YouSaid · the spoken record

Abdoulaye Wade

lines on the record: 165
first: 2003-09-24
most recent: 2011-09-24
sittings or episodes: 8
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

“As President of the African Non-Petroleum Producers Association, I solemnly request that all of the Forum’s initiatives and participants pursue our common goal of promoting alternative energy sources. As we pursue economic and social development in the South, African countries in particular continue to face insurmountable obstacles, such as agricultural subsidies in developed countries. We have already talked about that subject enough. Paradoxically, at the same time that our countries are being forced to open their markets in the name of free trade, developed countries are subsidizing their own products, so we are no longer able to export our products to the developed world. As I said at the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Africa is not poor.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We have built 250 of these basins; we are walking the walk. The African countries meeting in Bamako have decided to implement this programme, from Dakar to Djibouti, to create such a “wall” to stop the encroaching desert. At Senegal’s initiative, non-oil-producing countries have now established an association that we call the Green OPEC, with the aim of protecting our interests. We call on the international community to take on the excess costs with which we have been burdened owing to increases in the price of oil. We also want to turn Africa towards producing biofuels. For this reason, I welcome the launch, here in New York on 2 March 2007, of the International Biofuels Forum.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Coastal erosion, from Morocco to Mauritania to Senegal, is a threat which the international community must take very seriously. In the Sahel region, we Africans are also planting what we call the great green wall, 7,000 kilometres long by 150 kilometres wide from Dakar to Djibouti. We have not waited; each of us in our own country has begun to create the “wall”. The European Union and France, as Mr. Sarkozy has said, are ready to provide us with loans to help with the wall in order to stop the encroaching Sahel and the process of desertification. We have also tried to take advantage of the billions of tons of water that, each year during the rainy season, fall on the Sahel and are absorbed by the earth or flow into the sea. In Senegal we have therefore built holding basins in the most low-lying areas, where runoff water accumulates.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We are also gradually establishing a policy of combating coastal erosion. On the Atlantic coast, at the high-tide line, we are building a reinforced concrete wall on the granite or clayey base of the continental shelf, 2.5 to 3 metres deep by 40 centimetres thick, to slow the advance of the sea. Experts say that the wall will stop the sea’s advance for 50 to 100 years. We have done this on an experimental basis, since it is very expensive. The wall costs $2,000 per metre. We have constructed 2 kilometres as an example, to show that it is possible, because we consider it the ultimate weapon. We are also launching a project for ports leading into free zones, alternating with tourist complexes, along the Atlantic coast; that is also a way of stopping the advance of the sea.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We have, with greater or lesser awareness, destroyed this Earth which God has lent to us. We must beseech his forgiveness. Combating climate change demands innovative solutions, which must take into account the special situation of countries that are not significant polluters but which nevertheless suffer from the serious consequences of this phenomenon of the modern age. Senegal is aware of its responsibility to join the struggle against pollution. Therefore, in exploiting our mineral resources, we take particular care to restore the ecosystem and to use non-polluting practices and technologies. We have also prohibited the importation of used cars more than five years old and of household appliances that pollute. As we have already mentioned, we do not want Africa to be a dumping ground for outdated technology from Europe or elsewhere.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“That is why I would now solemnly warn against horrendous revisionist arguments that attempt in vain to falsify history. Colonialism in its design and exclusive logic of domination, exploitation and enslavement cannot boast of any civilizing mission or any positive fallout, because by its very nature it is a negation of the human condition. We must remain vigilant and mobilized. In Senegal we say yes, we will forgive, but we will not forget or agree to manipulation. The high-level discussion we held on 24 September on the serious issue of climate change confirms once again the terrible threat that is hanging over our planet. I therefore welcome the initiative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, to put this crucial issue at the very heart of our agenda. We have all seen the damage done. Mankind has not been wise.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Senegal welcomes Mr. Kerim’s election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session. We congratulate him and will support him as he carries out his important responsibilities. His predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of the Kingdom of Bahrain, a country which is a friend to Senegal, deserves our tribute and appreciation for her outstanding contribution, throughout her term of office, to the revitalization of the General Assembly. I also would like to take a moment to acknowledge my brothers and sisters in the diaspora, who this year commemorated the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. That shameful and repugnant trade constituted the worst of attacks on the dignity of the human person, as did its continuation, colonization.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“As Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Senegal will continue to ensure that the Organization continues its efforts towards a negotiated, just and lasting solution to the Middle East conflict so that all of the suffering peoples of the region can finally live in peaceful coexistence. With regard to Iran, the Assembly is aware of my position. There should be dialogue without prior conditions, meaning that the protagonists should sit down around a negotiating table. Senegal has always acted in the service of peace and continues to do so more than ever before at a time when we face such major challenges.