| Date | 15 September 2002 |
|---|---|
| Started | 10:00 |
| Ended | 13:30 |
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Address by His Excellency Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
The Acting President
The Assembly will now hear an address by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Acting President
On behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations His Excellency Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and to invite him to address the Assembly.
President Obasanjo
(Nigeria)
On behalf of the Government and people of Nigeria, I join other delegations in congratulating Mr. Kavan on his election as president of the fifty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly. I have no doubt that, under his able leadership, the work of this session will be guided to a successful conclusion. Let me also acknowledge the work done by his predecessor, who guided the affairs of the fifty-sixth session with great skill and commitment.
The tireless efforts of our Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, on behalf of our Organization must not go unnoticed. He deserves our profuse appreciation.
I welcome the newest member of our organization, Switzerland. I have no doubt that this nation will bring unique perspectives to the work of the United Nations, which will enhance the attainment of its objectives.
It is regrettable that international terrorism continues to pose a threat to international peace and security. There is a need for reviewed and concerted efforts on our part to confront the menace until the threat is halted. The various international instruments aimed at combating terrorism deserve our full support. Nigeria remains deeply committed to the fight against terrorism. We are committed to the early elaboration of a comprehensive convention on international terrorism.
Despite the best intentions and efforts of the international community, a scourge of a different nature continues to threaten many parts of the world. I refer here to the numerous theatres of conflict around the world. People continue to expend valuable energies and resources in fighting each other, often for causes that are unproductive. The international community has a responsibility, not only to design appropriate strategies for a measured and early response to snuff out these conflicts, but also to find ways and means of addressing their root causes, and managing them to a peaceful conclusion. Only then will true peace and stability reign in the world.
While it is true that many of these conflicts have their root causes in poverty, ignorance, real and perceived injustice and the absence of basic freedoms, it is equally evident that they are often exacerbated, especially in the case of African conflicts, by the influx of small arms into the continent. Illicit trade in small arms and light weapons has continued unabated, with disastrous consequences for many developing countries. We are deeply concerned that manufacturing countries are not doing enough to limit the proliferation of these weapons through appropriate safeguards. We, therefore, call on the international community to consider elaborating a legally binding international instrument to control the supply of these weapons to non-State actors.
The United Nations peacekeeping role is an invaluable one in the global effort to help contain and resolve conflicts around the world. It deserves to be sustained and strengthened. Nigeria is proud to be an active participant in this peacekeeping and peacemaking effort. We remain committed to this responsibility in the conviction that we are our brother's keeper and in the knowledge that there can be no development without peace and stability.
The situation in the Middle East continues to pose a serious threat to international peace and security. We reaffirm our commitment to the right of the Palestinian people to their own independence, as well as the right of the State of Israel to exist within safe and secure international borders, consistent with Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973). We therefore welcome the vision and the engagement of the Quartet, as well as other sponsors of the Middle East peace process. I urge the parties in the Middle East conflict to cooperate with the international community and give the ongoing peace process a chance. That becomes imperative because we cannot afford a situation of protracted conflict in the subregion.
Nigeria notes with concern the threat that the situation in Iraq poses to international peace and security. We hold the view that any further escalation of tension would lead to very serious consequences. Nigeria, therefore, urges the parties concerned to exercise caution and restraint and that the matter be resolved in accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
There is no shortage of international good will and commitment to development. Various declarations and programmes eloquently address the need for rapid, durable and sustainable development, as well as the desire for the equitable distribution of the world's wealth. In spite of this good will and good intentions on the part of the international community, more than half of humanity lives in abject poverty and ignorance. For many countries in Africa, hunger and disease remain pervasive and deeply rooted. Human development indices for some of the poorest countries are, indeed, unflattering for a world that is so rich but with resources so unevenly distributed.
It is our conviction that urgent, concrete action is required, if the lofty goals we have set for ourselves in the Millennium Declaration to make the world a better place are to be realized. Many developing countries require assistance from the international community in the form of increased official development assistance and foreign direct investment flows and efforts to alleviate their excruciating debt burden and enable them to develop their human and material resource base.
