Mauritius, 1995

It is with much pleasure and

great satisfaction that I join the previous speakers who have

already congratulated the President on his election to the

presidency of the fiftieth session of the General Assembly.

The participation of his country, Portugal, at the United

Nations has always been active and constructive. My

delegation, therefore, is confident that under the President’s

wise and able leadership our Organization will progress

further towards its goals. And we assure him of our fullest

cooperation and support in the tasks that devolve upon him.

May I take this opportunity to express our sincere

appreciation to the President’s distinguished predecessor,

His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy of Côte d’Ivoire, for the

admirable and effective manner in which he conducted the

business of the forty-ninth session.

Let me also renew my delegation’s homage to

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali for the efficient and committed

manner in which he is carrying out his mission as

Secretary-General.

Every year, we seize the opportunity of the session of

the General Assembly to share our views and concerns

about the state of international relations. In this fiftieth year

of the existence of our Organization, I particularly wish to

address the Assembly from the perspective of a small island

State.

The end of the cold war and the breakup of the Soviet

bloc, the globalization of the world economy and the

establishment of the World Trade Organization to oversee

international trade, the emergence of China as an economic

giant, the liberalization of the Indian economy and South

Africa’s return to the community of nations, in such a short

span of time, have all contributed to rapid changes in the

global economic scene.

My country shares the belief that regionalization is

a first prerequisite for smooth integration into a global

economic pattern. It was natural, therefore, that the region

of the Indian Ocean could not remain isolated from the

movement towards regionalization, despite the fact that

the Indian Ocean countries form a heterogeneous zone

with a multiplicity of economic systems, political

traditions and cultural experiences. It is in this perspective

that Mauritius hosted, in March this year, the Indian

Ocean Rim (IOR) initiative. Built on the foundations of

historic interchanges between nations in the Indian Ocean,

the IOR initiative could be seen both as a geographical

reality and a natural economic entity. Its objective, as

clearly outlined at the first meeting, is to establish a

regional forum, tripartite in nature, that will bring together

representatives of Governments, business and academia

for the purpose of promoting economic cooperation in the

region. Although the IOR initiative has been launched

with an initial group, may I hasten to add that the IOR is

open to all the countries of the Indian Ocean region. As

we go along, the initiative will expand progressively to

include other countries, on the basis of a coherent

programme and plan of action.

Other existing groupings, such as the Common

Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the

Southern African Development Community (SADC) — to

which organization my country has recently been

admitted — and the Indian Ocean Commission, have

already contributed significantly to greater interaction in

our region, and it is our hope that this new initiative will

further pave the way for a dynamic integration of the

Indian Ocean region into the global economic pattern. In

this regard, we look forward to, and will highly

appreciate, the support of major regional groups and

countries in the implementation of this laudable initiative.

Indeed, while we are making considerable efforts to

ensure the prosperity and advancement of our countries,

we are also very much aware that this cannot be achieved

without the assistance of major players in the global

economy. At the same time, it is important that, at a time

of growing interdependence among States and economies,

efforts must be made to include developing countries in

the international economic decision-making process so as

to achieve effective management of the global economy.

The Bretton Woods institutions — namely, the

World Bank and the International Monetary Fund —

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should be able to devise new ways and means of

responding to the development needs, priorities and

specificities of developing countries by providing adequate

resources without stringent conditionalities. I should like

here to appeal to the international financial institutions to

put aside, when circumstances demand, their first and

foremost role of bankers and act more as partners in the

global development process. For it is becoming increasingly

clear that development problems cannot be solved by

countries on their own, whatever be their sense of

commitment and purpose. Africa, where countries are

afflicted by deep-seated and chronic problems, is one such

example.

My country, therefore, welcomes the views expressed

by the Secretary-General in his Agenda for Development,

and in particular supports his démarches to alleviate

problems and sufferings on the African continent. We wish

in this regard to see the rapid implementation of the United

Nations New Agenda for the Development in Africa in the

1990s and the Cairo Agenda for Action on Relaunching

African Economic and Social Development, as well as the

recommendations of the Bandung Asia-Africa Forum.

Africa, we know, is not alone, and we were gratified in

September last year by President Clinton’s statement at the

reception for African nations to the effect that

“The United States has been, and will continue to be,

a partner in Africa’s success story”.

This is comforting, and we wish to see more concrete steps

in this direction.

I wish also to seize this opportunity to pay tribute to

two decades of partnership between the countries of Africa,

the Caribbean and the Pacific and those of the European

Union, through the Lomé Conventions. In a few weeks’

time Mauritius will have the privilege and honour of

hosting the signing of the second financial protocol of

Lomé IV. While I pay tribute to this concrete example of

effective partnership between the North and the South, it is

our sincere hope that our partners of the European Union

will continue to support its traditional friends despite

emerging demands nearer home.

Economic and socio-cultural progress cannot be

sustained if man does not remain at the centre of

development. In this context, education, training and

information play a fundamental role. We firmly believe that

it is extremely important to invest in human resources. In

keeping with this belief, education and training are provided

free of charge at primary and secondary levels in my

country, to boys and girls and to men and women alike.

