Mali, 2003

First, Sir,

please accept my warm congratulations and my fervent

hopes for your successful achievement of the mission

entrusted to you. Your election to the presidency of the

fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly is a fitting

tribute by the international community to the people of

Saint Lucia. I am convinced that with your experience

22

and your distinguished intellectual and ethical

qualities, you will successfully lead our work to be

carried out in the best spirit.

Sir, I wish to convey to your predecessor, Mr. Jan

Kavan, the congratulations of the delegation of Mali

for the skill, dedication and spirit of initiative and the

authority with which he directed the work of the fifty-

seventh session of the General Assembly. I also take

this solemn occasion to pay well-deserved tribute to

Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan for his dedication to

the ideals of the United Nations.

The present session is opening in a context where

the United Nations is still confronting challenges to its

very existence; those challenges moved humanity 58

years ago to equip itself with an instrument of hope

capable of meeting them. Let us recall that the United

Nations were conceived to save ourselves from the

demons of war and insecurity. The idea was to secure a

state of grace one of man reconciled with himself

and to create the conditions for reducing material want,

uncertainty and poverty.

Flashpoints of tension fire and smoke exist

and are developing in many places. Poverty and

distress are the daily lot of many inhabitants of our

planet, particularly in Africa.

The arrival of the new millennium brought

enormous hopes. We have barely turned to the third

page of this millennium and new challenges are

assailing humankind. Upon us are other questions for

which we must uncover the appropriate solutions so

that our Organization will remain true to itself and

pursue its goals without succumbing to a hijacking of

its mandate.

The Government of Mali believes that the United

Nations remains an instrument of great value. Defining

the rules of the game is one thing; applying them under

the watchful eye of an impartial arbiter who has the

necessary authority and the corresponding means to act

is another. We need to work to make the United

Nations that authority and arbiter.

For its part, under the distinguished leadership of

Mr. Amadou Toumani TourÈ, President of the Republic

of Mali, our country is steadfastly committed to

supporting the United Nations in attaining its objective:

the full development of humankind.

At the national level, our President is firmly

committed to strengthening the institutions of the

Republic and of communities, to promote democracy

and human rights and to give a boost to good governance,

economic growth and sustainable development.

Peace and security are among the principal values

held and venerated by the peoples of the entire world

as they are essential for their social and economic

development.

Mali has been fully committed to the twin

challenges of conflict prevention and conflict

management. At the subregional level, Mali has sent

troops to Liberia, and our President has been

personally committed to solidarity with the

Government and people of CÙte d'Ivoire in their search

for coordinated political solutions to the crisis faced by

that brotherly country. That testifies to the importance

we attach to peace and stability.

At the continental level, our country will

unstintingly continue its tireless efforts within the

African Union, which have deployed continuously

since the establishment of the African Union to achieve

stability, the guarantor for all economic social and

cultural development. Therefore, Mali calls on all

States to adopt a multilateral approach, subregional and

regional cooperation and international solidarity, with

rigorous respect for the sovereignty of States.

The overall situation prevailing in the Middle

East, in particular the conflict in Iraq, remains a

burning issue of the day and a major concern for the

international community. We should point out to the

protagonists of these conflicts that war is never

anything other than a political failure and that the

victories of peace are no less renowned than those of

war. Peace between Palestinians and Israelis will

garner more fame than all wars combined. The parties

to the conflict should be mindful of that.

In addition, we invite the international

community to provide aid and assistance to the

Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority

because the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure

and the restrictions imposed as a result of occupation

have caused a clear deterioration of the socio-economic

fabric of Palestinian society. It is therefore to be feared

that the strategy of destruction will henceforth become

a constant in how conflicts unfold in general.

Terrorism is one of the gravest threats to human

security. Combating that scourge requires strengthening

national and regional capacities. It should be recalled

23

that Mali has ratified all international legal instruments

concerning terrorism and transnational organized

crime, as well as the additional protocol.

It is encouraging to note that the international

community, in particular the United Nations, has made

the campaign against the proliferation of small arms

and light weapons a major focus of concern. That is

particularly reassuring because, for the last ten years,

small arms and light weapons have weighed on the

future and destiny of the peoples of Africa. Their

adverse affects have been a great blow to human

dignity, freedom and security.

Mali, which since 10 May 2003 has held the

presidency of the Human Security Network, calls on all

States to unite for the success of the initiative of the

framework convention on international transfers of

arms, currently being drafted, which is expected to be

launched in Bamako next October; it will be an

important step towards the establishment of the

mandate of the heads of State and Government of the

Economic Community of West African States to

transform the moratorium on small arms and light

weapons into an international convention.

In addition, Mali continues to be deeply

concerned by the phenomenon of child soldiers and

calls for vigorous action to put an end to that practice,

if we wish to save future generations from the scourge

of war.

For many reasons, the level of security for the

world's population has considerably deteriorated in

recent years. Even today, in many African countries,

people are often caught in the grip of conflicts

involving guerrillas, rebel groups, civil war, ethnic war,

clan war and clashes between militias, warlords and

regular army forces. Designing a political strategy

based on the idea of human security has now become a

very urgent priority.

For its mandate at the head of the Human

Security Network, Mali has made its priority the issues

of education in human rights, children in armed

conflict, the campaign against the proliferation of small

arms and light weapons, gender in peacekeeping

operations and food security.

