Togo, 2009

At the

outset, allow me to convey the warm greetings of the

Head of State, Government and people of Togo on the

occasion of the sixty-fourth session of the General

Assembly. I also wish to add that the Minister for

Foreign Affairs of Togo, who unfortunately is absent

from New York, asked me to read out the following

statement :

“From this rostrum, where the leaders of the

entire planet have expressed their views on the

major questions of the time, I should in turn like

to share with this Assembly the following ideas,

prompted by the developments in our world over

the past 12 months.

“Before performing this duty, however, I

wish to convey to you, Sir, the warm

congratulations of the Government and the people

of Togo on your well-deserved election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at this

session. I can assure you of my delegation’s

willingness to work with you to carry out your

mandate, the success of which will do honour to

Africa and in particular to your country, the

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, with which Togo

maintains friendly relations of solidarity and

cooperation.

“Also I wish to convey to your predecessor,

Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, my

congratulations on his work and in particular for

the commendable initiatives he undertook

throughout his mandate to restore the General

Assembly to its due place and role under the

United Nations Charter. To His Excellency

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, I convey our

35 09-53165

congratulations for the dynamic and pragmatic

manner with which he has guided our

Organization.

“I hereby forcefully reaffirm Togo’s full

adherence to the ideals of peace, security and

development that are at the centre of the priorities

of our Organization. My country also endorses

the approaches adopted by our Organization in

recent years to further sustainable development

by promoting peace and security and by

mobilizing international solidarity in the

economic, social and cultural arenas.

“Political, administrative and economic

governance remains essential to the consolidation

of peace and security in our countries and

undoubtedly helps to speed up achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals. However, no

harmonious and lasting development is possible

without a climate of peace and national concord.

That is why the Government of Togo spares no

effort to create conditions conducive to bold

reforms and to lay the foundations for a new

republican pact and national reconciliation.

Indeed, since 2005, the Government, under the

guidance of the Head of State, has worked

tirelessly for a policy of openness, the promotion

of democracy, the strengthening of the rule of law

and the reduction of poverty. A number of

reforms have been undertaken in this regard,

especially in the political, constitutional,

institutional and socio-economic areas.

“Politically, the Head of State has engaged

in dialogue as an instrument of political

consensus. This approach, based on a politics of

complete openness, culminated in the signing in

August 2006 of the Global Political Accord,

which in turn led to the formation of a

Government of national unity, facilitated by His

Excellency Blaise Compaoré, President of

Burkina Faso. I recall that the implementation of

the Global Political Accord and the 22

commitments undertaken with the European

Union led to the holding of free and democratic

legislative elections in October 2007, which were

welcomed unanimously by the international

community. In the same spirit, a Truth, Justice

and Reconciliation Commission has been set up,

the members of which were appointed on 29 May

2009. Its purpose is to shed light on the political

acts of violence that occurred in Togo between

1958 and 2005 in order once and for all to banish

impunity from our country and to reconcile the

people of Togo with their history.

“With regard to constitutional reform,

significant progress has been made. In August,

the National Assembly adopted a law modifying

the electoral code, relaxing the eligibility

conditions for presidential elections, and allowing

for the establishment of a national independent

electoral commission and its reconfiguration in

order to adapt it to current political realities. At

the same time, discussions of certain questions

continue with the firm resolve of the Government

to carry out the rest of the reforms on the basis of

consensus, since we have made concerted action

and dialogue the foundation of our political

action in Togo.

“In the institutional area, we have striven to

reconstitute the Constitutional Court, the National

Human Rights Commission and the High

Authority for Audiovisual and Communication.

Similarly, the Government of Togo has

established a court of audits and adopted statutes

for the army, the security forces and the

opposition. It has also made arrangements for the

public financing of political parties and the

organs of the private press.

“As concerns the judiciary, our vast

modernization programme of the judicial system

continues in a satisfactory manner, with a view to

involving the people more closely in the

administration of justice. In this regard, the

Government has taken measures to guarantee

citizens freedom of expression, for example, by

decriminalizing press offences. Furthermore, to

demonstrate its desire to respect human dignity

and defend human rights, our Government

submitted to the National Assembly a bill

abolishing the death penalty. This law, adopted

unanimously on 24 June, is the outcome of a

constitutional provision that requires the State to

guarantee the physical and mental integrity, life

and security of all persons living on our national

territory.

“The efforts undertaken by the Government

in the areas of health, education and employment,

particularly for young people, have also seen

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considerable progress. In the field of health, we

have established a national health development

plan for the years 2009 to 2013, at a cost of

317 billion CFA francs, reflecting the will of the

Togolese Government to respond effectively to

our people’s health needs. With regard to

education, Togo’s educational system has suffered

from the financial constraints afflicting the

country for the past 15 years due to the

suspension of cooperation. This situation,

compounded by a high demand for education, has

resulted in a decline in teaching conditions and

serious structural problems. In the face of these

constraints, the Government has committed to

establish a sectoral education plan that will allow

the country to launch a fast-track initiative in

2010 to ensure education for all.

“To put a new face on public administration

and make it a genuine instrument for the

reconstruction and modernization of our country,

we have undertaken broad reforms that require,

inter alia, the recruitment of new officials. Thus,

thousands of young people have found work in

the public and private sectors thanks to the

creation of better production conditions for the

economic and social development of the country.

“With regard to the economic sector,

appropriate measures have been taken to put

public finances on a sound footing, create a

favourable framework for business and attract

investment, particularly from abroad. In this

context, I take this opportunity to once again

make an urgent appeal to all our bilateral and

multilateral partners, particularly the European

Union and the Bretton Woods institutions, to help

Togo in its efforts towards socio-economic

recovery.

