Lesotho, 2007

My delegation associates

itself with the compliments extended to Mr. Srgjan

Kerim on his election to preside over the General

Assembly at this session and to his predecessor,

Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa of Bahrain. I also

wish to take this opportunity to welcome His

Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon and to assure him of my

country’s unconditional support during his tenure as

Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Lesotho congratulates the presidency on having

invited Member States to comment on the theme

“Responding to Climate Change” during this session.

In 1992, the first Earth Summit, the United Nations

Conference on Environment and Development, was

held in Rio de Janeiro. It was at that conference that we

committed ourselves to achieving sustainable

development in the twenty-first century. We reaffirmed

our commitments in Johannesburg at the 2002 World

Summit on Sustainable Development. It would seem

that, for far too long thereafter, we agreed to disagree

until we were confronted by the glaring and compelling

scientific evidence that the link between global

warming and human activities was unequivocal. We

waited for the adverse effects of climate change to

begin to be felt all over the globe before we could

acknowledge that consensus was essential for

concerted action on climate change.

Sadly, natural disasters have begun to strike. As is

usually the case, it is the poorest nations and the most

vulnerable countries that are being worst affected. My

country is one of these. Unfavourable climatic

conditions that are attributable to climate change have

led to severe drought, which has resulted in acute food

shortages. In order to address that crisis, my

Government has declared a state of emergency on food

security.

As the world prepares for the United Nations

climate change conference, which will take place in

Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, we need to be

reminded of the urgent need to build a solid and

sustainable consensus on a global response to climate

change for the period following the expiry of the 1997

Kyoto Protocol in the year 2012. My delegation calls

upon the international community to endeavour to

reach consensus on, among other things, steps that

must be taken to reach the 60 to 80 per cent emission

cuts that are required to stabilize the atmosphere. In

that regard, the industrialized countries must assume

the major responsibility, because scientific evidence

has confirmed that it is the greenhouse gas emissions

from those countries that are making natural disasters

worse. The international community must also reaffirm

its commitment to assisting the regions, such as Africa,

that are the most vulnerable to climate change. In

addition, my delegation calls upon developed countries

to assist developing countries in strengthening their

capacity to adapt to climate change.

Allow us further to share our thoughts on what

we consider to be the role of the United Nations in the

twenty-first century. Our thoughts cover three areas:

democracy, conflicts and development.

The United Nations was formed against the

backdrop of colonialism, particularly on the African

continent. As colonial rule slowly but surely ended, it

left behind a legacy of undemocratic Governments.

African countries were characterized by coups d’état

day in, day out. Very few African countries have not

had the “pleasure” of military rule.

Faced with that disturbing reality, some regional

organizations adopted instruments to deal with

unconstitutional changes of Government by carrying

out sanctions. Here, mention should be made of the

Organization of African Unity; its successor, the

African Union; and the Commonwealth group of

nations. Significantly, however, our Organization, the

United Nations, has not adopted any instrument to

carry out sanctions against defaulting Member States.

That is what the United Nations must now do.

Today, the overwhelming majority of the world’s

countries adhere to the principles of democracy. Those

countries hold periodic elections. However, the

broadest common denominator of developing countries

is the non-acceptance of election results; it has become

a tradition for losing political parties to dispute them.

Regrettably, that is done through unlawful means more

often than not, despite the fact that there are always

lawful mechanisms for challenging election results.

This is one area in which we see a role for the United

Nations, as the universal institution with the capacity

necessary to assist requesting Member States in

reversing these trends.

Just as the United Nations plays a critical role in

world economic development, it should see as part of

its role aggressively inculcating the culture of

democracy in all nations. In particular, the

Organization must help developing countries fight the

culture of impunity. The common understanding must

be a simple one: “When the people have spoken,

respect their voice”. Victors must learn to accept

victory with humility and magnanimity, and losers to

accept defeat with grace. In that way, the post-election

period can be devoted to development, with all sides

joining hands in a collective national effort. We must

hasten to acknowledge the role that the United Nations

is now playing in democratization processes, but we

feel that it can do more.

That brings us to the second area: conflicts.

