Today, I
address the Assembly at a time when I feel great
uncertainty about the future of the Organization and
the established rules governing the relations among
its Member States. It was expected that yesterday the
Assembly would hear, from this rostrum, a statement
from President Al-Bashir, the elected President of the
Republic of the Sudan. However, with deep regret I
must report the refusal by the authorities of the United
States, the host Government, to give entry visas to
President Al-Bashir and his delegation, thus rendering
him unable to participate in the work of the Assembly
at this session.
The fact that the authorities of the host country did
not grant a visa to our President is a serious violation
of the principles and purposes set forth in the Charter
of the United Nations. Specifically, it is a violation of
the Headquarters Agreement signed in December 1946
with the host country.
President Al-Bashir is known throughout Africa.
He is known by all those who hold peace dear. He is
known by everybody for what he has done — putting
an end to the longest bloodthirsty civil war in Africa,
inherited from the days of colonialism. The birth
of the Republic of South Sudan is clear proof of his
commitment to the implementation of the provisions of
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Despite the tremendous sacrifice made by giving
up a valuable part of the territory, one rich in natural
and human resources, President Al-Bashir has been
prevented from participating in the work of the General
Assembly. However, the meeting of the Peace and
Security Council of the African Union has highlighted
the part that he has played in supporting peace between
the Sudan and South Sudan and throughout our region.
My delegation would like to say that this unjustified
and unacceptable action sets a very serious precedent
in the history of the United Nations. It requires that the
whole membership take a firm position on this matter.
This denial of the legitimate right of a Member State
leads us to call on the Secretary-General to exercise his
duty and responsibility to protect the rights of Member
States under the Headquarters Agreement. If the matter
were left up to the Sudan, then the same kind of thing
could happen to any other Member State, and we would
not like those rights to be violated.
I should like to warmly congratulate the President on
his election to the presidency of the General Assembly
at its sixty-eighth session. I take this opportunity to
extend my country’s thanks to his predecessor, Mr. Vuk
Jeremi., for the excellent manner in which he guided
the work at the last session. We also thank Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon and his team in the Secretariat
for the sincere and diligent work that they have done
for us.
It is our hope that discussions during this session
will be successful. The theme chosen, “The post-
2015 development agenda: setting the stage”, is
important. The Sudan believes that the Organization
and its specialized agencies will indeed devote the
importance that is appropriate to such a crucial issue
because development is essential to international peace
and security, particularly in developing countries. As
everyone knows, poverty, underdevelopment, climate
change and a shortage of resources are some of the
main causes of conflict in the world.
The Sudan has made great strategic progress
regarding peace, stability and prosperity for its people
and has begun a political process that will lead to the
adoption of a final constitution. After the peace efforts
proved successful vis-à-vis the independence of South
Sudan, we accepted the choice of its people. Today
we are working to develop a solid economic system,
even though we have to deal with the after-effects of
economic sanctions that the United States unilaterally
imposed on us. We have begun to take economic steps
necessary to strengthen our economy and prevent it
from collapsing.
On the matter of human rights, I should like to share
the opinion expressed by the Special Rapporteur on the
Sudan. He recognized that progress had been made in
various areas of human rights. These matters have been
dealt with very seriously, and the recommendations
will be dealt with in our policy. We are committed to
the principles of human rights, and we have set up an
independent national human rights commission in the
Sudan, founded in accordance with the Paris principles,
that cooperates with the relevant United Nations
agencies.
To promote and strengthen human rights, we
signed a national law to combat trafficking in human
beings. We have many specialized institutions and
mechanisms that work to defend women’s rights
as well, so that women can participate fully in our
society and in our State. That can be seen very clearly
in the positive discrimination we have been pursuing
vis-à-vis women, which has led to greater political
participation by women at the legislative, executive and
other decision-making levels.
In 2010 we adopted a law on the rights of the
child that is in accordance with the principles of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional
Protocols, so that we can promote the rights of
children and protect them against any kind of violence
or exploitation. Our various national institutions
coordinate among themselves, and we have set up a
national board for children. We have police who deal
especially with the issues of youth and children, and we
have a public prosecutor who specializes in this area.
Once South Sudan was established, we immediately
began to engage in neighbourly and fruitful cooperation
with it. We have blood ties with it and a common border
more than 2,100 kilometres long. About two thirds of
the inhabitants of both countries live along the borders.
The period following the independence of South
Sudan was a period of some tension because of
certain matters that had been left pending, so the two
countries entered into very intensive negotiations. On
27 September 2012, exactly one year ago, in Addis Ababa
the two countries were able to sign nine agreements
covering all matters of cooperation between our two
countries. We included mechanisms for implementing
the agreements in an accompanying document. We also
set forth deadlines for reaching further agreements.
