Zambia, 2006

On behalf of the

Zambian delegation, I congratulate you, Madam

President, on your election as President of the sixty-

first session of the United Nations General Assembly.

It is indeed significant to have a lady holding the

highest office of the General Assembly after almost

three decades. To us, this attests to the commitment of

the United Nations to the principle of gender equality.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome a

new member to the United Nations, the Republic of

Montenegro.

Madam President, I wish to pay tribute to your

predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, the Foreign Minister of

Sweden, who successfully presided over the sixtieth

session. He rendered selfless commitment and devotion

to the search for consensus on a number of issues,

including the 2005 World Summit Outcome. It is

pleasing to note that during his presidency, a number of

decisions were taken, including the establishment of

the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights

Council.

Allow me to also pay fitting tribute to the

outgoing Secretary-General of the United Nations,

Mr. Kofi Annan, for the outstanding leadership he has

provided to our Organization, particularly in his efforts

to reform it into a more vibrant and accountable body.

His vision and stewardship of the Organization has set

the United Nations on a new course. We wish him well

in his future endeavours as he leaves office. It is now

up to us Member States to summon sufficient will to

make his vision a reality.

The world today is faced with challenges of

extreme poverty and underdevelopment, conflicts

among and between nations and terrorism, which have

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given rise to increased insecurity all over the world. In

addition, human trafficking is on the increase

worldwide. Often, innocent women and children in

search of a better life, are sold and made to engage in

illicit activities. That is a gross violation of human

rights, which must be seriously addressed by the

international community.

The 2005 Summit Outcome set a global agenda to

address those challenges. Much has been achieved, but

more remains to be done if we are to build a world

body that is effective and relevant to the challenges

faced. Indeed, as Mr. Kofi Annan has indicated in his

“In Larger Freedom” report,

“we will not enjoy development without security,

we will not enjoy security without development,

and we will not enjoy either without respect for

human rights.” (A/59/2005, para. 17)

The guiding principles of the United Nations

Charter incorporate the promotion and protection of

human rights and fundamental freedoms. We believe

that without the protection of those rights and

freedoms, meaningful development cannot be

achieved.

As one of the 47 Member States elected to the

newly established Human Rights Council, Zambia is

committed to upholding the tenets of human rights in

our country and the world at large. In that regard,

Zambia commends the United Nations for establishing

the Human Rights Council, and as a pioneer member,

pledges to give it all the support that it will require. We

commit ourselves to assist in formulating rules and

structures designed to ensure a strong Council that is

transparent, non-selective and non-politicized and that

promotes dialogue and cooperation among Member

States.

I am pleased to state that Zambia has made

progress in consolidating human rights and good

governance. Zambia has further strengthened the rule

of law and upheld the highest standards of individual

freedoms for all citizens, without discrimination based

on sex, colour, race or religious affiliation. In that

regard, we appeal to the international community to

assist us to strengthen and build the capacities of

human rights institutions and all related institutions

that have an important role to play in the promotion

and protection of human rights and fundamental

freedoms.

Permit me at this juncture to thank the

international community for electing Zambia to the

Human Rights Council, with the second highest

number of votes.

With regard to increased global insecurity,

Zambia reaffirms that a new vision of collective

security is required. Member States of the United

Nations expect the collective mechanism to address

threats, such as war, weapons of mass destruction,

terrorism, organized crime and civil conflict, infectious

diseases, extreme poverty and environmental

degradation. If the United Nations is to strengthen the

operations of that collective mechanism, Member

States must work through the United Nations Security

Council and other United Nations agencies to develop

stronger anti-terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation,

disarmament and crime prevention regimes.

Zambia will continue to actively pursue measures

intended to curtail terrorism through various actions,

including taking appropriate national legislative

reforms. To that end, we welcome the recent adoption

by the General Assembly of the Global Counter-

Terrorism Strategy and look forward to the adoption of

the comprehensive convention on international

terrorism.

Our Organization cannot afford to avoid

addressing situations that threaten international peace

and security, such as the recent case of Lebanon.

Pitifully, we witnessed a case of the inaction of the

Security Council, a body charged with the

responsibility of maintaining international peace and

security. That state of affairs only reaffirms the need to

reform the Security Council, with regard to its working

methods and the enlargement of its membership. In that

regard, Zambia reaffirms Africa’s well-known position

on the matter.

