19 September 2017 – Reaffirming Zambia’s commitment to international cooperation to address the challenges facing the planet, the country’s President today called on world leaders to come together and act boldly for the sake of the shared future.
“In this globalized and inter-dependent world, no country, however wealthy or powerful, can resolve all these challenges single-handedly,” said Edgar Chagwa Lungu, addressing the general debate at the 72nd session of the General Assembly.
“Common solutions are, therefore, required through a strong United Nations,” he added.
In particular, he noted the challenges brought on by the impact of climate change – intensified through the increase in natural disasters – and how future generations remain most vulnerable out of no fault of their own.
Underscoring the importance of UN in addressing challenges in an interlinked and interdependent world, the Zambian President called for reforms, in particular to the Security Council to make the Organization more effective and efficient.
The Security Council needs to be more representative, democratic and accountable to all UN Member States, he said, adding that as Africa constitutes the second largest bloc of the UN Membership, proposals to reform the Council “should heed Africa’s legitimate call.”
Also in his remarks, the President noted important gains registered by the country, based on both the African Union 2063 Agenda and the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and that the agendas have been integrated into the national development planning framework. He also spoke of improvements in agriculture, employment generation, manufacturing as well as on deepening of democracy, rule of law and human rights.
“Zambia continues to make tremendous strides in the campaign to end child marriage [and] we are also repealing a number of discriminatory and outdated statutes related to children [to make it compatible with] the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” he said, urging everyone to concentrate on efforts to protect children and youth.
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