On behalf of the Government of the Lao People’s
Democratic Republic, I would like to extend my
sincere congratulations to you, Sir, on your election
as President of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth
session. I assure you of our full support and cooperation
in the discharge of your duties. I would also like to
sincerely commend His Excellency Mr. John Ashe for
the successful completion of his work as President of
the Assembly at its sixty-eighth session.

We have just over 450 days remaining for the
attainment of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). While many countries have made considerable
achievements and will achieve the MDGs, others, like
the least developed countries, have seen slow progress
and face various challenges in achieving all Goals
within the time frame. Moreover, complex regional
and international situations, such as armed conflicts,
political unrest, pandemics and environmental
degradation, among others, have inevitably brought
about more obstacles to those countries’ efforts to
realize the MDGs.

Against that backdrop, based on past experience,
it is evident that socioeconomic development in any
country can succeed only in an enabling, lasting and
secure environment. Only under such conditions could
we employ all efforts and draw on all potential and
resources available in the country for development in
the most effective and sustainable manner.

Over the 39 years of its existence, since the war
ended, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic has
deployed all its efforts in national development,
starting from the period of healing the wounds of war
to the era of formulating and implementing the seventh
five-year national socioeconomic development plan,
based on the renovation policy set by the Lao People’s
Revolutionary Party. The achievements made in each
period are the results of lessons learned through actual
development activities carried out and from adapting
to specific conditions within the country and to the
external environment.

Lessons learned from friendly countries, both
near and far, are valuable assets. We therefore would
like to express our sincere appreciation to all friendly
countries for sharing their knowledge and experience,
including both successes and failures, with the small
and young Lao People’s Democratic Republic in each
period.

The mid-term review of the implementation of the
seventh five-year national socioeconomic development
plan has shown that the Lao People’s Democratic
Republic has made remarkable achievements in many
areas, especially in maintaining a steady pace of
economic growth, political stability and social order,
thus ensuring that the Lao people of all ethnic groups
can enjoy their legitimate rights and freedom and can
actively participate in national development. That has
laid a solid foundation for the country to move towards
realizing its ultimate goal of graduating from the least
developed country status by 2020. The achievements so
far were made possible not only due to national efforts,
but also through the support and cooperation extended
by friendly countries and development partners,
including international organizations, especially the
United Nations system.

Nevertheless, the Lao People’s Democratic
Republic has also been affected by the global financial
and economic crisis in recent years. That has given rise
to major obstacles to national economic development as
well as to the implementation of various development
goals. In that regard, the Lao Government has taken
timely measures to stabilize its macroeconomy, aimed
at promoting sustained growth in the coming years.

In addition, as a landlocked and least developed
country, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
remains vulnerable. It still faces numerous challenges,
especially in achieving some of the MDG targets,
including reducing child malnutrition, ensuring gender
equality in education and reducing child and maternal
mortality.

Minimizing the impact of unexploded ordnance
(UXO) dropped during the war also remains a challenge.
Taking into account the importance of dealing with
that matter, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic has
adopted a localized millennium development goal on
addressing the impact of UXO, as its national MDG 9.

Reducing the impact of UXO remains a huge
burden and task for the country, as it hampers national
development and the eradication of poverty. In that
connection, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
is one of the countries that initiated the process to
formulate the Oslo Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The full and effective implementation of the Oslo
Convention is of great importance, because it will lead
to a total prohibition of the use, production or transfer
of cluster munitions.

In that connection, I take this opportunity to convey
our congratulations to Saint Kitts and Nevis, Belize
and the Republic of the Congo on their ratification of
the Oslo Convention, which increased the total number
of States having done so to 86. We hope that other
countries will also consider becoming parties to the
Convention.

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic shares
the common concern over the escalating armed

conflicts in different parts of the world, which are
posing increasingly major threats to the international
community. We urge all parties concerned to exercise
the utmost restraint and refrain from taking any action
that could cause loss of people’s lives or property. Only
through addressing those conflicts by peaceful means
can we ensure mutual trust. Resentment and hostility
against one another lead to escalating violence and use
of force, resulting in loss of life and property and pain
and suffering for innocent people.

In addition, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
shares the strong concern about the escalating conflict
in Palestine, which has led to loss of Palestinian lives.
We therefore urge a peaceful resolution of the issue of
Palestine.

In this era of interdependence, cooperation and
engagement are key factors for peaceful and mutually
beneficial coexistence. The enforcement of isolation and
of sanction measures imposed on any country may not
benefit the international community. On the contrary, it
may cause losses to all and lead to increasing hostility.
Likewise, the unilateral embargo on the Republic of
Cuba — a sovereign State — for many decades has had
a major impact on the lives of the peace-loving Cuban
people. Therefore, it is now time to lift the embargo.

In this complex and challenging global environment,
the United Nations, the only universal organization,
under the leadership of Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon, has made tireless efforts to seek ways and
means to address these international issues, promote
cooperation for sustainable development and poverty
eradication and maintain peace, stability and security
in the world. I would like to take this opportunity
to commend the Secretary-General for his various
initiatives in addressing issues of common concern,
including the organization of the Climate Summit,
which has just been successfully concluded.

Nevertheless, amid complex and unpredictable
circumstances, the United Nations needs to strengthen
itself through the reform of various organs so that it
can more effectively carry out its mandate and fulfil
its obligations. The international community is hoping
to see further tangible progress next year on the
reform of the United Nations, on the occasion marking
the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the
Organization.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) is a regional organization that has enjoyed
rapid growth, and all ASEAN-initiated mechanisms
are bearing fruitful results. We are therefore convinced
that ASEAN community-building in 2015 will be
successful, turning ASEAN into a single market and
production base with increased competitiveness, thus
promoting trade and investment in the region and
between ASEAN and its external partners. ASEAN is
now earnestly mapping out the ASEAN Community
Post-2015 Vision, aimed at strengthening and ensuring
ASEAN unity while promoting peace and security in the
region and the world at large. On that note, we hope that
the international community will continue to support
the implementation of the ASEAN Community Post-
2015 Vision, as well as the Lao People’s Democratic
Republic’s ASEAN chairmanship in 2016, after ASEAN
becomes a Community.

Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) compose
one of the groups of countries in special situations that
are recognized by the international community. After
10 years of implementation of the Almaty Programme of
Action on addressing the specific problems and special
needs of LLDCs, it has been noted that many objectives
have not been realized, thus those countries continue to
face daunting challenges and marginalization in many
areas.

More than half of the LLDCs are also least developed
countries. In that context, the second United Nations
Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries, to be
held in November in Vienna, is of great significance
to LLDCs, as it will conduct the 10-year review of the
implementation of Almaty Programme of Action and
adopt a new programme of action for the next decade.
On that note, we would like to call upon all stakeholders,
including transit countries and development partners,
to participate actively in the Conference with a view to
ensuring its successful outcome. Also, we call on the
international community to support the implementation
of the new programme of action in order to help
those countries overcome their special problems and
challenges and achieve sustainable development.

The year 2015 will mark the seventieth anniversary
of the founding of the United Nations. We hope that
the international community will spare no effort in
building a peaceful, secure and prosperous world.


The President of the Republic of Cameroon, His
Excellency Mr. Paul Biya, has requested me to convey
to members, the Secretary-General and his fellow staff
his warm greetings and to deliver his statement before
the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session.

