South Africa, 1996

I should like first to extend

warm congratulations to Mr. Razali Ismail on his election

to the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-first

session. We have no doubt that the session will benefit

from his known skills as he discharges his responsibilities.

I should also like to commend Mr. Diogo Freitas

do Amaral for the excellent work done during his term of

office.

I should also like to express to the Secretary-General,

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, our continued confidence in his

guidance of the Organization.

Allow me at the outset of this, my first opportunity to

speak before the General Assembly, to express the deep

gratitude and appreciation of the people and Government of

South Africa for the decision taken by the Assembly at the

fiftieth session to relieve the new democratic Government

of South Africa of the burden of the contribution to the

United Nations budget accumulated over the period of two

decades when the apartheid regime was excluded from

participating in the work of the General Assembly. We

recognize that that action involved considerable sacrifice,

both for the United Nations and for its Member States, and

that it was also consistent with the historic commitment of

support for our struggle for democracy.

South Africa remains committed to achieving a world

free of all weapons of mass destruction and to addressing

the issue of the proliferation of conventional weapons. We

therefore welcome the adoption of the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which we signed

yesterday.

Our support for the CTBT as an instrument of

disarmament and non-proliferation is based upon the view

that this Treaty is an integral part of a process which will

lead to the full implementation of the nuclear-disarmament

obligations set out in article VI of the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

An important milestone along this road was the

adoption of the Pelindaba Treaty creating the African

Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone. This Treaty will contribute

greatly to measures aimed at achieving a world free from

nuclear weapons. Further steps are needed in the process to

bring the world closer to the ultimate goal of the

elimination of nuclear weapons. The next step is for

African States to cooperate with parties to the other

nuclear-weapon-free-zones in the Pacific and Latin

American regions with a view to promoting a southern

hemisphere-wide nuclear-weapon-free zone. We are

heartened by the unprecedented step of four nuclear-

weapon States’ signing the relevant Protocols of the

Pelindaba Treaty simultaneously with African States in

April 1996, while the fifth has indicated that it will sign

shortly. South Africa, as stated previously in other

forums, will also work for the commencement next year

of negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament on a

treaty banning the production of fissile material for

nuclear weapons.

South Africa also supports and will work for the

establishment of an ad hoc committee on nuclear

disarmament in the Conference on Disarmament. This

committee can identify and negotiate the necessary steps

by which we can achieve the ultimate goal of the eventual

elimination of nuclear weapons. We also look forward to

the early ratification of the Chemical Weapons

Convention by those States that have not yet done so.

It is not just the threat posed by all weapons of mass

destruction and their means of delivery that is of serious

concern to my Government, but also the build-up of

conventional weapons beyond a level which can be

considered legitimate for the purposes of self-defence.

Conventional weapons are, in fact, the cause of most of

the deaths and suffering of millions of people in conflicts

around the world today.

My Government would therefore like to encourage

all States Members of the United Nations to support and

participate in the United Nations Register of Conventional

Arms, and lend active support to General Assembly

resolution 50/70 B on small arms and its panel of

governmental experts mandated to assist the Secretary-

General to prepare a report on small arms. We would also

encourage Member States to support the worldwide

efforts to secure the elimination of anti-personnel

landmines. In order to alleviate the suffering caused by

landmines, my Government is committed to reinforcing

international cooperation. As a country with advanced

demining technology, we are pleased to be making a

modest contribution to international efforts to unearth

landmines.

South Africa will continue to cooperate in the

various international forums dedicated to the

non-proliferation of the technologies and equipment which

17

could be used in the development of weapons of mass

destruction, and in discouraging any destabilizing build up

of conventional weapons.

Our harrowing experience under the tyranny of

apartheid has imposed a duty on us to place a high

premium on the promotion of human rights. In this regard,

our Constitution contains an entrenched and fully justiciable

Bill of Rights. In addition, plans are advanced for the

establishment of an office on the status of women to

provide a mechanism within the Government to act as a

monitor to ensure that a gender perspective is integrated

into all publicly-funded policies and programmes. The

South African Government regards it as a priority to

contribute to the efforts of the international community to

combat the violation of human rights.

In South Africa, and in the region as a whole,

processes of democratization have released a host of

productive human and political resources. This has, in many

ways, contributed to the achievement of peace, security and

stability in our region.

Our vision for southern Africa is one of the highest

possible degree of economic cooperation, mutual assistance

and the joint planning of regional development initiatives,

leading to full economic integration.

Civil conflicts have ravaged many parts of Africa. We

welcome the positive developments which have taken place

in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. However, serious conflict

persists in Liberia, Burundi and Somalia. The South African

Government is committed to playing an active role in the

ongoing efforts of the international community to assist the

people of Burundi to bring about lasting peace and national

reconciliation. President Mandela recently appointed a

special representative for Burundi, who has been given the

task of searching for a viable solution in close coordination

with other special representatives and with countries in the

region. These efforts need to be supplemented by close

cooperation between the Organization of African Unity

(OAU) and the United Nations.

At the same time, we are heartened by the progress,

albeit tentative so far, towards peace in Angola.

Representatives of Member countries assembled here will

agree that the people of Angola deserve peace at last as an

instrument for — or rather, as an important ingredient of —

embarking on the road to sustainable economic

development and social advancement. Our Government

commends the efforts of the United Nations, and especially

those of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General

for Angola, Maître Alioune Blondin Beye, who has with

tremendous patience and commitment guided the Angolan

peace process to the stage where it is today. We owe it to

the people of Angola to see this process through to its

logical conclusion.

