STATEMENT BY SECRETARY-GENERAL AT OPENING OF FRANCOPHONE SUMMIT COTONOU, 2 DECEMBER
Press Release
SG/SM/5830
STATEMENT BY SECRETARY-GENERAL AT OPENING OF FRANCOPHONE SUMMIT COTONOU, 2 DECEMBER
19951201 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Following is the text of the statement of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, translated from the French, at the opening of the Francophone Summit in Cotonou on 2 December:Allow me first of all to address to each and every one of you a warm and fraternal greeting on the occasion of this new meeting -- I was going to say this new festivity -- which brings the great Francophone family together in Cotonou today.
And I want right away to address my thanks to my brother, President Nicéphore Soglo, for the kindness of his welcome and the warmth of his hospitality.
I should like also, in the name of the United Nations, to tell all the women and men of Benin how glad we are to be here among them, in their country.
The fact that we are meeting here, on the soil of Africa, has, we are all convinced, a particularly broad significance both emotionally and symbolically. For it is largely on the African continent that the very idea of Francophonia came into being, blossomed and spread, so that today it is one of the great areas of solidarity in the international community.
And so it is towards these Africans, the founding fathers of Francophonia, that I should like us to turn our thoughts today. For it is above all to them that we owe a debt of gratitude.
They were able to show, by their example, that the French language belongs to all those who love it and use it. They proved that the French language is capable of giving birth to a community which is both diverse and unified. They demonstrated that the French language can be the source of what we all feel as a real sense of brotherhood.
More than once, I have had occasion to state what Francophonia means to me, both in my personal life and in my professional life. More than once, I have tried to emphasize the emotive force that inspires the French-speaking world. More than once, I have recalled the cultural solidarity of which this force is the essence.
But I should like today, with you, to go further, and to delve into what seems to me to be the fundamental question that involves the very future of Francophonia. That question is how to transform the cultural solidarity of French speakers into a genuine political blueprint in the service of the United Nations. How can this community of language give rise to a diplomacy which is better able to respond to the great ideals of peace, development and democratization enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations?
These questions are all the more urgent because we are well aware that we are entering upon a period of history in which many problems need to be rethought in their totality and in which Francophonia, through the values inherent in it, can serve as an inspiration for the international society of the post-cold-war period.
One of our tasks here in Cotonou is to try to take further steps in this direction.
The imperative of peace remains more than ever the supreme objective of the international community as a whole, an objective which is all the more urgent in that the ending of the cold war has not given rise to the pacified world we were entitled to expect.
Quite the contrary, we have for a number of years been witnessing the birth -- or the rebirth -- of conflicts which no longer take place only between States, but actually within nations.
In fact, these new conflicts that are ravaging the world are in large measure no more than the sudden outpouring of a tension that had long been contained. By that, I mean that most of them were foreseeable and could, logically speaking, have been prevented. That only makes it more necessary for us all to focus on preventive diplomacy. And the French-speaking community must play a leading role in this area.
On many occasions -- particularly in my Agenda for Peace -- I have had an opportunity to explain what I expect of preventive diplomacy and to emphasize the extent to which it concerns us all.
We are well aware that preventive diplomacy cannot be carried out single-handed but is a joint undertaking, entailing the participation not only of States and international organizations, but also of non-governmental organizations and of all the mechanisms of solidarity.
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On many occasions, the French-speaking world has demonstrated its commitment to preventive diplomacy and to the peaceful settlement of conflicts.
Heads of State or Government of French-speaking countries, eminent French-speaking persons, institutions such as the parliaments of French- speaking countries, and bodies such as the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation, have played a crucial role in this field.
The current situation demands that we should go further. At this Cotonou Summit, I should like us all to reflect on what now seems to be an essential imperative: placing the French-speaking community at the service of peace.
But our presence here in Cotonou, on the African continent, makes us also remember that peace is meaningless unless the imperative of development is itself safeguarded.
In that regard, I wish today to address essentially the women and men of Africa.
For I should like this Cotonou Summit to give all French-speaking peoples an opportunity to express their total solidarity with Africa.
We are well aware that the French-speaking community should exemplify a new way of envisioning and experiencing North-South solidarity.
