It gives us pleasure, at this international
forum, to greet our brothers and friends, the Heads of
State, Government and delegations represented in this
Hall. We hope that our meetings at the sixty-sixth
session of the General Assembly will be fruitful and
result in a concrete outcome commensurate with our
aspirations for a global environment of stability,
security and lasting peace, and for the good and well-
being of humanity at large.
 We are pleased to see yet another diplomat from
the Gulf Cooperation Council presiding over the
General Assembly. We take this opportunity to offer
our sincere wishes of every success to Ambassador
Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser in his international mission
and of further progress and advancement at all levels
for his country, the brotherly State of Qatar. We also
thank his predecessor, Mr. Joseph Deiss, for his able
conduct of and contributions to the work of the General
Assembly at its sixty-fifth session.
 We would also like to express our deep
appreciation to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his
ceaseless efforts to strengthen the role of the United
Nations in maintaining international peace and security
and for his persistent endeavours to achieve the
prerequisites for stability in our world, namely,
development and collective international cooperation
for the benefit of the peoples of the world as a whole.
We also seize this opportunity to congratulate him on
his reappointment to a second term of office.
 There is no doubt that the world has entered a
new era of important changes in which the growth of
modern means of communication has led to rapid and
unprecedented transformations in the world, such as
those that we are now experiencing in our Arab region.
More than a decade ago, we in the Kingdom of Bahrain
recognized the need to proceed towards greater reform,
improvement and advancement, bearing in mind the
supreme interest of our people, in order to satisfy their
demands for freedom and political participation — a
home-grown participation that is commensurate with
the heritage and history of each country and its level of
development. Reform was also aimed at providing
decent living conditions, security and tranquillity in a
society that enjoys peaceful coexistence, equality and
equal opportunities for empowerment to achieve justice
and sustainable development for all.
 In all its modernization endeavours and
throughout its long history, the Kingdom of Bahrain
has persistently followed the approach of dialogue.
Building on the consensus of the people of Bahrain
around the provisions of the National Action Charter of
2001, we initiated a national dialogue process
involving all sectors and components of the population.
The aim was to absorb the requirements of modern
progress, guarantee the continuation of the reform
process, and fulfil the national aspiration to move
forward towards comprehensive modernization and the
enhancement of popular participation in decision-

11-50865 8

making within an all-inclusive national partnership. We
hereby reaffirm our support for the outcome of that
dialogue.
 The achievements of the Kingdom of Bahrain at
the national level are therefore an extension of a long
history dating back to the beginning of the last century,
in which we have worked to achieve a society based on
justice, equality, progress and openness. The
authenticity of our people, culture, free economy,
political development and firm commitment to the
universal principles of human rights, peaceful
coexistence and respect for the views of others
constitute the real wealth of our country, which we
seek to preserve and sustain for future generations.
 Today more than ever, the international
community has a propitious opportunity to do justice to
the brotherly Palestinian people and to help them to
achieve their legitimate aspirations by recognizing an
independent Palestinian State on their own national
soil, with East Jerusalem as its capital. That would put
an end to an era of bitter Arab-Israeli conflict,
contingent on a complete Israeli withdrawal from all
occupied Arab territories to the lines of 4 June 1967 in
Palestine, the occupied Syrian Arab Golan and the
occupied territories in southern Lebanon, in accordance
with the relevant resolutions of international legitimacy
and the Arab Peace Initiative.
 Committed to the security of the Arabian Gulf
region, we emphasize the need to resolve the issue of
the three occupied United Arab Emirates islands, either
through direct negotiations or by referral to the
International Court of Justice. With regard to
developments in the brotherly State of Yemen, the
Kingdom of Bahrain supports the Gulf Cooperation
Council initiative for maintaining the security, stability
and unity of that country and achieving the aspirations
of its people. In this connection, we further emphasize
the importance of preserving the unity of Moroccan
territory and of resolving the issue of the Moroccan
Sahara, in accordance with the relevant Security
Council resolutions.
 Consistent with its commitment to concerted
international action and its role and responsibilities in
our region, the Kingdom of Bahrain has never hesitated
to contribute to and participate in the Contact Group on
Libya in order to help realize the aspirations of the
Libyan people and ensure the country’s unity and
territorial integrity.
 Bahrain is also participating in the international
peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan in order to support
that country’s stability and security in every sphere —
political, economic and security — as well as in the
fight against international terrorism and piracy on the
high seas. Bahrain also shares in the friendly American
people’s heartfelt pain and grief over the reprehensible
terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Their resilience
and determination, however, have helped to make their
country a safer place.
 As a peace-loving nation, Bahrain will remain
faithful to this Organization for its historic role in
supporting our country’s sovereignty, and for the role
of its judiciary in ending inter-State disputes all over
the world, all in the interest of global stability and
development.
 We believe that humankind in general and the
international community have much to gain at the
global level from the contributions of Arab-Islamic
civilization, as have other civilizations throughout
history. Arab Muslims, Christians, Jews and other
followers of other religions and beliefs can coexist
only in a state of civility based on tolerance. We speak
here in light of the experience of our country, Bahrain,
which, with its characteristic openness and civilization
deeply rooted in history, has from time immemorial
been a symbol of coexistence and interaction between
these human contributions. Hence its position since
early times as a cultural and spiritual centre in its
natural and human environment in the Arabian Gulf —
a position on which it has built a civil society and
fomented a modern renaissance in the areas of
administrative organization, economic activity, and an
educational and cultural enlightenment.
 While Bahrain appreciates the support of the
United Nations and its specialized agencies for its
achievements, as evidenced by the numerous awards it
has won in various human and social fields, we stress
the great importance of the global issues discussed in
the Secretary-General’s annual report on the work of
the Organization (A/66/1). We are convinced that it is
imperative that all Member States cooperate on issues
such as climate change, international health, drought,
poverty alleviation, disarmament, the non-proliferation
of nuclear weapons and the fight against terrorism.
This is more urgent than ever before, given the scale of
the challenges and problems facing humankind, so that
we can create a new world of security, peace,
tranquillity and prosperity.