“Next year, we should adopt the post-2015
development agenda in follow-up to the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Throughout the sixty-
eighth session, our representatives actively worked
to develop new goals to pick up the MDG torch.
That important task, since it concerns the raison
d’être of the Organization, is not finished. It will
be incumbent upon the President to see it through.
I am sure that he will succeed. Rest assured of the
full and wholehearted cooperation of my country
in that regard.
“For the post-2015 period, the United Nations
seeks a transformative agenda that gives priority
to the eradication of poverty and hunger, as well
as to sustained and inclusive economic growth.
Cameroon fully shares that vision.
“In Cameroon, since 2010, we have implemented
a strategy for growth and employment whose
primary purpose is indeed the reduction of poverty.
The measures taken in that regard aim in particular
at creating jobs and improving the living conditions
of the population. The recovery of our economy and
our public finances, which has fostered the return
of growth, bodes well for the success of our efforts.
However, such progress, substantial and significant
as it is, has not yet enabled us to eradicate poverty.
In the areas of education, health care, access to
water and electricity, roads, et cetera, there is still
a long way to go in order to meet the needs of our
people.
“Most of the countries targeted by the
MDGs — the developing countries — face similar
situations. That is why, like the President, we
support a transformative post-2015 agenda. That
will clearly require some changes to our approach
to development. It should no longer be seen as an
external process but, rather, as an expression of
the wishes and needs of the target populations.
Moreover, that is the common position of the
African countries.
“Following a review of the MDGs, it will also
be necessary to establish a follow-up mechanism
for the goals of the new system. Finally, we will
inevitably have to change the way in which
development aid is financed in order to improve its
effectiveness.
“Once those conditions are met, we should
work on the most important matter of all, namely,
ensuring security. For it goes without saying that
without security there can be no development.
Take the example of my country, which is proud
of having been a haven of peace and stability for
decades. To the east, since March 2013, the Central
African Republic has seen its security situation
severely deteriorate: massacres and population

displacements have jeopardized any hope of
development, not to mention the flux of tens of
thousands of refugees towards Cameroon. In the
far north, attacks by the Boko Haram group, which
is more concerned about imposing shariah law than
improving the living conditions of populations,
threaten the integrity of our territory. There, too, the
lack of security has caused thousands of displaced
persons to flee to my country. It is estimated that
in recent months Cameroon has hosted more than
200,000 refugees from all kinds of origins. It goes
without saying that my country will continue to
honour its tradition of hospitality. However, if that
situation should continue, there is no guarantee that
we will have the resources to deal with it.
“The time allocated to me does not allow
me to mention the other areas of tension and
conflict, whether in Africa, the Middle East or
Eastern Europe. The causes and issues are varied.
I will therefore limit myself to urging the parties
concerned to negotiate and to seek peaceful
solutions.
“That is the path that Nigeria and Cameroon
chose to settle the dispute between them, some
years ago, over the Bakassi peninsula. It enabled
us to find a solution conforming with international
law and, above all, to seal an unfailing friendship
between our two countries. Moreover it was, I
should stress, in harmony with the ideals of the
Charter of our Organization.”


I bring the Assembly
greetings from Her Excellency Mrs. Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia,
who should have been here today to address the
Assembly but chose to remain on the front lines in
Liberia to lead our fight against the deadly Ebola virus
disease.

Liberia congratulates the President of the Assembly
on his assumption of his high office and acknowledges
the astute statesmanship and wisdom that he brings to
that important assignment, which inspire confidence
for a successful sixty-ninth session of the Assembly. We
assure him of Liberia’s full cooperation and support.
We pay a special tribute to Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon for his able and visionary stewardship of the
affairs of this global institution.

With just one year until the expiration date of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the theme
of this sixty-ninth general debate, “Delivering on and
implementing a transformative post-2015 development
agenda”, could not have been more appropriate. Liberia
was put on the pedestal of global honour when President
Johnson-Sirleaf was selected as one of three co-chairs
of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-
2015 Development Agenda, formed by the Secretary-
General in 2012 to advise him on the contours of an
ambitious but realistic post-2015 global development
agenda and to define the critical steps required to
reinvigorate and sustain global partnership. The Panel’s
report, A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and
Transform Economies through Sustainable Development,
contained a clarion call to leave no one behind, which
has been embraced as a motivating theme by many.

At the continental level, our President chairs a
10-member high-level committee of African Heads
of State, under whose leadership a African Common
Position has been developed and endorsed by the
membership of the African Union (AU). That Position
is based on six pillars that represent Africa’s vision
of the prerequisites for eradicating poverty on the
continent and for ensuring its future and development.

We are encouraged that the concepts and strategies
defined under each of the pillars have been significantly
incorporated into the proposed 17 sustainable
development goals. That makes us optimistic that the
substance of our pillars will form an integral part of
the post-2015 development agenda. As we await the
Secretary-General’s synthesizing report, I can assure
the Assembly of Liberia’s continued active participation
in the negotiations that lie ahead.

As we survey the regional and international
political landscape, we are increasingly concerned
about the spread of extremist ideologies and terrorist
activities around the world, especially in Africa.
Whether we are speaking of Al-Shabaab in Somalia
and Kenya, Al-Qaida in the Maghreb or Boko Haram
in Nigeria, the African continent has not been spared
the deadly and destructive consequences of extremism.
Additionally, over the past year, while peace processes
were being consolidated in many African countries, we
have been sad witnesses to the eruption or exacerbation
of conflicts on the continent, notably in South Sudan
and the Central African Republic. We laud the efforts
of the AU and the United Nations to resolve those
conflicts, and join in the call for sustained international
action to bring about a more secure and peaceful world.

Liberia commends the Secretary-General for his
convening, last week, of the high-level Climate Summit,
which elicited concrete commitments from the global
community on reducing greenhouse emissions and other
measures aimed at achieving sustainable development.
As a small country and one that is still endowed with
43 per cent of the remaining Guinea forests, we are proud
that we too have concluded partnership agreements and
made concrete commitments aimed at supporting the
goals of sustainable, climate-sensitive development.
Small countries like Liberia contribute less to
greenhouse emissions but suffer disproportionately
from the adverse impact of climate change. To right that
anomaly and in the united spirit of saving our one world,
all countries, big and small, should make proportionate
commitments to saving our planet and take concrete
action to make such commitments a reality.

A year ago, when President Johnson-Sirleaf
addressed the Assembly (see A/68/PV.6), it was with
a more positive message from a President reporting
significant achievements and lofty aspirations for the
future. President Johnson-Sirleaf, full of gratitude,
informed the world that Liberia had just celebrated
10 years of peace in August 2013, and that, despite some
challenges, was still registering remarkable progress on
the path of socioeconomic development. The country
had transitioned from an emphasis on stabilization to
a focus on transformation within the framework of
a long-term development agenda, Vision 2030. The
President also informed the Assembly that the countries
of the Mano River Basin Union — Liberia, Guinea,
Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone — were at peace and
were pursuing regional integration through initiatives
that would facilitate connectivity within their power
and transport systems, thereby enhancing the cross-
border trade in which our market women are mostly
engaged. She even reported on how a small contingent
of Liberian peacekeepers, who are still in Mali
today, had contributed to the laudable United Nations
peacekeeping efforts there, creating an environment
conducive to stability and democratic transition in that
country.

One year later, as I address the Assembly, I am the
purveyor of a different kind of story, and a sad one. Over
the past six months, a dark cloud has been hanging over
the Liberian landscape, such that instead of reporting
economic growth, we are constrained to report economic
decline. The implementation of virtually all the pillars
of our Agenda for Transformation has been placed on
hold, and gains are perhaps already being reversed.
Instead of devoting attention to regional integration
through the facilitation of power and transport projects,
we are talking about regional cooperation in dealing
with a deadly enemy. The market women who traded
goods and services across borders a year ago are now
constrained to remain within those borders and suffer
the consequences of economic inactivity.

The deadly enemy that has visited so much harm
and misery on my country and our neighbours is the
Ebola virus disease, which began wreaking havoc in
Liberia in March. Since the outbreak, the Government of
Liberia has taken a host of measures. We have declared
a state of emergency and suspended schools, and,
with the constructive involvement of all stakeholders,
including pastors, imams, chiefs, elders, young people,
Government officials and opposition politicians, we
have stepped up awareness and prevention campaigns
to address the rigid denial and deeply rooted traditional
and cultural practices that create fertile ground for the
spread of the disease. We have also committed and will
continue to commit significant portions of our own
paltry resources to the fight.

In spite of such efforts, which have been buttressed by
those of our partners, Ebola has confounded all of us and
has sprinted faster than our collective efforts, snuffing
out the life candle of more than 1,800 of our compatriots,
with a total of nearly 3,500 infected. Cumulatively,
women, as the majority among our health workforce and
the main caregivers in our deeply traditional society,
have been disproportionately affected. Sadly, as Ebola
widens its deadly circumference, it is creating a trail of
traumatized orphans across the country, which includes
a 10-year-old child from Barkedu, Lofa county, who
is the last person standing from a family of 12. Our
already limited pool of health workers has been further
reduced, because 89 of them have fallen victim to the
virus, out of a total of 182 infected.

