I would
like first of all to warmly congratulate Mr. John Ashe,
President of the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth
session, and his predecessor Mr. Vuk Jeremi. on their
excellent work. I would also like to commend our
Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for the steady
enhancement of the role and status of the United
Nations under his leadership.
The designation of the post-2015 development
agenda as the central theme not only of this general
debate but also for this entire session is a timely reminder
of the role of the United Nations in promoting peace
and prosperity throughout the world, for the benefit
of all humankind. Indeed, more than ever before, we
need the visionary role of the United Nations in order
to face up to the ills besetting humankind. The growing
challenges arising from our increased interdependence
are exacerbated by a multidimensional crisis that
adversely affects our economies and governance and
has disastrous social and humanitarian consequences.
The only worthy response to the upheaval and dangers
of our day is a determined quest for peace, justice and
solidarity, in order to build with confidence that better
future that we must bequeath to future generations.
Consideration of the post-2015 agenda warrants
a serious relaunching of the debate on development
issues, particularly in terms of the elimination of
poverty, a phenomenon that continues not only to
affect the dignity of millions of human beings but also
to threaten their lives. The international community
should be primarily concerned at the lack of significant
progress in its fight against poverty.
Overcoming poverty is a long-standing endeavour
that requires appropriate public policies coupled with
effective international cooperation and consistent
productive flows of investment, as well as greater
complementarity between the United Nations and the
Bretton Woods institutions, with a view to exploiting
synergies in the context of the peace-security-
development triad. That means that new objectives for
2030 must be part of a global integral approach that
reflects the disparities among regions, an improvement
of the balance between urban and rural development,
the strengthening of the capacities of poor people,
good governance, the fight against corruption and the
protection of the environment. In fact, it is a question
of reaching an ambitious global agreement for the
promotion of sustainable development containing
commitments stemming from the principle of shared
but differentiated responsibility, in particular for the
mobilization of the financing needed for capacity-
building and the transfer of know-how and technology.
Under its 2010-2014 five-year plan, Algeria is
implementing a human development strategy that sets
forth ambitious policies to promote social justice and
balanced regional preparations, within a framework
of strict resource management, where the education,
health, housing and infrastructure sectors continue to
be given priority, backed by investment in economic
growth. Those extensive efforts are naturally supported
at the international level by multifaceted assistance to
countries affected by crises and natural disasters and
by the effective integration of debt relief for the poorest
countries in Africa and other parts of the world.
At the same time, Algeria is projecting its own
development in the context of the historic coherence of
the great Arab Maghreb Union project that the peoples
of the region aspire to profoundly. That overall initiative
came from the agenda of the President of the Republic,
Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and is aimed at making all
Algerian men and women free from fear and need.
The celebration this year of the fiftieth anniversary
of the Organization of African Unity-African Union
under the theme of “African Renaissance” is an
important milestone in the rise of our continent on
the stage of history, giving us grounds for hope and
ambition, as well as promises of African solutions for
the problems of Africa, with the assistance of the rest
of the international community. Algeria is participating
in that shared destiny of the African peoples, and
we welcome and are gratified by the progress made
towards the recovery and economic development of the
continent and the considerable rates of growth that have
been recorded. We are also gratified at Africa’s steady
progress towards conflict prevention and settlement.
We also welcome the achievements of good
governance, human rights and pluralist democracy.
Algeria is particularly delighted at the liberation of the
regions in the north of Mali from the claws of terrorist
and criminal groups as well as the restoration of the
constitutional order in this fraternal country with the
clear success of the presidential elections.
Algeria, which remains the target of international
terrorism — as we were reminded by the violent
terrorist attack carried out against the Tiguentourine
gas complex early this year — is making an effective
contribution to the joint efforts to promote collective
security in the Sahelo-Saharan region as well as in the
rest of Africa and beyond. Whether it is a question of
Somalia, Darfur, relations between the Sudan and South
Sudan, the Great Lakes region, the Central African
Republic or efforts to restore constitutional order in a
number of brotherly countries, Algeria is harmoniously
blending its voice and efforts with those of the African
Union.
Algeria, which is resolutely committed to the
right of peoples to self-determination, supports the
intensification of the efforts of the Personal Envoy of the
Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Mr. Christopher
Ross, to prevail on the two parties to the conflict — the
Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front — to
agree in negotiations on the lifting of all obstacles, so
that the people of Western Sahara can freely determine
their own future.
