I warmly congratulate the
President on his election to preside over the fiftieth session
of the General Assembly. We take confidence from the fact
that his experience and distinction will be available to guide
us in our deliberations at this historic session. I am
especially pleased to extend my congratulations to the
representative of a country with which we have the closest
and most friendly relations as a fellow member of the
European Union.
I wish at the outset to congratulate the parties to the
latest peace accord in the Middle East, which will be signed
in Washington tomorrow. It has required great
statesmanship, courage and perseverance on the part of
Palestinian and Israeli leaders alike to reach this agreement.
We in Ireland will continue to play our part in supporting
the peace process, together with our partners in the
European Union.
In the same spirit, we warmly welcome the agreement
reached yesterday in New York, which we all hope will lay
the foundation for a lasting peace in Bosnia and
Herzegovina and throughout the region.
If I choose to highlight two issues at the very
beginning of my remarks, Sir, you will understand, I am
sure, that it is because these two issues have created such
a resonance around the world. The first issue to which I
refer is the Fourth World Conference on Women. Ireland
stands committed to the principle that human rights are
indivisible — the rights of one are the rights of all. No
system based on a universal commitment to human rights
can survive if the rights of women are not seen as an
integral factor in the equation.
Women suffer disproportionately from the effects of
war and armed conflict, whether it be as casualties from
land-mines or as the victims of systematic rape. Women
and children form the great majority of the more than 1
billion people living in poverty around the world today.
Women in most societies are prevented from participating
fully in the decision-making processes and have unequal
access to power. Women continue to be prevented from
fully exercising their sexual and reproductive rights,
including the newly recognized right to have control over,
and decide freely and responsibly on, matters related to
their sexuality, free of coercion, discrimination and
violence.
The Fourth World Conference on Women, held
earlier this month in Beijing, addressed these and other
issues of relevance to women. The Declaration and the
Platform adopted by the Conference pose a major
challenge to Governments and the international
community to overcome the obstacles which continue to
face women around the world. They also represent a
solemn commitment by Governments and the whole
United Nations system to take all necessary measures to
eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and
to remove all obstacles to gender equality and the
advancement and empowerment of women. On behalf of
the Irish Government I pledge here that we will do
everything in our power to ensure that this commitment
is honoured and implemented.
The second issue to which I must refer is the
resumption of nuclear testing by the French and Chinese
Governments. It would be wrong if I were to address this
gathering and ignore decisions that have — almost
literally — sent shock waves around the world.
We in Ireland, confronted as we are by the
ever-present anxiety posed by ageing nuclear facilities on
our neighbouring island, have had many occasions over
the years to know the worry caused by the potential of
nuclear power. The great majority of the Irish people,
therefore, easily understand and share the deep concern of
the peoples of the South Pacific. Nor can we fail to
recognize the dismay and dejection caused by the
resumption of nuclear testing in the immediate aftermath
of the successful outcome of the Non-Proliferation Treaty
Review and Extension Conference. The finalization of the
comprehensive test-ban treaty early next year remains an
absolute imperative.
The President of the General Assembly is taking
office at an exceptional time in the history of the United
23

Nations. Next month the Heads of State or Government will
meet here in special session to commemorate the fiftieth
anniversary of the Organization. The General Assembly,
inspired by this anniversary, should mark a decisive new
phase for the United Nations.
The world faces a daunting array of new problems
which require the United Nations to adapt and revitalize its
resources. The representative of Spain, Foreign Minister
Solana, speaking on behalf of the European Union, set out
these challenges in his speech here yesterday to this
Assembly. Ireland associates itself fully with these remarks.
The fiftieth anniversary coincides with a more critical
attitude towards the United Nations in many countries.
There is a growing readiness to highlight shortcomings and
failures rather than the longer-term record of real and
substantial success. We cannot ignore this criticism,
particularly when it comes from many who are ordinarily
the strongest advocates of the United Nations. The United
Nations, like any other organization, can only benefit from
rigorous examination and adaptation.
But no organization can of itself provide wholesale
remedies for removing the hatred, the fear, the distrust and
the divisions in the world. Many of the shortcomings for
which the Organization is frequently criticized have more
to do with a flagging of the collective will to demonstrate
the determination, generosity, courage and tolerance to live
up to the obligations of the Charter.
The Charter remains the bedrock for what lies ahead,
as it has been for all that has been achieved over those 50
years. The United Nations has a remarkable record on
which to build: it has enshrined the universal obligation of
respect for law and good conduct between States as the
centre-piece of international relations; it served in numerous
ways during the long years of the cold war to dull the edge
of great-Power rivalry and reduce the dangers of global
confrontation; it provided an indispensable framework for
the negotiation of crucial arms-control agreements which
hold the promise of a world free of weapons of mass
destruction; it facilitated the process of decolonization and
helped bring about the dismantling of apartheid; it
prevented numerous conflicts through its peace-keeping
operations and restored stability to many parts of the world;
it set the basic international standards for human rights and
monitors their observance; it has sustained efforts to
eliminate poverty, alleviate distress and deprivation, and
improve the health and living standards of millions of the
world’s most vulnerable citizens.
We may ask, what of the recent past? The United
Nations has seen great recent achievements — in
Mozambique, in Cambodia, in Haiti, in El Salvador, to
take some examples. The peoples of those countries can
bear witness to new hopes for a better and more secure
future.
In other local and regional conflicts, however, the
United Nations experience, in the face of extraordinarily
complex and painful circumstances, has seen serious
setbacks. The human misery resulting from the wars in
former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Somalia has shocked the
world.
Almost 50 years after the adoption of the Universal
Declaration, human rights violations remain a major
widespread problem. With a resurgence of regional
conflict and ethnic tensions in many parts of the world,
we have been confronted with virtually every imaginable
human rights abuse. In contemporary warfare, more than
90 per cent of the casualties are non-combatants who are
often directly targeted because of their ethnic or religious
affiliations.
Children, like women, are especially vulnerable.
During the last decade, nearly 2 million children have
died in wars and more than 5 million have been forced
into refugee camps. More children die in wars than
soldiers. At the present time throughout the world there
are almost 30 million refugees and displaced persons in
need of assistance. In the Great Lakes region of Africa,
as the refugee nightmare deepens, we require urgent and
concerted action to avert any danger of new tragedies.
The scale of all these problems has already stretched
to the limits our ability to respond, and has heightened the
problem of United Nations credibility. It is against this
background that we the Member States must revitalize the
United Nations in its mission and equip it with the means
to react with vigour and determination to the new crises
which constantly arise. This means improving the
response to humanitarian emergencies. But it also means
tackling more effectively their root causes, poverty and
deprivation, preventing conflicts before they arise, and
more quickly containing and resolving them when they
do.
The Secretary-General’s Agenda for Peace and
Agenda for Development are landmark documents that set
out clear priorities and a programme for action.
24