In the field of economics, the Government of

Mali is adopting stimulative fiscal measures in order to

attract national and international investment, in

particular in the productive areas of cotton, mines and

raising livestock. But those efforts are being hampered

by the effects of globalization. In fact, in agriculture in

particular, it is not so much poverty that offends as the

conditions that engender that poverty.

To give but one example, Mali like other

African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries is

suffering from the cotton competition with developed

countries, which each year provide five times more

funds in subsidies to their farmers than they do to

development assistance. Those subsidies have a direct

impact on world cotton prices, which are lower than

they have been for 25 years. That policy of cotton

production and export subsidies by certain developed

countries must be abandoned, because they are contrary

to the rules and principles of the multilateral trade

system. They are ruining African economies, depriving

our farmers of their share of the world market, and

exacerbating the poverty that we undertook to

eliminate at the Millennium Summit.

On another topic, Mali welcomes the adoption of

the Almaty Programme of Action, whose aim is forge

partnerships that will better meet the special needs of

the landlocked developing countries. We believe that

that Programme makes it incumbent on the

international community to devise a new framework of

cooperation with respect to transportation and transit

a policy that will help developing landlocked

countries to integrate into the world economy and to

speed up their socio-economic development. To do so,

it is essential that this Programme of Action be

implemented with diligence at all levels, with the

active assistance of the technical and financial partners

of the landlocked developing countries.

Given the major changes that the world is going

through today and the many challenges that it faces,

Africa decided to crystallize its willingness to act

through two initiatives: the creation of the African

Union and the launching of the New Partnership for

Africa's Development. These two initiatives represent a

clear and courageous vision of the way Africa intends

to shoulder its responsibilities with respect to its own

development and its full integration into the world

economy.

We deeply appreciate the commitment made by

the international community here at United Nations

Headquarters to support the tremendous task of

development in Africa, and we welcome the actions of

the Group of Eight aimed at establishing programmes

24

that will help translate into reality the commitments

made in the African action plan. We hope that this

example will be followed by the international

community, because the implementation of NEPAD

will require substantial and effective support.

With respect to information and communication

technologies, my delegation welcomes the upcoming

holding, in December 2003 in Geneva, of the first

phase of the World Summit on the Information Society,

which will offer the international community, and

African States in particular, the opportunity to discuss

the role of those technologies and their impact on

socio-economic development. The second phase will be

held in Tunis, Africa, and we hope that the Summit will

adopt specific measures to promote the development of

the least advanced people in these areas.

The world is in crisis, and the worldwide crisis at

present is largely due to humankind's inability to

comprehend and to take on the responsibilities required

by the new role that is required in the world. In the

context of this crisis, realities have changed also for the

United Nations. Today we have to deal with those who

had previously been overlooked.

For Mali, the United Nations remains the living

incarnation of this hope for peace and security. It is an

unequalled instrument. But, like any other instrument,

it can worn out if it is overused, and from time to time

it needs to be reinvigorated in order to be more

effective, efficient and modern and to perform better.

Our Organization is at a crossroads. To quote a

contemporary author,

If we keep looking towards the past to prolong

it, we are doomed. If we look towards a new

horizon, then our strength, our creativity and the

power of our intellect will do the rest.'

The past of our Organization has shown its limits.

We must now implement reforms that will allow us to

realize our hopes for the future. Global governance

requires the democratization of the decision-making

structures that will implement it. The current

membership of the Security Council, for example, no

longer meets the needs of our planet. Its composition

must reflect its universal nature. Therefore, we are in

favour of opening it up and expanding it to include

other Member States in order better to meet the

complex challenges of the day.

Mali has taken note of the commitments made

along these lines by the Secretary-General in his most

recent report and reaffirms the central role of the

United Nations in the implementation of international

commitments and the fact that this can be done only if

there is a dynamic and innovative partnership between

developed and developing countries.

The creation of the International Criminal Court,

whose elected judges and Prosecutor were sworn in this

year, is certainly a success for the international

community, which has fought against impunity and

made it a subject of international concern. In fact, for

two decades, the fight against impunity and respect for

human dignity has mobilized all people of goodwill.

Although recent developments seem to indicate

that prospects for the advent of an independent

international judicial forum do not appear promising, I

would recall that the path to follow involves not only

resolving conflicts and establishing peace, but also

requires our determination to work together. We are

convinced of this, and therefore Mali would plead for a

strong ICC a universal ICC, acting as an instrument

which cannot be deterred and which will help

contribute to the maintenance of international peace

and security.

In conclusion, I should like to recall that democracy,

justice, freedom, peace, security, development and

respect for commitments are common values that are

our foundation for, and give us a sense of, our

humanity.

All people must be given their freedom and their

dignity. We therefore call on all States to look to the

future to imagine and to promote the lifestyle that

corresponds to the aspirations of our people. To do so,

we are determined to reject any sense of fatalism of

whatever kind political, economic, social or cultural.

Indeed, today there are men and women who are

capable, through their work and through their will, of

realizing the aspirations of our peoples for well-being,

peace, security, prosperity and sustainable

development. Now we can hope to build a new world

a world that is rich in its diversity within the

framework of the United Nations and on new bases, a

glorious world in which we can work together in a

spirit of solidarity.

Some of those men and women, on behalf of the

peoples of the world, paid with their lives for their

25

dedication to the lofty ideals of the United Nations. Let

them always be in our thoughts and prayers.

Let us all work together. Let us all continue to

believe in the intrinsic nature of human beings in

their basic dignity and kind-heartedness.