Sudan, 2013

Today, I

address the Assembly at a time when I feel great

uncertainty about the future of the Organization and

the established rules governing the relations among

its Member States. It was expected that yesterday the

Assembly would hear, from this rostrum, a statement

from President Al-Bashir, the elected President of the

Republic of the Sudan. However, with deep regret I

must report the refusal by the authorities of the United

States, the host Government, to give entry visas to

President Al-Bashir and his delegation, thus rendering

him unable to participate in the work of the Assembly

at this session.

The fact that the authorities of the host country did

not grant a visa to our President is a serious violation

of the principles and purposes set forth in the Charter

of the United Nations. Specifically, it is a violation of

the Headquarters Agreement signed in December 1946

with the host country.

President Al-Bashir is known throughout Africa.

He is known by all those who hold peace dear. He is

known by everybody for what he has done — putting

an end to the longest bloodthirsty civil war in Africa,

inherited from the days of colonialism. The birth

of the Republic of South Sudan is clear proof of his

commitment to the implementation of the provisions of

the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Despite the tremendous sacrifice made by giving

up a valuable part of the territory, one rich in natural

and human resources, President Al-Bashir has been

prevented from participating in the work of the General

Assembly. However, the meeting of the Peace and

Security Council of the African Union has highlighted

the part that he has played in supporting peace between

the Sudan and South Sudan and throughout our region.

My delegation would like to say that this unjustified

and unacceptable action sets a very serious precedent

in the history of the United Nations. It requires that the

whole membership take a firm position on this matter.

This denial of the legitimate right of a Member State

leads us to call on the Secretary-General to exercise his

duty and responsibility to protect the rights of Member

States under the Headquarters Agreement. If the matter

were left up to the Sudan, then the same kind of thing

could happen to any other Member State, and we would

not like those rights to be violated.

I should like to warmly congratulate the President on

his election to the presidency of the General Assembly

at its sixty-eighth session. I take this opportunity to

extend my country’s thanks to his predecessor, Mr. Vuk

Jeremi., for the excellent manner in which he guided

the work at the last session. We also thank Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon and his team in the Secretariat

for the sincere and diligent work that they have done

for us.

It is our hope that discussions during this session

will be successful. The theme chosen, “The post-

2015 development agenda: setting the stage”, is

important. The Sudan believes that the Organization

and its specialized agencies will indeed devote the

importance that is appropriate to such a crucial issue

because development is essential to international peace

and security, particularly in developing countries. As

everyone knows, poverty, underdevelopment, climate

change and a shortage of resources are some of the

main causes of conflict in the world.

The Sudan has made great strategic progress

regarding peace, stability and prosperity for its people

and has begun a political process that will lead to the

adoption of a final constitution. After the peace efforts

proved successful vis-à-vis the independence of South

Sudan, we accepted the choice of its people. Today

we are working to develop a solid economic system,

even though we have to deal with the after-effects of

economic sanctions that the United States unilaterally

imposed on us. We have begun to take economic steps

necessary to strengthen our economy and prevent it

from collapsing.

On the matter of human rights, I should like to share

the opinion expressed by the Special Rapporteur on the

Sudan. He recognized that progress had been made in

various areas of human rights. These matters have been

dealt with very seriously, and the recommendations

will be dealt with in our policy. We are committed to

the principles of human rights, and we have set up an

independent national human rights commission in the

Sudan, founded in accordance with the Paris principles,

that cooperates with the relevant United Nations

agencies.

To promote and strengthen human rights, we

signed a national law to combat trafficking in human

beings. We have many specialized institutions and

mechanisms that work to defend women’s rights

as well, so that women can participate fully in our

society and in our State. That can be seen very clearly

in the positive discrimination we have been pursuing

vis-à-vis women, which has led to greater political

participation by women at the legislative, executive and

other decision-making levels.

In 2010 we adopted a law on the rights of the

child that is in accordance with the principles of the

Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional

Protocols, so that we can promote the rights of

children and protect them against any kind of violence

or exploitation. Our various national institutions

coordinate among themselves, and we have set up a

national board for children. We have police who deal

especially with the issues of youth and children, and we

have a public prosecutor who specializes in this area.

Once South Sudan was established, we immediately

began to engage in neighbourly and fruitful cooperation

with it. We have blood ties with it and a common border

more than 2,100 kilometres long. About two thirds of

the inhabitants of both countries live along the borders.

The period following the independence of South

Sudan was a period of some tension because of

certain matters that had been left pending, so the two

countries entered into very intensive negotiations. On

27 September 2012, exactly one year ago, in Addis Ababa

the two countries were able to sign nine agreements

covering all matters of cooperation between our two

countries. We included mechanisms for implementing

the agreements in an accompanying document. We also

set forth deadlines for reaching further agreements.

