Senegal, 1995

My country, Senegal, is very pleased to express to Mr.

Diogo Freitas do Amaral its warm congratulations on his

election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its

fiftieth session. His election reflects how much the

international community values the role his country —

Portugal — has played in analysing and managing the

major questions that mark the evolution of the world. It

also values his personal qualities as a diplomat and a

statesman, as well as his experience in the field of human

relations, the fundamental basis of peace among nations.

I should like also to pay tribute to Mr. Freitas do

Amaral’s predecessor, Mr. Amara Essy, Foreign Minister

of Côte d’Ivoire, who conducted the work for the year of

the forty-ninth session with effectiveness and remarkable

open-mindedness, thus earning the pride of all Africa.

Finally, I should like here, once again, to emphasize

my country’s support for the Secretary-General, Mr.

6

Boutros Boutros-Ghali. His initiatives, his repeated actions

and his determination to accomplish his noble mission in

the service of peace, security and development, despite a

particularly unstable international situation, have earned the

gratitude of the world. History will owe him a debt of

thanks.

Today, the United Nations has travelled through half

a century. For 50 years the peoples of the Earth, following

the Second World War, having wisely learned the lessons

of the mistakes and set-backs of the history of human

conflicts, have been engaged in an effort to create a new

environment, an atmosphere of mutual understanding and

of cooperation in solidarity, a framework within which

mankind can finally realize that communal spirit, generosity

and mutual respect are the best possible guarantees of

peace, well-being, health and the environment, as well as

the blossoming of society.

For 50 years, pursuant to the principles set forth in the

United Nations Charter by the founders of our shared

Organization, we have, stage by stage, laid the foundations

for an international system that can provide collective

security for all countries and, at the same time, create the

best possible conditions for life in greater freedom.

If we consider the action that the Organization has

undertaken since its creation — in particular, if we analyse

the management of the many conflicts that arose here and

there during the period of the cold war — we can see,

without any shadow of doubt, that it has indeed proved to

be an irreplaceable tool for the promotion and maintenance

of peace.

Indeed, beyond the simple maintenance of

international peace and security, the Organization

remarkably distinguished itself in the struggle for

decolonization, but, above all, in the establishment of a

progressive system of specialized agencies, all of which

provide highly valued assistance in the social, economic,

humanitarian and cultural fields.

But, despite these recorded achievements, we have to

admit that there is still a long road to travel, that a number

of important challenges still have to be met, and new and

bold initiatives taken, if we are to realize fully the ideals

contained in the San Francisco Charter.

Patient preparation is being made for a historic reform

of the structures of the Organization itself and, specifically,

the Security Council. In this connection, Senegal

unreservedly supports an increase in the numbers of

permanent and non-permanent members of the Council

with a view to strengthening the conditions and

machinery available for the maintenance of peace.

It must indeed be accepted that the end of

ideological confrontation has brought the world neither

the peace nor the development that was so earnestly

anticipated by the founding fathers of the Charter.

From Afghanistan to Angola, from Bosnia and

Herzegovina to Somalia, from Liberia to the republics

that emerged from the former Soviet Union, many

conflicts continue to this day to resist our attempts to

solve them. True, for some conflicts, such as those in

Angola or the Middle East, significant progress has

recently been achieved. And I wish to take this

opportunity to welcome the new important step that has

just been taken in the search for a settlement to the

Middle East conflict with the signing, on 28 September in

Washington, of the Taba Agreement.

In the case of other conflicts, such as that in Bosnia

and Herzegovina, a glimmer of hope is now showing over

the horizon thanks to the concerted action of the Western

Contact Group and the Contact Group of the Organization

of the Islamic Conference, as well as the European Union,

the United States of America, the Russian Federation and

other Governments of good will. This is also an

opportunity for me to congratulate the Organization of the

Islamic Conference and its member States for all their

efforts and initiatives. They have made a considerable

contribution to the results we have solemnly welcomed

today.

