General Assembly Session 60 meeting 14

The President

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Malawi.

The President

On behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations His Excellency Mr. Bingu Wa Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi, and to invite him to address the Assembly.

President Mutharika (Malawi)

I wish at the outset to congratulate you on your election as President of the sixtieth session of the United Nations General Assembly and also for the excellent manner in which you and your Bureau are steering the work of this session. I would like to assure you of my delegation's full support. I further commend His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, our Secretary-General, for the dynamic and sterling leadership of the United Nations.

The theme of this session is germane to the proposals for reform of the Organization. There is the imperative of taking stock of its strengths and weaknesses so that we can create a better future. Within the context of this theme, the Secretary-General, through his report entitled "In larger freedom", has made important proposals that will make the United Nations more effective and credible. The proposals aim at enabling the United Nations to provide the required leadership in the implementation of the global development agenda and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

My country, Malawi, has followed closely the debate on the report. I feel that, from the diverse opinions that have been expressed, a consensus is emerging on the need to implement United Nations reforms and make the Organization respond more effectively to the challenge of change.

Let me, however, express the view that, in addition to the reform of the Security Council, there are other equally important reforms of the United Nations that are critical to the realization of the global development agenda. I will turn to these later. For the moment, it is critical that we remain focused so that all elements of the reform receive our undivided attention.

Mr. President, let me assure you that Malawi appreciates the role played by the international community and the United Nations in the efforts to eradicate poverty and promote development and prosperity for all. The just-ended High-level Plenary Meeting is one such initiative that offers great hopes for the way forward. However, previous experience has taught us that a lot is generally said and promised within the United Nations, but little or nothing is delivered. It is my earnest hope that the outcome of this session will not turn out to be another talk show.

Malawi faces serious problems in instituting an effective system of political and economic governance. My country continues to face critical challenges in determining our political agenda, which in turn affect our development efforts. We still face extreme poverty, food shortages, hunger and malnutrition. HIV/AIDS continues to claim more lives. Malaria is still killing millions each year.

Over and above these problems, we face mounting domestic and external debt, an unfair and inequitable global trading system and the prevalence of conflicts and political instability. We therefore feel that for any United Nations reforms to be meaningful, we need assistance in the areas of good governance.

In Malawi, we are promoting good governance by pursuing sound macro-economic policies, reduction in public expenditure, bench-marking the activities and performance of the civil service and fighting corruption at all levels. We have also instituted effective reforms of the private sector, and through dialogue the business community is now responding positively to economic and social reforms. In many of these reforms, I can say that we have made a good beginning.

It is for this reason that my Government welcomed the establishment of the African Peer Review Mechanism under the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) of the African Union. Our accession to the African Peer Review Mechanism is a manifestation of our desire to adopt policies and practices that emphasize accountability and transparency in public sector management.

Malawi has made efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals. Our report, entitled "Malawi and the Millennium Development Goals: challenges and achievements", has been circulated. However, my country is facing severe constraints in implementing the MDGs because we are allocating a significant amount of limited resources to servicing external debt and for managing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, at the cost of the social and economic transformation necessary to fight poverty.

Malawi, therefore, supports the proposal to find comprehensive and durable solutions to the external debt problem. In this regard, we welcome the recent proposal by the G-8 to cancel 100 per cent of outstanding debt owed by 18 countries, including 14 from Africa. I would like to appeal to all creditors to follow this noble example, because debt cancellation has the potential to assist the poor countries in achieving the MDGs and, hence, attaining national economic recovery and economic transformation.

Another challenge for Malawi is that my country finds it hard to be integrated into the global trading system, partly due to the lack of products that meet high quality standards, but also due to an unfair and inequitable global trading system. We therefore join the appeal for the speedy completion of the World Trade Organization Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations in order to assist poor countries, such as Malawi, to benefit from global trade. Furthermore, there is need to provide immediate duty-free and quota-free market access for all exports from the least developed countries, including the elimination of all non-tariff barriers, such as trade distorting subsidies and domestic support, especially in agriculture, by developed countries.

In the African perspective, development efforts have also been heavily undermined by the prevalence of conflicts and political instability in many parts of the continent. Realizing this, we in Africa have taken bold and far-reaching initiatives to promote peace and security on the continent. For instance, my own country, Malawi, has participated in peacekeeping activities in Liberia, the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

I commend the role played by the United Nations Security Council and the G-8 in supporting the African Union's initiatives in conflict resolution and management. I also wish to draw the attention of this Assembly to the fact that peacekeeping in Africa constitutes the bulk of the Security Council's work. I therefore earnestly believe that the role of the United Nations in Africa can be enhanced by encouraging Africa's representation in the Security Council. In that regard, Africa's call for the expansion of the Security Council should be supported by the international community.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic poses serious social and economic challenges to Africa. However, the General Assembly may be interested to know that Malawi is one of the few success stories in managing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The people of Malawi have welcomed the provision of voluntary counselling and of free anti-retroviral drugs. For instance, since the middle of last year, we have established more than 30 anti-retroviral clinics throughout the country and have treated many people. We expect that by this time next year, we will have been able to treat more than 80,000 people.

