Mauritius, 1997

Mr. President, I have the

distinct honour and privilege on behalf of my delegation to

extend to you, Sir, our warmest congratulations upon your

election as President of the fifty-second session of the

General Assembly. Your election to this office is a fitting

tribute to your personal qualities and recognition of the

important role of your great nation in world affairs. We are

confident that your wide experience and wisdom will ensure

the success of our deliberations. You may rest assured of

the fullest support and cooperation of my delegation.

I would also like to thank Ambassador Razali Ismail

for his remarkable contribution to the last session. We

thank him for his strong leadership and his hands-on

approach during the discussions of some of the most

difficult and crucial issues concerning the future of our

Organization.

The changes taking place throughout the world today

present new challenges for the United Nations system and

call for a new approach in finding appropriate solutions.

It is my firm belief that the success of the United Nations

cannot be contemplated without reform and renewal of

the Organization. We agree that the United Nations stands

at a crossroads today. Its continued role and relevance

depend on its ability to adapt to the new world

environment.

We now have before us a number of proposals

contained in the Secretary-General’s report designed to

better equip the United Nations to address its tasks in the

new era. I thank the Secretary-General for this in-depth

and valuable exercise. I take this opportunity to pay

tribute to a great son of Africa and to his sterling qualities

of leadership. The report not only addresses the strengths

and weaknesses of our Organization, but also contains

specific proposals to enable it to face present and future

challenges on a sound footing. We subscribe fully to his

view that this reform exercise is a process which will

have to be carried out over a continuous period of time,

given all its complexity and scope. I wish to assure you,

Mr. President, that my delegation will extend its fullest

cooperation and will actively participate in the

deliberations on the report.

We also endorse the Secretary-General’s proposals

for promoting greater synergy within the United Nations

system. We agree that they will advance complementarity

and coherence. The effectiveness of the Organization will

certainly be enhanced if it operates as an orchestrated unit

at Headquarters and at country level, rather than as a

group of semi-autonomous players.

Likewise, we welcome the Secretary-General’s idea

of setting up a development account to be fed by savings

from reductions in non-programme costs. We express the

sincere hope that sufficient funds will be made available

to produce a significant impact on development

programme financing. We should ensure that this dividend

for development does indeed benefit the developing

world, unlike the much-trumpeted “peace dividend” of the

post-cold-war era.

We uphold the proposals aimed at enhancing the

strategic direction which the General Assembly should

provide. However, such proposals should be subjected to

the most careful scrutiny, because of all their

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implications, particularly in respect to the smaller and more

vulnerable Member States. The General Assembly, as the

Secretary-General rightly points out, is the organ that

“most fully embodies the universal and democratic

character of the Organization.” (A/51/950, para. 40)

While we support the long-standing need for focusing

legislative debates and streamlining this Assembly’s agenda,

we must ensure that this body does not end up being

dominated by the concerns of the strong and powerful

members only. Countries — big or small, like mine —

should have equal possibilities of articulating any issue they

consider important. It is by the way in which this

Organization addresses issues most relevant to its smallest

members that the international community at large will

judge its significance.

The debate on the reform of the Security Council

seems to have registered some notable movement recently.

However, the distance separating the main positions

remains quite daunting. We hope that the wide spectrum of

views expressed so far on this subject will eventually

converge and that general agreement will be reached. Such

agreement should ensure that the composition of the

reformed Council is based on greater representation,

transparency and equitable geographical distribution, with

the inclusion of developing countries as permanent

members. In this regard, we reaffirm our support for the

position of the Non-Aligned Movement calling for the

expansion of the Security Council on the basis of fair and

adequate representation.

Africa has also stated its position on this matter at the

recent Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit. The

current representation of Africa in the Council does not

reflect its status as the most sizeable group of the

Organization’s membership. Reform of this body must,

therefore, restore Africa’s position to the fullest extent

possible.

In the same vein, my delegation would like to reiterate

its support for India’s claim to a permanent seat in the

Security Council.

The globalization of the world economy is adding

increasing pressures on the developing countries to embrace

trade liberalization as a means to achieve economic growth.

During the Uruguay Round negotiations developing

countries made significant concessions in the hope of

obtaining improved access to international markets. Many

of them have still not seen the benefits of the new global

trading system. Instead, they are haunted by the spectre of

imminent erosion of preferences in their major export

markets. Several African countries have made strenuous

efforts to adhere faithfully to structural adjustment

programmes and have adopted trade liberalization

policies. Unfortunately, they have registered but an

insignificant, if not declining, percentage of world trade.

Africa’s trade should become the top priority of the

international community; otherwise, the multilateral

trading system will run the risk of becoming fraught with

tensions and discrimination.

