Niger, 2003

Niger is

gratified by your election, Sir, to preside over this

session and through me assures you of its full support

as you carry out the important mission that has been

entrusted to you. We wish you every success.

I also wish to address to your predecessor, Mr.

Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic, my sincere

congratulations on the skill, dedication and foresight

with which he guided the work of the General

Assembly at its fifty-seventh session.

I should further like to reiterate Niger’s great

appreciation to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the

wisdom and efficiency with which he has guided our

Organization in a particularly difficult international

context.

On 19 August, sadly, international terrorism

struck yet another symbol: United Nations headquarters

in Baghdad. The attack claimed many lives, including

that of the Special Representative of the Secretary-

General, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Niger reiterates its

unequivocal condemnation of that barbaric act and

reviles all terrorist acts committed anywhere in the

world.

The Government of Niger welcomes our

Organization’s determination to provide all necessary

assistance to the Iraqi people, despite all the

intimidation to which it has been subject. Such

determination, however, can achieve results only if the

United Nations is given a key role in managing the

process of rebuilding a free and democratic Iraq that is

the master of its own destiny.

The maintenance of international peace and

security must remain a priority objective of the United

Nations. In this respect, in addition to our ongoing war

against international terrorism, we must pursue our

efforts to free the world from the specter of weapons of

mass destruction and the proliferation of small arms

and light weapons. In that connection, the First

Biennial Meeting of States to Consider the

Implementation of the United Nations Programme of

Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit

Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its

Aspects at the National, Regional and Global Levels

noted that, despite progress made since the adoption of

the Programme of Action, control of firearms and their

use remains limited. That is why Niger firmly supports

the elaboration of binding legal instruments on the

marking, tracking and sale of such weapons.

For Niger, the regional approach must be given

pride of place in the settlement of conflicts, since it is

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increasingly recognized that most conflicts in Africa

have a subregional dimension. That is the case in

particular in West Africa, where stability in the Mano

River region is linked to the situation in Liberia. It is

also the case in Central Africa, where stability in the

Great Lakes region is linked to the situations in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Burundi.

That is why the Government of Niger feels that the

strengthening of regional peacekeeping and security

capacities, the cornerstone of the collective security

system, must be based on enhanced cooperation

between the United Nations and regional and

subregional organizations.

With regard to the Jammu and Kashmir conflict,

Niger believes that, despite the recent incidents, the

improved relations between India and Pakistan, which

opened diplomatic relations in August, provide an

unprecedented opportunity that must be seized to

achieve a political settlement through the organization

of a referendum on the self-determination of the

Kashmiri people, in accordance with the relevant

resolutions of the Security Council.

In the Middle East, the vision of a sovereign and

viable Palestinian State, peacefully coexisting with

Israel, must become a reality. In this regard, it is more

urgent than ever before for the two parties to the

conflict to agree to a ceasefire, comprehensive

adherence to which would help relaunch the road map,

which is showing signs of withering. Moreover, the

eventful history of the Israeli-Palestinian peace

process — a history marked by recurrent setbacks and

dashed hope — requires us to acknowledge that only

the presence of an international interposition force can

guarantee an end to the bloody violence and create

conditions for the effective implementation of

agreements. Thus, Niger makes a heartfelt appeal to the

United Nations, the Security Council in particular, to

ensure that this question be reconsidered with all due

attention and in full responsibility in the interest of

world peace.

Niger is deeply dedicated to the noble ideals of

the Charter and therefore strives for regional and global

peace and is actively participating in efforts to achieve

general and complete disarmament. In that context, my

country has always subscribed to the standards of the

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in order

to achieve full transparency in the production, sale and

delivery of uranium. That position is reflected in our

decade-long cooperation with all actors in the uranium

sector. We allow for no ambiguity. Niger continues to

be ready, as it has always been, to submit to the

authority of the IAEA for any verification related to the

production and sale of its uranium.

I wish to recall that, in this sphere, my country, in

accordance with article III of the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, has accepted, in

agreement with the IAEA, the monitoring and

guarantee system which, when implemented in good

faith as it is in Niger, offers absolutely no opportunity

for the kind of clandestine transactions of which my

country was so unjustly accused.

The Development Goals defined in the historic

Millennium Declaration must remain an ongoing

concern of the international community and guide

global action aimed at the establishment of a stable and

just socio-economic order involving greater sharing

and solidarity. We cannot overemphasize the fact that

the achievement of these Goals requires reflection in

specific action of all commitments undertaken at the

major international conferences and summits.

What in fact have we been seeing? The

international scene continues to offer the paradoxical

and somewhat ignominious image of a world of

enormous wealth in which the overwhelming majority

of inhabitants still lives in total destitution. Despite the

commitments made and the consensus reached by

Governments of the entire world on this issue, we are

obliged to note that the terrible vise of poverty,

ignorance and disease has only been tightened around

the poor peoples of the third world in general and of

Africa in particular. When we know, for example, that,

six years after the World Food Summit, 815 million

people throughout the world continue to suffer from

hunger and 150 million children suffer from

malnutrition deficiencies, we can readily gauge the

feeble support of donors for anti-poverty strategies,

despite the lofty statements of intention that are

occasionally mouthed.

Today more than ever, the situation should pull at

the conscience of the international community and

inspire us to greater solidarity and determination to

fulfil our commitments. It is time to understand once

and for all that the reduction of poverty is more than a

moral imperative; it is in fact a secure investment in

the promotion of a world of peace, prosperity and

social progress.

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It is encouraging to note that, in recent years,

Africa has been at the core of major international

conferences. From the Brussels Conference on the

Least Developed Countries to the Johannesburg

Summit, as well as the Monterrey International

Conference on Financing for Development, the World

Economic Forum, the Evian G-8 summit and the World

Trade Organization (WTO) Conference in Cancún, to

name but a few, Africa has been at the heart of the

debates.

It should be noted that, while these meetings had

the merit of having been convened, unfortunately they

did not respond to the urgent and enormous

expectations of the continent. In this regard, there is a

need to ensure consistency in global economic

governance through the strengthening of cooperation

among the international organizations and of the

compatibility of their decisions. It is only thus that the

excessive marginalization of Africa can be alleviated,

because this is the appropriate way to bring the

promises of increased official development assistance

to fruition. Similarly, it is important to increase the

flow of direct foreign investment into Africa.

Furthermore, given the limited results achieved

by current debt-alleviation programmes — the Heavily

Indebted Poor Countries Initiative in particular — we

must now recognize that the ultimate solution lies in

the outright cancellation of the debt, the servicing of

which is consuming the greater part of the budgets of

African countries and fuelling capital flight. There is

also a need for Africa’s trade partners fully to comply

with their commitments, in particular by improving the

access of African products to their markets and by

eliminating agricultural subsidies that create distortions

in world trade.

The failure of the WTO Conference in Cancún is

a good illustration of the obstinate reluctance of the

rich countries to take into account the legitimate

aspirations of the poor countries regarding the

establishment of just and equitable standards to govern

world trade. And yet, solving the critical problem of

agricultural subsidies and of access to markets would

have made it possible both to enhance the badly

tarnished credibility of the WTO and to provide a

measure of consistency to the declarations of intention

made by the countries of the North. Above all and

unquestionably, it would have contributed to raising

millions of people out of poverty. This lack of

agreement means that the cotton workers of West

Africa, among others, can no longer live from their

labour and may be excluded from international trade, to

the benefit of more competitive producers who are

being subsidized.

Cancún was a failed rendezvous of the Doha

Round. WTO will certainly have to adopt a new

approach and prioritize the settlement of agricultural

problems, which most agree are more important than

the interests of the multinationals.

The countries of Africa are fully aware of the

need to develop their relationship with their

development partners within the context of

interdependence, cooperation and mutual

responsibility. In that regard, they acknowledge the

importance of judicious national policies and good

governance, which they consider to be indispensable to

accelerated development and, above all, to achieving

the 7 per cent growth rate required to achieve the

Millennium Development Goals.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development

(NEPAD) is inspired by this consensual approach,

based on a new relationship of cooperation between

Africa and the developed world. NEPAD, a symbol of

Africa’s resolve to take its own destiny in hand, is the

foundation on which the African Union will rely to

promote the growth and sustainable development of

African countries, individually and collectively.

While we call for a massive flow of investments

and the growth of official development assistance to

contribute to our development efforts, we, too, must

comply with our commitments in terms of mutual

responsibility. That is why my country, Niger, firmly

supports the implementation of the NEPAD Peer

Review Mechanism. The Mechanism will play a key

role in the continent’s prospects as an instrument for

building strong States dedicated to good governance

and sustainable development.

In drawing up through a participatory approach a

national strategy for poverty reduction, the

Government of Niger intends to become deeply

involved in the dynamic process of establishing strong,

stable and competitive economies in accordance with

the objectives of the NEPAD Programme of Action.

The strategy document serves simultaneously as a

reference framework for poverty reduction policies and

programmes and as an instrument to mobilize financial

resources. We are convinced that the implementation of

the poverty-reduction strategy will contribute to

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improving the dialogue of policies, to further

strengthening donor coordination and intervention, and

to developing a multidimensional strategic partnership

to translate into action the deepest hopes of the people

of Niger.

From this rostrum, I solemnly reaffirm the deep

gratitude of the Government of Niger to those

international partners which, at the poverty-reduction

forum held last June in Niamey, proved their full

adherence to the strategy and their commitment to

supporting its implementation.

In recent years, the world has undergone rapid

and profound changes. These require us to adapt our

Organization’s functions to today’s reality in order to

better to take into account the new challenges and

legitimate aspirations of the peoples of the planet and

not the specific interests of a tiny group of countries,

no matter how powerful. That is why Niger firmly

supports the courageous reforms proposed by the

Secretary-General to strengthen and improve the

functioning of the Organization and to allow it

effectively to cope with the challenges of our times.

The long-awaited democratization of the Security

Council must be accompanied by a strengthening of the

role of the General Assembly, the highest

representative body, and of the Economic and Social

Council, the guarantor of the advent of a new economic

and social order.

The United Nations is at a decisive juncture and

must urgently regain the confidence of States and of

world public opinion, which has been sorely tested by

recent events. It is up to all of us to strive resolutely to

that end, because, as the Secretary-General has said,

we are the United Nations.