Africa remains committed to the attainment of the goals of the Millennium Declaration. In that regard, I am pleased to state that Africa is seeking to lift itself by its own bootstraps, through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). As members are aware, NEPAD is designed to address, in a sustained and coordinated way, many of the developmental problems associated with Africa's underdevelopment.
We are encouraged by the support that NEPAD has so far received from the international community. The latest evidence of this support is the outcome of the recent meeting of the Group of 8 in Kananaskis, Canada, towards the implementation of the Action Plan. It is hoped that the United Nations high-level segment on NEPAD would record greater successes in the much expected endorsement of that initiative by the international community.
This and other programmes designed to improve the living conditions of the majority of humanity may not yield the desired results if one of the greatest dangers facing humanity today is not addressed with the commitment and urgency it deserves. I am speaking here of the HIV/AIDS pandemic that continues to bring havoc, misery and hopelessness on humanity, especially in Africa where the pandemic is threatening to wipe out entire generations. For example, it is estimated that out of the 36 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, 75 per cent of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. The consequent toll on the human and material resources of one of the most impoverished regions of the world cannot be overemphasized. Not only is the productive population of Africa being systematically decimated by HIV/AIDS, but efforts to combat this and other diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, are also diverting scarce resources away from development programmes and projects. Massive assistance is therefore required from the international community to complement the efforts of individual countries.
Nigeria will spare no effort to combat these scourges. While we are fully aware of the insidious nature of all of these pestilences, the spread of HIV/AIDS constitutes by far our greatest source of concern. For that reason, Nigeria is active in contribution to and management of the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS.
We have also established a national agency for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS to coordinate the Government's multisectoral approach to the prevention, control and management of the pandemic. We pledge to continue to do our best in this human struggle against this powerful, destructive force, especially by generating awareness in the country about its prevention and spread. We continue, however, to count on the international community to find cures for these diseases, as well as to give assistance to many of our countries in these efforts. The leadership of the United Nations is critical to the success of these efforts.
I wish once again to draw the Assembly's attention to the pernicious issue of corruption and its manifestation at the international level. We have always maintained that it takes two to tango and that the instances of corruption in developing countries have often been supported by encouragement, and inducements and the provision of safe havens by the industrialized countries. Thus, we are strongly advocating that efforts to establish a convention against corruption need to be expedited, so that we can have global action against corruption.
There is no doubt that the United Nations has served humanity well. It has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1945. It remains the only organization to which all nations, in varying degrees and ways, are associated and committed. Humanity is the better for the existence of the United Nations. The Organization provides the basis for our collective security, international cooperation and solidarity, which are essential for human coexistence. We must therefore continue to fine-tune its implementations to make it more responsive to the needs of the times and to prepare it for the challenges of the future, some of which could not have been envisaged by the founding Members.
I am pleased to note that there is general agreement among us on the need to reform the Organization so as to make it more democratic in structure, more efficient in management and more manageable in size. Nigeria is a major proponent of the envisaged reforms, especially those regarding the structure and working methods of the Security Council. Nigeria envisages a new Security Council in which it will play the role destined by its geopolitical circumstances and the challenges of the twenty-first century. In this regard, we are willing to contribute to efforts and stand ready to support others of like mind and circumstances in this endeavour.
The Acting President
On behalf of the General Assembly, I wish to thank the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for his statement.
Agenda item 9 (continued)
General debate
Address by the Right Honourable Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili, Prime Minister and Minister for Defence and Public Service of the Kingdom of Lesotho
The Acting President
The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency the Right Honourable Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili, Prime Minister and Minister for Defence and Public Service of the Kingdom of Lesotho.
The Acting President
I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency the Right Honourable Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili, the Prime Minister and Minister for Defence and Public Service of the Kingdom of Lesotho, and invite him to address the General Assembly.
Mr. Mosisili (Lesotho)
My delegation associates itself with compliments extended to the President following his election to the presidency of this session, to his predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo, and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan.
The admissions of the Democratic Republic of East Timor and of the Swiss Confederation to membership of the Organization are a joyous occasion for my delegation. We welcome and indeed congratulate those two countries and nations as they join our family of nations.