In this regard, it is clear that the heroic struggle of

the Bosnian people, underpinned by its leaders’ acute

awareness of their responsibilities, has made a powerful

contribution to the new situation which the international

community wishes to see strengthened and eventually

result in a definitive peace for the former Yugoslavia.

The proliferation of conflicts resulting from the

disappearance of blocs has had the positive effect of

laying the foundation for a consensus on the machinery,

criteria, conditions and means to be used to ensure,

organize and safeguard peace throughout the world. This

consensus implies that we must have greater recourse to

preventive diplomacy as an innovative concept to ensure

that our system of collective security functions properly.

This consensus also implies that the mandates of peace-

keeping operations should henceforth be better defined in

the light of the circumstances and objectives sought. The

7

necessary means should therefore be collected and

mobilized.

The importance which my country, Senegal, attaches

to this question is commensurate with its tireless

determination to work towards an effective security system

that works because it is fully adapted to current realities. It

is above all in this spirit that Senegal is a regular

participant in the work of the Special Committee to review

the whole question of peace-keeping operations in all their

aspects.

Moreover, Senegal’s position is in accord with the

clear awareness in Africa of changes occurring throughout

the world and which led our continent in 1992, at the

summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity in

Dakar, to conceive and establish a mechanism for the

prevention, management and settlement of conflicts. This

African initiative, which contributes to the maintenance of

peace and security throughout the world, should therefore

be supported by the international community in order to

reduce the practical ramifications of the lack of funds

which, as everyone knows, is so sorely afflicting Africa,

and enable it to achieve its legitimate ambitions through

fulfilment of the aims of this machinery. With such support,

our continent, Africa, would be able to devote itself further

to settling the conflicts in Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Sierra

Leone and Somalia.

Speaking of regional conflicts, in regard to the

problem of Jammu and Kashmir — involving two

neighbouring and fraternal countries, India and Pakistan,

with which Senegal has friendly relations — my delegation

would urge a definitive settlement that would allow these

two great Asian nations to devote their efforts to

establishing an atmosphere of peace conducive to integrated

development and mutual benefit. The Organization of the

Islamic Conference, in conjunction with these two

countries, is giving careful thought to this matter.

It is universally recognized today that there can be no

development without peace and stability. It is thus in the

lack of development, poverty, marginalization and exclusion

that we must seek the underlying causes of insecurity. We

must therefore devise together a new system of collective

life that will give everyone new reasons for hope on the

basis of the spirit of solidarity and desire for peace in

which the system is founded.

Such action should begin with a new awareness that,

even if the expression “globalization of the economy” is

now in vogue, the phenomenon goes far beyond the trend.

Indeed, it involves, coevally, economics, finance and

information. It is also and particularly relevant to the

major problems of humanity’s future, be it the question of

protecting the environment, fighting threats against our

collective health, drug trafficking or fighting organized

crime. It has become obvious today that the solutions to

these problems cannot but be global.

In the light of these new realities of today’s world,

it is clear that only a new conception of collective

solidarity will allow us to avoid or at least mitigate the

many serious consequences of poverty and exclusion that

are so damaging to everyone. We must therefore make a

collective commitment to defining a new social covenant

for the future of mankind. The struggle against poverty in

the countries of the southern hemisphere therefore

assumes particular importance in this context.

Given the current globalization and liberalization in

the economy of nations, the new World Trade

Organization (WTO) — opened in Geneva a few months

ago after having been christened at the historic Marrakesh

meeting — should prove to be a new framework and

cradle for a world open to fairer, more balanced and more

human economic and trade relations between the countries

of the North and South, in the spirit of the legitimate

claims of the peoples of the third world. Here, I wish

solemnly to reaffirm that the WTO carries with it the

hopes of the world for a new era of profitable, balanced

and sustainable trade for all.

From this perspective, the World Trade

Organization, to the establishment of which the African

countries contributed, should help those countries to

participate more actively in the new international

economic system.

