natural resources, as well as the

diversion of resources from development to military

activities, continue to fuel these conflicts, thus

undermining democracy and development.

The challenge for Africa remains the management

and resolution of conflicts, the avoidance of war and

the strengthening of democratic institutions. These are

enormous challenges which require Africa's

commitment to stability and the rule of law, but, above

all, they require strong political will on the part of the

Africans themselves and resources from the

international community to reinforce democratic

government, to deter attempts to overthrow it and even

to reinstate it where it has been overthrown by illegal

means.

We in Lesotho have bitter experience of attempts

to overthrow a legally and democratically elected

Government. Thanks to our SADC partners, order has

been restored in Lesotho and the Government is

vigorously pursuing a programme of reconstruction,

which includes the creation of a climate of political

reconciliation on which the consolidation of

democratic gains and democratic culture can rest. The

Government of Lesotho remains fully committed to

developing a culture of democracy, good governance,

observance of human rights and constitutionality. The

international community's assistance remains

indispensable to the success of these efforts. We

therefore stand solidly behind the position held by the

Organization of African Unity, SADC and the

Commonwealth of disallowing Governments that come

into power by illegal means from participating in our

councils. This should include our councils in the

United Nations.

Despite positive steps being taken by the

Government of Angola to stabilize the situation in that

country, peace continues to elude the people of Angola

because of the non-fulfilment by Jonas Savimbi of the

Lusaka Protocol. We urge the international community

to observe all Security Council resolutions against

UNITA and to fully cooperate with the United Nations

to ensure the effective implementation of sanctions

against UNITA.

We appeal to all parties to the Congolese conflict

to honour their obligations under the Lusaka Ceasefire

Agreement and to lend their support to the process of

internal dialogue under the facilitation of Sir Ketumile

Masire of Botswana.

We support all measures aimed at ending the

illicit trade in diamonds in Sierra Leone and applaud

the Economic Community of West African States for

its efforts to bring peace to that country. We are

22

gratified to see the cessation of hostilities between

Ethiopia and Eritrea and call on both parties to that

conflict to redouble their efforts for a lasting peace. We

also urge all armed groups in Burundi to fully and

effectively participate in the negotiations so as to

facilitate the speedy conclusion of a ceasefire

agreement and a comprehensive peace accord. We look

forward to the conclusion of the process in Western

Sahara so that the people of that country can freely

determine their own future.

We reaffirm the right of the Palestinian people to

exercise their inalienable rights and we urge parties to

the Middle East peace process to redouble their efforts

to find durable peace in the Middle East.

The real test for the United Nations in this

century is how far it is prepared to go in addressing all

these challenges and how far it will go in turning

promises into reality, thus enabling the large majority

of the people of the world to fulfil their potential and

realize their aspirations. While we appreciate the

magnitude of these challenges, we continue to have

faith in the United Nations capacity to solve global

problems, its broad universal support and its ability to

uphold and reaffirm our shared values of peace, equity,

social justice, democracy and human rights.