Togo, 2004

In

expressing to you, Sir, our great pride at seeing an

eminent representative of the Group of African States

preside over the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth

session, I wish to offer you, on behalf of

Mr. Gnassingbé Eyadema, President of the Togolese

Republic, and of the Government and the people of

Togo, which it is my great honour to represent, our

sincere wishes for your success in fulfilling your

mandate.

We also congratulate Secretary-General Kofi

Annan on his dynamic and unequivocal work at the

head of our Organization.

The present session of the General Assembly is

being held at a time when international peace and

security continue to be seriously threatened, requiring

our common Organization fully to shoulder its role and

mission with even greater determination and bolder

initiatives. Indeed, we are living in a world of

precarious balances arising from our collective

inability to establish genuine peace and shared well-

being in the framework of international legitimacy.

In Africa, the legitimate aspirations of people to

lasting peace, in particular in those countries and

regions where that peace is being sorely tested, have

yet to be achieved.

In Côte d’Ivoire, after numerous short-lived

hopes have been dashed, the implementation of the

Accra III Agreement remains today the sole hope for

the restoration of peace and stability in that country.

The Togolese Head of State, who from the very

beginning of the crisis committed himself to the path of

dialogue and reconciliation, will continue to be

involved in the peaceful settlement of that fratricidal

conflict.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

recently arisen obstacles to the peace process, which is

intended to lead to the holding in 2005 of elections for

the creation of new institutions, have required the

international community to spare no effort in

maintaining the gains won through the costly

deployment of the United Nations Mission in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) and in

launching, whenever necessary, such operations as

Artemis to nip in the bud any impulse towards a

resumption of combat wherever it may arise. The

Government of Togo therefore unreservedly supports

the Secretary-General’s proposal significantly to

increase the number of MONUC personnel.

It is to be hoped that the international conference

on peace, security and development in the Great Lakes

region, to be held in November, will be the appropriate

framework for finding lasting solutions to the problems

of insecurity and instability that continue to weaken

relationships among States of the region and to

jeopardize the emergence of a climate of good-

neighbourliness and mutual understanding.

In the Sudan, regarding the tragedy unfolding in

Darfur, the international community must urgently

assist the Government of that country and the Sudan

People’s Liberation Army/Movement to consolidate the

peace process through the signing of the

comprehensive peace agreement. In that regard, the

international community must provide consistent

support to the African Union’s peace operation.

In Burundi, Liberia and Somalia in particular, the

outburst of solidarity and renewed interest which the

international community continues to show in the

restoration of peace and the recovery of those

countries, battered by long years of war, should be

accompanied by more adequate financial and logistical

assistance. Togo, for its part, will continue to

contribute to conflict and crisis resolution in Africa

and to support the various United Nations

peacekeeping operations by supplying military

contingents or observers, as it is currently doing in

Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, Liberia and Haiti.

The prevailing situations in the world,

particularly in Iraq and the Middle East, are a source of

major concern. In Iraq, the restoration of full

sovereignty to the Iraqi people and the recognition that

the United Nations has an important role to play in

rebuilding the country should give every element of

Iraqi society the opportunity to work with resolve to

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build a stable and prosperous country free of all

violence.

In the Middle East, the ongoing escalation of

violence between the State of Israel and the Palestinian

State may definitively compromise the continuation of

the peace process and the implementation of the

various agreements that have been signed. In that

respect, the international community and the Quartet

must strive to persuade the two protagonists to avoid

unilateral action and to return to the negotiating table

on the basis of the road map and the relevant

resolutions of the Security Council.

Furthermore, we wish to emphasize, again with

respect to crisis issues, that post-conflict situations

clearly demonstrate the importance of providing

adequate financing, not only for humanitarian

assistance but also for other vital programmes to

promote peace and sustainable development. There is

thus a need for the financing of disarmament,

demobilization and reintegration programmes for ex-

combatants and other long-term instruments for

ensuring peace — such as education, health care and

job creation for young people — to be made a priority

of post-conflict peace-building.

In the same context, the troubling financial

situation of the three Regional Centres for peace and

disarmament call for more attention from the Assembly

if they are to enjoy the financial resources necessary to

fulfil their mandates harmoniously. In that regard, and

on the basis of the relevant Secretary-General’s reports,

the delegation of Togo firmly believes that it is high

time for the General Assembly seriously to review the

financing of the Regional Centres in order to provide

them with adequate financial resources under the

Organization’s regular budget. In so doing, the General

Assembly would demonstrate its genuine support for

the Organization’s goals in the area of arms control and

disarmament and its appreciation of the active role

played to date by the Centres. For its part, my country,

which hosts the United Nations Regional Centre for

Peace and Disarmament in Africa, will do its utmost to

ensure the Centre’s continuity and long-term viability.

Terrorism is the other major danger of our times

because it continues seriously to threaten our States

and is thus a scourge in the face of which failure to act

effectively means giving way to the forces of evil.

Having endured terrorism in the past, Togo once again

condemns the heinous terrorist attacks perpetrated

recently around the world and keenly hopes that more

decisive action will be undertaken to eradicate that

disease of the human conscience.

From that perspective, while it is up to each State

to take the measures necessary to strengthen security

within its own borders, we must strive above all to

enhance regional and international cooperation among

States and to ensure that the poor States can enjoy

adequate assistance in the implementation of effective

national mechanisms to combat terrorism.