An educated and trained individual is in a better

position to respond and adapt to the changing needs of

society and the developments taking place around him. As

such, he is able to provide faster and better results. One

of the scourges of developing nations remains an

inadequate level of education and the lack of training

facilities and access to the latest information. Developing

countries, in fact, run the risk of being left outside the

network of rapidly evolving information technology. And

yet can anyone deny the absolute need for small island

States like mine to be connected to the rest of the world

through up-to-date information networks? Therefore,

while the eradication of illiteracy and the provision of

education facilities should continue to remain a top

priority of the United Nations, we should add to this the

transfer of information technology.

Women are a major agent of development, and they

have often been disadvantaged in their quest for education

and training. Of course, to the United Nations, the

advancement of women is not a new cause. The year

1975 was proclaimed International Women’s Year,

followed by the United Nations Decade for Women. Since

then, major United Nations conferences, such as the Earth

Summit, in Rio, the World Conference on Human Rights,

in Vienna, and others have repeatedly brought the plight

of women to the fore, the most significant being the

recent Beijing Conference. The agreements concluded at

Beijing recognized the pivotal role of women in our

society and laid down the foundations for their

participation as equal partners in development activities.

More important, however, will be the “after” Beijing —

the need to get down to the implementation of decisions

arrived at and the need to find ways and means of

building the bridges to allow for greater involvement of

women in national and international matters.

The world this year befittingly witnessed two other

important United Nations conferences: the World Summit

for Social Development in Copenhagen and the Review

and Extension Conference of the States Parties to the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

(NPT) in New York.

The Summit on Social Development called attention

to the impact of the world economic system on the poor

and underprivileged and helped to project new ideas for

alternative models of social development. It also allowed

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the renewal of the world commitment to resolve the

problems of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion.

For its part, the non-proliferation Treaty, which came

into force in 1970, is important in several ways. It

enshrines an undertaking between the five nuclear-weapon

States to begin serious nuclear disarmament negotiations

and the non-nuclear countries not to acquire nuclear

weapons in return for access to peaceful nuclear

technology. It is a major international agreement the aim of

which is to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and build

confidence among the nuclear-weapon States towards a

reduction of their arsenals. The Treaty also provides the

basis for legitimate trade in nuclear technology for peaceful

purposes.

The indefinite extension of the nuclear

non-proliferation Treaty in May this year can be considered

a landmark in the history of mankind, which has committed

itself to free the world from the threat of nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, the optimism generated by the indefinite

extension of the Treaty was short-lived in the wake of the

resumption of recent nuclear testings. These activities are

definitely not encouraging signs for the conclusion of a

comprehensive test-ban treaty in the foreseeable future.

In our region, however, we are confident that the

African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, which was

recently finalized in South Africa, will go a long way

towards contributing to international peace and security. It

covers a large part of the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic

Ocean, both containing major sea routes of the world. My

delegation sincerely hopes to see the speedy entry into force

of this Treaty, which, among other issues, encompasses the

integrality of the territory of States members of the

Organization of African Unity as a nuclear-weapon-free

zone.

The Vienna Conference was a turning-point for world

perception of human rights. We hope that the principles and

objectives enshrined in the 1993 Vienna Declaration and

Programme of Action on human rights may in time be

recognized and effectively respected in all corners of the

world. My country has always upheld human rights and

favoured their promotion and protection. But at the same

time, in the field of human rights, we believe that we have

to move with caution lest we run the risk of damaging the

interests of those very individuals and societies that we are

purporting to protect in the short run.

Nevertheless, this should not prevent us from

combining our best efforts in all good faith to bring about

a just and equitable society by trying to win the

confidence of the peoples, societies and Governments

rather than by threatening them economically, militarily

or otherwise. The upholding of human values and uplift

of humanity should continue to remain our main concern

at all times and in the best interests of humanity. It is for

this reason that we should seize every opportunity to

applaud the restoration of human rights and democracy,

regardless of other considerations. We are delighted,

therefore, at the long-awaited liberation of Mrs. Aung San

Suu Kyi this year, which we feel has opened up new

avenues for dialogue in Myanmar.

During the past few years in particular, the United

Nations has become increasingly identified in the public

perception with the Blue Helmets. The growing focus on

the activities of the peace-keepers is such that their

successes and failures often affect the credibility of our

Organization. Peace-keeping is an important tool for

conflict resolution; its success depends to a large extent

on a strong political will on the part of Member States, a

clear mandate to the peace-keepers and solid material,

logistical and financial support. However, one of the main

factors for conflict resolution remains the early

identification of potential conflicts and tensions. While

arms and weapons can be used to threaten and

temporarily silence those involved in the conflicts, lasting

peace can be achieved only through moral persuasion, the

removal of fear and despair, and the instilling of hope and

security in the minds of people. The need, therefore, to

strengthen the arms of preventive diplomacy becomes

imperative.