Through the Organization of African Unity (OAU)

Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and

Resolution, member States of the OAU are collectively

committed to restoring peace and security on our

continent. In support of the OAU mechanism, we are

pleased that the Southern African Development

Community has recently created an organ on politics,

defence and security. These efforts reflect Africa’s

primary concern with issues of preventive diplomacy and

conflict resolution.

South Africa welcomed the spirit of dialogue and

realism that had begun to characterize the relations

between Israel and Palestine and was hopeful that this

positive development would gradually replace the

centuries of conflict in the Middle East. That hope was

further reinforced by the Declaration of Principles on

Interim Self-Government Arrangements reached in Oslo.

My Government is concerned, however, that recent

developments in the Middle East are likely to reverse and

jeopardize the peace process. We therefore urge all the

players in the Middle East to rise to the occasion and, in

a spirit of reconciliation, to move steadfastly towards a

lasting peace in the region.

We are seriously concerned by the marginalization,

particularly of African countries among the least-

developed countries, from the process of globalization and

liberalization. In this regard, closer attention should be

given to the need to address the external debt burden of

the least-developed countries, especially those in Africa.

Problems associated with the debt burden and its

servicing still persist and frustrate the rate at which the

continent can extricate itself from the vicious cycle of

poverty.

We therefore welcome the Mid-term Review of the

Implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for

the Development of Africa in the 1990s and recognize the

importance of the United Nations System-wide Special

Initiative on Africa, as well as the need to underpin its

success through appropriate and adequate resources.

In this context we also welcome the designation of

1996 as the International Year for the Eradication of

Poverty. We hope that the international community will

18

realize this objective in clear recognition of the challenges

facing it.

We welcome the World Food Summit, which is to

convene in Rome in November 1996 and which will afford

the international community the opportunity to demonstrate

its commitment to ensuring that poverty eradication

strategies are fully integrated into all initiatives of the

United Nations system.

My Government is encouraged by the outcome of the

United Nations Conference on Human Settlements

(HABITAT II). The results of the Conference represent the

collaborative efforts of the international community to

develop a consensus view on the fundamental need to

provide access to adequate shelter and infrastructure for all

people. Continued support for initiatives at the national and

international level to realize and implement the necessary

follow-up to HABITAT II should now receive priority

attention.

It was an honour for South Africa to host the ninth

session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and

Development (UNCTAD) in April 1996. My Government

believes that the sound basis for cooperation established by

UNCTAD IX and the call for partnership for growth and

development outlined in the Midrand Declaration must be

carried forward and implemented through the General

Assembly and other forums. South Africa is particularly

keen to ensure that the framework which we adopted at

Midrand for the reform of UNCTAD is translated into an

effective facility for the developing world.

South Africa also wishes to underscore the

fundamental importance of international cooperation in the

environmental and development fields. Sustained political

commitment through global partnership remains essential

for our continuing international cooperation efforts. It is for

this reason that we believe that the 1997 special session of

the General Assembly will provide an excellent opportunity

to reaffirm the principles and objectives of the Rio

Declaration’s Agenda 21.

South Africa, a country with a long coastline, has

considerable interest in matters relating to the law of the

sea. We are thus pleased that the United Nations

Convention on the Law of the Sea and its implementing

Agreement have entered into force, and that the

International Sea-Bed Authority and related structures, of

which South Africa is proud to be a member, have been

established.

In my statement to the General Assembly during the

fiftieth session, I expressed the sincere hope that

significant progress would be made in bringing about the

establishment of an international criminal court. It is

therefore gratifying to see that the Preparatory Committee

on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court,

which was established during the fiftieth session, has

made much progress in bringing this idea to fruition.

What is now needed is to take this process forward by

holding as soon as possible a diplomatic conference

where the statute of the proposed court can be finalized.

It is widely acknowledged that the favourable

changes in the international climate are conducive to the

reform and modernization of the United Nations in order

to prepare the Organization to respond effectively to the

challenges of the twenty-first century.

I wish to recall that in his address on 23 October

1995 at the Special Commemorative Meeting of the

General Assembly, President Mandela, said:

“Indeed the United Nations has to reassess its

role, redefine its profile and reshape its

structures. It should truly reflect the diversity

of our universe and ensure equity among the

nations in the exercise of power within the

system of international relations in general, and

the Security Council in particular.” (Official

Records of the General Assembly, Fiftieth

Session, Plenary Meetings, 37th meeting, p. 6)

In this regard, my delegation wishes to register its

disappointment at the slow pace of advancement, with no

end in sight to the deliberations of the Working Group on

the question of equitable representation and increase in

the membership of the Security Council and other matters

relating to the Security Council. In this regard we support

the recommendation in the report of the Working Group

that the Group should continue with its work. We would

also urge Member States to demonstrate flexibility and

accommodation in their future deliberations and to display

the necessary political will in order to reach a common

understanding.

In the declaration that the Heads of State and

Government adopted on the occasion of the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations on 24 October 1995, it

was noted that

“In order to carry out its work effectively, the

United Nations must have adequate resources.

19

Member States must meet, in full and on time, their

obligation to bear the expenses of the Organization, as

apportioned by the General Assembly. That

apportionment should be established on the basis of

criteria agreed to and considered to be fair by Member

States.” (A/50/48, para. 15)

My delegation has taken note of the progress of the

Working Group on the financial situation in highlighting the

problems facing the Organization, and urges all Member

States to pay what is legally due as soon as possible in

order that we may direct our energies to the real problems

facing the world at this time. As we approach the twenty-

first century, let us together resolve to redefine the role and

shape of the United Nations and render this institution

better equipped to carry out the important task of advancing

peace and development in the world.