Economic and social development is a corollary

of peace and security. We all recall that, at the dawn of

the twenty-first century, the Millennium Summit was

convened here in this very Hall. Following the Summit,

at which the problems of poverty and development

were debated, the heads of State and Government

adopted the Millennium Declaration, an unprecedented

affirmation of international solidarity in which the rich

and poor countries together undertook firm

commitments whereby they forcefully reaffirmed their

will to reduce by half, by the year 2015, the proportion

of the world’s population touched by poverty. World

leaders voiced the hope at that time that other major

meetings also held early in the new millennium would

serve as a framework for the birth of genuine

partnership between the countries of the North and

those of the South.

Several years later, however, we note with regret

that the Millennium Development Goals have been

hard to achieve. Indeed, the necessary resources to

finance sustainable development and to combat poverty

and hunger in the developing countries have not been

mobilized and, contrary to expectations, only a small

number of developing countries have been able to

make progress in the elimination of poverty.

The critical economic situation in Africa requires

a collective awakening and introspection. What has

happened to our myriad commitments? What has

happened to our many promises?

Regarding the rules of international trade, which

remain unfavourable to the poor countries; regarding

the long-awaited debt relief; regarding the fact that the

goal of 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product for

official development assistance has been met by only a

small fraction of donor countries, we may well ask

ourselves what happened to the solidarity so loudly

proclaimed at the Millennium Summit.

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Last year’s failure of the World Trade

Organization trade negotiations in Cancún — designed

to settle the critical issues of eliminating agricultural

subsidies and providing access to the markets of the

industrialized world for the products of the countries of

the South — highlighted yet again the North-South

division and evoked real fears for the future of the

multilateral trade system.

On the basis of those questions and concerns, the

delegation of Togo reaffirms the need for all

international partners to reflect in deeds the political

will they proclaimed at the International Conference on

Financing for Development and the World Summit on

Sustainable Development so as to give new impetus to

efforts to increase official development assistance, to

provide debt relief and equitable access to markets, to

protect the environment, and to combat malaria,

HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

2005 will be a crucial year for our Organization.

Indeed, in 2005, we shall engage in in-depth

consideration of the implementation of the Monterrey

Consensus. In 2005, we shall hold a high-level debate

on the implementation of the Declaration of

Commitment on HIV/AIDS. In that regard, we need to

bear in mind that the twenty-sixth special session of

the General Assembly set specific goals to be met for

2003 and 2005 towards the eradication of HIV/AIDS

pandemic.

Above all, 2005 will be the year of the high-level

plenary meeting to engage in a comprehensive review

of progress made in the implementation of all of the

commitments undertaken in the Millennium

Declaration and at the major United Nations

conferences and summit meetings in the economic and

social fields.

We therefore await those meetings with interest.

They will give us the opportunity to reaffirm our

political commitment to building a world of greater

solidarity and prosperity in order to give hope once

more to that significant segment of the world’s

population that lives on less than $1 a day, suffers from

hunger and malnutrition and has no access to drinking

water.

The peace and economic and social development

that we desire for our countries cannot be achieved

without the effective participation of peoples in

managing public affairs. Democracy in Togo, based on

a multi-party system and the rule of law, has become a

vibrant reality, inter alia, through the adoption of

important legislative and administrative texts and the

establishment of virtually every institution provided for

by the Constitution. With faith and determination, the

Government of Togo, under the impetus of the Head of

State, is striving to build a genuinely democratic

society that also takes the sociological realities of our

country into account.

In order to complete its task, the Government has

declared its openness to any constructive contribution

from the national political class and civilian society, as

well as from our development partners. In that context,

on 14 April it opened consultations with the European

Union, in conformity with article 96 of the Cotonou

Agreement of partnership linking that organization to

the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States. At

the outset of the consultations, the Government

endorsed a number of commitments whose

implementation is currently near completion and

should ultimately lead to a better foundation of

democratic culture and the consolidation of the rule of

law.

The Government intends to strive to bring the

consultations to a successful conclusion, the ultimate

objective of which is the resumption of cooperation

between the European Union and Togo. The political

zeal of the Togolese authorities — reflected in the

implementation of an ongoing inclusive national

dialogue; the adoption of a press and communications

code; the drafting of an improved electoral code and a

financing law for political parties; and the decision

taken by the Head of State on 11 August to release

more than 500 common-law prisoners — is a guarantee

of the Government’s resolve to create favourable

conditions for the citizens of Togo to enjoy their

fundamental rights, and in particular their political and

economic rights.

We take this opportunity to launch an urgent

appeal to all our development partners to assist the

Government of Togo in the process of strengthening

and consolidating democracy and the rule of law.

I cannot conclude without returning to the

recurrent issue of United Nations reform. The

Government of Togo wishes to propose that bold

decisions be taken at this session to accelerate the

process of reform of the system, and of the Security

Council in particular, so that the issue can be more than

a mirage. Indeed, the numerous challenges confronting

13

today’s world require a strengthened and more

effective Security Council, which only a more

representative and more democratic membership can

ensure. In that respect, Africa deserves an appropriate

place within that vital United Nations body.

The Security Council must therefore be enlarged

in both the permanent and non-permanent memberships

so as to meet the democratic requirements of our times

and to allow various groups of countries to provide

their valuable assistance in achieving the objectives of

our Organization, which include peace and security,

working for freedom and democracy, guaranteeing

global prosperity through free and equitable

international trade, preserving a healthy environment

and creating stable international relations based on

dialogue. If we truly seek to achieve all this, we must

give our common Organization the resources

commensurate with doing so.

May this session serve to strengthen cooperation

among our States and peoples and assist us in

consolidating peace and in achieving security and

lasting development for all.