At the outset, I would like to express to His Excellency
Mr. Srgjan Kerim and to his friendly country our most
sincere congratulations on his election as President of
the General Assembly at its sixty-second session. We
are confident that under his skilful and effective
leadership, our deliberations will be successful.
I wish also to extend to our sister, Her Excellency
Ms. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, our deep thanks
and appreciation for her valuable efforts as President of
the Assembly at its previous session towards the
realization of the Millennium Development Goals and
towards enhancing dialogue among all members of the
international community and reviving the Security
Council reform process.
I wish also to express our appreciation to
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his endeavours and
his determination to reform the functioning of the
Organization. We wish him every success.
Signs of new dynamism in the United Nations
reform process reflect a true desire to improve the
Organization’s work so as to bring it in line with the
requirements of the new world realities and with new
concepts arising from the profound and speedy
transformations the world has experienced in recent
decades.
In our view, giving effect to that desire requires
new working frameworks and mechanisms to reinforce
the underpinnings of international peace and security
and enable us to achieve collective solutions to the
common challenges facing the international
community. We should be inspired in that endeavour by
a new vision that lays the foundation for a
comprehensive, effective and solidarity-based global
partnership among the members of the international
community, on the basis of constructive dialogue
among peoples, cultures, civilizations and religions.
On the basis of that conviction, Tunisia has
launched international initiatives with political,
humanitarian and social dimensions. Some of these
initiatives were adopted by the United Nations, such as
the establishment of the World Solidarity Fund. We
look forward to increased efforts by the international
community to operationalize the Fund.
Since the early 1990s, Tunisia has been in the
forefront of countries drawing attention to the dangers
of terrorism and its negative impact on world security
and stability. Today, Tunisia renews its call for an
international conference, under United Nations
auspices, in order to formulate an international code of
conduct for combating terrorism, by which all parties
would abide.
Convinced of the significant role that dialogue
among civilizations plays in obviating the dangers of
extremism and intolerance, Tunisia has consistently
endeavoured to be the world capital of dialogue among
civilizations, by hosting several regional and
international conferences and seminars. It has also
taken initiatives in this field, such as the publication of
the Carthage Charter for Tolerance in 1995, the appeal
by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali for a pedagogy of
tolerance, the 2001 Tunis Declaration on Dialogue
among Civilizations, and the establishment, in the
University of Tunis, of the Ben Ali Chair for Dialogue
among Civilizations and Religions.
We take note with satisfaction of the focus on the
theme of climate change during the current session’s
general debate, in view of the fact that environmental
issues are a basic pillar of sustainable development and
one of the major elements of the Millennium
Development Goals one that has an impact on
international peace and security.
Tunisia believes that climate change poses a
common threat to all States of the world without
exception. This has prompted Tunisia to host, next
November, an international ministerial workshop to
discuss climate change in Africa and the Mediterranean
region, as a contribution to increasing and deepening
awareness of the importance of this issue and to
enriching regional dialogue on it.
The international community and all its members
must devote more attention to the environment and to
finding urgent and effective collective solutions to
environmental issues in certain regions of the world
notably in Africa, which suffers most from the climate
change that is threatening the continent’s aspirations to
development and to the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals.
The fact that several important international
political problems remain unsolved continues to be a
source of concern for us. Today, Tunisia reaffirms that
it upholds the values of peace and justice and the
principles of international legitimacy, and that it is
prepared to contribute to the dissemination and
promotion of the values of tolerance, moderation and
mutual respect among nations and peoples. In our view,
that should help consolidate a constructive dialogue
among civilizations and establish international
cooperation and a solidarity-based development
partnership that will help eliminate the causes of
tension and conflict worldwide.
On this occasion, we reaffirm our principled and
constant support for the Palestinian people in their
struggle for their just cause. We urge the international
community, in particular the influential parties and the
Quartet, to intensify their efforts aimed at reviving the
peace process, on the basis of United Nations
resolutions and the relevant Arab and international
terms of reference, inter alia, the Arab Peace Initiative,
with a view to finding a just and comprehensive
solution that would guarantee the restoration of the
Palestinians’ legitimate rights, foremost among which
is the establishment of their own independent State.
We welcome the initiative taken by President
Bush and certain international influential parties to
revive the peace process. In this context, we wish to
stress the importance of convening an international
peace conference that should yield concrete proposals
for achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace in the
Middle East and lead to the restitution of all occupied
Arab territories and guarantee security and stability to
all the countries and peoples of the region.