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“History teaches us that war, despite its long list of innocent victims and the toll it takes on civilian infrastructure — bitter experiences recently relived by the peoples of Lebanon and Palestine — will never overcome a people’s will if it aspires to take its rightful place in the community of free nations. The right to freedom and independence is part of the destiny of peoples. Its attainment can be delayed by historic circumstances, but destiny will always be achieved. It is better to understand this in time than to regret it too late.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“These include the establishment of the Human Rights Council and the Peacebuilding Commission, which I hope will allow for enhanced promotion of human rights and more effective management of post-conflict periods. As for Security Council reform, Senegal deplores the deadlock in the negotiations, which is to the detriment of regions such as ours. Africa, while it is the focal point of the Council’s agenda, does not have a single permanent seat. That is a historical injustice which must be corrected as soon as possible by granting Africa a seat, with the right to veto, apart from the overall reform package. The Palestinian people, too, are victims of injustice, depriving them of a legitimate right to a viable, free and independent State.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The purpose of these agreements is to regulate migratory flows to developed countries, thereby combating illegal migration. The smugglers, largely responsible for this, are constantly being hunted down and punished in accordance with the law. Along with the dismantling of clandestine networks, we have launched our Return to Agriculture programme, through which we are setting up rural farms in order to enable our young people to engage in modern agriculture and animal husbandry. This will give them reasons to stay at home and avoid tragic ventures which often end at the bottom of the sea or in the desert. That is how we implement the principle we have adopted in Senegal: zero illegal emigration. The year 2006 marks a decisive turning point in the history of the United Nations, with reforms under way to adapt to changing world realities.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The General Assembly’s recent High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development shows the extent to which we must continue our joint efforts to address an extremely relevant and complex problem which will be with us for a long time to come. International migration has always been a part of the history of peoples. What is new is the current scope and form of illegal immigration. For a wide variety of reasons, with North-South imbalances not the least of them, illegal migration necessitates an approach of joint partnership instead of unilateral solutions. In Senegal, we have already decided to resolutely combat this phenomenon by strengthening the surveillance of our coasts with the support of our European partners. We have already signed an agreement with Spain, and we shall sign a similar agreement with France next week.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I take this opportunity also to recall that the Digital Solidarity Fund is supported exclusively through voluntary public and private contributions, the amount of which is up to member States, cities or local governments. We would suggest that countries commit themselves to the so-called Geneva Principle, which consists of, including in calls for bids in the digital technology field, a contribution to the Fund of 1 per cent of the value of the goods and services linked to information and communications technology. Fund resources are managed in strict transparency through the Foundation Council with a tripartite membership: local authorities, private enterprise and civil society.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“With regard to the Digital Solidarity Fund, which I proposed in December 2003 at the World Summit in the Information Society, as information technology and communications coordinator of The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), I am pleased to report that we have had satisfactory results. Since being launched in March 2005 with the support of nearly all Members of the United Nations, the Fund has gained the formal support of the People’s Republic of 06-53005 6 China. I would like warmly to thank the Chinese authorities for their support, which surely bolsters the Fund’s universal nature. I request all States that have not yet done so to formalize their previously voiced commitment to the Fund by sending a letter to the Executive Secretary of the Fund in Geneva. I would recall that cities too can become members.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“We hope that, whatever the outcome of the second round of presidential elections on 30 October, a reconciled Congolese people will work in the spirit of unity to utilize the tremendous potential of their country for peace, national unity and economic and social progress. To my Ivorian brothers and sisters I would like to solemnly state that the need for a Côte d’Ivoire, healed of its wounds for good, has become most urgent — as much for themselves as for all of us in the subregion. I would thus urge Ivorian leaders of all ideologies to show that they can get beyond their differences to foster a return to lasting peace, more in accordance with the history of that brother country and with its proper destiny within the West African family and within our continent.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“In the Sudan, we hope and work for the expansion of the camp of peace, so that those protagonists who have thus far been left out of the peace process can sign the Abuja Agreement for a settlement of the Darfur crisis. Yesterday, here in New York, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union addressed the issue of Darfur and emphasized that Africa must offer more efforts, more sacrifices and more commitment, but that it can find a solution only within the framework of close cooperation with the United Nations, for which it must indicate its readiness. Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal welcomes the holding of elections last July.