Tunisia, 2003

It

gives me great pleasure to convey to you, Sir, and to

your friendly country, Saint Lucia, our sincere

congratulations on your election as President of the

General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session. I am

confident that your great skills and abilities will

guarantee the success of our proceedings at this

session. I also would like to express to your

predecessor, Mr. Jan Kavan, deep appreciation for his

remarkable stewardship of the fifty-seventh session.

I would also like to take this opportunity to

extend to Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the

United Nations, our thanks and appreciation for his

tireless efforts to strengthen the role of our

Organization in order to enable it to attain its

objectives of achieving peace, security and

development in the world.

Since the opening of the previous Assembly

session, the world has witnessed a series of

developments that have contributed to the further

deterioration of global security and stability. Crises and

conflicts are proliferating, while there has been an

increase in poverty and exclusion and in the spread of

disease in many parts of the world. Faced with this

array of challenges, the international community is

called upon to assume its responsibilities and take

resolute action. All Member States must renew their

commitment to the noble principles enshrined in the

Charter of the United Nations, work together in the

framework of an international consensus to strengthen

the role of our Organization in the maintenance of

peace and security and find solutions to current

international issues. We are convinced that that is the

best way to ensure that the world is governed by the

principles of dialogue, cooperation and consensus.

The new challenges facing the international

community and the necessity of establishing relations

based on justice, equity and harmony, demand that we

unite our efforts to ensure that the United Nations

remains the framework for our common endeavours to

preserve peace and security — the embodiment of

international law, to which all countries must be

committed and which they must implement in a non-

selective manner, without double standards.

These new challenges also require the United

Nations to enhance its efficiency and improve its

working methods, taking into account the noble

principles enshrined in the Charter, by strengthening its

main organs, particularly the Security Council, which

must regain its credibility with regard to the maintenance

of international peace and security, and by revitalizing

and enhancing the role of the General Assembly in the

interests of peace, security and development.

In this regard, we support the Secretary-General’s

call to accelerate the introduction of necessary reforms,

and we stress that Tunisia, which has participated in

the past in the debate on these reforms, stands ready to

continue to contribute effectively to international

efforts aimed at achieving this objective, which is now

more urgent than ever.

We are convinced that the deterioration of the

global situation requires the international community to

adopt a comprehensive and multidimensional approach,

based on the interdependence of peace and security on

the one hand, and development on the other. We

believe that peace and security cannot prevail

throughout the world unless the development needs of

all peoples are addressed. We also recognize that

development cannot be achieved in the absence of

security and peace for all.

Of course the pursuit of such an objective will

require all members of the international community to

pool their efforts and show greater solidarity so as to

eliminate the root causes of tension and to eradicate

poverty and deprivation, which are breeding grounds

for trouble and instability.

Since the change of 7 November 1987, Tunisia

has called for the adoption of such an approach and has

presented, at the regional and international levels,

numerous initiatives and proposals, whose objective is

to build the foundation for a world with a greater

capacity to attain the goal of peace, security and

development and to spread the values of dialogue,

tolerance and solidarity among all peoples.

20

In this context, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

of Tunisia called in 1989, from this lofty rostrum, for

the conclusion of a pact for peace and progress in the

framework of the United Nations, drawing together the

countries of the North and the South and based on

peace and justice and the strengthening of cooperation

among all countries of the world.

All the initiatives and proposals put forward by

the President of Tunisia since that date have been

consistent with that call, as they stem from the

determination of Tunisia and its President to ensure the

effectiveness of our country’s contribution to

addressing issues of peace, security and development,

particularly in relation to the phenomenon of terrorism

and the means of combating it and to the

implementation of mechanisms for conflict resolution

in the Arab and African regions.

In line with the comprehensive character of the

Tunisian approach, the President of Tunisia has

consistently called on the international community to

help developing countries strengthen their economies

through a number of regional and international

initiatives such as those related to debt relief, in

particular debt recycling for middle-income countries;

the transfer of science and technology to developing

countries and a call for the convening of a world

summit on the information society.

