UN General Assembly
2012

human rights or economic development. We must recognize that human rights cannot be be enjoyed by people engulfed in underdevelopment. With respect to combating underdevelopment, we welcome the fact that Africa has already begun promoting programmes for economic development and modern democratic systems, which are liberating their peoples from underdevelopment despite many obstacles that still obstruct progress and attempts at perpetuating new colonialist interests in Africa. Most of the internal conflicts in Africa are supported by foreign interests that try to ensure their continued presence in the continent. As the saying goes, “If the river runs backwards, it is the fishermen who win”. We ourselves in Equatorial Guinea are very happy with the progress made in our economic development programme, which seeks to achieve an emerging economy by 2020 through the use of the resources provided by the exploitation of oil and natural gas. Thanks to those resources, we are more than meeting most of our needs in infrastructure, including roads, hospitals, schools, vocational training centres, universities, ports, airports, the drinking water supply, telephone communications, air, sea and