Senegal, 1997

The General Assembly has unanimously chosen you,

Mr. President, to guide the work of the fifty-second session.

This decision is a tribute to your outstanding personal

qualities as a diplomat and a statesman, and at the same

time a tribute to your vast experience in international

relations. It also shows how much the international

community appreciates the role played by your country,

Ukraine, in the management of the major issues that

characterize the evolution of world affairs. My country is

pleased to express to you its warmest congratulations and

best wishes for success in the execution of this noble

mission.

I would like to pay tribute to your predecessor,

Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia, for the competence

and open-mindedness with which he guided the work of the

fifty-first session of our General Assembly. We extend to

him our deep gratitude.

I would like to extend to the new Secretary-General

of our Organization, Mr. Kofi Annan, my warmest

congratulations. The election of Mr. Kofi Annan last 17

December was a tribute to the exceptional qualities of a

man who has devoted his entire life to United Nations

causes. I wish him every success in the important mission

entrusted to him. I am convinced that he will do honour

to our continent, Africa, and successfully lead our

Organization into the next millennium.

The world’s family of nations is once again meeting,

as it does every year, to examine the current situation

and, at the same time, to chart the course of progress for

the 12 months to come.

While making its contribution to this exercise in

collective reflection, my country, Senegal, would like to

associate itself with all of those who find hope for a

better future for humankind in our Organization, because

it is based on peace and solidarity.

In fact, the United Nations remains an irreplaceable

instrument for the promotion of peace, security and

progress in the world, thanks to its universal character, to

the international culture and ethics that it expresses and

inspires and to its positive accomplishments.

Two years ago, on the occasion of the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations, the international

community stressed here, unanimously, the irreplaceable

nature of the framework for reflection, discussion,

synthesis and coordination of international life that the

United Nations provides. In fact, the United Nations has

been and remains a multidimensional symbol. The United

Nations is, first, an indispensable tool for safeguarding

global peace and security. Further, the United Nations is

above all a source of new hope for many men and women

who suffer from exile, hunger, poverty or illness. And

lastly, the United Nations is a tool for the promotion of

democracy, human rights and development — in other

words, of justice among individuals, peoples, cultures and

civilizations.

In this light, we have made it one of our highest

priorities to improve the capacities and the ability of the

Organization to better tackle the challenges of today’s

world. We have done so while affirming that

“In order to be able to respond effectively to the

challenges of the future and the expectations of the

United Nations held by peoples around the world, it is

essential that the United Nations itself be reformed

and modernized.” (Declaration on the Occasion of the

Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, resolution

50/6, para. 14)

We are pleased to note today that this conviction has

begun to be reflected in deeds. In fact, led by the

dynamism of our Secretary-General, the United Nations has

now embarked on a vast reform effort, unprecedented in the

history of this institution.

More specifically, on 16 July last Mr. Kofi Annan

submitted to the General Assembly proposals for reforms

that will make the United Nations the cornerstone of an

international system better adapted to the realities of the

twenty-first century.

I would like to express all my gratitude to the

Secretary-General and his collaborators for the

commendable efforts and energy that they have applied to

the development of proposals as bold as they are relevant.

Senegal is now examining all these proposals in close

coordination with its fellow members of the United Nations,

the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Non-

Aligned Movement. Senegal will do this while bearing in

mind the political will expressed by all to undertake, within

an appropriate time period, the necessary reforms,

especially in the fields of development, maintenance of

international peace and security, disarmament and

promotion of human rights, so that the Organization can

better respond to the demands of our day and to the

aspirations of the peoples for which it was created.

The Head of State of Senegal, His Excellency

Mr. Abdou Diouf, has already provided the necessary

guidelines and resources for this examination.

In this framework, the reform of the Security

Council requires the special attention of all Member

States and, at the same time, a common will to be faithful

to the ideal of peace that was inscribed in the Charter in

San Francisco in 1945.

The Working Group charged with examining this

question has made considerable progress, even though

consensus has yet to be found on such fundamental issues

as expansion, composition and use of the veto in the

Security Council.

