YouSaid · the spoken record

Amara Essy

lines on the record: 116
first: 1996-09-24
most recent: 1999-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“An effort commensurate with the 34 problem would allow us to radically change its basic elements. The 1998 Human Development Report, published by the United Nations Development Programme a few weeks ago, makes some significant comparisons. It shows, for example, that Americans annually spend $8 billion on cosmetics â€” $2 billion more than the amount needed to finance basic education for a large part of the world population. To quote the Secretary-Generalâs report on the work of the Organization, â€œa bridge must be constructed between, in effect, the Dow Jones index and the human development indexâ€ (A/53/1, para. 15). We expect also that a new drive towards cooperation and development will not only combat poverty and exclusion but also promote international peace and security.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“In noting, as the Secretary-General has done in his report on the work of the Organization, that official development assistance has been steadily decreasing for a decade and today represents only 0.22 per cent of the gross national product of industrialized countries, we must recognize that this call for solidarity is reaching increasingly deaf ears in international forums. Along the same lines, I would like to stress that the strategies for development debated and agreed among Governments, as well as the decisions adopted at the major United Nations conferences, so far have not been implemented to the desired extent, due to insufficient financing. The mid-term evaluation of the outcome of the Rio Conference on Environment and Development was in this respect quite revealing of the present financial limits for aid to development.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“The United Nations must once again become the natural vehicle of this multilateral cooperation. Unfortunately, we must note that this notion of solidarity, which has become an agreed formula in official declarations, is acted upon less and less in any concrete way. We recall the famous objective â€” which a few decades ago seemed quite modest â€” of establishing the desirable level of official development assistance at 0.7 per cent of gross national product of industrialized countries.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“What, on the other hand, is more and more questionable with the advance of globalization is the idea of a possible divergence of destinies, which could lead some countries â€” the wealthiest â€” to continue their march forward, while leaving the poor ones â€œalong the side of the roadâ€, to quote a popular phrase. The crisis we have been witnessing for a year now should convince us that there is a common destiny which binds together all Governments and all peoples of the planet. The latter, whether they are richer or poorer, are bound by the same necessity â€” that of progressing together along the path of development. The current crisis shows us another vital need â€” that of solidarity, for which multilateral cooperation is the prime instrument.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“The jolts these economies are experiencing weaken the whole system. This risk, which everyone can see is real, should lead us to reconsider our traditional notion of the division between countries of the North and of the South. We should not, of course, ignore here the gulf between North and South or challenge the existence of the distinct forms of poverty that make for starkly different conditions of existence, and even survival, for the most destitute peoples of the industrialized countries and those of the developing countries.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“The crisis born in the most dynamic economies of South-East Asia has gradually reached other regions. Today it seems to threaten all the countries of the planet, from the richest to the poorest. This shows very well the extent to which the phenomena of globalization and interdependence among States and peoples have spread. No country, no matter how prosperous, can now hope to escape a crisis such as the one South-East Asia has suffered and continues to suffer which now threatens other regions. This shows that the fight for development and the struggle against poverty concern all of us. Emergent economies, which are paying the price of a crisis that, over these last months, has thrown tens of millions of people back into poverty and insecurity, are integral parts of a sort of a global economic and financial puzzle.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“Finally, allow me to pay an emphatic tribute to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, who, through his tireless commitment, has been able to restore confidence in our Organization and make it an incomparable instrument for international relations. I wish to hail his efforts to bring peace to the world, and particularly to Africa, and the special attention he gives to the economic and political situation on our continent. I also wish to take this opportunity, on behalf of my delegation, to congratulate him sincerely on his excellent report on the work of the Organization, the clarity and conciseness of which will be very useful in inspiring our debate during the fifty-third session. During the past year, the world has entered a phase of difficulties and uncertainties such as it had not seen for almost a decade.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“I am convinced that your talents as a diplomat, your passion for peace and development and your enthusiasm will 33 serve you well in dealing with the most complex debates and the most tangled webs of procedure. Rest assured that our best wishes will be with you throughout this session, which, we feel sure, under your expert presidency, will be crowned with success. I wish also to pay tribute to your predecessor, H. E. Hennadiy Udovenko of Ukraine, for the remarkable way in which he guided our work in the last session and for the personal touch with which he ensured and improved coordination between the main bodies of the United Nations. We feel certain that in his parliamentary career in his country he will display the same efficiency and skill he showed in this forum.