It is unfortunate to note that foreign direct

investment, which plays a central role in the ongoing

integration of the world economy, is still highly

concentrated in a few countries. The recent findings of

the United Nations Conference on Trade and

Development (UNCTAD) indicate that Africa received

merely $5 billion out of $349 billion of foreign direct

investment last year. Excluding South Africa, the share of

Africa in the total investment for the developing countries

figured at only 4 per cent. This is the lowest share since

the early 1980s, and is a further indication that the

African region is not benefiting from the global foreign

direct investment boom. The 33 sub-Saharan countries

that are classified among the least developed countries are

in fact receiving less that 1 per cent of the total foreign

direct investment for Africa. It is vital that these countries

be provided with greater assistance and investment and be

given special attention by the international community.

Otherwise, they will be further marginalized, with the risk

of disappearing from the world economic map.

We therefore wish this Assembly to give more

attention to the development needs of the African

continent. In this context, we welcome the recent special

ministerial meeting of the Security Council, which has

helped focus the attention of the international community

on Africa. After several years of complacency and

stagnation, there is now cause for some optimism.

We agree that it is incumbent upon us Africans to

put our house in order. But unless we are freed from our

debt burden, future generations may never have the

opportunity to have access to clean drinking water, health

care or proper schooling while scarce resources have to

be utilized for debt payments.

For some countries, like Mozambique, which are just

emerging from years of civil conflict, the Bretton Woods

initiative may have to be implemented in order to reduce

debt faster. Indeed, not only do these countries have to

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reduce their crushing debt load, they also have to free

resources to rehabilitate their economic infrastructure and

fund social expenditure.

Last week the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Robin

Cook, referred to the Commonwealth Finance Ministers

meeting held in Mauritius earlier this month, at which the

British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, made

specific proposals with respect to debt. These proposals,

known as the Mauritius Mandate, are meant to set some of

the poorest nations on a path towards sustainable

development by the year 2000. We welcome this laudable

initiative by the British Government to write off debts

totalling 132 million pounds of heavily indebted poor

countries of the Commonwealth. We hope that this

important measure will encourage major financial

institutions and creditor nations to come forward and

participate fully in transforming the destiny of debt-ridden

poor countries.

We also welcome the various initiatives recently taken

by the United States to promote investment and to develop

a new trade regime for sub-Saharan Africa.

We equally appreciate the partnership between the

European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific

(ACP) countries, which has, through the successive Lomé

Conventions, contributed immensely to the socio-economic

development of the ACP countries. We are confident that

the successor arrangement to the Fourth Lomé Convention

will further consolidate this long-standing economic and

trade partnership, and in this context we look forward to the

continued support of the international community.

We welcome the communiqué of the Denver Summit,

which represents a significant advance over the New Global

Partnership for Development adopted at the Lyon Summit.

The Declaration “Africa: Partnership for development”

focuses attention exclusively on the African continent, with

particular emphasis on the least-developed and landlocked

countries. However, in the pledge to integrate the poorest

countries into this world economy through trade

liberalization and investment policies, no specific targets

were defined on trade expansion or tariff reduction. If these

countries are to be completely weaned from official

development assistance, not only should their capacity to

produce be strengthened, but they must also be given full

access to foreign markets for their products, especially

those coming from their nascent and developing industries.

We are fully conscious of the fact that North-South

cooperation needs to be complemented by effective South-

South cooperation. In this regard, the countries in our

region have intensified their efforts to accomplish that

goal.

For the Southern African Development Community

(SADC), a new promising chapter was opened with the

recent admission of the Democratic Republic of Congo

and Seychelles. With the inclusion of these two new

members, the regional grouping has become an even more

important economic area in the African continent. It has

the potential of becoming the driving force in promoting

growth and development. There is a strong determination

among the SADC members to achieve regional integration

through industrial transformation and trade growth. My

Government is fully committed to this goal, and I am

pleased to inform this Assembly that Mauritius will have

the honour and privilege of hosting the SADC summit

meeting next year.

My Government is equally committed to the Indian

Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-

ARC), which regroups several countries of the Indian

Ocean Rim in a tripartite network of Government, private

sector and academia. The IOR-ARC was formally

launched at a ministerial meeting in Mauritius in March

this year with 14 founding members. It has generated

tremendous interest among the countries of the region and

internationally.

We remain confident that the international

community will lend its support to these regional

associations. We welcome the timely initiative announced

last week by the United States Secretary of State to

enhance dialogue with SADC and encourage investments

and trade exchanges.

It is a matter of regret that the special session of the

General Assembly held last June to review the progress

made in the implementation of Agenda 21 was unable to

agree on a frank assessment of the commitments entered

into at Rio. Unfortunately, very little has been done on

the ground. In some areas, particularly with regard to the

level of official development assistance, the overall

situation has actually worsened. It is disappointing that

the lack of new and additional resources has not allowed

the special concerns of the small island developing

countries, as expressed in the Barbados Programme of

Action, to be adequately addressed.

