Ivory Coast, 2002

I

am pleased to convey to Mr. Jan Kavan the warm

congratulations of my Government on his election as

President of the fifty-seventh session of the General

Assembly. We equally extend our congratulations to

the other members of the Bureau. We assure them that

the Ivorian delegation will spare no effort in making its

contribution to the success of this session.

We would be remiss if we did not mention here

the tremendous work of His Excellency Mr. Han

Seung-soo, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of the

Republic of Korea, who, with his great experience led

the difficult fifty-sixth session to a positive conclusion,

of which we are all aware. Côte d'Ivoire is grateful for

that. A reconciled Côte d'Ivoire conveys its fraternal

greetings to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, with

particular thanks for his tireless efforts. It is a great

pleasure for my Government to welcome and

congratulate the Swiss Confederation upon its

admission as a State Member of the United Nations.

Members will agree with me that the fifty-sixth

session was a very difficult one. How can we forget the

sad memory of 11 September 2001, which will cast a

shadow over the work of our Organization for a long

time to come. This session in particular, as it

immediately follows the fifty-sixth, must learn all the

appropriate lessons from the last session and provide a

new dimension to international relations.

In the opinion of the delegation of Côte d'Ivoire,

the renewed need to recast multilateral inter-State

relations can be articulated, inter alia, around the

following themes: United Nations reform; a steadfast

fight against poverty; human rights; and international

security.

It has become a truism to say that if the United

Nations had not existed, it would have had to be

invented. After more than 50 years of existence — and

this has been recognized over and over again — on the

dawn of the third millennium, the United Nations

would do well to shake off the dust and adapt itself to

the new times.

Along these lines, for almost 10 years we have

seen negotiations on reform of the membership and of

the working methods of the Security Council. It is time

for specific measures to be taken so we may have a

comprehensive debate based on the positions of the

various regional groups. For our part, Côte d'Ivoire is

convinced that two permanent seats and three non-

permanent seats for the African continent would be in

keeping with the times. Côte d'Ivoire is ready to make

a contribution to any resolution or decision which

would help modernize the Security Council.

For 30 years following the Second World War, the

priorities of the international community were such

things as reconstruction, decolonization and the cold

war, to name a few. Nowadays, misery and poverty,

which appeal to human conscience, are, as far as we

are concerned, the number-one threat to international

peace and security.

The greater the gap between rich and poor

countries, the more emigration there will be to the rich

countries, whose forecasts and development

programmes will then be undermined. Contrary to what

some might think, in the opinion of my delegation the

fight against poverty is an essential component of

preventive diplomacy. Both inside and outside a given

country, the fight against poverty is the prime operation

for the maintenance of international peace and security.

My Government has understood this, and we have

decentralized our administration through the

establishment of district councils. Now it is up to the

58 administrative districts to identify their own needs,

to establish their priorities and carry out their

development projects financed from the annual budget

under the appropriate national legislation.

With respect to the financing of a decentralized

administration, Côte d'Ivoire takes this opportunity to

thank its developmental partners for their aid and

support, and we appeal to the international community

to make additional contributions to our decentralization

15

policy. I reaffirm that Côte d'Ivoire has enormous

potential and, now more than ever, offers extraordinary

opportunities for investment and partnership.

We welcome the results of the International

Conference on Financing for Development, which was

held at Monterrey from 18 to 22 March 2002, as well

as the World Summit on Sustainable Development,

held in Johannesburg, and the 2001 Doha meeting of

the World Trade Organization. We would like to see the

conclusions of those three important meetings turned

into concrete action.

We cannot repeat it enough: the efforts of

developing countries will be in vain unless measures

are taken to ease the debt burden and unless the

international community succeeds in preventing the

negative effects of globalization.

After the fall of the Berlin wall, the market

economy became part of the economic standards of the

international community. This new economic

understanding means more than ever that we must

abandon the logic that says that we should have, on one

hand, those who produce only raw materials and, on

the other, those who produce only finished products. To

enable the developing countries to enter the industrial

age and have access to markets throughout the world,

we need a better organization of international

solidarity, and scrupulous respect for the resolutions

that have been adopted.

In the opinion of my delegation, with the

implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's

Development (NEPAD), Africa now offers a favourable

framework for the exercise of international economic

solidarity. NEPAD must remain a programme that

assists the African Union, and not a new overlapping

institution. Côte d'Ivoire is happy to see the

establishment of the African Union, and it will play its

role in consolidating this unique tool of international

cooperation.

While we welcome the progress realized in the

promotion and protection of human rights, Côte

d'Ivoire is still deeply concerned about issues relating

to the right to health. My delegation would like to

return to the question of HIV/AIDS which, more so

than malaria, is the number-one public health problem

throughout the world. According to the Joint United

Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the

World Health Organization (WHO), in 2001 40 million

people throughout the world, 58 per cent of them

women, were infected by the HIV virus. Of the 40

million people who are HIV-positive, nearly 29 million

live in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is progressing,

and in Côte d'Ivoire it is especially hitting the most

active segments of the population, namely the 14-to-45

age group.

In spite of the many praiseworthy efforts made by

Côte d'Ivoire, which has also pledged to implement a

universal health insurance system, and those made by

the international community in its fight against the

HIV/AIDS pandemic, the results do not yet meet

people's expectations. As we await a miracle cure for

the mutant AIDS virus, more than ever we have to

redouble our efforts regarding prevention on the one

hand, and access to medicine for the neediest segments

of society on the other. It is also important that the

struggle be waged within the framework of ongoing

international coordination, which is the only guarantee

of success, and that decision-makers show more

interest in implementing the outcomes of such

coordination.