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“Allow me, Mr. President, to offer you my warmest congratulations on your unanimous election to guide the work of the fifty-third session of the General Assembly. The honour bestowed upon you attests to the good relations which your country, Uruguay, has forged over the decades with the nations that make up the international community. The noble task which awaits you, far from being merely prestigious or simply one of protocol, frequently proves to be both delicate and difficult. It involves presiding over the most eminent forum of debate for world affairs during a period in which, in various places, one crisis follows another, such that around the world neither peace nor war prevails.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“Nonetheless, any reform is above all part of a certain logic aimed at achieving an objective. But its success in the final analysis will depend on the quality of the individuals who are going to implement it, and above all on the political will of the States that will be called upon to work together to respect the spirit of compromise that made it possible to arrive at the package. For its part, Côte d’Ivoire is prepared to participate actively with other delegations when the time comes in the constructive consideration of the Secretary-General’s proposals for reform. Their consequences involve all of us.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Lastly, the proposals of the Secretary-General to refocus the work of the General Assembly on high-priority questions and to reduce the duration of its sessions reflect a concern for rationalization that we fully support. We agree with the Secretary-General’s statement that reform is a continuous process and not a one-time event. In fact, this reform is the result of an entire series of reflections that began in the 1970s within and outside the United Nations system to adapt it to the changes that have taken place since 1945. I have in mind the report of the Ford Foundation, the Bertrand report, the work of the Carlsson group and the work of many universities in the United States and in Europe, whose research clarified many aspects of our debates, especially during the work of the working groups on the different aspects of reform.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“25 The new configuration of the Secretariat organizational chart is attractive in its concision and coherence, but above all in its objective of effectiveness. Nonetheless, the comprehensive measures aimed at regrouping 12 entities and administrative units into five services should not result in either a decline in the programme level of operational activities for development or in a decrease in the quality of technical cooperation services due to a reduction of staff. In the same context, the establishment of a Development Group composed mainly of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) should not affect the dynamic nature of their activities in the field.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“It is our expectation that this reform process will lead to the promotion of the economic and social development of less developed Member States, the strengthening of multilateralism and an increase in the United Nations effectiveness and credibility.T o accomplish that, we must see to it that the reform exercise is not confined to an obsessive desire purely and simply to reduce costs. The measures aimed at increasing the Secretary- General’s guidance and management capacity seem to us amply justified. In fact, the presence of a Deputy Secretary-General, a Senior Management Group and a Strategic Planning Unit will provide the Secretary-General with an internal support mechanism that will considerably strengthen his authority and his overall control system- wide.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“The new permanent members should have the same prerogatives as the present permanent members, in particular as regards the right of the veto, which, if not done away with entirely, should be restricted to the conditions set forth in Chapter VII of the Charter. Turning to the reforms proposed by the Secretary- General, I want to express my delegation’s sincere congratulations on the work accomplished. These reforms are the broadest and most profound that we have ever seen. My delegation therefore supports them enthusiastically.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“We believe it is necessary to deal with those questions courageously and responsibly in order to provide our Organization with a viable, sound and solid financial base. Turning to the important question of Security Council reform, our position is that of the African Group as defined at the recent Summit Meeting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) at Harare, which stressed that the new configuration of the Security Council must reflect the realities of today’s world through a geographically equitable representation of all the regions of the world. In that connection, my delegation, while in favour of the admission of Germany and Japan as permanent members of the Security Council, is of the opinion that Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Asia, should also be represented as permanent members of the Security Council.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“With regard to the High-Level Open-ended Working Group on the Financial Situation of the United Nations and the Open-ended Working Group on the reform of the Security Council, we cannot help but feel frustrated that they are apparently bogged down and have not made the expected progress. We are all aware of the crucial importance of the financial situation of the United Nations. The success of the entire reform process depends on a solution to that question. We should like to reaffirm here the need for all Member States to fulfil their obligations under Article 19 of the Charter, namely, to honour their financial obligations towards the United Nations fully, on time and without conditions. Similarly, we express our complete support for the principle of capacity to pay as a basis for the scale of assessments.