On behalf of the
Zambian delegation, I congratulate you, Madam
President, on your election as President of the sixty-
first session of the United Nations General Assembly.
It is indeed significant to have a lady holding the
highest office of the General Assembly after almost
three decades. To us, this attests to the commitment of
the United Nations to the principle of gender equality.
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome a
new member to the United Nations, the Republic of
Montenegro.
Madam President, I wish to pay tribute to your
predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, the Foreign Minister of
Sweden, who successfully presided over the sixtieth
session. He rendered selfless commitment and devotion
to the search for consensus on a number of issues,
including the 2005 World Summit Outcome. It is
pleasing to note that during his presidency, a number of
decisions were taken, including the establishment of
the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights
Council.
Allow me to also pay fitting tribute to the
outgoing Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Mr. Kofi Annan, for the outstanding leadership he has
provided to our Organization, particularly in his efforts
to reform it into a more vibrant and accountable body.
His vision and stewardship of the Organization has set
the United Nations on a new course. We wish him well
in his future endeavours as he leaves office. It is now
up to us Member States to summon sufficient will to
make his vision a reality.
The world today is faced with challenges of
extreme poverty and underdevelopment, conflicts
among and between nations and terrorism, which have
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given rise to increased insecurity all over the world. In
addition, human trafficking is on the increase
worldwide. Often, innocent women and children in
search of a better life, are sold and made to engage in
illicit activities. That is a gross violation of human
rights, which must be seriously addressed by the
international community.
The 2005 Summit Outcome set a global agenda to
address those challenges. Much has been achieved, but
more remains to be done if we are to build a world
body that is effective and relevant to the challenges
faced. Indeed, as Mr. Kofi Annan has indicated in his
“In Larger Freedom” report,
“we will not enjoy development without security,
we will not enjoy security without development,
and we will not enjoy either without respect for
human rights.” (A/59/2005, para. 17)
The guiding principles of the United Nations
Charter incorporate the promotion and protection of
human rights and fundamental freedoms. We believe
that without the protection of those rights and
freedoms, meaningful development cannot be
achieved.
As one of the 47 Member States elected to the
newly established Human Rights Council, Zambia is
committed to upholding the tenets of human rights in
our country and the world at large. In that regard,
Zambia commends the United Nations for establishing
the Human Rights Council, and as a pioneer member,
pledges to give it all the support that it will require. We
commit ourselves to assist in formulating rules and
structures designed to ensure a strong Council that is
transparent, non-selective and non-politicized and that
promotes dialogue and cooperation among Member
States.
I am pleased to state that Zambia has made
progress in consolidating human rights and good
governance. Zambia has further strengthened the rule
of law and upheld the highest standards of individual
freedoms for all citizens, without discrimination based
on sex, colour, race or religious affiliation. In that
regard, we appeal to the international community to
assist us to strengthen and build the capacities of
human rights institutions and all related institutions
that have an important role to play in the promotion
and protection of human rights and fundamental
freedoms.
Permit me at this juncture to thank the
international community for electing Zambia to the
Human Rights Council, with the second highest
number of votes.
With regard to increased global insecurity,
Zambia reaffirms that a new vision of collective
security is required. Member States of the United
Nations expect the collective mechanism to address
threats, such as war, weapons of mass destruction,
terrorism, organized crime and civil conflict, infectious
diseases, extreme poverty and environmental
degradation. If the United Nations is to strengthen the
operations of that collective mechanism, Member
States must work through the United Nations Security
Council and other United Nations agencies to develop
stronger anti-terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation,
disarmament and crime prevention regimes.
Zambia will continue to actively pursue measures
intended to curtail terrorism through various actions,
including taking appropriate national legislative
reforms. To that end, we welcome the recent adoption
by the General Assembly of the Global Counter-
Terrorism Strategy and look forward to the adoption of
the comprehensive convention on international
terrorism.
Our Organization cannot afford to avoid
addressing situations that threaten international peace
and security, such as the recent case of Lebanon.
Pitifully, we witnessed a case of the inaction of the
Security Council, a body charged with the
responsibility of maintaining international peace and
security. That state of affairs only reaffirms the need to
reform the Security Council, with regard to its working
methods and the enlargement of its membership. In that
regard, Zambia reaffirms Africa’s well-known position
on the matter.