At the most recent negotiating session between the
two Presidents, in Khartoum on 3 September, and in
the presence of Mr. Mbeki, the two Presidents came to
an agreement on how to deal with all pending matters.
They also appealed to the international community
to cancel the Sudan’s debt and to lift the sanctions
imposed on it.
Turning now to the matter of unilateral sanctions,
it is our hope that we will have strong and healthy
relations with South Sudan, and we will spare no effort
to achieve that. We trust the international community
will be supportive of our efforts. We would like to
extend our thanks to the African high-level mechanism
and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in this connection.
I am happy to be able to report that the efforts of
the Government of the Sudan and the international
community vis-à-vis Darfur have made possible real
and continuous progress in terms of stability and
security. There has been a sharp drop in the violence
there because those that signed the Doha peace
agreement have lived up to their promises. Many of the
armed groups joined the agreement later. The voluntary
return of people who had left is also being organized
and services are being provided.
I should like to say that relations between the
Government of the Sudan and United Nations bodies
with regard to the humanitarian situation are now stable,
so that humanitarian needs can be met. We reached
an agreement with UNICEF on vaccinations against
poliomyelitis and other diseases, and an agreement was
reached as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Regarding non-governmental organizations, the
Sudan, like other Member States, is committed to the
implementation of the development goals, including
combating poverty. We have adopted policies on
reducing poverty and on providing more jobs for young
graduates. We are also developing a microfinance system
for low- and middle-income people. Unfortunately,
however, unemployment is not as low as we had hoped,
and the unilateral economic sanctions have been a real
obstacle to our making progress in development and
in strengthening our economy. It has been particularly
difficult for young people in the Sudan, who account
for about 60 per cent of our population.
The Sudan calls on the international community
to live up to its promise to cancel the debt and to lift
unilateral economic sanctions. The matter of the debt is
one of the important goals of the post-2015 development
agenda. Debt is a real burden for so many countries in
the world.
The Sudan is a prominent member of many
international bodies dealing with the environment. As a
victim of climate change, the Sudan believes that great
attention should be paid to environmental issues and
goals in the post-2015 development agenda. We would
like to work with others through the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The situation is deteriorating every year. We have
suffered from climate change since the mid-1980s.
We have suffered from recurrent cycles of drought in
much of our territory, and that has also been a factor
in slowing down our development goals. It has also
created instability in many parts of our country because
of conflict over pasture land and water supplies. That
applies also in Darfur, where historically there have
been tribal disputes and disputes over pastureland
because of long periods of drought. The Darfur
conflict became a political issue only in the last decade
because of external interference. There is a very close
relationship between climate change and armed conflict
in that respect.
My country attaches paramount importance to the
rule of law at the national and international levels. We
make sure that our national laws and our legislature are
in accordance with international instruments, laws and
treaties to which we are a party. So from this rostrum,
and based on our own experience, we reiterate our
rejection of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Over the past decade or so it has been violating the
principles of international law and justice. The ICC
has been used as a political tool by certain parties in
the international arena. Many of those that signed the
Rome Statute have now become aware of the negative
impact of the ICC and its destructive impact on stability
and peace. The last African Union Summit showed that
very clearly.
Regarding the crisis in Syria, our position has
always been clear. We call for peaceful dialogue among
the Syrians themselves towards identifying a peaceful
and permanent solution. We have always rejected
violence and foreign interference. We condemn the use
of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, and we
support the Russian approach to resolving this matter.
The question of Palestine — how to achieve justice
and restore the rights of the Palestinian people and stop
the illegal aggression by the Israeli authorities in that
territory — is still a real challenge in the international
arena. The prisoners must be released. The matter
must be resolved within the context of international
legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative, but Israel has
simply turned a deaf ear to proposals from the Arab
sides.
There has been a constant call for respect for
international law. The reform of the United Nations
and its principal and subsidiary organs is a matter of
some urgency and importance. It is time for a practical
process to start, with a clear work programme, so that
the international system can act in a manner that is
fair, transparent and effective, so that it can take up
the challenges it faces. But no progress will be made in
reform until the General Assembly can play its full part
and exercise all of its powers without any intimidation
from the Security Council.
The matter of reform of the Security Council
is also of some importance for the Sudan, because
that will mean that there is real reform in the United
Nations. The Security Council today does not reflect
the realities of the world. It adopts resolutions and takes
decisions but not in a democratic and transparent way.
It is therefore essential that there be comprehensive
reform. Partial or transitional reforms are not possible.
We support the African Union position on reform of the
international system. We want a balanced, pluralistic
and fairer system that will be able to deal with the
challenges of the world of today, ensure respect for
international law and for the noble principles of the
Organization and attain the purposes and principles of
the Charter — respect for the sovereignty of States and
non-interference in domestic issues under any pretext
whatsoever; the non-use of force; and the non-use of the
threat of force against others.