Malta, 2006

I would like to congratulate

Ms. Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa on her election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-first

session. I am confident that her efforts will ensure a

successful outcome of this session. I would also like to

take this opportunity to thank the outgoing President,

His Excellency Jan Eliasson, with whom the Assembly

worked over the past 12 months on the successful

implementation of many of the major reform tasks

agreed upon at the Summit last year.

The theme chosen by the President for this year’s

session — “Implementing a global partnership for

development” — strikes at the heart of the challenges

facing mankind today. It also reflects the Summit’s

emphasis on the interlinked and mutually reinforcing

nature of development, peace and security and human

rights. Sustainable development in the economic,

social and environmental sphere constitutes a key

element of the overarching framework of United

Nations activities. We support that approach and,

convinced of the ripple effect of development policies

that benefit all mankind, urge the General Assembly to

increase its focus on development issues.

Poverty eradication and the achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the

priorities for this decade. In this regard, the Millennium

Development Goals Report 2006 indicates that certain

regions of the world have made much less progress

than others. Extreme poverty remains a daily reality for

the more than 1 billion people who subsist on less than

one dollar a day. Whereas Asia leads the way in

reducing poverty rates, the number of poor people in

Africa is rising. In terms of per capita income, 18 of

the 20 poorest countries in the world are in Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest poverty rate in the

world, and the situation of chronic food insecurity has

not improved over the past decade. Four fifths of

armed conflicts occur in Africa and Asia. Clearly, there

can be no development without security and no

security without development.

The realities of poverty, conflict and insecurity

are at the root of the phenomenon of mass migration

from Africa to Europe along the major routes — into

the Canary Islands and mainland Spain in the eastern

Mediterranean, and into Malta and Italy in the central

Mediterranean.

Lack of development, security and good

governance has a direct effect on a country such as

mine, which, with 1,200 persons per square kilometre,

is already one of the most densely populated countries

in the world. In addition, it is a small island State with

a small population of 400,000.

The burden of underdevelopment and lack of

security in Africa, in particular sub-Saharan Africa, is

therefore inordinately borne by my country, which is

suffering real hardship as thousands of illegal migrants

reach our shores. The 2005 statistics of the Office of

the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR) rank Malta as the country with the second-

highest number of asylum applications, in contrast to a

15.6 per cent decrease in asylum applications across

the rest of the European Union.

We urge the United Nations and its agencies to

address the issue of mass illegal immigration

holistically and with vigour and urgency. In that

endeavour, all the countries of world are called upon to

combat criminal organizations that, across frontiers,

are taking advantage of the aspirations of human

beings who have nearly lost all hope. The rule of law

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must be respected. International obligations undertaken

by countries in accordance with public international

law must be honoured. Ignoring or insufficiently

addressing the phenomenon of illegal immigration puts

at risk the hard-won rights of genuine refugees and

persons who must be protected with humanitarian

status under international law.

I therefore call on the General Assembly and the

United Nations as a whole — but in particular the

UNHCR — to lend their full support to those countries

that, like Malta, have an inherent fragility arising from

density of population and smallness of territorial size

in their efforts to combat illegal immigration and

address the hardships that they experience as countries

of destination.

Malta needs support — including from the

UNHCR — in the resettlement of refugees and persons

with humanitarian status. It needs support in

shouldering the financial burden that it assumes in

providing for the basic needs of the illegal immigrants

on its soil. It needs international support in combating

the criminal organizations that are benefiting

financially from illegal immigration while putting the

lives of immigrants at risk.

No country can tackle such an overwhelming

phenomenon on its own. Illegal immigration requires a

holistic international approach that includes combating

criminal organizations — particularly in the countries

of origin and transit — and strengthening border

control; promoting good governance, economic

development and the rule of law; resettling refugees

and persons with humanitarian status; and returning

illegal immigrants to their countries of origin and

transit and reintegrating them into society. As part of

such a holistic approach, we must take into

consideration the special characteristics of a number of

particularly vulnerable countries on the routes of

migration between Africa and Europe, which, as

countries of destination, are carrying a burden far

greater than they can bear.