I therefore welcome the call at the High-level Plenary Meeting to provide, as a priority, assistance for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment in African countries on a grant basis. I also welcome the emphasis placed on the need to encourage pharmaceutical companies to make anti-retroviral drugs affordable and accessible in Africa. My Government appeals for more funding to enable us to adopt a holistic approach that takes into account the medical, economic, political and social impacts of HIV/AIDS on the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.

I take this opportunity to commend all countries that continue to make contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Fund has enabled Malawi to introduce free anti-retroviral treatment programme for those infected by HIV/AIDS.

In terms of agriculture and food security, Malawi has not fared well this year. My country is facing severe food shortages owing to the drought that we have had since January this year. As a result of a very poor harvest, we shall require approximately 270,000 metric tons to feed some 4.2 million people who will be in need of food until the next harvest season, sometime in April or May next year. I therefore appeal to the world community to help us to obtain more food sources for our people.

I am grateful for the pledges of relief food assistance made by our cooperating partners such as the World Food Programme, the British Government, the European Union, the Japanese Government, the United States Government, the Belgian Government and the Norwegian Government. We are also grateful to the Secretary-General for the special appeal he has made for Southern Africa.

I am pleased to announce that the people of Malawi are also doing something to feed themselves. We have made provision in our budget to buy food for our people. We have also established a Feed-the-Nation Fund, through which people in Malawi from all walks of life are making voluntary donations to purchase food for the poorest of the poor. The response has been overwhelming.

With a view to a medium- to long-term solution, we have adopted concrete policies aimed at reducing our dependence on rain-fed agriculture. We have established a full ministry responsible for water development and irrigation. We look forward to technical assistance from those countries that have expertise in the area of irrigation.

Turning to the subject of United Nations reform, I wish to bring to the attention of the General Assembly an important aspect of reform of the Organization, concerning the determination of eligibility for United Nations membership. As members are aware, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right of all the world's peoples to belong to the United Nations and that no country should be denied membership in the Organization. Malawi believes that the United Nations was founded on the principle of inclusivity in its membership.

That is why we in Malawi call for the admission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a Member of the United Nations. That request is made on the premise that, following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, the new States that emerged therefrom expressed their desire to become sovereign and independent Members of the United Nations. They were granted membership. That was a political decision. In the same way, when the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke up into the separate States of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia, each State was admitted into the United Nations. That also was a political decision. Czechoslovakia broke up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and each of those States was admitted into the United Nations. In South-East Asia, Singapore pulled out of the Federation of Malaya and became a Member of the United Nations. Later, East Timor broke away from Indonesia and was also admitted as a Member. Those were political decisions.

The Government of Malawi is therefore puzzled that the Republic of China (Taiwan), which took a similar political decision, is denied membership in the United Nations. How can the United Nations stand for equity and justice when it is denying membership to more than 23 million people who contribute significantly to global trade and development? How can the United Nations justify its denial of membership to Taiwan when, in fact, the countries listed above were admitted? Why is Taiwan being discriminated against in the United Nations?

Unless those questions are honestly answered, observers will conclude that the United Nations is applying a double standard. The Government of Malawi believes that the United Nations should use the same standard to grant membership to the Republic of China. I therefore appeal to the United Nations, through you, Mr. President, to extend membership to the Taiwanese people in the same way as it has done for countries of Eastern Europe and South-East Asia. That would enable the dynamic and resourceful people of Taiwan to play their rightful role in global affairs, industrialization, trade and development. I believe that the admission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) into the United Nations would also bring credibility to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Long live the United Nations!

The President

On behalf of the General Assembly, I wish to thank the President of the Republic of Malawi for the statement he has just made.

The President

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of the Gambia.

The President

On behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations His Excellency Al Hadji Yahya A. J. J. Jammeh, President of the Republic of the Gambia, and to invite him to address the Assembly.

President Jammeh (Gambia)

Let me begin by congratulating you, Sir, on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixtieth session. I have no doubt that, with your skills and vast experience, you will guide our deliberations to a successful conclusion. Let me also commend my dear friend His Excellency Mr. Jean Ping, the outgoing President of the General Assembly, for the excellent manner in which he directed the affairs of the fifty-ninth session. In addition, I commend the Secretary-General for his leadership, especially in advancing the United Nations reform and revitalization agenda. My country has full confidence in his integrity and competence, which he has demonstrated over the years, both as a staff member and at the helm of the Organization.

