Sudan, 2007

It gives me great pleasure at the outset to convey to all those

present the greetings and the best wishes of His

Excellency Omar Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir, the

President of the Republic of the Sudan, who, owing to

unforeseen circumstances, could not take part in this

important session.

It also gives me great pleasure to congratulate the

President for his election as President of the United

Nations General Assembly in its sixty-second session. I

am confident that his rich experience and high

professionalism will lead our deliberations to the

expected successful results. I would also like to seize

this opportunity to pay tribute to his predecessor,

Sheika Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for the commendable

efforts she undertook during the previous session of the

Assembly.

I would also like to take this opportunity to

warmly congratulate Mr. Ban Ki-moon for his election

to lead this Organization. We have no doubt that he

will contribute constructively to the revitalization of

the United Nations role, preserving its Charter and the

service it renders to Member States in a spirit of

respect and transparency and that he will enable the

United Nations to confront the current challenges at

this critical juncture in the development of

international relations, where the international

community is faced with huge fateful challenges in

many areas.

Last year, our President announced to the

Assembly from this rostrum (see A/61/PV.11) that

peace in our country is no longer a dream, but rather it

is a living reality and an irrevocable strategic objective.

Today, I am honoured to tell members that since then,

we have resolutely continued to implement the

Comprehensive Peace Agreement and to make it a

reality.

All the constitutional institutions and organs

necessary for implementation of the Agreement have

been established. At the level of executive institutions,

the presidency, the Government of National Unity, the

Government of South Sudan and the state governments

have all been established. In addition, the legislative

institutions at the national level, in South Sudan and at

the State level have been formed. At the judicial level,

the National Judicial Service Commission and the

Constitutional Court have been set up. Furthermore, all

commissions provided for in the Comprehensive Peace

Agreement such as the National Constitutional

Review Commission, the Assessment and Evaluation

Commission, the National Petroleum Commission, the

National Civil Service Commission, the Commission to

Protect the Rights of Non-Muslims in the Capital and

the Technical Ad Hoc Border Committee have been

established and are all now diligently and

conscientiously carrying out their mandates.

Under the timeline for the implementation of the

Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the National

Electoral Commission and the Human Rights

Commission will be established by the end of this year.

The National Legislature will adopt relevant legislation

following the resumption of its session this month. A

number of unresolved issues are currently being

discussed and negotiated by joint committees

comprising representatives of the two partners and

other members of the Government of National Unity.

We hope that those issues will be resolved soon,

particularly since both partners have declared their

commitment to that end. Moreover, it is important to

emphasize that peace and security prevail today in

South Sudan and the other areas covered by the

Comprehensive Peace Agreement. That fact in itself is

the greatest achievement of the Agreement, since it

forms the necessary groundwork for the

implementation of other provisions.

While my country reaffirms its full commitment

to the letter and the spirit of the Comprehensive Peace

Agreement and is determined to energetically and

faithfully pursue its implementation, we also expect the

international community to honour its pledges in

fulfilling the requirements for peace in particular

the pledges made at the 2005 Oslo donor conference,

the cancellation of all external debt and the lifting of

unilateral economic sanctions and restrictions, which

hamper reconstruction and development efforts and,

indeed, defeat the very objectives of the Agreement

so that the country can manage the burden of

reconstruction and development. Peace and security are

two sides of the same coin: neither can exist without

the other. Sudanese citizens are eagerly awaiting the

peace dividends of reconstruction and development.

We must not fail to meet that legitimate expectation.

The march towards peace resolutely continued

with the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement at

Abuja in May 2006 under the generous auspices of the

African Union, which served as mediator. The

Agreement was a huge step forward towards the

achievement of peace, stability and development in

Darfur through dialogue. That fact was acknowledged

by the international community, which effectively

contributed to the conclusion of the Agreement.