This issue was also examined in detail during the

High-level Dialogue on International Migration and

Development, which took place last week. Malta,

which took an active part in the Dialogue, looks

forward to greater engagement on the part of countries

of origin, transit and destination. In particular, we look

forward to the high-level conference on migration of

the European Union and the African Union, scheduled

to be held in Tripoli, Libya, before the end of this year.

Such engagement, which should have the active

support of international organizations operating in this

field, would continue the process of “trialogue”, which

was successfully undertaken at the Rabat Conference

last July. It could also serve as effective follow-up to

the recent United Nations Dialogue.

In focusing on development issues, we must

emphasize that development needs to be sustainable, to

respect the environment and to take into account the

rights of future generations, children, young people and

those yet unborn. Development does not mean a free-

for-all attitude towards the exploitation of the Earth’s

bountiful resources. There must be sustainable

development that allows our forests to regenerate, our

air to be pure and our seas to be free of pollution.

Climate change and global warming are not

issues that can be relegated to intellectual exercises.

Positive political action is required to address the

problems related to global warming and to prevent an

exacerbation of the consequences of lack of care for

the environment. As a number of dramatic experiences

have already shown, the consequences of lack of

respect for the planet and its environmental balances

have been borne in particular by the world’s poor,

whether in developing or developed economies. A

concerted effort by all mankind is therefore required in

this area. The United Nations is the appropriate forum

for addressing these issues, which affect all countries.

The fragility of our planet and its ecosystem means that

all of us have a greater responsibility to act rapidly and

together.

A global partnership for development needs to be

carried out in peace and stability. However, in today’s

world, global peace and security are constantly

threatened by destructive and violent events. In that

regard, we must pay particular attention to the

prolonged impasse that has thwarted the work of the

Conference on Disarmament. That impasse is

endangering the very multilateral mechanisms that

were created to foster peace, security and cooperation.

States members of the Conference have a grave

responsibility towards all United Nations Member

States in helping humanity to address the challenges of

non-proliferation, disarmament and arms control. As

the Secretary-General stated in his address to the

Conference on Disarmament last June, “With political

will, this Conference can reclaim its former mantle and

generate tangible benefits that could shape the course

31 06-53329

of history” (CD/PV.1028, p. 5). That is a challenge for

us all.

Another challenge for us all is to persevere in all

our efforts to resolve conflicts, even if they seem to

persist over long periods of time and regardless of the

number of peace initiatives undertaken by the

international community.

The recent conflict in Lebanon was a tragic

reminder of how easily a population can slide quickly

back into a conflict situation. Today, the clouds have

lifted a little so that new rays of hope can break

through. We wish that country well. We believe that it

could serve as a unique laboratory for democratic and

cultural pluralism within a peaceful society in the

Middle East.

In the same region, a resolution of the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict remains elusive. Fatalism is not an

option. The international community, through the

United Nations and other mechanisms such as the

Quartet, must maintain its concerted and determined

efforts to find a comprehensive, just and lasting

solution to this long-festering conflict, which has a

bearing on all other issues in the Middle East and,

indeed, in the wider global context. We welcome the

intense and frank debate that took place last week in

the Security Council on this issue (see S/PV.5530).

The President returned to the Chair.

Malta respects and supports the aspirations of the

Palestinian people to nationhood and dignity, and in

equal measure respects and supports the aspirations of

the Israeli people to live in peace within secure

borders. Those two aspirations are mutually compatible

and achievable through peaceful and just means. A

solution can be achieved only through strict and

abiding respect for the rules and norms of international

law, including humanitarian law.

On the ground, the continuing and increasingly

deteriorating humanitarian situation of the Palestinian

people is an intolerable burden on the international

conscience. We must acknowledge and applaud the

sterling work being carried out by the Commissioner-

General of the United Nations Relief and Works

Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

(UNRWA), Ms. Karen AbuZayd, and all of the

Agency’s dedicated staff to assist the refugee

population in no fewer than 58 refugee camps in Gaza,

the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, where one

third of Palestinian refugees live.