President Ben Ali also called for the

dissemination of the values of solidarity and

compassion as a means of contributing to the

eradication of poverty, marginalization and exclusion

in all parts of the world — a call that led to the

establishment of the World Solidarity Fund.

Tunisia, which has succeeded in creating a

secure, stable and well-balanced society that is

integrated into the mainstream of the modern world,

believes that the well-being of humankind is the

ultimate objective and, on the basis of its own national

experience, that the fight against extremism and

terrorism, which constitute a serious threat to the entire

world, cannot succeed unless it is comprehensive and

multidimensional in nature and takes into account not

only the security dimension but also the need to

address the root causes of the phenomenon.

We therefore underscore the necessity of working

to develop a common international approach to fighting

the phenomenon of extremism and terrorism, taking

into account all relevant international conventions.

In this context, pending the achievement of the

necessary progress in the adoption of a comprehensive

international mechanism to fight terrorism, we would

like to reiterate Tunisia’s call for the conclusion of a

code of conduct to fight terrorism, to which all

countries adhere and which will include the principles

around which a consensus could be built. Such a code

of conduct could constitute a common denominator in

collectively confronting this phenomenon. An

international conference could be convened to lay the

groundwork for such a code of conduct.

The wide international support enjoyed by the

proposal to establish the World Solidarity Fund

testifies to the need for such a mechanism, which is

aimed at reducing the suffering, poverty, exclusion and

marginalization endured by a great number of peoples

throughout the world, particularly in Africa.

While we reiterate our sincere gratitude to

Member States for their support for this initiative, we

remain convinced that, as the Fund was set up in

February 2003 and has become one of the official

mechanisms of the United Nations system, Member

States will spare no effort in speeding up its

operationalization, thus allowing it to begin its

activities as soon as possible and thereby contribute to

the achievement of the Millennium Development

Goals. We therefore urge the international community

and all relevant actors, including State and private

organizations, to mobilize the necessary financial

resources for the Fund so as to allow it to fulfil its

noble humanitarian objectives. It is also imperative, in

this regard, to speed up the establishment of the

proposed high-level committee, whose task is to define

the strategy of the World Solidarity Fund and to

mobilize the resources needed for its activities.

The widening digital gap between industrialized

and developing countries requires us to take the

necessary practical measures to enable all countries of

the world to take advantage of the broad prospects

provided by the technological revolution in the field of

communications. In that context, Tunisia called for the

convening of a World Summit on the Information

Society. We are now intensifying our preparation for

the second phase of that Summit, which will be held in

Tunis in November 2005.

While expressing its determination to contribute

effectively to the first phase, which is due to be held in

Geneva in December this year, Tunisia will do its

21

utmost to ensure that the Tunis summit will constitute

an opportunity to elaborate a common approach, in

order to contribute to strengthening cooperation

between all members of the international community

and to consolidate the role of information and

communication technologies in development. We are

confident that the member States that chose Tunisia to

host the Summit will do their utmost to make the

summit a success.

Convinced of the role of sports in strengthening the

bonds of friendship, cooperation and rapprochement

between peoples, and taking into account the

importance of physical education as an instrument to

consolidate the foundations of peace and promote

development in the world, Tunisia decided to present to

this session of the General Assembly a draft resolution

proclaiming the year 2004 an international year of

sports and physical education in the service of peace

and development. We express the hope that this

proposal, which has already received the support of the

African Union and the Organization of the Islamic

Conference, will get wide support from the international

community and other international sports bodies.

The Middle East continues to suffer from a cycle

of violence and tension. The road map, which Tunisia

supported, revived hope for the resumption of the

peace process. However, that hope was soon faced with

Israel’s insistence on imposing the reality of occupation

and continuous military campaigns against the Palestinian

people, including the decision to expel President Yasser

Arafat, despite the Palestinian Authority’s readiness to

fulfil its commitments in the framework of the road

map. In the face of the deteriorating situation, we

believe that the international community, particularly

the members of the Quartet, should not allow the will

of peace to be defeated and should therefore spare no

effort to enhance the peace process.

