At the outset, I would like to congratulate
the President on his election as President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-second session. I am
confident that, thanks to his experience and wisdom, he
will lead the work of this forum to the best results. I
would also like to take this opportunity to express our
satisfaction with the manner in which Sheikha Haya
Rashed Al-Khalifa conducted the deliberations of the
General Assembly at its previous session and the
efforts she made for United Nations reform and, with
regard to several controversial issues, to arrive at
solutions acceptable to all. I also wish to express our
gratitude for the efforts exerted by His Excellency
Mr. Ban Ki-moon, since his appointment as Secretary-
General, to implement the resolutions of the United
Nations and to achieve the purposes of the Charter.
The reform of the United Nations has been the
central issue in our deliberations in the General
Assembly and in a number of other forums over the
past two years. We were able to move forward towards
achieving our goals on some aspects of the reform
process. However, there is still a long way to go,
especially in the absence of real progress towards
reforming the Security Council and enhancing the role
of the General Assembly.
That issue has been the subject of intensive
consultations in which many ideas were put forward,
some of which were realistic and based on the
principles of equal sovereignty for all nations and
equitable geographical representation. Other ideas,
however, involved consolidating the control of the
powerful States over the United Nations bodies and the
concept that those with privileges in the Security
Council should maintain those privileges and reject any
active role for other actors in that respect. That latter
attitude cannot lead to any true reform contributing to
the realization of the purposes embodied in the Charter
of the United Nations.
A realistic assessment of progress made in the
process of United Nations reform, especially in light of
the impasse in negotiations regarding Security Council
reform, leads us to the conviction that there is an
urgent need for a new world summit conference that
would push forward the reform process and bring to a
conclusion the work that we began two years ago.
In order to achieve this, Libya calls, from this
podium, for a high-level summit meeting to be held at
the United Nations in Geneva within the framework of
the sixty-third session of the General Assembly, in
2008. Such a meeting would be devoted to the reform
process of the United Nations and the expansion of the
Security Council. Holding such an important meeting
in Geneva, a city that lies at the centre of the world,
would provide the opportunity for all world leaders to
attend, to present constructive proposals and to
participate in decision-making regarding this thorny
issue that concerns the entire world.
True reform of the United Nations means putting
decision-making powers in the hands of all of its
Members, that is to say, in the hands of the General
Assembly, where all countries have equal vote. The
Security Council would thus become an instrument for
implementing General Assembly resolutions and we
would overcome the obstacles caused by the veto,
which puts international decision-making power in the
hands of the permanent members of the Security
Council and greatly encourages selectivity and double
standards in dealing with international problems.
In our efforts to reform the Security Council, we
must consider a new formula for permanent
membership in which membership would be awarded
to geographical groups and not to specific countries. In
this regard, we demand that the African Union since
Africa is the only continent which has no
representative among the permanent members be
granted permanent membership in the Security Council
with all the privileges enjoyed by other permanent
members.
While we encourage the current negotiations
regarding reform of the Security Council, we stress the
fact that Libya adheres to the Common African
Position, issued at the fifth African Union Summit,
held in Sirte on 4 and 5 July 2005. This position was
confirmed at subsequent African Union summit
conferences. It calls for the African continent to be
granted five non-permanent seats and two permanent
seats with all the privileges that other permanent
members enjoy, including the right of veto.
Libya seeks the support of all Member States for
a seat on the Security Council so that it may continue
to carry out its efforts to achieve the objectives of the
United Nations, building on its experience of non-
permanent membership in 1976 and 1977. Libya has
therefore submitted its candidature for non-permanent
membership for the coming period 2008-2009. This
candidature enjoys the support of the African Union as
expressed in its resolution EX.CL/DEC. 308 (IX)
issued in Banjul on 29 June 2007, of the Organization
of the Islamic Conference in its resolution ORG 33/2
issued in Baku on 21 June 2006 and of the Arab
League in its resolution on 6 September 2006.
Libya’s firm commitment to the purposes and
principles of the United Nations Charter, its notable
contribution to international peace and security and its
support for development, especially in Africa,
demonstrate that Libya is highly qualified for
membership in the Security Council.
As a member of the Council, Libya would strive
to emphasize the central role played by the United
Nations in achieving international peace and security;
to strengthen respect for international law and the
provisions of the United Nations Charter; to enhance
pluralism in international relations through the United
Nations; to strengthen cooperation between the United
Nations and regional organizations in solving
international problems; to contribute to United Nations
reform; to work to increase cooperation and
coordination between the Security Council and the
other organs of the United Nations, particularly the
General Assembly; to encourage swift and effective
international cooperation and coordination in disaster
management and in the protection of human rights; to
contribute to the creation of permanent solutions to
international problems based on justice, equity, and
respect for the principles of international law and to
encourage further cooperation between the United
Nations and the African Union in the areas of conflict
resolution, consolidation of peace and support for
development in Africa.
Libya strongly believes in the objectives of the
United Nations and consistently meets its obligations
to the Organization. Among Member States, Libya was
the second-largest African contributor to the United
Nations budget and to the budget of peacekeeping
operations in the biennium 2004-2006. Furthermore,
Libya provides a large share of voluntary contributions
to serve the goals of the United Nations.
Moreover, Libya is one of the countries that have
most often resorted to the mechanisms of the United
Nations to resolve international disagreements. For
example, it resorted to the International Court of
Justice to resolve its border problems with Chad,
Tunisia and Malta and has accepted and implemented
the rulings of the Court.