Nonetheless, we can and must underscore, welcome

and support the many constructive and often

complementary proposals that have been submitted and

that have visibly enriched the debates over the course of

the past year.

We now must stay on track and redouble our efforts

in order to take advantage of the momentum thus

established and to succeed ultimately in our objective of

restructuring the Security Council while modernizing it,

making it more democratic and giving it greater

credibility and greater transparency — and thus greater

legitimacy.

Africa has a natural role to play in this reform, a

role that must be recognized given Africa’s historical

evolution and its destiny as a continent of the future in

the community of nations.

The reform of the United Nations system towards

greater coherence and greater dynamism is important, but

equally urgent is the need for the maintenance and

promotion of peace in the world.

It is true that significant progress has been made in

this area in recent years. Thus, the United Nations has

succeeded in substantially strengthening its capacity to

plan, establish and conduct peacekeeping missions

throughout the world. My country, Senegal, is pleased to

have been able to contribute to this progress, through,

inter alia, the posting of officers from its army to the

Secretariat in New York so that the various aspects of

peacekeeping operations could be better rationalized.

2

But the desired improvement should not be limited to

procedural matters, even though we must recognize that

these matters are clearly important.

Above all, we must also re-examine the orientation of

United Nations missions in all cases in which peace in the

world is threatened or breached.

The international community must, in particular, be

more realistic in the missions it confers upon the United

Nations Blue Helmets.

In this context, drawing lessons from operations such

as that conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we must

recognize something quite clear: by the rules of engagement

established for them, the United Nations forces are not yet

legally equipped to restore peace in theatres of operation

where peace has been broken.

Therefore, it seems to us more appropriate to entrust

such missions to the Members of the United Nations that

agree to conduct them in the framework of coalitions

placed under the moral authority, but not the command, of

our Organization. We would thus avoid giving mandates to

United Nations soldiers without in turn giving them the

legal, human and material means that are essential to the

accomplishment of their missions.

This choice is all the more desirable since multifaceted

conflicts continue to afflict many regions of the world,

starting, unfortunately, with Africa, our own continent.

There significant progress has been made this year on

the road to restoring peace in a certain number of countries,

in particular in Liberia, which — thanks to the

determination of the countries of the Economic Community

of West African States (ECOWAS) and the support of the

international community — has just emerged from seven

years of fratricidal conflict. But we must recognize that in

the case of other crises, the path towards peace remains

uncertain.

This applies in particular to Sierra Leone, where the

situation remains very disturbing in spite of the initiatives

of the United Nations, of the OAU and most especially of

ECOWAS to restore legitimacy in that country.

In the Congo (Brazzaville), another of our brother

countries, the world witnessed a sudden deterioration of the

political situation in the military confrontation that began on

5 June 1997. Here again it must be recalled that the

combined efforts of the United Nations and the OAU and

the lucid and commendable actions of President El Hadj

Omar Bongo, President of the Gabonese Republic and

also of the international mediation committee, have,

unfortunately, not managed to find a political way out of

this grave internal crisis, the prolongation of which is a

serious threat to peace in the subregion and the continent.

Elsewhere on the continent, in Angola and in

Somalia, internal conflicts continue to elude resolution.

Faced with all the dangers posed by all these

conflicts, Africans have established the OAU Mechanism

for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in

Africa.

Nonetheless, it is clear that that pan-African

organization does not alone possess the means to

undertake the many and complex actions required by

peacekeeping operations in Africa.

Massive support from the international community

is therefore particularly needed in this area.

This is why I would like once again to commend the

convening last 25 September, on the initiative of the

President of the Security Council, of a special Council

meeting at the ministerial level devoted to the

preservation of peace, security and stability in Africa. We

would also like to thank our colleague, Mrs. Madeleine

Albright, Secretary of State of the United States.

That meeting gave eloquent witness to the special

importance that the international community attaches to

African problems.

However, I must emphasize that declarations of

intent alone are not enough. We need concrete action.

Hence, Senegal attaches great importance to the report

that the Secretary-General is soon to submit to us and

which is to contain specifically concrete recommendations

on the causes of conflict in Africa, on the means of

preventing them and, where need be, the means of

resolving them in full agreement with our partners in the

international community.