Conflicts always feature prominently in our addresses

before the Assembly. We must acknowledge that inter-

State conflicts are on the decline across the globe. The

same, however, cannot be said about internal conflicts.

It cannot be denied that intra-State conflicts occur

where there is little or no regard for democratic

governance. If a country is not accustomed to holding

elections or to accepting election results, conflicts

arise. Other causes, which are also attributable to lack

of democratic governance, include a lack of judicious

sharing of a country’s wealth, rampant poverty and

ethnic strife.

In all such conflicts, small arms and light

weapons have become weapons of choice. We therefore

still consider it regrettable that in the year 2005,

Member States were not able to adopt a legally binding

international instrument on the marking and tracing of

small arms and light weapons. We share the view that

such an instrument could curtail the production,

transfer and civilian possession of illicit small arms

and light weapons. It is the urgent responsibility of the

United Nations to facilitate the adoption of an effective

international instrument for curbing the illicit trade in

conventional weapons, which would make it harder for

such weapons to end up in the hands of criminals. We

hope that the arms trade treaty that is being proposed

can be concluded expeditiously.

We must recall that in the year 2005, the

Assembly solemnly proclaimed that the role of the

entire international community, acting through the

United Nations, was to protect populations from

genocide, war crimes and other crimes against

humanity. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening

on the ground. We still notice inaction on the part of

the Security Council, or its reaction coming too late.

The harrowing experiences of Rwanda and now Darfur

are living testimony to that. We attribute such inaction

to the skewed composition and powers of the Council,

especially the right of veto, which we are now

convinced, more than ever before, is extremely

subjective and exercised according to the interests of

the concerned permanent member. That has, in some

instances, caused a breaking of the ranks among the

big five.

We continue to witness unilateral economic and

financial blockades being imposed against other

countries, and the denial to peoples of their right to

self-determination, while others are still subject to

occupation. Cuba, Palestine and the Western Sahara are

here cases in point. We submit that it must remain the

role of the United Nations in the twenty-first century to

proactively preserve international peace and security.

Our call is therefore that, where peace and security are

threatened, the United Nations, through the Security

Council, must act swiftly and decisively at all times.

But the United Nations can do so only if its

structures are reformed to make them democratic and

representative. Our basic premise would continue to be

that the United Nations in the twenty-first century

should inculcate democracy not only in Member

countries, but also within itself.

It is a hard fact that the reform of the United

Nations will not be complete without the reform of the

Security Council. Members of this body have on

several occasions reiterated the fact that the Security

Council in its current form does not reflect the realities

of today’s world, and yet, for more than a decade now,

the Assembly has remained stagnant on that issue. The

presentation per se of various positions by major

stakeholders, as well as various attempts to bridge

major differences in those positions, have thus far

failed to produce tangible results. Hence, my

delegation shares the view that it is now time to move

forward and begin intergovernmental negotiations.

However, we wish to underline that, while the reform

of the Security Council is possible, all Member States

need to garner the necessary political will to attain that

goal. The credibility of the Council is at stake.

Sustainable world peace and stability create the

necessary space to deal with the development

challenges of our countries and peoples. The world has

acknowledged that the HIV and AIDS pandemic

represents the top most challenge. The untold miseries

brought about by that scourge are common cause. To

the extent that no cure is available, HIV/AIDS will

continue to be a threat to human existence. That threat,

particularly in Africa, is compounded by worsening

poverty and famine levels brought about, in most

cases, by unfavourable weather conditions,

compliments in large measure, of climate change.

It is our view that, in a country enjoying political

stability, the potential for all sectors of that nation to

address those challenges is greatly enhanced.

Moreover, no economic development can take place

without democracy, peace and stability. Of course, the

support of the developed countries will always be

called for; hence, the need for them to fulfil their

promise on official development assistance, which

plays such a critical role in the economic development

of the developing countries.

My delegation congratulates the Secretary-

General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, on his commitment to the

strengthening of the Organization. For this

Organization to acquit itself successfully in the twenty-

first century, the role of its Secretary-General must

remain sacrosanct. He must remain immune to

influence by the interests of any groups or Powers. He

must be faithful to the interests of all in the service of

our family of nations. Above all, he must help, through

the United Nations, to create a world at peace with

itself.