Malawi, 2005

I wish at the outset to

congratulate you on your election as President of the

sixtieth session of the United Nations General

Assembly and also for the excellent manner in which

you and your Bureau are steering the work of this

session. I would like to assure you of my delegation’s

full support. I further commend His Excellency

Mr. Kofi Annan, our Secretary-General, for the

dynamic and sterling leadership of the United Nations.

The theme of this session is germane to the

proposals for reform of the Organization. There is the

imperative of taking stock of its strengths and weaknesses

so that we can create a better future. Within the context of

this theme, the Secretary-General, through his report

entitled “In larger freedom”, has made important

proposals that will make the United Nations more

effective and credible. The proposals aim at enabling the

United Nations to provide the required leadership in the

implementation of the global development agenda and

the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

My country, Malawi, has followed closely the

debate on the report. I feel that, from the diverse

opinions that have been expressed, a consensus is

emerging on the need to implement United Nations

reforms and make the Organization respond more

effectively to the challenge of change.

Let me, however, express the view that, in

addition to the reform of the Security Council, there

are other equally important reforms of the United

Nations that are critical to the realization of the global

development agenda. I will turn to these later. For the

moment, it is critical that we remain focused so that all

elements of the reform receive our undivided attention.

Mr. President, let me assure you that Malawi

appreciates the role played by the international

community and the United Nations in the efforts to

eradicate poverty and promote development and

prosperity for all. The just-ended High-level Plenary

Meeting is one such initiative that offers great hopes

for the way forward. However, previous experience has

taught us that a lot is generally said and promised

within the United Nations, but little or nothing is

delivered. It is my earnest hope that the outcome of

this session will not turn out to be another talk show.

Malawi faces serious problems in instituting an

effective system of political and economic governance.

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My country continues to face critical challenges in

determining our political agenda, which in turn affect

our development efforts. We still face extreme poverty,

food shortages, hunger and malnutrition. HIV/AIDS

continues to claim more lives. Malaria is still killing

millions each year.

Over and above these problems, we face

mounting domestic and external debt, an unfair and

inequitable global trading system and the prevalence of

conflicts and political instability. We therefore feel that

for any United Nations reforms to be meaningful, we

need assistance in the areas of good governance.

In Malawi, we are promoting good governance by

pursuing sound macro-economic policies, reduction in

public expenditure, bench-marking the activities and

performance of the civil service and fighting corruption

at all levels. We have also instituted effective reforms

of the private sector, and through dialogue the business

community is now responding positively to economic

and social reforms. In many of these reforms, I can say

that we have made a good beginning.

It is for this reason that my Government

welcomed the establishment of the African Peer

Review Mechanism under the New Partnership for

Africa’s Development (NEPAD) of the African Union.

Our accession to the African Peer Review Mechanism

is a manifestation of our desire to adopt policies and

practices that emphasize accountability and

transparency in public sector management.

Malawi has made efforts to implement the

Millennium Development Goals. Our report, entitled

“Malawi and the Millennium Development Goals:

challenges and achievements”, has been circulated.

However, my country is facing severe constraints in

implementing the MDGs because we are allocating a

significant amount of limited resources to servicing

external debt and for managing the HIV/AIDS

pandemic, at the cost of the social and economic

transformation necessary to fight poverty.

Malawi, therefore, supports the proposal to find

comprehensive and durable solutions to the external

debt problem. In this regard, we welcome the recent

proposal by the G-8 to cancel 100 per cent of

outstanding debt owed by 18 countries, including 14

from Africa. I would like to appeal to all creditors to

follow this noble example, because debt cancellation

has the potential to assist the poor countries in

achieving the MDGs and, hence, attaining national

economic recovery and economic transformation.

Another challenge for Malawi is that my country

finds it hard to be integrated into the global trading

system, partly due to the lack of products that meet

high quality standards, but also due to an unfair and

inequitable global trading system. We therefore join the

appeal for the speedy completion of the World Trade

Organization Doha Round of multilateral trade

negotiations in order to assist poor countries, such as

Malawi, to benefit from global trade. Furthermore,

there is need to provide immediate duty-free and

quota-free market access for all exports from the least

developed countries, including the elimination of all

non-tariff barriers, such as trade distorting subsidies

and domestic support, especially in agriculture, by

developed countries.

In the African perspective, development efforts

have also been heavily undermined by the prevalence

of conflicts and political instability in many parts of

the continent. Realizing this, we in Africa have taken

bold and far-reaching initiatives to promote peace and

security on the continent. For instance, my own

country, Malawi, has participated in peacekeeping

activities in Liberia, the Sudan and the Democratic

Republic of the Congo.

