At the
outset, allow me to convey the warm greetings of the
Head of State, Government and people of Togo on the
occasion of the sixty-fourth session of the General
Assembly. I also wish to add that the Minister for
Foreign Affairs of Togo, who unfortunately is absent
from New York, asked me to read out the following
statement :
“From this rostrum, where the leaders of the
entire planet have expressed their views on the
major questions of the time, I should in turn like
to share with this Assembly the following ideas,
prompted by the developments in our world over
the past 12 months.
“Before performing this duty, however, I
wish to convey to you, Sir, the warm
congratulations of the Government and the people
of Togo on your well-deserved election to the
presidency of the General Assembly at this
session. I can assure you of my delegation’s
willingness to work with you to carry out your
mandate, the success of which will do honour to
Africa and in particular to your country, the
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, with which Togo
maintains friendly relations of solidarity and
cooperation.
“Also I wish to convey to your predecessor,
Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, my
congratulations on his work and in particular for
the commendable initiatives he undertook
throughout his mandate to restore the General
Assembly to its due place and role under the
United Nations Charter. To His Excellency
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, I convey our
35 09-53165
congratulations for the dynamic and pragmatic
manner with which he has guided our
Organization.
“I hereby forcefully reaffirm Togo’s full
adherence to the ideals of peace, security and
development that are at the centre of the priorities
of our Organization. My country also endorses
the approaches adopted by our Organization in
recent years to further sustainable development
by promoting peace and security and by
mobilizing international solidarity in the
economic, social and cultural arenas.
“Political, administrative and economic
governance remains essential to the consolidation
of peace and security in our countries and
undoubtedly helps to speed up achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals. However, no
harmonious and lasting development is possible
without a climate of peace and national concord.
That is why the Government of Togo spares no
effort to create conditions conducive to bold
reforms and to lay the foundations for a new
republican pact and national reconciliation.
Indeed, since 2005, the Government, under the
guidance of the Head of State, has worked
tirelessly for a policy of openness, the promotion
of democracy, the strengthening of the rule of law
and the reduction of poverty. A number of
reforms have been undertaken in this regard,
especially in the political, constitutional,
institutional and socio-economic areas.
“Politically, the Head of State has engaged
in dialogue as an instrument of political
consensus. This approach, based on a politics of
complete openness, culminated in the signing in
August 2006 of the Global Political Accord,
which in turn led to the formation of a
Government of national unity, facilitated by His
Excellency Blaise Compaoré, President of
Burkina Faso. I recall that the implementation of
the Global Political Accord and the 22
commitments undertaken with the European
Union led to the holding of free and democratic
legislative elections in October 2007, which were
welcomed unanimously by the international
community. In the same spirit, a Truth, Justice
and Reconciliation Commission has been set up,
the members of which were appointed on 29 May
2009. Its purpose is to shed light on the political
acts of violence that occurred in Togo between
1958 and 2005 in order once and for all to banish
impunity from our country and to reconcile the
people of Togo with their history.
“With regard to constitutional reform,
significant progress has been made. In August,
the National Assembly adopted a law modifying
the electoral code, relaxing the eligibility
conditions for presidential elections, and allowing
for the establishment of a national independent
electoral commission and its reconfiguration in
order to adapt it to current political realities. At
the same time, discussions of certain questions
continue with the firm resolve of the Government
to carry out the rest of the reforms on the basis of
consensus, since we have made concerted action
and dialogue the foundation of our political
action in Togo.
“In the institutional area, we have striven to
reconstitute the Constitutional Court, the National
Human Rights Commission and the High
Authority for Audiovisual and Communication.
Similarly, the Government of Togo has
established a court of audits and adopted statutes
for the army, the security forces and the
opposition. It has also made arrangements for the
public financing of political parties and the
organs of the private press.
“As concerns the judiciary, our vast
modernization programme of the judicial system
continues in a satisfactory manner, with a view to
involving the people more closely in the
administration of justice. In this regard, the
Government has taken measures to guarantee
citizens freedom of expression, for example, by
decriminalizing press offences. Furthermore, to
demonstrate its desire to respect human dignity
and defend human rights, our Government
submitted to the National Assembly a bill
abolishing the death penalty. This law, adopted
unanimously on 24 June, is the outcome of a
constitutional provision that requires the State to
guarantee the physical and mental integrity, life
and security of all persons living on our national
territory.
“The efforts undertaken by the Government
in the areas of health, education and employment,
particularly for young people, have also seen
09-53165 36
considerable progress. In the field of health, we
have established a national health development
plan for the years 2009 to 2013, at a cost of
317 billion CFA francs, reflecting the will of the
Togolese Government to respond effectively to
our people’s health needs. With regard to
education, Togo’s educational system has suffered
from the financial constraints afflicting the
country for the past 15 years due to the
suspension of cooperation. This situation,
compounded by a high demand for education, has
resulted in a decline in teaching conditions and
serious structural problems. In the face of these
constraints, the Government has committed to
establish a sectoral education plan that will allow
the country to launch a fast-track initiative in
2010 to ensure education for all.
“To put a new face on public administration
and make it a genuine instrument for the
reconstruction and modernization of our country,
we have undertaken broad reforms that require,
inter alia, the recruitment of new officials. Thus,
thousands of young people have found work in
the public and private sectors thanks to the
creation of better production conditions for the
economic and social development of the country.
“With regard to the economic sector,
appropriate measures have been taken to put
public finances on a sound footing, create a
favourable framework for business and attract
investment, particularly from abroad. In this
context, I take this opportunity to once again
make an urgent appeal to all our bilateral and
multilateral partners, particularly the European
Union and the Bretton Woods institutions, to help
Togo in its efforts towards socio-economic
recovery.
