Mali, 2010

It is a great

privilege and signal honour for me to address the

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Assembly on behalf of the President of the Republic of

Mali, His Excellency Mr. Amadou Toumani Touré,

who, because of a very busy schedule resulting from

the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Mali’s

independence, is unable to be here with us today. He

has expressly charged me with conveying to the

Assembly his sincere greetings and his wishes for

every success for the work of this current session.

At the outset I should like to convey to you, Sir,

the warmest congratulations of the delegation of Mali

on your election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-fifth session. Your election is a

tribute to your eminent professional skills and is also

an expression of the unanimous recognition given by

the international community to the commitment of your

country, Switzerland, a friend of Mali, to the ideals of

our Organization. I assure you of my delegation’s

constant support in fulfilling your mandate. Allow me

also to express our deep appreciation to your

predecessor, Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, for his deep

commitment and the remarkable manner in which he

guided our work during the sixty-fourth session of the

General Assembly. In turn, I commend the Secretary-

General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his constant efforts and

his commitment to meeting the aims and objectives of

this Organization.

On 28 September 1960, only a few days after the

proclamation of independence, my country, Mali, became

a Member of the United Nations. Today, on 28 September

2010, 50 years later, I, speaking to you from this

selfsame rostrum, would like to reaffirm with force and

conviction the commitment of the Republic of Mali to

the promotion of the principles and purposes of the

Charter, the establishment of friendly relations with all

nations of the world and the promotion of international

cooperation, and to contributing to the dawning of a

world of peace, justice and progress.

Indeed, today a new Mali is on the rise. Under the

leadership of President Amadou Toumani Touré, this

new Mali continues to progress towards the

development and well-being of its people, each day

further building upon the gains of peaceful democracy,

recognized worldwide as being exemplary, and further

enhances its presence in Africa and on the international

stage. Today, on 28 September 2010, I convey here and

now to the peoples of the world, to the Governments of

friendly countries, and to Mali’s development partners,

the greetings and gratitude of my country and reaffirm

the solidarity and commitment of the Republic of Mali

in our shared quest for a better world. This general debate has opened by setting out to

tackle a timely subject, the reaffirmation of the central

role of the United Nations in global governance. In this

regard, Mali reiterates from the outset its faith in the

capacity of the Organization to be a catalyst in the

processes of global democratization and governance. In

that connection my country, Mali, continues to call for

a reform of the global economic and financial

architecture, the only way to prevent the occurrence of

even worse crises. In the same vein, Mali believes that

just and equitable representation of all regions of the

world must be guaranteed within our Organization, in

particular through Security Council reform.

In that regard, Mali reaffirms its adherence to the

Ezulwini Consensus and to the Sirte Declaration,

adopted by the heads of State and Government of the

African Union, and fully supports Africa’s demand for

two permanent seats and five non-permanent seats. A

reformed Council would better reflect the geopolitical

realities of the world today, thus contributing towards

repairing the historical injustices towards Africa, the

only region of the world not to have a permanent seat on

the Security Council. In the same spirit Mali, together

with all other Member States, will strive to reinforce

the effectiveness of the role of the Council and to

promote the revitalization of the General Assembly.

With only five years now to the 2015 deadline set

to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and in

spite of the tireless efforts made by many developing

countries, millions of people worldwide are still

waiting for the Millennium Declaration to take

concrete effect. The High-level Plenary Meeting on the

Millennium Development Goals, which has just

concluded, would have been a useful opportunity for

heads of States and Government to evaluate the

progress made in various areas, draw lessons from the

best practices and define approaches towards meeting

the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. For its

part, the Republic of Mali is resolutely committed to

achieving the Millennium Development Goals in a

sustainable manner through the adoption of a 10-year

plan for the years 2006-2015, and through the

implementation of a strategic framework for growth

and poverty reduction and a project for economic and

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social development, all of which focus in particular on

agriculture and food security, education and health.

