Eswatini, 2007

It is a great pleasure for me to

address the General Assembly at its sixty-second

session.

Let me begin by extending warm greetings from

the Kingdom of Swaziland to the entire United Nations

family.

It befits this moment that I extend our

congratulations to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban

Ki-moon, upon his appointment. We trust that he will

continue in the footsteps of his predecessors in

carrying out the important mission of the United

Nations. The Kingdom of Swaziland pledges its

support to him as he continues to promote and protect

the noble goals of multilateralism.

The role of the United Nations is to promote

peace and security, sustainable development, human

rights and fundamental freedoms. The United Nations

should continue to shape situations for the betterment

of the lives of all the peoples of the world. If it is to

succeed, there is a need for the United Nations to

reform its main bodies. We have met regionally as

countries; consensus decisions have been reached and

recommendations made, and we look forward to their

implementation. As the United Nations achieves

reform, it is likely to undertake meaningful action so

that when decisions are taken, the Organization will be

respected by all.

Many of our countries the world over are facing

countless challenges, and we look to this Organization

to come up with lasting solutions. My country,

Swaziland, is still undertaking development

programmes to implement the Millennium

Development Goals that were set by the United

Nations for individual countries to achieve. We have

programmes for building a very sound economy so that

our people will have good jobs that will make their

living standards better.

As part of our human capital development and

capacity-building programme, we are educating and

training our people in every aspect to acquire more

knowledge and information, and we look to the well-

developed countries to share their experiences and

ideas.

One area of great concern is that, as we continue

to implement our development programmes, we are

faced with the challenges of globalization that will

affect our preferential markets. That will be

detrimental to us, the developing countries, since

companies have big loans to repay that were taken out

on the basis of better markets. We hope that, as the

World Trade Organization (WTO) rules come into

force, there shall be considerations to ensure that all

developing countries meet WTO standards. In that way,

we shall be able to implement the rules equitably and

effectively.

HIV/AIDS and other health problems remain

some of the major challenges that we face as

developing nations. We have programmes in place that

we are trying to follow in dealing with the situation,

but we are unable to meet our targets because of our

limited resources. We have heard of many foundations

that have been announced worldwide and we hope to

be able to access them. We look forward to those

responsible for such foundations sharing the

information on how to reach the funds, as well as

technical support.

We acknowledge the contribution made by the

Global Fund in the fight against the scourge. My

country is one of the beneficiaries of such funding, and

we have been able to offer a lot of comfort to many of

our people. We encourage the United Nations to

continue to appeal on our behalf for continued support

in eradicating the problem of HIV/AIDS, malaria and

tuberculosis, to name just a few.

We also recognize the role of various United

Nations agencies working with our communities in the

provision of shelter, nutritional support and education

to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. I am pleased to

state that our fight is showing some signs of success, as

recent statistics have shown a decline in the prevalence

rate.

We are faced with persistent droughts that have

set us back as we continue to develop our country, and

that has been worsened by the wildfires that have

recently occurred, destroying properties, crops,

livestock and our forest industry. My country is doing

everything it can to help those that have been affected

by this unfortunate situation. We would like to thank

the countries and organizations that have come forward

to help us during this period of hardship and we do

make an appeal to others for support; which is still

needed.

Some of the problems I have mentioned that are

affecting my country are the result of climate changes.

That is why we believe that the summit we had is very

important, and we would like to commend the

Secretary-General for convening the high-level summit

on climate change held earlier this week. A political

momentum has been generated, and it is our hope that

the necessary negotiations on the matter will

commence in Bali later this year during the meeting of

the parties to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change.

The Kingdom of Swaziland has developed some

sector policies that are climate-change friendly, such as

our pro-green energy policy and water resources

policy, to mention a couple. However, there is a need to

enhance education, training and public awareness with

regard to the adaptation and promotion of individual

and institutional capacity-building in order to manage

appropriate technology development and transfer.

We note that there is a general need for

favourable access to and transfer of environmentally

sound technologies, in particular from developed

countries to developing countries, through supportive

measures that promote technology cooperation. This

will enable the necessary technological know-how to

be transferred and economic, technical and managerial

capabilities to be built for the efficient use and further

development of transferred skills.

We would like to encourage the private sector,

and in particular the multinational corporations, to be

responsible enough to practise the same environmental

and waste management principles in the developing

world. We would also like to discourage the

irresponsible dumping of harmful waste materials in

developing countries.

The Kingdom of Swaziland is deeply committed

to the United Nations Charter. Moreover, recent events

in the world have been living proof that the United

Nations is needed now more than ever before. Sadly,

the realities of wars and violence still continue in

different parts of the world. Conflicts, tensions and

terrorism continue to destroy the social and economic

fabric of the era that we are living in.

We welcome the report of the Secretary-General

on the relationship between disarmament and

development (A/62/112), in particular its recognition

that armed violence and conflict impede the realization

of the Millennium Development Goals.

In this regard we applaud the United Nations

Development Programme for its efforts to prevent

armed violence through its contribution to the

disarmament and development agenda by promoting

and participating in a number of policy-oriented

initiatives.

We further commend the efforts of the United

Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in

Africa both for its continuation of the operation of the

small arms and light weapons register for Africa for

participating States, with a view to promoting

transparency in the flows of small arms and light

weapons, and for its programme entitled “African

Security Sector Reform Programme”, which carries the

objective of transforming governance within the

African security sector.

However, we are concerned about the situation in

Somalia and Darfur and its far-reaching consequences

for regional security. The continued human suffering in

this region is unacceptable, and we hope that current

efforts aimed at improving the situation will not be

deprived of the opportunity to succeed. On a more

positive note, we welcome the Security Council

decision to deploy the joint African Union-United

Nations hybrid peacekeeping force.

The Middle East continues to face challenges and

the accumulation of crises and tensions in the region. It

is therefore imperative that all parties concerned make

an effort to achieve comprehensive, fair, just and

durable settlements.

I would like to take this time to applaud the

United Nations for its role in promoting its Charter,

especially the principle of universality. There is one

country, however, that is not benefiting from this

principle, as it has been excluded from the family of

nations.

I am talking about Taiwan: the Kingdom of

Swaziland wishes to reiterate its appeal to the United

Nations with respect to the question of Taiwan. We

note that Taiwan exercised a well-founded right in

international law to apply for membership in the

United Nations. Regrettably, the application was

rejected without due process.

The Government and people of Taiwan have

shown their willingness and capacity to contribute

actively to global development and peace, through

disaster relief and health and development support to

many regions. We continue to support the cause of the

over 23 million people of Taiwan who are not

represented in the one organization that should be truly

global. I would like to challenge all nations to take my

appeal seriously.

While our world experiences ever-accelerating

political, economic and social changes, it is vital that

we cooperate with each other in order to tackle and

manage these issues. Cordial, balanced and respectful

relations between nations based on the principles of the

United Nations Charter will enable us all to meet and

overcome future challenges of our time, and make this

world a safer place for future generations.