“In the opinion of my delegation, the
development and proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction represent a growing threat to
international peace and security, and thus a reason
for us to give these questions the highest priority.
In this regard, my country welcomed the Security
Council summit held on 24 September, under the
presidency of the United States, on nuclear
non-proliferation and disarmament. While we
reaffirm that multilateralism is the fundamental
principle governing our consideration of
disarmament and non-proliferation, Togo hopes
that the Security Council summit will lead to a
new approach to this crucial question. With regard
to light arms, Togo reiterates its desire to see the
current session of the Assembly commit to
strengthening the implementation of the project
aimed at negotiating a treaty on the traffic in light
arms, as has been done by the Economic
Community of West African States in this area.
“Concerning terrorism, an obstacle to peace
and lasting development, my country feels that it
has become imperative to improve and globalize
the international legal framework in order to
combat this scourge, which has assumed a new
form in modern times. In this regard, the
completion within a reasonable time frame of
negotiations on a draft comprehensive convention
against international terrorism would be salutary
and in the interests of all.
“Similarly, the phenomenon of drugs, and in
particular the illicit traffic in drugs along the west
coast of Africa, has become a true danger and a
destabilizing factor for the region. In light of the
scale of this scourge, it is beyond a shadow of a
doubt that no country can combat or hope to put
an end to it alone. Togo therefore appeals for
international cooperation, and in particular for
assistance from the wealthy countries and
competent organizations, in eradicating this
phenomenon and thereby restoring the climate of
security so essential to development. For its part,
in spite of its scarce resources, Togo has
undertaken a relentless struggle against drug
traffickers and is cooperating with its neighbours
in order to contain the scourge.
“As we all know, international peace and
security continue to be threatened and the
stability of certain countries disturbed by
conflicts, terrorism and underdevelopment, all of
which are largely man-made. Indeed, in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, the
Central African Republic and Darfur, where
crises continue, our Organization should continue
to engage in a search for solutions that will allow
those countries to recover the peace and security
necessary to their development.
“In Somalia, despite the initiatives
undertaken in April 2009 by the international
community and by the African Union in July
37 09-53165
2009 in support of security institutions and the
African Union Mission in Somalia, the situation
remains precarious and disturbing. That is why
my country urgently appeals for other urgent
measures to be taken to prevent that country from
succumbing to chaos for good.
“Regarding Côte d’Ivoire, we note with
satisfaction the positive evolution of the political
situation in that country since the Ouagadougou
Political Agreement. Consequently, we call on the
stakeholders to display the political will to
organize the presidential election.
“With regard to Guinea, it would seem
appropriate and timely to encourage the political
class to find, through dialogue and consultation,
ways and means of ensuring a rapid return to
constitutional order.
“As to the situation in the Niger, where the
revision of the Constitution has provoked a crisis,
my country hopes that the parties concerned in
the Niger will strive to restore dialogue and
consensus in order to maintain a climate of peace
and harmony in that sister country.
“Outside the African continent, in the
Middle East, a theatre of violence and desolation,
an equitable and final settlement of the conflicts
between the countries of this region should be
found as soon as possible. To that end, the
international community should encourage the
various actors to find a peaceful solution to their
conflicts. In this regard, my delegation reaffirms
that the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
requires the creation of a Palestinian State living
side by side with the State of Israel within secure
and internationally recognized borders.
“Furthermore, my country deplores the
continuing acts of terrorism that have afflicted
the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan and
undermined the efforts of these countries to
promote development. That is why we urge the
international community to increase its assistance
to the Governments of those countries in their
fight against terrorism in order to promote peace
and reconstruction.
“After two decades of economic stagnation
resulting from policies of budgetary austerity
imposed on developing countries, the latter are
now facing new challenges from the food,
financial, energy and environmental crises. In the
light of this situation, it is imperative to work to
mitigate the financial shock and to pursue bold
policies to increase the agricultural and energy
production capacities of the developing countries.
At the same time, we need to consider overall
structural reform of the world economic and
financial system in order to prevent a resurgence
of such crises.
“My country therefore welcomed the high-
level Conference on the World Financial and
Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development,
held from 24 to 26 June, which illustrated the
need for international solidarity in the face of the
crisis in order to ease the suffering of the peoples
of developing countries.
“In that context, Togo welcomes the early
implementation, in April 2009, of one of the
pledges made at the G-20 meeting in London,
concerning the establishment of the Global Trade
Liquidity Programme amounting to $50 billion
from 2009 to 2011, $15 billion of which are
allocated to the African continent. Similarly, my
country welcomes the initiative taken in March
2009 by the African Development Bank to create
a special $500 million funding mechanism for
African trade.
“Furthermore, my delegation is pleased that
the United Nations, at the initiative of the
Secretary-General, has taken the measure of the
danger posed to humanity by the problem of
climate change and the degradation of the
environment. In this regard, the high-level
meeting that took place a few days ago in this
very body was an opportunity to analyse the
situation and to clear the way for the Climate
Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.
To paraphrase a great man, we have inherited the
Earth and we should not destroy it. Living
creatures come and go, but the Earth remains.
“In the face of the questions that my
delegation has just raised, it is imperative to
intensify partnerships of all kinds if we wish to
prevent a situation in which, 64 years after its
creation, our shared Organization should find
itself still facing the same challenges. It is to be
hoped, therefore, that Member States, in whose
09-53165 38
interest it is that the United Nations should be
more democratic, strong and effective, should
determine to give it the resources necessary to
permit it to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals and thereby to meet the challenges that our
world faces today.”