Algeria is naturally supportive of the Arab
peoples, who are experiencing difficult transitions and
are confronting multiple challenges in a particularly
delicate phase of democratic and socioeconomic
transformation. We encourage the promotion of
political solutions to governance crises as well as the
management by consensus of these critical transitional
periods. Clearly, military solutions are neither possible
nor desirable in the context of the polarization of
societies and the exacerbation of partisan interests and
dissent.
Algeria reaffirms its rejection of the threat or use
of weapons of mass destruction. In that regard, we
categorically condemn the use of chemical weapons in
the Syrian conflict, regardless of who the perpetrators
were or the circumstances. In welcoming the initiative
of the Russian Federation and the Russian-American
agreement as well as the adherence of Syria to the
Chemical Weapons Convention, Algeria calls for the
creation of political momentum towards the holding of
the Geneva II conference and the attainment of a political
solution among the parties in Syria. We reiterate our
encouragement and support for Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi
as he leads those praiseworthy peace efforts.
In a Middle East mired in dangers and crises, a just
settlement of the question of Palestine remains at the
heart of any serious effort to stabilize the region. While
welcoming the efforts of the United States, which led
to a resumption of negotiations, Algeria expresses the
hope that the international community can redouble its
efforts for the rapid establishment of an internationally
recognized Palestinian State within the borders of June
1967, with Al-Quds as its capital.
The legitimacy of the United Nations must be
strengthened and its role enhanced, and to that end its
reform must not be unduly delayed. We must ensure that
the General Assembly remains participatory in nature
and must increase the economic, social, humanitarian
and environmental functions of the programmes,
entities and agencies of the United Nations system.
We must also agree on a democratic reform of the
Security Council that covers its working methods and
its composition and ensures equitable representation,
taking into particular account the African States’
Ezulwini Consensus.
The United Nations must be heeded when, from
within the democratic framework of the General
Assembly, it issues statements of strong positions that
reflect the universal conscience, whether it is a question
of strengthening the foundations of international
humanitarian law and protecting civilians or specific
situations, such as the long overdue lifting of the
economic blockade that has been imposed on Cuba for
decades now and the current one imposed on the Gaza
Strip. The will of the international community that is so
often reiterated here must prevail.
Algeria is working within the organizations and
groups to which it belongs and with its other partners
towards the elimination of the many obstacles to
building peaceful, well-balanced and just international
relations. We are nurturing the virtues of dialogue,
and we place our hopes in the Alliance of Civilization
and mutual respect among religions. Algeria is deeply
dedicated to the heritage of the values shared by all
humankind, beginning with the sacred nature, value
and dignity of human beings and the promotion and
protection of all human rights.
It is this commitment that inspires Algeria’s
candidature for a seat on the Human Rights Council
for the 2014-2016 period. This year marks the twentieth
anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme
of Action, and Algeria, moved by a high sense of
responsibility, would like to dedicate itself to improving
the effectiveness of the Council, strengthening the
universal and interdependent nature of human rights
and mobilizing the international community in this
lofty collective endeavour.
As a member of the Council, Algeria will share its
experience in human rights and in the rights of peoples.
We will endeavour to improve our own performance
by, inter alia, adapting our national legislation and
harmonizing it with the relevant international treaties
and promoting the inclusion of all segments of society,
including women, who now comprise 31 per cent of the
deputies elected to the People’s National Assembly last
year. All of these factors make Algeria a good candidate
for the Human Rights Council and have won it the
support of the League of Arab States, the Organization
of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union.
Almost 40 years ago, in 1974, President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika, who was at that time Minister for Foreign
Affairs of Algeria and President of the General
Assembly at its twenty-ninth session, made significant
history here by putting an end to the usurpation of the
people of South Africa’s representation by the apartheid
regime and by welcoming to this Hall for the first time
the Palestine Liberation Organization, thus opening
up two significant paths towards peace. Since then,
prodigious advances in science and technology, which
have increased the power of humankind over nature,
and changes in the very fabric of the international
community have only increased the expectations of our
peoples, for whom the United Nations remains the best
refuge. May God inspire us to work in the best interests
of our countries and our peoples.