At the most recent negotiating session between the

two Presidents, in Khartoum on 3 September, and in

the presence of Mr. Mbeki, the two Presidents came to

an agreement on how to deal with all pending matters.

They also appealed to the international community

to cancel the Sudan’s debt and to lift the sanctions

imposed on it.

Turning now to the matter of unilateral sanctions,

it is our hope that we will have strong and healthy

relations with South Sudan, and we will spare no effort

to achieve that. We trust the international community

will be supportive of our efforts. We would like to

extend our thanks to the African high-level mechanism

and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in this connection.

I am happy to be able to report that the efforts of

the Government of the Sudan and the international

community vis-à-vis Darfur have made possible real

and continuous progress in terms of stability and

security. There has been a sharp drop in the violence

there because those that signed the Doha peace

agreement have lived up to their promises. Many of the

armed groups joined the agreement later. The voluntary

return of people who had left is also being organized

and services are being provided.

I should like to say that relations between the

Government of the Sudan and United Nations bodies

with regard to the humanitarian situation are now stable,

so that humanitarian needs can be met. We reached

an agreement with UNICEF on vaccinations against

poliomyelitis and other diseases, and an agreement was

reached as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Regarding non-governmental organizations, the

Sudan, like other Member States, is committed to the

implementation of the development goals, including

combating poverty. We have adopted policies on

reducing poverty and on providing more jobs for young

graduates. We are also developing a microfinance system

for low- and middle-income people. Unfortunately,

however, unemployment is not as low as we had hoped,

and the unilateral economic sanctions have been a real

obstacle to our making progress in development and

in strengthening our economy. It has been particularly

difficult for young people in the Sudan, who account

for about 60 per cent of our population.

The Sudan calls on the international community

to live up to its promise to cancel the debt and to lift

unilateral economic sanctions. The matter of the debt is

one of the important goals of the post-2015 development

agenda. Debt is a real burden for so many countries in

the world.

The Sudan is a prominent member of many

international bodies dealing with the environment. As a

victim of climate change, the Sudan believes that great

attention should be paid to environmental issues and

goals in the post-2015 development agenda. We would

like to work with others through the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The situation is deteriorating every year. We have

suffered from climate change since the mid-1980s.

We have suffered from recurrent cycles of drought in

much of our territory, and that has also been a factor

in slowing down our development goals. It has also

created instability in many parts of our country because

of conflict over pasture land and water supplies. That

applies also in Darfur, where historically there have

been tribal disputes and disputes over pastureland

because of long periods of drought. The Darfur

conflict became a political issue only in the last decade

because of external interference. There is a very close

relationship between climate change and armed conflict

in that respect.

My country attaches paramount importance to the

rule of law at the national and international levels. We

make sure that our national laws and our legislature are

in accordance with international instruments, laws and

treaties to which we are a party. So from this rostrum,

and based on our own experience, we reiterate our

rejection of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Over the past decade or so it has been violating the

principles of international law and justice. The ICC

has been used as a political tool by certain parties in

the international arena. Many of those that signed the

Rome Statute have now become aware of the negative

impact of the ICC and its destructive impact on stability

and peace. The last African Union Summit showed that

very clearly.

Regarding the crisis in Syria, our position has

always been clear. We call for peaceful dialogue among

the Syrians themselves towards identifying a peaceful

and permanent solution. We have always rejected

violence and foreign interference. We condemn the use

of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, and we

support the Russian approach to resolving this matter.

The question of Palestine — how to achieve justice

and restore the rights of the Palestinian people and stop

the illegal aggression by the Israeli authorities in that

territory — is still a real challenge in the international

arena. The prisoners must be released. The matter

must be resolved within the context of international

legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative, but Israel has

simply turned a deaf ear to proposals from the Arab

sides.

There has been a constant call for respect for

international law. The reform of the United Nations

and its principal and subsidiary organs is a matter of

some urgency and importance. It is time for a practical

process to start, with a clear work programme, so that

the international system can act in a manner that is

fair, transparent and effective, so that it can take up

the challenges it faces. But no progress will be made in

reform until the General Assembly can play its full part

and exercise all of its powers without any intimidation

from the Security Council.

The matter of reform of the Security Council

is also of some importance for the Sudan, because

that will mean that there is real reform in the United

Nations. The Security Council today does not reflect

the realities of the world. It adopts resolutions and takes

decisions but not in a democratic and transparent way.

It is therefore essential that there be comprehensive

reform. Partial or transitional reforms are not possible.

We support the African Union position on reform of the

international system. We want a balanced, pluralistic

and fairer system that will be able to deal with the

challenges of the world of today, ensure respect for

international law and for the noble principles of the

Organization and attain the purposes and principles of

the Charter — respect for the sovereignty of States and

non-interference in domestic issues under any pretext

whatsoever; the non-use of force; and the non-use of the

threat of force against others.