UN General Assembly
2005

watershed in world history and international relations. In Africa, despite the constant efforts of States and regional groupings, the persistence of numerous conflicts and hot spots continues to be a subject of major concern. I am thinking particularly of the situation in the Great Lakes Region, Darfur, Somalia and Côte d’Ivoire. In the Middle East, the struggle for survival is the daily battle of the Palestinian people. It is our conviction that only the strict implementation of the Road Map will make peace possible in that sorely tried region. The numerous terrorist acts throughout the world claim our attention and remind us of how vulnerable we are in the face of terrorism. We must, henceforth, realize that no strategy, no matter how energetic it might be, will be able to wipe out this scourge, unless it attacks the underlying causes, which are injustice, exclusion, humiliation and poverty. It is quite obvious that desperate behaviour stems from those sources. More than ever, the quest for democracy, good governance and respect for human rights has become