Tunisia

At the outset, I wish to congratulate Mr. Csaba Korosi and his friendly country Hungary on presiding over the seventy-seventh session of the General Assembly, and offer him Tunisia’s support for the guidelines he has outlined. “Solidarity, sustainability and science” are indeed basic components of the solutions we are looking for. I also extend deep appreciation to Mr. Abdulla Shahid for his capable management of the work of the previous session of the General Assembly, against the backdrop of grave challenges whose repercussions are still being felt and unfortunately foretell further difficulties. Thanks are due to Mr. Antonio Guterres for his ongoing efforts to strengthen the role of our Organization and to ensure an effective response to our challenges and to contain their impacts, especially through the implementation of Our Common Agenda (A/75/982). That Agenda, with all its contents, provides a ray of hope for the international community at a time of concerns about our capacity to overcome the consequences of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic at the health, economic and humanitarian levels. We have found in the Agenda and in other United Nations references that we have supported and engaged in — such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — a path towards common solutions within a framework of solidarity and parity so that no one is left behind. Unfortunately, however, many peoples today are threatened to be left behind as a result of international financial structural imbalances and limited international solidarity amid exacerbated risks and threats of disputes, conflicts, political crises and unprecedented natural disasters due to climate change, in addition to the terrible flows of irregular migration and the increase in the number of refugees, not to mention the millions of people threatened by famine, malnutrition and extreme poverty. At a time when we were trying to overcome the repercussions of COVID-19 and its devastating effects, which will be felt for many years to come, the Russian- Ukrainian crisis has returned us to a state of uncertainty. Indeed, the world today is facing a severe food and energy crisis as a result of the disruption of production and supply chains, shortages of basic materials, unprecedented high food prices, the deterioration of purchasing power, and high rates of inflation, debt and debt servicing. Today we are indeed facing a defining moment in our history and common destiny that calls on all of us to find radical and transformative solutions that will allow our peoples to overcome the current circumstances, enhance our resilience and build the sustainability we hope for. Our peoples are watching us at this session and wondering whether the international community is truly capable of implementing transformative solutions and whether we have the political will to address the global crises that are escalating and accumulating. At each session, new issues are added to the old ones, so are we simply postponing today’s solutions until they become tomorrow’s problems? Are we assuming our responsibility for the future of coming generations? Today’s solutions must protect us from tomorrow’s crises, and those solutions cannot be formulated within traditional policies and approaches. In this context, Tunisia stresses once again that circumstantial solutions to certain issues do not fundamentally resolve them, but are merely palliatives. Over the decades, such remedies have proven unable to provide radical and effective solutions to various crises. We need new policies based on solidarity and justice, such as those contained in the Secretary-General’s report Our Common Agenda. The repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of the situation in Ukraine have revealed the need to review those approaches so that we can save the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals before it is too late, as indicated by the Secretary-General. In that context, I would like to emphasize the following. First, solutions cannot be formulated outside the framework of multilateral action and human solidarity, and in cooperation and coordination with the United Nations, while preserving the other frameworks and mechanisms as tributaries for that cooperation. They complement and complete such coordination, without competing with it or weakening its ability to provide solutions. That is what Tunisia emphasized recently on the occasion of our country’s hosting, on 27 and 28 August, the eighth Tokyo International Symposium on Development in Africa, where we discussed many items on our agenda, including how to achieve sustainable development through approaches in which economic, security and humanitarian dimensions are integrated. Secondly, we need to adopt an economic approach that focuses on the quality of economic growth and not its speed, especially by investing more in knowledge, science, innovation and modern technologies. In Tunisia, we look forward to the Francophonie Summit, which will be hosted on the island of Djerba on 19 and 20 November, under the theme “Connectivity in diversity: Digital as a vector of development and solidarity in the Francophonie space”. The recommendations of the Summit should promote ways to achieve our common goals in the digital, technological and development fields. Thirdly, we must take a qualitative leap in debt management through new development approaches and in how the global financial system can provide financial support without unfair conditions or dicta that do not take into account the specificities and circumstances of developing and least developed countries, especially in the African region, where the global financial system has not offered the support they expected in their efforts to overcome the existing challenges and in their quest for recovery and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. That was confirmed by the Secretary-General recently when he spoke of a disruptive global financial system that disappoints developing countries. In that context, Tunisia calls for a restructuring of debt into investment projects to generate wealth. It also stresses the importance of enabling peoples to recover their looted funds that were smuggled abroad. Fourthly, the international community must today renew its commitment to the African continent on the basis of solidarity, equality and equal partnership, while listening to its development and security concerns. Fifthly, the challenges facing the world today cannot be addressed without consolidating the elements of international peace and security, based on the rule of international law and international legitimacy. In that context, it is necessary to work on settling conflicts peacefully without selectivity, putting an end to absurd conflicts, refraining from fabricating crises and finding solutions to just causes, foremost of which is the Palestinian question, which requires an end of the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with Jerusalem as its capital. Sixthly, we must realize that every country, without exception, has its own challenges, problems and peculiarities. There is no one-size-fits-all mode or model. Let us agree that there are principles, values and common denominators that unite us and that we are all obligated to respect, but the details of choices and directions remain within the sovereign purviews of States. There is no democracy, but there are democracies. Democracy in Tunisia represents an unshakable national option, which we are working to strengthen and preserve through a corrective path whose phases will be completed by the legislative elections of 17 December. Tunisia’s democratic choice arises from the will of the Tunisian people, who are determined to make their democratic experience a success and complete their political path under the auspices of a State that preserves their constitutional rights, freedoms, security and dignity, in which the law is supreme and the people are sovereign. Tunisia has demonstrated in various regional and international forums its adherence to human rights and freedoms with further support and development. It has contributed to enriching the United Nations system in that regard with several initiatives and contributions that are recognized for their credibility and sustained, firm alignment with common universal principles. The stakes before us today can be addressed only with a true common resolve to go beyond the diagnosis stage to the action and response stage through the optimal utilization of our capabilities and capabilities and by activating multilateral action. Our peoples are tired of unfulfilled promises, so let us all rise to that defining moment and rebuild trust in our national and international institutions so as to move towards achieving our common goals of building a better world for us and for future generations, a world that is worthy of human beings wherever they are, while preserving their security and dignity and realizing their well-being and sustainability.