At a time when national egoism is often paramount and there is a great temptation to retreat into protectionism and isolationism, the French-speaking world should set an example of openness, generosity, and assistance to those who are most vulnerable and most deprived.
We are all aware of the urgent action required in Africa in the social, humanitarian, economic and financial fields. Everything possible must be done to help the African continent.
The French-speaking community has already been contributing for many years to the development of Africa.
Today, here in Cotonou, I should like to describe once again the essential role which the United Nations is playing in this regard.
This year, the United Nations launched a general mobilization plan for Africa. Every United Nations body and agency is placing Africa in the forefront of its priorities. The United Nations is stepping up its cooperation with the States and regional institutions of Africa -- and in
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particular the OAU. I want every African to feel that he or she is helped and supported by the international community as a whole.
We all know that the women and men of Africa have a substantial capacity for work and action and possess great initiative and imagination. Africa must therefore regain its self-confidence. It must feel that it is understood and that its voice is heard. It must realize that it is an integral part of the international community.
There again, the solidarity of the French-speaking nations can play a pivotal role in ensuring that Africa participates fully in the universal advance towards progress and development.
In this context, I attach great importance to the need to link Africa to the rest of the world through telecommunications. Africa must benefit from the substantial progress made in this field. It should occupy its proper place on the communications superhighways that are currently taking shape before us. The more developed French-speaking States should assist Africa in this regard. For the French-speaking community can also demonstrate its energy, vigour and vitality through technological solidarity.
Lastly, the imperative of democratization must likewise form an essential element of the new political blueprint of the French-speaking community.
All of us here today know that the democratic ideal is central to the thinking of the French-speaking nations. In other forums, I have had the occasion to describe the role which the French-speaking nations play in the world-wide dissemination of democratic principles and values.
Here too, the French-speaking community has, for the future, an essential role to play. For we well know, here, between ourselves, that for democracy to have any real sense it must be expressed at the national level as well as at the world level.
Democratization within States is one of the great projects of the world Organization. The United Nations offers genuine electoral assistance to States which request it. And an increasing number of States wish to take advantage of this assistance with a view to instituting or consolidating democracy.
Since 1992, some 20 French-speaking countries, including 19 in Africa, have benefited from this assistance.
In this task, the United Nations has received invaluable support from the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation, to which I should like here
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to pay a tribute. For we all know that an electoral consultation does not suffice in order to institute and guarantee democracy in a country.
The spirit of democracy must be instilled in the minds of men and women, and in the hearts of peoples and nations. Thus, it is through a broad campaign of teaching and civic instruction that democracy can truly become the natural way of life of societies.
But, as I said, democratization must extend also to international relations.
Ideological schisms have today largely disappeared. The world, long divided by East-West antagonism and North-South confrontation, may now hope to see the emergence of new democratic spaces.
In that regard, linguistic and cultural solidarity seems to me to be one of the foundations for democratization of the international society of tomorrow. The French-speaking family of nations provides a shining example of this.
In addition to the French-speaking nations, however, the Commonwealth, the Portuguese-speaking world, the Hispanic community and other communities are equally essential actors in democratic life at the international level. And so we must encourage their development and their action in the service of the values enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.
It is in this context that I wish to stress the importance of respect for multilingualism. To defend multilingualism is to defend difference and respect for others. But to defend multilingualism is also to express one's faith in multilateralism and in the virtues of dialogue.
In that regard, we all know to what extent the work of the present session of the United Nations General Assembly has already been a decisive factor in confirming multilingualism within the world Organization.
I therefore wanted to emphasize to you today, in Cotonou, in the clearest possible manner, that Francophonia is, in my view, on the way to entering a new phase, and that the cultural solidarity which it expresses must now become a genuine political blueprint.
In the position that I occupy today, I feel completely in unison with the progress of the world.
But I also know that it is in the very depths of my being, in the very depths of my international culture, in the very depths of my African roots that I find the strength and the will to continue my efforts, together with each and every one of you, to ensure the triumph of the values and principles of the family of nations, to which Francophonia has so much to offer.
Thank you for your attention.
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