9 11-50865

 In conclusion, we reaffirm our commitment to the
principles and purposes of the United Nations and its
constructive role in consolidating peace, love and
prosperity in the world.


First of all, I
would like to avail myself of this opportunity to
congratulate Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on his
well-deserved reappointment, and Mr. Nassir
Abdulaziz Al-Nasser on his election as President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session.
 It is with pride, a sense of responsibility and a
will for cooperation and proactivity that I address this
Hall in the name of the Principality of Andorra and the
Government that I have the honour to represent. The
United Nations and the system of international law that
emanates from it place all States on an equal footing.
That is especially important for States like Andorra,
small in terms of territorial dimension but large in
values and in history.
 Recent years have been marked by a profound
crisis of multiple aspects — economic, social,
environmental and political — but most especially a
crisis of values. Now that we must all lay the
foundation for recovery, we need to be quite clear
about the values and principles on which we wish to
continue constructing the world. We do not need to go
much further than the founding spirit of the General

11-51398 22

Assembly, an institution in which all — large and
small, the wealthier and the less endowed — address
one another on equal terms to promote peace, liberty
and justice.
 Just as the United Nations arose after a world war
that turned the world as it had existed until then upside
down, now again we have to be able to define the
moral and political bases of a new order. One priority
set by the United Nations is inclusive and sustainable
development. There can be no sustainability without
inclusion. And if the Assembly, which arose from the
debris of a devastating war, is to give a voice to all the
peoples of the planet, we have to be capable now of
ensuring that no one is excluded from the future that
we forge together.
 We must take care that the economic recovery
from the recession does not further accentuate the
inequalities — understood as a lack of equity — that
already exist. Thus, just as international law protects
nations like ours that have no military potential, so too
economic growth must be especially attentive to the
more vulnerable in order to prevent the consequences
of the recession from falling systematically on them.
 Thirty years ago, in 1981, the United Nations
held its first Conference on the Least Developed
Countries. The fourth Conference was held last spring,
attesting to the difficulty of achieving significant
changes to improve the weakness and vulnerability of
those States. Further, we observe with concern how,
against the background of the global recession, some of
the more developed countries often adopt protectionist
attitudes. On the conviction that a freer world is a more
just world, we also have to state that a more open and
less protectionist world leads to a more equitable
balance and improvements for the disadvantaged.
 Andorra, with its small scale, secular stability and
seclusion among mountains, is dealing with the far-
reaching process of opening its economy. We also have
planned the construction of a model of inclusive
growth that leaves no one out — a model that cannot
be constructed by turning one’s back on the
international community or by being isolated from the
world.
 I have been talking about economic opening, but
the opening to the world cannot be strictly economic,
and it is crystal clear that recovery from the crisis and a
new phase of growth will not come about solely as a
result of economic measures. The search for an
inclusive and sustainable balance must necessarily
involve addressing factors that are not strictly
economic but that do accentuate inequalities between
countries.
 In that connection, we note the work done at the
2011 High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on
AIDS held in June and the Political Declaration on
HIV/AIDS (resolution 65/277) adopted by the
participating States, stating their intension to intensify
their efforts in the fight against this pandemic. In spite
of the advances achieved in recent years, HIV is a
symbol of how necessary it is for progress to reach
everyone equally. While in the more developed
countries AIDS has become a chronic illness
appropriately treated, in the more disadvantaged
areas — especially in sub-Saharan Africa — the
disease is still lethal, especially in the communities
with the fewest resources.
 Above and beyond the increase of resources for
research and treatment and greater North-South
cooperation, I am convinced that the extension of
democracy and human rights is also a key factor in the
fight against a pandemic that overwhelms the poorest,
but that also hits peoples submerged in ignorance and
oppression.
 With all of that, the extent of the commitments
made and the progress achieved by various States in
the fight against HIV should be a source of
satisfaction, since seldom has the international
community been capable of articulating a response so
rapid and unanimous when faced with a threat on this
scale. It would be wonderful if the same level of
awareness and commitment could be achieved in the
fight against non-communicable diseases, such as
cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. Those
