It is a great honour
for me to address the General Assembly at its sixty-
first session on behalf of the people of Liberia, not just
in my capacity as a leader, but as the first
democratically elected woman President in Liberia and
in Africa.
Let me congratulate you, Madam, on your
election as President of the General Assembly at this
session. We are proud of you, as the first Arab Muslim
woman and the third woman to occupy this noble
position. One of your women predecessors, Angie
Brooks, hailed from Liberia. I was pleased to honour
her last Friday in a moving ceremony here in New York
for her dedicated services to our country.
Let me also seize this opportunity to pay a well-
deserved tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson
of Sweden, for his insightful knowledge and
enlightened leadership in steering the affairs of the
General Assembly at its sixtieth session.
I wish also to welcome and congratulate the
Republic of Montenegro for its admission as the one
hundred ninety-second Member of the Organization
and to assure its delegation of Liberia’s friendship,
solidarity and support.
Let me now pay special tribute to Mr. Kofi
Annan, the outgoing Secretary-General. I had the
privilege of working with him as a former senior staff
member of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), and I am personally aware of his
dedication and commitment to the Organization,
particularly the reform of the United Nations and the
strengthening of its institutions. As I said to him during
an honouring ceremony in Monrovia in July, we are
proud of his record of enhancing the responsibility of
the United Nations: the responsibility to protect the
poor from the rich; the weak from the strong; and the
humble from the arrogant. The Liberian people, and
indeed all the people of Africa, are proud of him and
his accomplishments.
Sixty-one years ago, when countries gathered in
San Francisco to address issues related to the scourge
of, and the scars left by, the Second World War, and the
need for peace in a post-conflict world, Liberia was
there and was a signatory to the Charter of the United
Nations. The purposes and principles of the Charter
have proved to be of durable value over the years.
Times have changed, and the world, too, has
changed, beyond what we could have imagined when
the Organization was established. Today we are truly a
global village, interconnected physically and
electronically, increasingly bound by a shared
commitment to confront and overcome the challenges
that threaten global peace, stability and the well-being
of our human family.
Yet the original aims and objectives of the United
Nations remain today as relevant as they were when
the Charter of the Organization was signed 61 years
ago. The need to maintain international peace and
security, to cultivate friendly relations among nations,
to achieve international cooperation in solving global
economic, cultural, social and humanitarian problems,
and to promote respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms constitute, and still remain, the
cardinal objectives of the Organization.
Thus the main focus of this year’s
deliberations — the implementation of a global
partnership for development — serves to remind us
that at this session the General Assembly must
vigorously consider how to bring equity to the present
international financial, trade and development
structures; how to do more to create the conditions that
will improve the standard of living of humankind
everywhere; how to be sensitive to the needs of
developing countries and assure them the dividends of
globalization.
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In the new millennium, the United Nations should
not operate on the basis of structures designed 61 years
ago. We must therefore review the issue of the
inequitable representation of the world’s peoples, as
reflected by the present structure of the Security
Council. It is in that regard that reform of the United
Nations is urgent, especially with respect to the
decision-making process in a Security Council which is
undemocratic and hegemonic. The apparent continued
violations of the United Nations Charter by some
Member States on account of national interests
represent a disguised threat to world peace and
security.
Hence we must now find an acceptable solution
under which nations large and small will receive equal
treatment, in consonance with the Charter. The United
Nations was conceived to promote world peace,
democracy and equity for all.
I strongly support women and gender equality,
and I look forward with interest to the report of the
High-level Panel on System-wide Coherence,
appointed by the Secretary-General earlier this year. It
is expected to submit its final recommendations on
United Nations reform. It is my hope that the
establishment of a new, independent United Nations
fund or programme for the empowerment of women
and gender equality will be fully supported by Member
States, and that such a fund will have sufficient
resources to support targeted programmes for the
empowerment of women.
