Benin, 2007

Mr. President, at the outset I should like to offer you

my sincere congratulations on your brilliant election to

the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-

second session. I assure you of my delegation’s full

cooperation. It will spare no effort to contribute to the

success of the deliberations of this session, at your

side, of course, because Benin is one of the Vice-

Presidents.

I also pay tribute to the excellent job done by

your predecessor, Her Excellency Mrs. Haya Rashed

Al-Khalifa. Throughout her term she was able to give

new momentum to the General Assembly by

relaunching the dialogue on the implementation of the

global partnership for development. Under her clear

direction our delegations were able to thoroughly study

the many questions that have been pending within the

framework of the implementation of the conclusions of

the 2005 Summit, and they have been able to assess the

challenges to be met.

We also express appreciation to the new United

Nations Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Ban

Ki-moon. He has been able to follow in the footsteps of

his illustrious predecessor, Mr. Kofi Annan, by

maintaining the pace of his reforms. Mr. Ban has not

only maintained the momentum of the reforms but has

also given them a visible personal mark that denotes a

will to streamline in an innovative and consensual way

the use of resources available for concrete action in

keeping with the perils that confront us.

We support the United Nations, which must assert

itself as an effective organization, capable of serving as

a melting pot for multilateral, inclusive, productive and

conclusive cooperation in the search for appropriate

solutions to the many challenges of our time.

These challenges include ongoing conflicts, the

rise of extremism, the weakening and destabilization of

entire regions, the continued impoverishment of the

most vulnerable populations and the practice of trade

subsidies and protectionism in developed countries.

They deny us our comparative advantages and stifle

our producers by distorting the international market. It

is necessary and urgent to establish a safety net so that

African countries affected by subsidies can compensate

for the enormous losses that they suffer. In addition,

social inequalities between States and within our

societies are ever greater. The proliferation of endemic

diseases decimates human resources. Malnutrition,

desertification and coastal erosion dangerously reduce

vital space and accentuate competition for survival,

together with repeated flooding resulting from global

warming linked to climate change.

We have indeed made considerable progress since

the Rio Summit in terms of the implementation of

instruments for global governance in the area of the

environment. Given the warnings and many alarms that

scientists have sent us in recent years we now need to

accelerate their comprehensive implementation,

because they give clear guidance to the efforts

undertaken by men to restore control over phenomena

and changes that jeopardize the conditions of our

existence on Earth. It is urgent to maximize synergies

within the framework of the implementation of these

instruments to ensure greater effectiveness. That is one

of the urgent tasks to be put on the agenda of the

Conference of the Parties to the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change scheduled

for December 2007 in Bali, Indonesia.

The risks stemming from climate change are

terrifying, particularly for low-income coastal

countries such as Benin. They dictate that we act in

advance instead of in response because we need to deal

with well-established contingencies via a precautionary

approach and by consistent implementation of the

principle of common but differentiated responsibility.

Beyond the vast investments required to deal with

coastal erosion and the deterioration of lands, the

eradication of poverty and improving the living

conditions of the poorest sections of the population are

essential aspects of efforts undertaken to strengthen the

resistance of our societies to the negative impacts of

climate change.

Above all we must increase our efforts to

transform our patterns of consumption and global

energy policies by using renewable energy sources. By

way of example, switching from firewood to solar

stoves would save many hectares of forests that are

annually decimated by the poorest populations to

ensure their energy supplies. It has been established

that the manner in which the world’s energy needs,

particularly those of developing countries, will be

covered in the decades to come will be key to our

ability to address climate change. We need to carry out

a change of mindset to bring about a change in

behaviour. To do this, the question of financing needs

to be resolved in a clearly understood spirit of

international solidarity and interdependence.

The international community will need to deliver

on the pledges made in Monterrey and Gleneagles by

mobilizing the funds to ensure implementation of the

national programmes of action and adaptation and the

implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.

It is fortunate that the high-level dialogue to be held in

New York on 23 and 24 October 2007 and the meeting

to be held in Qatar in 2008 will give us an opportunity

to bring about a thorough evaluation of the situation in

order to seek the optimum solutions to the problems

before us.

Assessing performance in the area of financing

for development is how we should measure the

effectiveness of international financial institutions. Our

hope is that appropriate reforms will be undertaken so

that they will be able to fully shoulder their

responsibilities in terms of mobilizing resources for

poor countries so that they can make up the lag.

