Eswatini, 2003

It is an honour and

privilege for me to present my country’s statement as

28

commanded by His Majesty King Mswati III and on his

behalf. Allow me to convey the greetings and best

wishes of His Majesty King Mswati III and Her

Majesty the Indlovukazi and indeed the entire Swazi

nation.

We are gathered here to chart the way forward

towards the creation of a world fit for all of us by the

turn of the century and beyond. Over the past year, we

witnessed dramatic events that brought old and new

issues to the forefront. The international situation has

relapsed into the old state of uncertainty. International

leadership, be it on the part of the major Powers or the

United Nations, has become vague, as confrontations at

the interstate and intra-state levels have increased. Our

inability to stand collectively against many issues that

afflict each individual country differently has been

cited by our detractors as marking the beginning of the

end of the Organization and multilateralism.

The United Nations needs to send a clear message

to its detractors that it is alive and well, and that it will

indeed play a major role in the post-cold war era. All

must know that the United Nations is a major forum for

consultation, coordination and collective decisions on

crucial socio-political issues among its Members and

that its strength and relevance has never come from

affirming the designs of a few selected Member

nations, but instead rests on the collective will of the

international community that emerges from a

multilateral process.

In our interdependent world, the need to

strengthen the multilateral process is now more urgent

than ever before, if we are to achieve our common goal

of a just and humane international order based on

international cooperation and solidarity. This is a

challenge that must be squarely and urgently addressed,

and remedial action must be taken here at the United

Nations. We can stand tall and proud, knowing that two

years ago, the response by the United Nations to a new

and unprecedented level of terrorism was immediate,

united and effective. That response was a model for

international unity of purpose and multilateral action; it

was a lesson that should not be forgotten as the

Organization tackles other problems confronting

humanity.

At this point, allow me to pay tribute to

Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of

the Secretary-General, and to the other United Nations

staff and support staff who lost their lives in the

terrible tragedy in Baghdad a few weeks ago. Once

more, terrorism has shown its ugly face — indeed its

only face — and how important it is to support the

United Nations efforts to deal with it.

Despite the best intentions and efforts of regional

organizations and the United Nations, a scourge of a

different nature continues to threaten many parts of the

world. I refer here to the threat of internal and inter-

State conflicts around the world. Events in some parts

of the world continue to be of grave concern to us all.

People and countries continue to expend valuable

energy and resources in fighting each other. The

international community has a responsibility, not only

to design appropriate strategies for a measured and

early response, but also to find ways and means of

addressing those conflicts’ root cause and managing

them to a peaceful resolution.

There are positive indications that political

conflict and turmoil in Africa will be eliminated, and

there is hope for building stability and economic

progress. In the face of dwindling official development

assistance and the lack of comparable resources, the

creation of the African Union and its New Partnership

for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) programme are

commendable initiatives to bring Africa closer to the

mainstream of international development, to generate

sustainable economic growth and to eradicate poverty

and the spread of disease.

What is needed now are resources and we ask that

every effort be made by our developed partners to

ensure that these initiatives achieve a breakthrough for

African development. Also, the international

community should concentrate its efforts toward

making development more inclusive and must ensure

that particular groups of vulnerable countries, in

particular small developing States, are not left out of

the global economy and the development process.

With the ongoing revitalization of the General

Assembly and its integrated implementation and

follow-up to the outcome of major United Nations

conferences and summits, we are hopeful that the

aspirations of our countries for sustainable

development and peace will be met.

The situation in the Middle East continues to be a

matter of great concern. We urge both parties to renew

their commitment to the road map for peace and to

agree on a mechanism for achieving a lasting peace.

We are pleased to note that a significant level of

29

consensus on the main elements of a settlement has

emerged. We further urge both parties to take

advantage of this and proceed towards negotiations

involving the leadership of Palestine and Israel.

It is regrettable that the threat of a nuclear

holocaust still haunts us — even to this day — owing

to the inability of the international community to work

out a regime for the total elimination of nuclear

weapons. Under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear-

Test-Ban Treaty we have made significant gains on the

issue of nuclear disarmament, but these alone cannot

eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons. The Kingdom

of Swaziland continues to hold the view that the

international community must effectively address this

matter in order to establish a clear timetable to which

all nuclear Powers must commit.

