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afrol.com, 19 September - In the particular case of Africa, support for the International Criminal Court was not only desirable, it was a must, James Victor Gbeho, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ghana, told the UN Assembly this night. Censure by the international community was now very necessary in dissuading warlords and rebels from committing heinous crimes such as those committed in Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Congo Kinshasa. James Victor Gbeho told the UN Assembly that the situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone amply demonstrated the complexities of the challenges the United Nations faced. In the West African subregion, there must be cooperation in imposing a ban on the purchase of small arms and especially of diamonds not controlled by the Certificate of Origin regime. Unless the international community helped out by implementing that aspect of Security Council resolutions, international peace and security would continue to be prejudiced by the greed and ambition of individuals. Enhancing Africa’s peacekeeping capacity was a crucial goal. Ghana attached great importance to regional and subregional peacekeeping initiatives. However, such initiatives should not become an excuse for the United Nations or the Security Council to shirk its primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security in Africa. Ghana believed United Nations efforts to promote and maintain peace and security should rest on a firm international legal framework. In the particular case of Africa, support for the International Criminal Court was not only desirable, it was a must. Censure by the international community was now very necessary in dissuading warlords and rebels from committing the heinous crimes the world continued to witness in countries such as Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Congo Kinshasa. Ghana recommended, therefore, that international law should ensure that there was punishment and no immunity for perpetrators of such crimes. The spirit of compromise which had led to overwhelming endorsement of the Rome Treaty of the International Criminal Court, must be kept alive. In spite of the regular acknowledgement by world leaders of the need for poverty alleviation, those in a position to do so had failed to offer credible solutions, he said. On the contrary, they were using their pre-eminent political and economic positions to try to control and manipulate developing countries, especially in countries whose governments they did not support. To transform the context of international cooperation for development, it was essential to reinforce and enhance the network of linkages between the United Nations and civil society. He urged the Secretary-General to examine ways of ensuring common acceptable standards for accountability and transparency, even in the operations of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with respect to their participation in the United Nations. Gbeho expressed concern over the persistence of discrimination against women in most parts of the world, and called upon countries that had not yet ratified Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to do so. The protection of children’s rights was of equal importance to his delegation, and was the reason for its co-hosting with the Government of Canada of a workshop on Children in Armed Conflict. He then turned to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. Ghana supported the Secretary-General’s proposal for the adoption of 2005 and 2010 as the deadlines for reducing the rates of infection of young people through the easy availability of inexpensive vaccines made possible by developed-country partners. To reach that goal, there must also be investment in education, publicity, open discussion and the moral counseling of youth.
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