Tunisia

Allow me at the outset to extend to you, Mr. President, our warmest and sincerest congratulations on your election to the presidency of the fiftieth session of the United Nations General Assembly. Through you, I should also like to pay tribute to the relations between my country and Portugal and to note our shared expectations for the Mediterranean region. I would be remiss were I to fail to extend my warmest congratulations to your predecessor, Mr. Amara Essy, President of the previous session of the Assembly, for the new impetus he gave to the Organization through the different working groups over which he presided. I should also like to pay a special tribute to the Secretary- General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the wisdom and determination with which he is carrying out his noble mission. This session of the Assembly crowns a half century of the world Organization’s efforts to preserve world peace. Today, the Organization is called upon to pave the way to a new era, one that we hope will be marked by solidarity in facing the tasks before us and the responsibility we all bear. Since the end of the cold war the world has rid itself of the heavy burden of the fear of another world war, a war that would have led to untold catastrophes and tragedies. This development, albeit new, already seems to be part of the past given the speed of subsequent developments. Even if East-West confrontation and the bipolarity of past decades have disappeared, new challenges have emerged over the past few years. Hotbeds of tension and instability have proliferated, in many regions of the world, and have taken root in the soil of ethnic and political hostilities that often take the form of armed confrontations within the borders of any one State. Such hostilities are often fuelled by extremes of hardship and by deteriorating economic and social conditions. Some negative phenomena, such as terrorism, extremism and the illicit traffic in arms and drugs have also grown in a manner that is cause for concern as they undermine the stability of States. Inherent in these new challenges are factors of disintegration and collapse that throw a long shadow over international peace and security and impose new threats that the international community should hasten to contain 6 with decisive action which should not focus on their outward manifestations alone, but deal with their true underlying causes, namely economic underdevelopment and social backwardness. In fact, these new situations which now face the world in the post-cold-war era make us realize that it is impossible to ensure lasting international peace and security by military means alone. Respect for law and international legality are prerequisites as are creation of conditions that would promote the economic and social development in an interdependent world. These, we believe, are the underpinnings upon which we should build a new world order. Due to the developments the international community has been witnessing over the past few years, the United Nations Organization has come to shoulder new responsibilities towards international peace and security. These responsibilities are manifest in the unprecedented increase in the number of peace-keeping operations, as well as in new activities such as the supervision of elections and the rebuilding of State structures and the economic infrastructures of States. In addition, many of these activities have to do with the settlement of disputes within certain States. While the United Nations has to provide assistance to countries that are ravaged by civil wars and internal conflicts, we, as members of the international community, are all called upon to mobilize our efforts and to strengthen our solidarity within the context of the efforts aimed at the maintenance of peace and to identify and resolve the underlying causes of such disputes. Proceeding from our belief in the fundamental principles set forth in the Secretary-General’s “Agenda for Peace”, particularly those relating to preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace building, Tunisia, during its presidency of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), called for stronger cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity in the area of conflict prevention and the speedy resolution of disputes at minimum cost. Here we should remind of the role of the central organ of the OAU’s mechanism for conflict prevention, management and resolution, which has been given new impetus by President Ben Ali and other African leaders in order to make it an effective tool in the prevention and settlement of disputes in Africa. In this context, Tunisia has hosted several meetings of this central body, which have resulted in the adoption of many important resolutions that have made it possible to address certain situations which, otherwise, would have called for intervention by the international community to keep peace or to prevent the outbreak of new conflicts. We believe that such efforts by this central organ of the OAU warrant additional support. The results of such efforts could be improved if the appropriate financial and logistical means were made available to the organ and if coordination were ensured between the United Nations and the OAU in this regard. We do hope that the recent tendency to give this matter some thought will lead to the identification of the ways and means whereby action by the international community in this direction will develop further. On this occasion, I should like, on behalf of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to pay tribute to the international community for its valuable support to Tunisia during its presidency of the OAU, and to express particular appreciation to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, as well as to all those who have provided financial and logistical assistance to peace-keeping operations in Africa and to the States that have provided financial support to the fund created within the OAU mechanism for the settlement, management and prevention of disputes. While some hotbeds of tension persist, some have been eliminated, and we do see a reduction in the danger of major conflagrations in the light of the significant progress made towards disarmament and the strengthening of the underpinnings of international security through the efforts of the United Nations, as well as an improvement in the climate of trust and understanding that we now feel in international relations. In the area of weapons of mass destruction, Tunisia welcomed the signing of the Convention on chemical weapons. We believe it is a step that will lead to the elimination of an entire class of such weapons. This calls for further substantive steps to rid the world gradually of the threat of nuclear weapons, particularly in the wake of the indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). As for the Middle East, many important steps have been taken towards genuine dialogue between the parties concerned. Tunisia, which has been an active participant in the peace process since it began in Madrid, welcomes the agreement achieved yesterday between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, and hopes that it will be followed by other concrete steps towards ensuring the 7 achievement of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people. We must adopt the same approach in order to give new impetus to the negotiations between Syria and Israel on the one hand, and between Lebanon and Israel on the other in order to ensure the withdrawal from the occupied territories in the Golan and in southern Lebanon and the achievement of a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the region. It goes without saying that the principles upon which the peace process was based, namely Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), as well as General Assembly resolutions concerning the withdrawal from all Arab and Palestinian lands, including Holy Al-Quds, must be fully implemented. Al-Quds remains, for the Palestinian and the whole Islamic nation, a cornerstone for the settlement of the dispute. We believe that it is time for the Israeli Government to demonstrate realism and political courage by rising above the very