Niger, 2011

“They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall

not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they

learn war any more.” (The Holy Bible, Isaiah 2:4)

Far from achieving Isaiah’s prophecy, humankind

continues to face serious challenges at this time when

His Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss has passed the baton

to the new President after presiding brilliantly over the

General Assembly at its previous session. I have no

doubt that on his election to the presidency of the

Assembly at its sixty-sixth session, the President brings

to it great strengths, bolstered in particular with the

understanding and mastery of international realities he

has acquired as, among other positions, Permanent

Representative of his country, and having sat on the

Security Council during Qatar’s non-permanent

membership.

The President did well in choosing as the theme

for his term “The role of mediation in the peaceful

settlement of disputes”. Under the guidance of

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, sustained efforts have

been made in this area. Here I would like to pay tribute

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to him for the work he has done during his first term

and to congratulate him on his re-election on 21 June

as head of the Organization. I would also like once

again to thank him for the Organization’s unfailing

support during the multiple crises that my country,

Niger, has undergone in recent years. More generally,

we have seen his commitment to the concerns of the

African continent and hope that his new term will

enable him to continue on the same path.

The choice of theme for the current session is

proof that the prophecy of Isaiah, whose verse is

rightly engraved in front of the United Nations

building, has been slow to become reality. Indeed, the

international situation has been and continues to be

characterized by serious tensions. We might have

thought that the end of the cold war would open the

way to an age of full and lasting peace around the

world. Unfortunately, owing to a lack of the ability or

perhaps even the will to attack the evil at the root, our

hope for a world free of conflict, like the line of the

horizon, recedes as we approach it.

The root of the evil is bad political and economic

governance. The promises of freedom, equality, justice,

the rule of law and solidarity that have been made to

the people of the world at the global and the national

levels have not always been kept. The absence of

global economic regulation, the domination of

financial capital over even the real economy, the

growth of inequalities between and within nations are

just so many factors in the chaos, crises and conflicts

that are disturbing peace around the world. Besides,

can a world where several billion people live in

poverty be peaceful? What do the billion human beings

who are hungry have to lose? Can the Somalis, who are

suffering the tortures of hunger right now, or the

inhabitants of the Sahel, who deal with hunger over

and over again, believe that they live in a just, humane

world? Can extreme poverty coexist peacefully with

extreme wealth?

Today, 1,210 people, that is, 17 per 100 million of

the world’s population, control revenues of

$4,500 billion — 8 per cent of the world’s aggregate

gross domestic product (GDP) — while the income of

20 per cent of the poorest represents only 1.5 per cent,

and that of the 2.5 billion people who live on less than

$2 a day — 40 per cent of the total population —

represents only 5 per cent. Thus a thousand or so

people have an income one and a half times larger than

all the 2.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day.

Besides being morally shocking, this situation is

economically inefficient, since it strangles economic

growth. Furthermore, the implementation of structural

adjustment programmes that began in the 1980s is a

perfect illustration of bad global economic governance.

The liberalization and privatization touted by such

programmes were conducted anarchically; even today,

such liberalization has been applied only in sectors

where weak countries such as ours have no relative

advantages. As we know, such liberalization did not

affect the markets for labour or agricultural products.

My country, Niger, has suffered greatly from such

policies.

This is, finally, where we should recall that the

promise made by the world’s wealthy nations,

beginning in the 1970s, to increase their public

development aid to 0.7 per cent of GDP has still not

been kept. If you add to that the recent crises in

banking and sovereign debt, along with the shortfall in

direct investment in Africa, where there is nonetheless

great scope for economic growth, you can understand

the inadequacy of global economic growth, particularly

the collapse of economic growth in wealthy countries.

The economic elasticity and resilience we need to cope

with the crises will grow only with the development of

the countries of the South. The world’s equilibrium

depends on the balanced development of all its regions;

in particular, the creation of a powerful middle class in

every region of the world will strengthen economic

growth, stability and peace.

For more than 60 years, the Middle East has been

one of the most turbulent regions on the planet. We had

great hopes for the resumption on 9 May 2010 of

indirect negotiations between the Israelis and

Palestinians, mediated by the United Nations. The start

of direct bilateral negotiations represented real hope

for reaching a global peace agreement based on a two-

State solution, with an independent and viable

Palestinian State living side by side in peace and

security with Israel and its neighbours.