One of the many bitter lessons that we have to draw
from recent experience in Rwanda and Bosnia is that the
traditional deployment of peace-keeping units is no longer,
on its own, a sufficient response to the type of crises which
we face. In the past, peace-keeping operations were
primarily concerned with policing cease-fires between
Member States, pending diplomatic efforts to resolve the
substantive political issues. That, unfortunately, is no longer
the case: 11 of the 13 operations established since 1991
have involved internal conflicts. Peace-keeping contingents
increasingly find themselves operating in situations where
government and civil order have broken down. There are no
longer clear points of reference for such operations which
have become politically and logistically more complex, and
financially more onerous.
There are a number of ways in which the management
and conduct of peace-keeping operations must be improved.
Perhaps most urgent is the need to improve the response
capability of the United Nations in dealing with sudden or
complex emergencies. Important initiatives have already
been taken in this regard with the development of the
United Nations stand-by arrangements system. Such
arrangements might perhaps be extended to other areas to
ensure that a full range of humanitarian, logistical and civil
defence as well as military options is available to the
United Nations in dealing with the many crises which it is
called upon to address. In Ireland we are actively exploring
the possibility of bringing together a humanitarian liaison
group comprising experts from a wide range of fields which
could be deployed at short notice when emergencies occur.
Command and control of United Nations operations
also needs to be improved. Greater attention needs to be
paid to ensuring that the distinction between peace-keeping
and peace enforcement is not blurred in devising mandates
for operations, if the confidence and willingness of troop-
contributing countries to continue providing troops is to be
maintained.
Regional organizations can also play a valuable role in
support of United Nations peace-keeping activities. It is of
course essential that such organizations in carrying out their
role do so strictly in accordance with the mandate which
the Security Council has laid down. The United Nations
should benefit from the support of regional organizations,
as the Charter envisages, but should not in doing so
relinquish its overall control and responsibility.
My delegation shares the concerns which the
Secretary-General has expressed about the safety of United
Nations personnel in the field. We would like to see the
United Nations Convention on the safety and security of
United Nations personnel enter into force as soon as
possible.
Our concern extends to all personnel who find
themselves in dangerous situations, including
humanitarian experts working with non-governmental
organizations, who are frequently the first to arrive in the
field in the early, and often most dangerous, stages of an
emergency.
On the basis of the recommendations of the
Secretary-General, we need to look again at how we can
develop the United Nations capacity for preventive
diplomacy, early warning and mediation, and for timely
intervention in disputes before they escalate out of
control.
Ireland continues to believe that the task of
preventing conflict would also be facilitated by the
creation of a mediation body which would work closely
with the Secretary-General and the Security Council.
The dispatch of special teams of advisers and
monitors to areas of crisis and tension should be placed
on a more assured and regular basis than in the past. I
believe that a small investment here would be amply and
quickly repaid.
There is a growing acceptance that violations of
humanitarian law are a threat to international peace and
security. The case for the establishment of a permanent
international criminal court is therefore more obvious than
ever before. It is only through such a body that the
international community can effectively demonstrate that
massive human rights violations will never go
unpunished.
The international community is attempting to break
the pattern of violence in Rwanda and the former
Yugoslavia by ensuring that those who are guilty of
human rights abuses are punished and that minimum
standards of accountability are set so as to deter future
offenders. We have rightly responded by establishing
teams of United Nations human rights monitors as well as
ad hoc tribunals to try the perpetrators of war crimes.
This is a good beginning. It is also necessary to devise
measures which would extend vigilance and provide early
warning of potential situations of human rights abuse. The
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
supported by human rights monitors, is already playing a
25

key role in meeting this objective. He must be given our
full cooperation and adequate financial support.
The promotion of the universality of human rights
achieved a significant breakthrough with the Vienna
Declaration and Programme of Action. However, our
concerns are that implementation will suffer unless there is
a significant increase in the proportion of the regular budget
devoted to human rights activity. As a demonstration of our
own national commitment, the Irish Government has this
year increased substantially its contribution to the various
United Nations voluntary funds in the field of human rights.
It is now time for the United Nations to pay more
attention to constructing the foundations for peace through
development. As part of the process of renewal, we need to
work in partnership to pursue a new approach to
cooperation for development — a cooperation which
redresses the imbalances and has as an objective the
realization of sustainable human development for all.
Ireland has consistently supported the elaboration of
“An Agenda for Development”, and we look forward to a
substantive and relevant outcome.
Most of the zones of insecurity in the world are to be
found in developing countries, and the Charter clearly
recognizes that lack of development is one of the root
causes of conflict between States.
This year is the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary
of the Great Famine in Ireland, a catastrophe of enormous
proportions, which has had a lasting and searing impact on
Irish life. Its memory is still very much alive, and it has
reinforced the Irish commitment to the prevention of similar
catastrophes in other parts of the world.
While many areas of the world, including my own
country, have seen great economic and social progress over
the past 50 years, the developing world, especially in
Africa, has not enjoyed the benefits of this progress. How
can we explain the fact that, in a world of plenty, one fifth
of the world’s population still goes to bed hungry?
Earlier this year the World Summit for Social
Development agreed on a consensus approach to the
development of international norms in the economic, social
and related spheres. We now need to act at both the
international and the national levels to implement the
commitments and consolidate the achievements.
In recent years new opportunities have opened up for
disarmament; we should now move decisively to grasp
them. Never has the continued presence of huge arsenals
of mass destruction been so out of step with the hopes
and aspirations of the international community. Never has
the logic underpinning nuclear deterrence been so much
in need of fundamental and critical reassessment.
There has been progress in some areas. The Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has
been made permanent and its Parties have been made
more accountable. Renewed commitments to nuclear
non-proliferation and disarmament were accepted by all
participants at the NPT review and extension Conference.
My country looks to all nuclear-weapon States, and in
particular the five permanent member States of the
Security Council, to keep faith with the spirit and letter of
these commitments.
We welcome the progress being made in the
negotiations for a comprehensive test-ban treaty. Their
conclusion next year would be warmly greeted by public
opinion in our countries and would facilitate new steps in
the field of nuclear disarmament, in particular the
successful conclusion of a treaty which would ban the
production of fissile materials for weapons purposes.
Ireland is deeply committed to stemming the
excessive flow of conventional arms worldwide, and we
support the objective of a ban on anti-personnel
land-mines, which have caused civilian suffering on a
huge scale. The elaboration of a United Nations code of
conduct on conventional arms transfers, which I have
proposed to the Assembly, remains a valuable practical
priority in developing greater international controls over
the flow of conventional weapons.
In conducting its mission and fulfilling its
responsibilities under the Charter, the United Nations
must also begin a process of institutional reform and
renewal. This should begin with the Security Council. The
Security Council needs to be enlarged in order to increase
its effectiveness and its ability to act, both clearly and
unambiguously, as the expression of the common will of
Member States.
Enlargement should enhance the representative
character of the Security Council, taking into account the
emergence of new economic and political powers as well
as the increase in United Nations membership. It should
also enhance equitable geographic representation, and it
should not diminish the possibility for smaller Member
26

States to serve. Enlargement should take place in both the
permanent and non-permanent categories of membership.
After two years of discussion we have now reached the
point where we should begin to clarify the elements of a
balanced solution.
The Secretary-General has made it very clear to us
that the Organization is now facing an unprecedented
financial crisis. How can we expect the United Nations to
discharge the responsibilities given to it by Member States
if the Member States themselves are unwilling to meet their
basic obligations under the Charter to provide the necessary
resources? Unless urgent steps are taken, what we say here
will be no more than empty words.
My delegation fully understands the reason why the
Secretary-General has found it necessary to take various
measures to reduce costs. We support the thrust of his
proposals. However, as the European Union has made clear,
we view with considerable concern the decision of the
Secretary-General, as part of these cost-saving measures, to
suspend payment of all troop reimbursement costs. Even as
a short-term measure, this imposes a heavy and unfair
burden on troop-contributing countries, particularly those
which, like Ireland, have fully discharged all their financial
obligations to the Organization.
If all Member States were to declare here their
intentions to pay assessed contributions in full, on time and
without conditions, both for peacekeeping and the regular
budget, this single commitment would do more than any
other to strengthen the United Nations capacity to act
effectively.
When I spoke last year to the Assembly about the
Northern Ireland situation, I stressed the importance of the
announcement, a few weeks earlier, of the complete
cessation of military operations by the IRA. This was
followed, some weeks afterwards, by a similar
announcement by representatives of the loyalist
paramilitaries. Thankfully, the guns have now been silent in
Northern Ireland for the past year. This has brought the gift
of peace, and the gift of hope, to a situation where both had
been sorely lacking.
The gift of peace has been profoundly welcome. The
unremitting toll of death and destruction which disfigured
Northern Ireland for the past generation has been halted.
The economic opportunities offered by peace have rapidly
begun to be exploited. Freed from the shadow of terrorism,
human contacts have multiplied across the divide in
Northern Ireland and between both parts of the island.
The paramilitary leaders, through the maintenance of
their cease-fires, have made an important first
contribution to the climate of hope. However, only the
two Governments and the political leaders in Northern
Ireland can consolidate the hope implicit in the cessation
of violence by underpinning it with an agreed political
settlement which can enjoy the consent and allegiance of
all. That is now the paramount goal.
In the Joint Declaration of 15 December 1993, the
British and Irish Governments acknowledged as their goal
“to remove the causes of conflict, to overcome the
legacy of history and to heal the divisions which
have resulted”.
This task can now be addressed free of the
polarizing and distorting influences which terrorism, and
the countermeasures it calls forth, exert on the political
process. It is vital that this unprecedented opportunity
should be grasped.
A settlement of the Northern Ireland conflict requires
the engagement and cooperation of both Governments and
of the political leaders of both communities in Northern
Ireland. The close cooperation of the two Governments
has been the enabling condition for the progress to date.
The Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 and the Joint
Declaration of 1993 are landmark documents in that
process. Last February we published the New Framework
for Agreement, setting out the shared assessment of the
two Governments on how a balanced and honourable
accommodation could be envisaged across all the key
relationships. While this is not a blueprint to be imposed
on the parties, it reflects long and careful consideration
between the two Governments on how the underlying
realities should be addressed and is designed to give
impetus and direction to the process of negotiations.
The role of the two Governments is crucial because
the Northern Ireland conflict is primarily about the wider
British or Irish allegiances resolutely cherished by the two
communities there. For that reason, there can be no purely
internal solution. Innovative thinking and potentially
difficult decisions will be required on both sides of the
Irish Sea if the two Governments are to create the context
and conditions where the conflicting allegiances can at
last be reconciled.
The success of these intergovernmental efforts will,
however, be measured ultimately by attitudes of the two
communities within Northern Ireland. The attitude of the
27