Moreover, the globalization and liberalization of the

economy should also encourage the developing countries

to intensify South-South cooperation as an essential

component of both the strategy for development and the

means to ensure the integration of their economies in the

new context and within the new aspirations of the

international community for development in peace,

particularly of the countries of the South. The same is

true of the need to boost commodity prices and to ensure

equitable access to markets — to all markets — to allow

our countries to develop genuine and effective trade

policies. My country, Senegal, wishes unreservedly to

stake its claim to this dynamic process.

8

On the occasion of this fiftieth anniversary of the

creation of the United Nations, from this rostrum I wish to

make a solemn and heartfelt appeal on behalf of the

development of Africa. This appeal reflects a major concern

of African leaders and peoples. The United Nations, as we

know, has devoted much fruitful attention to this matter, as

witnessed by the convening in Geneva last July, within the

framework of the session of the Economic and Social

Council, of a high-level debate on African development.

Today, it is a truism to stress the dangers of Africa’s

marginalization. It is a danger, a real one, painful and

serious. Although it is real, the danger is none the less

unacceptable. It is therefore absolutely essential, for all

those for whom solidarity and international cooperation

continue to hold meaning, that it be averted.

I welcome the fact that the Secretary-General of the

Organization that shelters us today is one of those who

believes that there is no historical inevitability which Africa

cannot overcome. Has not Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali

decisively proved this by deciding to launch a special

initiative for Africa, with the clear aim of breathing fresh

life into international cooperation?

Through me, Senegal reiterates its total support for

this initiative, which is particularly fortunate since it

dovetails with all the priorities Africa has set for itself —

namely, food security, water control, social and human

development, democracy, mobilization of resources and,

finally the struggle against poverty.

It should also be recalled that the Head of the

Senegalese State, His Excellency President Abdou Diouf,

has been tirelessly devoting himself for a long time now to

seeking global solutions to the problems of Africa,

particularly the excruciating question of debt which is

delaying the development of African countries.

Thus, during his first term of office as Chairman of

the Organization of African Unity, he was the initiation of

the convening in 1986, for the first time in the annals of the

United Nations, of a special session of the General

Assembly devoted to Africa’s critical economic situation.

Similarly, Senegal welcomed the conclusion in Paris

in 1994 of the international Convention to Combat

Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious

Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa, and

would like to stress here that this Convention must be put

into effect very soon and that the allocation of the

considerable resource that would be needed to uproot this

scourge from the African continent should be accelerated.

This is the task which for years now has been the special

concern of the Interstate Committee for Drought Control

in the Sahara.

We cannot speak about development without

addressing the question of respect for and protection of,

fundamental human rights and freedoms, which have

today become a universally recognized requirement.

Everyone is aware of how wedded Senegal is to this

requirement of our modern times that, in view of the

changes which have affected the world since the end of

the 1980s, all African countries, integrate this policy into

their development policy as an unavoidable dimension of

progress.

To conclude, may I emphasize once again that the

new international context and the multi-dimensional

nature of the problems that must be solved require

concerted action by all of us: integrated action, solidarity

among all partners — Governments, agencies and bodies,

public or private — that mould the life and the evolution

of the human international community.

Solidarity is the cement and also the guarantee of

this common approach, which is inspired by what is

needed for mankind to survive. Solidarity is first and

foremost a profound conviction that we all belong to one

and the same world, whether it be developed or

underdeveloped. Solidarity also entails a duty to face up

to our common problems and our common challenges,

whether we come from the North or from the South.

Solidarity is, finally, a collective will to build the future

on the basis of a partnership from which none are

excluded. Solidarity is also a common commitment

voluntarily to promote the collective progress of all

mankind. It is in the name of all the nations that are so

greatly devoted to the mission of man on earth that we

must nurture solidarity, cooperation, friendship and

brotherhood.

In this spirit and at this juncture in the history of our

planet when hope has been rekindled by the celebration

of the fiftieth anniversary of an organization — the

United Nations — without which the world would not be

what it is today, we solemnly express our ardent hope

that this 1995 session, the fiftieth in the history of the

United Nations, will be the dawn of a new era in which

we shall witness the realization of all our ideals of peace,

justice and progress, to the greatest benefit of future

generations, to which it is our duty to hand over a world

of peace, a world of security and a world of development.