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“The Agenda for Development, adopted last June by the General Assembly, is an important stage in the dialogue between nations on international cooperation for development. It establishes the consensus framework within which developed and developing countries can work to establish on a more solid basis a renewed and strengthened partnership for development based on mutual advantage. The Open-ended High-Level Working Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System, which has had to deal mainly with the revitalization of the General Assembly and the Secretariat, has produced recommendations that are part of the dynamics of the reforms proposed by the Secretary-General, inter alia, to rationalize the work of the General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies. My delegation is pleased with those positive results.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“We have on the one hand the reforms being set in motion by Member States and on the other the programme of reforms proposed by the Secretary-General in his report (A/51/950) of 14 July 1997. With regard to the reforms being driven by Member States, I would refer to the activities of various open-ended Working Groups of the General Assembly. Having personally been privileged to conduct the consultations that led to the establishment of three of those Groups during my own term of office as President of the forty-ninth session, I am pleased to note the relatively positive results of two of them: the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on An Agenda for Development and the Open-ended High-Level Working Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System. The States participating in those Groups have shown a magnificent spirit of solidarity.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“We welcome the measures recently taken in favour of Uganda, Bolivia and Burkina Faso within the framework of the debt-alleviation Initiative of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Paris Club. I am delighted to learn that my own country, Côte d’Ivoire, along with Mozambique and Guyana, will be the next to benefit from that Initiative. I would also note that my country is involved in a satisfactory dialogue with the London Club with a view to a significant restructuring of our commercial debt. 24 Turning to the question of United Nations reform, which lies at the heart of this session, we must distinguish between two aspects that dovetail to form a single coherent and logical unit.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“That trend concerns us, because official development assistance is essential in supporting our domestic efforts, above all in sectors related to the development of human resources. We therefore urge the donor countries to redouble their efforts to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product. Lastly, with regard to the question of foreign debt, there is now broad agreement that without favourable treatment for the stock of African debt, particularly in the most heavily indebted countries, no economic recovery programme can produce the desired long-term positive effects. We must therefore insist that serious consideration be given to measures in this regard.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“We must be given time to adapt, or be compensated in some other way, if our countries are to participate in international trade to their full potential. We commend the recent United States initiative, “Growth and opportunity in Africa”, which is aimed, inter alia, at promoting the access of African goods to the American market. With regard to the effect of globalization on the volume of official development assistance, we note that for all the enthusiasm for the development of the private sector — development which we welcome, recognizing that private investment is the driving force of economic growth — a trend towards a decline in official development assistance, despite its importance in the fight against poverty in our countries.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“That is why my delegation, along with a number of co-sponsors, intends to submit to this session of the General Assembly, as it did at the summer session of the Economic and Social Council held last July at Geneva, a draft resolution proclaiming the year 2000 as the international year for the culture of peace. My second subject of concern relates to the effects of globalization on African economies with respect to access to foreign markets, the volume of official development assistance and favourable treatment for foreign debt. With regard to access to foreign markets, globalization, carried out in the name of liberalization and competitiveness, has led to the erosion and even the eradication of preferences that allow the goods of our countries to gain access to the markets of developed countries.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“It will be presided over by a judge and made up of personalities and representatives of the leading political parties, along with international observers from the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the United Nations, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union and the Canadian Electoral Committee. All of those elements are contributing to speeding the progress of democracy in Côte d’Ivoire. Lastly, our people remain profoundly committed to the culture of peace, and it is to that commitment that Côte d’Ivoire owes its unquestioned political stability, based on the constancy of social dialogue and on the desire for shared progress that strengthens social unity.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“We must develop the elements of good governance and promote the emergence of responsible society. For its part, Côte d’Ivoire under the leadership of President Henri Konan Bédié, is endeavouring day by day to strengthen democracy and the rule of law by resolute action towards a peaceful democracy. Recent measures in this connection have been announced, including the forthcoming opening of the Government to the opposition, the granting of status to the leaders of the opposition parties represented in Parliament; the creation of a Senate whose President will be acting Head of State in the event of a power vacuum; and the creation of a National Commission for monitoring and arbitration of elections.