The international community needs to continue to

strengthen its tools for addressing natural emergencies

wherever in the world they occur, in a spirit of

solidarity with nations and human beings. In that

regard, the decision taken earlier this year — as a

follow-up to the Summit — on the revitalization and

upgrading of the Central Emergency Revolving

Fund — now the Central Emergency Response Fund —

is an important step forward. In that context, the role of

the United Nations Office for the Coordination of

Humanitarian Affairs, under the able leadership of

Under-Secretary-General Jan Egeland, continues to be

a crucial mechanism for dealing with the coordination

needed to strengthen humanitarian responses to natural

disasters and complex emergencies.

The tragic experience of the December 2004

Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami galvanized

efforts to plot the outlines of an international early

warning system across all oceans. That experience and

its aftermath, however, show that much still remains to

be done to respond more rapidly, efficiently and

effectively to natural disasters and other humanitarian

emergencies.

In this context, I note with great interest the

valuable work done to date by the Intergovernmental

Oceanographic Commission’s Intergovernmental

Coordination Group for the Tsunami Early Warning

and Mitigation System in the North-Eastern Atlantic,

the Mediterranean and Connected Seas. Located at the

centre of the Mediterranean and fully aware of the

havoc that a tsunami could cause in the basin, Malta

calls for speeding up the implementation of a

Mediterranean tsunami early warning and mitigation

system. This goal needs to be achieved as soon as

possible. We are prepared to play a proactive role

together with other States in the region in establishing

a fully functioning tsunami warning system.

In such phenomena, not just regional but full

global coverage is essential to the success of the

system. The Assembly should examine what needs to

be done to achieve this in the shortest time possible. In

particular, recent tsunami phenomena which were

smaller but which also claimed lives have shown that

while it is important for countries to have early

warning systems that are interlinked, it is equally

crucial to transmit the early warning received by a

06-53329 32

country immediately to people on the beaches and in

the most vulnerable coastal areas and to have in place

crisis management mechanisms that can accelerate

evacuation to safety. This requires the setting of

international warning-transmission standards across the

globe, which, if effectively implemented, can save

lives.

Malta believes that this should be a joint task for

the international community as a whole and calls on

the international community to consider immediately

the best means to respond to tsunami experiences with

appropriate legal and other instruments that address the

need for standards of transmission of early warnings to

population in the most vulnerable areas in all the

countries of the world. The setting of international

standards for preparing for phenomena such as

tsunamis can provide countries with an appropriate up-

to-date measuring stick and continuously upgraded

preparation.

The international community needs

multilateralism. The process of institutional reform is

another necessary and important component of efforts

to enhance effective multilateralism. Over the past

months, some slow progress has been made in

following up the decisions taken at last year’s World

Summit in this regard. We are all conscious of the

efforts that need to continue at this session of the

General Assembly on various aspects of institutional

reform, including the most sensitive one, relating to the

enlargement and reform of the Security Council. That

matter has gained in urgency; the impasse should be

broken by flexibility and openness to a search for

common ground.

A new Secretary-General will be taking the reins

of this Organization in the new year. The person

elected will need all our encouragement and support to

fulfil the vital and demanding tasks of that unique

office. To the outgoing Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, we express our immense sense of gratitude and

admiration for the way in which he has conducted his

work over the past 10 years and for his total dedication

to the cause of peace and the international rule of law.

The cause of peace and the international rule of

law are threatened daily by cultural and religious

incomprehension. An alliance of civilizations, mutual

respect and tolerance, acceptance of the other and of

diversity, peaceful coexistence and cooperation and

dialogue and education are the means which the

international community has at its disposal to

counteract the ugly phenomena of extremism and

fanaticism. We cannot ignore this threat to peace and

stability, a threat that is compounded by poverty and

mass migration. We must further strengthen

multilateralism as a means of world governance.

In this context, we need to keep in mind the

general without losing sight of the specific. The United

Nations must remain the focus of the debate on this

issue and needs to continue to engage with the world

media to spread the message and spirit of fraternity in a

world where large or small does not count. Equally,

experience has amply illustrated that small countries,

just as large ones, are essential to global security,

cultural interchange and respect and tolerance for

diversity.

As a Mediterranean State, as a member of the

European Union, as current Chair-in-Office of the

Commonwealth and, generally, as a member of the

international community of States, Malta is determined

to continue to make a contribution in all those

forums — and in this forum — towards the interests of

peace, justice and the rule of international law in the

world today and in the future.