By the same token, we call for concerted regional
and international efforts to help the brotherly Iraqi
people to restore the deteriorating security, economic
and humanitarian situation in their country, through the
achievement of a consensual political settlement
among all its segments and factions that preserves the
unity and sovereignty of Iraq. As far as the situation in
Lebanon is concerned, we urge all Lebanese parties to
favour dialogue as the sole way to prevent the scourge
of dissension among the Lebanese people and to
restore confidence and reconciliation among them.
Since 7 November 1987, Tunisia, under the
leadership of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has
succeeded in making pioneer achievements and gains
in different fields. This has been made possible thanks
to comprehensive reforms that allowed Tunisia to
consolidate the rule of law and institutions, as well as
public freedoms, and to disseminate, in theory and
practice, the culture of human rights, thus enhancing
the democratic structure of the country and paving the
way for contributions by all components of civil
society to define national orientations and choices for
the future.
The reform process implemented in Tunisia has
allowed the achievement of numerous Millennium
Development Goals, which has translated into better
living standards for Tunisians and well-being for all
segments of Tunisian society. This reflects the
correctness of development choices made by Tunisia,
which has also allowed it to hold an advanced position
among countries with the highest level of human
development.
On many occasions, Tunisia has stated its
conviction of the need for building international
cooperation and partnerships based on a
comprehensive approach aimed at achieving
development for all and laying the foundations for
constructive relations among countries of the North
and the South. In this context, President Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali called from this rostrum in 1989 for
the adoption of a charter of peace and progress
between the countries of the North and the South.
The international community is called upon to
exert more efforts to enable all the peoples of the
world, particularly the least developed countries, to
benefit from the digital revolution and to acquire
knowledge. This will require operationalizing and
implementing the recommendations and resolutions
made by international conferences in our country in
November 2005 to contribute to the building of a
global, more equitable and solidarity-based
information society.
The integration of Tunisia in its regional and
international environment is one of the priorities of its
foreign policy, which endeavours to enhance political
relations with brotherly and friendly nations as well
with regional and international organizations. Tunisia
looks forward to the broadening and diversification of
the scope of its cooperation with all its partners in
order to bring it to the level of an efficient partnership
based on mutual respect and common interest. Hence,
Tunisia is constantly striving, with its brotherly
Maghrebian countries, to complete the formation of the
Maghreb Arab Union and to consolidate its structures
and institutions in order to reinforce integration and
complementarity among the peoples of the region.
Tunisia has equally sought to enhance the
effectiveness of Arab common action. It seeks to
upgrade its interaction with the changes and challenges
confronting the region and to further the process of
reform and modernization in this field, in conformity
with the decisions and recommendations of the Tunis
Summit, the Algiers Summit and the Riyadh Summit.
On the other hand, Tunisia, being a member of
Arab committees entrusted with Palestinian, Lebanese
and other issues, is participating effectively in the work
of those committees for the benefit of Arab causes.
As far as Africa is concerned, Tunisia has
enhanced its relations with African countries and has
strengthened cooperation with them. It has made active
efforts to contribute effectively to the process of
building the structures and institutions of the African
Union and to the consolidation of the fundamentals of
peace, security and stability in the continent and
opening promising new horizons for development in
order to further enhance integration among its peoples.
In view of the strategic importance of its relations
with the European Union, Tunisia has been constantly
seeking to advance those ties and to broaden their
scope, so as to cover all fields of cooperation with the
aim of building a solidarity-based partnership with
European Union countries based on mutual respect and
common interest.
Tunisia also endeavours to strengthen the
Euro-Mediterranean cooperation process. In this
connection, Tunisia has welcomed the initiative
launched by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France for
establishing a Mediterranean Union. Tunisia has
further expressed its readiness to contribute to and
participate in shaping the content of such a union and
in defining its objectives.
Since the establishment of the United Nations,
Tunisia has expressed constant faith in the noble
principles and purposes of the Organization. It has
always been committed to lending its support to efforts
aimed at creating favourable conditions for appropriate
collective responses to global common challenges and
for solving the various problems that are a source of
concern to the world, as well as establishing solidarity-
based cooperation and partnership among all
components of the international community.
From this perspective, Tunisia, which will assume
chairmanship of the next session of the Conference on
Disarmament, is determined to work, in coordination
with Member States, for the achievement of tangible
progress regarding issues on the agenda of the
Conference. In so doing, Tunisia will seek to enhance
constructive and positive dialogue on those issues in
order to achieve the objectives of the Conference and
to contribute to the consolidation of peace and security
in the world and to the dissemination of a global
culture of peace, thus consecrating the noble values
and principles for which our Organization has been
created.