nationalist tradition has been characterized by an ever
growing acceptance of the principle that there would be no
change in the status of Northern Ireland without the consent
of a majority of the people there.
They look in turn to the unionist community for an
acknowledgement that the principle of consent, as well as
being a rightful protection for unionists against the
imposition of a united Ireland against the wishes of a
majority of the people in Northern Ireland, also implies the
rights of nationalists in Northern Ireland to be governed by
structures which are relevant and responsive in terms of
their allegiance and aspirations. The denial of the principle
of consent, and of mutual respect, has been costly in the
past. The relative weights of the communities within
Northern Ireland, as in Ireland as a whole, mean that
coercion is quite simply impossible, even if anyone were
foolish enough to attempt it. Cooperation and consent at all
levels are not just the best policy, but the only possible
policy.
Because of this reality, the politics of the peace
process must be resolutely inclusive. Any viable settlement
must deal with each community as it defines itself, not as
others would find it convenient for it to be. For that reason,
I welcome the fact that the new leader of Ulster unionism
is among the most forceful and assertive representatives of
his community’s philosophy.
The test of statesmanship for any leader in Northern
Ireland and the kind of solution we seek are not about
abating the rights of either community. They are about
finding ways to respect them which are compatible with
equally important rights on the other side. We know that
talks can succeed only if both communities in Northern
Ireland are reliably and authentically represented at those
talks. Nationalism should be represented in its integrity at
those talks, and so also must unionism. Both have to spell
out how they propose to accommodate satisfactorily a
tradition and an identity which is not their own.
Both Governments have explicitly set inclusive and
comprehensive negotiations as their goal, yet these have not
yet begun. That failure is frustrating and threatens to
dissipate the momentum towards a lasting peace. It would
be ironic and dangerous if those who have been persuaded
to abandon violence were now to be denied the chance to
make their case politically. It is vital, therefore, that
obstacles in the way of comprehensive negotiations should
now be overcome.
One of the most difficult obstacles is that the
continued existence of arsenals of guns and explosives is
a source of fear, anxiety and mistrust. The Irish
Government, for its part, is absolutely determined that all
arms should be erased from the political equation as soon
as possible. Any debate is about the best means of
achieving this, not about whether it should be done.
It is because of the importance of this goal that we
wish to situate it in the context where it is most likely to
be achieved in practice. We seek to avoid, as far as
possible, symbolic overtones of surrender or of a
one-sided admission of guilt. In this context, no less than
in other contexts in Northern Ireland, the concepts of
victory and defeat will never offer a solution.
To make the decommissioning of weapons a
precondition for entry into negotiations, as opposed to an
important goal to be realized in that process, ignores the
psychology and motivation of those on both sides in
Ireland who have resorted to violence and the lessons of
conflict resolution elsewhere. We should treat
negotiations, as far as possible, as a practical step. Rather
than surrounding entry into negotiations with
preconditions, we should instead seek to build golden
bridges to enable and encourage all to take part.
We need all those who have been part of the
problem to become, as far as possible, part of the
solution. Given the depth and cost of the problem,
participation in negotiations should be treated as a
necessity and a duty, not a privilege to be jealously
withheld or awarded. If we multiply preconditions, we are
in danger of saying, in effect, that negotiations can take
place only when the problems they are supposed to
address have already been largely solved.
In saying this, I do not wish to be in any way
dismissive of the genuine difficulty many people in
Northern Ireland have in dealing on an equal footing with
those who have in the past used or condoned violence and
coercion. It is clear that there is ample room for further
guarantees and assurances aimed at building trust and
confidence in relation to this sensitive issue. If these
guarantees and assurances can be authoritatively and
credibly underscored by a respected and objective outside
agency, so much the better. That is why the idea of an
international dimension to this confidence-building
process is so appealing. We continue to work on it, in the
hope that it can provide a bridge for all sides to overcome
the present difficulty.
28

The Secretary-General has eloquently expressed the
essence of our task in this anniversary year by saying,
“To support the United Nations is not, and never has
been, to subsidize a separate, independent entity.
Today, more than ever, to support the United Nations
is to participate in the only world Organization
composed of all humanity and in the service of all
humanity.
“Today, a half-century later, it is our duty and
our privilege to take this project to its next stage —
the achievement of an age of peace, development and
security.”


Allow me at the outset, on behalf of my delegation, to
extend my warm congratulations to you, Sir, on your
election to the presidency of the fiftieth session of the
United Nations General Assembly. Coinciding as it does
with the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the
Organization, your election is indeed evidence of the
esteem in which you and your country, Portugal, are held
by the international community. You can be assured of
the full cooperation of the delegation of Niger.
To your predecessor, Foreign Minister Amara Essy,
who has just added to his rich career the record of a job
well done here, I convey my best wishes for success in
his future activities.
In this transitional year in our Organization’s history,
I should also like to pay tribute to the Secretary-General,
Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the dynamic manner in
which he is performing his duties at the head of our
Organization.
10

A half century has gone by since the creation of the
United Nations at San Francisco in 1945. Hence, this year’s
session affords us a unique opportunity to recognize the
importance of the historic gesture by which the leaders of
the day created the Organization as well as to renew our
faith in the ideals and principles of the Charter, which
unquestionably stands as one of the most important
documents available to mankind for building the world of
tomorrow. For young States like Niger, which acceded to
international sovereignty 35 years ago, it would be remiss
to overlook the forceful role the United Nations has played
in the emancipation of peoples and its invaluable
contribution to the progress of mankind as a crucible of
international cooperation in the political, economic, social
and cultural spheres.
Fifty years after the creation of the United Nations the
threats created by the cold war, which long paralysed it,
have disappeared, making way for healthier and more
constructive cooperation between States. This new climate
enabled the Organization to extend, a year ago, an
emotional welcome to South Africa following its successful
victory over the system of apartheid, thus closing after
many years one of the most painful items on its agenda.
Since the Madrid Conference, the Middle East too has
moved along the irreversible path to peace, crowned by the
signature on 13 September 1993 of the Agreements on
autonomy for the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
However, this new climate has also created other kinds
of threats, threats as formidable as those of the cold-war
period and just as disturbing to the peace of many peoples.
Conflicts that intermingle nationalism, ethnic rivalries and
religious intolerance have erupted in many parts of the
world. Democracy, notwithstanding the progress it has
made, is finding it hard to take root in countries where
worsening poverty, malnutrition, disease and environmental
deterioration mete out indescribable suffering.
In other words, the global context in which the present
session of the General Assembly is meeting is far from
giving grounds for complete optimism. This session should
furnish us with an opportunity for a fruitful analysis of
ways to create a better world, a world free of such
atrocities, a world in which mankind will no longer suffer
and in which the ideals of peace, true development and
justice will prevail.
The situation of my country, Niger, like that of many
other African States, is still fraught with difficulties of all
kinds arising out of a disastrous economic environment. A
50 per cent devaluation of our currency, the CFA franc,
in January 1994 dealt a severe blow to the living standard
of the population.

