Lesotho, 2005

My delegation associates

itself with the compliments extended to you, Sir, on

your election to the presidency of this session and to

your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Jean Ping of

Gabon.

The United Nations was born 60 years ago when

the brutality of war impressed itself on all as far

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beyond human comprehension and tolerance. The

Organization became a source of hope, founded as it

was on the inalienable, interlinked and mutually

interdependent pillars of development, human rights

and security.

Member States of this Organization have

increasingly yearned for its reform in order to make it

more democratic and responsive to the needs of all

nations, rich and poor, big and small, strong and weak.

We should recall that the last reform of the United

Nations was in 1963, a good four decades ago. Against

this background, my delegation pays tribute to the

Secretary-General for his report entitled “In larger

freedom: towards development, security and human

rights for all” (A/59/2005). That report formed the

basis for discussions by Member States as they

prepared for the five-year review of the Millennium

Declaration and for this sixtieth session of the General

Assembly. It raises critical issues regarding the reform

of this world body to enable it to meet the challenges

and threats of the twenty-first century — a daunting

task indeed.

However, we have noted with regret that some

Member States have relegated to the back burner

critical issues of development, giving priority instead

to security issues, particularly the reform of the

Security Council. As a result of this trend, we foresee

an emerging, untenable and, indeed, unwarranted

situation with the potential to divide regions and/or

continents and to adversely affect cordial relations

between States.

In order to move in unison, the international

community should strive to advance the global

development, human rights and security agendas

simultaneously. All agree that the HIV and AIDS

pandemic has emerged as a major threat to

development, reversing, as it does, all the gains that

have been made so far. We all also agree that the

ravages of extreme poverty continue to haunt us.

Needless to say, extreme poverty constitutes a violation

of human dignity. Armed conflicts also hamper

development. Africa presents a classical example of

how those menaces compromise not only peace and

security, but also development, thus militating against

respect for human rights.

Indeed, it is no coincidence that development has

been one of the key objectives of most, if not all, major

United Nations conferences and summits in the

economic, social and related fields. Hence, my

delegation welcomes the efforts of those donor

countries that have achieved the 0.7 per cent target of

gross national income as official development

assistance (ODA), with 0.2 per cent of gross national

income for the least developed countries. We also

welcome initiatives by some countries to set up

timetables for fulfilling their ODA targets. However,

we reiterate our appeal that developed countries abide

by their commitments to help developing countries in

all the relevant areas. They have to accelerate and

increase the flows of ODA and foreign direct

investment. They also have to adopt appropriate

measures to fully integrate small and vulnerable

economies into the multilateral trading system, cancel

debt, transfer technology, render financial and

technical assistance and provide capacity-building

programmes for developing countries.

On this auspicious occasion, my delegation

expresses sincere appreciation for all initiatives

recently taken to address the needs of developing

countries, especially the debt cancellation extended by

the G-8 countries to highly indebted poor countries.

However, we appeal for debt cancellation for all least

developed countries in order to enable them to redirect

their meagre resources to national development

programmes. It is an irrefutable fact that a substantial

percentage of the national budgets of least developed

countries that do not fall within the Heavily Indebted

Poor Countries Debt (HIPC) Initiative category is

consumed by servicing their debts.

Lesotho supports the launching of a series of

“quick wins”, as recommended by the Secretary-

General in his report, as this would go a long way

towards broadening commitment to the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) and promoting economic

growth in many developing countries. In our view, the

criteria for the selection of countries for the

implementation of the “quick wins” should be fair and

transparent.

Terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction to non-State actors, the existence of nuclear

weapons, and armed conflict top the list of global

security issues. There is, therefore, an urgent need to

conclude a comprehensive convention on terrorism.

My delegation hopes that the General Assembly will

soon initiate negotiations on an international

instrument to prevent the proliferation of weapons of

mass destruction to non-State actors. We regret the fact

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that the 2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

(NPT) was not able to reach consensus. However, we

wish to emphasize the need for all States parties to

adhere to the three pillars of the Treaty — namely,

disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of

nuclear energy. We also wish to encourage the nuclear-

weapon States that have not yet ratified or acceded to

the NPT and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

Treaty to become parties to those important treaties.

The notorious use of small arms and light

weapons in armed conflicts is well documented.

Lesotho therefore regrets the inability on the part of the

Open-ended Working Group on small arms to adopt a

legally binding document. We also attach great

importance to the issue of prevention of internal armed

conflicts by the international community. While we

support the moral obligation behind the proposed new

concept of the “responsibility to protect”, we suggest

that the issue should be subjected to further

consideration by Member States, guided by the

fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations

Charter. Needless to say, the sanctity of Article 51 of

the Charter should be preserved.

The Kingdom of Lesotho considers it the

responsibility of the international community, with the

United Nations playing the central role, to put in place

effective measures aimed at preventing genocide,

ethnic cleansing and the atrocities perpetrated on

women and children caught up in armed conflict.

Consequently, my delegation considers the enhanced

role of the major organs of the United Nations,

particularly the General Assembly, to be of paramount

importance. One of the major constraints of the United

Nations is that it lacks a mechanism designed to avoid

State collapse and the slide into war, or to assist

countries in their transition from war to peace. It is

within this context that Lesotho supports the proposed

establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission.

In the area of human rights, we support the

elevation of the Commission on Human Rights to a

Human Rights Council, a body that would be apolitical

and insist on the protection both of civil and political

rights and of economic, social and cultural rights. For

my delegation, the flaws of the Commission lay mostly

in its focus and not necessarily in its size.

It is in this twenty-first century that peace,

security, the right to self-determination, respect for all

human rights and fundamental freedoms must be

guaranteed as the norm rather than the exception.

Hence, our call for the right to self-determination of

the Palestinian people and complete withdrawal from

their occupied territories, the independence of the

Saharawi people, the lifting of the unilateral economic

embargo against the people of Cuba and the end to

armed conflicts, particularly in Africa. These matters

must be addressed and resolved urgently,

comprehensively and honestly, without fear or favour,

and without malice to anybody.