We also regret that on the question of climatic

change, no consensus on limits relating to the emission of

greenhouse gases could be reached. We hope that the

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Kyoto Conference on Climate Change will seriously address

this issue and adopt meaningful measures to cut down the

production of greenhouse gases.

This year the General Assembly twice had to convene

an emergency session to consider the extremely serious

situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. Unilateral

actions have negated the Oslo peace process. This impasse

must now be broken. The recent diplomatic effort by the

United States Secretary of State, Mrs. Madeleine Albright,

seems to have averted a total deadlock. It is essential that

the protagonists start talking to each other again.

We view with serious concern the recent events in the

Islamic Federal Republic of Comoros, which have resulted

in the loss of human lives on the Island of Anjouan. We

appeal to all the parties to the conflict to show restraint and

to strive together towards a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

We reaffirm our support to the United Nations stand on the

sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Comoros. We

also welcome the constructive role played by the OAU and

the League of Arab States in mediating between the various

parties. We look forward to an early convening of the

proposed international conference in Addis Ababa for the

restoration of peace in the Islamic Federal Republic of

Comoros.

The situation in Burundi continues to preoccupy the

international community. We support the Arusha peace

initiative and reiterate our confidence in Mwalimu

Nyerere’s role as facilitator in the process aimed at finding

a lasting solution to the Burundi crisis.

Later this year, we will kick off the celebration of the

fiftieth anniversary of one of the most important seminal

documents adopted by this body — the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights. During the year leading to

this landmark event, Mauritius will work together with all

Member States in promoting and strengthening the human

rights situation everywhere, especially in the communities

to which we are more closely associated through shared

history and culture, namely the Commonwealth and the

community of French-speaking countries.

The promotion of human rights has been an article of

faith for my Government. It is also an integral part of our

foreign policy. In this respect we welcome the setting up of

the Indian Ocean Institute of Human Rights and Democracy

in Mauritius for the promotion of human rights and

democracy. We pledge our full support to this Institute.

Human rights for all, including women and children, and

democratic values are matters of universal concern.

As a multi-ethnic democracy, Mauritius has always

raised its voice strongly against discrimination based on

race, religion, culture and otherwise. In this regard, we

note with satisfaction the recent developments in Fiji,

which has finally decided to amend its Constitution in

order to promote social harmony. We hope that the

Government of Fiji will tackle the remaining issues

standing in the way of the full enjoyment of fundamental

rights and basic economic security by all segments of the

population of Fiji.

Mauritius reaffirms its full commitment to total

disarmament and urges the world community to make

every effort to rid itself of all weapons of mass

destruction. It is in this spirit that Mauritius was among

the first countries to ratify the Chemical Weapons

Convention and the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone

Treaty. We also reaffirm our support for the Ottawa

initiative for a universal ban on anti-personnel landmines.

It is regrettable that some major countries have decided to

stay out of this process. We make a strong appeal to all

Governments to become part of this unique and historic

endeavour to eliminate landmines.

Allow me to take this opportunity to reaffirm the

fact that my country, Mauritius, a former French island,

belongs to the great community of French-speaking

countries. This sense of belonging culminated with the

holding in 1993 of the sixth summit of the French-

speaking countries, whose central theme was “Unity in

diversity”, and which celebrated not only the universal

values of the French-speaking countries but also made it

possible for us to enshrine those same values in our

society. Our people, who come from Africa, Asia and

Europe, have deep roots in all the great cultures that form

the French-speaking community. My compatriots can, in

the course of one day, travel through all these cultures,

one after another.

It is for that reason that my country attaches such

great importance to the Francophone plan of promoting

diversity in a world that is increasingly unipolar and

uniform. The upcoming summit in Hanoi will mark a

very important stage in the future of this French-speaking

community, providing it with the effective political means

to make its voice heard on major international issues.

This Assembly is by now well aware of the just and

legitimate claim of Mauritius to the restoration of its

territorial integrity through the return of the Chagos

Archipelago, including Diego Garcia, to its national

heritage. This Assembly should also note that this issue also

has a tragic human dimension. Before Mauritius acceded to

its independence, all of the inhabitants of the Chagos were

forced to leave the land of their birth, where they had lived

for several generations. The plight of those inhabitants must

now be comprehensively addressed.

Likewise, we are still awaiting the return of the island

of Tromelin to Mauritius. As we pursue our efforts to

recover these territories, we call upon the former colonial

Powers to expedite this process through dialogue in the

spirit of the friendship that characterizes our relationships.

My Government looks forward to an early resolution of

these disputes.