Three years ago, representatives of contending
warring factions, political parties and civil society in
Liberia gathered in Accra under the auspices of
international partners and signed the Comprehensive
Peace Agreement. Under provisions of that Agreement,
a National Transitional Government was installed in
October, 2003, with a mandate to disarm combatants
and prepare our country for elections. In October and
November, 2005, legislative and presidential elections
were held, leading to our historic and landmark
election by the Liberian people. The United Nations
played a pivotal role in that national transformation.
For and on behalf of the Liberian people, I wish to
thank the United Nations and other international
partners for the mammoth role they played in securing
peace and bringing sanity to Liberia.
I wish also to express the deep appreciation and
gratitude of the people of Liberia and their friends
everywhere to the men and women of the United
Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) for their active
role in securing and enhancing peace and security in
our country. I am proud to say that the leadership,
commanders, men and women of the various
contingents of UNMIL have largely comported
themselves well and performed their mission with
diligence and dedication. They have sacrificed greatly
and persevered in a very challenging peacekeeping
environment. The Special Representative of the
Secretary-General deserves particular commendation
for his foresight and support of our country’s
reconstruction efforts. I thank them all sincerely on
behalf of the Liberian people.
There are others to whom we owe a huge debt of
gratitude. The Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), the African Union, the United
States of America, the European Union and the
People’s Republic of China have been selfless and
generous in their material, financial and moral support
of our cause. I would be remiss if I did not single out
the sacrifices made by our West African brothers and
sisters to bring peace and sensibility to a suffering
people. We thank them.
While we are enjoying a semblance of peace, we
are particularly concerned about conflicts in other parts
of the world. Of notable concern is the protracted crisis
in the Middle East, which continues to create a state of
restlessness and threatens world peace and security.
From our experience, we have learned that no matter
how protracted a conflict, the parties must sit around
the table to iron out their differences and make peace.
Both the Israeli and the Palestinian authorities owe
their respective peoples, and the rest of us in the world,
an obligation to break out of their cocoon of pride to
resolve their differences harmoniously. We call for the
active engagement of the United Nations in the
peaceful and amicable resolution of the Middle East
crisis.
Elsewhere in Africa, and especially in
neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire, the standoff in the peace
process is troubling. We call on the parties in Côte
d’Ivoire to save their people from further punishment
by resolving their differences. We call upon the United
Nations to continue strong and decisive intervention to
prevent it from becoming a wider subregional and
regional crisis.
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The situation in Darfur and the slow pace with
which it is being addressed require urgent attention.
The continued stalemate over whether an African
Union or a United Nations force should be deployed or
maintained in the region exposes weaknesses in
international cooperation and collaboration and
demonstrates a lack of international will to address the
sufferings and yearnings of the citizens and residents
of Darfur, who plead everyday for international
intervention. Darfur represents a potential
humanitarian catastrophe. The world must not allow a
second Rwanda to happen. In the new millennium,
civilized nations must not be indifferent to any
conflict, internal or external, regardless of the factors
that fuel it.
The United Nations obligation to protect the
helpless and innocent must remain paramount in that
regard. My Government therefore calls on this General
Assembly and the Security Council to exercise
Chapter VII authority to restore peace, security and
stability to Darfur.
On the other hand, my delegation is pleased with
the successful holding of peaceful democratic elections
in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the first time
in 40 years. We look forward to seeing a peaceful
conclusion of the final stage of that process and the
ushering-in of a Government elected by the people of
that country. It is our hope that the democratic gains
made in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be
sustained to enable the new Government to employ the
vast national resources of that country for the benefit
and welfare of its people.
Globalization has significantly altered the world
and economic transactions among States. Africa will
remain on the periphery of the global village unless
we, as leaders, awaken to the imperatives of the ever-
changing requirements. The first step towards that
process of awakening is the promotion of democracy,
free enterprise, good governance, human rights and
social justice in our countries and across our continent.
