My
delegation joins previous speakers in expressing our
congratulations to Mr. Joseph Deiss on his election as
President of the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth
session. We want to take this opportunity to assure him
of our full cooperation and to wish him a very
successful and rewarding term. I also take this
opportunity to thank Mr. Ali Treki for the excellent
work he did in steering this Assembly during his tenure
as President during its sixty-fourth session.
The theme of the sixty-fifth session of the
General Assembly — “Reaffirming the central role of
the United Nations in global governance” — resonates
with what our global citizen, Nelson Rolihlahla
Mandela, said about this body on the occasion of its
fiftieth anniversary:
“The United Nations has to reassess its role,
redefine its profile and reshape its structures. It
should truly reflect the diversity of our universe
and ensure equity among the nations in the
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exercise of power within the system of
international relations, in general, and the
Security Council, in particular.” (A/50/PV.37,
p. 6)
My delegation supports the choice of this theme, and
we wish to reiterate our belief in the centrality of the
United Nations and the system of multilateralism.
Despite the challenges that face humanity in the
twenty-first century, the relevance of the United
Nations as a multilateral mechanism through which a
myriad of complex world affairs can be administered
and resolved cannot be overemphasized. Those
challenges compel us more than ever before to
strengthen the United Nations. South Africa is
committed to working with other Member States to
achieve the full potential of the United Nations to
address the urgent challenges facing the international
community by making it more relevant, more
responsive to the diversity of humankind and more
representative.
The creation of the United Nations was one of the
notable successes of the twentieth century, and thanks
to its existence the world has been spared another war
on the scale and magnitude of the First and Second
World Wars. The exponential growth in the
membership of the Organization over the years, from
51 Members in 1945 to 192 today, clearly demonstrates
the confidence that the peoples of the world have
placed in the United Nations and the ideals contained
in its Charter.
The universal membership of the United Nations
gives it the legitimacy to be at the centre of efforts to
address global challenges. However, the question is
whether the United Nations has leveraged that diversity
of its membership as a source of strength and acted
decisively against any tendency that runs contrary to its
fundamental values and founding principles.
The answer to this is yes because, in the past, the
United Nations played an invaluable role in the
worldwide process of decolonization, transforming the
political landscape of the world and bringing much-
cherished freedom and independence to the peoples of
Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Organization was
instrumental in bringing about the demise of the
universally despised apartheid system in our own
country, South Africa.
When the Organization recognized the right to
development as a human right, it gave voice and hope
to those who know the face of poverty. When the
Organization has sent its troops to far-flung places to
keep peace among neighbours who should be living
together, it has again underscored the reason for which
it was established. Amid all the challenges, the United
Nations has been relevant and responsive to our
diverse interests.
Five years ago, at the World Summit, we agreed
that, if the Organization were to continue to play its
central role in global governance effectively, there was
a need to strengthen and reposition it to deal with the
challenges of the twenty-first century. We believe that
the revitalization of the General Assembly remains one
of the cornerstones of the United Nations reform
agenda. The General Assembly is the chief
deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of
the United Nations and plays a critical role in the
process of standard-setting and the codification of
international law. Its decisions are taken by a collective
among equals for the common good.
We will support measures that are aimed at
enhancing the effectiveness of the General Assembly,
especially regarding its role in the maintenance of
international peace and security. Indeed, we witnessed
with satisfaction how, on several occasions, the
General Assembly acted promptly when the Security
Council was unwilling or unable to respond to grave
developments in the aftermath of the conflict in Gaza
in 2009.
Indeed, no transformation of the United Nations
could be complete without the fundamental reform of
the Security Council. South Africa believes that the
objective of the reform should be to create a Security
Council that is truly representative of the membership
and effectively responsive to international crises, as
mandated by the Charter of the United Nations. Indeed,
it remains a travesty of justice that Africa, which
accounts for a large portion of the work of the Council,
is not represented in the permanent category. Thus,
deliberations about us carry on without us.
The world should be free of weapons of mass
destruction, in accordance with our undertakings on
total disarmament. In that regard, South Africa
welcomes the recently agreed programme of work of
the Conference on Disarmament.
27 10-55109
While the right to development and freedom from
want are central to the work of the United Nations, we
have just ended the High-level Plenary Meeting to
review our performance in achieving the Millennium
Development Goals and agreed that more needs to be
done to act on commitments already made by the
international community in that regard.
