Zambia, 1995

On this important occasion,

allow me to extend to the President the congratulations of

the people and the Government of Zambia upon his well-

deserved election to preside over the work of the General

Assembly at its fiftieth session. We are confident that his

broad experience and ability will afford us sure guidance

at this historic session of the General Assembly, which

marks half a century of the United Nations.

I would also like to pay tribute to the outgoing

President of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth

session, His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy of Côte d’Ivoire,

who so successfully presided over the session with great

skill and expertise. He leaves the presidency with a record

of successes that has enhanced the Assembly’s

deliberative role.

My delegation would also like to put on record its

appreciation for the Secretary-General, His Excellency

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who has continued to lead the

Organization with skill and tenacity under trying

circumstances.

As we observe and celebrate the fiftieth anniversary

of the founding of the United Nations, we should also

take this opportunity to take stock of the Organization’s

past performance, evaluating its achievements and

failures, and then proceed to map out our future direction.

It cannot be disputed that the United Nations has

made outstanding contributions to world peace and

security and the promotion of development throughout the

world.

The United Nations has conducted successful peace-

keeping operations in various parts of the world, including

Cambodia, Mozambique, Haiti and, very recently, Angola.

It is also as a result of United Nations engagement

that the world is now entering an era in which the ideals

of human rights and democracy are gaining support in

many countries. The United Nations is on record as

having provided electoral assistance to over 40 countries.

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This has gone a long way in ensuring free and fair

elections.

The United Nations has been a strong source of relief

from human suffering. Through the Office of the United

Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United

Nations has provided food, shelter, medicine and education

for millions of refugees the world over.

Very recently, in 1990, through the efforts of our

Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and the

personal dedication to children of the late James Grant, the

World Summit for Children was convened here in New

York, where the Convention on the Rights of the Child was

adopted. This Convention has become the first to receive

universal acceptance. This is a remarkable achievement in

itself.

Against this background of achievements, the

Organization has had to deal with many formidable

problems, such as the super-Power rivalry of the cold-war

era, which resulted in a long period of paralysis in terms of

the Organization’s ability to take quick and effective

decisions and in the increasing number of ethnic conflicts

and tensions around the world, as evidenced by conflicts in

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and

Georgia, among others.

The continued unfavourable international economic

situation and environmental degradation are serious

challenges that the United Nations has had to deal with.

Zambia is convinced that the United Nations remains

the only world body with the capacity to galvanize political

will to face these challenges as we approach the twenty-

first century. As a country and Member State, we take this

opportunity to reaffirm and renew our commitment to the

United Nations.

It is quite clear that the United Nations will require a

renewed vision for the next 50 years. The agenda to disarm

throughout the world is not complete. My delegation

strongly feels that as long as there is continued proliferation

of weapons, there can never be any hope for lasting peace

and security in any corner of the world.

My delegation, therefore, welcomes the successful

conclusion, early this year, of the Review and Extension

Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT); the Treaty

was extended indefinitely. My delegation wishes to express

our grave concern that, soon after the extension, some of

the signatories to the NPT have resumed nuclear tests.

This is not in the spirit of nuclear disarmament. We also

congratulate those that have continued to observe their

moratoriums and hope that they will not be swayed by

those that are embarking on nuclear testing.

Zambia takes note of the ongoing negotiations in

Geneva on a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty

(CTBT), and urges a speedy and successful completion of

that treaty. We also welcome the efforts to strengthen the

Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention.

However, in spite of all these positive developments

in the area of disarmament, there are, of course, other

critical areas, such as complete and general disarmament,

nuclear technology, nuclear-weapon-free zones, mine

clearance as well as peaceful uses of nuclear energy, that

remain unresolved. We therefore urge all concerned to

give special attention to such issues, in the hope that this

will enhance security guarantees.

The issue of specific concern to southern Africa,

which has emerged from a long period of conflict, is land

mine clearance. Many of our people continue to die from

uncleared land mines. Accordingly, we call upon the

international community to increase its support for the

regional efforts being carried out through the Southern

African Development Community to de-mine the affected

areas in the southern Africa region. In this regard, we

wish to express our appreciation to the European Union,

which continues to support our efforts in mine clearance.

In the area of peace-keeping, Zambia realizes that

pursuing peace has not been an easy task for the United

Nations and is not likely to be so in the foreseeable

future. The Organization needs a clear vision of what

must be done in each particular case. The Secretary-

General’s Agenda for Peace, we believe, provides that

vision. It is an important agenda, which has already

assisted in many areas of our peace-keeping operations.

