Eswatini, 1996

I bring with me from the

Kingdom of Swaziland the greetings and good wishes of

His Majesty King Mswati III, Her Majesty the Indlovukazi

and Queen Mother, the Government and the whole Swazi

nation to our friends and fellow Members here at the

United Nations.

On behalf of the Kingdom of Swaziland, may I

congratulate you most sincerely, Sir, on your election to the

presidency of this fifty-first session of the General

Assembly. We are confident that the wisdom, experience

and diplomatic skills you bring to this office will ensure

success in the important business before us.

Swaziland would also like to congratulate your

predecessor, Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral, who presided

with such skill over the historic fiftieth session.

I should also like to record the deep gratitude of the

Swazi nation to our Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros

Boutros-Ghali, and to the staff of the Secretariat for their

untiring efforts in meeting the many challenges that face

our Organization as we prepare to enter a new millennium.

One year ago, His Majesty King Mswati III joined

other leaders from around the world to celebrate the first 50

years of achievement of the United Nations, to set out a

vision for the future and to reaffirm the commitment of the

Kingdom of Swaziland to the principles set out in our

Organization’s founding Charter.

Swaziland recognizes the vital role the Organization

has played throughout its history, and we remain convinced

that the United Nations represents humankind’s best hope

of providing global leadership and guidance towards

achieving the conditions of universal peace and security that

will allow equitable and sustainable development for all our

peoples.

Last year’s occasion was seen by many as an

opportunity to review the internal mechanisms of our

Organization and to call for greater efficiency,

accountability and representation in all areas of its work.

Swaziland is therefore encouraged by the progress

being made by the various working groups established by

the General Assembly, in particular progress towards the

reform of the Secretariat and Security Council. We will

continue to support all initiatives that bring about a more

efficient and cost-effective Organization.

As the Organization’s membership has increased

over the years, so has the scope of its operations and

responsibilities. It is an unfortunate fact that our will to

face these new challenges has not been met by a

corresponding desire to pay for the means to overcome

them. We are faced with a stark choice between whether

to accept new responsibilities and the bill they attract, or

admit that we lack the financial commitment to meet

them.

The Kingdom of Swaziland has always believed in

the principle of meeting our financial responsibilities in

full and on time. We fully endorse the Secretary-

General’s call to our fellow Members to do likewise, so

that the United Nations can have the resources at its

disposal to perform the tasks that we expect of it.

The Kingdom of Swaziland has been most

encouraged by recent developments towards the eventual

elimination of weapons of mass destruction. The

negotiations leading up to and the signing of the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty by an

overwhelming majority brings great credit to our

Organization and to those whose hard work made it

possible.

While we recognize and are deeply grateful for the

humanitarian assistance provided to Africa by the United

Nations, we believe that the Organization needs to do

more to strike at the causes of the hardship suffered by so

many Africans who find themselves caught up in the

horror of war.

One important issue concerns the flow of weapons

into Africa from many other parts of the world. It is a

simple fact in today’s world that arms, ammunition and

armaments are too easily accessible to those with the

means to procure them. The duration of conflict situations

can be limited by the non-availability of the weapons of

war.

It has been suggested that the first action of a truly

caring world in response to a conflict situation should be

to cut off the supply of arms to all involved, and that the

final responsibility of a caring world towards a country

that has endured conflict is the clearance of the last

landmine.

This is a lesson we learned very late in recent

disasters such as the Bosnian crisis and in Rwanda. We

have clearly not learned from it in other situations around

the world. Let us hope that the global community

8

represented here can move faster in future to impose

limitations on man’s ability to harm his fellow man.

We in Africa recognize the need to be prepared for

immediate reaction to our continent’s problems and are

taking the necessary steps to abide by the principle of

“African solutions to Africa’s problems”.

The example of Burundi shows our continent’s desire

to heed the warning signs and to ward off potential

disasters before they happen.

The Kingdom of Swaziland commends the

Organization of African Unity (OAU) and those individual

countries whose diplomacy and actions have prevented the

situation from spiralling out of control. The Organization of

African Unity has also been at the forefront in attempting

to resolve crisis situations in Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and

Liberia.

We join the rest of the world in applauding these

efforts, and we continue to offer our encouragement and

support in bringing about an end to the suffering of those

involved. The OAU represents the hope of all Africans for

unity, peace and development, and deserves to be supported

strongly by the rest of the world.

On a subregional basis, and in the field of economic

and trade cooperation, the Kingdom of Swaziland is a

member of the Southern African Development Community

(SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern

Africa.

SADC has recently expanded its mandate to include a

new Organ on Politics, Defence and Security. This is an

attempt to provide a mechanism by which member States

can call for advice and support from other members in the

event of national and international issues that might threaten

the stability of the whole subregion.

The new organ is founded on the principle of the

recognition of the sovereignty of independent States and is

intended precisely to identify potential problems, in

whatever context, and to look for solutions to persistent

concerns in our area. The organ provides an example of our

subregion’s commitment to peace and stability within and

among our member States as essential conditions for the

development of our separate nations. It deserves the support

and encouragement of the rest of the world.