In this context, we welcome the increasing assistance

we are beginning to receive from certain major countries

of the northern hemisphere in the framework of the

strengthening of Africa’s capacity to maintain peace and

react rapidly to crises. In this respect, we cannot but

mention France, the United States of America and

Canada, as well as other countries of the North. Along

3

those same lines, the inauguration in Copenhagen on 2

September by the Secretary-General of a planning centre

for the new United Nations Stand-By Forces High-

Readiness Brigade was an event of great importance for

conflict prevention throughout the world.

Also in the framework of these concerns for Africa, I

should like to mention the ongoing conflict between the

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on the one hand and the United

States of America and the United Kingdom on the other

with respect to the Lockerbie tragedy. We feel that the time

is ripe for the parties concerned finally to successfully

resolve this matter through dialogue and negotiation

because — and this must be stressed once again — the

people of Libya are suffering greatly from the embargo to

which that country is being subjected.

We welcome the significant progress made in the

framework of efforts to achieve a definitive peace in the

Western Sahara under the auspices of the United Nations

and under the guidance of Mr. James Baker, the Personal

Envoy of the Secretary-General.

The situation in the Middle East continues to be of

concern to peace-loving people. Recent developments in the

occupied Palestinian territories, the expansion of existing

Israeli settlements or the construction of new ones, delays

in negotiations — these all have had, to our great regret, a

negative impact on the peace process. We would mention

also the clear-cut acts of violence perpetrated against

defenceless civilians, such as the recent attacks in

Jerusalem. All of these acts must be condemned

unreservedly because they do enormous damage to the

peace efforts.

It is for all these reasons that we wish here to make a

pressing appeal to the co-sponsors of the peace process and

to the entire international community so that the most

appropriate initiatives can be taken in order to salvage the

peace process. For today, more than any other region of the

world, the Middle East truly needs peace and security for

its own development. This peace can be achieved only

within a framework of mutual trust and the will to live

together with respect for the rights and the dignity of all the

peoples of the region.

Global security also requires arms reduction and the

elimination of certain categories of weapons. That is why,

for more than 50 years now, the United Nations has

attempted to create a world free of all weapons of mass

destruction. In the pursuit of this objective, significant

progress has already been made. One year ago, we

welcomed in this very Hall and with deep satisfaction the

conclusion of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

Treaty.

From that point on, the international community was

involved in negotiations for a treaty for the elimination of

anti-personnel landmines. Senegal, which is a member of

the Conference on Disarmament, continues to attach

special importance to this question, whose settlement

would represent a major step forward towards a world

that would offer greater security for all. In this context,

we hope to see the Ottawa process, in which we are

participants, succeed, by the end of this year, in the

signing of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,

Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel

Mines and on Their Destruction.

Eradicating poverty throughout the world has been

and remains one of the fundamental objectives of the

United Nations. By proclaiming in the Charter their

determination to establish better standards of living in

conditions of broader freedom, the founding fathers

wanted to make of the United Nations an instrument that

would fight for the social progress of all humankind.

But at the present time, planet Earth is threatened by

global challenges that know no boundaries and that spare

no peoples. The world’s problems — poverty, exclusion,

terrorism, organized crime and drug-trafficking — have

become globalized far earlier than the economy has. That

is why, regardless of the way in which we approach the

future, the problems that exist at century’s end cannot be

resolved except through concerted and integrated action

that can manage harmoniously all of the upheaval that is

accompanying this changing period of history.

It is in this context that Senegal welcomes the

successful conclusion of negotiations on the elaboration

of an Agenda for Development. The consensus achieved

in that Agenda, which draws its substance from earlier

commitments in the various plans of action of recent

international conferences, gives evidence of our shared

faith in the virtues of a new global partnership for

development based on the imperative of interdependence

and on mutual benefit. Thus the conceptual framework

has been set and accepted by all, and it remains for us to

move towards action through a mobilization of resources

commensurate with the generous intentions formulated in

the Agenda for Development.