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“23 The elements of the ANAD peacekeeping force would be coordinated in predetermined tactical or logistical modules in a state of operational readiness on their respective territories and could be sent into action at short notice. These stand-by elements could be regrouped at the request of ECOWAS, the OAU or the United Nations. However effective our rapid-reaction capacity may be, we will have to seek, above all, to strengthen the effective rule of democracy and the rule of law in each of our countries in order to avoid crises turning into armed conflict. Above all, every country must seek to achieve political stability and to promote social progress by establishing reliable democratic institutions based on freedom and justice and which guarantee the protection of the citizen and individual rights.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“More specifically, it seems to us increasingly necessary to have a standing African interposition force. In western Africa, for example, ECOWAS, drawing from the experience of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in the settlement of the Liberian conflict, could envisage the reorganization of this force in order to make it a genuine subregional force. In this context, consultations for the establishment of a peacekeeping force are under way in the framework of the Agreement on Non-Aggression and Assistance in Matters of Defense (ANAD) which includes Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Togo.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“In the same context, we are delighted with the results of the Oslo conference on anti-personnel landmines, and in view of the human disasters that this type of weapon continues to cause in Africa and the world over, we urge all States to adhere to the results and respect the terms. My delegation believes that the present state of our continent requires a concerted policy of international security and implementation of preventive strategies, and Côte d’Ivoire intends to be actively involved. This is why, in defining recently new missions for Côte d’Ivoire’s armed forces, President Henri Konan Bédié specified that they can henceforth participate in peacekeeping operations and that they stand ready to carry out possible protection and security missions which might be conferred upon them by the international community.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“While we welcome the recent measures taken by UNITA in response to the Council’s appeal, we hope that it will persevere in that direction in order to meet all its obligations pursuant to the Lusaka Protocol. Finally, in respect of the question of Western Sahara, we applaud the progress made during the series of meetings under the auspices of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Western Sahara, Mr. James Baker III, with a view to holding a referendum on self-determination. Given the renewed upsurge of instability and conflict in many parts of Africa, we fervently appeal to the United Nations to organize a regional conference in collaboration with the OAU and ECOWAS to deal with the illicit circulation of small arms in the West African subregion, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 51/45.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“In the Central African Republic, we welcome the role of the Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements (MISAB), which has helped stabilize the situation. In respect of the crisis in the Comoros, we urgently appeal to all parties to give priority to dialogue and to respond favourably to the OAU initiative with a view to holding a conference in Addis Ababa to find a solution. We invite the international community to support the efforts of the OAU and to give the Comoros all the economic and financial assistance it needs to confront the difficulties it is facing, which are the root cause of the crisis. With regard to Angola, we take note of the recent Security Council resolution 1130 (1997), which was adopted unanimously.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Once constitutional order is restored, Côte d’Ivoire is prepared to organize, together with the other guarantors of this agreement and the parties concerned, a conference aimed at reactivating the many organs of that agreement in order to find a lasting solution to this crisis. In Central Africa, we remain profoundly concerned by the fratricidal battles now taking place in the Congo. In this respect, we wish to express our sincere appreciation to Mr. Omar Bongo, President of the Gabonese Republic, for his patient and courageous mediation in the inter-Congolese conflict. While urging him to continue his noble efforts, we regret the deterioration of the situation and above all the fact that no cease-fire has been accepted by the warring parties, which has prevented the establishment of an African interposition force.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Therefore, the heads of State, during the last ECOWAS summit, in Abuja on 28 and 29 August 1997, were obliged to take a certain number of measures which we hope will be endorsed by the Security Council to allow the Committee of Five to resume, with the complete support of the international community, new negotiations for a return to constitutional order in Sierra Leone, a country whose instability remains a serious threat to the fledgling Liberian democracy and the entire subregion. In the view of the OAU, ECOWAS and the Security Council, the Abidjan peace agreement of 30 November 1996, signed by President Kabbah and the leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Mr. Foday Sankoh, remains the best framework for finding a definitive solution to the crisis in Sierra Leone.