Liberia congratulates you,
Mr. President, on your election to the important office
of President of the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth
session. We are confident that you will steer the work
of this session in a manner which brings pride to your
great country, the State of Qatar. Mr. President, we
wish you well and pledge Liberia’s full support to you
in pursuit of the priorities which you have identified.
Let me also pay tribute to your predecessor, His
Excellency Joseph Deiss of Switzerland, for the
effective manner in which he conducted the affairs of
the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session. His
sound and outstanding leadership enabled the session
to register many achievements.
We warmly congratulate the Secretary-General,
His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, on his unanimous
re-election, and extend the highest commendation to
him for his vision and foresight, and for the tireless
efforts with which he continues to administer the
Organization. We embrace the priorities which he has
set for his second term, which are centred on
sustainable development.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome and
congratulate the Republic of South Sudan upon its
admission as the 193rd Member of the United Nations
and to assure it of Liberia’s friendship, support and
solidarity.
The theme chosen for this year’s general debate,
“The role of mediation in the settlement of disputes by
peaceful means”, could not have been selected at a
more opportune time. Communities within our world
continue to be polarized by conflicts which have their
roots in political marginalization and socio-economic
inequities. Despite global interdependence, inter-State
relations are still constrained by divergent ideological
convictions and structural inequalities in the global
economic system. These have resulted in divisions
which undermine our efforts to move as one global
community towards sustainable development.
Mediation, as part of preventive diplomacy, is
indeed a powerful dispute-resolution mechanism. The
United Nations has a central role in promoting
mediation in pursuit of peace. The good offices of the
Secretary-General remain critical to the mediation
efforts of the United Nations. Regional and subregional
organizations are assuming an increasingly active and
complementary role in mediation and the peaceful
settlement of disputes. These initiatives must not only
be acknowledged and encouraged but also supported
by the global community.
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As a post-conflict country, Liberia has benefited
immensely from numerous mediation efforts that
include national, regional and international initiatives
aimed at restoring and maintaining stability in the
country. Our experience leads us to suggest that greater
emphasis be placed on preventive measures, and that
the tools of mediation be employed as soon as early
warning signs of conflict emerge. The benefits of
establishing an early-warning system that will deal
with potentially explosive situations before they
degenerate into full-blown infernos are obvious.
It has been nearly a decade since this body and
friendly nations intervened to restore Liberia to
normalcy. That intervention ended a disastrous 14-year
civil war and created conditions for the deployment of
the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the
establishment of a transitional Government and the
democratic election of Africa’s first female President.
Consistent with our commitment to national
recovery and post-war reconstruction, we have
developed programmes and policies specifically aimed
at lifting Liberians to higher levels of productivity,
reviving basic services, restoring infrastructure and
re-establishing the rule of law. Overall, we are making
progress on all of these fronts and building a more
inclusive society in which the full potential of all of
our citizens can be harnessed.
In this endeavour, special emphasis has been
placed on the empowerment of women and their
participation in all aspects of the national endeavour. A
well-crafted gender policy is enabling the Government
to address the concerns of women and girls. We
consider the creation of the gender entity UN-Women
to be an important positive development in the context
of the United Nations effort to promote women’s
empowerment. Liberia pledges its fullest support for
the success of this important body.
Cognizant that youths constitute the highest
percentage of our population, we are committed to
developing programmes that will strengthen and
empower them for future leadership. We hope that the
action plan adopted by the recent United Nations High-
level Meeting on Youth will garner international
support for our youth programmes.
We are continuing to progress in our efforts to
reform our security sector. Special attention is focused
on building the capacity of the Liberian National
Police. However, we remain deeply concerned about
events affecting security in the Mano River Basin. That
is why we are thankful to the Security Council for
extending the mandate of UNMIL.
Liberia is pleased to have been placed on the
agenda of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). The
Liberia configuration of the PBC and the
Peacebuilding Support Office have worked with the
Liberian Government and other stakeholders in
developing the Liberia priority plan, which focuses on
security-sector reform, strengthening the rule of law
and accelerating national reconciliation.
