Tunisia, 2006

Madam President, on the occasion of your election to

the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-

first session, I am pleased to convey to you and to our

brotherly country Bahrain my most sincere

congratulations. We are convinced that your experience

and competence will enrich the work of this session

and will contribute to its success.

I should also like to take this opportunity to

commend your predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, for his

constant efforts to implement the recommendations of

the 2005 Summit related to the reform of the

Organization and the adoption of the two resolutions

creating the Human Rights Council and the

Peacebuilding Commission.

I take this opportunity to convey my special

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

United Nations, for the valuable efforts he has been

tirelessly making to enhance the Organization’s role

and advance its performance, and for proving his

capability to realize a consensus on several complex

issues and to advance the reform of the Organization.

We note with satisfaction the important steps

achieved since the 2005 Summit aimed at developing

the Organization’s role and work for the sake of further

efficiency in its action, which will contribute to

anchoring the values of justice and moderation in

international relations. While insisting on the need to

confer more transparency on the Security Council and

pursue efforts to reach consensus on its enlargement,

which will ensure equitable representation of all

international parties and allow the Council to perform

its main functions in an environment of dialogue and

consensus, we also call for strengthening the General

Assembly’s prerogatives, revitalizing its role, and

making it work more efficiently.

Tunisia, which had the honour of being among

the first members of the Human Rights Council,

reiterates its determination to participate actively in the

work of this new United Nations institution and to

contribute to achieving the noble objectives for which

it was created, especially those related to respect for

human rights in their global meaning, as agreed at the

international level.

Our world today sees numerous rapid changes

and developments in security, political, economic and

social issues while time many international issues

remain unresolved. Tunisia — which has supported the

Middle East peace process since its inception and has

always called for dialogue, negotiation and recourse to

international legality — stresses again the need to find

a just, lasting and comprehensive settlement to the

Arab-Israeli conflict that will allow all the peoples of

the region to live in peace and security. Taking into

account the hardships and suffering that the fraternal

Palestinian people are undergoing, such as the siege,

Tunisia calls upon the international community to

provide them with international protection urgently.

Tunisia also renews its call for active parties, primarily

the Quartet, to ensure appropriate conditions for

reviving all tracks of the peace process in accordance

with ongoing Arab efforts, to help the Palestinian

people regain their legitimate national rights, including

the establishment of their independent State and to

allow sister States Syria and Lebanon to recover their

occupied territories.

Tunisia reiterates its solidarity with Lebanon

following the Israeli aggression, which caused

destruction and huge loss of life and property, and

renews its call on the international community to

contribute to the reconstruction of Lebanon. In this

regard, Tunisia commends the results of the recent

Stockholm donor summit.

Tunisia also expresses the hope that the fraternal

Iraqi people will find appropriate solutions to their

national causes in the framework of the political

process, in order to maintain national unity and

guarantee security and stability, which will allow Iraqis

to devote themselves to reconstruction.

To face the challenges on the international scene,

especially the phenomenon of extremism and terrorism,

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the international community must enhance its efforts

and cooperation. Tunisia, which was among the first to

warn against these dangers, renews its call for an

international conference, under United Nations

auspices, to elaborate an international code of conduct

to combat terrorism to which all parties would be

committed. Tunisia has also called for tackling all root

causes of terrorism — mainly injustice, the policy of

double standards, and economic and social conditions

that generate frustration and marginalization — within

the framework of a comprehensive approach.

To implement this approach, the international

community adopted the Tunisian initiative to set up a

world solidarity fund to fight poverty and exclusion

and to lay the foundations for a more equitable and

solidarity-based vision for development. We hope that

all relevant parties will increase their efforts to provide

the necessary financing to operate this mechanism.

Spreading the culture of tolerance, dialogue and

respect for beliefs and religious symbols in all

countries has today become one of the urgent

necessities for reinforcing rapprochement,

understanding and solidarity among peoples and for

establishing constructive international relations based

on moderation and respect for the specificities and

civilizations of peoples and on rejection of violence,

extremism and intolerance.