Peace and the security of goods and persons are

the alpha and omega of any development. While the

end of the cold war seemed to justify a certain

satisfaction, we must recognize that recent events do

not give us much reason to rejoice. The destruction of

light weapons in a few places should not let us ignore

the submerged part of the iceberg. In spite of pledges

made, the sale of light arms in particular continues to

prosper, with the resulting child soldiers and disabled

people, not to mention all the refugees and the

homeless fleeing conflict areas.

The United Nations Conference on the Illicit

Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its

Aspects, which was held last year, delivered some

conclusions which were generally accepted by

everyone. My delegation hopes that very soon a report

of the Secretary-General will enable us to assess the

results of that Conference to date.

In terms of nuclear weapons, the key event of the

past two years was the end of the 1972 Treaty on the

Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems between

the two greatest nuclear Powers. This situation is of

concern to Côte d'Ivoire. Therefore, my country is very

happy to see that in the framework of a new agreement

recently signed by the United States of America and

the Russian Federation, those two nuclear Powers have

decided on a two-thirds reduction of their nuclear

16

arsenals over a 10-year period, zero level being the

ultimate objective to be achieved as soon as possible.

Like other countries in the international community,

Côte-d'Ivoire has taken note of this major event, and

encourages the two parties to pursue their efforts

towards a total reduction of the nuclear threat.

Here, my delegation would like to thank,

commend and encourage France, our long-standing

partner, which for the last three years, through its

vigorous policy of disarmament, has significantly

reduced its nuclear arsenal.

Let me reaffirm the position of Côte d'Ivoire on

disarmament, which does not differ from the position

of the group of non-aligned countries. It is imperative

that everyone respect the non-nuclear zones established

around the world, including the one created in Africa

under the Pelindaba Treaty.

The events of 11 September 2001 were an

appalling atrocity which caused the immediate loss of

life of more people than ever in the history of terrorist

attacks. Our objective should be to avoid a repetition of

such attacks through concerted action, supported by the

appropriate means. To combat this scourge, in our

opinion, we must grasp the problem at its roots and

understand all its political, economic, psychological

and moral components. So that we do not play into the

hands of the terrorists, the fight against terrorism

should help bring peoples together. Therefore, the

simultaneous dialogue among civilizations and cultures

must inspire the action of the international community.

Côte d'Ivoire has taken legal and economic measures

to combat terrorism. It has set out to collaborate with

other parties and to develop specific legislation to fight

against terrorism by defining and punishing infractions.

My country will continue to assume the

obligations of international solidarity against terrorism,

as laid out in Security Council resolution 1373 (2001).

To do this, Côte d'Ivoire wishes to have, in addition to

the financial and logistical means it sorely lacks, the

support of the international community with regard to

training in the legal, banking and police areas. But no

matter what, my Government will continue its

cooperation with the Security Council Counter-

Terrorism Committee, so that the fight against

international terrorism will yield results which will

help us preserve international peace and security.

The crisis which has shaken the Middle East for

decades is without a doubt a serious threat to

international peace and security. The persistence of this

crisis is a challenge that appears to expose the

impotence of the international community to deal with

a conflict that, if we are not careful, could come to be

accepted as commonplace. Yet we can at least say that

since the start of the conflict, the international

community has not folded its arms. Indeed, the United

Nations resolutions on the questions are innumerable.

The best known of them are Security Council

resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338

(1973) of 22 October 1973, resolutions supported by

such forums as the Oslo and Madrid Conferences.

At the centre of the conflict are the inevitable

issues of the need for the Palestinians to have a viable

independent State, and of the need for the State of

Israel to live in security and in peace with all its Arab

neighbours, within internationally recognized borders.

That is why it is important to welcome the Saudi

initiative which recognizes Israel's right to exist next to

a Palestinian State.

In that regard, Côte d'Ivoire is very happy to

embrace Security Council resolution 1397 (2002) of 12

March 2002, in which the Council, with the

concurrence of its five permanent members, affirmed a

vision of a region where two States, Israel and

Palestine, live side by side within secure and

recognized borders.

In Africa, we are happy to see the return of peace

in Sierra Leone, in Eritrea and Ethiopia, and in Angola.

We must thank the political leaders of those States and

all others who, one way or another, contributed to the

end of hostilities in those countries. We call on them to

help in the ongoing process of reconciliation and

reconstruction.

While we welcome those positive developments,

we are concerned by the ongoing hostilities in Liberia,

the Sudan, Somalia and the Great Lakes region. We

must all support the initiatives and the efforts of well-

known individuals such as former President Nelson

Mandela and President Bush, and those of the

international community, particularly the United

Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community

of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern

African Development Community (SADC), for the

return to peace and stability in this large region of our

continent.

We urge all the sons and daughters of the region

to understand that the return of peace and

17

reconciliation depends first of all on them. Only their

will peacefully to settle their disputes, whatever their

nature, will make it possible to put an end to the

suffering of their peoples.

Thanks to the intelligence and good will of its

people, Côte d'Ivoire has been able to reconcile and

find an Ivorian solution to its recent political

difficulties. It encourages all parties to conflicts to

have confidence in themselves and in their ability to

find appropriate solutions to the issues that divide

them, in the interest of their populations and,

ultimately, that of Africa.

I would like in conclusion to state that while the

United Nations has “pushed back the frontiers of

racism” (A/49/PV.14, p. 7), to quote former President

Nelson Mandela, it can, with genuine political will,

achieve equally impressive results in other areas. We

must thus do everything we can to push far back the

frontiers of hatred, intolerance, violence and poverty or

indeed to destroy those evils. Let us build a better

world, a world of peace and progress for ourselves and

future generations.