Monaco, 2006

Few

women before you, Madam, have been elected to the

presidency of the General Assembly, despite the fact

that, as the Chinese proverb states, women hold up half

the sky. We are delighted by your election and

congratulate you and your country, Bahrain. Our

congratulations go also to the Group of Asian States,

which, happily, put your name forward. You can rest

assured that our delegation will always be ready to

support you as you carry out you lofty and challenging

task.

We would also like to congratulate your

predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Jan Eliasson, on

having so successfully guided the work of the General

Assembly during the previous session, as well as for

his understanding of the capacity of Member States to

overcome their differences. Because of his

perseverance, the majority of the reforms resulting

from the commitments entered into at the 2005 World

Summit have been implemented.

At the beginning of this debate we heard Mr. Kofi

Annan present his report on the work of the

Organization (A/61/1) for the last time. He clearly set

out for us his beliefs and accomplishments and his

recommendations for strengthening the United Nations.

My delegation associates itself with the numerous

tributes paid to the Secretary-General. We also wish to

convey to him our profound gratitude for his

courageous efforts over the past 10 years. Thanks to

the extensive experience he acquired at the

Organization, he was able to move the United Nations

forward — in an environment fraught with threats and

new challenges — to meet the expectations aroused as

a result of the upheavals caused by globalization. His

clear vision made it possible to establish the existence

of the nexus between peace, development and human

rights — Charter principles that have repeatedly

underpinned our common efforts.

Guided by the watchful motivation of His Serene

Highness Prince Albert II, the Government of Monaco

has worked to increase its contribution to development

and international cooperation through a significant

increase in official development assistance (ODA). In

that connection, cooperation credits have increased by

30 per cent in 2006. The Principality will continue its

efforts to expeditiously reach the goals set and

reaffirmed last year at this very rostrum by His Serene

Highness the Sovereign Prince.

The advancement of women, improving child and

maternal health and the alleviation of poverty are

among the Principality’s priorities on the international

sphere. The Sovereign Prince and his sisters, Princess

Caroline of Hanover and Princess Stéphanie of

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Monaco, are greatly involved in development efforts

intended to help the most destitute. In her capacity as a

goodwill ambassador for the United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Her

Royal Highness the Princess of Hanover is helping to

promote programmes to educate girls and women. Part

of that effort includes a project undertaken by Monaco,

Andorra, Cyprus, Luxembourg and San Marino on the

theme of human rights and education in combating

poverty and promoting the independence of girls and

women.

As President of the World Association of

Children’s Friends, the Princess has long led an

ongoing struggle to protect children. On the recent

occasion of being honoured by UNICEF-USA, the

Princess of Hanover stated that “today we are at war

against terror, especially against the terror in the eyes,

hearts and spirits of millions of children around the

world”.

This session will provide impetus to the effort to

promote and protect the rights of children with next

October’s publication of a study by the independent

expert Paulo Pinheiro, to which the Principality is

proud to have contributed. Let us not forget that, as

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, violence, regardless of what

form it takes, constitutes a failure.

We hope that, following the Security Council’s

debates on the protection of children in armed conflict,

the effective implementation of Council resolution

1620 (2005) will lead to progress in this area of such

concern. It is unacceptable in human terms for the

perpetrators of such crimes to go unpunished.

During her presence here last June to attend the

High-level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, Princess Stéphanie

of Monaco expressed her solidarity with all those

fighting the disease or otherwise affected. Through her

Fight AIDS Monaco association, the Princess is

working to promote prevention, research and assistance

to those affected by the virus — especially sero-

positive people, who are often victims of

discrimination. In that regard, the Princess has

expressed the wish that the dignity of every sero-

positive person be respected. Her association will

support the establishment of an entity to provide

psychological support for those ill with the disease in

an African country where many non-governmental

organizations from Monaco have already carried out

development efforts.

The upcoming appointment of Princess Stéphanie

as a special representative of the Joint United Nations

Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) will further

strengthen her commitment to the fight against this

terrible pandemic, which is increasingly affecting more

and more women. To address that situation, the

Government of Monaco has decided that, in addition to

the support it provides to UNAIDS, it will begin this

year to finance a United Nations Population Fund

project in Africa focusing mainly on sero-positive

women suffering from extreme poverty and

psychological distress and providing them with

medical, psychological and social assistance.

Our heads of State or Government resolved to

take action when they accepted the responsibility to

protect. It is of course up to individual States to protect

their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic

cleansing and crimes against humanity. But when such

tragic events cannot be prevented, it falls to the

international community, working through the United

Nations, to be prepared to immediately provide

assistance to victims of such acts.

Whether a catastrophe is natural or man-made, it

is crucial that we be able to meet the most pressing

needs of civilian populations. In that regard, we would

like to commend the Under-Secretary-General for

Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief

Coordinator and his Office for their ongoing efforts,

especially as regards the restructuring of the Central

Emergency Response Fund. Monaco is a contributor to

the Fund and intends to continue its efforts to provide

financing for humanitarian assistance during the years

to come.

Before the end of this year, His Serene Highness

Prince Albert II will once again visit the fishing village

of Sirombu on Nias Island, Indonesia, which has twice

been struck by natural disaster: first by a tidal wave in

December 2004 and, a few months later, by an

earthquake. The village has been rebuilt thanks to the

effective and generous action of the Monaco-Asia

Association.

As the Sovereign Prince announced that it would

during the 2005 World Summit (see A/60/PV./6),

Monaco ratified the Kyoto Protocol last February.

Our head of State has a personal and ongoing

commitment to protecting the environment. That

commitment was recently evidenced in the polar

expedition he undertook 100 years after the one made

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by his great-great grandfather, Prince Albert I, a

pioneer of modern oceanography. Having reached the

North Pole with his team on 16 April 2006, following

four days on an arduous course on dog sleds from the

Russian base of Barneo, Prince Albert II launched an

urgent appeal regarding the dangers of global warming,

unfortunately in evidence in the Arctic in the

significant shrinking of the ice shelf. Back in Monaco,

His Serene Highness established a foundation devoted

to environmental preservation and sustainable

development that will serve as a permanent source of

dynamic and innovative efforts in the areas of climate

change, biodiversity loss and water resources. The

Principality is also pleased to have been elected to the

United Nations Commission on Sustainable

Development. We hope to contribute to improving the

United Nations environmental machinery.

The Principality of Monaco believes that there is

a need to establish and strengthen dialogue among

civilizations in order to prevent conflict. We support all

efforts aimed at actively promoting a culture of peace

and mutual respect among the world’s various creeds,

cultures and languages. As Secretary-General Kofi

Annan stated in 1999, “The greater the appreciation of

diversity, the deeper the sense of identity and the

sounder the enlargement of the common denominator

of values” (A/54/546, para. 13).

It is in that spirit that Monaco, aware of the

universal value of sport as one of the best tools to

establish inter-cultural dialogue, fully supports the

United Nations Action Plan on Sport for Development

and Peace.