It is undoubtedly the failure of those talks that

has led the Palestinian Authority to take steps to

achieve recognition of the State of Palestine based, on

the one hand, on the 1967 borders, and on the other, on

its admission as a full Member of the United Nations.

This is the moment for our Organization to take a bold

decision designed to settle the Israel-Palestinian

problem definitively, a settlement without which the

Arab Spring will be unable to guarantee peace and

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security in the entire Middle East. Indeed, the failure of

democracies to resolve this long-standing crisis will

inevitably reinforce terrorism and will erase the

democratic achievements of the Spring.

My country, Niger, one of the 122 Member States

that have already recognized the State of Palestine, is

supporting its request for full membership in the

United Nations, as presented this morning at this sixty-

sixth session of the General Assembly.

The tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks

against the United States, commemorated last

11 September, and the recent suicide attack against the

United Nations headquarters in Abuja in Nigeria prove

that no region of the world is safe from terrorism. We

firmly condemn all acts of terrorism, wherever, for

whatever reason and by whomever they are committed,

as they present one of the most serious threats to peace

and security.

Terrorism, as the Assembly knows, attacks the

values that constitute the essence of the United Nations

Charter: respect for human rights, the rule of law, the

rules governing war and the protection of civilians,

tolerance among peoples and nations and the peaceful

resolution of disputes.

In Niger, we face this threat on our northern

border with Algeria, to the west with Mali and to the

south with Nigeria. I would like to pay a well-deserved

tribute to the Nigerian security and defence forces,

some of whom have given their lives in their

commitment to protecting our country from terrorism.

Along with that threat, of course, we also have to

face criminal organizations that traffic in weapons,

drugs and human beings. All of these threats have been

exacerbated by the Libyan crisis. Indeed, arms depots

have been pillaged in Libya. Those weapons are now

distributed throughout the Sahara and Sahel area and

risk ending up in the hands of terrorists. Given the

regional nature of the threats, Niger is determined to

work jointly with other countries, especially in our

subregion, to deal with the situation. The risk to the

stability of the entire subregion, where some countries

experience recurrent rebellions, should not be

underestimated.

We hope that there will be a rapid solution to the

crisis, which would not just have a security impact on

Niger, but also an economic and social impact, given

the work stoppage on the road construction that was

being financed by Libya, the return from Libya of over

210,000 migrant Niger nationals and the arrival of

increasing numbers of Libyan refugees fleeing the war.

Niger is a democratic country, governed by the rule of

law, and we will treat these refugees in compliance

with our laws and international law. Until now, our

country, with very limited means, has been bearing this

terrible burden alone. Our country therefore requires

support and help from the international community in

terms of both the security and the economic issues, as

we are on the frontlines of the war against terrorism.

Niger would also like to see a rapid return to

peace and stability in this brotherly country and

reconciliation among Libyans. We are concerned by the

situation, because the democratic institutions that our

countries are trying to build are still fragile. We are

concerned because the reality of widespread poverty

provides a breeding ground for terrorism.

My country, Niger, believes that, apart from

immediate security solutions, the strengthening of

democratic institutions and economic and social

development are the only ways to confine terrorism

and guarantee peace. Democratic values are universal.

It has been decisively proven: there is no such thing as

climate determinism, which would condemn hot

countries to despotism and temperate countries to

democracy. In understanding this, the world has made a

quantum leap, convincing even those who would

believe that the fight for democracy is simply a new

version of the mission to civilize, which was the

justification for the colonialism of the past century

brought about by the alliance of the sword and the

censer.

As a Muslim, I would like to say that terrorism

has nothing to do with Islam. Islam has always

emphasized fraternity and justice. It has always

emphasized the intrinsic unity of all human beings and

their equality, whatever their origins. Islam therefore

proclaims that all men are equal like the teeth of a

comb in the hands of a weaver. Islam is a religion of

tolerance.

“I do not serve that which you serve, nor do

you serve Him Whom I serve: nor am I going to

serve that which you serve, nor are you going to

serve Him Whom I serve: you shall have your

religion and I shall have my religion.” (The Holy

Koran, CIX: 2-6)

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Those are the divine words, full of tolerance,

from a sura of the Koran. Thus, terrorism has nothing

to do with Islam, with real Islam, which is a religion of

the happy medium, and the fight against terrorism

should not be considered a religious conflict, a clash

between two civilizations, a struggle between Judeo-

Christian civilization and Muslim civilization, or a

fight to the death between the Christian West and the

Muslim East. The world must not return to the

religious wars of the Middle Ages. Quite the opposite,

it should be able to integrate the values of two

civilizations that are, at their root, both from the same

area, the Middle East.

