UN General Assembly
2007

Allow me at the outset to extend our congratulations to Mr. Kerim on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty- second session. I wish to thank most sincerely his predecessor, Her Excellency Sheikha Haya Rashed Khalifa of Bahrain, for the able manner in which she handled the vital business of the sixty-first session. I also wish to express my gratitude to the Secretary- General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his leadership of our Organization, and most especially for his untiring efforts in favour of conflict resolution and peace on the African continent and elsewhere. Sixty-two years ago, the founding fathers of the United Nations came together, determined, in the words of the Charter, “to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples”. The Organization they created was to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common goals. Today humankind is faced with a common threat in the form of climate change. The General Assembly’s