Togo, 2006

First, on

behalf of our delegation, I warmly congratulate the

President on her election to preside over this session,

which encourages the Government of Togo in its

commitment to value the role of women in our society.

Togo remains convinced that the specific insights of

women in the management of national or international

affairs will make a big contribution to giving a more

united and human face to relations between peoples

and nations. The President can rest assured that as she

does her inspiring job Togo will continue to support

her unstintingly.

I also pay a merited tribute to the President’s

predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, whose competence,

moderation, sense of compromise and character earned

him the respect and esteem of all during the last

session.

In addition, I pay particular tribute to the

Secretary-General, and express to him our sincere

gratitude for his tireless efforts for peace, democracy

and development. We appreciate his commitment and

his bold proposals to ensure substantial and fair reform

of the United Nations.

In our quest for peace, security and socio-

economic development Togo has just reached a critical

stage in its history, with the signing on 20 August of

the Comprehensive Political Agreement at the end of

an open, constructive and inclusive dialogue. When the

Head of State took the initiative to resume the political

dialogue we were aware that our current stage of social

and political development would not allow us to deal

with all matters of discord or eliminate all political and

institutional problems. It was necessary first to

strengthen the dynamic of national mobilization and

social cohesion by promoting a policy of openness,

calm and national reconciliation.

The desired results have largely been achieved,

with the effective and active participation of all the

major political participants in the dialogue. Everyone

was able to speak freely on the substantive problems

that were feeding the persistent feeling of crisis. The

frank and responsible discussions, and the conclusions

reached, enable us to establish bolder conditions for

reform and lay the foundations for a new covenant for

the republic and for national harmony.

The conclusions of the national dialogue favour

the holding of free and democratic elections.

Additionally, the resolution of the dialogue regarding

the need to re-examine the role and mission of the

army and the other security services allows us to

anticipate an unprecedented strengthening of measures

to maintain public order and provide more security for

the activities of political parties and various other

organizations, as well as the electoral processes.

After the social dialogue — involving employers,

unions and the Government, and a number of bold

measures aimed at youth and workers of all

categories — a milestone will be reached with the

holding of free legislative elections, pluralist and

transparent, in the very near future. Togo will then

have satisfied all the commitments made to the

European Union on 14 April 2004 in Brussels.

In an attempt to give every opportunity for

national harmony, implement the conclusions of the

political dialogue and establish sustainable democracy,

a broad-based Government of National Unity was

established on 20 September 2006. All sections of the

Togolese people, in their political, social and regional

diversity, are represented in it. All the changes under

way in Togolese society were made possible by the

support of the international community, the maturity of

the people of Togo and, of course, the sense of

compromise of the political class.

We are very grateful to all our international

partners who assisted us during this process of

peacebuilding in our country. Our appreciation goes in

particular to the Economic Community of West African

States (ECOWAS), the African Union, the European

06-53609 24

Union, the International Organization of la

Francophonie, France, Germany, the United States of

America and all African heads of State, who have

always been very attentive to what we have had to say.

I wish also, and very particularly, to express to the

Facilitator, Mr. Blaise Compaoré, President of Burkina

Faso, the gratitude of our entire Government and

people for his critical role in the conclusion and

signing of the Comprehensive Political Agreement.

Consolidating peace in Togo and the success of

our democratization process remain closely linked to

the stability of the regional and international

environment. Therefore, Togo continues to be

concerned about the situation in Côte d’Ivoire. Given

the many preconditions for organizing elections in that

neighbouring country, there must be concern, from any

point of view, about the fulfilment of the mission for

which the United Nations is responsible. We hope that

the resolution of those preconditions will permit the

holding of free and democratic elections leading

Côte d’Ivoire to sustainable peace.

Similarly, with regard to the region of Darfur and

Somalia, in the absence of a much more vigorous

voluntary mobilization by the international community

to end the cycle of violence and the tragedy of the

peoples concerned, peace will not come soon to that

part of Africa.

In other parts of the world, the continuing

developments in both Iraq and the Middle East are a

major source of concern for the Government of Togo.

Togo firmly believes it is high time that the people of

Iraq were reconciled and that the international

community provided all the necessary support for their

Government to help it complete the reconciliation

process. It should be emphasized that the countries of

the subregion have an important role to play in the

quest for peace in Iraq.

The tragedy that unfolded in Lebanon weighs on

our conscience. Togo welcomes the Security Council’s

adoption of resolution 1701 (2006), whose effective

implementation will permit the return of peace to the

country.

At the heart of the Middle East conflict is the

thorny question of Palestine. Sustainable peace in the

region requires an end to the continuous cycle of

violence and a climate of confidence, which would

make possible talks to create a Palestinian State

alongside the State of Israel, the two of them

coexisting within secure and internationally recognized

borders.

While the resolution of crises and conflicts

remains at the heart of our concerns, everything must

be done to consolidate peace in countries emerging

from conflicts, or countries which, after great efforts,

have succeeded in their democratization process.

Therefore, the Peacebuilding Commission must play a

vital role in African countries emerging from conflicts.

We are pleased that it is already considering the

situation in Burundi and Sierra Leone. It must also help

Liberia to strengthen its regained peace and make sure

that Guinea-Bissau does not sink into violence.