The economic recovery expected as a result of this
fairly drastic monetary step has been delayed, for the
collective and uniform nature of the measure made it
unsuitable to the specific situations in the various
countries affected. Unable to count on a significant
increase in its raw-material exports, Niger has, on the
contrary, experienced an unreasonable increase in the
pressure of its external debt and the cost of imports.
Despite that, my Government, in conjunction with the
Bretton Woods institutions, has undertaken a programme
of economic structural adjustment based on a policy of
systematic restructuring of the public and semi-public
sectors combined with a balancing of macroeconomic
aggregates based on a substantial improvement in State
revenues and a reining in of public expenditure.
Politically speaking, the democratic process entered
into in 1990 is being pursued and expanded, although it
continues to experience the growing pains that accompany
any new experiment — excesses and abuses of new-found
freedoms, a tendency to civic impunity, the excessive
growth of all kinds of interest groups, special interests,
and so on. However, the existence of active trade unions,
an independent and free press and a dynamic civil society
are creating the basis for a lasting democratic structure
capable of ensuring respect for the rule of law and
contributing to the gradual growth of a democratic
culture.
After less than four years of institutionalized
democracy, Niger held elections for President and for the
Legislature. The holding of the last set of elections for the
Legislature, advanced to January 1995, was entrusted to
an independent electoral commission headed by a
magistrate and made up primarily of persons from the
Non-Governmental Organization sector, and from human
rights organizations and organizations advocating
democracy. Several international observers witnessed the
vote and all of them said that it was a model of
transparency and equity. These elections resulted in a
majority in Parliament for the opposition parties. Thus,
since that time, Niger has been living under a regime
where the presidential minority does not coincide with the
parliamentary majority. This so-called cohabitation regime
is the most delicate form of the distribution of
11

constitutional powers and of relations between the different
institutions of the Republic. Despite all the difficulties
inherent in the exceptionally delicate and unprecedented
experience we are undergoing, the regular functioning of
the institutional machinery has never been found wanting.
The Supreme Court, the institution entrusted with
interpreting the Constitution and stating the law on the basis
of which the operation of the Republic’s institutions can be
ensured, has played a crucial role. Systematic reliance on
the machinery of law has been an option of principle
supported by the entire political community, which
constitutes its dedication to the rule of law and to the
stability as well as the security of the country.
It is precisely to ensure the country’s security and
stability that my Government undertook all the efforts that
finally led to the Agreement of 24 April 1995, between the
Government and the leaders of the Tuareg rebellion, joined
together in the Armed Resistance Organization. As the
Assembly knows, since 1991 there has been in the northern
part of Niger an armed rebellion claiming to represent the
Tuareg community and calling for the establishment of a
federal regime, which it believes is the only one that can
provide its people with free self-government. The
discussions undertaken with the leaders of the rebellion
constantly stressed the need to avoid useless bloodshed, and
to focus on dialogue, the major focus of which would be
the best interests of the country. Thanks to mediation
efforts by the friendly countries of Algeria, Burkina Faso
and France, to which I once again extend the gratitude of
the Nigerian people, we were able on 24 April 1995 to sign
a definitive peace agreement. That agreement, based on the
principle of respect for the constitution, which enshrines the
indivisibility of the Republic, emphasizes two main
elements: first, at the political level, the agreement
recommends the acceleration of the establishment of
decentralized structures and a consequent devolution of
administrative and political powers to those structures;
secondly, at the economic level, the agreement recommends
the implementation of a special programme of economic
and social development in the northern part of the country.
With respect to the first aspect of the commitments
undertaken in this important agreement, the responsibility
of the Government is almost exclusive. But that is not true
of the second aspect. Indeed, it is quite clear that the
motives for this rebellion, which started at the very time
when the country had embarked on the road to democracy
and institutionalization of freedoms, are primarily
economic. The northern area of Niger, after the past few
years of cyclical draught, was in a highly precarious
condition due to the upheaval of its ecosystem. Livestock
grazing became highly problematic, condemning nomadic
communities to wandering and inducing in them a feeling
of malaise, which quickly led to claims for a separate
identity. The only way to deal appropriately with this
rebellion, which is, after all, only a symptom of the real
difficulties faced by these people, is to restore hope to all
of these hard-hit regions. That is why the peace
agreement provides for the holding on 30 and
31 October 1995 of a round-table meeting involving all
the countries and institutions linked to Niger, with a view
to preparing a special development programme for the
northern area. I appeal to all those who wish to help
Niger definitively restore and consolidate peace to kindly
lend their support to this undertaking.
On the international level, the tragic conflicts in
Rwanda, Somalia, Liberia and the former Yugoslavia —
to refer only to them — bear witness eloquently to the
fragility of the international order that emerged from the
end of the cold war, and also to the inability of present
structures to provide an adequate collective response
when national stability breaks down and when the ensuing
internal conflicts give rise to unspeakable suffering.
The situation of Rwanda is among those which,
given their gravity and their undermining of the basic
principles of our Organization, deserve special attention.
My country is following with great attention the efforts
undertaken for a year now by the authorities of Rwanda
to overcome the consequences of the tragic events that
took place there and to consolidate the work for national
reconciliation and lasting peace.
The situation in Liberia, after a series of initiatives
leading to the establishment of a new Council of State,
has taken a truly positive turn. This is an opportunity for
me to extend my congratulations to the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and to all
those whose help has been so useful, in particular
President Sani Abacha of Nigeria and President Rawlings
of Ghana. I wish to congratulate the people of Liberia on
their courage and encourage them to persevere on the
path of peace and hope that they have paid so dear a
price to find again.
In Angola, Niger is following closely the progress
achieved along the path to peace and we congratulate
President Dos Santos and Mr. Savimbi. Niger is following
with the same attention the developing situation in
Western Sahara and we deplore the slow pace of the
process for the restoration of peace there.
12

With regard to the sanctions imposed on Libya by the
Security Council, Niger believes that the constructive
proposals made by the authorities of that country constitute
a serious basis for a resolution of this crisis, whose
consequences are so burdensome to the Libyan population
and to neighbouring countries such as Niger.
Outside of our continent, Niger welcomed the signing
on 13 September 1993 in Washington of the Agreements
between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel
envisaging autonomy for the Gaza Strip and Jericho. The
ensuing dynamic led — after very hard work — to a
significant breakthrough with the signing of the Agreement
on 28 September 1995 in Washington which extends
autonomy to the West Bank.
The long tragedy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a
Member State of the United Nations, gives rise to many
questions about the capacity of our Organization to ensure
respect even for its principles. The Muslim population of
that country has suffered too much from the inconsistencies,
improvisations and hesitations of the international
community, while the Bosnian Serbs, grand masters of
fait accompli politics, have been allowed to calmly continue
their abominable practice of “ethnic cleansing”, calling
seriously into question the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Niger welcomed the military pressure exercised upon
the Serbs by our Organization and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization last September, and we warmly welcome the
latest peace initiatives led by the United States of America
with a view to the return of peace to that region. We hope
that this great stride will provide a basis for bringing about
just and lasting peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Fifty years after its creation, the United Nations must
strengthen its mission of promoting dialogue and
cooperation between peoples. It must, even more than in
the past, work to limit tensions as far as possible, and to
settle conflicts when they erupt but, in particular, to prevent
situations that could threaten international peace and
security.
In this spirit, in this special year in the life of our
common Organization and in accordance with the principle
of universality enshrined in Article 4 of the Charter, Niger
has advocated the establishment of an ad hoc committee to
look into the question of the representation of Taiwan.
The end of the cold war has not helped to shield the
world from the emergence of local conflicts any more than
it has made it possible to remove the heavy burden
weighing on mankind as a result of the stockpiling and
improvement of weapons. However, it is now an
established fact that disarmament and the non-
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction have a
pivotal role to play in preventing conflicts and promoting
peace and social and economic development. For this
reason, we can congratulate ourselves on the results of the
1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to
the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
This Conference, in addition to agreeing on an indefinite
extension of the Treaty, agreed that a comprehensive
nuclear test-ban treaty would be concluded in 1996 at the
latest. Niger wishes to reaffirm its deep desire to see the
negotiations now under way lead to the conclusion of a
treaty that comprehensively bans nuclear tests, that is
universal and that can be effectively monitored.
Our attempts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear,
chemical and biological weapons should not make us lose
sight of the threat of conventional weapons and the need
to control them.
Niger is pleased to applaud here Mali’s initiative
which this year led the Secretary-General of our
Organization to dispatch a mission to the subregion of
West Africa to assess the negative impact of the illicit
circulation of small arms upon the States of the
subregion. We support the recommendations made by the
Secretary-General following that mission and we retain
the hope that the international community, which gave
massive support to the relevant resolution, will give the
backing that is indispensable for the implementation of
these recommendations.
In recent years, our Organization has invested
heavily in conflict prevention and management. Many
resources and a great deal of time have been devoted to
this area, sometimes to the detriment of development
measures. My delegation, however, remains convinced
that there is no greater threat to peace than the current
stalemate in dialogue between rich and poor countries and
the widening of the various inequalities that have ensued.
This session is taking place at a time when the world
economic situation is riven by deep-seated imbalances.
Although some regions have seen considerable progress,
in other regions delays are becoming worse every year,
sometimes leading to unprecedented crises. The poorest
countries seem to have been left on the sidelines of the
progress that the world economy has enjoyed. In some
countries the very structures of the State have fallen into
13

