Algérie Presse Service (APS) – September 23, 2011

NEW YORK (UNITED NATIONS) – The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mourad Medelci, declared yesterday in New York that “ Algeria attaches the greatest significance to the enforcement of nuclear safety and security standards.”

Addressing the high-level meeting on nuclear security held in the framework of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly, the head of Algerian diplomacy stated that “Algeria, being aware as it is of its responsibility as operator of a civilian nuclear facility dedicated mainly to research, has adhered to the main legally binding international instruments (Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident).”

Furthermore, he said, that, although not required, Algeria enforces the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources and the Code of Conduct on the Safety of Research Reactors and uses them to update its legislation.

Addressing the operational aspect of the issue, Mr. Medelci said that the Algerian government works to reinforce its national radioprotection infrastructure and to “scrupulously implement” emergency plans in place at all nuclear facilities, including by users of radioactive sources. However, said the head of Algerian diplomacy, safety and security of nuclear material and facilities cannot be ensured solely through technical means.

In this respect, he indicated that the required valorization of human resources and international cooperation play a critical role. This is the reason why “ Algeria, who has enjoyed a long tradition of cooperation with the IAEA, often calls on the agency to provide assistance in strengthening the knowledge base and skills of its personnel.”

For the minister, the recent creation of the Algerian Institute of Nuclear Engineering (IAGN), whose curriculum includes specialized training in nuclear safety and security, is “a renewed opportunity to pursue and reinforce the exemplary partnership between Algeria and the IAEA.”

Addressing the concerns raised by the health and environmental impact of accidents which have marked the history of nuclear power in the world, Mr. Medelci stressed that the countries of the world need to provide all required safety guarantees to activities implying use of nuclear material and technology.

In this respect, he has argued, among others, in support of reinforcing the international nuclear safety and security system. To that end, he said, Algeria feels encouraged by “the measured and responsible tone” and the future guidelines outlined in the political declaration adopted by consensus at the ministerial conference convened last June in Vienna by IAEA’s Director General.

Algérie Presse Service (APS) – September 21, 2011

NEW YORK (UNITED NATIONS) – The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mourad Medelci, outlined yesterday Algeria’s policy to combat desertification, highlighting at the same time the country’s commitment to continue contributing to the capacity-building of developing countries hit by the phenomenon, namely in Africa.

In his address at the high-level meeting on desertification, convened in the framework of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr. Medelci stressed that Algeria has implemented significant measures, at the national level, to combat the impact of desertification and drought in arid and semi-arid areas.

Facing a phenomenon of desertification made worse by the impacts of climate change and demographics, Algeria has taken a number of measures in that respect, he said.

Moreover, added the minister, Algeria’s strategy to combat desertification is part of its five-year development program for 2010-2014.

This global approach is further supported by the country’s scheme for land management for 2010-2030, which depends, he said, on a participatory approach in which awareness and training programs directed at the local populations are highlighted.

In this respect, Mr. Medelci said that Algeria is among the first States parties to the Convention on Combating Desertification to have aligned its own national plan to combat desertification with the Convention’s ten-year (2008-2018) strategic plans. Furthermore, he indicated that significant programs covering close to forty million acres are committed to combating desertification and land degradation in arid and semi-arid zones. In this regards, that the “Green Dam” program, currently covering 600,000 acres, will be extended by a further 200,000 acres by 2015. Additionally, a new national map of areas sensitive to desertification has been drawn to support such efforts.

Addressing desertification at the global level, Mr. Medelci explained that he phenomenon, similarly to lad degradation and climate change, not only deprives hundreds of millions of people of lands that sustain them but are also sources of tensions and accentuate migrations.

Declaring that combating desertification is a global effort that is urgently required, the head of Algerian diplomacy noted that uprooting affected populations and challenging social stability in increasingly wider areas get concerned countries farther from the objectives of sustainable development.

Pursuing, Mr. Medelci stressed that the challenge of a universal efficient combat against desertification takes on a particular significance at a time when the world community is gearing up for the celebration in June 2012 of the 20e anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit meeting, which led in 1994 to the UN Convention on Combating Desertification.

The minister insisted before other UN delegates that the efficiency of this multilateral framework will hinge on the financing and the green technologies that rich countries will agree to make available to the least-favored countries.
“These are the primordial requirements to give justice to underprivileged populations and future generations” and to Africa, which “remains the hardest hit region in this regard,” the minister deplored.

In this regard, the minister indicated that numerous studies show that, short of urgent and efficient measures, Africa will lose two-thirds of its arable lands by 2025, thus annihilating all efforts deployed to stimulate development and to protect the environment.
Among the regional schemes implemented to combat such phenomena on the African continent, the minister mentioned the African Preparatory Conference on Preparatory Cooperation (COP 10), convened in Algiers in early September of this year.