Ghana, 1994

On behalf of the Ghana

delegation, I have the honour and pleasure of conveying to

you, Sir, our congratulations on your election, by

acclamation, as President of the General Assembly at its

forty-ninth session. Your election is an honour not only to

you personally but also to your country, Côte d’Ivoire, with

which Ghana shares a common destiny and, happily, enjoys

very warm, cordial and special relations. You will no

doubt be equal to the task, given your disposition and your

record of distinguished service to your Government and

country and to the international community.

Allow me also to place on record our appreciation of

the effective leadership that your predecessor as President,

His Excellency Mr. Samuel Insanally of Guyana, provided

for the Organization during his stewardship. His ability to

navigate the General Assembly through the difficult

discussions on the restructuring and revitalization of the

Organization — particularly those on the reform of the

Security Council — and the skill that he demonstrated

during the world hearings on the proposed Agenda for

Development are indelible marks of his stewardship.

The Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali,

has continued to remain on top of his very challenging

and delicate task as the chief executive of the

Organization. His abilities and skills as a thinker,

administrator and accomplished diplomat have been assets

to the United Nations. The dedication and commitment

of his staff have been equally noteworthy.

In discharging its primary responsibility to promote

international peace and security the United Nations has

had successes and disappointments. Exploitation of the

inherent weaknesses of the Charter, lack of good faith,

greed and the quest for domination characterized the era

of the cold war which, happily, appears to be coming to

an end. However, conflicts that threaten international

peace and security exist and are multiplying; some are

legacies of the cold war and others the result of the

failure of the international community to create the

economic and social conditions for international peace

and security. Other contributing factors include inordinate

personal ambition, ethnicity, nationalism, religious

intolerance and political adventurism.

Thanks to the end of the cold war, the political

landscape in Europe has changed and has impacted

positively, if only with partial success, on Cambodia,

Mozambique and, most important of all, the Middle East.

The Angolan problem appears to be nearing a solution.

At long last, UNITA is getting the message that the

international community abhors its commitment to

militarism and appreciates the political maturity and spirit

of compromise of the Angolan Government. Although

certain cold-war-era conflicts such as Cyprus, Korea and

Afghanistan are proving difficult to solve, one must take

comfort in the fact that the Koreas are agreed on the basis

of reunification of their country and that, after decades of

conflict and anxiety, South Africa is now a non-racial,

democratic country. We take this opportunity to welcome

its delegation into our midst. The contribution of the

United Nations in the solution of these conflicts is

immense, but one must also recognize that no progress

would have been possible without the exemplary

statesmanship of the leaders involved in their solution.

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The end of the cold war, coupled with the strains of

nation-building, have produced new threats to peace in parts

of the former Soviet Union, in Yugoslavia and in Africa.

Horror stories have emerged from Bosnia, Liberia, Rwanda

and Somalia. Some of the problems seem to have no

immediate prospect of solution. Somalia and Liberia are

coming close to being written off as Afghanistan has been.

To an increasing degree regional organizations and small

States like Ghana are being called upon to bear the burden

of securing a peaceful world, a burden far above their

means. In such situations success depends largely upon

support from the more endowed members of the

international community, either through the United Nations

or on a direct bilateral basis.

In Liberia, Ghana and a few other countries members

of the Economic Community of West African States

(ECOWAS) are groaning under the burden of helping the

Liberians maintain a nation. In Rwanda, in the heat of

battle Ghana and Canada were left alone to grapple with a

horror situation without adequate material support. Even

after the international community was shamed into action,

logistic support has not been particularly prompt or

adequate.

Ghana takes pride in its peace-keeping role. From the

Congo crisis in the early 1960s up until now it has

demonstrated the will and readiness to come to the help of

nations in distress. We are willing to continue to discharge

our responsibilities if adequate material support can be

forthcoming from the international community, particularly,

its wealthy members. Given the unwillingness of many

nations to get involved in conflicts far from their shores

and in respect of which their national interests are not

manifest to their electorate, the option for the international

community is to support countries such as Ghana and

regional organizations such as ECOWAS and the

Organization of African Unity (OAU) to defend the ideals

of the United Nations.

With President Rawlings’s assumption of the

chairmanship of ECOWAS Ghana is directly face to face

with the ambitions, rivalries, prejudices, misconceptions and

lack of common purpose even within ECOWAS and with

the misrepresentations that have made the solution of this

problem elusive. We must pay a tribute to our predecessors

as Chairmen of ECOWAS who have had to grapple with

the problem. We have recently gathered the warring

factions in Akosombo to push the peace process forward.

We have taken note of the misconceptions and attempts to

undermine this latest effort. However, with persistence,

patience, firmness and transparency, we hope we can make

significant progress in the coming year. What we ask of

the Liberians is sincerity and the spirit of compromise.

From the international community, we will appreciate

moral, material and diplomatic support and an

understanding of the complexities of the problem.

Peace-keeping is crowding the international agenda

to such a degree that we seem to be losing our ability to

focus on the unfinished business of disarmament. The

proliferation of conflicts generates insecurity and

compounds the disarmament problem. Both problems,

however, must be resolved simultaneously. The process

of eliminating nuclear weapons needs to be speeded up to

make the extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation

of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) an attractive proposition for

non-nuclear Powers. Bilateral efforts at disarmament,

such as those under way between the United States of

America and the Russian Federation, need to be situated

in the general context of multilateral diplomacy.