complete disrepair and populations have been plunged into
the deepest distress. Poverty, hunger and illiteracy plague
more than one-fifth of the world’s population and in many
parts of the world the situation is becoming dangerously
worse.
The African continent is requesting, as a priority and
urgently, the solidarity of the international community. The
weaknesses of its structures persist and frequently grow
worse. The current improvement in growth rates are still
too weak to compensate for 15 years of economic decline.
Economic performances are disappointing even in countries
that have undertaken considerable reform.
Despite the international community’s commitments in
the framework of major conferences and summits of every
kind, flows of official development assistance are falling off
every year. At a time when developing countries need it
most to support their reforms, official development
assistance has fallen drastically and the general malaise
surrounding this assistance, christened “donor fatigue”, is
growing worse and worse.
My country regrets that not even the Economic and
Social Council high level segment on the development of
Africa, including the implementation of the United Nations
New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s,
nor the Mid-Term Global Review of the Implementation of
the Programme of Action for the Least Developed
Countries for the 1990s which has just ended, has made it
possible for the international community to arrive at a set
of concrete measures that can reverse this trend by creating
conditions for sustained and lasting economic recovery and
development in the poorest countries.
The silent crisis of poverty, disease and illiteracy
should inspire the international community to tackle the
roots of the evil by adopting a preventive and more
consistent approach to the resolution of these problems. The
roots of the problem include the burden of external debt
which continues to hamper the development efforts of
developing countries. Although we recognize the efforts to
reschedule and write off debt under the Naples Terms, we
must point out that this is not enough.
Donor countries are fully aware that they, along with
the multilateral financial institutions, are the main creditors
of our countries and that a large part of the debt servicing
they finance simply returns to their treasuries and those of
multilateral institutions.
Financial flows on favourable terms are not usually
enough to make up the financing deficit of poor countries.
Comprehensive and lasting solutions are needed if
problems are to be solved once and for all.
The radical structural reforms that developing
countries, especially the least developed among them,
have undertaken in their economies have proved to be
very costly in social and political terms and have not been
given sufficient support by the international community.
Although structural adjustment remains indispensable to
remedy serious economic imbalances, the needs and
priorities of the poorest and most vulnerable people
should not be neglected. Adjustment and transformation
must be designed to improve the well-being of
populations. There is good reason to encourage in practice
Governments to persevere, but they must also be helped
to attenuate the severe impact of such reforms. The
struggle against poverty was one of the principal topics of
the World Summit for Social Development in
Copenhagen last March. The international community
made courageous commitments, which we welcome, in
particular the commitment to supply the financial
resources necessary for integrated strategies to combat
poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. We remain
hopeful that these commitments will be translated into
action and initiatives at both the national and international
levels.
The Fourth World Conference on Women that has
just recently ended in Beijing is also a landmark of our
time in so far as the international community reaffirmed
there the importance of the role of women, the main actor
in and beneficiary of development, and committed itself
to devoting greater resources to improving the status of
women and their access to the political and economic life
of our countries.
The Agenda for Development, which is now being
drafted and unanimously heralded as complementing the
“Agenda for Peace” should provide the international
community with a new opportunity, in addition to just
reaffirming principles, to focus on producing resources
commensurate with the task of implementing concrete
development initiatives.
A whole series of world conferences in recent years
has enabled us to forge a new vision of global
development and to define the measures needed to turn
that vision into reality. The international community must
urgently give tangible proof of its commitment to
progress along the path it has chosen.
14

Any delay can only make the remedy that much more
difficult and costly. The commemoration of the fiftieth
anniversary of the United Nations, marking a half-century
of the existence of our Organization, is highly symbolic and
we would be ill advised not to make judicious use of these
symbols. This is such a rare occasion that I believe we
must take advantage of it.


 It is with much pleasure and
great satisfaction that I join the previous speakers who have
already congratulated the President on his election to the
presidency of the fiftieth session of the General Assembly.
The participation of his country, Portugal, at the United
Nations has always been active and constructive. My
delegation, therefore, is confident that under the President’s
wise and able leadership our Organization will progress
further towards its goals. And we assure him of our fullest
cooperation and support in the tasks that devolve upon him.
May I take this opportunity to express our sincere
appreciation to the President’s distinguished predecessor,
His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy of Côte d’Ivoire, for the
admirable and effective manner in which he conducted the
business of the forty-ninth session.
Let me also renew my delegation’s homage to
Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali for the efficient and committed
manner in which he is carrying out his mission as
Secretary-General.
Every year, we seize the opportunity of the session of
the General Assembly to share our views and concerns
about the state of international relations. In this fiftieth year
of the existence of our Organization, I particularly wish to
address the Assembly from the perspective of a small island
State.
The end of the cold war and the breakup of the Soviet
bloc, the globalization of the world economy and the
establishment of the World Trade Organization to oversee
international trade, the emergence of China as an economic
giant, the liberalization of the Indian economy and South
Africa’s return to the community of nations, in such a short
span of time, have all contributed to rapid changes in the
global economic scene.
My country shares the belief that regionalization is
a first prerequisite for smooth integration into a global
economic pattern. It was natural, therefore, that the region
of the Indian Ocean could not remain isolated from the
movement towards regionalization, despite the fact that
the Indian Ocean countries form a heterogeneous zone
with a multiplicity of economic systems, political
traditions and cultural experiences. It is in this perspective
that Mauritius hosted, in March this year, the Indian
Ocean Rim (IOR) initiative. Built on the foundations of
historic interchanges between nations in the Indian Ocean,
the IOR initiative could be seen both as a geographical
reality and a natural economic entity. Its objective, as
clearly outlined at the first meeting, is to establish a
regional forum, tripartite in nature, that will bring together
representatives of Governments, business and academia
for the purpose of promoting economic cooperation in the
region. Although the IOR initiative has been launched
with an initial group, may I hasten to add that the IOR is
open to all the countries of the Indian Ocean region. As
we go along, the initiative will expand progressively to
include other countries, on the basis of a coherent
programme and plan of action.
Other existing groupings, such as the Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) — to
which organization my country has recently been
admitted — and the Indian Ocean Commission, have
already contributed significantly to greater interaction in
our region, and it is our hope that this new initiative will
further pave the way for a dynamic integration of the
Indian Ocean region into the global economic pattern. In
this regard, we look forward to, and will highly
appreciate, the support of major regional groups and
countries in the implementation of this laudable initiative.
Indeed, while we are making considerable efforts to
ensure the prosperity and advancement of our countries,
we are also very much aware that this cannot be achieved
without the assistance of major players in the global
economy. At the same time, it is important that, at a time
of growing interdependence among States and economies,
efforts must be made to include developing countries in
the international economic decision-making process so as
to achieve effective management of the global economy.
The Bretton Woods institutions — namely, the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund —
16

