POLITICAL, SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE NECESSARY PARTNER FOR UNITED NATIONS, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MESSAGE TO CONFERENCE
Press Release
SG/SM/5844
POLITICAL, SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE NECESSARY PARTNER FOR UNITED NATIONS, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MESSAGE TO CONFERENCE
19951208 Following is the text of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's message to the twenty-third Conference of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which is being held in Conakry, Guinea, from 9 to 13 December 1995:I should like first of all to welcome, on behalf of the United Nations as a whole, the opening of your Conference, and to send you my warm greetings. I deeply regret that I cannot be with you today. But as you know, the finalization of the general peace agreement on Bosnia and Herzegovina is taking place in Europe at this very moment. This is a fundamental step in the peace process in the region. And the Organization of the Islamic Conference will have a decisive role to play in that process.
Hence the interest with which I shall follow your work and the importance I attach to your meeting. I therefore wish to congratulate the Republic of Guinea and its President, General Lasana Conte, on hosting this Conference here. And I would ask him to be so kind as to transmit my wishes for happiness and progress to all of his people.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference and the United Nations have for years been forging ever-closer links. This collaboration has been further strengthened thanks to the untiring action of your Secretary-General, Hamid Algabid, to whom I wish to pay tribute. Our cooperation is all the more important in that we are well aware that today's world remains a troubled world, and that crises are no longer arising only between States, but even within nations.
In this difficult context, the United Nations has the duty and the obligation to draw on the support of all the institutions that, like it, are working in the service of peace and development. In this context, I have more than once had occasion to indicate the central role I assign to organizations like yours. For only common action will permit us to reach our goals.
Already, the United Nations is collaborating closely with the Organization of the Islamic Conference in the economic, social and cultural spheres. And the work the Organization of the Islamic Conference is
performing in this field in cooperation with the specialized agencies of the United Nations system, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is extremely remarkable.
But everyone is well aware that it is in the field of peace that our cooperation has in recent years made decisive progress. On the African continent, the United Nations has always received constant support from the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as well as from the Organization of African Unity and the Arab League. This has been the case in particular in Somalia. Moreover, our two organizations are continuing to act jointly to resolve the crises and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Lastly, I have referred to the essential role of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in the peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is, therefore, a need to purse this course and to strengthen the links of cooperation between our two organizations, particularly in the political sphere.
Last year, the Casablanca Summit clearly proclaimed the will of Member States to expand this collaboration. In this spirit, officials responsible for coordination between the agencies of the United Nations and the Organization of the Islamic Conference met in Geneva last June. The meeting saw the adoption of a number of important decisions aimed at consolidating and rationalizing cooperation between the two organizations in nine areas of priority interest on which they had agreed in advance.
At the current session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, in New York, Member States have had an opportunity to study the report I submitted to them on this subject and to adopt a resolution submitted by the Kingdom of Morocco. Let me assure you that I am closely attentive to this desire to strengthen our links and our activities. You can count on me to encourage the world Organization to render the Organization of the Islamic Conference all necessary assistance.
For, more than ever, it is my belief that the political and spiritual community that is the Organization of the Islamic Conference is an essential partner for the United Nations.
I therefore wish to bring you, as you begin your work, the encouragement and thanks of the international community for the work your organization is accomplishing in the service of our great common ideals.
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