Zambia

On this important occasion, allow me to extend to the President the congratulations of the people and the Government of Zambia upon his well- deserved election to preside over the work of the General Assembly at its fiftieth session. We are confident that his broad experience and ability will afford us sure guidance at this historic session of the General Assembly, which marks half a century of the United Nations. I would also like to pay tribute to the outgoing President of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session, His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy of Côte d’Ivoire, who so successfully presided over the session with great skill and expertise. He leaves the presidency with a record of successes that has enhanced the Assembly’s deliberative role. My delegation would also like to put on record its appreciation for the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who has continued to lead the Organization with skill and tenacity under trying circumstances. As we observe and celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, we should also take this opportunity to take stock of the Organization’s past performance, evaluating its achievements and failures, and then proceed to map out our future direction. It cannot be disputed that the United Nations has made outstanding contributions to world peace and security and the promotion of development throughout the world. The United Nations has conducted successful peace- keeping operations in various parts of the world, including Cambodia, Mozambique, Haiti and, very recently, Angola. It is also as a result of United Nations engagement that the world is now entering an era in which the ideals of human rights and democracy are gaining support in many countries. The United Nations is on record as having provided electoral assistance to over 40 countries. 5 This has gone a long way in ensuring free and fair elections. The United Nations has been a strong source of relief from human suffering. Through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations has provided food, shelter, medicine and education for millions of refugees the world over. Very recently, in 1990, through the efforts of our Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and the personal dedication to children of the late James Grant, the World Summit for Children was convened here in New York, where the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted. This Convention has become the first to receive universal acceptance. This is a remarkable achievement in itself. Against this background of achievements, the Organization has had to deal with many formidable problems, such as the super-Power rivalry of the cold-war era, which resulted in a long period of paralysis in terms of the Organization’s ability to take quick and effective decisions and in the increasing number of ethnic conflicts and tensions around the world, as evidenced by conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and Georgia, among others. The continued unfavourable international economic situation and environmental degradation are serious challenges that the United Nations has had to deal with. Zambia is convinced that the United Nations remains the only world body with the capacity to galvanize political will to face these challenges as we approach the twenty- first century. As a country and Member State, we take this opportunity to reaffirm and renew our commitment to the United Nations. It is quite clear that the United Nations will require a renewed vision for the next 50 years. The agenda to disarm throughout the world is not complete. My delegation strongly feels that as long as there is continued proliferation of weapons, there can never be any hope for lasting peace and security in any corner of the world. My delegation, therefore, welcomes the successful conclusion, early this year, of the Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT); the Treaty was extended indefinitely. My delegation wishes to express our grave concern that, soon after the extension, some of the signatories to the NPT have resumed nuclear tests. This is not in the spirit of nuclear disarmament. We also congratulate those that have continued to observe their moratoriums and hope that they will not be swayed by those that are embarking on nuclear testing. Zambia takes note of the ongoing negotiations in Geneva on a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty (CTBT), and urges a speedy and successful completion of that treaty. We also welcome the efforts to strengthen the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention. However, in spite of all these positive developments in the area of disarmament, there are, of course, other critical areas, such as complete and general disarmament, nuclear technology, nuclear-weapon-free zones, mine clearance as well as peaceful uses of nuclear energy, that remain unresolved. We therefore urge all concerned to give special attention to such issues, in the hope that this will enhance security guarantees. The issue of specific concern to southern Africa, which has emerged from a long period of conflict, is land mine clearance. Many of our people continue to die from uncleared land mines. Accordingly, we call upon the international community to increase its support for the regional efforts being carried out through the Southern African Development Community to de-mine the affected areas in the southern Africa region. In this regard, we wish to express our appreciation to the European Union, which continues to support our efforts in mine clearance. In the area of peace-keeping, Zambia realizes that pursuing peace has not been an easy task for the United Nations and is not likely to be so in the foreseeable future. The Organization needs a clear vision of what must be done in each particular case. The Secretary- General’s Agenda for Peace, we believe, provides that vision. It is an important agenda, which has already assisted in many areas of our peace-keeping operations. We are aware that a quick and effective response in time of conflicts depends on a number of important factors, especially the political will