I commend the role played by the United Nations

Security Council and the G-8 in supporting the African

Union’s initiatives in conflict resolution and

management. I also wish to draw the attention of this

Assembly to the fact that peacekeeping in Africa

constitutes the bulk of the Security Council’s work. I

therefore earnestly believe that the role of the United

Nations in Africa can be enhanced by encouraging

Africa’s representation in the Security Council. In that

regard, Africa’s call for the expansion of the Security

Council should be supported by the international

community.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic poses serious social

and economic challenges to Africa. However, the

General Assembly may be interested to know that

Malawi is one of the few success stories in managing

the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The people of Malawi have

welcomed the provision of voluntary counselling and

of free anti-retroviral drugs. For instance, since the

middle of last year, we have established more than 30

anti-retroviral clinics throughout the country and have

treated many people. We expect that by this time next

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year, we will have been able to treat more than 80,000

people.

I therefore welcome the call at the High-level

Plenary Meeting to provide, as a priority, assistance for

HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment in African

countries on a grant basis. I also welcome the emphasis

placed on the need to encourage pharmaceutical

companies to make anti-retroviral drugs affordable and

accessible in Africa. My Government appeals for more

funding to enable us to adopt a holistic approach that

takes into account the medical, economic, political and

social impacts of HIV/AIDS on the implementation of

the Millennium Development Goals.

I take this opportunity to commend all countries

that continue to make contributions to the Global Fund

to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Fund

has enabled Malawi to introduce free anti-retroviral

treatment programme for those infected by HIV/AIDS.

In terms of agriculture and food security, Malawi

has not fared well this year. My country is facing

severe food shortages owing to the drought that we

have had since January this year. As a result of a very

poor harvest, we shall require approximately 270,000

metric tons to feed some 4.2 million people who will

be in need of food until the next harvest season,

sometime in April or May next year. I therefore appeal

to the world community to help us to obtain more food

sources for our people.

I am grateful for the pledges of relief food

assistance made by our cooperating partners such as

the World Food Programme, the British Government,

the European Union, the Japanese Government, the

United States Government, the Belgian Government

and the Norwegian Government. We are also grateful

to the Secretary-General for the special appeal he has

made for Southern Africa.

I am pleased to announce that the people of

Malawi are also doing something to feed themselves.

We have made provision in our budget to buy food for

our people. We have also established a Feed-the-Nation

Fund, through which people in Malawi from all walks

of life are making voluntary donations to purchase

food for the poorest of the poor. The response has been

overwhelming.

With a view to a medium- to long-term solution,

we have adopted concrete policies aimed at reducing

our dependence on rain-fed agriculture. We have

established a full ministry responsible for water

development and irrigation. We look forward to

technical assistance from those countries that have

expertise in the area of irrigation.

Turning to the subject of United Nations reform, I

wish to bring to the attention of the General Assembly

an important aspect of reform of the Organization,

concerning the determination of eligibility for United

Nations membership. As members are aware, the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the

right of all the world’s peoples to belong to the United

Nations and that no country should be denied

membership in the Organization. Malawi believes that

the United Nations was founded on the principle of

inclusivity in its membership.

That is why we in Malawi call for the admission

of the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a Member of the

United Nations. That request is made on the premise

that, following the collapse of communism in Eastern

Europe and in the Soviet Union, the new States that

emerged therefrom expressed their desire to become

sovereign and independent Members of the United

Nations. They were granted membership. That was a

political decision. In the same way, when the Socialist

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke up into the

separate States of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,

Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia, each

State was admitted into the United Nations. That also

was a political decision. Czechoslovakia broke up into

the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and each of those

States was admitted into the United Nations. In South-

East Asia, Singapore pulled out of the Federation of

Malaya and became a Member of the United Nations.

Later, East Timor broke away from Indonesia and was

also admitted as a Member. Those were political

decisions.

The Government of Malawi is therefore puzzled

that the Republic of China (Taiwan), which took a

similar political decision, is denied membership in the

United Nations. How can the United Nations stand for

equity and justice when it is denying membership to

more than 23 million people who contribute

significantly to global trade and development? How

can the United Nations justify its denial of membership

to Taiwan when, in fact, the countries listed above

were admitted? Why is Taiwan being discriminated

against in the United Nations?

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Unless those questions are honestly answered,

observers will conclude that the United Nations is

applying a double standard. The Government of

Malawi believes that the United Nations should use the

same standard to grant membership to the Republic of

China. I therefore appeal to the United Nations,

through you, Mr. President, to extend membership to

the Taiwanese people in the same way as it has done

for countries of Eastern Europe and South-East Asia.

That would enable the dynamic and resourceful people

of Taiwan to play their rightful role in global affairs,

industrialization, trade and development. I believe that

the admission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) into

the United Nations would also bring credibility to the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Long live the United Nations!