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I would call upon all interested parties to join with us in this new green energy revolution, especially since it respects our environment and is in perfect harmony with the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. Let us be optimistic in thinking that our planet will be a healthier place in the interest of all peoples, thanks to a civilization based on clean energy. Turning to the situation in Africa, Senegal welcomes the progress made in democracy on the continent, as well as the significant progress achieved in the peaceful settlement of disputes. Such positive developments, however, have been thwarted by the persistence of some hotbeds of tension.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“It will then be pointless to expound on the Millennium Development Goals on schooling, universal health care, access to drinking water for all, the fight against unemployment and the eradication of poverty. In Africa, we have decided to take up the challenge by gathering together, on the initiative of Senegal, in the Association of Non-Oil Producing African Countries, in order to promote the development of bio-fuels. This green version of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has already been launched. With its vast cultivatable lands and enormous fresh water resources, Africa has, without a doubt, incomparable advantages in this sphere, and could even aspire to become the world’s premier bio-fuel producer.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The failure of the agriculture negotiations in the Doha round, which is still fresh in our memory, shows how far we have yet to go in order to ensure respect by all for the rules of the game, so that world trade can be equally profitable for the giants of agro-business as for the small-scale cotton growers of Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali, or for the small-scale coffee planters from Uganda, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. We say yes to free trade, but it must be fair and equitable. The dizzying increase in the price of oil and its by-products since 2003 constitutes a new source of concern for non-producer countries. If the current trend continues, many countries will see their years of economic and social development efforts wiped out by the cost of oil.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“In reality, the first question we should be asking ourselves, and which we do ask in Africa, 5 06-53005 regards the evaluation of the debt: to take a look at the overindebtedness of Africa, to see exactly how much we owe, because it turns out that some countries are paying more than they owe. This is why I have long been advocating an x-ray of African debt to see how our countries have ended up in a situation whereby they devote much of their export earnings to paying off debt, contracted sometimes in dubious circumstances, to the detriment of their economic and social development programmes. The vicious circle of debt, compounded by unfair imbalances in international trade owing to agricultural subsidies in wealthy industrialized countries, has been particularly harmful for our farmers.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“To be sure, since that time, some praiseworthy initiatives have occurred along the way, especially with measures to erase the multilateral debt of 18 least developed countries (LDCs) and to establish a levy on air tickets as a source of financing for development. I salute the efforts made by President Jacques Chirac of France and by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil for their promotion of this innovative mechanism to mobilize resources. The problem of debt, however, in particular the debt of our continent, remains a hindrance to our development.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I would also like to convey to the Secretary- General a fraternal message of my greatest appreciation and gratitude for the ability and effectiveness with which he has always acted, enabling our Organization to better adapt to the requirements of the new millennium. At a time when he is preparing to leave his high post after 10 years of loyal and good service, it is with a sincere sense of pride that I say to him as an African compatriot, “Mr. Secretary-General, mission accomplished”. Last year, in this very Hall, we renewed our commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Senegal and the Kingdom of Bahrain have had cordial relations of friendship, which have been enhanced and strengthened by reciprocal confidence and esteem. I am therefore pleased that Ms. Haya Rashed al-Khalifa is presiding over the General Assembly at its sixty-first session, during a key time in the history of our organization. Her election was an act of faith in the ideals of the United Nations and a message of hope for peoples who dream of a fairer, more equitable and more welcoming world for all. I offer her my warmest congratulations and assure her of the full cooperation of the Senegalese delegation as she carries out her high responsibilities in the service of the international community.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“That is why I suggested that we hold an international conference in Dakar on an Islamic-Christian dialogue, whose objectives would be to help us better understand one another, to strengthen peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians and to promote a dialogue among cultures. Thus, by hosting the eleventh Islamic Summit in 2006, Senegal, which has a majority Muslim population living in perfect harmony with their Christian brothers, will continue its action to promote fruitful inter-religious dialogue focused on the sacrosanct principle of respect for the cultural and religious identities of all peoples.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“We are pleased that the Secretary-General has established a task force on financing the information society under the decision adopted at Geneva. Providing Africa with the hardware and other computer technology it needs is the only way to give us access to the knowledge that accelerates development and, which, in turn, will help to close the digital divide. 4 As members can see, the challenges we face are enormous, numerous and pressing. The time has come to strengthen the foundations of international cooperation and, once and for all, to exorcize the risk of social bipolarization throughout the world where affluence rubs elbows with the most extreme poverty and where the values of solidarity and respect for the sacredness of human life become vain words.