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“The thirty-third meeting of heads of State and Government of the OAU, held in Harare from 2 to 4 June 1997, by its decision 356 also condemned the coup d’état, as did the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Presidents of the Security Council on 27 May, 11 July and 6 August 1997, who all demanded the immediate and unconditional restoration of constitutional order. 22 Unfortunately, the negotiations initiated by the group of five States mandated by ECOWAS with the representatives of the junta in power in Freetown have so far not succeeded in achieving the objectives of the international community.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Taylor as President of the Republic on 19 July 1997 in elections that the OAU and the United Nations recognized as just and democratic. In the context of the meeting to support the reconstruction of Liberia which will take place tomorrow, I would like to make an urgent appeal to donor countries and international and non-governmental organizations to be generous, because a reconstructed and prosperous Liberia can only benefit our entire subregion. While we are delighted at the positive development of the situation in Liberia, a military coup d’état on 25 May 1997 put an end to the constitutional order in Sierra Leone by overthrowing a democratically elected President, Mr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Côte d’Ivoire immediately condemned the coup d’état, which belongs to a bygone era.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“To this end, it established legal instruments at the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit in Cairo in 1993, in the form of the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution. If this venture is going to work Africa needs above all the support of the international community in the framework of a partnership with the United Nations, in accordance with Chapter VIII of the Charter. Thus in Liberia, at the end of a seven-year fratricidal war which devastated that fraternal country and caused enormous damage to neighbouring countries such as Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire that had to deal with massive flows of refugees and displaced persons, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was able to broker a peace process which led to the election of Mr. Charles G.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“But before expressing my delegation’s observations on the Secretary-General’s proposals for reform, I should like to share some of our major concerns, which I believe must be taken into account if the continent to which my country belongs is to experience real development commensurate with its immense potential. I wish to speak about conflict management in Africa and international cooperation for the economic and social development of Africa. One cannot fail to note that over 60 per cent of the agenda of the Security Council is devoted to situations in Africa, and that of the 48 least developed countries, 35 are in Africa. In respect of conflicts in Africa, our continent has taken charge of its own destiny.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Today, regardless of what our assessment of the work of the United Nations may be, it is necessary to recognize that it remains a unique and irreplaceable tool for dialogue among nations at the service of international peace and security. Clearly, it is unanimously held that the United Nations is useful and that it must exist; with equal unanimity we call for its revitalization. The question of the reform of the United Nations is thus at the heart of this session, which strikingly demonstrates how necessary and urgent it is. The Secretary-General rightly proclaimed this session the session of reform. Adapting the United Nations to make it better able to enter the next millennium seems to be the great challenge of the reform to which we all aspire.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“In less than a year he has been able to instil our Organization with a new dynamism through actions that bear witness to his firm will to strengthen the effectiveness and credibility of the United Nations and to improve its operations in facing the many complex demands of the world at the dawn of a new millennium. We assure him of the support of the delegation of Côte d’Ivoire in his noble and exhilarating task. I also take this opportunity to extend my warm congratulations to Mrs. Mary Robinson on her appointment to the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. We consider her strong personality to be a guarantee of success in the delicate and important mission with which she has been entrusted. We assure her of our complete support in the exercise of her new functions.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“It is therefore a pleasure for me, on behalf of the delegation of Côte d’Ivoire, to address to him and to the other members of the Bureau our sincere congratulations and to assure him of our full support in the accomplishment of his mission. 21 I also extend my heartfelt thanks to his predecessor, Ambassador Razali Ismail, for his remarkable efforts to give decisive impetus to the process of the reform of our Organization. Finally, I should like to extend my warmest congratulations to Mr. Kofi Annan, a worthy son of Africa, on his illustrious election as Secretary-General of the United Nations, and I pay heartfelt tribute to him for the great competence that he has unfailingly demonstrated at the head of the United Nations.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“The illustrious election of the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations at its fifty- second session is not only a well-deserved tribute to his country, Ukraine, in recognition of its important role on the international scene, but an acknowledgement of his own human and professional qualities and, above all, his rich experience in international relations and in the United Nations system. Furthermore, as his former colleague when I was Permanent Representative of my own country here for many years, I am personally delighted at this well-deserved demonstration of the confidence the international community has in him.”