We have begun to implement various aspects of

the Darfur Peace Agreement. In the area of

power-sharing and participation, the Transitional

Darfur Regional Authority has been established, and

citizens of Darfur have been appointed to executive

legislative positions at all levels of Government. All

provisions of the Agreement related to power- and

wealth-sharing and to security arrangements

particularly the Ceasefire Commission have also

been put in place, in full cooperation with the partners.

With regard to the humanitarian situation, my

country has always been fully committed to facilitating

unhindered access to the flow of relief assistance for

the affected and the needy. We have also facilitated the

activities and movement of humanitarian organizations

in Darfur. All those efforts culminated in the Joint

Communiqué between the Government of the Sudan

and the United Nations on Facilitation of Humanitarian

Activities in Darfur, which we signed with the United

Nations on 28 March 2007. The Communiqué is

being implemented through a joint mechanism

comprising the Government, the United Nations and

national and international voluntary non-governmental

organizations.

The humanitarian situation is clearly improving,

as confirmed by health and humanitarian statistics

showing lower levels of epidemics, hunger and food

shortages, a situation better than in other parts of that

area of Darfur. The return of internally displaced

persons and refugees to their villages is another sign of

improvement. The Secretary-General himself

witnessed such movement during his most recent visit

to the Sudan.

The joint efforts of the Government of the Sudan

and the United Nations to maintain and consolidate

peace have continued with the strengthening of the

African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) through

the light and heavy support packages adopted at the

high-level meeting held in November 2006 in

Addis Ababa, followed by the hybrid operation

authorized by the Security Council in its resolution

1769 (2007). Our country has declared its full

compliance with the letter and the spirit of that

resolution.

The progress that has been made on the political,

humanitarian and peacekeeping fronts could have been

achieved only through dialogue led by the United

Nations and other international actors for which we

had been calling for quite some time not through the

imposition of policies of pressure and coercion. Thus,

it has been possible to arrive at an agreement

acceptable to all parties. That has propelled the

situation in Darfur into a good phase, thanks to efforts

aimed at a peaceful settlement and the inclusion of

groups that did not endorse the Darfur Peace

Agreement.

My country is firmly convinced that the problem

of Darfur must be resolved in a political manner,

through negotiations. Therefore, we believe that high

priority should be accorded to a political negotiation

process. We reiterated that belief at the aforementioned

high-level consultations held at Addis Ababa. Here, I

wish to reaffirm my Government’s full support for the

joint African Union-United Nations initiative, led by

Special Envoys Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim.

In addition, we reiterate that we are fully prepared to

engage in the peace talks scheduled to begin in Libya

on 27 October 2007.

From this rostrum, we call on all rebel

movements in Darfur to join in the march towards

peace without delay and to immediately cease

hostilities, in response to the repeated appeals of the

Government of the Sudan. My Government has already

declared a unilateral ceasefire, which will coincide

with the 27 October peace talks. We hope and expect

that the armed factions will reciprocate so that a

permanent and verifiable ceasefire can be declared

when the talks begin. Furthermore, we call on the

international community to take firm measures against

those who obstruct or refuse to participate in the peace

talks. We also call upon those international actors who

have hosted a number of the leaders of those factions

to demonstrate that they are credible by persuading

them to participate in the Libya talks. At the high-level

consultations held on 21 September in New York, it

was resolved that the talks would be final and

conclusive.

Reconstruction and development are major

factors for stability and for strengthening efforts

towards a political settlement. We must therefore

devote similar attention to the issues of development,

rehabilitation and reconstruction, as stipulated in

Security Council resolution 1769 (2007). We look

forward to the international community finalizing its

current efforts towards holding an international

conference on the reconstruction of Darfur; we hope it

will take place soon.

In the twists and turns of the Darfur problem, my

country has been the subject of unfair, hostile and

ill-intentioned campaigns from some international

quarters that are bent on exploiting the crisis in Darfur

to serve their well-known interests, agendas and

schemes. This vicious campaign has targeted our

country’s policies and political positions and seeks to

exaggerate and distort the facts and to denigrate the

country's capabilities, its heritage and the values and

traditions of its people. The campaign also aims at

diverting attention from other regional and

international crises. We hope that the international

community will shoulder its responsibilities in the

service of peace and stability in Darfur and seize the

golden opportunity that will be provided by the

expected peace talks in Libya.