I would like at this juncture to thank His
Excellency Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein,
Permanent Representative of Jordan and Chairman of
the Liberia configuration, and the configuration’s
members for their commitment and dedication. In the
same spirit, I also commend His Excellency
Mr. Eugène-Richard Gasana, Chairman of the
Peacebuilding Commission, and its members for their
support for the configuration.
We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge
the significant role being played by the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the
maintenance of peace and security in the subregion.
ECOWAS member States are contributing tangibly to
peacebuilding in Liberia by strengthening capacity,
especially in the technical area. We are also
collaborating as a subregion in addressing the common
problems of transnational organized crime, human and
drug trafficking, and the illicit trade in small arms and
light weapons.
Liberia is poised to conduct another democratic
election on 11 October. It will test our commitment to
democratic governance and peaceful coexistence.
Every action is being taken to ensure that the elections
are free, fair, transparent and credible. We invite the
international community to observe and monitor these
elections.
Despite the significant gains made in improving
the living conditions of our people, we realize that far
more needs to be done to fully meet their aspirations.
However, negative economic forces continue to hamper
global growth. This situation has had repercussions for
all countries. Although the resulting effects have
impacted developing countries generally, those most
affected are in Africa, where the crippling effects of
external debt, deteriorating terms of trade, decline in
investment and capital flows are debilitating.
9 11-51384
Mr. Cancela (Uruguay), Vice-President, took the
Chair.
Post-conflict countries are even more severely
affected. This is why we have particular appreciation
for the outcome of the Fourth United Nations
Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
convened in Istanbul in May. We hope that the Istanbul
Programme of Action will bring real change for LDCs.
Food security remains a concern for many
developing countries. The World Bank estimates that
44 million people have slipped into poverty since June
because of rising food prices. This unfortunate
situation should be addressed with urgency. We must
act now, effectively and cooperatively, to roll back the
adverse impacts of rising food prices and protect
communities.
Our Government is responding to the current rise
in food prices with immediate action under the policy
Ending Hunger in Liberia, which aims to strengthen
the entire agricultural food chain from securing quality
seeds for farming in productive lowlands to connecting
farmers to local markets and eventually to regional and
global ones. Simultaneously, we are deepening our
partnership with the Food and Agricultural
Organization of the United Nations and other United
Nations bodies for long-term investments in
mechanized agriculture to achieve food security in
Liberia.
While we seek food security, we are equally
mindful of the need for health security. Liberia is
among countries with the highest maternal and child
mortality rates in the world. This is due primarily to
the lack of skilled health workers, poor health delivery
systems and inadequate medicines and supplies. This is
why we welcome the new initiative of the Secretary-
General aimed at improving the health of women and
children.
I wish to state my country’s position on some of
the prevailing situations that threaten peace, security
and international cooperation in our world. The
unresolved riddle in Somalia presents a strong
challenge to the United Nations in relieving the Somali
people of the tragedy and cruelty they have endured for
many years. The phenomenon of famine has
exacerbated the situation in that country and affected
livelihoods in the Horn and East Africa. Those
circumstances necessitate an urgent call for action.
The question of peace in the Middle East has
hovered over the world for far too long. Liberia
believes that whether deliberations take place in the
Security Council or the General Assembly, dialogue
between the parties remains the most viable option for
ending the stalemate towards an independent Palestine.
We therefore call on Israel and Palestine to
demonstrate a concrete commitment to engaging each
other in a constructive dialogue that will achieve the
desired two-State solution.
Suppressive actions by Governments to frustrate
the desire of their people for democratic reforms must
never be condoned because they undermine
international peace and security. Coherent and concrete
actions by the Security Council are critical in
addressing those situations. Liberia welcomes the new
leadership of Libya under the National Transitional
Council (NTC). After more than four decades of
suppression, the Libyan people have high expectations
for the restoration of their freedom and liberties. We
encourage the NTC to move quickly to restore Libya to
normalcy by establishing an inclusive transitional
Government that will organize democratic elections.
As the United Nations grows in membership and
experience, Liberia joins other nations in calling for a
more democratic Security Council that reflects realities
of the twenty-first century. Africa expects to have
greater representation in a reformed Security Council.
More broadly, we encourage the Secretary-General’s
continuing effort to modernize the organization.
Finally, it is my hope that Member States will
work together to advance the cause of our common
humanity, and make the world a better place in which
to live.