Madam President, on the occasion of your election to
the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-
first session, I am pleased to convey to you and to our
brotherly country Bahrain my most sincere
congratulations. We are convinced that your experience
and competence will enrich the work of this session
and will contribute to its success.
I should also like to take this opportunity to
commend your predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, for his
constant efforts to implement the recommendations of
the 2005 Summit related to the reform of the
Organization and the adoption of the two resolutions
creating the Human Rights Council and the
Peacebuilding Commission.
I take this opportunity to convey my special
thanks to Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the
United Nations, for the valuable efforts he has been
tirelessly making to enhance the Organization’s role
and advance its performance, and for proving his
capability to realize a consensus on several complex
issues and to advance the reform of the Organization.
We note with satisfaction the important steps
achieved since the 2005 Summit aimed at developing
the Organization’s role and work for the sake of further
efficiency in its action, which will contribute to
anchoring the values of justice and moderation in
international relations. While insisting on the need to
confer more transparency on the Security Council and
pursue efforts to reach consensus on its enlargement,
which will ensure equitable representation of all
international parties and allow the Council to perform
its main functions in an environment of dialogue and
consensus, we also call for strengthening the General
Assembly’s prerogatives, revitalizing its role, and
making it work more efficiently.
Tunisia, which had the honour of being among
the first members of the Human Rights Council,
reiterates its determination to participate actively in the
work of this new United Nations institution and to
contribute to achieving the noble objectives for which
it was created, especially those related to respect for
human rights in their global meaning, as agreed at the
international level.
Our world today sees numerous rapid changes
and developments in security, political, economic and
social issues while time many international issues
remain unresolved. Tunisia — which has supported the
Middle East peace process since its inception and has
always called for dialogue, negotiation and recourse to
international legality — stresses again the need to find
a just, lasting and comprehensive settlement to the
Arab-Israeli conflict that will allow all the peoples of
the region to live in peace and security. Taking into
account the hardships and suffering that the fraternal
Palestinian people are undergoing, such as the siege,
Tunisia calls upon the international community to
provide them with international protection urgently.
Tunisia also renews its call for active parties, primarily
the Quartet, to ensure appropriate conditions for
reviving all tracks of the peace process in accordance
with ongoing Arab efforts, to help the Palestinian
people regain their legitimate national rights, including
the establishment of their independent State and to
allow sister States Syria and Lebanon to recover their
occupied territories.
Tunisia reiterates its solidarity with Lebanon
following the Israeli aggression, which caused
destruction and huge loss of life and property, and
renews its call on the international community to
contribute to the reconstruction of Lebanon. In this
regard, Tunisia commends the results of the recent
Stockholm donor summit.
Tunisia also expresses the hope that the fraternal
Iraqi people will find appropriate solutions to their
national causes in the framework of the political
process, in order to maintain national unity and
guarantee security and stability, which will allow Iraqis
to devote themselves to reconstruction.
To face the challenges on the international scene,
especially the phenomenon of extremism and terrorism,
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the international community must enhance its efforts
and cooperation. Tunisia, which was among the first to
warn against these dangers, renews its call for an
international conference, under United Nations
auspices, to elaborate an international code of conduct
to combat terrorism to which all parties would be
committed. Tunisia has also called for tackling all root
causes of terrorism — mainly injustice, the policy of
double standards, and economic and social conditions
that generate frustration and marginalization — within
the framework of a comprehensive approach.
To implement this approach, the international
community adopted the Tunisian initiative to set up a
world solidarity fund to fight poverty and exclusion
and to lay the foundations for a more equitable and
solidarity-based vision for development. We hope that
all relevant parties will increase their efforts to provide
the necessary financing to operate this mechanism.
Spreading the culture of tolerance, dialogue and
respect for beliefs and religious symbols in all
countries has today become one of the urgent
necessities for reinforcing rapprochement,
understanding and solidarity among peoples and for
establishing constructive international relations based
on moderation and respect for the specificities and
civilizations of peoples and on rejection of violence,
extremism and intolerance.
