Algeria, 2013

I would

like first of all to warmly congratulate Mr. John Ashe,

President of the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth

session, and his predecessor Mr. Vuk Jeremi. on their

excellent work. I would also like to commend our

Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for the steady

enhancement of the role and status of the United

Nations under his leadership.

The designation of the post-2015 development

agenda as the central theme not only of this general

debate but also for this entire session is a timely reminder

of the role of the United Nations in promoting peace

and prosperity throughout the world, for the benefit

of all humankind. Indeed, more than ever before, we

need the visionary role of the United Nations in order

to face up to the ills besetting humankind. The growing

challenges arising from our increased interdependence

are exacerbated by a multidimensional crisis that

adversely affects our economies and governance and

has disastrous social and humanitarian consequences.

The only worthy response to the upheaval and dangers

of our day is a determined quest for peace, justice and

solidarity, in order to build with confidence that better

future that we must bequeath to future generations.

Consideration of the post-2015 agenda warrants

a serious relaunching of the debate on development

issues, particularly in terms of the elimination of

poverty, a phenomenon that continues not only to

affect the dignity of millions of human beings but also

to threaten their lives. The international community

should be primarily concerned at the lack of significant

progress in its fight against poverty.

Overcoming poverty is a long-standing endeavour

that requires appropriate public policies coupled with

effective international cooperation and consistent

productive flows of investment, as well as greater

complementarity between the United Nations and the

Bretton Woods institutions, with a view to exploiting

synergies in the context of the peace-security-

development triad. That means that new objectives for

2030 must be part of a global integral approach that

reflects the disparities among regions, an improvement

of the balance between urban and rural development,

the strengthening of the capacities of poor people,

good governance, the fight against corruption and the

protection of the environment. In fact, it is a question

of reaching an ambitious global agreement for the

promotion of sustainable development containing

commitments stemming from the principle of shared

but differentiated responsibility, in particular for the

mobilization of the financing needed for capacity-

building and the transfer of know-how and technology.

Under its 2010-2014 five-year plan, Algeria is

implementing a human development strategy that sets

forth ambitious policies to promote social justice and

balanced regional preparations, within a framework

of strict resource management, where the education,

health, housing and infrastructure sectors continue to

be given priority, backed by investment in economic

growth. Those extensive efforts are naturally supported

at the international level by multifaceted assistance to

countries affected by crises and natural disasters and

by the effective integration of debt relief for the poorest

countries in Africa and other parts of the world.

At the same time, Algeria is projecting its own

development in the context of the historic coherence of

the great Arab Maghreb Union project that the peoples

of the region aspire to profoundly. That overall initiative

came from the agenda of the President of the Republic,

Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and is aimed at making all

Algerian men and women free from fear and need.

The celebration this year of the fiftieth anniversary

of the Organization of African Unity-African Union

under the theme of “African Renaissance” is an

important milestone in the rise of our continent on

the stage of history, giving us grounds for hope and

ambition, as well as promises of African solutions for

the problems of Africa, with the assistance of the rest

of the international community. Algeria is participating

in that shared destiny of the African peoples, and

we welcome and are gratified by the progress made

towards the recovery and economic development of the

continent and the considerable rates of growth that have

been recorded. We are also gratified at Africa’s steady

progress towards conflict prevention and settlement.

We also welcome the achievements of good

governance, human rights and pluralist democracy.

Algeria is particularly delighted at the liberation of the

regions in the north of Mali from the claws of terrorist

and criminal groups as well as the restoration of the

constitutional order in this fraternal country with the

clear success of the presidential elections.

Algeria, which remains the target of international

terrorism — as we were reminded by the violent

terrorist attack carried out against the Tiguentourine

gas complex early this year — is making an effective

contribution to the joint efforts to promote collective

security in the Sahelo-Saharan region as well as in the

rest of Africa and beyond. Whether it is a question of

Somalia, Darfur, relations between the Sudan and South

Sudan, the Great Lakes region, the Central African

Republic or efforts to restore constitutional order in a

number of brotherly countries, Algeria is harmoniously

blending its voice and efforts with those of the African

Union.

Algeria, which is resolutely committed to the

right of peoples to self-determination, supports the

intensification of the efforts of the Personal Envoy of the

Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Mr. Christopher

Ross, to prevail on the two parties to the conflict — the

Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front — to

agree in negotiations on the lifting of all obstacles, so

that the people of Western Sahara can freely determine

their own future.

