Togo, 2010

At the

outset, allow me to extend my congratulations and

those of the Togolese people to Mr. Joseph Deiss on his

election as President of the General Assembly at its

sixty-fifth session and to wish him every success in the

accomplishment of his great task. My delegation will

spare no effort in working at his side towards the

successful achievement of his mandate. Like him, we

are firmly convinced that the values that lie at the heart

of the United Nations remain very relevant today to

successfully meeting the challenges facing humankind.

I also congratulate his predecessor for his

invaluable efforts during his term of office to advance

the agenda of the General Assembly in many diverse

and different areas, in particular those of peace and

security, human rights and the development of our

nations.

I would like to renew my personal support and

that of my country to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

for the dynamism he has shown over the course of the

past four years at the head of the United Nations. I also

take this opportunity to congratulate him on the

important report that he introduced to us yesterday on

the work of the Organization (A/65/1).

The theme that the President of the General

Assembly has proposed for the current session,

“Reaffirming the central role of the United Nations in

global governance”, eloquently translates the

aspirations of our States, particularly the developing

countries. The theme implies that the United Nations

must remain at the heart of multilateralism and that the

institutions of our Organization must therefore be

reconsidered, beginning with the long-awaited reform

of the Security Council, in order to bring greater

democracy and equity and, above all, to respond more

effectively to the many challenges to our world.

In its own search for better governance and the

well-being of its people, my country, Togo, has

tirelessly and irreversibly continued its march towards

greater democracy, freedom and justice in an

environment of peace and stability. Seeking to turn the

page once and for all on the dark years of our

democratic deficit, the Head of State has established a

new policy of openness. In August 2006, this

commendable initiative led to the signing of the

Comprehensive Political Agreement among the main

political actors in Togo and to the establishment of a

Government of national unity and the holding in

October 2007 of legislative elections that were

universally recognized as free and transparent and, for

the first time, without violence. These elections, which

established a pluralist National Assembly, are without a

doubt the emblem of our democratic renaissance.

The Government has since initiated political and

economic reforms leading to the adoption of a statute

of the opposition and of a law on the financing of

political parties; the consensus appointment of

members of the National Independent Electoral

Commission; and the creation of a security force for

the presidential elections, the members of which are

trained according to universally recognized standards

and have maintained security throughout the electoral

process in an exemplary fashion. All of these efforts

naturally allowed Togo to hold, on 4 March 2010, a

presidential election that was democratic, peaceful and

widely praised by the international community.

I reiterate here the profound gratitude of the

Government and people of Togo to all of our partners,

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to regional and international institutions, and to the

friendly countries that supported us throughout the

electoral process, making it a success and a good

example. Our gratitude goes to the United Nations for

its many forms of support throughout the process of

democratization and consolidation.

I would also encourage the United Nations to

invest even more in preventive democracy by,

inter alia, beginning to envision mechanisms that could

lead all parties to accept the results of elections that are

recognized as credible and transparent by the

international community. That is a challenge we have

to take up, particularly in our young democracies, and

especially the African democracies, so that the post-

electoral period is no longer a nightmare or a source of

division among our peaceful populations.

Notwithstanding his outstanding victory, and

faithful to his policy of reaching out to his opponents,

President Faure Gnassingbé appealed to all persons of

good will to take part in the building of the Togolese

nation. It was in this vein that an historic political

agreement was concluded in May between the

presidential majority and the Union des Forces de

Changement, the main opposition party in Togo, which,

with seven ministerial posts, has for the first time

joined a Government after 40 years of political

fighting.

Moreover, the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation

Commission, which seeks to promote reconciliation

among the Togolese people by shedding light on the

political violence that took place in Togo between 1958

and 2005, is currently in the depositions phase. My

country will work tirelessly to consolidate the

achievements of democracy and peace, while devoting

increasing efforts and energy to the achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in order to

bring human and sustainable development to the entire

population. Now that Togo has reconciled with itself, I

have faith in our capacity to fully renew our relations

with all of our bilateral and multilateral partners and to

open up new horizons in the vast field of solidarity that

is international cooperation.

Although there are some positive signs of the

recovery of the world economy, it is no exaggeration to

say that the path to stabilization and the suppression of

the disturbing effects of the crisis is still long, perilous

and uncertain.

The new problem of climate change has brought

in its wake catastrophes linked to rainfall phenomena,

such as floods, drought and landslides. Without a

doubt, all of these phenomena will have a negative

impact on global economic growth in general and,

more specifically, a tragic effect on the least developed

countries in particular. Despite this threat, we still

hesitate to reach agreement, as was demonstrated

recently by the Copenhagen Conference on innovative

and proactive strategies to significantly reduce

greenhouse gas emissions, on the one hand, and, on the

other hand, to pursue discussions to adopt as soon as

possible a schedule for concluding a new agreement to

succeed the Kyoto Protocol. The time for speeches is

over; the time to act is now.

The High-level Plenary Meeting that we have just

held here on the implementation of the Millennium

Development Goals revealed once again the intrinsic

link between aid and development, on the one hand,

and development and political will, on the other, at the

national and international levels. The modest results

my country has achieved with respect to the MDGs

could have been better, and we would have been closer

to attaining them within the deadlines set if we had not

been deprived for far too many years of the precious

help afforded by development aid.

The peaceful political climate being enjoyed by

my country will also enable us to effectively pursue the

improvement of the management of our public finances

so that we are able to devote more domestic resources

to achieving the MDGs. However, the efforts

undertaken by poor countries to consolidate the bases

of sustainable development will be a genuine success

only if developed countries provide them with their

various forms of assistance and if they honour their

commitments. Let us not close our eyes to this fact. We

need better aid in terms of quantity and quality.

Although the international community can

welcome the fact that the number of armed conflicts in

the world has fallen, we cannot forget that several

peacekeeping operations of the United Nations are still

under way. That is undeniable proof that we are still far

from the ideal of international peace and security that

the founding fathers of the United Nations envisaged.

Civil wars and terrorism continue to plunge many

families into mourning throughout the world. More

than wars, terrorism today is the most murderous form

of violence inflicted upon people because it attacks

indiscriminately, killing children, men, women and the

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elderly. The eradication of terrorism in all its forms is a

long-term task and the responsibility above all of

States and the international community acting in

solidarity. They are obligated to find the best way to

fight this phenomenon. In this regard, prevention,

protection, prosecution and punishment, as well as

international cooperation, must remain the main focus

of State action.

While Member States struggle to find a definition

of terrorism in order to better fight it, the scourge is

affecting an increasing number of countries because of

the support that terrorists receive, particularly from

drug trafficking networks. In West Africa, all leaders

have become aware of the threat posed by drug

trafficking and are engaged in a fight to the death

against the phenomenon. I call on wealthy countries to

help fight drug trafficking in my subregion in order to

prevent it from becoming an unstable zone of

unrestrained violence.

The purposes and principles for which the United

Nations Organization was created are noble, but

65 years after its birth the work that remains to be done

is immense because the social situation of the

inhabitants of the planet does not always follow the

development that our world has achieved. Poverty and

destitution are not mere words; they are oppressive

realities experienced day by day. They lead to violence,

instability, conflicts and other scourges that we, today,

are not fighting successfully. Only international

solidarity will allow us to overcome the evils of this

world.