The resulting panic that has arisen in health workers
who see their colleagues die from Ebola has precipitated
the closure of many health facilities across the country.
As we and our many international partners struggle to
douse the wildfire caused by Ebola, we are left with
inadequate resources, time and personnel to attend to
routine illnesses such as malaria, typhoid fever and
measles, thereby causing many more, tangential deaths.
An increasing number of pregnant women are dying in
the process of bringing forth life. In short, our public
health system, which totally collapsed during our
years of conflict and was being gradually rebuilt, has
collapsed again under the weight of the deadly virus.

Ebola is not just a health crisis; it is a total crisis. It is
an economic crisis, a social crisis and a potential political
and security crisis. Indeed, its deleterious impact has
been very wide and very deep. On the economic front,
it has occasioned a 3.4 per cent downward slide in
economic growth in Liberia, and some experts have
predicted that, if not contained quickly, it could cause a
12 per cent decline in our economy in 2015. As a result
of the slowdown in economic activities, our revenue
generation capacity has been seriously undermined,
thereby constricting our ability to provide basic social
services and to continue to fund key development
projects. The suspension of flights as well as the travel
and other restrictions and sanctions imposed on Liberia
and other affected countries despite expert advice to
the contrary from the World Health Organization and
others, have not only undermined the humanitarian
efforts aimed at quickly containing the disease, but
have also aggravated the adverse economic effects of
the Ebola crisis.

As destructive as the Liberian civil conflict was, at
least our people knew the warring factions and the front
lines. With Ebola, the enemy is more insidious, and
there are no clear-cut front lines, because someone’s
child, someone’s husband or someone’s workmate
could actually be the enemy and in the front line at the
same time. That difficult feature of the disease, coupled
with a host of other challenges, has occasioned its rapid
spread. We are heartened that, as a result of separate
and joint appeals of the heads of State of Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Guinea to the Secretary-General and leaders
of friendly countries and institutions, the international
community is showing a better appreciation of the
unprecedented scope and magnitude of the Ebola
outbreak in our countries. There is a chorus of leaders
advocating and committing to support more robust,
scaled up and urgent assistance to the affected countries.

Thanks to the Secretary-General and other
world leaders, the past few weeks have witnessed a
host of positive developments that constitute a major
heightening of focus and scaling up of the international
response. Those developments include the following.

First, we welcome the announcement by President
Barak Obama of the United States of his Government’s
decision to scale up assistance to the region, including
the deployment of 3,000 military and medical personnel
to help us with the fight.

Secondly, the Security Council meeting held on
18 September 2014 (see S/PV.7268), under the leadership
and Council presidency of the United States, adopted
resolution 2177 (2014), which recognizes the Ebola
crisis as a threat to international peace and security,
necessitating a strong and concerted international
response through firm commitments of support. The
resolution also called on Member States to lift travel
and other restrictions imposed on affected countries.

Thirdly, the Secretary-General announced on
18 September his intention to establish the United
Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, which
was formally endorsed by Assembly resolution 69/1,
submitted by the President and adopted on 19 September.

Fourthly, we have seen the start of the deployment
by the African Union of contingents of medical and
relevant personnel drawn from across Africa to Liberia
and other worst-affected countries.

Fifthly, the high-level meeting on response to the
Ebola virus disease outbreak, convened at Headquarters

by the Secretary-General on 25 September, witnessed
announcements of substantial commitments of
assistance by many countries.

Those concrete demonstrations of solidarity have
taken many forms, and we are deeply grateful for all
of them. They should, however, not lead us towards
complacency, because we definitely have not yet
achieved the 20-fold increase in response recommended
by the experts to contain the disease. Additionally,
while we struggle with the first war, which involves
actually disrupting the transmission of Ebola, we must
begin to prepare for the second war of tackling the
long-term socioeconomic impacts of the Ebola crisis,
including building and creating the capacity for a new
health system that can robustly deal with any future
health challenge, and raising the resources needed to
address a legion of socioeconomic, political, security
and other challenges made more acute by the presence
of Ebola.

We are also cognizant of the positive contributions
of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL),
which has helped us enjoy 10 years of peace. The
presence of UNMIL in Liberia, especially at a time when
we were experiencing isolation, has helped to reassure
our people and create a security climate conducive to
tackling some of the multifaceted challenges of the
Ebola crisis. Therefore, the continued engagement
of UNMIL in Liberia will be critical to enabling
Liberia’s transition from the Ebola crisis to resume the
implementation of strategies for the achievement of our
long-term development agenda.

Ebola is a difficult enemy that has frustrated and
bypassed our collective efforts in the past, causing some
experts to project that, in a worst case scenario, about
1.4 million precious lives could be lost in our countries
by January 2015. In spite of the gloom of today — and
as Liberians ponder the question: “Will I, my wife, my
husband, my child, my friend or my workmate be one of
those to populate the 1.4 million doomsday statistics?”—
we should not sink into defeatism. Instead, President
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and the resilient Liberian people
feel that Ebola has presented us with a one-option,
multiple-choice test, and that option is to fight back.
And we are fighting back.

As President Johnson-Sirleaf aptly put it in her
17 September update to the people of Liberia on the
Ebola crisis:

“I believe in the Liberian people. I believe that
we are stronger than the greatest threat with which
we are currently faced. And 1 believe we will
prevail. The war did not defeat us, a completely
destroyed economy — the greatest collapse since
World War II — did not defeat us. Ebola will not
defeat us”.
We know that the road ahead may be long, curvy
and hilly. But with bigger, bolder, timely and sustained
efforts on our part, buttressed by the international
community, we are sure that dawn will soon break on
this long, dark night occasioned by the Ebola virus.


I bring with me warmest
greetings from the people of Nepal and their best wishes
for the success of the sixty-ninth session of the General
Assembly. I congratulate the President of the Assembly
on his unanimous election and wish to express our deep
appreciation to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his
commitment and dedication.

We commend the Secretary-General for convening
the Climate Summit. The momentum generated at the
Summit should pave the way next year for a binding
agreement on climate change, with long-term and
comprehensive global commitments for climate
solutions based on the principles of common but
differentiated responsibilities, equity and respective
capabilities. It is an irony that the world’s most
vulnerable countries happen to be the worst victims
of climate change through no fault of their own. There
should be special provisions for climate financing,
separate from regular official development assistance,
so that the mitigation and adaptation needs of the least
developed countries and small island developing States
can be addressed.

Terrorism is anathema to humankind. It is a
serious threat to peace, security and development.
Nepal unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its
forms and manifestations. We share the concern
about the growing scourges of terrorism, extremism
and religious fundamentalism. In that context, we
welcome the convening of the Security Council summit
meeting earlier this week (see S/PV.7272) and support
the adoption of resolution 2178 (2014), on foreign
terrorist fighters. We appeal for an early conclusion of
a comprehensive convention on international terrorism
and the effective implementation of the provisions of
the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
Nepal believes that terrorism can best be tackled under
the auspices of the United Nations with a coordinated
global response.

Peacekeeping has emerged as the central activity
of the United Nations and an innovative tool for
dealing with challenges to peace and security. Nepal
is proud to have contributed to the maintenance of

international peace and security through United
Nations peacekeeping operations in troubled parts
of the world. Nepalese Blue Helmets have been
commended for their professionalism and commitment
in trying circumstances. We are currently the fifth-
largest troop contributor to that flagship activity. With
ever-greater commitment and dedication, Nepal will
continue to participate in peacekeeping operations
and to promote gender equality through the increased
participation of women in peacekeeping. We urge this
world body to give due consideration to the safety and
security of peacekeepers. Nepal calls for equitable
leadership opportunities, commensurate with Member
States’ troop contributions, to be made available both at
Headquarters and in the field.