by the Member States to meet resource requirements. In this respect, Zambia supports the establishment of a rapid- reaction-capability force, which we believe will enhance peace-keeping operations and save lives. The protection, promotion and enjoyment of human rights is an obligation Governments and peoples the world over must uphold. The dignity of life cannot be enhanced 6 without full observance of human rights. Zambia therefore believes that the United Nations must continue to give high priority to human rights issues. In this regard, Zambia is gratified that the Fourth World Conference on Women, recently held in Beijing, China, recognized that women’s rights are human rights, and that Governments committed themselves to the implementation of that human rights agenda. The Beijing conference and the other recent United Nations conferences — the World Conference on Human Rights, the International Conference on Population and Development and the World Social Summit — will all need active and integrated follow-up throughout the United Nations system. In this follow-up, the roles of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council are crucial not only for the efficient implementation of the programmes of action, but also for strengthening the Organization in the social and economic fields. Zambia recognizes the urgent need to revitalize the Council’s functions, including improved and enhanced utilization of its various functional committees. Harmonization of institutional arrangements in the entire United Nations system will need to be undertaken as a matter of priority. In terms of the reform of the Security Council, Zambia believes it is necessary to expand the Security Council to enable it to become more representative. It is also our view that the Security Council needs to become democratic and transparent. Zambia would like to see the United Nations give priority to addressing developmental issues in the new millennium. In this regard, I wish to state that Zambia attaches great importance to the realization of the Agenda for Development. Development is a critical area of concern for my own continent, Africa, where poverty, unemployment and social exclusion affect virtually every country. As we approach the twenty-first century, the international community should give added emphasis to the fight against poverty. By fighting poverty, we can assure the progress of individuals, which is essential to the sustained progress of all nations. Zambia is therefore gratified that the World Summit for Social Development committed itself to accelerating the economic, social and human resources development of Africa and the least developed countries. The World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in March this year, has, through its Declaration and Programme of Action, challenged Governments the world over to create opportunities through employment generation and social integration that should eradicate poverty. My delegation hopes that Governments will implement its Programme of Action. The poverty obtaining in many developing countries is being exacerbated by the onerous debt burdens most of these countries have continued to carry since the early 1980s. The Naples terms, with the potential to achieve a 67 per cent debt reduction on either export credits or debt service, is only the beginning in offering durable debt relief to developing countries, especially with regard to those with very high debt service ratios. The creditor countries should move beyond modesty and offer terms that can in the shortest possible time frame reduce debt service ratios of the poorest developing countries to 21 per cent of their export earnings. This is the level recognized by the United Nations as the basic minimum requirement to ensure that the poorest developing countries overcome their debt problems and re-establish credit-worthiness. Coupled with the sustained underfunding of many structural adjustment programmes, a modest approach on promoting debt reduction can only have the ultimate result of undermining opportunities for growth, development and prosperity in developing countries. As the World Trade Organization begins its formative years, a new challenge from this institution is emerging in developing countries that will add to the challenges of external debt burdens and poverty. This is the challenge of registering early net losses from the new system of multilateral trade as preferences are removed, food prices rise, subsidies decrease and commodity exports continue to face marginalization. This is especially pronounced for Africa, which, as we all know, has already recorded more than a decade of austerity. While we recognize the long-term opportunities developing countries will gain from the World Trade Organization, it still remains the duty of developed countries to make good their pledges reaffirmed at Marrakesh to compensate net losers in the new system of multilateral trade, by quickly specifying the terms of compensation. Zambia realizes that establishing the foundations of international competitiveness is the key to getting a foothold in the world economy. Our reform measures, which started in 1991, are gaining momentum. The challenge now is to move away from concerns over stabilization and liberalization to the stimulation of production, employment and labour productivity as the 7 basic foundations for poverty reduction. This is being done at the same time as we are building on complementarities already established in the regional integration mechanisms of the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, of which Zambia is a member. However, our domestic reform efforts can only be sustained by generous debt reduction that improves our cash-flow position to levels which regenerate business confidence in Zambia. The debt overhang remains the single biggest barrier to recovery and development in Zambia. In conclusion, I would like to state that Zambia will remain actively committed to achieving these priorities in the framework of the United Nations. We believe in the United Nations and have every confidence that our Organization will lead us into a new era of full of hope and prosperity.