It is no accident that conflicts abound in the

developing world and the economically backward areas of

Europe. At the root of all these conflict situations and

the threats to peace and security are economic deprivation

and abject poverty. It is not necessary to restate the

gruesome statistics of the conditions of the poor — the

high mortality rates, the malnutrition, the inadequate

health facilities, ignorance and poor housing. These

conditions are compounded by a seriously inequitable

system of international trade with its attendant problems,

including the debt burden. Unequal access to knowledge,

technology and resources has accentuated the already

unacceptable socio-economic inequalities both within and

among nations.

The issue of external debt is primary in its

constraining effects on economic growth in Africa. The

vast majority of lower-income countries which owe debts

totalling $1.3 trillion are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sub-saharan Africa alone is overburdened with debt

servicing to the tune of $200 billion representing 10 per

cent of the total national income of the 43 countries

involved. It is not sheer coincidence that Africa plays

host to a sizeable number of United Nations

peace-keeping operations.

The scale of Africa’s debt and the effect it has

produced in our economies requires action by the

international community. The international accord

embodied in the United Nations New Agenda for the

Development of Africa, which contains a strategy to

relaunch African economies on the path of growth and

11

recovery, has hardly had any noticeable effect a year after

its adoption. The international community is yet to

discharge its obligations under the international accord. No

agreement has been reached on the modalities for the

creation of a diversification fund for Africa as called for by

the various studies initiated by well-known bodies of the

United Nations. This is regrettable.

The conclusion of the Uruguay Round of multilateral

trade negotiations was no doubt a historic achievement. It

holds prospects of opening up possibilities of trade

liberalization and long-term growth. It is, however, equally

true — and probably more significant — to note that trade

is possible only after production. A lot of factors constrain

the ability and capacity of developing countries, particularly

in Africa, to take advantage of international arrangements

such as those concluded under the Uruguay Round.

Because of our conviction that the underlying

socio-economic factors of the threat to peace and security

should be seriously addressed by the international

community, the Government of Ghana strongly supports the

holding of the World Summit for Social Development in

Copenhagen, Denmark, from 6-12 March 1995. However,

it should not be an occasion for an attempt to impose a set

of social values on the international community, nor should

it be an opportunity to malign the cultural practices of any

group of people. It should be an occasion for mutual

understanding to pave the way for a charter for social

progress.

Ghana also attaches great importance to the

forthcoming Fourth World Conference on Women,

scheduled to take place in Beijing in September 1995, as

part of the process of furthering peace and security. We

recognize the increasingly evident correlation between the

advancement of women and economic development and

social stability. We hope the Conference will help

accelerate the removal of obstacles to women’s full and

equal participation in all spheres of life and enable them to

play an active role in the global restructuring of economic,

political, social and cultural relations as we approach the

twenty-first century.

The increased responsibilities of the United Nations in

peace-keeping, the expansion of the Organization and the

demise of the Soviet Union as a super-Power have

highlighted the need for the Organization’s restructuring.

In this exercise we must keep two things in mind. We

must not undermine the validity of the basic principles of

the Organization, such as the sovereign equality of States

and non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States.

Not even the current preoccupation with democracy and

human rights should be allowed to erode these principles

any more than is absolutely essential. And we must

avoid allowing the Security Council to become the

instrument for the foreign policy objectives of certain

Powers. We must fight neo-colonialist tendencies

exemplified in the economic blockade of Cuba and the

questionable imposition of sanctions against the Great

Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. There is no

basis in international law for these actions, which result

in misery for the ordinary people of these countries and

restrain intercourse between nations. Reasonable proposals

for an end to these problems have been made which we

hope will find general acceptance.

The United Nations, particularly the Security

Council, needs to be restructured in order to reduce the

vulnerability of small nations to big-Power pressure and

to reflect their increased roles, particularly in the area of

peace-keeping, as well as the realities of power today.

The increased role of the United Nations in peace-keeping

has called for the establishment of machinery within the

Secretariat to improve efficiency. In response to the

proposal contained in the Secretary-General’s report, “An

Agenda for Peace”, the General Assembly and the

Security Council have adopted a number of measures and

decisions which should enhance the Organization’s ability

to maintain international peace and security. However, a

lot of work remains to be done. We hope that by its

fiftieth anniversary the United Nations will be sufficiently

reformed and revitalized to command universal respect

and cooperation.

In the final analysis, however, resources — financial

and otherwise — will determine the effectiveness of the

Organization. The financial situation of the Organization

remains a source of concern. Members of the

Organization should redouble their efforts to ensure its

solvency so that the Secretary-General can effectively

implement the mandates of the legislative bodies.

The Members, for their part, expect prudence and

discipline in the application of the resources made

available to the Organization. The consolidation of the

internal oversight mechanisms into the Office of Internal

Oversight Services, together with the existing external

oversight mechanisms, should help reduce waste and

ensure accountability.

Ghana reiterates its belief in the unity of the

purposes of the Charter and wishes to stress the need for

the Organization to address global development issues

12

with the same vigour as that with which it has approached

the issues of global peace and security. It is the hope and

expectation of Ghana that this forty-ninth session will mark

the beginning of the renaissance of the United Nations,

ready to demonstrate, more in action than in words, its

determination to maintain peace and promote prosperity on

the basis of justice, law and respect for the dignity and

worth of the human person.