At this stage, I would be remiss if I did not
mention the Great Lakes region, which is emerging
from a protracted period of conflict, followed by a
period of successful transition towards democracy. The
International Conference on the Great Lakes Region
will hold its second summit in Nairobi in December
2006, to adopt the draft pact on security, stability and
development in the region. In that regard, we need the
continued political and financial support of the
international community to ensure its adoption.
It is important to confirm that the peacebuilding
and development process in the Great Lakes region has
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reached a very advanced stage at all the three-
dimensional levels, namely: international partnership,
regional ownership and national stewardship. The
vision for integrated and sustainable human
development in the Great Lakes region is now
reassured. The cessation of conflicts in the region, has
already fed into the collective will to transform the
subregion into a place of sustainable peace, political
security and development.
Extreme poverty and deprivation breed disease.
The number of people living with or affected by
HIV/AIDS and the deaths caused by AIDS have
continued to grow in the world today. Furthermore,
between 350 and 500 million people per year are
exposed to malaria, which is estimated to be the
number one cause of mortality in most developing
countries.
Zambia, like many of the developing countries
adversely affected by those diseases, supports all the
efforts made by the international community in
combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. We
therefore welcome the creation of an international drug
purchase facility to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria. This will not only facilitate easy access to
medicine but will also lower the costs and therefore
benefit many countries, especially in the developing
world.
Poverty in the world today accounts for many of
the social and economic injustices that people are
subjected to in many developing countries. Four years
ago, a bargain was struck in Monterrey between
developed and developing countries on the
implementation of a comprehensive strategy bold
enough to achieve the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Developed
countries were urged to support those efforts with
action on aid, trade and debt relief.
While we commend the developed countries for
taking tangible steps to fulfil their commitments, we
call upon them to do so as a matter of urgency. It is
saddening to note that six years after the Millennium
Declaration was signed, the majority of our people in
Africa are still exposed to abject poverty and live on
less than $1 per day. Although there has been
significant progress in achieving the MDGs, much
more remains to be done in order to reverse the
negative trends of poverty and the continued
marginalization of people across the world.
We call for the removal of the unjust multilateral
trade system, which continues to hamper the fair
participation of the developing and least developed
countries in the global market. We would like to draw
the attention of the Assembly to the role of our
developing partners, particularly, in the quick and
concrete implementation of the Doha Development
Agenda. It should be pointed out that with fair trading
practices, developing and least developed countries
would take a significant step towards self-sustenance
and reduce dependence on aid.
Furthermore, we welcome the outcome of the
Gleneagles Summit, at which the leaders of the Group
of Eight pledged to increase aid to Africa by
$25 billion a year by 2010. We also express our
gratitude to those leaders for extending and deepening
debt relief to the poorest countries through the
Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. That Initiative has
resulted in 100-per-cent cancellation of the debt owed
to the international multilateral financial institutions by
the poor countries that have reached the completion
point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt
Initiative. Zambia is one such country. In addition, our
gratitude goes to the other cooperating partners for
agreeing to expand aid to developing countries by
approximately $50 billion. Those resources will indeed
contribute to the advancement of the MDGs.
Although in the recent past we have seen an
increase in the commitment of aid resources and action
and a reaffirmation of the principle of mutual
accountability, there is still an urgent need to ensure
that aid is managed efficiently and used effectively for
the achievement of the MDGs. It is equally important
to closely monitor the donor commitments and aid
flows targeted at achieving the MDGs that we have set
for ourselves to improve the lives of the poor and most
vulnerable in the global community. The people in the
developing countries have been listening attentively to
the promises that we have made in various
international forums. They continue to monitor those
commitments. Their expectations and aspirations are
very high. It is therefore incumbent on us to ensure that
those commitments and promises are fulfilled.
The twenty-first century has been declared the
century for the development of Africa. Let us therefore
show true commitment to that cause. In a world where
there is no true partnership between the rich nations
and the poor nations, there can be no global security,
no universal justice, no human rights and no
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meaningful development. More than ever before, all of
us — rich and poor nations alike — have to work
together to create a sense of equal partnership. We all
need to fulfil our commitments within a given time
frame and enter into new ones in order to reach our
goal of a world free of hunger, extreme poverty and
disease — indeed, a world where we can live in a
secure, clean and sustainable environment.