Libya has been a key mediator in the resolution
of a number of conflicts and disputes, especially in
Africa, and has dispatched peacekeeping forces to the
Central African Republic, monitored the border
between Chad and the Sudan and taken part in the
United Nations mission in Darfur. Libya has also
begun to nominate personnel from the Libyan police
force to serve in United Nations missions in a number
of African places.
Libya has established partnerships with a number
of countries, in the field of development, particularly
in Africa. Additionally, in cooperation with the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
Libya is implementing numerous projects that provide
food in a number of African and Arab States.
In cooperation with Cuba and Nigeria, Libya
established the South-South Programme for health care
in Africa and, in 2006, launched the Gaddafi
Programme for African women, children and young
people, which provides health care and educational
services in Africa.
Libya has provided humanitarian aid to numerous
countries in order to alleviate the effects of disasters.
Recipient countries have included Niger, Chad, the
Sudan, Somalia, Palestine, Indonesia, Pakistan and
Mauritania. Libya has also provided substantial aid to
several African countries to combat desert locusts.
In the field of disarmament, Libya believes that
comprehensive and complete disarmament, beginning
with the elimination of weapons of mass destruction
(WMDs), is an essential prerequisite for the
consolidation of international peace and security. For
this reason, Libya initiated its voluntary abandonment
of all programmes related to WMDs and their means of
delivery. Libya hopes that all nations that possess such
weapons or related programmes will follow its
exemplary behaviour.
International cooperation, under the auspices of
the United Nations, has achieved good results in the
fight against terrorism. However, concentrating on the
fight against this phenomenon, while ignoring its root
causes, will not bring terrorism to an end. Libya was
among the first countries that called for coordination of
international efforts to fight global terrorism. Since
1992, Libya has called for a special session of the
General Assembly to study this phenomenon and to
take the necessary measures to combat it by eradicating
its root causes.
We believe that the time has come to heed this
call and establish a precise definition of terrorism that
would protect human rights and halt the practice of
confusing terrorism with the legitimate right of people
to fight against foreign occupation and to exercise self-
determination and attain independence.
Ending terrorism will require practical measures
to eliminate its root causes, including effective action
to promote human rights for all peoples, putting a stop
to acts of aggression and the occupation of the land of
others, fighting poverty and encouraging democracy.
Foreign occupation is the worst form of
terrorism, because occupation forces subject entire
peoples to measures which violate the most basic
principles of human rights and commit daily crimes
against those peoples in order to maintain their
occupation. In our campaign to fight terrorism, it is
imperative that we coordinate our efforts to finally put
an end to foreign occupation, enable peoples to
exercise their right to self-determination and prevent
interference in internal affairs.
We urgently need to implement the pledges that
we adopted in the Millennium Declaration, the Doha
Declaration and the outcomes of the Monterrey and
Johannesburg conferences so that we can make ideal
use of our planet’s resources, end conflict, poverty,
illiteracy and disease, provide all people with safe
drinking water, safeguard the environment and achieve
sustainable development.
It falls upon the shoulders of the United Nations,
in particular the Economic and Social Council, to
establish international partnerships for development
which can achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Such partnerships should facilitate dialogue between
North and South on the basis of respect for
sovereignty, equality and sharing of benefits, and
should ensure that we reach the agreed goal of
devoting 0.7 per cent of the developed countries’ gross
national income to official development assistance
(ODA) to developing countries. Such partnerships must
likewise ensure the appropriate application of all
multilateral free trade principles and must strengthen
World Trade Organization measures regarding
preferential treatment for developing countries,
including making it easier for developing countries to
join that organization.
Countries with a colonial past bear the largest
share of responsibility to provide aid to developing
countries and to compensate them for the damage they
suffered during the colonial era. Similarly, countries
that waged war on the territories of other countries
have a responsibility to remove the mines, unexploded
ordnance and explosive remnants of war they left in
those countries. They must provide the necessary maps,
equipment and technical know-how to reclaim and
rehabilitate damaged land in those developing
countries.
I call upon all Member States to aid the African
Union in its efforts to ensure that all African countries
achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The Palestinian people have lived in great misery
for more than half a century, since their land was
seized. More than half of them were displaced to
various parts of the world and those who remain have
been subjected to a bloody and vicious Israeli
occupation and to systematic violations of international
humanitarian law: houses are demolished, lands are
confiscated and Palestinian agricultural land is
bulldozed. Under siege and denied food and medicine,
inhabitants are expelled and unarmed citizens killed
while the building of an apartheid wall continues. The
oppression to which the Palestinian people are
subjected and the failure of the United Nations to
protect them and to aid them in attaining their rights
the right of return, the right to self-determination and
the right to establish an independent State on all
Palestinian land are factors that prevent the
restoration of peace and security in the region. It is
time to address the issue of Palestine more seriously
and to refrain from attempts to impose a fait accompli
on the Palestinian people, depriving them of their
legitimate rights.
The tragedy that has befallen brotherly Iraq and
that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi
deaths, injuries and refugees, requires an urgent United
Nations initiative to stop the bleeding, resolve the
crisis, ensure the withdrawal of the occupation forces,
restore Iraq’s stability and sovereignty, maintain Iraq’s
territorial integrity and empower the Iraqis to control
their own resources and freely decide their own
destiny, while enabling all citizens to participate in the
administration of their country without the
marginalization of any group by any other group, so
that peace, security and prosperity may prevail in that
country.