“In the opinion of my delegation, the

development and proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction represent a growing threat to

international peace and security, and thus a reason

for us to give these questions the highest priority.

In this regard, my country welcomed the Security

Council summit held on 24 September, under the

presidency of the United States, on nuclear

non-proliferation and disarmament. While we

reaffirm that multilateralism is the fundamental

principle governing our consideration of

disarmament and non-proliferation, Togo hopes

that the Security Council summit will lead to a

new approach to this crucial question. With regard

to light arms, Togo reiterates its desire to see the

current session of the Assembly commit to

strengthening the implementation of the project

aimed at negotiating a treaty on the traffic in light

arms, as has been done by the Economic

Community of West African States in this area.

“Concerning terrorism, an obstacle to peace

and lasting development, my country feels that it

has become imperative to improve and globalize

the international legal framework in order to

combat this scourge, which has assumed a new

form in modern times. In this regard, the

completion within a reasonable time frame of

negotiations on a draft comprehensive convention

against international terrorism would be salutary

and in the interests of all.

“Similarly, the phenomenon of drugs, and in

particular the illicit traffic in drugs along the west

coast of Africa, has become a true danger and a

destabilizing factor for the region. In light of the

scale of this scourge, it is beyond a shadow of a

doubt that no country can combat or hope to put

an end to it alone. Togo therefore appeals for

international cooperation, and in particular for

assistance from the wealthy countries and

competent organizations, in eradicating this

phenomenon and thereby restoring the climate of

security so essential to development. For its part,

in spite of its scarce resources, Togo has

undertaken a relentless struggle against drug

traffickers and is cooperating with its neighbours

in order to contain the scourge.

“As we all know, international peace and

security continue to be threatened and the

stability of certain countries disturbed by

conflicts, terrorism and underdevelopment, all of

which are largely man-made. Indeed, in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, the

Central African Republic and Darfur, where

crises continue, our Organization should continue

to engage in a search for solutions that will allow

those countries to recover the peace and security

necessary to their development.

“In Somalia, despite the initiatives

undertaken in April 2009 by the international

community and by the African Union in July

37 09-53165

2009 in support of security institutions and the

African Union Mission in Somalia, the situation

remains precarious and disturbing. That is why

my country urgently appeals for other urgent

measures to be taken to prevent that country from

succumbing to chaos for good.

“Regarding Côte d’Ivoire, we note with

satisfaction the positive evolution of the political

situation in that country since the Ouagadougou

Political Agreement. Consequently, we call on the

stakeholders to display the political will to

organize the presidential election.

“With regard to Guinea, it would seem

appropriate and timely to encourage the political

class to find, through dialogue and consultation,

ways and means of ensuring a rapid return to

constitutional order.

“As to the situation in the Niger, where the

revision of the Constitution has provoked a crisis,

my country hopes that the parties concerned in

the Niger will strive to restore dialogue and

consensus in order to maintain a climate of peace

and harmony in that sister country.

“Outside the African continent, in the

Middle East, a theatre of violence and desolation,

an equitable and final settlement of the conflicts

between the countries of this region should be

found as soon as possible. To that end, the

international community should encourage the

various actors to find a peaceful solution to their

conflicts. In this regard, my delegation reaffirms

that the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

requires the creation of a Palestinian State living

side by side with the State of Israel within secure

and internationally recognized borders.

“Furthermore, my country deplores the

continuing acts of terrorism that have afflicted

the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan and

undermined the efforts of these countries to

promote development. That is why we urge the

international community to increase its assistance

to the Governments of those countries in their

fight against terrorism in order to promote peace

and reconstruction.

“After two decades of economic stagnation

resulting from policies of budgetary austerity

imposed on developing countries, the latter are

now facing new challenges from the food,

financial, energy and environmental crises. In the

light of this situation, it is imperative to work to

mitigate the financial shock and to pursue bold

policies to increase the agricultural and energy

production capacities of the developing countries.

At the same time, we need to consider overall

structural reform of the world economic and

financial system in order to prevent a resurgence

of such crises.

“My country therefore welcomed the high-

level Conference on the World Financial and

Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development,

held from 24 to 26 June, which illustrated the

need for international solidarity in the face of the

crisis in order to ease the suffering of the peoples

of developing countries.

“In that context, Togo welcomes the early

implementation, in April 2009, of one of the

pledges made at the G-20 meeting in London,

concerning the establishment of the Global Trade

Liquidity Programme amounting to $50 billion

from 2009 to 2011, $15 billion of which are

allocated to the African continent. Similarly, my

country welcomes the initiative taken in March

2009 by the African Development Bank to create

a special $500 million funding mechanism for

African trade.

“Furthermore, my delegation is pleased that

the United Nations, at the initiative of the

Secretary-General, has taken the measure of the

danger posed to humanity by the problem of

climate change and the degradation of the

environment. In this regard, the high-level

meeting that took place a few days ago in this

very body was an opportunity to analyse the

situation and to clear the way for the Climate

Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

To paraphrase a great man, we have inherited the

Earth and we should not destroy it. Living

creatures come and go, but the Earth remains.

“In the face of the questions that my

delegation has just raised, it is imperative to

intensify partnerships of all kinds if we wish to

prevent a situation in which, 64 years after its

creation, our shared Organization should find

itself still facing the same challenges. It is to be

hoped, therefore, that Member States, in whose

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interest it is that the United Nations should be

more democratic, strong and effective, should

determine to give it the resources necessary to

permit it to achieve the Millennium Development

Goals and thereby to meet the challenges that our

world faces today.”