1997-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 52 (1997)
“Time is running out, and we must move quickly from speeches, promises and good intentions to concrete action. The adoption of the Agenda for Development ought, therefore, to be an opportunity for re-thinking the philosophy underlying development assistance, its mechanisms and its modalities, so that socio- economic activities can be placed at the centre of the work of the United Nations.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“This policy enabled us to achieve a 7-per-cent growth rate 7 in 1995, and suggests that we can achieve double-digit growth in 1998, which is the goal of President Henri Konan-Bédié, whose plan is to make Côte d’Ivoire a truly industrialized nation. Along with efforts to win the fight for development, African countries have also committed themselves to democratization, as can be seen, inter alia, in the organization of multi-party elections, the establishment of the rule of law and the emergence of a responsible civil society. Backed up by true legitimacy, political leaders are about to succeed in building modern States with the primary purpose of ensuring national cohesion and progress. The advances that we see here and there on our continent must be backed up by more sustained action by the industrialized countries.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“All the specialists agree that Africa has set forth on the path to economic recovery, with an average growth rate last year of 5 per cent. For my own country, Côte d’Ivoire, I can say that after the l980s, which were marked by a difficult economic and financial crisis, the Government adopted a coherent economic policy, backed by thorough sectoral strategies to obtain viable, strong, self-sustaining growth. Stabilization and adjustment programmes begun in 1993 enabled the Côte d’Ivoire to meet the conditions in 1994 for a recovery with greater diversification in our economy, greater weight being given to the private sector and careful management of public finances, and a re- centering of State control in the areas of regulation monitoring and in the environment of economic activities.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“We would also place great hope in the commitments made to provide the Secretariat with an appropriate structure and relevant resources to support the United Nations AIDS Programme. I would like to speak more about Africa, as many representatives already have, because the picture painted is often very far from the reality. There is little in common between the usual cliches about the wretched situation in Africa and the velvet revolution which our countries are engaged in carrying out. We have suffered from the scourge of the economic crisis which has spared no continent. We have suffered from the globalization of the economy, in which we have been marginalized. We in Africa are now beginning to reverse this trend.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“In this context, the effort to combat AIDS must be a subject of particular concern because of its devastating world-wide effects, especially in developing countries, where 90 per cent of HIV-positive individuals are located — 60 per cent in Africa alone — but which do not have the resources to deal with this pandemic. On the question of access to medicines, particularly anti- retrovirus agents, it seems unacceptable to us that such preventive medicines are available to only 10 per cent of those suffering from AIDS/HIV. However, also within the context of international cooperation to combat AIDS, we welcome some strong action that has been taken. For example, we welcome the Economic and Social Council resolution making the question of AIDS as one of the topics for its 1997 high- level segment.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“But its credibility also depends on its ability to act firmly in order to fill the increasingly wide gap between the rich and the developing countries. It is high time that development aid found its place in an effort to mobilize, in which the actors, the industrialized countries and the developing countries all get their fair share. One cannot talk simultaneously about the existence of universal values, such as democracy or human rights, and still feel satisfied with a situation in which poverty and the AIDS epidemic are steadily gaining ground, thus exacerbating the divisions within the international community and thwarting national efforts.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“Without this reaffirmation of solidarity, the values on which the international community rests will become rather meaningless. Our Organization must tirelessly continue to seek ways of strengthening this solidarity. We do not see it as much as we would like to, and the frustration of developing countries is growing because of situations in which international cooperation targets are simply disregarded and many promises remain unkept. It is one thing to establish aid programmes and time- frames, but it is another to move ahead and actually do what the international community has committed itself to do. Of course, the United Nations is often judged by international public opinion on the basis of its ability to consolidate peace.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“In this connection, and with particular regard to the General Assembly, I should say, as I did when I presided over the forty-ninth session of the General Assembly, that this body, within the context of the institutional balances provided for in the Charter, should continue to play its full part in the reform process under way. The General Assembly, because of its unique form of legitimacy, is still the best guarantor of the common interests of the Member States. As this fifty-first session begins, we find ourselves at a crossroads. Last October we resoundingly reaffirmed the irreplaceable nature of the United Nations. Today, showing political will and above all a spirit of solidarity, we must now translate that commitment into action.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“I have already stressed that the Secretariat’s efforts to adapt, carried out through austerity measures, are healthy, but the dividends should be used to strengthen operational activities for development. The other central organs — the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council — must make continued, deeper-going transformations to update their structures, their functioning and their working methods and adapt them to special circumstances that are unlike the post-world-conflict circumstances of 1945.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“With regard to human rights and fundamental freedoms, I would underline the specific, dynamic and publicly visible results of some recent United Nations decisions, such as the establishment of a High Commissioner for Human Rights, the establishment and effective functioning of International Tribunals to prosecute and judge persons accused of serious violations of human rights in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and measures taken, or scheduled to be taken, in combating terrorism and organized crime. For these reasons, I think we can say that the United Nations is now a much more coherent instrument vis-à-vis its objectives, its missions and its strategies. However, we 6 must complete the renewal that is now under way.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“The establishment of new nuclear-weapon-free zones in South-East Asia, the South Pacific and Africa, and measures relating to nuclear safety and security are also positive achievements in this area. In conflict prevention, on the initiative of Canada and the Netherlands excellent progress has been made in developing the rapid-reaction capability of the United Nations to respond to threats to peace and security. Other initiatives from various sources also bear witness to the growing concern over preventing conflicts and acting in advance, particularly in the area of development, so as to create conditions for consolidating social peace in Member States.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)