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“In December 2003 in Geneva, the Secretary-General convened The World Summit on the Information Society. On that occasion, Africa proposed, through myself, the idea of digital solidarity among peoples and the establishment of a digital solidarity fund based on volunteer efforts and not funded by any mandatory tax. That idea was received with unanimous enthusiasm by developing countries — Africa, Asia, Brazil, the Middle East — and by a developed country: France. Subsequently, the inaugural congress for the United Cities and Local Governments organization was held in Paris in May 2004; participants officially announced their participation in the digital solidarity fund. To the cities already mentioned elsewhere, I could add Rome, Paris, Lille and Bilbao.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“And that is why I say that I am pleased to see the progress we have made on NEPAD financing since the Group of Eight (G-8) meeting in Kananaskis, Canada. Although insufficiently highlighted, efforts for African development made under NEPAD and the support actions of the international community — particularly those taken by the G-8 and the United Nations system — are still in evidence, which pleases me. We have made basically two proposals. The first has to do with the convening in Senegal’s capital of an agricultural forum, on the model of the Davos economic forum, for the purpose, inter alia, of closing the world agricultural gap. It will be held in February 2005 in Dakar. The ever-growing digital divide separates the developed countries from the developing countries.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The continent has dedicated itself to resolution of this problem: next year we will hold a major summit preceded by a technical meeting on ending Africa’s indebtedness. The Extraordinary Summit of the African Union on Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa, just held in Ouagadougou on 8 and 9 September, illustrates our continent’s determination to continue to devote special attention to the fight against unemployment, which is a key priority for development. A successful outcome — in keeping with the outcomes of the various summits which have given direction to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) — requires the international community to make a stronger commitment, alongside Africa, to help materialize this important partnership programme.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Yet we all see and are concerned that, as has been emphasized by the Secretary-General and others, in spite of the relative improvement in the economic situation in Africa since 1995, the chances of our continent achieving the Millennium Development Goals are still rather low given the lack of progress to date. Implementation of those Goals is particularly at risk even at a time when the world economy is progressing in an encouraging way: Africa continues, mainly because of the export subsidies of developed countries, to be marginalized in world trade. It is a truism to say that those subsidies help to impoverish African producer countries and increase unemployment. Another problem is the thorny issue of African debt.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“This means that we have a shared responsibility to strengthen and mobilize the international community against locusts and, if we succeed in saving the crops, to completely eliminate them, starting at their source. The task at hand in this area should not make us lose sight of the huge field of work that remains to be tackled, namely combating the poverty that strikes millions of people throughout the world, in particular in the least developed countries so that we can achieve the Millennium Development Goals in terms of agriculture. I must say here that I am satisfied with the outcome of the meeting that was held on the initiative of President Lula, the President of Brazil.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“3 Whatever the case may be, Senegal has begun to work on this issue, and today we are succeeding in containing this danger. Together with neighbouring countries, the countries bordering the Sahel, we are trying to launch an extensive campaign for the final elimination of these locusts. In this regard, we note with great satisfaction the involvement of African countries, including Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Libya and Egypt in this issue. Today, our people remain concerned about the possible migration of these locusts, carried by the wind, to other areas in the region, in particular to the Maghreb. We are also pleased to announce that we have received substantial support by the World Bank, among other international organizations.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“During this second trimester of 2004, the North and West parts of Africa have witnessed the invasion of swarms of locusts, the dreaded scourge which has infested large agricultural areas in the region of the Sahel and some North African countries. This threat, which has already destroyed entire civilizations, is now compromising the lives of tens of millions of people right before harvest time. At the very beginning, I personally sounded the alarm, speaking to the international community in Rome last March. Despite another appeal by the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), assistance was late in coming and is only now under way, but in ways that are not very effective.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“I would like to speak about AIDS. In accordance with the declaration that we adopted in 2001, we must act more quickly and more vigorously in critical areas such as prevention and access to antiretroviral treatments if we really do wish to stop this disease and its devastating effects. Since antiretroviral medication is now free for all those who are afflicted, thanks to our tenacity, Senegal has remained a success story in combating AIDS. Another seemingly ignored ill is poliomyelitis, which we have completely eliminated in Senegal. However, this scourge remains as serious as ever in the rest of Africa.