From this rostrum I invite the international

community to continue to support our efforts in

implementing this range of economic and social

development policies in Mali, as we are encouraged by

the results achieved in previous strategies. Indeed, the

implementation of such strategies has made it possible

to increase the schooling rate from 64 per cent in 2002

to 80 per cent in 2008. Mortality for children under the

age of 5 has fallen from 229 per thousand in 2001 to

191 per thousand in 2006, while HIV/AIDS prevalence

has fallen from 1.7 per cent in 2001 to 1.3 per cent in

2006. Thus, Mali deems it essential to expedite the

implementation of the commitments made at key

international conferences, particularly the Monterrey

International Conference on Financing for Development,

the Brussels Conference on the Least Developed

Countries, the Barbados Global Conference on the

Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing

States and the Almaty Conference on landlocked

developing States.

Undoubtedly climate change poses one of the

greatest challenges currently facing the international

community. Today more than ever, the survival of our

planet is threatened by natural disasters caused by this

phenomenon, which seriously affects the living

conditions in developing countries such as my own

through — in our case — the encroachment of the

desert, the silting up of the Niger river, the

deterioration of our ecosystem, the shortening of the

winter season and poor rainfall distribution. That is

why Mali will spare no effort to make its modest

contribution towards finding a global and binding

agreement on climate change. To that end, in

November 2010 my country will host a regional forum

on sustainable development.

The AIDS pandemic continues to hamper

development efforts in many countries and thus poses

one of the greatest threats to the survival of humanity

and global security. In keeping with the Abuja

Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other

Related Infectious Diseases, the Brazzaville

Commitment for universal access to treatment in Africa

and the Lomé Declaration on HIV/AIDS in Africa,

Mali has launched a vast programme of multisectoral

reform, both at the institutional and operational levels.

That programme compels all the sectors, in particular

the public, private and civil society sectors, to become

better organized in order to better coordinate their

activities to combat AIDS effectively and be held

accountable to the nation.

The new transnational threats of trafficking in

drugs, arms, human beings and terrorism seriously

jeopardize international peace and security. The

international community must resolutely tackle those

threats. That means acting quickly and effectively. As I

underscored in the General Assembly during the

second review of the United Nations global counter-

terrorism strategy on 8 September 2010, Mali has

adopted a new strategy to combat the lack of security

and terrorism. On the one hand, this new strategy seeks

to strengthen national capacities through robust actions

in the field of security and community development

and on the other hand it seeks to promote effective

regional cooperation with the unified commitment of

States of the Sahelo-Saharan region and with the

support of the international community. Building on

this same impetus, the President of the Republic of

Mali, His Excellency Mr. Amadou Toumani Touré, has

taken the initiative of organizing a conference in Mali on

peace, security and development in the Sahelo-Saharan

region.

The maintenance of international peace and

security has been and will remain one of the most

pressing concerns of the international community.

Without peace there is no development or prosperity,

nor will there be, and that is why Mali remains firmly

attached to the ideals of peace and stability, both within

and beyond its borders. In this regard, we welcome the

progress made in national reconstruction and

reconciliation, in peacebuilding and in the process of

democratic transition, in particular in Guinea-Bissau,

the Republic of Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and the

Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the Middle East, we reaffirm our solidarity

with our brother Palestinian people in their courageous

struggle for the creation of an independent and

sovereign State with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,

and we have closely followed the evolving situation in

that part of the world and continue to support the

relevant resolutions of the United Nations in this area.

To conclude, I should like to reiterate our

solidarity with the brotherly people of Haiti, as they

seek to rebuild their country, and to express our deep

sympathy to the victims of the natural disasters that

have afflicted China, India, Pakistan, Russia and other

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countries, in particular in Africa. Millions of people

worldwide continue to place their hopes in the United

Nations, and, as the community of nations, we do not

have the right to let them down. It is our obligation to

guarantee sustainable development for future generations

and to preserve them from the scourge of war.