My country, which has reaffirmed its full

commitment to the objectives of peace and stability,

culminating in concrete terms in the Comprehensive

Peace Agreement, will leave no stone unturned to

spread peace, security and stability in Darfur. It will

strive to consolidate its positive and constructive

engagement with the United Nations. Clearly, there is

no person or group of persons more concerned, or more

determined to stop the bloodshed and achieve peace

and stability in Darfur, than the Government of the

Sudan.

We live in a world of continuous challenges and

recurrent threats. There is no doubt that the

international community is more than ever convinced

that the only way to confront these challenges and their

consequences is through collective efforts effectively

and ably led by the United Nations. Such a role is

reflected in the special attention the Organization has

begun to pay to the challenge of climate change, as

reflected in the statements made by heads of State or

Government during the recent high-level event on

climate change. Climate change and environmental

degradation are major causes of conflict in many

African countries, including my own, as noted in the

recent comprehensive report of the United Nations

Environment Programme, which highlighted the

serious challenges the world faces as a result of climate

change.

We must therefore consolidate our efforts and

capacities in order to save our planet for present and

future generations. We all recognize that climate

change should be confronted within the framework of

the requirements of sustainable development and its

three pillars: economic development, social

development and environmental protection. Sudan

signed the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change (UNFCCC) and ratified it in

November 1993, thus committing itself to mutual

cooperation with the global community to address the

problem of climate change. A global consensus on a

post-2012 agreement must be reached at the thirteenth

session of the Conference of the Parties to the

UNFCCC and the third session of the Meeting of the

Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, to be held in Bali in

December 2007. A successful outcome would be based

on the Rio principle of common but differentiated

responsibilities and would take fully into account the

needs of the developing countries, especially the most

vulnerable among them In this context, the Sudan

believes that developed countries must meet their

commitments in the fields of development,

capacity-building and financial and technical assistance

to developing countries and must take the initiative to

confront such problems in those countries.

The current international economic conditions

and the commercial and financial scenario constrain

development in developing countries, especially the

least developed among them. This poses imminent

dangers to the peoples of those countries, due to many

factors. The most important of them are: the paucity of

official development assistance (ODA); the unfair

terms of international trade, which place restrictions on

developing countries’ exports to international markets

and impose unfair prices on their primary

commodities; heavy external debt; and the negative

effects of the process of globalization.

The Millennium Summit reaffirmed Africa’s

special needs and made meeting them a priority.

Hence, the United Nations should take the lead in

reaching that objective. In this regard, we hope that the

position of Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on

Africa will be strengthened and that the necessary

resources will be allocated to that office to enable it to

shoulder its responsibilities towards strengthening

United Nations activities focused on Africa, in

particular those pertaining to the attainment of the

Millennium Development Goals and the consolidation

of international cooperation to support the New

Partnership for Africa’s Development.

The Sudan reiterates the importance of the

Millennium Declaration and of reaching its goals, as

well as the importance of other items on the

international development agenda, with special

emphasis on the right of developing countries to

determine their priorities without restrictions,

conditions or predetermined obligations that impede

their development efforts, as described in the

African-Caribbean-Pacific Summit that my country

hosted last December.

In this respect, I would like to point out that my

country has exerted tremendous efforts towards the

realization of these objectives and has made noticeable

progress in the difficult areas of poverty eradication,

education, health care, maternal and child welfare and

combating diseases.