should be able to devise new ways and means of
responding to the development needs, priorities and
specificities of developing countries by providing adequate
resources without stringent conditionalities. I should like
here to appeal to the international financial institutions to
put aside, when circumstances demand, their first and
foremost role of bankers and act more as partners in the
global development process. For it is becoming increasingly
clear that development problems cannot be solved by
countries on their own, whatever be their sense of
commitment and purpose. Africa, where countries are
afflicted by deep-seated and chronic problems, is one such
example.
My country, therefore, welcomes the views expressed
by the Secretary-General in his Agenda for Development,
and in particular supports his démarches to alleviate
problems and sufferings on the African continent. We wish
in this regard to see the rapid implementation of the United
Nations New Agenda for the Development in Africa in the
1990s and the Cairo Agenda for Action on Relaunching
African Economic and Social Development, as well as the
recommendations of the Bandung Asia-Africa Forum.
Africa, we know, is not alone, and we were gratified in
September last year by President Clinton’s statement at the
reception for African nations to the effect that
“The United States has been, and will continue to be,
a partner in Africa’s success story”.
This is comforting, and we wish to see more concrete steps
in this direction.
I wish also to seize this opportunity to pay tribute to
two decades of partnership between the countries of Africa,
the Caribbean and the Pacific and those of the European
Union, through the Lomé Conventions. In a few weeks’
time Mauritius will have the privilege and honour of
hosting the signing of the second financial protocol of
Lomé IV. While I pay tribute to this concrete example of
effective partnership between the North and the South, it is
our sincere hope that our partners of the European Union
will continue to support its traditional friends despite
emerging demands nearer home.
Economic and socio-cultural progress cannot be
sustained if man does not remain at the centre of
development. In this context, education, training and
information play a fundamental role. We firmly believe that
it is extremely important to invest in human resources. In
keeping with this belief, education and training are provided
free of charge at primary and secondary levels in my
country, to boys and girls and to men and women alike.
An educated and trained individual is in a better
position to respond and adapt to the changing needs of
society and the developments taking place around him. As
such, he is able to provide faster and better results. One
of the scourges of developing nations remains an
inadequate level of education and the lack of training
facilities and access to the latest information. Developing
countries, in fact, run the risk of being left outside the
network of rapidly evolving information technology. And
yet can anyone deny the absolute need for small island
States like mine to be connected to the rest of the world
through up-to-date information networks? Therefore,
while the eradication of illiteracy and the provision of
education facilities should continue to remain a top
priority of the United Nations, we should add to this the
transfer of information technology.
Women are a major agent of development, and they
have often been disadvantaged in their quest for education
and training. Of course, to the United Nations, the
advancement of women is not a new cause. The year
1975 was proclaimed International Women’s Year,
followed by the United Nations Decade for Women. Since
then, major United Nations conferences, such as the Earth
Summit, in Rio, the World Conference on Human Rights,
in Vienna, and others have repeatedly brought the plight
of women to the fore, the most significant being the
recent Beijing Conference. The agreements concluded at
Beijing recognized the pivotal role of women in our
society and laid down the foundations for their
participation as equal partners in development activities.
More important, however, will be the “after” Beijing —
the need to get down to the implementation of decisions
arrived at and the need to find ways and means of
building the bridges to allow for greater involvement of
women in national and international matters.
The world this year befittingly witnessed two other
important United Nations conferences: the World Summit
for Social Development in Copenhagen and the Review
and Extension Conference of the States Parties to the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
(NPT) in New York.
The Summit on Social Development called attention
to the impact of the world economic system on the poor
and underprivileged and helped to project new ideas for
alternative models of social development. It also allowed
17

the renewal of the world commitment to resolve the
problems of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion.
For its part, the non-proliferation Treaty, which came
into force in 1970, is important in several ways. It
enshrines an undertaking between the five nuclear-weapon
States to begin serious nuclear disarmament negotiations
and the non-nuclear countries not to acquire nuclear
weapons in return for access to peaceful nuclear
technology. It is a major international agreement the aim of
which is to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and build
confidence among the nuclear-weapon States towards a
reduction of their arsenals. The Treaty also provides the
basis for legitimate trade in nuclear technology for peaceful
purposes.
The indefinite extension of the nuclear
non-proliferation Treaty in May this year can be considered
a landmark in the history of mankind, which has committed
itself to free the world from the threat of nuclear weapons.
Unfortunately, the optimism generated by the indefinite
extension of the Treaty was short-lived in the wake of the
resumption of recent nuclear testings. These activities are
definitely not encouraging signs for the conclusion of a
comprehensive test-ban treaty in the foreseeable future.
In our region, however, we are confident that the
African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, which was
recently finalized in South Africa, will go a long way
towards contributing to international peace and security. It
covers a large part of the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic
Ocean, both containing major sea routes of the world. My
delegation sincerely hopes to see the speedy entry into force
of this Treaty, which, among other issues, encompasses the
integrality of the territory of States members of the
Organization of African Unity as a nuclear-weapon-free
zone.
The Vienna Conference was a turning-point for world
perception of human rights. We hope that the principles and
objectives enshrined in the 1993 Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action on human rights may in time be
recognized and effectively respected in all corners of the
world. My country has always upheld human rights and
favoured their promotion and protection. But at the same
time, in the field of human rights, we believe that we have
to move with caution lest we run the risk of damaging the
interests of those very individuals and societies that we are
purporting to protect in the short run.
Nevertheless, this should not prevent us from
combining our best efforts in all good faith to bring about
a just and equitable society by trying to win the
confidence of the peoples, societies and Governments
rather than by threatening them economically, militarily
or otherwise. The upholding of human values and uplift
of humanity should continue to remain our main concern
at all times and in the best interests of humanity. It is for
this reason that we should seize every opportunity to
applaud the restoration of human rights and democracy,
regardless of other considerations. We are delighted,
therefore, at the long-awaited liberation of Mrs. Aung San
Suu Kyi this year, which we feel has opened up new
avenues for dialogue in Myanmar.
During the past few years in particular, the United
Nations has become increasingly identified in the public
perception with the Blue Helmets. The growing focus on
the activities of the peace-keepers is such that their
successes and failures often affect the credibility of our
Organization. Peace-keeping is an important tool for
conflict resolution; its success depends to a large extent
on a strong political will on the part of Member States, a
clear mandate to the peace-keepers and solid material,
logistical and financial support. However, one of the main
factors for conflict resolution remains the early
identification of potential conflicts and tensions. While
arms and weapons can be used to threaten and
temporarily silence those involved in the conflicts, lasting
peace can be achieved only through moral persuasion, the
removal of fear and despair, and the instilling of hope and
security in the minds of people. The need, therefore, to
strengthen the arms of preventive diplomacy becomes
imperative.
In the recent past, the United Nations has been
increasingly called upon to carry out peace-keeping and
peacemaking operations. In fact, the number of demands
made on the Organization is now straining its resources
almost to the breaking-point. The erratic and reluctant
disbursement of contributions by some Member States has
highlighted the shortcomings of such operations and
exposed the limits of this approach in ensuring peace and
stability. We therefore need more than ever to place much
greater emphasis on preventive diplomacy and allocate
more resources to this activity. We believe that, in the
long run, the cost of supporting programmes in
18