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“This initiative, of course, must be paired with States’ increased adherence to treaties and protocols in this key area. It is for this purpose that the African Union adopted last July an additional protocol to the Organization of African Unity’s Algiers Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism, proposed by Senegal on 17 October 2001 at the African conference on terrorism, held in Dakar. This collective approach should also be adopted to tackle the difficult problem of small arms and light weapons. Senegal supports making the moratorium on the importation, exportation and production of small arms and light weapons of the Economic Community of West African States into a convention in West Africa, since these arms are truly weapons of mass destruction in our subregion. There are other destructive scourges.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“This deep commitment to mankind motivated my decision to submit draft legislation to the Senegalese national assembly to abolish capital punishment in Senegal. Almost 60 years after the establishment of our Organization, our world, which is so fragile, still sees longstanding dangers such as nuclear proliferation and the emergence of new dangers such as terrorism and AIDS, which represent a serious threat to international peace and security. I must remind Members here of the need to do more to strengthen, under the leadership of the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee, the mechanisms that already exist for cooperation and technical assistance in order to provide those countries who so wish human, technical and adequate financial resources to combat terrorism.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“This initiative, which has already been endorsed by the Non-Aligned Movement and the African Union, will provide an opportunity to mobilize the international community around the effective implementation of the road map. In awarding me yesterday the 2004 Human Rights Award, the International League for Human Rights in fact honoured, through Senegal’s head of State, all of the Senegalese people, a people attached to freedom and to the respect of human dignity. My Government will continue to work to promote and protect human rights, the rule of law and good public and private governance. In talking about human rights, I am naturally thinking of the fundamental rights of women, children, disabled persons, seniors and all vulnerable people.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“For our part, Senegal, which chairs the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, will continue, with its people, to unfailingly support the Palestinian people, battered by this crisis that has lasted far too long. As a contribution to the quest for peace, I suggested that we conduct a special meeting, outside our regular work, on the situation in Palestine aimed at enhancing the work launched by the Quartet and in the spirit of the road map, in order to establish by 2005 a sovereign and viable Palestinian State, living side by side with the State of Israel, within safe and internationally recognized borders guaranteed for the two States.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The defiant attitude of the occupying Power vis-à-vis the international community, recently illustrated by the Israeli authorities’ refusal to abide by the opinion of the International Court of Justice requiring Israel to immediately stop the illegal building 2 of the separation wall in Palestinian territory, imperils the foundations of international legality. I solemnly appeal to the international community and, in particular, to the members of the Quartet, asking them to persevere in their efforts for an immediate resumption of dialogue, so that we may achieve a fair, equitable and lasting solution to this disagreement. The peoples of Palestine and Israel, needless to recall, are condemned by history and geography to live together.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“As I extol universality, I feel it is unfair that the Republic of China on Taiwan, with its 23 million inhabitants, its major democratic system and its impressive economic vitality, would still be sidelined from the work of the United Nations, whose Charter does rightly enshrine the essential principles of justice and universality. This denial of justice also affects the valiant people of Palestine, who, under the legitimate authority of President Yasser Arafat, have been deprived of its fundamental right to sovereignty and ongoing existence.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“This vision should lead us to re- invigorate the values of multilateralism and universality that are epitomized by our Organization. In other words, the world needs now, more than ever, a United Nations that is strong and strengthened in its legitimacy. We welcome, therefore, the decision of the United Nations Secretary-General to establish a panel of eminent persons on threats, challenges and change, whose conclusions will be presented next December. In this respect, we recall the African position on reform of the Security Council, which advocates among other things, the assignment to Africa of at least two permanent seats and two extra non-permanent seats. Africa would choose the recipients of those seats according to a process that has yet to be determined.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The delegation of Senegal would like to congratulate you very warmly, Mr. President, on your election to the presidency of the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly. I assure you of our full support as you carry out your noble work. I also wish to extend my congratulations and encouragement to all the members of the Bureau. I would also like to recognize the commitment of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose tireless efforts to make the United Nations a strong, working and credible Organization reflects his faith in the ideals of peace, development and concord among peoples. We must now continue to breathe life into these ideals, so that current and future generations will have a peaceful and safe world, a world without absurd hatred or gratuitous violence.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“I take this occasion to voice my support for the position expressed by President Bush against the heinous sex trade and other forms of slavery. Instead of vague, futile statements of intention, let us all agree to a realistic platform and guarantee that specific measures are taken. In that regard, we can justly raise questions on the follow-up to commitments undertaken at the Monterrey International Conference on Financing for Development. Concerning all these issues vital to humanity's survival, the United Nations must, in accordance with the Charter, ensure that its mission remain clearly in sight, a mission that is a focal point at which our efforts towards humanity's common goals are harmonized. I strongly believe that this need corresponds to the legitimate aspirations of all the peoples whom we represent here.