As we celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Organization, we must pause and take stock of the record of our collective response to the many different global challenges that mankind has had to face. From a membership of only 50 States at its inception, the Organization has grown to 191 Members today. That rapid expansion, together with the sophistication that the United Nations has acquired over the years, calls for an assessment of its strengths and weaknesses with a view to making it more effective. It is no secret that the voice of the General Assembly has grown weaker over the years, that the credibility of our human rights procedures and mechanisms has been reduced, that democracy, accountability and transparency in the Security Council have become blurred and that the Economic and Social Council needs to be more relevant and effective.

On several occasions since 1945, we have witnessed instances of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Civil strife and terrorism are undermining human and State security. Poverty, hunger and diseases still decimate countless communities, while our capacity to respond to humanitarian crises needs to be reassessed and revitalized.

This is the backdrop of the challenges we as an organization face. They do not represent failure; they simply underscore that more needs to be done to make the world a safer and better place for all of mankind.

Therefore, as we celebrate our achievements, let us rededicate ourselves to remaining true to our mission and also fashion a new vision that captures the realities of our world in the twenty-first century. In this connection, my delegation would like to express its gratitude to the Secretary-General for the comprehensive reform agenda he has laid out in his report "In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all" (A/59/2005). We agree that the world needs to be steered towards a greater focus on those larger freedoms.

The majority of the world's people today are in chains -- the chains of poverty and underdevelopment. For them, development means freedom from want, freedom from fear and hunger and, above all, freedom to live in dignity. Reforming the United Nations so that it is better poised to more effectively address humankind's quest for these larger freedoms, is a real necessity for the greater relevance and impact of our Organization.

Indeed, the following objectives should be our collective focus for the next decade: absolute poverty and its attendant woes such as diseases, hunger and illiteracy must be eliminated from the face of the earth; the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction must be halted and a total ban on nuclear weapons should be imposed on all States; peace must be allowed to reign throughout the world; there must be greater tolerance and mutual respect in dealing with each other's differences; the world's ecosystems and natural resources must be judiciously conserved and utilized; political systems must work to achieve greater cooperation; multilateralism should replace unilateralism in dealing with conflicts, disputes or disagreements between Member States, and reconciliation should replace confrontation and conflict.

If, in the next decade, we succeed in achieving those objectives, we will have provided for ourselves those larger freedoms that we crave today.

While we must focus on those long-term objectives, we must also not lose sight of the imperatives of our time. We must continue working in concert towards the realization of global peace, assigning highest priority to those conflict situations that pose the greatest threat to the peace of the whole world. In this, we must begin with the Middle East. Without a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict peace will continue to elude the Middle East with consequences that will affect the whole world. My delegation supports the vision of a two-State solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security. We also welcome Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank as a step towards a complete withdrawal from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.

The unstable situation in Iraq is causing undesirable ripples all over the world. The situation is, by no means, unconnected with the soaring price of oil, which is causing serious problems in the global economy and threatening the economic gains made by many developing countries. The sooner stability is brought to the region, the better it will be for that country and the rest of the world.

We are encouraged by the positive contributions of the United Nations and the African Union towards the peaceful resolution of conflicts in Africa.

In Guinea-Bissau, another milestone has been reached with the election of President Nino Vieira. After many years of trials and tribulation, the people of Guinea-Bissau have finally placed the country on a solid path to recovery, peace and development. As Chair of the Friends of Guinea-Bissau at the United Nations, as well as a member of the Ad hoc Advisory Group on Guinea-Bissau, my delegation calls for an early convening of a donors conference to show solidarity with the people of Guinea-Bissau and a commitment to lasting peace in that country.

Equally in Burundi, the democratic transition has been completed with the recent election of President Pierre Nkurunziza. We extend to him and the people of Burundi, our heartiest congratulations and best wishes for a new era of peace, stability and development.

This year has witnessed major strides towards sustainable peace in the Sudan. My delegation commends the Government of the Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement for their commitment to that historic accord meant to bring lasting peace to the country. We are encouraged by the steps they have taken so far to implement the accord, and it is my fervent hope that their collective leadership will continue tirelessly to pursue the Sudan of their dreams. We sympathize with all the Sudanese people on the tragic death of their leader and Vice-President, Mr. John Garang, who did so much to advance the peace process. We are confident that his successor will continue in his footsteps until all the pending issues are peacefully resolved.

An underlying factor in all of these conflicts is the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. We must commit ourselves to denying non-State actors, terrorists and organized criminal networks the acquisition of these weapons of mass terror. We shall have an opportunity to further refine our response to this scourge during the 2006 review of the United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms.