Nepal stands for general and complete disarmament,
covering all weapons of mass destruction, in a
time-bound, verifiable and effective manner. We
call upon Member States, especially nuclear-weapon
States, to halt militarization in all spheres and step up
measures for disarmament in order to free up much-
needed dividends for development. We wish to see an
enlarged role for the United Nations Regional Centre
for Peace and Disarmament in Asia, which is based in
Kathmandu.

As a least developed and landlocked country, Nepal
faces structural constraints and pervasive and complex
development challenges. My delegation underlines the
urgency of addressing the special needs of the least
developed countries (LDCs) and supporting them
with the provision of enhanced resources for inclusive
development.

Nepal calls upon the international community,
particularly donors, to fulfil all the commitments made
in favour of LDCs. We underline the timely, full and
effective implementation of the Istanbul Programme of
Action for LDCs. Nepal aims to graduate from LDC
status by 2022. An enhanced level of international
support to build our productive capacity, improve supply-
side capacity, minimize shocks and vulnerabilities and,
above all, bring about structural transformation will be
critical to meeting that target.

Nepal remains fully committed to the protection
and promotion of human rights and has put the
required institutional mechanisms in place. We remain
constructively engaged with all United Nations human
rights mechanisms and the international community
in the protection and promotion of human rights. We
reject politicization and selectivity in the application of
human rights standards.

My Government is determined to bring about a
dignified closure of the past dating back to the armed
conflict. We believe the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission and the Commission on Disappearances
will help put our past behind us and prevent a
recurrence of grave violations of human rights. I want
to reassure the international community that there will
be no blanket amnesty for grave crimes. We underline
the need to ensure the rights and well-being of migrant
workers.

Nepal has always supported the call for a just,
lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East
and an end to the spiralling conflict in the region.
We recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian
people on the basis of United Nations resolutions and
encourage Israel and Palestine to live as neighbours
within secure and recognized international boundaries.

The situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria
demands a more proactive United Nations engagement.
While supporting the independence, sovereignty and
territorial integrity of those countries, we urge the
United Nations to play an active role in finding a political
settlement and helping those countries move towards
national unity, reconciliation and reconstruction.

We hold the view that the people of Ukraine should
enjoy the right to freely decide their destiny without
any outside interference.

Our unwavering faith and long struggle for a
democratic system of governance has given us the
strength to mainstream the armed Maoist rebels into
a peaceful democratic process and lead a successful
transition from autocratic monarchy to democratic
republican order, thereby setting up unique models. The
political parties in Nepal, including the Maoists, are
now working together to have a democratic Constitution
promulgated through the elected Constituent Assembly.
My Government remains committed to bringing the
parties both within and outside the Assembly on board
within the framework of constitutionalism, political
pluralism and the rule of law, to put the country on the
path of peace, stability, development and a democratic
system of governance.

We greatly appreciate our neighbours, India
and China, the United Nations, our friends and well-
wishers in the international community for their

support for and solidarity with our peace process and
development efforts. We firmly believe that democracy
is indispensable for peace, progress, stability and
prosperity. Peace, democracy and sustainable
development are inextricably linked and mutually
reinforcing. Development is not possible in the absence
of peace, which, in turn, cannot be attained in the
absence of democracy.

The post-2015 development agenda becomes truly
transformative only when the pressing needs and
priorities of the most vulnerable and marginalized
countries and societies are faithfully integrated into the
broader global agenda and are provided with sufficient
resources to achieve them. A holistic development
process does not leave an unfinished agenda behind,
so the remaining tasks of the Millennium Development
Goals should be fully incorporated in the post-2015
agenda.

We consider corruption to be the biggest enemy
of the people and a threat to peace, stability and
development. My Government has underlined the
importance of transparency, accountability and zero
tolerance for corruption as prerequisites to improving
the quality of governance and delivering results to the
people.

Nepal’s foreign policy is inspired by the purposes
and principles of the United Nations. People’s aspirations
for peace, stability, progress, decency, dignity and
prosperity are firmly embedded in it. We strongly
believe that peaceful coexistence, mutual respect
for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,
non-interference in the internal affairs of other States,
and equality and mutual benefit should constitute the
fundamental tenets of inter-State relationships.

Reforms of the United Nations, including the
Security Council, need to reflect contemporary realities
for making it more effective, representative, responsive
and capable of handling increasingly complex global
problems. We support the expansion of membership
in both permanent and non-permanent categories. The
seventieth anniversary of the United Nations, next
year, should be an occasion to ensure the representation
and increase the voices of developing countries in the
Security Council. In that context, Nepal reiterates its
support for the desire of India, Japan, Germany and
Brazil to serve as permanent members in the expanded
Security Council. We also believe that the African
continent and Member States that have contributed to
the maintenance of international peace and security
should also be given due consideration in any expansion.

In seven decades of the United Nations, it has been
found to be most successful when we honour the letter
and spirit of the Charter of the United Nations and
the decisions we make. B.P. Koirala, the first elected
Prime Minister of Nepal, while addressing the General
Assembly at its fifteenth session, in 1960, said,

“The real solution of the world’s problems,
including the problem of world peace and prosperity,
lies in the direction of strengthening and extending
the authority of the United Nations. This authority
will be strengthened and fortified if the decisions
of the United Nations are respected faithfully and
loyally by all Powers, great and small.” (A/PV.878,
para. 235)
In conclusion, my Government reiterates its
profound commitment to the purposes and principles of
the Charter of the United Nations as the embodiment of
peace, progress and prosperity.


In extending the
Holy See’s congratulations to Mr. Sam Kutesa on his
election to the presidency of the General Assembly
at its sixty-ninth session, I wish to convey the cordial
greetings of His Holiness Pope Francis to him and to all
participating delegations. He assures the President of his
closeness and prayers for the Assembly’s work during
this session with the hope that it will be carried out in
an atmosphere of productive collaboration, working for
a more fraternal and united world by identifying ways
to resolve the serious problems that beset the whole
human family today.

In continuity with his predecessors, Pope Francis
recently reiterated the Holy See’s esteem and

appreciation for the United Nations as an indispensable
means of building an authentic family of peoples. The
Holy See values the efforts of this institution to ensure
world peace, respect for human dignity, the protection
of persons, especially the poorest and most vulnerable,
and harmonious economic and social development.

Although mindful of the human person’s gifts and
abilities, Pope Francis observes that today there is the
danger of widespread indifference. To the extent that
indifference concerns the field of politics, it also affects
economic and social sectors, since an important part
of humanity does not share in the benefits of progress
and is in fact relegated to the status of second-class
citizens. At times, such apathy is synonymous with
irresponsibility.

I also recall the words of His Holiness to the
Secretary-General at the beginning of August: “It is with
a heavy and anguished heart that I have been following
the dramatic events in northern Iraq”. He was thinking
of the tears, the suffering and the heartfelt cries of
despair of Christians and other religious minorities of
that beloved land. In that same letter the Pope renewed
his urgent appeal to the international community to
take action to end the humanitarian tragedy now under
way. He further encouraged all the competent organs
of the United Nations, in particular those responsible
for security, peace, humanitarian law and assistance to
refugees, to continue their efforts in accordance with
the Preamble and relevant Articles of the Charter of the
United Nations.

Today, I am compelled to repeat the heartfelt appeal
of His Holiness and to propose to the General Assembly
and to the other competent organs of the United Nations
that they deepen their understanding of the difficult
and complex time in which we are now living.

With the dramatic situation in northern Iraq
and some parts of Syria, we are seeing a totally new
phenomenon — the existence of a terrorist organization
that threatens all States, vowing to dissolve them
and to replace them with a pseudo-religious world
government. Unfortunately, as the Holy Father recently
said, even today there are those who would presume to
wield power by coercing consciences and taking lives,
persecuting and murdering in the name of God. Those
actions bring injury to entire ethnic groups, populations
and ancient cultures. It must be remembered that
such violence is borne out of a disregard for God and
falsifies religion itself, since religion aims instead at
reconciling men and women with God, at illuminating
and purifying consciences and at making it clear that
each human being is the image of the Creator.

In a world of global communications, that new
phenomenon has found followers in numerous places
and has succeeded in attracting from around the
world young people who are often disillusioned by
widespread indifference and a dearth of values in
wealthier societies. That challenge, in all its tragic
aspects, should compel the international community
to promote a unified response, based on solid juridical
criteria and a collective willingness to cooperate for the
common good.