While reiterating its attachment to the peace

process and its determination to contribute effectively

to its success, Tunisia stresses the need to respect the

legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority and its

leadership, chosen freely by the Palestinian people. We

also believe that, given the continuing tragic conditions

of the Palestinian people, it is high time to heed the call

made by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the

Extraordinary Arab Summit held in Cairo in October

2000 to provide the Palestinian people with

international protection, particularly as that call was

supported by many States.

The ongoing suffering of the Iraqi people is a

source of great concern and profound preoccupation for

the international community. While remaining attached

to the principle of the independence and territorial

integrity of Iraq, we wish to emphasize the need for the

international community to join hands and for the

United Nations to assume its central role to ensure that

peace and stability prevail in that fraternal country,

thus allowing for the start of reconstruction and the

return to normal life for the Iraqi people.

In that regard, Tunisia hopes that the adoption of

the first steps, which were welcomed by Security

Council resolution 1500 (2003), will lead as soon as

possible to restoration of the sovereignty of the Iraqi

people. Furthermore, while condemning in the

strongest possible terms the terrorist attack against the

United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, we pay a

tribute to the Secretary-General, who, despite the

gravity of that painful attack, decided to let the United

Nations continue to pursue its efforts of helping the

Iraqi people overcome their present predicament.

Tunisia attaches great importance to the various

forms of integration and partnership within the regional

groupings it belongs to. In that regard, we avail

ourselves of this opportunity to express our deep

satisfaction following the agreement reached between

sisterly Libya and the United States, Great Britain and

France on the issues relating to the Lockerbie and

Union de transports aériens incidents, following

Tripoli’s fulfilment of all its commitments under the

relevant Security Council resolutions. We have no

doubt that, now that the sanctions have been

completely lifted, Libya will fully resume its role in the

Maghreb and Mediterranean regions, thus contributing

to reinvigorating the Arab Maghreb Union, which will

help promote more complementarity and integration

between the countries of the region and will

consolidate the foundations of security, stability and

prosperity in the Maghreb, Arab, African and

Mediterranean areas.

The settlement of this dispute augurs well, as it

coincides with the preparations Tunisia is undertaking to

host the first summit of the 5+5 dialogue, to be held in

December 2003, among the countries of the Maghreb and

the European countries of the western Mediterranean.

We look forward to this event as a step towards

enhancing partnership between the countries of the

region and deepening the values of dialogue, tolerance

and moderation among the peoples of that region.

22

Convinced of the need to strengthen common

Arab action and to consolidate the role of the League

of Arab States to enable it to attain its noble objectives,

Tunisia shall endeavour, during its presidency of the

next Arab Summit in 2004, to further strengthen the

bonds of cooperation, solidarity and complementarity

among the Arab countries.

The most recent African Union Summit, held in

Maputo in July 2003, marked the beginning of the

launching process of the African Union. The African

Union is determined to achieve the objective of

revitalizing the African continent and to confront the

serious challenges it faces. The Union hopes to get the

necessary international support in order to achieve its

goals.

Undoubtedly, the New Partnership for Africa’s

Development (NEPAD), which is bringing a new vision

for a serious and constructive partnership with the

United Nations system, its specialized agencies, the

developed countries and other relevant institutions,

deserves the support of the international community.

Such support constitutes an incentive for the African

Union to attempt to meet legitimate African needs and

address all aspects of marginalization in our continent.

The difficult global economic environment has

had an adverse impact on the economies of the

developing countries in general and the African

economies in particular. Fierce trade competition and

protectionist measures, as well as currency fluctuations

and the exacerbation of the debt burden, constitute

major constraints that have impeded progress of the

developing countries.

In that regard, we emphasize the need for all

international partners to show the political will necessary

to implement the commitments of the Millennium

Development Goals, as well as the outcomes of major

United Nations conferences and summits, notably the

International Conference on Financing for

Development held in Monterrey and the World Summit

on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, if

we are to overcome this difficult situation and provide

fresh impetus to development efforts.

The difficult situation we face today should not

discourage us or weaken our determination to achieve

the objectives of peace, security and stability. We must

show patience, resolve and perseverance and

collectively pledge to strengthen the United Nations

and make this session a new starting point for our

Organization in order to enable it to effectively play its

role and respond to our collective aspirations for a

more secure and stable world.