UNITED NATIONS WORKS IN CLOSE PARTNERSHIP WITH AFRICA FOR PEACE AND PROSPERITY, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG SAYS

Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, participated on 23 May in the annual commemoration of Africa Day, organized by the Africa Union under the theme of “Let’s Strengthen Africa’s place in the world through strategic, balanced and responsible partnerships”.

The Director-General underlined that one of Africa’s key partnerships was with the United Nations, and reiterated that the Secretary-General had made Africa one of his priorities. “Africa Day is an occasion for us to pay tribute to the vision of the African Union of an Africa in peace and prosperity. The United Nations is committed to working with Africa to make this vision a reality”, the Director-General declared.

The United Nations was actively engaged with African nations in helping to secure, consolidate and build peace across the African continent, the Director-General noted. However, despite positive trends in ending armed conflicts on the continent, peace had remained elusive in several countries. He underscored that the United Nations and the African Union stood united in efforts to bring peace to Somalia, Côte d’Ivoire and other areas of tension. In this connection, the Director-General referred to the appointment of a joint AU-UN envoy for Darfur as a demonstration of the shared resolve to address the crisis, and added that the deployment of the hybrid AU-UN peacekeeping force in Darfur should be the next step in the collective efforts to end the human suffering there.

Highlighting that the United Nations and the African Union shared a commitment to human rights, the Director-General called for a redoubling of efforts to safeguard the rights of all. If not addressed, he warned, human rights abuses risked sowing the seeds of violent conflict and impeding development.

The Director-General welcomed the progress that many African countries had made towards realizing the Millennium Development Goals. Progress had, nevertheless, been uneven, he observed. Many Goals risked being missed, if efforts were not stepped up, including the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. In this context, the Director-General expressed the hope that African nations would be engaged at a high level in the Annual Ministerial Review and the biennial Development Cooperation Forum, to be launched by the Economic and Social Council in July 2007, to help intensify efforts towards meeting the Goals.

Initiatives to advance peace, development and human rights would, however, come to little if the international community did not rise to the challenge of climate change, which was already affecting Africa the worst, the Director-General stated. He added that African countries had to be included as stakeholders, and be able to rely on the assistance of the international community, as they strived to develop and tackle climate change at the same time.