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“He therefore calls for the implementation of reform, as spelled out in the Millennium Declaration. Let us explore together the guidelines that were established by the Secretary-General. Let us make way for a culture of peace and dialogue among civilizations, which bears the fertile seeds for consensus, understanding and peaceful coexistence. Let us resist the temptation of isolationism and rule of force, for as Jean-Jacques Rousseau rightly said in The Social Contract': The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into law, and obedience into duty.' Let us ensure that, however diverse we may be, the universal values of 14 peace, freedom, democracy and respect for human rights will always be safeguarded.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“On a different order, the African Peer Review Mechanism has been launched, and colleagues before me have already spoken about it. Together with our partners, we are ready to fulfil the goals of NEPAD. In a few days, some African heads of State will be in Tokyo to establish cooperative ties between Japan and Africa through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development. In a report on the state of the international community, the Secretary-General made an analysis that sounded alarm bells: the world does not seem to be sharing much anymore. The collective security machinery established by the Charter is already threatened. The United Nations system inherited from the Second World War no longer sufficiently meets the challenges of the twenty-first century.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Today NEPAD has designated 14,000 kilometres of roads and just as many kilometres of railways to be laid, and this is one of our top priorities. In the area of new information and communications technology, fibre optics now link Europe and the United States to Dakar, Pretoria and Kuala Lumpur, with connections extending inside the continent. Those specific examples fully show our determination to make NEPAD a reality rather than a good intention or unrealistic plan. On a continent where everything still needs to be built, it is not a matter of the need to identify opportunities but rather to seize them. On the whole, we are committed to creating an environment in which there will be a clear interest in investment and secure business operations.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“For two years now, our continent has been carrying out a quiet revolution to firmly take its destiny in its own hands against the background of key factors such as peace, stability, good governance in the public and private sectors and regional cooperation. Specific plans have been developed and are available to all our partners. We have been learning as we go along, by creating a gas pipeline in West Africa, for example, which will supply along 600 kilometres 3,640,000 cubic metres of gas starting from Nigeria to Benin, Ghana and Togo. The electricity grids in southern African that brings together the national electricity companies of 12 countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is another example of Africa's will to pool our resources.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“The challenges of globalization and interdependence that it entails forces us to devise new approaches that go beyond the obsolete assistance policies to create the conditions for a new kind of partnership, which alone is capable of breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. Senegal reiterates its commitment to implementing the 2001-2010 Brussels Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries and renews its support for the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, whose activities deserve to be strengthened by the donor community in the framework of a trust fund established for that purpose. The vision put forward by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is also relevant to the new kind of partnership just mentioned.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“In that context, I have taken the initiative of proposing to convene, every two years in Senegal, an agricultural Davos' an agricultural Dakar, rather to encourage thinking on a credible alternative to the current system. It is indeed in no one's interest for the present imbalances to persist, because they promote poverty, favour unemployment and destitution, and fuel the feelings of exclusion and despair that lead to extremism of all types. Once again, for us it is a question of calling not for assistance, but for the implementation of a minimum level of fairness in trade free trade, but fair trade.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“There is something paradoxical in this system based on a liberal philosophy, but in which the rich countries spend over $1 billion a day in various subsidies for their own agricultural sectors. This ruinous practice leads to the freefall of the prices of our peasants' agricultural 13 commodities and threatens millions of jobs and the lives of over 2 billion human beings. The hypothetical mechanism of limiting the perverse effects of subsidies can in no way be a credible solution to the enormous damage done to the developing countries. I believe that the time has come radically to rethink the mechanisms of international trade in order to break away from this implacable logic of injustice and inequity.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Today, they no longer agonize over the question of who was the aggressor and who the aggressed, or of who was the occupier and who the occupied. All such issues have today been confined to history. All the parties have decided to join efforts in a cooperative project: the European Union. I would ask, therefore: Can we not dream of a post-war period in which Israel and Palestine can embark on real cooperation to the benefit of their two peoples? As Members know, the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization ended in acknowledged failure just a few days ago in Cancun. Beyond that specific event, we need to reflect more in depth on the international trading system.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)