In addition to the struggle to outlaw weapons of

mass destruction, there is an urgent need to address the

issue of small arms and light weapons, which have

contributed to conflict and insecurity in many of our

countries. Their easy accessibility, fuelled by illicit

brokering, is a major cause for concern. We appeal to

all countries to fully implement the recommendations

contained in the Programme of Action adopted by the

United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small

Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, held here

in New York in 2001, with a view to combating such

practices.

Economic growth is essential if we are to meet

the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the

first goal of eradicating poverty. In our quest to

develop quietly and peacefully, according to the wishes

of the Swazi nation, His Majesty King Mswati III

launched, in June this year, the country’s first draft

constitution — a document that has been hailed by

many as a good framework for shaping a new

Swaziland. The Constitutional Drafting Committee has

taken the draft to the people for their input, and it is

our hope that it will be finalized and adopted soon. We

are grateful to our international partners for providing

support throughout that exercise.

Despite our best efforts, however, the Kingdom of

Swaziland is finding it difficult to achieve progress

because of the huge obstacles that we face, the greatest

of these being the threat to our future by the HIV/AIDS

pandemic. Its devastating impact on Swaziland has

been well documented. No development sector is

immune from the consequences of the very high and

increasing HIV infection rate among our people, given

the enormous strain that it places on our financial and

human resources. We are grateful, however, to the

Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,

and hopes are now high. Notwithstanding the inherent

delays in processing our applications to the Fund, the

arrival of the first disbursements from the Fund in

August has increased hope for thousands among the

affected and infected population.

We are now able to embrace the approved

medical-care strategies, including the reduction of

mother-to-child transmission of the virus and the

prescription of antiretroviral drugs for those who need

them. The recent high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS,

which was held here last week, was of critical

importance to Swaziland. We are positive that the

conclusions reached during that meeting will be critical

in our endeavour to find solutions to this pandemic.

As part of His Majesty’s initiative to promote

global awareness of the pandemic and to raise funds

that will help those of our countries that are suffering

from the dreadful consequences of the disease, the

much awaited album by international artists, entitled

“Songs for Life”, was launched by His Majesty here at

the United Nations, in Washington and in Los Angeles

in June this year. We look forward with great

confidence to the success of the album, whose proceeds

will go entirely to HIV/AIDS programmes.

The food security situation that continues to

affect the Southern African region is closely linked to

the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The Kingdom of Swaziland

has been hard hit by food shortages, largely due to the

failure of the rains, particularly in the rural areas,

where communities are entirely dependent on farming.

As food shortages grip us tighter, we are grateful to the

United Nations and its affiliated agencies for their

effort to help us to arrest the crisis. As we approach

this farming season, it is our prayer that the situation

will improve.

It could be safely said that the twenty-first

century has had an inauspicious start, with

globalization, terrorism, disease and weapons of mass

destruction at the forefront of our minds. This places

all the more responsibility on the United Nations to

harness the resources and commitment of its Members

for the benefit of humankind. In this effort, there is a

compelling need to include all the peoples of the world,

30

as envisaged by our founding fathers and as enshrined

in the principle of universality. Acknowledging the

importance of this principle, the Kingdom of Swaziland

raises the issue of the inclusion once more of the

Republic of China on Taiwan in the activities of the

United Nations and its associated agencies. Our

principled position on this important issue remains

unchanged.

The Republic of China on Taiwan has shown time

and again its willingness to participate in efforts to

bring about true global peace, development and

security, as well as its commitment to utilize resources

for the benefit of mankind. We therefore fail to

understand why the people of Taiwan cannot be part of

this great family of nations.

Finally, I would like to thank the President of the

Assembly for giving me this opportunity to speak

before the Assembly. The Kingdom of Swaziland

reiterates its conviction that the United Nations system

remains the best guarantee for international peace and

security. We pledge to work vigorously with the

Organization to ensure its success.