At this stage, I would be remiss if I did not

mention the Great Lakes region, which is emerging

from a protracted period of conflict, followed by a

period of successful transition towards democracy. The

International Conference on the Great Lakes Region

will hold its second summit in Nairobi in December

2006, to adopt the draft pact on security, stability and

development in the region. In that regard, we need the

continued political and financial support of the

international community to ensure its adoption.

It is important to confirm that the peacebuilding

and development process in the Great Lakes region has

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reached a very advanced stage at all the three-

dimensional levels, namely: international partnership,

regional ownership and national stewardship. The

vision for integrated and sustainable human

development in the Great Lakes region is now

reassured. The cessation of conflicts in the region, has

already fed into the collective will to transform the

subregion into a place of sustainable peace, political

security and development.

Extreme poverty and deprivation breed disease.

The number of people living with or affected by

HIV/AIDS and the deaths caused by AIDS have

continued to grow in the world today. Furthermore,

between 350 and 500 million people per year are

exposed to malaria, which is estimated to be the

number one cause of mortality in most developing

countries.

Zambia, like many of the developing countries

adversely affected by those diseases, supports all the

efforts made by the international community in

combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. We

therefore welcome the creation of an international drug

purchase facility to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis

and malaria. This will not only facilitate easy access to

medicine but will also lower the costs and therefore

benefit many countries, especially in the developing

world.

Poverty in the world today accounts for many of

the social and economic injustices that people are

subjected to in many developing countries. Four years

ago, a bargain was struck in Monterrey between

developed and developing countries on the

implementation of a comprehensive strategy bold

enough to achieve the United Nations Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Developed

countries were urged to support those efforts with

action on aid, trade and debt relief.

While we commend the developed countries for

taking tangible steps to fulfil their commitments, we

call upon them to do so as a matter of urgency. It is

saddening to note that six years after the Millennium

Declaration was signed, the majority of our people in

Africa are still exposed to abject poverty and live on

less than $1 per day. Although there has been

significant progress in achieving the MDGs, much

more remains to be done in order to reverse the

negative trends of poverty and the continued

marginalization of people across the world.

We call for the removal of the unjust multilateral

trade system, which continues to hamper the fair

participation of the developing and least developed

countries in the global market. We would like to draw

the attention of the Assembly to the role of our

developing partners, particularly, in the quick and

concrete implementation of the Doha Development

Agenda. It should be pointed out that with fair trading

practices, developing and least developed countries

would take a significant step towards self-sustenance

and reduce dependence on aid.

Furthermore, we welcome the outcome of the

Gleneagles Summit, at which the leaders of the Group

of Eight pledged to increase aid to Africa by

$25 billion a year by 2010. We also express our

gratitude to those leaders for extending and deepening

debt relief to the poorest countries through the

Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. That Initiative has

resulted in 100-per-cent cancellation of the debt owed

to the international multilateral financial institutions by

the poor countries that have reached the completion

point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt

Initiative. Zambia is one such country. In addition, our

gratitude goes to the other cooperating partners for

agreeing to expand aid to developing countries by

approximately $50 billion. Those resources will indeed

contribute to the advancement of the MDGs.

Although in the recent past we have seen an

increase in the commitment of aid resources and action

and a reaffirmation of the principle of mutual

accountability, there is still an urgent need to ensure

that aid is managed efficiently and used effectively for

the achievement of the MDGs. It is equally important

to closely monitor the donor commitments and aid

flows targeted at achieving the MDGs that we have set

for ourselves to improve the lives of the poor and most

vulnerable in the global community. The people in the

developing countries have been listening attentively to

the promises that we have made in various

international forums. They continue to monitor those

commitments. Their expectations and aspirations are

very high. It is therefore incumbent on us to ensure that

those commitments and promises are fulfilled.

The twenty-first century has been declared the

century for the development of Africa. Let us therefore

show true commitment to that cause. In a world where

there is no true partnership between the rich nations

and the poor nations, there can be no global security,

no universal justice, no human rights and no

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meaningful development. More than ever before, all of

us — rich and poor nations alike — have to work

together to create a sense of equal partnership. We all

need to fulfil our commitments within a given time

frame and enter into new ones in order to reach our

goal of a world free of hunger, extreme poverty and

disease — indeed, a world where we can live in a

secure, clean and sustainable environment.