To that end, the Holy See considers it useful to focus
attention on two major areas. The first is to address
the cultural and political origins of contemporary
challenges, acknowledging the need for innovative
strategies to confront those international problems in
which cultural factors play a fundamental role. The
second area for consideration is further study of the
effectiveness of international law today, namely, its
successful implementation by those mechanisms used
by the United Nations to prevent war, stop aggressors,
protect populations and help victims.

Following the attacks of 9/11, when the world woke
up to the reality of a new form of terrorism, some media
and think tanks oversimplified the tragic moment by
interpreting all subsequent and problematic situations
in terms of a clash of civilizations. That view ignored
long-standing and profound experiences of good
relations between cultures, ethnic groups and religions
and interpreted other complex situations through that
lens, situations such as the Middle East question and
civil conflicts occurring elsewhere.

What, then, are the paths open to us?

First and foremost, there is the path of promoting
dialogue and understanding among cultures, which is
implicit in the Preamble and Article 1 of the Charter of
the United Nations. That path must become an ever more
explicit objective of the international community and of
Governments if we are truly committed to peace in the
world. The natural growth and enrichment of culture
is the fruit of all components of civil society working
together. International organizations and States have
the task of promoting and supporting, in a decisive
way and with the necessary financial means, those
initiatives and movements that promote dialogue and
understanding among cultures, religions and peoples.

Peace, after all, is not the fruit of a balance of powers,
but rather the result of justice at every level and, most
importantly, is the shared responsibility of individuals,
civil institutions and Governments.

And yet, we do not face the challenges of terrorism
and violence with cultural openness alone. The
important path of international law is also available
to us. The situation today requires a more incisive
understanding of international law, with particular
attention to the responsibility to protect. One of the
characteristics of the recent terrorist phenomenon is
that it disregards the existence of the State and, in fact,
the entire international order. Terrorism aims not only
to bring change to Governments, to damage economic
structures or simply to commit common crimes, it
seeks also to directly control areas within one or more
States and to impose its own laws, which are distinct
and opposed to those of the sovereign State. It also
undermines and rejects all existing juridical systems,
in an attempt to impose dominion over consciences and
complete control over persons.

The global nature of this phenomenon, which
knows no borders, is precisely why the framework of
international law offers the only viable way of dealing
with this urgent challenge. This reality requires a
renewed United Nations that undertakes to foster and
preserve peace.

Given that the new forms of terrorism are
transnational, they no longer fall under the competence
of the security forces of any one State. The territories
of several States are involved. Therefore, the combined
forces of a number of nations will be required to
guarantee the defence of unarmed citizens. Since
there is no juridical norm justifying unilateral policing
actions beyond one’s own borders, there is no doubt that
that area of competence lies with the Security Council.

My delegation wishes to recall that it is both licit and
urgent to stop aggression through multilateral action
and a proportionate use of force. As the representative
body of a worldwide religious community that embraces
different nations, cultures and ethnicities, the Holy See
earnestly hopes that the international community will
assume responsibility in considering the best means to
stop all aggression and prevent the perpetration of new
and even graver injustices.

It is paramount that there be a unity of action for
the common good, while avoiding the crossfire of
vetoes. As His Holiness wrote to the Secretary-General
on 9 August,

“the most basic understanding of human dignity
compels the international community, particularly
through the norms and mechanisms of international
law, to do all that it can to stop and to prevent
further systematic violence against ethnic and
religious minorities”.
While the concept of the responsibility to protect is
implicit in the constitutional principles of the Charter of
the United Nations and of humanitarian law, it does not
specifically favour a recourse to arms; it asserts, rather,
the responsibility of the entire international community,
in a spirit of solidarity, to confront heinous crimes such
as genocide, ethnic cleansing and religiously motivated
persecution. Today, I cannot fail to mention the many
Christians and ethnic minorities who in recent months
have endured atrocious persecution and suffering in
Iraq and Syria.

In its resolution 68/6, the General Assembly
decided that it would at the present session discuss the
post-2015 development agenda, which would then be
formally adopted at its seventieth session, in September
2015. The President aptly chose the main theme of the
present session to be “Delivering on and implementing
a transformative post-2015 development agenda”. In
a communication to the recent meeting of the Chief
Executives of the agencies, funds and programmes of
the United Nations, His Holiness requested that future
objectives for sustainable development be formulated

“with generosity and courage, so that they can have
a real impact on the structural causes of poverty and
hunger, attain more substantial results in protecting
the environment, ensure dignified and productive
labour for all and provide appropriate protection
for the family, which is an essential element
in sustainable human and social development.
Specifically, this involves challenging all forms of
injustice and resisting the economy of exclusion,
the throwaway culture and the culture of death”.
In that regard, the Holy See welcomes the
17 sustainable development goals proposed by the
Open Working Group of the General Assembly on
Sustainable Development Goals, which seek to address
the structural causes of poverty by promoting dignified
labour for everyone. Equally, the Holy See appreciates
that the goals and targets do not, for the most part,
echo wealthy populations’ fears regarding population

growth in poorer countries. It also welcomes the fact
that the goals and targets do not impose on poorer States
lifestyles that are typically associated with advanced
economies and which tend to show a disregard for
human dignity.

As stated earlier, the responsibility to protect is
relevant to cases of extreme aggressions against human
rights and cases of serious contempt of humanitarian
law or grave natural catastrophes. In a similar way,
there is a need to make legal provision for protecting
people against other forms of aggression that are less
evident but just as serious and real. For example, a
financial system governed only by speculation and the
maximization of profits, or one in which individual
persons are regarded as disposable items in a culture of
waste, could be tantamount, in certain circumstances, to
an offence against human dignity. It follows, therefore,
that the United Nations and its Member States have an
urgent and grave responsibility for the poor and the
excluded, mindful always that social and economic
justice is an essential condition for peace.

Each day of the sixty-ninth session of the General
Assembly, and indeed of its next four sessions, until
November 2018, will bear the sad and painful memory
of the futile and inhumane tragedy of the First World
War — a senseless slaughter, as Pope Benedict XV
referred to it, with its millions of victims and untold
destruction. Marking the centenary of the start of the
conflict, His Holiness Pope Francis expressed his
desire that

“the mistakes of the past are not repeated, that the
lessons of history are acknowledged, and that the
cause of peace may always prevail through patient
and courageous dialogue”.
In making my own the sentiments of the Holy
Father, I fervently hope that they may be shared by all
present here. I offer to all members of the Assembly my
best wishes in their work. I trust that this session will
spare no effort to put to an end the clamour of weapons
that marks existing conflicts and that it will continue
to foster the development of the entire human race, in
particular the poorest among us.


Exactly one year ago,
on 30 September 2013, I had the unsurpassed glory of
delivering my maiden address to the General Assembly
(see A/68/PV.21), and I used that occasion to pay homage
to the great architects of world peace who fostered the
birth and initial dynamics of our United Nations. In so
doing, I used the principles set out in the Charter of the
United Nations as a ready compass to set my course
as I navigated the issues that occupied the forefront
of our attention at that time, under the captaincy of
former President John Ashe, who successfully piloted
our Organization of peace through the turbulent seas of
global uncertainty.

The issues that commanded the attention of the
international community then included global terrorism
and the tensions in the Middle East and the Korean
peninsula. Those were compounded by concerns
around geopolitical conflicts and unresolved trade
issues, as well as trade and macroeconomic approaches
that favoured industrialized countries to the detriment
of developing nations.

Given that in nature’s irreversible onward
march, unresolved problems are brought forward and
compounded by succeeding problems, this year the
General Assembly has convened at a time of increased
turmoil. Since our discussions last September, it is
undoubtedly the case that dissension and conflict
have increased in the Middle East — the arena
that inevitably sets the price for petroleum and its
associated products, which are utilized by the peoples
of the global community, rich or poor. On the other
hand, the benefits expected from the end of the Cold
War, with the potential for normalizing relations on the
European continent and in lands and regions far distant
from Europe, now seem to be doubtful of fulfilment,
as signs, tensions and pressures once associated with
the Cold War are evolving, bringing about renewed
concerns for the international community as a whole.