The concept of human rights continues to attract

the attention of the international community, not only

because of the vital importance of the issue, but also

because of attempts to deviate from the aim of

discussing this issue with integrity and to exploit it in

order to settle political scores. My country is of the

view that a new approach based on dialogue and

cooperation should be introduced when dealing with

human rights, instead of naming and shaming,

condemnation and threats of sanctions. Moreover,

selectivity and double standards should not influence

the consideration of human rights issues, especially at

the Human Rights Council, which completed its first

year with the adoption of an important document that

lays the institutional foundation of the Council

through, inter alia, ensuring the independence of

rapporteurs in the fulfilment of their mandates and

ensuring that human rights are monitored with

neutrality. With the adoption of that important

document, the Council has truly started the process of

correcting the failures and shameful practices of the

former Commission on Human Rights.

In fulfilment of its political commitments, and

consistent with the attention it gives to all sectors of

society, especially the most vulnerable ones, the Sudan

was among the first countries to sign the Convention

on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Women

have been the focus of Government plans and

strategies aiming at their advancement and

empowerment in all fields, in compliance with the

provisions of the Transitional Constitution and the

Comprehensive Peace Agreement. These efforts were

crowned with the adoption of national strategies and

plans pertaining to the advancement and empowerment

of women in all fields.

As indicated earlier in relation to the declared

objectives of the establishment of the Human Rights

Council, in the light of experience with the former

Commission on Human Rights, any effort to reform

international institutions will be futile without the

reform of the United Nations itself; any United Nations

reform will be incomplete without the reform of the

Security Council.

While we commend the efforts exerted thus far in

deliberations pertaining to Security Council reform and

the revitalization of the General Assembly, it is

important to intensify efforts further in order to

accomplish the desired objectives and understandings

in this area. The Sudan reiterates its commitment to the

African position, as provided for in the Ezulwini

consensus and confirmed by subsequent African

summit meetings. Africa is the only continent without

permanent representation on the Security Council,

although African issues constitute more than

70 per cent of the Council’s agenda.

The fact that the Palestinian question remains

unresolved since the establishment of the United

Nations decades ago not only tarnishes the credibility

of the Organization but also continues to pose a serious

threat to international peace and security. It is

imperative to conclude a comprehensive, lasting and

just settlement of this conflict, especially in the light of

continued violent confrontations between the

Palestinian people and the Israeli occupying forces.

The international community should force Israel

to comply with international resolutions and fulfil its

commitments, including those set out in the Road Map,

and enable the Palestinian people to exercise its right

to self-determination and to establish its own

independent State, with its capital in Al-Quds

Al-Sharif. It is also imperative to reach a

comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict,

based on Israel’s withdrawal from all the land it

occupied in 1967. In this context, and to ensure

sustained security and peace for all the peoples in the

region, we wish to confirm the need to make the

Middle East, without any exceptions, a nuclear-

weapon-free zone.

Developments in Iraq have further aggravated the

deteriorating situation in the Middle East. The

increasing pace of violence in Iraq and the

deterioration of the security situation make it

incumbent on all of us to cooperate and help the Iraqi

people in their predicament. This can be achieved only

through respect for the free will of the Iraqi people, the

preservation of Iraq’s unity and national sovereignty

and setting a time frame for the exit of occupation

forces from Iraq.

My country has repeatedly condemned terrorism

in all its forms and manifestations. The Sudan supports

all relevant regional and international decisions and

resolutions pertaining to terrorism and affirms its

cooperation with the international community to

implement these decisions. However, in order to

eradicate terrorism, it is necessary to address its root

causes and implement the integrated strategies that

have been adopted.

I wish to conclude by reiterating that, in order for

the United Nations to continue playing its role, we all

have a collective responsibility, one based on a solid

determination to make this Organization a platform for

collective international efforts that would effectively

and expeditiously address global challenges. We also

need to coordinate with regional organizations within

the framework of the United Nations Charter.

We look forward, therefore, to working together

to strengthen multilateral cooperation for the common

good, transcending narrow self-interest. My country,

which this year celebrates the fifty-first anniversary of

its joining the United Nations, hopes that this session’s

deliberations will represent a landmark in fulfilling

those goals.