Foreign Minister Osman Saleh’s Statement at the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly

Your Excellency Ms. Annalena Baerbock, President of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly;Your Excellency Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN;Honourable Heads of Delegation;Distinguished Delegates;Ladies and Gentlemen;

Mr. President,

Allow me to join previous speakers to congratulate Your Excellency for your election to the Presidency of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly.

During the 79^th Session of the UN General Assembly last year, I had briefly digressed, as a backdrop and for purposes of historical reference, to dwell on humanity’s collective trajectory in the past 100 years.

In this regard, the defining features of this century can be summed up by:  failure of the League of Nations, established in the aftermath of the First World War, to guarantee the lofty objectives of peace, economic growth and prosperity for humanity as a whole; opportunities lost even after the UN was subsequently formed in 1945 and until the end of the Cold War; and, reckless and dangerous trends set in motion in the prevalent uni-polar world order in the last thirty years.

As we all agree, the League of Nations and the UN were originally conceived as viable architectures of global governance to advance the pronounced lofty objectives that we all cherish.  In this respect and at a time when humanity is aspiring for a transition from the old, defunct, global order to a new one, the over-arching quest must revolve around finding, outside tangential ideological acrimonies, enduring solutions to fundamental and outstanding problems that our global community continues to grapple with.

Economic injustice has remained the primary challenge for mankind and all the peoples as a whole since ancient times – from primitive social systems, to the epochs of slavery and colonization, all the way until our contemporary times in a “developed” 21^st century.

The perennial challenges stem from modalities of wealth creation and accumulation; and notably in relation to wealth and income sharing.

The fact is, past and present global systems are broadly rooted on monopoly, plunder, and deceit.  Domination and attendant policies crafted to that end; military power that is garnered and military assaults unleashed are indeed mere tools/means of domination and plunder.

Similarly, various “economic” and financial architectures are essentially enunciated to bolster the objectives of domination and plunder.  Policies formulated and operations undertaken to expand “spheres of influence” are likewise sheer means of domination and plunder.  Subtle corruption constitutes another means of domination and plunder. Wars, conflicts, and crises are also stoked and aggravated for the sole purposes of domination and plunder. Tools of propaganda and deception are weaponized for similar objectives.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the event, the cardinal challenge is how to bring about a new “global order” that promotes justice and fairness to supplant prevailing global governance architecture whose defining contours remain domination, plunder, deceit and repression.

Spiraling oppositions underway in various parts of our world, including in the developed and industrialized regions, through expansive popular demonstrations against dire economic trends and debilitating debt incurred by governments are only the tip of the iceberg.

But what is extremely preoccupying is the appalling economic situation in the underdeveloped countries; and more specifically in the marginalized African continent. Although the details can be assessed on a case by case basis, most of Africa’s economy remain primitive. Africa remains a continent where raw materials are exported to the so called “developed” economies for nominal prices;…in which manufactured/finished products are imported at highly inflated prices;… where the economies are afflicted by huge losses in job opportunities; …in which human capital and meagre professional and skilled manpower are drained due to migration and brain drain;… where presiding regimes lavishly waste borrowed money but cynically flaunt semblance of progress while burdened by mounting debt; are embroiled in corruption and political servitude to external forces… are afflicted by instability due to domestic polarization and endemic crises;…and where they face rapid population growth as well as imminent challenges and disasters.   The scenario is very bleak indeed.

Why was mankind’s mission in the new century unsuccessful?

The cherished mission does not contain novel and sophisticated inventions or ideological and philosophical dimensions.  The values of the mission invoked and that underpinned the struggle during the epochs of slavery have not changed whatsoever in this so called “new” 20^th century.

The aspirations of mankind are:

1. To fairly own their economic resources and the produce of their work, and march on a sustainable path of generational progress and prosperity by accumulating wealth.
2. To secure peace and stability in order to guarantee prosperity and economic growth.
3. To ensure prevalence of fairness and justice as vital prerequisites for peace and stability.
4. To promote mutual respect, complementarity and cohesion/integration so as to bolster widest regional and global peace and stability as well as mutual growth
5. To establish appropriate legal executive structure and associated mechanisms for the implementation of these fundamental human aspirations.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Although mankind’s aspirations have not been realized as yet, its cherished aspirations cannot be shelved or postponed.  Failure to achieve the desired objectives can only spur stronger resilience and greater moral imperative.

In the event, the timely and pressing task for all the peoples of the world is to strengthen their organizational and coordination mechanisms in order to prevail against perennial injustices (domination, deceit, coercion, intimidation, plunder, and monopolization… ).  This will require nurturing broad mechanisms of solidary as well as continuous review and refinement of their strategies and methodologies.

In this perspective, the peoples of Africa should particularly work out, in view of the specific hurdles that they are facing, a robust mechanism in order to contribute their share, with higher vigour, to the collective mission for a new world order in tandem with ongoing endeavours for the consolidation of a broad international alliance.

Ladies and Gentlemen

On the occasion of the 80^th session of the UNGA, I would like to mention that, in the interest of time, I have chosen not to delve into vital issues pertaining to palpable shortcomings of the UN and its various agencies along with possible remedial measures; as well as, the various initiatives underway by several parties for the crystallization of a new global order.

I thank you!