also — although perhaps not so clearly as in the case of
AIDS — are diseases that accentuate the inequalities
among countries. That principle was recognized in the
Political Declaration (resolution 66/2) of the High-
level Meeting of the General Assembly on the
prevention and control of non-communicable diseases
held recently.
 Such successes cannot allow us to forget that one
of the most serious challenges facing the international
community and this Assembly, which is its highest
representation, is the fight against climate change. To
date, humankind was used to overcoming recessions
and times of crisis, entering a new phase of growth,

23 11-51398

without thinking of the negative external effects of that
growth. We now know that growth cannot be at any
price and that development must be sustainable in
economic terms, but also, and more particularly, in
environmental terms.
 That is why the threat of climate change is as
great as or stronger than that of the global recession.
Some developed countries, in particular those that
survive on their own natural resources, are seriously
threatened by climate change. That may also be the
case for Andorra, which bases a good part of its
economic welfare on snow and mountain tourism. That
is why we will always support any initiative aiming at
greater awareness of the need to combat climate
change, and take steps to adapt to what is probably
already a reality. In that context, we should underscore
the entry into force in Andorra of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change on 31 May.
 We should never lose sight of the fact that the
main goal of the United Nations is to guarantee peace
and security in a context of freedom and respect for
human rights. Just as in the past, States emerged to
ensure the social peace and individual freedom of their
citizens, the United Nations also have their raison
d’être in the maintenance of peace and security and the
rule of international law.
 Today, we speak of inclusive and sustainable
economic growth and of a new and profound awareness
of the threat of climate change. We cannot forget that
such issues are closely linked to the promotion of a
safer world. Growth that leaves more vulnerable
groups behind and that excludes the least developed
countries, added to the effects of climate change, leads
to a less safe and less stable world.
 This year marks the tenth anniversary of the
tragic attacks of 11 September here in New York, the
seat of United Nations Headquarters. As President
Obama recalled last Wednesday (see ), we
are today seeing the symbol of New York’s renewal
rise at ground zero, where 10 years ago there was an
open wound and twisted steel, a shattered heart in the
centre of the city.
 This year, we close the first decade of the
millennium without having resolved the threat to the
security of our world, that is, international terrorism.
Despite progress on that front, the threat continues.
Terrorism arises from hatred and wickedness.
However, we must be aware that it dwells, in
particular, where there is a lack of economic prospects,
illiteracy, lack of culture, poverty, marginality —
where, in short, there is a lack of democracy.
 That is why, in the promotion of a safer world,
our efforts will always be needed to combat all kinds
of discrimination. In that regard, I wish to underscore
the political declaration against racism, racial
discrimination and xenophobia and related intolerance
that was adopted at that time during the General
Assembly. It is also 10 years since the Durban
Declaration and Programme of Action. Today, as the
States represented here, we say that we cannot afford to
lower our guard since, in an increasingly globalized
and complex world, the threat of discrimination is
growing.
 At the beginning of my statement, I spoke of the
need to continue building the world on the principles
and values that inspire this Assembly. Allow me now to
recall the spirit and the philosophy of the twenty-eighth
President of the United States, President Wilson, father
of the League of Nations, the precursor of today’s
United Nations. Wilson taught us that it was of little
use to be democrats at home if we were not capable of
exporting democracy beyond our borders, and that a
State that turned its back on countries still living under
oppression and in which the most fundamental rights
and freedoms were not respected could not presume to
be democratic.
 That is why we must welcome with an especially
positive attitude what we have called the Arab Spring.
We sincerely hope that those movements for
democracy strengthen in the future. In that context, in
July, we supported South Sudan becoming the
193rd member of the United Nations. Today, we are
pleased at that reality and we most warmly welcome it.
A more democratic world is a more dynamic world, but
also safer because it is fairer. Most failures of security
in our world, as I said a moment ago, are fuelled by
injustice.
 Likewise, with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, we must keep encouraging dialogue and
mediation. The Palestinian people’s aspiration to have
a democratic and peaceful State is as legitimate as the
Israeli desire to obtain guarantees for its existence and
security. The final aim of a mutual recognition of two
States by two peoples, on the basis of the 1967 lines
with the agreed and equivalent exchanges, is now
under discussion.