Similarly, while we welcome the holding of legislative

and presidential elections in the Democratic Republic

of the Congo, Togo calls on the international

community to pay sustained attention to that country so

as to assist it until its still fragile process is completed.

Disarmament efforts by the international

community are still far from producing the desired

results. On the Korean peninsula the nuclear question

is still unresolved, and there is a need for a

strengthening of mutual confidence among the States

concerned. Therefore, my country firmly supports

every effort to resolve the region’s security questions

peacefully. We believe also that the question of the

nuclear programme of the Islamic Republic of Iran

cannot be resolved without negotiations between the

interested parties, and we call on them to create

conditions conducive to such talks. It would not be

wise to stop the country, by whatever means,

developing a nuclear programme, essentially peaceful,

for its fundamental research needs and the socio-

economic development of its population.

With respect to small arms and light weapons,

Togo regrets that the international community was

unable to successfully conclude the July 2006 New

York United Nations Conference to Review Progress

Made in the Implementation of the Programme of

Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit

Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its

Aspects, adopted in 2001. The failure of that

Conference is not encouraging for regional and

subregional initiatives. At the same time, the adoption

in June this year of the ECOWAS Convention on Small

Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and

Other Related Materials is very much part of

strengthening confidence-building measures among

States in the subregion. It is to be hoped that at this

25 06-53609

session the General Assembly will seriously examine

the question of the proliferation of small arms and light

weapons, which are a destabilizing factor for African

States in particular, and a threat to the peace and

security of people in general.

I should also like to emphasize the importance of

our collective responsibility to counter terrorism and

human rights violations. The reply of the international

community to terrorism should be appropriate and

should correspond to the expectations of peoples who

only wish to live in a world free from fear. The General

Assembly’s adoption of the Global Counter-Terrorism

Strategy is to be welcomed. We hope that the Human

Rights Council will contribute to strengthening the

capacity of States to promote and protect human rights

by developing and implementing appropriate strategies

and programmes. Accordingly, on 10 July the

Government concluded an agreement on establishing

an office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights in Togo.

The current state of the world — characterized by

a considerable increase in United Nations membership,

from 51 Member States in 1945 to 192 in 2006, the

emergence of new Powers, the persistence of certain

conflicts and especially the frequent paralysis in the

Security Council — requires that the United Nations be

reformed as soon as possible, as the September 2005

World Summit recommended. While the objective of

reform is to make the Organization more effective and

efficient, we must not lose sight of the fact that a

central, urgent factor is Security Council reform. If that

is not included, the reform will be unfinished business.

Decisions related to economic development and

the elimination of poverty adopted by the September

2005 World Summit have rekindled hope about the will

of the rich industrialized countries to assist the

countries of the South to promote sustainable

development for their peoples. Implementation of the

commitments made would permit achievement of the

goals. Therefore, the countries of the South ask the

countries of the North to commit themselves not only

to keep their promises to make a genuine contribution

to reducing poverty by 50 per cent by 2015, but finally

to eradicate it.

As the Assembly is well aware, the support of the

rich industrialized countries will enable us to

consolidate the efforts that the countries of the South

continue to make, efforts which have allowed us to

improve macroeconomic management by tackling

inflation and consolidating a balanced budget.

However, the global incidence of extreme poverty has

not declined, especially in the less developed countries,

where combating poverty is still a very difficult task.

The situation that I have just described is

exacerbated by factors that the developing countries

have not been able to master. They include, to mention

just a few: the external debt, deterioration in the terms

of trade, the weakness of official development

assistance, and environmental degradation. Moreover,

the HIV/AIDS pandemic presents a major challenge to

growth and economic development. Major conferences

organized under United Nations auspices are slow to

yield results. The status review of the Millennium

Development Goals, held in September 2005, and the

failure of the Doha Round and the midterm review of

the Brussels Programme of Action for Least Developed

Countries for the Decade 2001-2010, held on 18 and

19 September, have shown that there are still barriers

to implementing the commitments made.

It is therefore regrettable that development

partners have not always honoured their official

development commitments to the least developed

countries. Nevertheless, promises made recently, in

particular by the G-8 Summit in 2005, regarding an

increase in assistance and debt relief, have given us

reason for some optimism. Additionally, access to

markets and the gradual elimination of agricultural

subsidies by all countries simultaneously, on dates set

by the World Trade Organization, would contribute to

the development of poor countries, since agriculture is

the basis of the existence of hundreds of millions of

people in the least developed countries. For Togo it is

essential that progress be made in resolving questions

relating to cotton, in particular, questions that remain

vital for many developing countries.

My country welcomes the High-level Dialogue on

International Migration and Development, held on 14

and 15 September, during which the General Assembly

dealt with the multiple aspects of international

migration. We must do more in-depth thinking on ways

to stem the tide of the massive and hazardous exodus

to northern countries. An arsenal of repressive

measures alone will not resolve a situation that is

becoming more and more like a scourge.

In conclusion, I emphasize that if we are faithful

to our common destiny and our worldwide partnership

06-53609 26

based on solidarity we can realize the Millennium

Development Goals. Therefore, the countries of both

the North and the South must honour their

commitments, thus contributing to ending the suffering

of millions of disinherited people throughout the world

and to promoting international peace and security.