Along these lines, the settlement of the debt crisis,

just remuneration for commodities, the lifting of trade

4

barriers and an increase in official development assistance

are indispensable prerequisites if we are to build a world

that is more welcoming to everyone, so that our global

village can be strengthened, in a spirit of solidarity, in a

lasting way.

In this context, the fight against poverty is of clear

priority, because it is unacceptable, in this era of space

technology and the Internet, that millions of men and

women the world over, and especially in the southern

hemisphere, still do not have the minimal conditions for a

decent life. They lack water, electricity, medicine, food —

in a word, they lack security and well-being. The

aspirations of peoples to a better life is an eternal quest that

we cannot neglect, as it is true that human beings must

remain at the very beginning and end of development.

In this quest for lasting solutions to the challenges of

underdevelopment, my country took the initiative, at the

thirty-third Summit of the OAU, held in Harare in June, to

suggest two resolutions through which the Heads of State

and Government of Africa unanimously renewed their

support for the United Nations system in general and for

the action taken by Africa in particular to raise the standard

of living of African peoples. But this need for solidarity

should not cause us to forget that any effort towards

sustainable development is, above all, the national

responsibility of States. It requires the definition and

effective application of sound macroeconomic policies

based on transparency, the rule of law, the practice of

democracy, respect for human rights, social justice and the

participation of all in the national development effort: in

other words, it is based on what we today call good

governance.

As my country sees it, this choice, which must be

supplemented by solidarity at the global level, is the most

certain course towards the shared ideal assigned to us by

the Charter of the United Nations.

By enshrining in our Charter their attachment to

respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, the

founding fathers of the United Nations inspired millions of

men and women to take what His Holiness Pope John Paul

II called two years ago “the risk of freedom”. Their

commendable struggle means that today, respect for these

rights and these freedoms is universally considered to be an

essential component of any undertaking whose goal is the

progress and well-being of the individual.

My country, Senegal, which attaches profound

importance to the dignity and value of the human being,

would like here to reiterate its commitment to continue to

work alongside those many who are struggling to obtain

or regain their right to freedom, justice and peace. This

solidarity applies to our brothers and sisters in Palestine,

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, the

Great Lakes region and elsewhere, who aspire only to

peace in order to build their own future.

I would like, in this framework, to commend the

appointment of Mrs. Mary Robinson to the post of United

Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. We

assure her of our support and wish her every success in

her noble mission.

The universal nature of the United Nations is a

reality that must be consolidated and strengthened. In this

context, we support without reservation the request of the

Republic of China to join again the community of nations

and be admitted to our Organization and its specialized

agencies. Acceding to this request would be a significant

contribution to the consolidation of the ideal of

universality of the United Nations and do justice to the

esteemed people of the Republic of China. Its economic

and social development, commitment to democratic values

and international behaviour have given irrefutable proof

of its faith in the noble objectives of the United Nations

Charter and of its capacity to assume the responsibilities

of all Member States.

When the Berlin wall crumbled in 1989, great hope

was aroused in the citizens of the world. Hope was born

of rapid movement towards a new international order

which would bring with it peace and justice as well as

solidarity and progress. In this new international order,

the Republic of China has a place, a place recognized by

international law and the demands of a rapidly developing

world.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the

international community must do everything in its power

to have hope triumph over the dangers menacing

humankind. The human race’s God-given intelligence

provides the possibilities and resources to achieve this

end. We have no choice but to help the United Nations

adapt to the new world and play its proper role as a

centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the

attainment of common ends. This is all the more essential

since the great challenges to our future can only be met

in a global framework of solidarity. The only solution —

whether in the struggle against terrorism, drug- trafficking

and organized crime; in the protection of our environment

and our collective health; or in the promotion of security

5

through disarmament or the reduction of poverty — is a

concerted and united global effort.

Together, we have already begun this effort, and my

country urges the international community to continue it

steadfastly. Senegal makes this appeal convinced that, with

the intellectual and material resources available to

humankind today, there is no challenge that cannot be met.

All we need is the will.

We can do it. We must do it. Let us do it together, as

brothers and sisters belonging to one family.