11-51398 24

 A possible intermediate step, in a shorter term, by
becoming an observer State could represent an element
of hope for the Palestinian people, provided that it is
not used for purposes that are incompatible with
continuing negotiations, but for the aforementioned
goal. Israel also must contribute to that spirit, avoiding
attitudes that could affect the final status.
 Andorra is a country that has lived for more than
700 years without an army, without taking part in any
war and without internal conflicts. The perpetual peace
and permanent stability, of which we Andorrans are
proud, is not founded on an autocratic regime that
controls its people with an iron fist or on a whim
resulting from the deterrence of larger or more
powerful neighbours. No, the ultimate reason for a
peace and security maintained for more than seven
centuries has been the ongoing effort to respect
individual rights and freedoms and the rule of justice
and of fairness, and the existence of mechanisms of
solidarity, as was well demonstrated in the recent
universal periodic review.
 Our democracy and our centuries-old
parliamentary system are not the fruit of peace and
stability, but the reverse. Peace, security and stability
are the fruits of democracy because, without
democracy, there is no possibility of peace or lasting
security either in Andorra or anywhere in the world.
 From the position of humility that governs our
support for the United Nations, we wish to reaffirm
here the idea of commitment as a fundamental value
and the linchpin of our political action. That
commitment is understood as a deep belief not only in
peace and equal opportunities, but also as an
involvement in and shouldering of individual
responsibilities regarding a common project and, last
but not least, as a wish for dialogue and understanding.
On Wednesday, President Sarkozy stated in this
Assembly: “Let us choose the path of compromise,
which is neither renunciation nor repudiation, but
which allows us to move forward, step by step”
(). Andorra will continue to work towards
such a commitment within the Organization.


Allow me, first of all, to warmly congratulate the
President on his election. His human qualities, along
with his experience, will be invaluable throughout this
sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly. To his
predecessor, His Excellency Joseph Deiss, I wish to

