Qatar

It gives me great pleasure at the outset to extend to you, Mr. President, our congratulations upon your election to the presidency of this sixtieth session of the General Assembly. We wish you every success in discharging your functions. I would also like to extend thanks and appreciation to your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Jean Ping, for his valuable efforts in conducting the work of the Assembly’s fifty-ninth session, especially his efforts to reach a consensus on the final document of the world summit of 2005. I would also like to thank His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, for his tireless efforts to strengthen the role of our international Organization. World leaders who met at United Nations Headquarters to follow up on the outcome of the Millennium Summit and the coordinated and integrated implementation and follow-up of the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the social, economic and related fields have managed to adopt a document that calls for implementing reforms in the United Nations and for taking bolder collective steps to combat poverty, achieve development, establish international security and uphold human rights. The world today is experiencing extremely difficult economic conditions which pose a real threat to the process of social and economic development in the developing countries, especially the least developed countries, and pose a major threat to the development of their peoples. That situation is the result of such factors as a decline in official development assistance; unfair international terms of trade; the imposition of restrictions on the access of their exports to world markets; unfair prices for their commodity exports; a heavy external debt burden; and the adverse effects of globalization. Despite the progress made in many fields of international cooperation, the problems of hunger, poverty and such diseases as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis have taken on horrific dimensions and continue to pose major challenges to the international community. Unless the latter makes concerted efforts to accelerate equitable development in the developing countries, especially the least developed countries, the Millennium Goal of halving poverty by 2015 will remain elusive. The international community, by resolving, at the Millennium Summit, to declare war on poverty by launching an ongoing campaign to make the right to development a reality for all peoples, has made an implicit commitment to creating a social, economic and political environment in the developing countries, especially the least developed countries, that would be more favourable to the translation into concrete reality of the right to development for all of their peoples. That would provide cohesion and equitable social integration for their societies as well as a real opportunity to eradicate poverty, enabling them to enjoy full, productive and gainful employment. The international community also resolved at the Millennium Summit to seek to achieve a fair and just globalization that embraces everyone, in order to spare the developing countries, especially the least developed countries, the danger of being marginalized within the international economy. At the Millennium Summit, world leaders affirmed that international cooperation was the most important factor in making the world a better place to live in. They also affirmed that free trade, liberalization of the economy and interdependence are the best means to accelerate equitable economic development in the developing countries. The international community is at a critical stage of the negotiations related to the Doha Development Agenda. Those negotiations made concrete progress last year in some difficult and controversial areas. Agreement was reached on the launching of negotiations regarding the question of trade concessions, one of the four questions which were left, 38 by agreement, outside the scope of the Doha Programme of Action: investment, competition, trade and environment and trade concessions. However, that agreement by the developed countries was, regrettably, conditional on the non-holding of negotiations on the other three questions. We are looking forward to the achievement of solid, ambitious progress at the sixth World Trade Organization Conference in Hong Kong, and we hope that we will be able to conclude negotiations in 2006. The developing countries have fulfilled their pledges, and we hope that the upcoming negotiations regarding the implementation of the outcome of this summit will translate into reality the global partnership for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals. We hope that the right to development will become a living reality and that the developed countries will honour their pledges, including increasing official development assistance to 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product, and will accelerate the process of forgiving the external debt of all poor countries. We have often stated that peace in the Middle East can be achieved only through the implementation of the resolutions of the Security Council and of the General Assembly. All of those resolutions recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among which is the right to self-determination and to the establishment of their independent State on their national soil, with Al-Quds as its capital; withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights up to the border of 4 June 1967; and full withdrawal from the rest of the Lebanese territories still under occupation. On that basis, the international mediation process produced the road map, which affirms the principle of land for peace and calls for the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories and the establishment of the State of Palestine. The Arab summit, meeting in Beirut in March 2002, endorsed an international initiative calling for the normalization of relations between the Arab States and Israel in return for Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 border. The Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is an important and positive first step, which, we hope, will be followed by similar steps in all the Palestinian territories and the other occupied Arab territories, in accordance with internationally binding resolutions and the relevant initiatives and agreements, in order to bring about stability, security and a comprehensive and just peace for all States and peoples of the region. I cannot fail to mention the difficult conditions experienced by the fraternal Iraqi people. We hope that the new constitution will embody the hopes and aspirations of the Iraqi people and contribute to the establishment of security and stability in the country. We hope also that it will take into consideration the interests of all segments of the Iraqi population, that all the people will feel that they all are part of the established system, and that the unity and the national identity of Iraq will be preserved. Believing as it does in the great importance of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to international peace and security, the State of Qatar has acceded to the Treaty and calls from this rostrum on all States to do so. It also seeks to transform the Middle East region into a zone that is totally free from all kinds of weapons of mass destruction. My country has unambiguously condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. It has also supported all Security Council resolutions related to the question of terrorism, and it has cooperated with the international community in implementing those agreements. However, we feel that success in eradicating that phenomenon requires that we deal with its underlying causes, including the social, economic and political aspects that provide a fertile breeding ground for terrorism. We also support the idea of convening an international conference on terrorism and of drawing up an international strategy to combat it. In that context, we feel that defining terrorism and clearly distinguishing it from the struggle waged by peoples in exercise of their legitimate right to defend their freedom and enjoy self-determination must be the most important norm and enjoy international consensus. This is a right that is enshrined in all international norms and practices. Our world today more than ever needs a comprehensive authority and frame of reference that is qualified to perform its role as an international instrument; one that seeks to achieve international cooperation in resolving international problems of a social and economic nature, as well as consolidating security and stability, maintaining international peace, 39 and enhancing respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all. Moreover, we must earnestly seek to respect this global diversity, protect it and allow it to prosper. Hence, we feel that the proposal to establish a standing Human Rights Council, with a smaller membership, to be elected by a two-thirds majority only, merits further study in serious intergovernmental negotiations, with a view to achieving consensus on the establishment of the proposed Council, its membership, its mandate, and the organ destined to be its parent body, which we hope will be the General Assembly. We must commit ourselves to human rights, as enshrined in the United Nations Charter, and we must fully comply with internationally recognized human rights standards. The question of expanding the Security Council and the concept of collective security require further study and intergovernmental negotiations so as to arrive at a consensus on these important questions. In this context, we support the Secretary-General on the question of reforming the United Nations Secretariat for the reasons indicated in his report entitled “In Larger Freedom”. However, we feel that any proposals to reform the Secretariat are extremely important and must be the subject of careful study, discussion and negotiation by the General Assembly.