There is increasing evidence that shows a direct
correlation between the material and moral well-being
of a people and their country, and the quality of their
democratic environment. My Government is keenly
aware of that reality. We have therefore promulgated
policies that support openness, transparency,
accountability and the equitable distribution of our
meagre resources, while endeavouring to address the
development and reconstruction challenges of the
country.
Five years ago on 11 September, 2001, a few
miles from this very Hall, terror of unimaginable
proportions struck, shocked the world and claimed
close to 3,000 precious and innocent lives. As the
people of the United States and the families of the
innocent dead remember their tragic and irreparable
loss this month, the people of Liberia join me in
affirming our identification with their loss. We
mourned with them then and we mourn with them now.
We also resolve, as all civilized nations should, to join
the global effort to fight terrorism anywhere in the
world, recognizing that it is today the most signal
challenge to world peace and collective freedom.
The world has witnessed a significant
achievement in science and technology, leading to
rapid industrialization and the improvement of the
standards of living of humankind. Although the gains
have led to the development of new medicines and
other scientific knowledge, they also pose a threat to
the environment and human survival.
Rapid industrialization and scientific discoveries
can have a damaging impact on the environment.
Unless there is a modification in our activities, the
pleasure derived from successes in scientific
achievement could, sadly, lead to tragedy and doom.
Thus, in the race for modernization and
development, we cannot ignore the potency of the
threats posed to our survival by environmental
degradation. Saving the planet is required for the
continued existence of its more than 5 billion
inhabitants.
It is in that regard that my delegation supports the
efforts of the Commission on Sustainable
Development, the Kyoto Protocol and the decision
reached on Agenda 21 during the 1992 United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development,
intended to raise international awareness about the
degradation of the environment and the need to reverse
the negative trend. We trust that environmental issues
will remain a priority on the global agenda.
Among the many impediments to social and
economic development in Africa are poverty, poor
health delivery systems, intraregional wars and civil
conflicts. The devastating impact of HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other diseases has contributed significantly
9 06-52737
to the slowing of progress on the African continent.
While countries in the developed world are leaping
ahead in science and technology, we are still groping to
find the means to combat curable diseases and to join
in the search to address incurable ones.
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the emergence of
HIV/AIDS brought into focus the recognition that that
deadly virus has eluded the sophistication of science
and technology, thereby posing one of the greatest
challenges to our development effort. The political will
of Africa is challenged to act speedily to eradicate the
virus and combat this health crisis.
The Government of Liberia welcomes the partial
lifting of the arms embargo and the ban on timber
imposed by Security Council resolution 1521 (2003).
We also look forward to the lifting of the ban on
diamonds as we seek to meet the requirements of
Council resolution 1343 (2001). My Government
pledges its fullest cooperation in the attainment of the
objectives set out in those resolutions. We remain
grateful to the international community for the
continuous assistance and support provided to our
country in its search for peace, security and post-war
reconstruction and development.
Today, I stand here in testimony to the rebirth of
my country — to our re-emergence to assume once
more our enviable and critical role as one of the first
independent African republics. We are aware that we
face awesome challenges: the challenge of rebuilding
our infrastructure, including education, health and
other institutions; the challenge of addressing
generations of gender imbalance, especially as it
relates to the education of the girl child; and the
challenge of promoting democracy, participation and
fundamental freedoms and rights in an environment of
equal opportunity.
We have made important beginnings, and we
remain encouraged by the bilateral support provided by
our bilateral and multilateral international partners.
The recent visit of the Secretary-General and other
similarly important visits by leaders of our continent
and of international financial institutions clearly
underscore the commitment of the United Nations and
the rest of the international community to working with
our Government to nurture and strengthen peace and to
foster development.
In closing, let me say that today, as in the past,
Liberia wishes to reaffirm its commitment to the
United Nations, this timeworn but irreplaceable
machinery and indispensable framework for
international peace and international relations. We
must all join our steadfast forces to make this
institution work for the good of humankind.