The people of Haiti have a story to tell about how
best the international community can respond in unison
and effectively to a nation in distress.
A speedy and satisfactory conclusion of the Doha
Round of the World Trade Organization, which
promised so much for the developing South,
unfortunately remains a dream yet to be fulfilled. At
the same time, the global economic crisis has
highlighted the point that many of us have always
made about the need to work for an international
financial architecture that is sensitive to the
development needs of the South.
The contribution of the Group of 20 (G-20) is a
welcome development in that regard, and we believe
that the Group should complement and reinforce the
good work of the United Nations and not act as an
alternative. In its composition, the G-20 will also need
to mirror the rich diversity of humankind by making
sure that all regions of the world, in particular Africa,
are well represented. We look forward to the full
implementation of the undertakings made to transform
the international financial architecture, including the
reform of the Bretton Woods institutions, as a step
towards building a world system founded on equity and
social justice.
Environmental issues, including climate change,
have also become high on the priorities of the
international agenda. South Africa is fully committed
to a multilateral outcome on the basis of the Bali Plan
of Action, with a two-track negotiated and legally
binding outcome. We are convinced that the
Copenhagen Accord provides political guidance for
future negotiations.
Accordingly, we should work together to ensure
that the forthcoming meeting of the sixteenth session
of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change in Mexico
takes bold and concrete steps to address climate change
and its effects. For our part, South Africa will have the
opportunity to host the seventeenth session of the
Conference of the Parties in December 2011, on the
eve of the end of the first commitment period of the
Kyoto Protocol.
Peace and stability are one of the preconditions
for bringing about an Africa of the new beginning that
the Chairperson of the African Union, His Excellency
President Wa Mutharika of Malawi, spoke of on the
first day of the general debate (see ). The
United Nations has been an important partner to Africa,
working with us through the African Union, whether in
Somalia, the Sudan or the Democratic Republic of
Congo. South Africa is encouraged by the commitment
shown by the international community in trying to
assist the both the Government of the Sudan and
Southern Sudan as they prepare for the upcoming
referendum in January 2011.
The people of Zimbabwe also need the helping
hand of the international community in implementing
their Global Political Agreement. The African Union
and the Southern African Development Community
speak for us, too, in calling for the lifting of sanctions
against Zimbabwe. We will continue to work with the
peoples of Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Burundi,
among others, in their efforts to build and consolidate
peace and democracy in their respective countries.
In the case of Western Sahara, South Africa
remains concerned about the continuing impasse,
which stands in the way of a solution that will result in
the people of Western Sahara exercising their
inalienable right to self-determination. We count on the
United Nations, especially the Security Council, to
continue to make decisions that enable us to decisively
deal with the challenges of peace and security on our
continent.
The United Nations should see Africa as a partner
in the maintenance of international peace and the
management of conflicts, and accordingly do more to
strengthen the working relationship between the
Security Council and the African Union Peace and
Security Council. In this respect, South Africa will
continue to support all international efforts to help the
people of Palestine and Israel in their endeavour to find
lasting peace, leading to the establishment of a viable
Palestinian State, on the basis of the 1967 borders and
with East Jerusalem as its capital, existing side by side
in peace and security with Israel.
We are at one with the call made by several
delegations for the lifting of the embargo on the
Republic of Cuba.
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We have converged here year after year to make
strong statements on Palestine, the embargo on Cuba
and the independence of the Western Sahara. The
ultimate test of the relevance of the United Nations
will therefore be in bringing closure to all these long
outstanding issues in a manner that is consistent with
our decisions and the collective will of nations
represented in this Organization.
In conclusion, we were also privileged recently to
be the stage, and Africa the theatre, of the 2010
Fédération internationale de football association World
Cup tournament. Our people spoke for us during that
soccer event in how they embraced each other and in
their diversity of many nations, consistent with the
spirit of ubuntu, which simply means “I am because
you are”. They gave us hope and confirmed the faith
we have in our belief that a better world is possible.
The role of sport in development and in advancing
peace can never be underestimated. As States, we can
best respond to this message from our people by
making sure that the United Nations, in playing its role
in the global system, is more relevant, more inclusive
and more representative.
Looking ahead, South Africa is honoured to have
been endorsed by the African Union as a candidate for
the Security Council non-permanent membership for
the period 2011-2012. We stand ready to continue to
contribute to the achievement of peace and security in
the world.