When such tremors emerge, it is much harder for
small States like ours to get the attention of the major
Powers with regard to the evaluation and discussion
of our own issues and objectives. Those can be
successfully resolved only if the dominant members of
the international community can relate to them, without
the positions and tensions that emphasize allegiance on
the part of small Powers to this or that side. That is
why we, from our small corner of the globe, venture to
express the view, in this most significant of international
forums, that the tensions and the tendencies towards
war now emerging should be subordinated to the search
for solutions in which the principles and objectives of
the Organization, particularly its preference for the
negotiated resolution of conflicts, are pursued as far
as practicable. The escalating conflicts have negative

effects on the access of small States to the attention
of larger Powers, and therefore they retard the positive
contribution of the international community to our own
concerns.

In that connection, we have observed, with a
certain disquiet, tendencies in Europe that indicate a
possible resumption of the Cold War on that continent.
We believe that that can only be disadvantageous to
small countries like ours, because in forums such as
this we tend to find a return to demands for automatic
commitment to one side or the other. As a small country,
we have called for negotiations to prevail in the pursuit
of the rearrangement of continental European relations,
following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the
Warsaw Pact. Despite being a small country far away
from the situation in Europe, we have long had, and
continue to have, an integral relationship with that
continent. It is particularly on that basis that we call for
diplomacy to prevail, and we have been gratified to see
recent signs indicating that that is likely to be the path
pursued on the European continent.

We are relieved to see that the contentions in the
Middle East, specifically in respect of the Palestine
issue, have returned to the negotiating table. That is in
concert with earlier developments relating to contentions
between the NATO Powers and Iran, as the various
parties were able to adopt postures of mutual discussion
and engagement. That has led recently to what seems to
be jointly negotiated stances to the extremely complex
situation in Syria and to the emergence of the so-called
Islamic State, which has been spreading disorder and
contention in the wider Middle East.

From our perspective, we can only express the wish
that negotiations and cooperation among the larger
Powers and between themselves and other Middle
East countries continue, even as some members of the
international community felt it necessary to resort to the
use of force in the area. We reaffirm, even in the midst
of great global complexity, our country’s commitment
to the peaceful resolution of disputes.

While many developments in our world hold the
seeds of our region’s continued marginalization, we also
want to accentuate the more positive trends emerging
in the international community that are leading to the
creation of space in our global arena. Consequently,
Saint Lucia is encouraged by the possibility of
enhanced flexibility in decision-making being
permitted to members of the international community
via the emergence of large, developing States in such a
manner that they are now characterized as increasingly
significant actors in decision-making relating to the
resolution of global issues.

When I addressed the Assembly last year, I referred
to the emergence of institutions such as the Union
of South American Nations, which includes some
members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM),
and to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our
America — Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA). They
have opened up opportunities for assisting our countries
to meet the Millennium Development Goals, to which
we are all committed.

Saint Lucia reiterates its appreciation for the
work of ALBA, an institution committed to assisting
countries without requiring ideological commitment
to this or that position but recognizing the priority of
economic and social development and preferring the
peaceful resolution of disputes above all other concerns.
In consonance with that posture, we commend the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for its contribution to
the Ebola eradication budget, and Cuba for its dispatch
of 156 doctors to West Africa to assist in the fight
against the deadly Ebola virus.

Saint Lucia welcomes the initiative by Brazil,
India, China and South Africa, along with Russia, to
extend and deepen the assistance available to other
developing countries, thereby widening the scope
for their advancement towards the achievement of
the Millennium Development Goals. Specifically,
we would mention the establishment of the New
Development Bank, which further facilitates the efforts
of developing countries for economic reconstruction.
The establishment of the World Trade Organization and
the single-minded immediacy with which it has pursued
international trade liberalization have threatened the
very foundations of our economies, particularly in
agriculture, which has suffered sudden and certain
destruction. From our perspective, therefore, another
dimension has been added to the efforts of small States
such as Saint Lucia to navigate the consequences of
sudden international economic liberalization and
globalization.

In that context of the emergence of new balances of
economic and political power and new flexibilities in
the use of diplomacy, including within our hemisphere,
Saint Lucia once again reiterates its plea for the removal
of the blockade imposed against the Republic of Cuba.
More specifically, my Government calls for the removal

of Cuba from the so-called terrorist watch-list. That is a
residual effect of the Cold War, which is over.

Given the scourge of the traffic in narcotics in
particular, we call for further cooperation among all
countries in the hemisphere and a setting aside of the old
Cold War postures as necessary conditions for balanced
development and peace. A specific example of where
that applies relates to our efforts in pursuing collective
arrangements and unimpeded cooperation against
the menace of the movement of narcotics through the
Caribbean Sea and their decimating march across the
moral, social and economic fabric of our region. The
drug barons make no ideological distinctions among
countries as they continue to exploit weaknesses
deriving from outmoded political stances that impede
effective regional cooperation. As we all know, those
pursuing the sale of narcotics make special efforts
to attract the youth of our countries, compromising
the essential resource base for our future economic
development and social stability.

Once again, I draw the attention of this body
to Saint Lucia’s firm and consistent belief that the
historical anomalies of the Cold War still in our
international system should not be allowed to inhibit
the contribution of countries desirous of participating
in, and enhancing, the advancement of developing
countries simply because there are issues surrounding
their particular status.

In that connection I would refer, as I did on behalf
of the Government of Saint Lucia last year, to the
participation of Taiwan in international organizations,
particularly those that focus on technical arrangements
or the resolution of important issues that are of
value to the international system as a whole or to its
member States. My country again makes a plea for
fuller participation by Taiwan, particularly in the
World Health Organization and the International Civil
Aviation Organization. Taiwan has the experience
of engaging in a technological revolution that has
enhanced its economic development and the welfare of
its people, and in many respects that State has become
a viable economic development model for small States.
Hence we believe that the Government and people of
Taiwan have much to offer developing countries, and so
we would support any institutional initiative that would
allow that country to make a contribution through those
mechanisms of the United Nations that are devoted
to solutions to issues of technological, economic and
social development.

I shall now turn to the theme of this year’s
General Assembly, “Delivering on and implementing
a transformative post-2015 development agenda”,
to navigate two issues of paramount importance to
Saint Lucia as a small island developing State. At
this juncture, I must congratulate the President of the
Assembly and his country, Uganda, on this theme,
which is charged with invaluable significance for
my region and for Africa, as we are challenged in
building an impregnable substratum of economic and
technological self-determination to successfully deal
with the development challenges of our times.

First, speaking of Africa and the Caribbean region
in that context, I come to a matter of great historical
and contemporary concern to the people of Saint Lucia
and the Caribbean Community as a whole, which I
adumbrated in my address to this body last year. It is
the issue of the need for the metropolitan Powers to
come to terms with the manner in which the Caribbean
States were historically created and organized and the
consequences of that for their standing and situation in
today’s world. Specifically, at their meeting in July 2014,
the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community
decided that a case for reparations should be elaborated
beyond the relationship between ourselves and the
relevant European Governments and that Caribbean
States should, in seeking support for that objective,
“advance the reparations case during the sitting of the
United Nations General Assembly in 2014”.

I carry out that mandate now on behalf of the
Government and the people of Saint Lucia, who, in
concordance with the peoples of other CARICOM
member States, seek the award of reparations as a
specific way in which those who in centuries past
held the reins of power without accountability can
now in recompense make a specific contribution to
the nation-building programmes of our Governments
beyond existing commitments. In that regard, we make
a case for reparations as a matter of principle.

Secondly, Saint Lucia has welcomed the
deliberations of the third International Conference on
Small Island Developing States, held in Samoa earlier
this month, and the efforts made in that regard by the
United Nations. The recent Samoa Pathway conclusions
have re-emphasized the persistent and peculiar
problems inhibiting the development of small island
developing States (SIDS). In the words of the recent
SIDS declaration, there is an insistence that “small
island developing States remain a special case for

sustainable development”, without which “success will
remain difficult”. As the Commonwealth Secretariat
recently pointed out, research has shown that countries
most exposed to preference loss are mainly SIDS,
such as Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica,
Jamaica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. From
our regional point of view, the Caribbean Community’s
continental States of Belize and Guyana are included
in that list.