Algeria is naturally supportive of the Arab

peoples, who are experiencing difficult transitions and

are confronting multiple challenges in a particularly

delicate phase of democratic and socioeconomic

transformation. We encourage the promotion of

political solutions to governance crises as well as the

management by consensus of these critical transitional

periods. Clearly, military solutions are neither possible

nor desirable in the context of the polarization of

societies and the exacerbation of partisan interests and

dissent.

Algeria reaffirms its rejection of the threat or use

of weapons of mass destruction. In that regard, we

categorically condemn the use of chemical weapons in

the Syrian conflict, regardless of who the perpetrators

were or the circumstances. In welcoming the initiative

of the Russian Federation and the Russian-American

agreement as well as the adherence of Syria to the

Chemical Weapons Convention, Algeria calls for the

creation of political momentum towards the holding of

the Geneva II conference and the attainment of a political

solution among the parties in Syria. We reiterate our

encouragement and support for Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi

as he leads those praiseworthy peace efforts.

In a Middle East mired in dangers and crises, a just

settlement of the question of Palestine remains at the

heart of any serious effort to stabilize the region. While

welcoming the efforts of the United States, which led

to a resumption of negotiations, Algeria expresses the

hope that the international community can redouble its

efforts for the rapid establishment of an internationally

recognized Palestinian State within the borders of June

1967, with Al-Quds as its capital.

The legitimacy of the United Nations must be

strengthened and its role enhanced, and to that end its

reform must not be unduly delayed. We must ensure that

the General Assembly remains participatory in nature

and must increase the economic, social, humanitarian

and environmental functions of the programmes,

entities and agencies of the United Nations system.

We must also agree on a democratic reform of the

Security Council that covers its working methods and

its composition and ensures equitable representation,

taking into particular account the African States’

Ezulwini Consensus.

The United Nations must be heeded when, from

within the democratic framework of the General

Assembly, it issues statements of strong positions that

reflect the universal conscience, whether it is a question

of strengthening the foundations of international

humanitarian law and protecting civilians or specific

situations, such as the long overdue lifting of the

economic blockade that has been imposed on Cuba for

decades now and the current one imposed on the Gaza

Strip. The will of the international community that is so

often reiterated here must prevail.

Algeria is working within the organizations and

groups to which it belongs and with its other partners

towards the elimination of the many obstacles to

building peaceful, well-balanced and just international

relations. We are nurturing the virtues of dialogue,

and we place our hopes in the Alliance of Civilization

and mutual respect among religions. Algeria is deeply

dedicated to the heritage of the values shared by all

humankind, beginning with the sacred nature, value

and dignity of human beings and the promotion and

protection of all human rights.

It is this commitment that inspires Algeria’s

candidature for a seat on the Human Rights Council

for the 2014-2016 period. This year marks the twentieth

anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme

of Action, and Algeria, moved by a high sense of

responsibility, would like to dedicate itself to improving

the effectiveness of the Council, strengthening the

universal and interdependent nature of human rights

and mobilizing the international community in this

lofty collective endeavour.

As a member of the Council, Algeria will share its

experience in human rights and in the rights of peoples.

We will endeavour to improve our own performance

by, inter alia, adapting our national legislation and

harmonizing it with the relevant international treaties

and promoting the inclusion of all segments of society,

including women, who now comprise 31 per cent of the

deputies elected to the People’s National Assembly last

year. All of these factors make Algeria a good candidate

for the Human Rights Council and have won it the

support of the League of Arab States, the Organization

of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union.

Almost 40 years ago, in 1974, President Abdelaziz

Bouteflika, who was at that time Minister for Foreign

Affairs of Algeria and President of the General

Assembly at its twenty-ninth session, made significant

history here by putting an end to the usurpation of the

people of South Africa’s representation by the apartheid

regime and by welcoming to this Hall for the first time

the Palestine Liberation Organization, thus opening

up two significant paths towards peace. Since then,

prodigious advances in science and technology, which

have increased the power of humankind over nature,

and changes in the very fabric of the international

community have only increased the expectations of our

peoples, for whom the United Nations remains the best

refuge. May God inspire us to work in the best interests

of our countries and our peoples.