narrow view of security and relations with the neighbouring Arab States in order to allow the peoples of the region to live in harmony in increasing security and stability. In the Arab Maghreb, Tunisia, which has always believed in international legality, calls, in the light of initiatives taken by Libya, for a rapid resolution of the Lockerbie affair in order to lift the embargo imposed on our Libyan brethren. The negative effects of that embargo have begun seriously to affect stability and development in all the countries of the region. As for Iraq, Tunisia, which is satisfied with the progress that is being made in implementing United Nations resolutions, calls for lifting the embargo imposed on Iraq in order to mitigate the suffering of the Iraqi people. At the same time, Tunisia stresses the need to fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kuwait and all the countries of the region. By the same token, we hope that agreement on the basis of the norms of international law and the behests of good-neighbourliness and respect for the territorial integrity of other States, will be reached in the dispute between the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Republic of Iran on Abu Moussa and the Greater and Lesser Tumb Islands. I should now like to address the crisis in Bosnia, which, in our view, constitutes an aberration that embodies a serious defiance to all humanity. This war puts us face to face with ideologies which, we thought, had become things of the past, but which have now resurfaced in the guise of “ethnic cleansing”. The international community has the right to make use of the means provided by the United Nations Charter to force those who flout all civilized values and trample the most basic of human rights to accept the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to respect its territorial integrity. Tunisia, which has always participated in the United Nations efforts to maintain international peace and security, is well-aware of the limitations of the narrow view that reduces the concept of security to the military dimension alone. Proceeding from this, Tunisia has supported from the outset the international community’s initiative embodied in “An Agenda for Development”. We believe that “An Agenda for Development”, along with “An Agenda for Peace”, help to enrich our thinking in the field of multilateral cooperation at a time when countries of the world are becoming increasingly open to market economics which, together with the consolidation of interdependence, have come to be the principal economic characteristics of world economy at the end of the 20th century. In view of the irreversible globalization of economic concepts, the United Nations is called upon to play a fundamental role in formulating and implementing development policies. Such an important role should work in favour of the international community’s efforts to restructure the United Nations and to increase its effectiveness. Tunisia, which has taken part in these efforts, believes that any restructuring process should help promote the universal nature of the Organization and strengthen its democratic posture, so that it may make a better contribution in the area of development. We believe that the process of restructuring must go hand-in-hand with a wider cooperation between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions in order to improve their input in development. In this context, joint initiatives could be taken to ensure a better division of labour between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions with a view to increasing their effectiveness in the economic and social fields and within the context of development in general. More specifically, as far as cooperation between the United Nations and other parties is concerned, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been calling, since 1989, from this very rostrum, for a development partnership between industrialized and developing countries. This initiative is a project for a new 8 international cooperation based on a dynamic view of the security of all States. Through this proposal, Tunisia aims at creating a new system based on economic, political, social and democratic stability, because we believe that they are the very pillars of security. This Tunisian initiative is based on awareness of the organic link between development, democracy and stability. This overall view takes into account the aspirations of individuals and peoples who look forward to freedom and economic, social and cultural well-being. The Tunisian view of security and development is anchored in the belief that extreme importance must be attached to the cultural and humanitarian aspects of international relations, particularly at the regional level. Proceeding from this belief, Tunisia has sought to consolidate its cultural and political ties with all the countries of the Arab Maghreb and of the Mediterranean. At the Maghreb level, in cooperation with the member States of the Arab Maghreb Union, Tunisia has worked to create an economic zone in the region. This has taken concrete shape in the Tunisian declaration of 1994 relating to the creation of a free zone as a first step in putting in place a Maghreb development strategy. Tunisia’s involvement in international economic affairs and its attempts to develop its interests with the region on the northern shores of the Mediterranean are among its basic foreign-policy tenets, enshrined in the partnership agreement with the European Union. This agreement is based on joint development and aims at creating a free zone that will allow Tunisia further activity within the economies of its European partners. It goes hand in hand with a policy of dialogue between the countries of the Mediterranean. On the 28th and 29th of July 1995, Tunisia hosted a preparatory meeting for the Mediterranean region to ensure the success of the meeting scheduled for next November in Barcelona. The Preliminary results of the Mediterranean dialogue give cause for optimism as they reflect a common desire to safeguard the Mediterranean region from international political convulsions and economic fluctuations while ensuring its harmonious development. The United Nations is called upon today to develop a new concept based on the need to achieve security, development and democracy. These are the very principles in which Tunisia believes and for which we strive, domestically as well as internationally. In the field of development, the Tunisian strategy is based on the human element within a comprehensive vision that embraces all segments of society, and aims at building a balanced and unitary society. In this context, I wish to stress in particular the importance that Tunisia attaches to the empowerment of women, the protection of the family and to highlight the fact that many achievements have been made in this context, particularly with regard to the adoption of structural, legal and administrative measures to promote the role of women and the family, economically and socially and to enhance the role of women in our development efforts. At the same time, Tunisia has acceded to many international conventions on the equality of women and men, the latest of which has been the Copenhagen agreement which relate to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Based on its rich experience in this context, Tunisia has played a very active role in the March 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen and in the recent Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, whose positive results we commend. In this new era, Tunisia will continue to support the efforts of the United Nations both in the areas of maintenance of peace and of development. We shall continue to participate in defining the features of the new world order and to call for upholding the law and the norms of international legality. It behoves the States of the world to share a joint vision of the world of tomorrow, so that it may be characterized by more solidarity and justice. We hope that the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations will reaffirm the commitment of the international community to an Organization without which we can never hope to build such a new world order.