Climate change is another challenge that the

world is facing. Greenhouse gases are one of its causes.

The least developed poor countries, of which Niger is

unfortunately a member, only produce 1 per cent of

those gases. We in Niger suffer from the effects of

climate change on a recurring basis. Indeed, our people

live off of subsistence agriculture and livestock-

raising. Those two sectors, on which the poorest, in

particular women and children, rely, are very

vulnerable to climate change. The droughts and floods

in Niger over the past 10 years show, needless to say, a

trend towards a growing number of extreme weather

events.

In view of this, we decided to implement the

Three Ns initiative, that is, “the people of Niger

Nourishing the people of Niger”. As we believe that

drought does not need to necessarily bring about

famine, we have decided to increase the yields of rain-

fed agriculture, to promote irrigation, to modernize

livestock-raising methods and to implement a robust

policy of environmental protection. As we know that

the harvest this season will be poor, we have decided to

implement an emergency irrigation programme, to

rebuild our food stocks and to alert the international

community to the situation. From this rostrum I renew

my country’s appeal to the international community for

aid for Niger, which, in addition to threats from the

Libyan crisis, from terrorists and from criminal

organizations of every kind, is also facing severe food

insecurity.

The terrible recurrent drought that Niger lives

with spurred our decision to restructure our economy.

Our country has significant mineral resources —

uranium, gold, coal, cement, which are already being

mined, as well as oil, the first barrel of which will be

produced before the end of 2011. While the curse of

mineral resources has had unfortunate results in other

countries, we will exploit our resources to the sole

benefit of the people of Niger. In accordance with the

Extraction Industries Transparency Initiative, we mean

to invest the profits to the benefit of the people of

Niger, especially in agriculture, animal husbandry,

energy and transportation infrastructure, education,

health and access to water. The resulting boost to our

economy will allow us to create tens of thousands of

jobs, especially for young people. Niger encourages

private investment, especially foreign direct

investment. Besides the legal protection we offer by

promoting the rule of law, we have also just adopted a

law on public-private partnerships in order to expedite

funding.

We have the duty to create a fairer and more

humane world. To achieve that noble aim we need new

global governance. That will require a profound reform

of international organizations, in particular the United

Nations, the World Trade Organization, the

International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The

democratization of those institutions is absolutely

necessary; it is a sine qua non condition for peace and

stability in the world. For decisions to be accepted and

implemented by everyone, they must be taken in a

collaborative, participatory way.

I would like to focus now on our great

Organization. The United Nations is at once a

permanent space for political dialogue among the

countries we represent and a forum for the expression

of the solidarity necessary among our peoples. It is also

where we turn for the realization of our hopes. For all

those reasons, reform of the United Nations must

proceed faster. Africa takes a common position on this

issue, which my country shares. We deeply believe

that, given its worldwide mandate to deal with major

issues like peace, security, development and human

rights, the United Nations must be fair, representative

and democratic. We believe in an ongoing

revitalization of the General Assembly, the common

forum that we all hold dear. We have no doubt that the

President of the Assembly will move forward the

process of democratizing the United Nations. The same

is true of reform of the Security Council, which we all

await and which Africa has always called for, through

its representatives, especially the Committee of Ten

African Ministers of Finance and Central Bank

Governors.

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Before concluding, I want to return to the theme

of mediation. Our countries and the United Nations

itself could increase their effectiveness in managing

issues of peace, security and development if they

sought resolution through mediation. The importance

of the role of mediation in the peaceful settlement of

disputes is incontestable. In fact, it is an essential tool

in the peaceful settlement of disputes, which the

Charter itself recommends to States in Article 33.

In Niger we have experienced the benefits of

mediation, through the United Nations, the African

Union and the Economic Community of West African

States, in our recent political and institutional crisis. It

is true that mediation can be tedious, but in the end it

bears fruit. We endorse every effort that aims to

promote peace through mediation, both in active and

potential conflicts. We also encourage the Department

of Political Affairs to keep the principle in mind in its

work.