The Kingdom of Swaziland has been heartened by

the various initiatives of the United Nations towards an

improvement in global socio-economic conditions.

The establishment of an international criminal court

is welcomed by Swaziland as a necessary extension of

justice in cases where national jurisdiction does not apply.

This step relies for its success on the political will of all

States and requires the widest possible representation of

Members in its operation. Similarly, the Kingdom of

Swaziland welcomes the move by the United Nations to

address the increasing threat posed to civil society by

organized crime and money-laundering.

Of particular danger to Swaziland in this regard is

the increase in traffic across our borders and abuse among

our people of illegal drugs and related substances. This is

a relatively new and alarming phenomenon for our

Kingdom and undermines our efforts to promote national

development. We therefore welcome the report of the

Secretary-General on promoting international cooperation

in the fight against the illegal drug trade, and we are

appreciative of the high priority this subject attracts in the

relevant agencies of the Organization.

This effort has been matched by a similar initiative

within our own SADC organization to encourage cross-

border cooperation among our security personnel and to

agree on measures among the Member States to contain

this potentially devastating problem.

It has been acknowledged that the continent of

Africa presents particular challenges in the quest for

sustainable development and a decent standard of living

for all its peoples.

With this in mind, the Kingdom of Swaziland gave

an enthusiastic welcome to the Secretary-General’s

initiative on the United Nations New Agenda for the

Development of Africa in the 1990s. It was hoped that

the Agenda would provide fresh impetus for change and

for the good of the people of Africa, but for many

reasons this remains an elusive dream. While social and

economic conditions in many areas of the continent

continue to decline, we are comforted by the fact that

efforts are being made to identify the reasons why so

many commitments continue to remain on paper and why

some are implemented, but slowly.

Swaziland echoes the call from all African brothers

and sisters for real commitment to the New Agenda for

the Development of Africa so that future generations of

9

Africans will not be locked into the same spiral of despair

that many people on our continent find themselves in.

It is to avoid being caught in this very situation that

the Kingdom of Swaziland has always worked hard to

ensure that our people are at the centre of all our national

development efforts. To this end the Kingdom frequently

consults with all its people on all the most important

development issues. Each and every Swazi has a voice and

is given the opportunity to express his or her views on the

matters that affect them.

In recent times we have consulted in this way with the

nation on our political direction and our economic

priorities. Currently we are addressing ourselves to a review

of our Constitution.

A constitutional review committee has been

established, representing the widest range of views, which

will now consult with the nation and gather the people’s

wishes on the way they would like to see their country

managed. All will be free to contribute, and we will abide

by the views of the majority. The end result will be the

Kingdom’s defining document, and it will, in a very real

sense, be the people’s Constitution. This current

consultation exercise is the latest example of our nation’s

adherence to the principle of rule through consensus, and it

is one that has served us well throughout our history.

In a world where the definition of such concepts as

human rights and democracy can vary so greatly and is so

dependent on timing and circumstances, the Kingdom of

Swaziland has had a consistent vision of what is really

required of its rulers by its people: to provide the freedom

and opportunity for all Swazis to offer an opinion on the

great matters of the day and for our leaders to be bound by

the wishes of the majority. We owe our survival as a nation

to this principle, and we will continue to abide by it for as

long as it suits us.

For the past three years the Kingdom of Swaziland has

given its support to efforts by the Republic of China on

Taiwan to have its case presented to the General Assembly.

As the world concentrates its attention on the great social

challenges facing us all today, we must surely acknowledge

the need to engage all peoples of the world in a truly global

effort to overcome them. Indeed, the Charter speaks of the

requirement for universality in our Organization so that all

may feel represented here.

The 23 million people of the Republic of China on

Taiwan believe they can contribute significantly to this

effort and have already shown that they are willing to do

so in many areas of expertise, including poverty

alleviation, private enterprise development and

humanitarian assistance. Many countries have

acknowledged this will on the part of the Government and

the people of the Republic of China on Taiwan, and the

recent political developments in Taiwan have encouraged

many others to support our call.

We are positive that a lasting solution can be found

to resolve this question. Hence, we support the idea of the

General Assembly establishing an ad hoc committee to

address the question of the readmittance of the Republic

of China on Taiwan into the United Nations.

The Kingdom of Swaziland continues to place its

confidence in the United Nations and in the principles on

which it was founded. We remain deeply grateful for the

assistance we have received over the years from its

agencies, and we look forward to many more years of

cooperation and support.

For 51 years, and despite the many obstacles in its

path, the United Nations has presented to successive

generations the only chance for a united, global approach

to the world’s problems. We are reassured by the

initiatives for reform in the Organization and look

forward to a new dynamism and efficiency in its

operations.

I am charged by His Majesty King Mswati III, by

Her Majesty the Indlovukazi, the Queen Mother, and by

the Government and the people of the Kingdom of

Swaziland, with proclaiming the renewal of our

commitment to the founding Charter of the Organization.

We ask for Almighty God’s blessing on its leaders and

those who work here, to give them the wisdom and

direction they need to carry out their vital tasks on behalf

of all humankind.