Special attention needs to be given also to

internal constraints related to governance and to the

meagre mobilization of local resources that curb

economic and social development. The Government of

Benin, for example, has intensified its efforts to root

out corruption and promote transparent and effective

management of public finances. Our efforts in these

areas are coupled with measures to facilitate

investment, including the establishment of a

presidential investment council and the proclamation

of free nursery and primary schooling, measures that

have been judged to be essential for the continued

strengthening of democracy, economic growth and

social progress. The assistance from the international

community is greatly appreciated and is now being

directed exclusively to the goals agreed upon. In this

regard, Benin has joined the peer review mechanism

instituted by the African Union within the framework

of the promotion of good governance and

peacebuilding continent-wide.

Our search for solutions to the new threats can

only progress if we are able to preserve international

peace and security. It is disappointing that our efforts

since the 2005 Summit to reform the body which has

the primary responsibility for this, have been less than

conclusive. We need to rekindle our fervour in order to

give the Organization a Security Council that is more

representative in terms of its membership and more

transparent and effective in its working methods.

Whatever the formula decided upon, reform of the

Security Council cannot be viable if it does not take

into account the realities of today’s world, which differ

greatly from those of the 1940s. It cannot be fair if it

does not rationally rectify the boundless harm done to

Africa by excluding it from the category of permanent

members of the Security Council.

Reform of the Council will undoubtedly reflect

on its authority and its ability to fulfil its mandate in a

satisfactory manner with respect to the situations

concerning the fundamental principles of the Charter,

such as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which

is more than 50 years old now. That conflict continues

to destabilize the Middle East, and it cannot be

otherwise so long as the vision of two sovereign,

contiguous States has not been implemented and the

occupied territories, including the Golan Heights and

the Shaba’a farmlands, have not been returned.

We are also concerned by the continued arms race

and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,

as well as the stalemate in the multilateral negotiations.

We need to stem the illicit trafficking in small arms and

light weapons by adopting and implementing a treaty

on arms trafficking. The proliferation of non-State

armed groups, widespread violations of international

humanitarian law and war crimes against civilian

populations, particularly against women and children

in situations of conflict, must continue to be given our

unswerving attention. The perpetrators of these crimes

need to be tried by the International Criminal Court,

whose role as a deterrent needs to be enhanced by

greater cooperation with the Security Council and the

authority to initiate proceedings itself. We welcome the

fact that great progress has been made in the

deployment of a United Nations mechanism for

monitoring and outreach on the recruitment and use of

children in armed conflicts and on the possibility of it

being extended.

Cooperation between the United Nations and the

African Union within the framework of the

implementation of the Union’s 10-year plan of support

for capacity-building needs to be continued in

accordance with the spirit of Chapter VIII of the

Charter. Management of the situation in Darfur has

given us a field for experimentation that will enable us

to draw lessons to strengthen the effectiveness of this

cooperation beyond the constraints and handicaps by

looking at optimal solutions. We welcome the

establishment of the hybrid force. Our hope is that its

numerical and logistical capacities will enable it to

deal with the crisis. We hope that similar efforts will be

undertaken for Somalia.

The promotion of human dignity is necessary to

be able continually to strengthen international peace

and security. It is at the heart of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed on

10 December 1948. We commemorate its sixtieth

anniversary next year. This is an opportunity to

undertake singular and proactive action to disseminate

human rights for rural and peri-urban populations and

communities, which are for the most part illiterate.

These social strata have been cut off from the benefits

of human rights but would be empowered and would

become responsible for their own fulfilment if given

access to human rights.

My country, which is firmly committed to

democracy, here reiterates its unswerving commitment

to make an effective contribution commensurate with

its means to the protection and promotion of human

dignity. That is the aim of my country’s proposal for a

new agenda item at the current session of the General

Assembly with the consensus title of “Celebration of

the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights”. A draft resolution will be submitted

and negotiated under this item. It could also serve as

the framework for the proclamation of an international

year for the promotion, dissemination and

appropriation of human rights.

In that connection, my country, together with the

United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and all

interested parties, proposes to organize an international

conference in 2008 on the challenges and issues

involved in democratic changes of government. I urge

all United Nations Member States to support these

initiatives so that they will come to pass for the

betterment of our peoples.