We are aware that a quick and effective response in

time of conflicts depends on a number of important

factors, especially the political will by the Member States

to meet resource requirements. In this respect, Zambia

supports the establishment of a rapid- reaction-capability

force, which we believe will enhance peace-keeping

operations and save lives.

The protection, promotion and enjoyment of human

rights is an obligation Governments and peoples the world

over must uphold. The dignity of life cannot be enhanced

6

without full observance of human rights. Zambia therefore

believes that the United Nations must continue to give high

priority to human rights issues.

In this regard, Zambia is gratified that the Fourth

World Conference on Women, recently held in Beijing,

China, recognized that women’s rights are human rights,

and that Governments committed themselves to the

implementation of that human rights agenda.

The Beijing conference and the other recent United

Nations conferences — the World Conference on Human

Rights, the International Conference on Population and

Development and the World Social Summit — will all need

active and integrated follow-up throughout the United

Nations system. In this follow-up, the roles of the General

Assembly and the Economic and Social Council are crucial

not only for the efficient implementation of the programmes

of action, but also for strengthening the Organization in the

social and economic fields. Zambia recognizes the urgent

need to revitalize the Council’s functions, including

improved and enhanced utilization of its various functional

committees. Harmonization of institutional arrangements in

the entire United Nations system will need to be undertaken

as a matter of priority.

In terms of the reform of the Security Council, Zambia

believes it is necessary to expand the Security Council to

enable it to become more representative. It is also our view

that the Security Council needs to become democratic and

transparent.

Zambia would like to see the United Nations give

priority to addressing developmental issues in the new

millennium. In this regard, I wish to state that Zambia

attaches great importance to the realization of the Agenda

for Development. Development is a critical area of concern

for my own continent, Africa, where poverty,

unemployment and social exclusion affect virtually every

country. As we approach the twenty-first century, the

international community should give added emphasis to the

fight against poverty. By fighting poverty, we can assure

the progress of individuals, which is essential to the

sustained progress of all nations.

Zambia is therefore gratified that the World Summit

for Social Development committed itself to accelerating the

economic, social and human resources development of

Africa and the least developed countries. The World

Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen,

Denmark, in March this year, has, through its Declaration

and Programme of Action, challenged Governments the

world over to create opportunities through employment

generation and social integration that should eradicate

poverty. My delegation hopes that Governments will

implement its Programme of Action.

The poverty obtaining in many developing countries

is being exacerbated by the onerous debt burdens most of

these countries have continued to carry since the early

1980s. The Naples terms, with the potential to achieve a

67 per cent debt reduction on either export credits or debt

service, is only the beginning in offering durable debt

relief to developing countries, especially with regard to

those with very high debt service ratios. The creditor

countries should move beyond modesty and offer terms

that can in the shortest possible time frame reduce debt

service ratios of the poorest developing countries to 21

per cent of their export earnings. This is the level

recognized by the United Nations as the basic minimum

requirement to ensure that the poorest developing

countries overcome their debt problems and re-establish

credit-worthiness. Coupled with the sustained

underfunding of many structural adjustment programmes,

a modest approach on promoting debt reduction can only

have the ultimate result of undermining opportunities for

growth, development and prosperity in developing

countries.

As the World Trade Organization begins its

formative years, a new challenge from this institution is

emerging in developing countries that will add to the

challenges of external debt burdens and poverty. This is

the challenge of registering early net losses from the new

system of multilateral trade as preferences are removed,

food prices rise, subsidies decrease and commodity

exports continue to face marginalization. This is

especially pronounced for Africa, which, as we all know,

has already recorded more than a decade of austerity.

While we recognize the long-term opportunities

developing countries will gain from the World Trade

Organization, it still remains the duty of developed

countries to make good their pledges reaffirmed at

Marrakesh to compensate net losers in the new system of

multilateral trade, by quickly specifying the terms of

compensation.

Zambia realizes that establishing the foundations of

international competitiveness is the key to getting a

foothold in the world economy. Our reform measures,

which started in 1991, are gaining momentum. The

challenge now is to move away from concerns over

stabilization and liberalization to the stimulation of

production, employment and labour productivity as the

7

basic foundations for poverty reduction. This is being done

at the same time as we are building on complementarities

already established in the regional integration mechanisms

of the Southern African Development Community and the

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, of which

Zambia is a member. However, our domestic reform efforts

can only be sustained by generous debt reduction that

improves our cash-flow position to levels which regenerate

business confidence in Zambia. The debt overhang remains

the single biggest barrier to recovery and development in

Zambia.

In conclusion, I would like to state that Zambia will

remain actively committed to achieving these priorities in

the framework of the United Nations. We believe in the

United Nations and have every confidence that our

Organization will lead us into a new era of full of hope and

prosperity.