The Commonwealth Secretariat has also shown
that, while the compound annual growth rate of per
capita income of SIDS between 1970 and 2000 was
0.73 per cent, that of the world economy was almost
three times higher, at 2.07 per cent; and that, in the
period between 2002 and 2012, SIDS had one of the
lowest compound annual growth rates, at 1.23 per cent,
as compared to 4.96 per cent for developing countries,
4 per cent for least developed countries and 3.23 per
cent for sub-Saharan Africa.

The Saint Lucia Government wants the
recommendations of the Samoa Conference to be given
the international attention that they deserve. That is
critical, considering the fact that along with the specific
problems that have been identified as continuing to
inhibit sustainable development, the instability of the
present international economic system only serves to
aggravate the precarious position of small States. In
that connection, we stress, as we did when addressing
the Assembly last year, the importance of assistance
arrangements, including further development of the
Adaptation Fund so that our countries can cope with
the negative effects of sea level rise.

In view of Saint Lucia’s urgent requirements,
we also emphasize assistance for the construction of
facilities that can protect our countries against untimely
natural disasters due to climate change. Losses from
disasters in SIDS continue unabated and continue to
outstrip our capacity to cope. Over the past decade,
many SIDS have lost considerable momentum in their
development progress by having to contend with post-
disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction costs, which
invariably have brought increased debt. The Caribbean
has been a particular victim of those events since I
spoke here last year, and we hope that following the
recent Samoa Conference, a certain urgency will be
attached to the matter.

Saint Lucia would like to reiterate a few points.

First, we emphasize the persistent use of diplomacy
as a prime instrument for the pursuit of normalized
relations among all States.

Second, the rapidly changing nature of international
relations mandates the need to subject the United
Nations system to new levels of critical examination,
with the central objective of strengthening the internal
machinery of our Organization and reforming it to truly
reflect today’s geopolitical reality.

Third, we must as an international community do
all within our power to ensure that the Cold War does
not resume even though the post-Cold War dividends
have not yet materialized for much of humankind. Now
is an excellent time to divest ourselves of any residual
effects of the Cold War, such as the blockade imposed
on our sister island of Cuba and to remove Cuba from
the so-called terrorist watch list.

Fourth, we make a plea for reparations as a matter
of principle.

Fifth, we must take advantage of new, meaningful
opportunities for cooperation and partnership, not
only with traditional partners but also, setting aside
long-standing geopolitical contentions, with a range of
non-traditional partners, such as Taiwan.

Sixth, developed countries should not pursue trade
and macroeconomic approaches that are detrimental to
the well-being of small island developing States.

Seventh, we must determine a clear and effective
strategy by which SIDS can translate the outcomes of
the Samoa Conference into concrete results — results
that build on existing international commitments and
include the means of implementation to support the
national and regional development efforts of SIDS.
Without that, the Samoa Conference could be construed,
in the words of the late Martin Luther King, Jr., “as a
meaningless drama on the stage of history ... shrouded
with the ugly garments of shame”.

Eighth, Saint Lucia stands for freedom, democracy,
non-discrimination, sustainable development, poverty
eradication and special and differential treatment for
SIDS, all of which are important ingredients of our
most precious pursuits and aspirations: peace and
prosperity for our people, the recovery and resilience
of our Caribbean region and stability and security in
our world.

Finally, it is fitting and opportune that as we ponder
the possibilities of “Delivering on and implementing
a transformative post-2015 development agenda”,
we deliberate carefully on the opportunities and
alternatives to the current world order. We must look
to our past to understand our present, and we must plan
our future by analysing our present and applying the
lessons of our past. It is in that connection that I feel
compelled to conclude by inviting careful consideration
of the words of the late United States President
Woodrow Wilson, who asserted America’s historical
leadership and commitment to international democracy
and freedom in these words: “We shall fight ... for a
universal dominion of right by such a concert of free
peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations”.


The President of the Republic of Benin, His Excellency
Mr. Thomas Boni Yayi, has asked me to deliver this
message to the Assembly on his behalf.

At the outset, I would like to congratulate Mr. Sam
Kutesa on his election as President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. We pay tribute
to the country of Uganda for its leadership. I would
also like to congratulate the outgoing President of the
General Assembly, His Excellency Mr. John Ashe,
whose enthusiasm enabled consensus to be reached
on important issues considered during the Assembly’s
sixty-eighth session. Without a doubt, he successfully
fulfilled his mandate, laying the groundwork for the
post-2015 development agenda, in particular with the
successful conclusion of the work of the Open Working
Group on Sustainable Development Goals. My gratitude
also goes to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
for his continuing efforts to strengthen the role of the
United Nations as an effective force for stability, peace,
collective security and the promotion of human dignity
and sustainable development. I would like to express to
him my firm support for his initiatives aimed at easing
tensions and settling conflict situations in order to pave
the way to building a world that is more just, based on
equality, justice, respect for human rights and solidarity
among peoples, and to curb climate change.

The theme of the current session, “Delivering on and
implementing a transformative post-2015 development
agenda”, is of prime importance for the least developed
countries (LDCs), a group for which Benin serves as
Chair through September 2015. It clearly describes the
major work to be done and on which we should focus
our energies throughout the Assembly’s sixty-ninth
session in order to forge consensus around actions to
be taken to make “The future we want” a reality. In
that regard, the post-2015 development agenda must
take into account the lessons learned and experiences
acquired throughout the 15 years we have just gone
through in the implementation phase of the Millennium
Development Goals. Efforts must therefore be pursued
to eliminate extreme poverty, promote more equal and
inclusive economic growth, establish transparent and
responsible institutions that are able to stimulate the
process of sustainable development, bring about the
professionalization of young people, and create decent
jobs for the long term through the implementation of
integrated social protection schemes that cover all forms
of vulnerability. Once adopted, the implementation
of the post-2015 development agenda should receive
stepped up attention and energy so that no one will be
left behind. The High-level Panel of Eminent Persons

on the Post-2015 Development Agenda have sent the
Secretary-General their recommendations on the
programme.

The third International Conference on Financing
for Development should be prepared with an open mind
towards innovation. In that regard, it is important to
create strategies and find the means to implement them
in order to accelerate structural transformations in the
least developed countries so as to reduce the gap that
separates them from developed countries, notably with
regard to access to the benefits of modernity, and in
order to meet basic needs, which should now be seen
as a fundamental right to be guaranteed to all human
beings. It is necessary to put an end to exclusion in all
its forms and at all levels and to integrate all countries
affected by marginalization into the global economic
growth by re-establishing the balance that has been
disrupted among the three dimensions of sustainable
development, namely, economic efficiency, social
stability and environmental preservation.

I would like to recall that the Istanbul Action
Programme set as a major goal halving the number of
LDCs by 2020. The Programme made the productive
capacity-building of LDCs one of its foremost priorities
in order to achieve that goal. With a view to mobilizing
the international community to implement that effective
programme, in its capacity as Chair of the Global
Coordination Bureau of the Group of Least Developed
Countries, Benin took the initiative to organize the
Ministerial Conference on New Partnerships for
Productive Capacity-Building in LDCs, held in Cotonou
from 28 to 31 July.

In its resolution 68/224, of 20 December 2013,
the General Assembly expressed its expectations with
regard to the outcomes of the Ministerial Conference.
Today, I can report those outcomes to the Assembly.
The Ministerial Conference adopted the Cotonou
Agenda for productive capacity-building in LDCs. It
advocated innovative approaches in that area through
specific recommendations both for LDCs and for
their development partners. It also requested that the
General Assembly include on its agenda for the sixty-
ninth session the issue of productive capacity-building
in LDCs.