11-50871 22

express our gratitude for his extremely skilful
presidency. I also take this opportunity to congratulate
the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Ban
Ki-moon, on his unanimous re-election, and reiterate
Gabon’s full confidence in him.
 Allow me to recall that Gabon has always striven
to contribute to peace and the peaceful settlement of
conflicts through dialogue and mediation. We firmly
believe in the link between peace and security, on the
one hand, and development and democracy, on the
other. Because the people of Gabon enjoy peace at
home, as well as with their neighbours and the world as
a whole, we are able to achieve new development
goals.
 This firm belief, which I proposed to my
compatriots when I was elected as head of
Government, lies at the heart of Gabon’s future vision
for development. Since my last statement before the
General Assembly a year ago, my Government has
moved to take action. We are humbled by the scale of
the task and the time required to ensure further
progress.
 We are already building strategic infrastructure,
including preparations for the African Cup of Nations,
which Gabon will host in 2012 together with
Equatorial Guinea. We are also moving forward with
industrial processing projects, beginning with wood,
manganese and gas. In addition, we are also making
progress with policies to support the service sector. In
terms of agriculture, we intend to develop agro-industries,
and to support food production and sustainable fishing,
which are both so valuable for our food security.
 Finally, we are working on a daily basis to
implement our steadfast commitment to sustainable
development in the context of a green Gabon.
 With regard to international peace and security in
Africa and throughout the world, Gabon has reiterated
its commitment and has contributed according to its
means. Since 2010, we have had a non-permanent seat
on the Security Council. Last June, Gabon held the
Presidency of that body, a role that we discharged with
responsibility and commitment.
 Turning to Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon has endorsed the
actions taken by the United Nations, aimed at
respecting the will of the Ivorian people and ensuring
the return to a peaceful political environment. We must
now support the efforts of the new Government to
achieve national reconciliation and reconstruction in
our sister country.
 With regard to Libya, Gabon has recognized the
National Transitional Council and welcomes Libya’s
return to the African Union and to the international
community at the United Nations. In the Security
Council, along with the other two African members, we
approved resolution 1973 (2011). It was incumbent on
the international community to prevent the bloodbath
that threatened to take place in Benghazi. We also
needed to cut short a conflict that posed great danger to
the civilian population. Today, it is important that
Libya emerge from this crisis in order to begin
reconciliation for all Libyans and the reconstruction of
the country. It is with this aim in mind that we took
part in the conference of friends of Libya in Paris. We
welcome the role played by the United Nations. It is
important to work together with the African Union and
other stakeholders. We are ready to contribute to the
efforts of the international community in Libya.
 South Sudan has also joined the international
community. Gabon congratulates the authorities of that
newborn sister country and assures it of our support.
We welcome the clear determination of Sudan and
South Sudan to seek a peaceful way to settle their post-
referendum issues.
 In Somalia, we must act resolutely because of the
serious and urgent nature of the situation. Everything
must be done to deliver humanitarian aid to those who
need it in the towns and villages in Somalia itself.
Gabon responded to the appeal of the international
community and has made a contribution.
 The issue of Palestine affects us all, so far-
reaching are its implications for peace in the Middle
East and throughout the world. It is important to stress
that we all share the goal, which is the existence of two
States, Palestine and Israel. On this question, I wish to
express my desire, as I did here in this Hall last year
and do this year with even greater hope, namely, to see
soon a Palestinian State that exists in peace alongside
Israel, within secure and recognized borders. The
Israeli and Palestinian peoples, both friends of Gabon,
aspire to live in peace and security. The peaceful future
of these two peoples is essential for the future of the
Middle East and for peace in the world.
 Syria represents a new situation that requires
efforts on all our parts. We hope that the Arab League’s

23 11-50871

mediation efforts will ensure a peaceful and democratic
outcome as a matter of urgency.
 Gabon will be particularly attentive to the priority
issues throughout this sixty-sixth session of the
General Assembly. Gabon is, of course, in favour of
reform of the Security Council and reform of the
United Nations system in general. We must enable our
Organization to better discharge its mission of peace,
cooperation and justice throughout the world.
 Africa should, in a manner that remains to be
determined, have a permanent seat in the Security
Council. Africa’s voice must be heard more on the
international stage. This expectation on the part of
Africa and even other regions of the world is part of
our aspirations for a true democratization of global
political and economic governance.
 As you know, Gabon is fully committed,
including within the framework of the United Nations,
to protecting the environment and combating global
warming. Since I assumed the highest office in my
country, Gabon has taken major steps to reduce its
carbon dioxide emissions and to increase the carbon
sequestration rate of our forests. My Government has
committed itself to modern ways of preserving our
tropical forests and biodiversity within our 13 national
parks, which cover a little more than 11 per cent of our
territory. Gabon has thus launched an extensive
campaign to prevent the pillaging of its natural
resources and the poaching of its protected species. We
are striving to develop our timber industry, while
preserving the ecological wealth of our immense
tropical forest.
 We should also recall that the issues of the
environment and international security will face us in
the future. At the coming United Nations Climate
Change Conference in Durban, in South Africa, we will
have to deal with that complex of issues in our work
and bear in mind the link that exists between the
environment and international security.
 Finally, we are closely following the efforts under
way to delineate the limits of the continental shelf.
Given the potential of undersea resources, we should
ensure that their future exploitation does not lead to
natural disasters.
 Gabon is concerned by the impact of the
economic crisis on countries of the South, particularly
in terms of achieving the Millennium Development
Goals. The impact of the international financial crisis
on public investment in basic social sectors, such as
education, health and the provision of drinking water
and electricity, is constraining our efforts to promote
human development.
 Despite significant progress in implementing the
Millennium Development Goals, the deadline of 2015
remains for many countries, including Gabon, a
difficult challenge to meet. The Millennium
Development Goals cannot be achieved unless
additional funds are mobilized before 2015.
Development assistance is stagnating, and I see real
concern as a result of the situation. The international
community must make an effort to live up to the
commitments it agreed to in Monterey, Doha,
Gleneagles, Paris and Accra. We need a new global
partnership for development to ensure lasting economic
growth in our countries. Aid should be accompanied by
more direct investment and more fair and equitable
trade. To mobilize new resources, we encourage and
support the efforts under way aimed at
institutionalizing innovative mechanisms for funding
development.
 The President of the General Assembly has asked
us to discuss the issue of mediation. This issue is at the
heart of the very raison d’être of our Organization,
which is to guarantee peace and security throughout
the world.
 Mediation and conflict prevention must remain
our primary means of collective action. We all feel the
need, in a complex world, to achieve greater
democracy, a world where economic and cultural
exchanges are better balanced and where crisis
prevention, whether it be of political or other crises, is
better organized, with, in particular, better early
warning systems and mediation.
 Gabon is historically attached to mediation and to
the peaceful settlement of disputes. This approach has
always been one of the bases of our relations with our
neighbouring and brotherly countries in the Central
African subregion and has played a part in our
contribution to the resolution of conflicts in Africa. My
country will never depart from that path, in particular
at the very moment when Africa is striving to achieve
political and economic integration.
 Our commitment to the peaceful settlement of
conflicts is also part of the commitments that we have
undertaken under a number of conventions and treaties

