unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/11/89)
UN ASSEMBLY PLENARY -- TAKE 9
Posting Date: 10/09/89 Copyright UNITEX Communications, 1989
UNITEX Network, USA ISSN: 1043-7932
NATHAN M. SHAMUYARIRA, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Zimbabwe,
said the present session of the General Assembly must seriously
address itself to problems affecting the world economy. In the
vital field of international economic relations, the fresh
breeze that had led to such excitement in international
political relations had not made even a ripple. Zimbabwe
welcomed the positive developments in the international political
stage, and supported the enjoyment by all peoples of political
and civil rights, but people had economic and social rights
too. Human rights were a package, the elements of which were
mutually reinforcing and the denial of any weakens the entire
package. Attempts to divorce one from the other or champion one
right at the expense of the other was to sow confusion and set
the stage for futile mutual recriminations.
The pursuit of a healthier world economy, of growth and
development of the poorer countries, and of fairer terms of
trade between the North and South was fundamentally a struggle
for human rights; for the right of people to a decent existence,
he said. That struggle must involve greater recourse to
multilateral mechanisms on the part of all States. The
initiative taken by the developing countries, of having the
Assembly hold a special session on economic co-operation,
particularly for the revitalization of the growth and
development of developing countries in April 1990, was a timely
development. That special session should attend especially to
the need to resuscitate the stalled North-South dialogue on the
direction of the world economy.
In the era where economic mega-blocs were in formation in North
America and Europe, and where East and West were drawing closer
in many spheres, it was essential that developing countries were
not left out of discussions and mechanisms that would affect the
future course of international economic and political relations,
he said. He also noted that preparations were under way for the
elaboration of the international development strategy for the
fourth international development decade, and stressed the
complementarity between that process and the special session on
economic co-operation to be held next year.
Following the 1986 special session of the General Assembly on the
critical
economic situation in Africa, he continued, the Assembly had
adopted the United Nations Programme of Action for African
Economic Recovery and Development. The mid-term review of the
Programme clearly stated that the international community had
not kept its part of the bargain. Given the sacrifices that
African countries had made to keep their part of the bargain, it
was important that the Programme be made to work.
Problems of the environment affected the entire globe, he said.
For Africa, the problem of the dumping of nuclear and industrial
toxic wastes was the subject of resolutions by the Organization
of African Unity (OAU), the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) and the General Assembly itself last year. Greater
responsibility was needed in the way the world used its natural
resources and disposed dangerous waste products. Zimbabwe,
therefore, welcome
the intention to hold a special international conference on the
environment in 1992. The burden of safeguarding the environment
should be shared judiciously according to resource usage, waste
production and need.
Nearly three decades after the adoption of the Declaration on
decolonization, he said, colonialism was still very much in
evidence. The right of peoples to decide their own destiny was
being denied not only in the well-publicized cases of southern
Africa and Palestine, but also in countries in the Pacific, the
Caribbean basin and elsewhere. However, the major issue was the
decolonization of Namibia. A lot more remained to be done in the
remaining four and a half weeks in Namibia. Pretoria and its
functionaries in the Territory were still refusing to fully
comply with Security Council resolution 435.
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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