Our Organization must be the ultimate defender of the rule of international law, to which all States in the comity of nations must adhere. Any attempt to weaken or undermine our rules-based international system should be rejected without compromise. An institution like the International Criminal Court, with a mandate to end impunity, deserves all the support it can garner from the international community. The Rome Statute is a beacon of hope to all of humanity, and my delegation appeals to those States that have not yet done so, to consider speedily becoming party to it.

My delegation strongly condemns the application of unilateral coercive measures as a means of settling disputes. These measures have an adverse impact on the lives of innocent people, who lack any means of recourse or redress. We therefore call for the complete and immediate lifting of the sanctions imposed on Cuba.

As we clamour for reform and renewal of our Organization, we should widen our horizons and undertake a sober and dispassionate reassessment of our policy towards the Republic of Taiwan. The concerns of the 23 million hard-working and peace-loving people of that great country continue to be ignored. The Republic of Taiwan is a democratic, sovereign State. Its democratically elected Government defends the interests of the people of Taiwan in the world. The Taiwanese people display the same concern we all do about global problems such as international peace and security, HIV/AIDS, the spread of disease, environmental pollution, and all the other issues that engage us at the United Nations. Yet, they are not here at the table with us, contributing their share in the search for solutions to the problems that confront humankind today. We therefore call on all the peace-loving nations of the world to support the participation of the Republic of Taiwan in all the affairs of the United Nations as a full Member without delay. The twenty-first-century United Nations should include all people the world over without political discrimination. The United Nations should also be committed to that goal: a twenty-first-century, reformed United Nations that includes the people of the Republic of Taiwan. Their plight is more sharply amplified by our present preoccupation with the conflicts raging today that pose a serious threat to international peace and security.

The reform agenda has been with us for decades now. Finally, this year, a number of reports, including one by the Secretary-General himself, seem to have spurred all of us to action.

My delegation fully supports the proposed reform of the Economic and Social Council and endorses the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission. In that regard, we hope that the wealth of experience which the United Nations has gathered over the years, especially in dealing with countries emerging from conflict, will be brought to bear in elaborating the structure, functions and mandate of the Commission.

We equally support the proposed reform of the Commission on Human Rights. However, we should remember that human rights are everyone's concern and their enforcement is not the prerogative of a select few. A smaller human rights body would reinforce that notion and entrench the credibility crisis that the current Commission suffers from. While the Commission may have structural deficiencies, it is its working methods that we must focus on in order to eliminate bias, subjectivity and selectivity.

Revitalizing the General Assembly is equally long overdue. It is time for the Assembly to be more assertive within the mandate accorded it by the Charter.

The reform of our Organization would be incomplete without Security Council reform. The current size and composition of the Council makes a mockery of the larger membership of the United Nations and the realities of the world today. No amount of politics or procrastination can silence Africa's legitimate quest for full representation on the Security Council. International peace and security are everyone's business. Without reform and a thorough review of the Council's working methods, the legitimacy of the decisions it takes will be increasingly questionable.

We shall also have to look into the issue of the veto once again. The purpose for which the veto was instituted and the grounds on which it was assigned 60 years ago are no longer valid in today's world. In fact, Africa's position on the veto, which my delegation wholeheartedly supports, is that it should be abolished. In fact, veto power should be given only to the General Assembly, to be exercised by a majority vote. If that is done, the United Nations and the world will be able to boast of a universal democratic system that will usher in a new and more peaceful world order.

The Security Council as presently constituted is not conducive to the maintenance of world peace and security. If it cannot be reformed, it should be abolished and its mandate assigned to the General Assembly with decisions taken by a majority vote. In that event, any action taken by the United Nations in a given situation would be taken on behalf of all of us. That would put a definitive end to unilateralism in resolving international disputes and issues.

The President

On behalf of the General Assembly, I wish to thank the President of the Republic of the Gambia for the statement he has just made.

The President

The Assembly will now hear an address by the Interim President of the Republic of Haiti.

The President

On behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations His Excellency Mr. Boniface Alexandre, Interim President of the Republic of Haiti, and to invite him to address the General Assembly.

President Alexandre (Haiti)

A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.

<type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'>: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xe9' in position 4872: ordinal not in range(128)
      args = ('ascii', u'\n\t<p id="pg007-bk07-pa01">At the very outset of ...lopment Goals, to which all countries aspire.</p>', 4872, 4873, 'ordinal not in range(128)')
      encoding = 'ascii'
      end = 4873
      message = ''
      object = u'\n\t<p id="pg007-bk07-pa01">At the very outset of ...lopment Goals, to which all countries aspire.</p>'
      reason = 'ordinal not in range(128)'
      start = 4872