11-50871 24

on human rights, humanitarian law, the promotion of
democracy and the rule of law, and international
cooperation and solidarity.
 We are well aware that mediation has its limits,
and the international community must always be ready,
if necessary, to consider other ways of ensuring
conflict prevention and conflict resolution. Conflicts
will be more complex and multidimensional in the
future. Economic crises, environmental crises and
aspirations for democracy and freedoms, which are
taking on new forms, will worsen tensions, and we
must follow these developments closely.
 Gabon will continue to support and contribute to
the mediation efforts and good offices of the Secretary-
General on several different fronts and in the various
areas of the world where there are conflicts. Those
efforts are essential. They must be enhanced by
increased resources and be carried out in an impartial
way, with full respect for the sovereignty of States. It
should also be said that the participation of women is
important in all aspects of mediation, since they are
always the first victims of conflicts, along with
children.
 Finally, the United Nations must enhance its
cooperation with all the other actors playing a role in
this area. In Africa, the African Union, which continues
to enhance its mediation capacities, is an essential
player.
 I would like to conclude by recalling the motto of
my vision for our society aimed at making Gabon an
emerging country: peace, development and sharing.
The climate of peace and stability that Gabon is now
enjoying will be invaluable as our country enters a new
phase of rapid modernization. More than ever before,
Gabon wishes to cooperate with other countries. We
are deeply committed to peace. The people of Gabon
are therefore ready to exchange, create and build with
the rest of the world.


I
should like at the outset to convey to you, Sir, my
heartfelt and sincere congratulations on your well-
deserved election as President of the General Assembly
at its sixty-sixth session and to wish you every success
in discharging your mandate.
 I should like also to reiterate my heartfelt
congratulations to Mr. Ban Ki-moon on his
reappointment as Secretary-General. I assure him of
the full cooperation of the Government of Benin and
the personal support of its Head of State in the vast