On behalf of the Government and people of Benin,
I would like to thank our partners, in particular,
Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain
and Italy, for their contribution to the success of that
Conference, which is of historic importance to LCDs,
since it affects a crucial aspect of their development
and of their integration into the world economy. I would
also like to thank Belgium, co-Chair of the Group of
Friends of LDCs, and the European Union, which
assisted in implementing the initiative. The Office
of the High Representative for the Least Developed
Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and
Small Island Developing States, the United Nations
Office for South-South Cooperation, the United
Nations specialized agencies, funds and programmes,
civil society and the private sector provided valuable
technical support for the knowledgeable preparation of
the Ministerial Conference. The Cotonou Agenda for
productive capacity-building in LDCs will clearly be
a road map for promoting the implementation of the
Istanbul Programme of Action.

In 2015, we will undertake a comprehensive review
of the major efforts undertaken and the results achieved
in all areas targeted by the Millennium Development
Goals. The most recent performance assessments put
Benin, my country, among the leading 20 countries
for the greatest progress made in absolute terms of
the proportion of their population that has emerged
from poverty. Benin, my country, is singled out by the
introduction of free kindergaren and primary education
and the provision of facilities at the secondary and
higher education levels for pupils and students in
need, thereby allowing a significant increase in school
enrolment, in particular among girls.

In the area of health, the actions of my Government
have improved the management and provision
of services for the prevention of mother-to-child
HIV/AIDS transmission, nutrition, water supply,
hygiene and sanitation. On the basis of the established
health-care infrastructure network, the Government
was able to launch a universal health insurance plan,
which provides a level of social protection to people
at an affordable cost. The provision by the State of
Caesarean operations, as well as free health care to
children under 5 years of age, have also been life-saving
measures for thousands of Beninese families. Also,
efforts have been made by the Government of Benin
to alleviate poverty by providing substantial support
to microcredit institutions. That has had a significant
impact on improving the living conditions of many
rural populations.

The willingness of development partners to
support Benin in its vision for long-term development
and in underpinning the progress made in the areas of
policy and administrative governance, the management
of social justice and the economic governance was
strengthened by the very encouraging results of the
round table on Financing for Development in Benin, held
in Paris from 17 to 19 June, with funding commitments
to the tune of approximately $12 billion over a period
of five years.

The facts demonstrate every day that peace,
security, good governance at the national and the
international levels and the flawless exercise of
sovereign functions by States are the best guarantees
for international peace, security and stability. In that
regard, it is urgent to strengthen the effectiveness of
the United Nations with regard to efforts to ensure
better conflict prevention and to combat injustice and
the various forms of criminality rampant in the world.
In that connection, with regard to Africa, in general,
and the Sahel region, in particular, it is necessary to
improve the United Nations support mechanism in
order to prevent further conflict and to promote the
necessary stability for the development of the States of
the region.

There is a crucial need to address the root causes of
conflicts, which, at the global level, are used as a pretext
for extremism and terrorist organizations. I would
like to welcome the mobilization of the international
community and the steadfastness of the United Nations
in response to the actions of those armed groups. Thanks
to the effectiveness of the actions undertaken, the main
theatres of conflict in Africa are seeing an easing of
tension. Benin will continue to provide its modest but
quality contribution to United Nations peacekeeping in
that regard.

Coastal African States, in particular those in the
Gulf of Guinea, also face piracy and armed robbery
at sea, as well as transnational organized crime. That
greatly hampers their economic growth. The steps
taken to address such criminality have clearly produced
encouraging results. However, we need to further
strengthen those steps through the ongoing vigilance
and greater support of the international community in
order to rapidly implement the measures adopted on the
basis of the outcome of the ministerial meeting held in
Cotonou on 18 and 19 March 2013 and the summit held
in Yaoundé on 24 and 25 June 2013 with regard to the
implementation of Security Council resolutions 2018
(2011) and 2039 (2012).

Moreover, the tranquillity of West African nations
has been shaken for some months by the outbreak of the
Ebola virus, whose rapid spread has already caused more
than 3,000 deaths, half the number of those infected.
The scale of the phenomenon requires the deployment
of a coordinated health mechanism throughout the
countries of the region in order to contain it.

From this rostrum, I commend the diligence shown
by the Secretary-General and by the World Health
Organization in leading the international community
to take measures commensurate with the challenge
to humankind and to establish a series of emergency
measures to counter and to contain that global threat
beyond the affected States. The crisis underscores the
need to promote human security and, in particular,
health security in order to increase the resilience of
populations.

The state of the world is undoubtedly taking a very
worrying turn. Humankind is at a crossroads. It is more
necessary than ever that the United Nations affirm its
leadership so as to reverse the alarming trends. In that
regard, it is urgent to find a negotiated solution to the
situation in the Middle East, which has continued for
too long. Maintaining the status quo is untenable in all
respects. The recognition of Palestine as a sovereign
State and a full Member of the United Nations, living
in harmony with Israel, cannot be delayed any longer.
Such recognition will clearly facilitate the momentum
for reducing tensions in the Middle East and establish
favourable conditions for a just and lasting settlement
of the other conflicts and complex problems afflicting
that region.

Benin deplores the escalation of violence in Ukraine
and the radicalization of the parties to the conflict, which
is leading to increase in the loss of human lives and the
damage suffered by the affected civilian populations.
I would also urge the United Nations to work towards
the settlement of that conflict in the higher interest of
international peace and security.

In addition, Benin advocates for the peaceful
settlement of existing disputes in the context of the
non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. We call for the
mobilization of the international community with
regard to the holding and the success of the next
Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapon, with an African
Chair. We draw the Assembly’s attention to the issue
of the funding for the preparations for the Review
Conference, the responsibility for which cannot rest
solely with the upcoming Chair, particularly since that
country is an LDC.

The universality, indivisibility and interdependence
of all human rights are fundamental values for Benin.
We are strongly committed to human dignity and the
sacred nature of human life. For that reason, out of a
national belief, Benin acceded to the international
instrument for the abolition of the death penalty. That
enables us to join the countries at the forefront of
the global campaign for the abolition of that form of
punishment. We welcome that commitment.

That campaign must continue so that the idea that
the death penalty, far from serving justice, instead
represents a failure of justice is more broadly shared.
The increasing number of countries that support the
moratorium or have acceded to it by law or in deed
strengthens our hope for the universal abolition of
the death penalty. In the context of that campaign, the
Government of Benin, in cooperation with the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, organized
a regional conference on the abolition of the death
penalty in Africa in Cotonou from 2 to 4 July. The
conference called on African States to abolish the death
penalty throughout the continent.

My Government remains committed to strengthening
the principles of democracy and the rule of law and the
implementation of effective development policies. That
is why my Government strives daily to find ways and
means of strengthening those norms in Benin, which
requires the creation of jobs and opportunities for all.
That noble goal can be achieved only by effectively
combating corruption.

The difficult times that the world is currently
experiencing require both globally and nationally a
united front in support of the values of mutual respect,
solidarity, inter-faith dialogue and, in particular,
ongoing talks between Muslim and Christian leaders
in order to establish a common space of friendship,
essential to the flourishing of peoples. Taking into
account the seriousness of that problem in Africa, my
Government decided to support an initiative of the
Pan-African Social Prospects Centre, headquartered in
Benin, to hold an international symposium on Islamic-
Christian dialogue in Cotonou in March 2015. That
multifaceted project seeks to promote education on
peace and development among peoples in the context of
a harmonious coexistence of religions. I encourage all
people of goodwill to respect such ideals and to support
Benin’s initiative.

In conclusion, I recall the need for intensified
negotiations to achieve the reform of the United
Nations, in particular, the Security Council. Benin
strongly hopes that in 2015, the seventieth anniversary
of the Organization will be marked by the adoption
of significant measures commensurate with the
challenges and opportunities of the new era in order to
make the composition of the Council fairer and more
representative and its working methods more inclusive
so that it can fulfil its mandate more effectively.

Moreover, all our efforts must seek to achieve our
shared desire to see the United Nations regain its full
capacity to promote an inclusive, transparent and more
effective global governance in the context of productive
multilateralism so as to build a balanced world order
that promotes stability and harmony to the clear benefit
of our peoples. In such conditions, all Member States
would be able to take the virtuous path of sustainable
development and shared prosperity so that equality,
peace, brotherhood and the effective solidarity of
nations lead to that better world for which we yearn.