In the recent past, the United Nations has been

increasingly called upon to carry out peace-keeping and

peacemaking operations. In fact, the number of demands

made on the Organization is now straining its resources

almost to the breaking-point. The erratic and reluctant

disbursement of contributions by some Member States has

highlighted the shortcomings of such operations and

exposed the limits of this approach in ensuring peace and

stability. We therefore need more than ever to place much

greater emphasis on preventive diplomacy and allocate

more resources to this activity. We believe that, in the

long run, the cost of supporting programmes in

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preventive diplomacy would be far outweighed by the

actual costs of dispatching Blue Helmets around the world.

In this respect, we urge the international community

strongly to support regional initiatives, such as the

mechanism for conflict prevention, management and

resolution of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The

experience of my country as a result of my own personal

participation in several ministerial missions organized by

the OAU in the context of this mechanism has convinced

us to put greater reliance in this approach. My delegation

would therefore like to appeal to this body to make a strong

commitment to the realization of this very important

programme.

The establishment of an early-warning system and

threat-assessment unit at the United Nations could equally

support the proposed OAU early-warning system. This

would go a long way towards preparing the United Nations

to deal with the contemporary challenges of peace-keeping

and peace-building at a more realistic cost. Yet I would

appeal for more cohesion and harmonization among the

various conflict-prevention and conflict-resolution

mechanisms in order to avoid duplication of efforts.

(spoke in French)

At this point, my delegation should like to refer to the

increasing activities of the francophone movement in the

areas of conflict prevention and peace-keeping. We

welcome the encouraging results of the work of the recent

conference of French-speaking countries on conflict

prevention, which took place in Canada. Among the

recommendations of that conference, we note in particular

the one relating to the support of the francophone

movement for the pan-African mechanism for conflict

prevention, management and resolution.

It is true that the movement has no great means at its

disposal, but it has none the less been able to lend

considerable support in the recent past to certain United

Nations programme in the area of human rights and the

process of democratization. With respect to those two areas,

I also wish to highlight the important activities of the

movement over the past two years in the countries of the

African Great Lakes region following the tragic events that

took place there.

In December, at Cotonou, my Prime Minister will be

passing on the presidency of the movement to the President

of Benin. I wish to take this opportunity to express my

great satisfaction at the way in which, during his term of

office, the political dimension of the French-speaking

movement’s work on the international level has

developed. I should like to express the hope that this

political facet of the movement will in future be able to

play a growing role in international forums in striving for

the realization of lasting peace in the world.

(spoke in English)

We are already witnessing promising developments

in conflict resolution in regions such as Angola,

Mozambique and the Middle East. We commend the

recent initiatives in Bosnia and exhort all parties

concerned to continue to intensify their efforts to find a

long-term solution, and hope that the long-awaited peace

in this region is achieved not under the threat of guns, but

through the goodwill, understanding and tolerance of all

concerned.

My delegation recognizes that the fiftieth anniversary

of the United Nations provides a golden opportunity for

the re-examination and the renewal of the United Nations

system, and welcomes the initiative launched in the

General Assembly to negotiate a reform of the Security

Council. We believe that the present 15-member

composition of the Security Council does not reflect the

realities of the economic and political changes of the past

decades. In its present composition, the Security Council

can neither claim to take into account the positions of

nations in the next 50 years, nor reasonably pretend to

speak on behalf of 185 nations for the maintenance of

world peace and security. The Security Council has

indeed the main task of maintaining peace and security.

However, the concept of world security has itself

undergone a huge transformation. We are now more at

risk from the threat of economic, social, cultural and

religious upheavals and turmoils than from the outbreak

of war resulting from conflicts between States or a group

of States. Consequently, if the Security Council is to

command full respect in all parts of the world and enjoy

legitimacy, it should undergo a complete overhaul.

In the context of the current exercise on the

expansion of the Security Council, we believe that the

claim of India, the largest parliamentary democracy, to a

permanent seat on the Security Council is legitimate. In

the same spirit, countries from other regions, including

small island States, could equally aspire to permanent

seats in an expanded Security Council.

The world has gradually been reduced to a global

village. The regions of the world and their peoples,

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although still widely separated geographically, are fast

realizing that the future of the world community lies in a

common shared goal. We are increasingly becoming aware

that the world is one family, and that if we are to assure a

brighter and better future for coming generations, we have

no other choice than to continue our efforts towards

preserving and promoting a strong United Nations that will

be able to pursue a common purpose for a world of equity,

justice and shared economic progress.

In Mauritius, in spite of the existence of many cultures

and religions, we have been successful in promoting

peaceful coexistence. We have always believed that no

meaningful progress can be achieved in the absence of

peace and harmony. We have always believed in our people

and have actively promoted the culture of tolerance and

mutual respect. We remain deeply committed to the

principles of democracy and justice. The path of tolerance

and mutual respect for different faiths and religions and the

acceptance of unity in diversity laid down under the

inspiring leadership of the Father of the Nation, Sir

Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, since independence in 1968 and

followed through relentlessly by our present Prime Minister,

Sir Anerood Jugnauth have been largely responsible for the

harmonious way of life in Mauritius.

In conclusion, I should like on the occasion of the

fiftieth anniversary of our Organization to share with the

international community our rich experience of living in

peace and harmony.