In this regard, and based on its firm belief in
those principles, Tunisia proposed several initiatives,
such as the adoption of the Carthage Charter for
Tolerance in 1995, the appeal of His Excellency the
President of the Republic, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, for
a pedagogy of tolerance, the proclamation of the 2001
Tunis Declaration on Dialogue among Civilizations,
and the establishment of the Ben Ali Chair for
Dialogue among Civilizations and Religions.
In spite of all the efforts made, achieving the
Millennium Development Goals faces difficulties that
require more collective efforts by all components of
the international community, especially economically
strong and developed countries, in the field of
financing the development of the countries of the
South and speeding up the transfer of technology to
them. With regard to efforts to reinforce resources for
developing countries, Tunisia again appeals for further
action to relieve the debt burden of the least developed
countries and to recycle those of middle-income
countries by transforming them into investments in
development projects considered to be a priority by
those countries.
Convinced that the digital divide is one of the
main challenges to development, Tunisia initiated the
call for a world summit on the information society
under the auspices of the United Nations. In November
2005 it was honoured to host the second phase of this
summit, which produced important results and laid the
foundations for a new world vision aimed at reducing
the digital divide between countries and establishing
the bases of a society of knowledge by adopting the
Tunis Agenda and the Tunis Commitment. We are
confident that the results of that summit will benefit
from appropriate consideration and follow-up by the
United Nations and its specialized agencies, as will all
stakeholders in information technology and
communication.
Tunisia has directed all its capabilities to
elevating itself to the level of an advanced country
within a future-oriented vision, the foundations of
which were laid by President Ben Ali. That vision
includes all political, economic, social and
developmental domains. It materialized in a set of deep
reforms that led to the reinforcement of democracy,
promotion of a culture of human rights at both
conceptual and concrete levels, consecration of public
freedoms, and participation of all segments of Tunisian
society in the political life of the country, all in the
framework of the rule of law and the institutions of the
State. Furthermore, Tunisia’s economic and social
achievements allowed it to attain a high rank among
the group of countries with the highest human
development index. That was appreciated by
international financial institutions and specialized
United Nations agencies. Tunisia pursues this process
of reform and achievement with determination and
perseverance.
Within its Maghreb, Arab and Mediterranean
environment, Tunisia endeavours to strengthen
relations of cooperation, solidarity, dialogue and
consultation among all parties in order to reinforce
security and stability, achieve the aspirations of the
peoples of the region for an integral development and
encourage economic complementarity. For Tunisia, the
establishment of the Arab Maghreb remains a strategic
choice and in terms of civilization, a gain for peoples
of the region, laying the foundations for increased
integration and complementarity among the Maghreb
countries. Tunisia works alongside its sister States of
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the region to further revitalize the march of the union
in the interest of its peoples.
Our country is also keen to enhance its strong
relationship with the European Union and to develop it
towards the establishment of a solidarity-based
partnership, which we hope will advance in a context
of mutual respect and dialogue, thus serving the
interests of all parties.
Tunisia, as part of the African continent,
relentlessly continues to support the efforts of the
African Union to finalize the establishment of its
institutions and reinvigorate them, as well as to
enhance its role in achieving solidarity-based
development, security and stability throughout the
continent. In this regard Tunisia has actively
participated in United Nations peacekeeping
operations, especially in Africa, convinced, as always,
of the necessity to join international efforts to
strengthen the foundations of peace and security
throughout the world.
Although we believe that the future of the
continent remains in the hands of Africans and that
development can be achieved primarily by relying on
their own capabilities, Africa needs more support and
assistance from the international community to enable
it to face the challenges and achieve the aspirations of
its peoples.
The strong relationship and interaction among
peace, security, development and social stability in
today’s world confirm the need for all nations to join
multilateral efforts on the basis of the values of
dialogue, consensus and solidarity. That will help in
finding the appropriate solutions to the challenges
posed. We believe that the United Nations remains the
ideal forum to deal with these urgent issues based on
the values and principles of its Charter.