As we meet here today, Lesotho and some other countries of the southern African subregion are in the grip of a most devastating and unprecedented food shortage, as a result of a combination of floods, unseasonable frost and drought, consequent upon climatic changes that have hit the region in the recent past.
On 19 April of this year, when the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho declared a state of famine, it was evident that over half a million people, out of a total of 2.2 million, faced a severe food crisis. Since then, efforts have been made at the national level to address the problem.
Let me take this opportunity, on behalf of the Government and the people of the Kingdom of Lesotho and, indeed, on my own behalf, to express our gratitude for the rapid response of the United Nations and its specialized agencies and programmes and that of the donor community to the crisis facing my country.
HIV/AIDS, which has emerged as a major health and development threat, continues to be a source of grave concern in my country. Most of those who are infected are between the ages of 15 and 45 and constitute the potential and active workforce in Lesotho.
Of equally great concern is the corrosive effect that HIV/AIDS has on the family structure and on the social fabric of our society. We now have a large number of orphans and child-headed households. Those who are sick not only lack adequate counselling and medicine but also lack care and support.
My delegation therefore makes a special appeal to the international community to provide adequate financial support for the African countries, in order to arrest and, indeed, to redress the spread of HIV/AIDS. In this regard, the efforts of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in establishing the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are most welcome. Indeed, Africa as a whole needs unconditional support in many other areas, particularly in the sectors of agriculture, health, nutrition, water and sanitation and education. Undoubtedly, there is a strong link between poverty and the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
The Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development, the Doha Ministerial Conference on trade and the World Summit on Sustainable Development provided useful forums for discussing steps that must be taken to remove obstacles to economic growth and sustainable development, particularly in the developing countries. We are hopeful that commitments made by our cooperating partners mark a beginning of the process of helping the least developed countries (LDCs) to translate goals and targets of major global conferences and summits into concrete actions. My delegation reiterates that the marginalization of LDCs can be ended only if they are assisted in integrating profitably into the global economy.
Africa took a very bold and decisive step recently in Durban, South Africa, in launching the African Union. There is no doubt, as many may have observed, that while the road to this Union was strewn with many obstacles, there is now some light at the end of the tunnel. This hope is premised on the principles that have guided us in the last thirty-nine years of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The Africa of today is committed to the principles of democracy, stability, peace, security, good governance and the rule of law. Above all, modern Africa is committed to good economic management because it is, indeed, the mismanagement of our economies that has often led to conflicts on the continent.
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is a home-grown African strategy and an African Union programme for Africa's development. It is a commitment by African leaders to eradicate poverty and to place the continent on a path of lasting growth and development. My delegation, therefore, appeals for more international support for NEPAD. We believe that the role of the entire international community in supporting NEPAD, and the role of the United Nations in the coordination and synchronization of activities related to ensuring its success, would indeed provide a fresh impetus for Africa's development.
The right of a people to self-determination is a human right and a fundamental principle enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. The peoples of Western Sahara and Palestine, therefore, deserve no less. Hence, my delegation urges that efforts to emancipate these nations be strengthened and speeded up.
Lesotho is gratified that one of the oldest and longest running conflicts in Africa has finally come to an end with the signing of the ceasefire in Luanda, Angola, early this year, by the representatives of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the Government of Angola. However, Lesotho and other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, as well as the international community at large, are alarmed by the harsh social and economic conditions that confront internally displaced persons and refugees who return to their homes in Angola.
We appreciate the efforts of the entire United Nations system to address this situation. We are of the view that a lot more still needs to be done for the Angolan people, including the provision of significant additional resources as called for by the United Nations Secretary-General, in order to address the humanitarian needs of the people of Angola.
Despite the temporary disruption of the ceasefire negotiations, my delegation is convinced that the Machakos Protocol signed between the Government of the Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Army, remains a viable framework for the realization of durable peace in the Sudan. We urge the warring parties to return to the negotiation table in earnest and in good faith.
The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo has also been a source of concern to us all. We wish to congratulate the Governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda for the signing of the peace agreements, which should pave the way for the withdrawal of troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo. We believe that this will also ensure that the security concerns of the neighbouring countries are adequately addressed, whilst at the same time creating conditions that are conducive for the Congolese people to live in peace in their own country.