37 11-51670

undertaking that is the modernization of the United
Nations, which he has been working towards since he
took the helm of the Organization.
 I should like also to pay a well-deserved tribute
to Mr. Joseph Deiss for the outstanding manner in
which he carried out his mission as President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session.
 I should like to commend the selection of the
theme of the sixty-sixth session, “The role of mediation
in the peaceful settlement of disputes”. This reflects a
recognition of the importance of dialogue and of the
responsibility of third parties in the maintenance of
international peace and security.
 Conflicts, crises and wars represent a large part
of the challenges faced by humankind. They undermine
poorer States, whose efforts are often undone by
indiscriminate violence, as deadly as it is destructive.
 This legitimate interest in the use of mediation
should serve as a catalyst for raising the awareness of
stakeholders in all regions of the world as to the need
to accord greater importance to dialogue in resolving
problems, nationally and in the context of inter-State,
bilateral, regional and international relations.
 We would therefore like to commend the
partnership between the United Nations and the
African Union within the context of the special
political missions, which are an optimum framework
for mediation. Such partnerships can help to avert
redundancy and duplication, which can be counter-
productive and doom mediation efforts to failure.
 Benin, for its part, which owes much to dialogue,
very early on grasped the importance of that tool in the
prevention and resolution of crises at the national level.
In that respect, I believe it appropriate here to draw the
attention of the international community to the fact that
the Government of Benin has given high priority to the
issue of mediation in its programme of action and, in
that context, established the Office of the Ombudsman.
We would also like to commend the creation, at the
regional level, of the Association of Ombudsmen of
Member Countries of the West African Economic and
Monetary Union, which Benin chairs; indeed, most of
the countries in the Union are relying on this important
tool for the maintenance of peace.
 Perhaps we should go even further and establish
civil entities for mediation and the restoration of peace,
whose members would meet with the parties to a
conflict so as to re-establish dialogue among them and
to prevail upon them to resolve their disputes
peacefully.
 The current state of the world makes clear the
urgent need to strengthen multilateralism, with a view
to averting the collective collapse that could result if
appropriate or consensual solutions are not rapidly
found to the global problems afflicting the world today.
At the national level, we require greater cohesion
among the vital forces of the country and greater
determination in the context of actions aimed at
eliminating the obstacles that impede development.
With respect to preserving democratic institutions,
when the fundamental values enshrined in the Charter
are at stake, the United Nations must be at the forefront
of the efforts of the international community.
 In that regard, impartiality cannot be synonymous
with neutrality, which would be unfathomable and
make the United Nations a passive bystander to the
triumph of aggression over the rule of law. I should
therefore like to thank the Secretary-General for the
courageous choices he has made.
 In Benin, democracy has been strengthened by
the tireless commitment of the United Nations to
ensuring electoral transparency, which it accomplished
through its support for the creation of a computerized
permanent voters’ list, which prevents any
manipulation or other fraudulent manoeuvres and
thereby ensures fairness in our country’s elections.
 Based on the success of our young democracy in
Benin, my Government has been working to
consolidate cooperative governance at both the
national and local levels, so as to maximize the impact
of the resources that have been mobilized and
earmarked for the promotion of the well-being of all
the citizens of our country. Accordingly, far-reaching
reforms have been undertaken to reorganize the State
and rid the country of the structural and behavioural
incoherence that has impeded the State in its efforts to
govern effectively.
 The strengthening of democratic institutions and
a fresh balance of powers is at the very heart of the
constitutional review that is under discussion. Such a
review must in no way affect the principal mechanisms
that ensure the alternance of power, that is, the number
of terms allowed the President of the Republic —
strictly limited to two — and the age limitation of