In this regard, and based on its firm belief in

those principles, Tunisia proposed several initiatives,

such as the adoption of the Carthage Charter for

Tolerance in 1995, the appeal of His Excellency the

President of the Republic, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, for

a pedagogy of tolerance, the proclamation of the 2001

Tunis Declaration on Dialogue among Civilizations,

and the establishment of the Ben Ali Chair for

Dialogue among Civilizations and Religions.

In spite of all the efforts made, achieving the

Millennium Development Goals faces difficulties that

require more collective efforts by all components of

the international community, especially economically

strong and developed countries, in the field of

financing the development of the countries of the

South and speeding up the transfer of technology to

them. With regard to efforts to reinforce resources for

developing countries, Tunisia again appeals for further

action to relieve the debt burden of the least developed

countries and to recycle those of middle-income

countries by transforming them into investments in

development projects considered to be a priority by

those countries.

Convinced that the digital divide is one of the

main challenges to development, Tunisia initiated the

call for a world summit on the information society

under the auspices of the United Nations. In November

2005 it was honoured to host the second phase of this

summit, which produced important results and laid the

foundations for a new world vision aimed at reducing

the digital divide between countries and establishing

the bases of a society of knowledge by adopting the

Tunis Agenda and the Tunis Commitment. We are

confident that the results of that summit will benefit

from appropriate consideration and follow-up by the

United Nations and its specialized agencies, as will all

stakeholders in information technology and

communication.

Tunisia has directed all its capabilities to

elevating itself to the level of an advanced country

within a future-oriented vision, the foundations of

which were laid by President Ben Ali. That vision

includes all political, economic, social and

developmental domains. It materialized in a set of deep

reforms that led to the reinforcement of democracy,

promotion of a culture of human rights at both

conceptual and concrete levels, consecration of public

freedoms, and participation of all segments of Tunisian

society in the political life of the country, all in the

framework of the rule of law and the institutions of the

State. Furthermore, Tunisia’s economic and social

achievements allowed it to attain a high rank among

the group of countries with the highest human

development index. That was appreciated by

international financial institutions and specialized

United Nations agencies. Tunisia pursues this process

of reform and achievement with determination and

perseverance.

Within its Maghreb, Arab and Mediterranean

environment, Tunisia endeavours to strengthen

relations of cooperation, solidarity, dialogue and

consultation among all parties in order to reinforce

security and stability, achieve the aspirations of the

peoples of the region for an integral development and

encourage economic complementarity. For Tunisia, the

establishment of the Arab Maghreb remains a strategic

choice and in terms of civilization, a gain for peoples

of the region, laying the foundations for increased

integration and complementarity among the Maghreb

countries. Tunisia works alongside its sister States of

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the region to further revitalize the march of the union

in the interest of its peoples.

Our country is also keen to enhance its strong

relationship with the European Union and to develop it

towards the establishment of a solidarity-based

partnership, which we hope will advance in a context

of mutual respect and dialogue, thus serving the

interests of all parties.

Tunisia, as part of the African continent,

relentlessly continues to support the efforts of the

African Union to finalize the establishment of its

institutions and reinvigorate them, as well as to

enhance its role in achieving solidarity-based

development, security and stability throughout the

continent. In this regard Tunisia has actively

participated in United Nations peacekeeping

operations, especially in Africa, convinced, as always,

of the necessity to join international efforts to

strengthen the foundations of peace and security

throughout the world.

Although we believe that the future of the

continent remains in the hands of Africans and that

development can be achieved primarily by relying on

their own capabilities, Africa needs more support and

assistance from the international community to enable

it to face the challenges and achieve the aspirations of

its peoples.

The strong relationship and interaction among

peace, security, development and social stability in

today’s world confirm the need for all nations to join

multilateral efforts on the basis of the values of

dialogue, consensus and solidarity. That will help in

finding the appropriate solutions to the challenges

posed. We believe that the United Nations remains the

ideal forum to deal with these urgent issues based on

the values and principles of its Charter.