preventive diplomacy would be far outweighed by the
actual costs of dispatching Blue Helmets around the world.
In this respect, we urge the international community
strongly to support regional initiatives, such as the
mechanism for conflict prevention, management and
resolution of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The
experience of my country as a result of my own personal
participation in several ministerial missions organized by
the OAU in the context of this mechanism has convinced
us to put greater reliance in this approach. My delegation
would therefore like to appeal to this body to make a strong
commitment to the realization of this very important
programme.
The establishment of an early-warning system and
threat-assessment unit at the United Nations could equally
support the proposed OAU early-warning system. This
would go a long way towards preparing the United Nations
to deal with the contemporary challenges of peace-keeping
and peace-building at a more realistic cost. Yet I would
appeal for more cohesion and harmonization among the
various conflict-prevention and conflict-resolution
mechanisms in order to avoid duplication of efforts.
(spoke in French)
At this point, my delegation should like to refer to the
increasing activities of the francophone movement in the
areas of conflict prevention and peace-keeping. We
welcome the encouraging results of the work of the recent
conference of French-speaking countries on conflict
prevention, which took place in Canada. Among the
recommendations of that conference, we note in particular
the one relating to the support of the francophone
movement for the pan-African mechanism for conflict
prevention, management and resolution.
It is true that the movement has no great means at its
disposal, but it has none the less been able to lend
considerable support in the recent past to certain United
Nations programme in the area of human rights and the
process of democratization. With respect to those two areas,
I also wish to highlight the important activities of the
movement over the past two years in the countries of the
African Great Lakes region following the tragic events that
took place there.
In December, at Cotonou, my Prime Minister will be
passing on the presidency of the movement to the President
of Benin. I wish to take this opportunity to express my
great satisfaction at the way in which, during his term of
office, the political dimension of the French-speaking
movement’s work on the international level has
developed. I should like to express the hope that this
political facet of the movement will in future be able to
play a growing role in international forums in striving for
the realization of lasting peace in the world.
(spoke in English)
We are already witnessing promising developments
in conflict resolution in regions such as Angola,
Mozambique and the Middle East. We commend the
recent initiatives in Bosnia and exhort all parties
concerned to continue to intensify their efforts to find a
long-term solution, and hope that the long-awaited peace
in this region is achieved not under the threat of guns, but
through the goodwill, understanding and tolerance of all
concerned.
My delegation recognizes that the fiftieth anniversary
of the United Nations provides a golden opportunity for
the re-examination and the renewal of the United Nations
system, and welcomes the initiative launched in the
General Assembly to negotiate a reform of the Security
Council. We believe that the present 15-member
composition of the Security Council does not reflect the
realities of the economic and political changes of the past
decades. In its present composition, the Security Council
can neither claim to take into account the positions of
nations in the next 50 years, nor reasonably pretend to
speak on behalf of 185 nations for the maintenance of
world peace and security. The Security Council has
indeed the main task of maintaining peace and security.
However, the concept of world security has itself
undergone a huge transformation. We are now more at
risk from the threat of economic, social, cultural and
religious upheavals and turmoils than from the outbreak
of war resulting from conflicts between States or a group
of States. Consequently, if the Security Council is to
command full respect in all parts of the world and enjoy
legitimacy, it should undergo a complete overhaul.
In the context of the current exercise on the
expansion of the Security Council, we believe that the
claim of India, the largest parliamentary democracy, to a
permanent seat on the Security Council is legitimate. In
the same spirit, countries from other regions, including
small island States, could equally aspire to permanent
seats in an expanded Security Council.
The world has gradually been reduced to a global
village. The regions of the world and their peoples,
19

although still widely separated geographically, are fast
realizing that the future of the world community lies in a
common shared goal. We are increasingly becoming aware
that the world is one family, and that if we are to assure a
brighter and better future for coming generations, we have
no other choice than to continue our efforts towards
preserving and promoting a strong United Nations that will
be able to pursue a common purpose for a world of equity,
justice and shared economic progress.
In Mauritius, in spite of the existence of many cultures
and religions, we have been successful in promoting
peaceful coexistence. We have always believed that no
meaningful progress can be achieved in the absence of
peace and harmony. We have always believed in our people
and have actively promoted the culture of tolerance and
mutual respect. We remain deeply committed to the
principles of democracy and justice. The path of tolerance
and mutual respect for different faiths and religions and the
acceptance of unity in diversity laid down under the
inspiring leadership of the Father of the Nation, Sir
Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, since independence in 1968 and
followed through relentlessly by our present Prime Minister,
Sir Anerood Jugnauth have been largely responsible for the
harmonious way of life in Mauritius.
In conclusion, I should like on the occasion of the
fiftieth anniversary of our Organization to share with the
international community our rich experience of living in
peace and harmony.


At the outset allow me, on
behalf of my country’s delegation, to congratulate Mr.
Diogo Freitas do Amaral on his election to the presidency
of this important session of the General Assembly. His
unanimous election to this high office attests to the role that
his friendly country, Portugal, with which my country has
enjoyed centuries of ties, plays in the international arena.
His election is also testimony to his ability and wide
diplomatic experience which, we are sure, will enable the
General Assembly to achieve the results we hope for.
I should also like to take this opportunity to pay
special tribute to his predecessor, Mr. Amara Essy, the
Foreign Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, for the skill and
constructive manner in which he steered the work of the
forty-ninth session.
The convening of this session coincides with the
fiftieth anniversary of the international community’s
agreement to establish the United Nations in order to
safeguard international peace and security after the
experience of two world wars. We are aware of the
significant role that the United Nations has played ever
since the end of the Second World War in maintaining the
balance between the world Powers during what was known
as the cold war era. That outstanding role of the United
Nations was at the heart of the international cooperation
that was given concrete form in enabling the peoples of the
third world, with the help of the United Nations, to free
themselves from the shackles of colonialism in Africa, Asia
and South America. The United Nations bodies and
specialized agencies helped the newly independent States to
organize their socio-economic resources thanks to the
persistent efforts of the Secretaries-General who headed the
Secretariat and the respective Executive Secretaries of the
specialized agencies. Here it is only fitting to remember
Mr. Dag Hammarskjöld, the Organization’s second
Secretary-General, who gave his life while working on
behalf of the United Nations in the Congo in 1961. We
should also remember those who were at the helm of the
Secretariat beside Mr. Hammarskjöld — Mr. Trygve Lie,
the first Secretary-General, U Thant, Mr. Kurt Waldheim,
Mr. Jávier Perez de Cuéllar and the current Secretary-
General, Mr. Boutros Boutros- Ghali — who have all
played a significant role in strengthening mutual
understanding amongst nations and helped the world to
find peaceful solutions to its conflicts.
The history of the United Nations is full of many
other figures who played an important role in promoting
its march and in serving international peace and security.
By way of example I mention Count Bernadotte, the
International Peace Mediator in Palestine; General Burns,
the Commander of the International Emergency Force in
the Middle East; Mr. Gunnar Jarring, the International
Peace Mediator between the Arabs and Israelis after the
war of 1967; Mr. James Grant, the late Executive Director
of the United Nations Children’s Fund; Sadruddin Aga
Khan, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees for many years; the late Olaf Palme, former
Prime Minister of Sweden; the late Willy Brandt, former
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany;
Mr. Brian Urquhart, the former Under-Secretary-General
for Political Affairs; and many other brilliant figures who
worked tirelessly and faithfully in these corridors.
We should also like to mention in particular the
great achievements of the United Nations in the
framework of its specialized agencies. Nobody can deny
the achievements of these agencies in their respective
fields of competence such as food and agriculture, science
and education, civil aviation, architecture, reconstruction,
health, postal services and telecommunications,
meteorology, intellectual property, development, the
liberalization of trade, not to mention the brilliant
achievements of the humanitarian and development
organizations such as the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East (UNRWA) as well as the remarkable
role played by the other relevant regional organizations
and committees within the framework of the United
Nations.
These achievements constitute part of the rich assets
accumulated by the United Nations over the 50 years that
have elapsed since it was established with the aim of
maintaining international peace and security. We believe
18