11-51670 38

70 years, beyond which one cannot run for the highest
office in Benin.
 The fight against corruption is a crucial aspect of
that effort to streamline the State apparatus. The
adoption in late August 2011 of a new law to fight
corruption is in keeping with the national dynamic of
ensuring transparency in the management of the State’s
resources and in the resolute fight undertaken against
any practices that deny citizens the ability fully to
enjoy the fruits of their labour. That new law enables
us to better combat the various forms of illicit
enrichment, as today it is up to the accused to justify
the source of his wealth, not the accuser. This is a
revolutionary development in the context Benin’s
judicial and legislative mechanisms.
 At the global level, we believe in the benefits of
multilateralism. That is why we see an ever greater
need for the United Nations, which should be given a
more assertive role in global governance — a United
Nations that would spearhead and lead of actions
aimed at promoting, within an inclusive framework,
comprehensive and sustainable solutions to the
manifold crises that are affecting the world and having
direct repercussions for human rights.
 Our Government, throughout its term in the
Human Rights Council, intends, together with other
members of the Council, to work to promote and
protect universally recognized human rights, in a spirit
of cooperation. Benin firmly believes in the
universality, the indivisibility and the interdependence
of all human rights. It has faith in international
cooperation as the most effective means for promoting
and protecting all universally recognized human rights.
 Let us recognize the ongoing efforts made in past
years by each of our countries, and collectively through
international organizations both regional and universal,
to manage the consequences of the various crises that
affect the world, particularly developing countries —
food, energy, financial, economic and environmental
crises.
 However, the international economic situation
remains sluggish and uncertain. Indeed, the long-
awaited international economic recovery remains slow
and tenuous, while financial and stock market
turbulence continues to affect the international market.
 Even today, more than two thirds of the
800 million people in the least developed countries
(LDCs) are living in poverty. The economic indicators
of those nations — which have made prodigious efforts
and heavy sacrifices to emerge from underdevelopment —
call for great prudence with regard to attaining the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
 Despite that rather bleak picture, we should
continue our efforts to ensure that our countries can
make progress in the spheres of good governance,
development, health, water, sanitation, primary
education for all and the empowerment of women and
youth.
 The developing countries, particularly the LDCs,
need more than ever the transfer of modern technology
to increase and diversify production, take a greater part
in international trade and build the infrastructure
required for development. The developed countries and
the countries of the South that are experiencing
significant economic growth should establish facilities
to that end, as was agreed at the Fourth United Nations
Conference on the Least Developed Countries, held in
Istanbul from 9 to 13 May 2011. The new programme
of action adopted at that Conference clearly reflects
our shared ambition to ensure that half those countries
move to the category of middle-income nations by
2020.
 But however noble the goals set forth in the
Istanbul Programme of Action may be, they cannot be
achieved unless we respect the commitments already
made. For that reason, despite the cyclical difficulties
that characterize the current global economic situation,
we must remain firm in our resolve to move forward.
 There is no stable financial support for the
development efforts of the LDCs without stable
sources of financing. Therefore the Government of
Benin strongly supports the innovative financing
initiative for development. We call on the nations of
the Group of 20 to take a closer look at that initiative
so that taxation of financial transactions becomes a
tangible reality during the weeks and months to come.
 Threats related to climate change — particularly
the continuing deterioration of the environment and
drought, a source of famine in some parts of Africa —
and the recurrence of natural disasters greatly
undermine the future prospects of the LDCs.
 Benin commends the United Nations preparatory
work for the Rio+20 Summit planned for Brazil in June
2012. We hope those meetings will lead to robust

39 11-51670

measures and decisions that match the perils that await
us.
 The threats that curtail our ambitions stem from
other factors as well, such as the surge in transnational
organized crime, which is quite pernicious. My
country, Benin, has in recent months been the target of
extremely serious and savage acts of piracy, armed
robbery at sea and an influx of narcotics and
counterfeit medicines. This scourge has not spared
other countries of the Gulf of Guinea, which have also
been affected to varying degrees. We are particularly
distressed not only by the escalating number of such
attacks and the increasingly sophisticated methods the
pirates employ, but also and especially by the
expansion of their field of action and the immediate
effect of these attacks on port activities in Benin.
 That situation complicates Benin’s efforts to find
the resources to handle the economic and financial
difficulties related to external shocks, the repercussions
of which severely impact the economy of small
countries like ours. It also seriously hampers our
ability to achieve the MDGs. The Government of
Benin is working with our neighbour Nigeria to
mobilize the countries of the Gulf of Guinea subregion
for a coordinated response by developing and
implementing a regional approach that involves joint
manoeuvres to be launched shortly by the armed forces
of Benin and Nigeria along the coast of Benin.
 I call for the effective solidarity of States with
expertise in the area of maritime operations to come to
our assistance. Our resources are laughable, given the
magnitude of the threat. Clearly, the fight against
piracy requires technical and financial resources that a
developing State cannot provide alone. Here I would
like to thank the United States, France, China and other
countries that have already shown spontaneous
solidarity toward Benin.
 The matters to which we need to find solutions
grow ever more complex. The United Nations must
continually improve its ability to closely define the
challenges facing humanity and to help States
formulate appropriate responses while preserving the
delicate balance of interests of all stakeholders, as
evidence of its efficiency and efficacy.
 Along these lines, the negotiations to reform the
Security Council must be intensified with the adoption
of a specific timetable for their outcome, to be
credible. My sense is that 2015 could be considered a
deadline for completing negotiations and establishing
an inclusive Security Council that would redress the
historical injustice done to Africa with respect to its
permanent representation in that body, which crowns
the collective security system established by the United
Nations Charter.
 Benin says no, no, and a third time no. The time
has come to put an end to an intolerable injustice that
excludes an entire continent — the only one, