Niger, 2008

At

the outset, Sir, I should like to warmly congratulate

you on your election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-third session, which undeniably

reflects the high esteem that the international

community has for your country of Nicaragua, which is

a friend of Niger. Your election is also the well-

deserved culmination of an exemplary diplomatic and

political career. The length and breadth of your

experience makes you the right person to carry out the

demanding and noble task entrusted to you. Allow me

to assure you of my delegation’s commitment to

extending to you our constant support during your time

in office. Niger is particularly honoured to be working

side by side with you as a Vice-President of the

Assembly for the sixty-third session.

May I also pay tribute to your predecessor,

Mr. Srgjan Kerim, for the exemplary manner in which

he led the sixty-second session and, in particular, for

having grappled with the burning issues of the day,

including the food and energy crises and climate

change. With regard to His Excellency Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon, I should like to express our full

appreciation for the significant progress on

fundamental issues made by the Organization under his

guidance.

The subject you have chosen, Mr. President, as

the central theme of the general debate during this

session is highly relevant. For several months and to

varying degrees, all members of the international

community have been affected by the overall rise in

food prices. That crisis has gripped the attention of

every international body. Mr. Olivier de Schutter,

Special Rapporteur on the right to food, was far-

sighted in sounding an alarm during a press conference

held here at the United Nations in which he identified

the initial structural causes and called for international

action. Aware of the urgency of the situation, the

Secretary-General set up the High-Level Task Force on

the Global Food Security Crisis in order to provide a

comprehensive and unified respond, support

Governments and peoples affected and adopt a

Comprehensive Framework for Action to meet the

challenges.

The Government of Niger would like to

congratulate the Secretary-General on his initiatives.

We would also like to warmly congratulate his Task

Force for their work and for taking into consideration

the numerous efforts and views on this issue. The

challenge now is to implement the recommendations in

order to save entire groups of people in the world’s

most vulnerable countries from the tragedy of hunger.

For its part, Niger has taken major specific

measures to address the sharp rise in the cost of basic

foodstuffs in order to mitigate the effects on the living

conditions of the most vulnerable people.

However, in a country facing the recurrent

problem of drought and its consequences for

agricultural production, the truth is that only lasting

solutions will help us to counter the effects of the

phenomenon and to progressively eliminate the

uncertainty that characterizes Niger’s production

system.

The Government of Niger has therefore decided

to give priority to the three programmes introduced at

the Doha Conference on Consolidating Food Self-

sufficiency in Niger, which was held in June 2007.

Those programmes are all the more promising given

the potential boon to agriculture as a result of the

upcoming construction of the Khandaji dam on the

Niger River. The Government will develop its

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approach on the basis of that project and those

programmes so as to provide credible response to meet

the food needs of the people of Niger.

The international financial crisis, which is

affecting many countries and is today being

exacerbated by the globalization of the world in which

we live, requires that we harness our efforts and

initiatives to find solutions requiring commitment on

the part of us all. While rich countries fear the risk of

widespread economic recession, the poorest countries

fear food insecurity caused by prices they can no

longer afford. Paradoxically, when it comes to the

financial crisis and the consequences of climate

change, it is the poorest countries that always pay most

dearly for the turbulence affecting the globalized

world. My delegation therefore supports the proposals

made by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which

were previously espoused by President Lula da Silva of

Brazil, calling on the international community to deal

urgently with the issue.

We also hold out hope that the upcoming Doha

Follow-up International Conference on Financing for

Development will produce results that include safety

net measures to protect the poorest countries from

external shocks that could compound their

vulnerabilities.

Although the food, energy and financial crises are

front and centre on the international stage, there are

also other challenges facing the international

community in the areas of peace, security, development

and human rights, among others. We must

acknowledge the fact that international peace and

security has been as sorely tested by conflicts as by

other scourges that are equally devastating to the

harmonious development of peoples and countries

throughout the world. Those scourges include

international terrorism, drug trafficking and the illegal

trade in small arms.

Niger is especially concerned about the impact of

trafficking in drugs and weapons; and especially mines,

throughout the Sahelo-Saharan strip. The actions of

certain armed groups are the true cause of the unrest

prevailing in the northern part of our territory. Their

activities are increasingly being brought under control

thanks to steps taken by the relevant institutions of our

country. We therefore believe that there is a need for

increased willingness and cooperation in this area,

similar to that demonstrated in connection with the

Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy that we adopted in

2006. While we acknowledge that some progress has

been made, we must also say that further efforts and

commitments are needed from the international

community in supporting countries in conflict or

emerging from it.

It is important that we support the progress made

in countries where, happily, peace is becoming more

entrenched, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burundi,

Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic, which

was recently inscribed on the agenda of the

Peacebuilding Commission. We welcome in particular

the resumption of the national peace and reconciliation

process in Côte d’Ivoire following the invaluable

impetus provided by the Ouagadougou Agreement in

2007. In that regard, my country congratulates and

encourages all Ivorian politicians on their commitment

to peace. We hope that, with the support of their

partners, whose invaluable contributions my delegation

also commends, the national peace and reconciliation

process will culminate in the holding of the upcoming

presidential elections.

We also welcome the resumption of the

Manhasset cycle of negotiations as a useful and

necessary step in the search for a mutually acceptable

and lasting solution to the issue of Western Sahara.

With regard to the Great Lakes region, my

delegation welcomes the entry into force, on 21 June

2008, on the Pact on Security, Stability and

Development in the Great Lakes Region. We believe

that this instrument will enable States parties to address

the underlying causes of conflict and to address the

challenges they face in the areas of security,

governance and development. We also believe that the

Pact is part and parcel of the new vision for the

settlement of conflicts in Africa, perfect examples of

which have just been provided by Nigeria and

Cameroon with the resolution of the issue of the

Bakassi peninsula, and by Gabon and Equatorial

Guinea with the agreement on a mediation process in

connection with their territorial dispute.

Nevertheless, conflicts persist in Africa and the

Middle East that require appropriate involvement by

the international community. With regard to the

situation in the Sudan, my delegation welcomes the

appointment Mr. Djibril Yipènè Bassolé, former

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Burkina Faso, as the

Joint African Union-United Nations Chief Mediator for

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Darfur. We are certain that Mr. Bassolé will provide

new momentum and help to improve the situation in

that brotherly country by, among other things,

facilitating the implementation of the Comprehensive

Peace Agreement, signed in January 2006 between the

Government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s

Liberation Movement/Army with regard to the

Southern Sudan, and by helping to find an acceptable

solution for Darfur.

With regard to Somalia, we welcome the

agreement signed on 9 June in Djibouti between the

Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for

the Re-Liberation of Somalia. We urge the United

Nations to do everything possible to support those

countries, both by more effectively backing the African

Union Mission in Somalia and by deploying an

international peacebuilding or peacekeeping force.

The bilateral negotiations between Israelis and

Palestinians that have begun in the context of the

commitments undertaken at the Annapolis Conference

are a genuine source of satisfaction for my delegation.

We believe that the parties should take advantage of

those negotiations. We therefore encourage them to

maintain the momentum of Annapolis, which reflected

the willingness of the parties concerned to make

progress towards peace. We should also like to

welcome the recent initiative of President Nicolas

Sarkozy of France in the context of the Euro-

Mediterranean Conference. We fervently hope that all

those measures will make it possible to reach a speedy

agreement that enshrines the vision of the two-State

solution of Palestine and Israel living side by side in

peace and security within internationally recognized

borders and on the basis of the relevant resolutions of

the Security Council, the Arab peace initiative and the

Quartet’s road map.

We welcome the Doha agreement on Lebanon,

which confirmed the virtue of dialogue and cleared the

path for speedy presidential elections and the

establishment of a Government. The international

community should support the Lebanese people who,

through that agreement, have demonstrated their

political maturity and ongoing desire for national unity.

The various peace processes now underway will

not be successful unless confidence-building measures

are first put in place. In that regard, there is a crucial

need to find solutions to the issues of disarmament,

non-proliferation and the eradication of the trade in

small arms. That is especially true for the poorest

countries, who pay a heavy price in conflicts sustained

by the trade in small arms and light weapons. My

delegation therefore deplores the failure at the past

session of the Disarmament Commission, another in a

series due to the lack of consensus on the agenda.

As we have seen, the challenges in the area of

international peace and security are numerous and

complex. Unfortunately, for some of us they are

accentuated by other serious, recurring and even

chronic threats. As the 2005 World Summit

acknowledged in its Outcome Document, those threats,

which also have an effect on development, are closely

linked to other areas in which the United Nations is

active, namely, peace, security and human rights.

We therefore believe that the year 2008 is critical,

given that it is replete with major events that could

contribute to development. I am referring to the Doha

Round of trade negotiations, which are at a standstill

today; the high-level event on the implementation of

the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) midpoint

to the target date for their implementation, the Accra

High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness; and the

Review Conference of the Monterrey Consensus on

financing for development.

In the quest for global well-being, Africa and

countries in special circumstances — especially least

developed countries, landlocked developing countries

and small island States — deserve focused attention

commensurate with their situation. My delegation

would like to pay homage to Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon for his personal commitment and unwavering

support for initiatives in that regard intended to benefit

Africa. Following the G8 Summit at Heiligendamm,

the Secretary-General established the Africa Steering

Group to monitor the achievement of the MDGs in

Africa. With the support of a working group, the

Steering Group is responsible for finding ways to

coordinate and rationalize efforts associated with

technical and financial assistance in order to speed up

Africa’s progress. That initiative is very timely for a

country like Niger, whose strategy to reduce poverty

and speed up development for the period 2009-2012

focuses precisely on the achievement of the MDGs.

Moreover, the various efforts of the Government in

recent years in the areas of health, education and

access to water have already led to a significant

improvement in the relevant indicators.

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The recommendations of the Steering Group and

the conclusions of the recent high-level meeting on the

MDGs, jointly organized by the President of the

General Assembly and the Secretary-General, provide a

very clear course of action for making progress.

Sustainable development is the main theme of the

Economic and Social Council’s 2008 substantive

session. The current debate has clearly shown that such

development cannot be achieved without appropriate

funding, aid effectiveness and good governance.

In conclusion, the delegation of Niger believes

that the United Nations is the world’s premier forum. It

must serve as a beacon in those times of both hope and

uncertainty, and ensure collective security in the world

by means of economic, social and cultural cooperation.

That is why we need genuine reform of the United

Nations system. My delegation believes that the reform

effort will remain incomplete unless there is a

significant change in the Security Council, including as

regards both equitable representation and its working

methods.

In numerous other areas currently under

consideration — such as, among others, evaluating the

experiences of countries involved in pilot programmes

on system-wide coherence and revitalizing the General

Assembly, which we must ensure — my country will

contribute as much as it can to adapting our common

Organization to the challenges we all face in building a

world of peace, prosperity and development.