UN General Assembly
2009

the most legitimate expectations of peoples” who are exposed to them and that “Responses to these issues will be ineffective unless they are undertaken within a robust, balanced and fair multilateral perspective” (ibid.). I quote these remarks by the head of Government of Cape Verde because they are quite current and because the themes they address have been the object of increasing attention by the international community. Cape Verde and other West African States are facing organized crime, which has found fertile ground for its activities in our region because of our fragile economies, the vulnerability of our emerging democracies and, in general, our States’ weak capacities to respond to this major threat. With the support of the United Nations, in particular the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the logistics capabilities of our partners, we, the States members of the Economic Community of West African States are pooling our capabilities to confront this tremendous challenge that has engulfed our subregion. In Cape Verde we believe that a small country