Terrorism has become one of the most pressing concerns of the international community in recent times. The Government of Lesotho has joined other peace-loving members of the international community in waging war against this heinous crime.
The Government of Lesotho is committed to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1373 (2001), and, despite financial and technical constraints, we will continue to discharge our obligations, as stipulated in that resolution.
The shocking images of atrocities perpetrated in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia will forever be embedded in our minds. They have served as a painful reminder to the international community that such crimes should never go unaccounted for and their perpetrators unpunished. In that spirit we hail the landmark agreement reached between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone to establish an independent special court for the prosecution of those responsible for the serious decade-long crimes against humanity committed in the territory of Sierra Leone. We hope that the creation of this special court will contribute greatly to the process of national reconciliation and healing, as well as to the restoration and maintenance of peace in Sierra Leone.
The Government of Lesotho reveres the coming into force of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, a momentous period when the countries of the world affirmed their intolerance of those who commit crimes against humanity with impunity. We therefore invite those States that have not yet done so, to become party to the Statute, so that we may embark on this noble but difficult pursuit in solidarity.
I should not conclude this statement without making reference to the issue of the reform of the Security Council. The process of democratization is, indeed, very difficult, and yet inevitable. It essentially involves a lot of compromise and understanding on the part of those who cherish and uphold the basic tenets of democracy and equality of States. My delegation therefore wishes to reiterate its concern that this organ of the United Nations, which is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security, has itself not yet moved to be more inclusive and more representative. Here again, efforts need to be redoubled and the pace accelerated.
The Acting President
On behalf of the General Assembly, I wish to thank the Prime Minister and Minister for Defence and Public Service of the Kingdom of Lesotho for the statement he has just made.
The Acting President
I now call on His Excellency Mr. Koffi Panou, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Togo.
Mr. Panou (Togo)
--> -->
| <type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'> | Python 2.6.6: /usr/bin/python Wed May 22 10:01:33 2013 |
A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in |
| 194 if __name__ == "__main__": |
| 195 pathpart = os.getenv("PATH_INFO") |
| 196 maintrunk(pathpart) |
| 197 |
| 198 |
| maintrunk = <function maintrunk>, pathpart = '/generalassembly_57/meeting_8' |
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in maintrunk(pathpart='/generalassembly_57/meeting_8') |
| 131 elif pagefunc == "gameeting": |
| 132 LogIncomingDB(hmap["docid"], hmap["gadice"] or "0", referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| 133 WriteHTML(hmap["htmlfile"], hmap["pdfinfo"], hmap["gadice"], hmap["highlightdoclink"]) |
| 134 elif pagefunc == "agendanumexpanded": |
| 135 LogIncomingDB(pagefunc, hmap["agendanum"], referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| global WriteHTML = <function WriteHTML>, hmap = {'docid': 'A-57-PV.8', 'gadice': '', 'gameeting': 8, 'gasession': 57, 'highlightdoclink': None, 'htmlfile': '/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-57-PV.8.html', 'pagefunc': 'gameeting', 'pdfinfo': <pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>} |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteHTML(fhtml='/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-57-PV.8.html', pdfinfo=<pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>, gadice='', highlightth=None) |
| 322 if dclass == "spoken": |
| 323 if not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice: |
| 324 WriteSpoken(gid, dtextmu, councilpresidentnation) |
| 325 elif dclass == "subheading": |
| 326 if agendagidcurrent and (not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice): |
| global WriteSpoken = <function WriteSpoken>, gid = u'pg006-bk04', dtextmu = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Pano...ate of peace, stability and national harmony.</p>', councilpresidentnation = None |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteSpoken(gid=u'pg006-bk04', dtext=u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Pano...ate of peace, stability and national harmony.</p>', councilpresidentnation=None) |
| 69 print '</cite>' |
| 70 |
| 71 print dtext[mspek.end(0):] |
| 72 |
| 73 print '</div>' |
| dtext = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Pano...ate of peace, stability and national harmony.</p>', mspek = <_sre.SRE_Match object>, mspek.end = <built-in method end of _sre.SRE_Match object> |
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message =
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