that although the Organization has come a long way in
laying the foundations of international peace and security,
global peace in its broadest sense has yet to be achieved.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon us all to support the United
Nations in its forward movement in that direction so that
the edifice of peace and international security may be
completed and maintained.
The establishment of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) with the aim of organizing and coordinating world
trade, eliminating the obstacles that obstruct access to
foreign markets and encouraging the movement of capital
and investment is another milestone on the way towards
consolidating the edifice of international peace and security.
The WTO should receive every support from the
international community. The agreement on its
establishment under the auspices of the United Nations
should be an incentive and a challenge to the developing
countries to promote the level of their economic and social
development, increase their productive capacity and upgrade
the level of their services in order for them to qualify to
integrate their interests with those of the developed
countries.
By the same token, the establishment of the WTO
with the aim of achieving international economic balance
on a basis of justice, equality and sustainable development,
in no way remits the developed countries’ obligations
towards supporting and assisting the developing countries
in working for that integration of their economies with the
economies of the developed countries. As a matter of fact,
those obligations are stipulated in the WTO agreement.
In the context of the United Nations action to
consolidate the foundations of international peace and
security, the Organization has managed, after 14 years of
strenuous efforts, to conclude the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982. The entry into
force of that Convention on 16 November 1994 is but
another example of international cooperation in order to
establish an equitable, just international order to govern the
ocean space. Also, the recent efforts in this context with
regard to Part XI of this important international Convention
will no doubt enhance its universality.
In the area of disarmament, the United Nations has
performed an outstanding role, even at the height of the
cold war, as evinced by the signing of the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The signing
by more than 159 States of the Convention on the
Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling
and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction is
yet another historic United Nations achievement. The
Convention was the first to deal with the elimination of
this category of overkill weapons on a global scale. It
paved the way for agreement on the elimination of all
other weapons of mass destruction.
As regards the protection of the environment, the
international community has witnessed the dedication of
world leaders at the 1992 Rio Conference to the task of
halting the degradation of the environment. The United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the
Convention on Biological Diversity and Agenda 21 that
resulted from this unique Conference have laid the
foundations of a world partnership that addresses the
problems of desertification, poverty and the degradation
of the ecosystem which arise from the unrestrained use of
natural resources.
All these conventions and programmes have gone on
the record book as uncontested achievements
accomplished by the United Nations. Such achievements
apart, however, the United Nations has proved to be
unable to cope with regional political issues that have
international dimensions and are closely related to risks
that could jeopardize international peace and security.
When the cold war ended, regional problems erupted on
the heels of each other and faced the United Nations and
regional organizations alike with a real challenge.
With regard to the Middle East question, which we
believe to be one of the most significant issues that
concern the world at large, an important breakthrough has
taken place on 28 September 1995, when the Israeli and
Palestinian sides signed an historic accord in Washington
D.C. that provides for the expansion of Palestinian self-
rule. While we commend the accord, we voice the hope
that it will enable the Palestinian people to achieve the
objective of extending its authority over its own land and
of building its national entity. My country also hopes that
the progress achieved on the Palestinian-Israeli track will
lead to the activation of the Syrian-Israeli and the
Lebanese-Israeli tracks. Lack of progress on those two
tracks is a negative signal that does not serve the interests
of a just and comprehensive peace. If such peace is to be
achieved, we believe that the negotiators on all sides have
to put behind them all the residual suspicions and political
negativism of the past, free their political will and look at
the present with a futuristic vision of a world that no
longer knows geographical boundaries thanks to the
technological progress we now witness in every aspect of
life.
19

In Iraq, the Iraqi Government has yet to respond to all
the requirements of the relevant Security Council
resolutions so as to allow the lifting of the embargo
imposed by the United Nations on Iraq. We, in common
with others, were greatly surprised at the serious, important
information disclosed recently by the Iraqi Government
regarding its programme of weapons of mass destruction.
Regardless of the reasons that led Iraq not to disclose these
programmes in the past, the confidence of the international
community in Iraq has been dealt a severe blow because
Iraq had concealed this information in spite of the requests
from the Special Commission. In the light of these new
developments which necessitate the continuation of the
work of the Special Commission for a long time to come,
my country appeals to the international community to
double its efforts towards mitigating the suffering of the
brotherly people of Iraq. By the same token, Iraq is
required, now more than ever before, to reconsider its
rejection of Security Council resolution 986 (1995) which,
in our view, provides Iraq with a good opportunity to
reduce some of the suffering of the brotherly people of
Iraq.
We call on Iraq once again seriously to provide all the
information and means still in its possession to the Special
Commission. We hope that Iraq’s compliance and
cooperation in this matter will give the United Nations
access to the crucial information regarding the Iraqi
programmes on weapons of mass destruction and pave the
way towards the eventual lifting of the embargo from
which the Iraqi people have endured record suffering over
the past five years.
In the context of Iraq’s commitment to Security
Council resolutions, in particular resolution 686 (1991), we
call on the Iraqi Government to cooperate further with the
tripartite Committee that deals with the question of Kuwaiti
detainees and the expatriates of other countries detained in
Iraq, and to provide the said committee with detailed
information on those detainees. Any progress made in this
direction will be viewed as a demonstration of the good
intentions of Iraq and its desire to cooperate with other
States.
In Somalia, despite the persistent efforts of the United
Nations and other regional organizations, the situation in
that country gives no cause for optimism due to the total
disregard some Somali leaderships show towards the
interests of the brotherly people of Somalia.
In Afghanistan, although the United Nations has
deployed and continues to deploy special efforts to restore
peace to this war-ravaged country, there is no abatement
of the hostilities and bloodshed caused by the strife of the
different factions in that country. On the other hand, we
view with optimism the progress achieved in the peace
processes undertaken by the United Nations in Angola,
Mozambique, and Liberia, and call upon the international
community to deploy all possible efforts towards the
mitigation of the suffering of the people of Rwanda who
continue to be in the grip of ethnic and political conflicts
between the warring factions in their country.
In the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite
the United Nations and the commendable efforts of its
peace-keeping forces to halt the bloodshed in this
fledgling republic in the heart of Europe, the insurrection
of the Bosnian Serbs and their continued defiance of the
international community have resulted in frustrating all
those concerted efforts. The recent events in Krajina and
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air raids
on Serbian positions have restored a certain degree of
balance between Bosnia and the Serbs who seem to
understand nothing but the logic of force. This has shown
the validity of the logical call to enable the Government
of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to exercise its
legitimate right to self-defence.
In this connection, obviously, the Agreement of
Principle signed under the supervision of the Contract
Group at Geneva on 3 September 1995 by the Foreign
Ministers of the Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Croatia, and the former Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia
and Montenegro) constitutes a significant step towards
peace. However, it is the duty of the international
community to exert great efforts to overcome the
difficulties facing the United Nations and to ensure that
the principles agreed on are translated into lasting peace
in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
There is no doubt that such regional issues face the
United Nations with a real challenge and pose serious
threats to international peace and security. In addition,
they have created human tragedies as a result of such
atrocities as “ethnic cleansing” and the horrors of famine
and mass killings, not to mention the heavy financial
burden they have put on the resources of the world
economy and on the people who have fallen victim to the
atrocities. In the light of all this, how can the United
Nations face up to all these responsibilities at a time
when its ability to deploy efforts is receding because of
the over-bureaucratization of its various organs and failure
by many Member States to honour their financial
obligations? The situation is complex, but it is one that
20

can be dealt with by restructuring United Nations organs in
a more cost-effective manner so that the goals set may be
achieved over the short-, medium- and long-term in
consonance with basic objectives so that the Organization
may enter the coming century equipped with firm
instructions to make international peace and security the
basic underpinnings of social and economic development.
With regard to the Security Council, my country feels
that while preserving the tasks entrusted to it, we must also
find an effective mechanism to enable the General
Assembly to make an effective contribution in dealing with
crucial international issues so that all Member States may
participate in implementing United Nations resolutions and
programmes in line with the provisions of the Charter, in
the interests of international peace and security as well as
economic and social development. Proceeding from this,
my delegation calls upon the international community to
support the efforts of the United Nations as the principal
body entrusted with addressing various crucial questions
throughout the world. Those are our policies at all levels.
At the regional level, my country seeks to build bridges of
dialogue and cooperation between all countries in the belief
that this serves the interests of international peace and
security. We also seek to encourage and support all regional
and international groupings in the same spirit and with the
same goals in view. At the national level, my country
deeply believes that the maintenance of regional and
international peace provides the most important means of
implementing our national economic and social plans. With
God’s will, we have managed to settle with our neighbours
the problems regarding our borders, which has afforded us
a golden opportunity to channel our national capabilities
towards the implementation of our ambitious national
economic and social programmes.
Benefiting from the past wealth of economic
experience and in pursuit of the economic objective Oman
charted 25 years ago, my Government, with the assistance
of such international bodies as the World Bank and other
economic experts, organized a conference on the future
perspectives of the Omani economy by the year 2020,
which was held at Muscat, the capital, on 3 and 4 June
1995. With the participation of a broad segment of the
public and private sectors of Omani society and a select
number of international organizations and world economic
figures, that conference laid out the basic lines of the
Omani strategy for future Omani development, among
which are the development of human resources, the
promotion of women’s participation therein, the
development of the private sector so that it may become the
driving force of the national economy, the encouragement
of economic diversity, the encouragement of a suitable
economic balance between the economy of Oman and the
rest of the world and the conservation of the environment
and its exploitation for peaceful purposes. My
Government’s peaceful endeavour to implement those
strategies represents the best means by which my country
will enter the next century on a solid basis, that would
enable the Omani people to expand their economic
resources and benefit from the technological progress we
feel will govern the world economy and all its means of
production and marketing.
This option, with regard to the means of national
development, will surely serve the cause of peace and
security. God willing, we look forward to a future filled
with promise for our future generations.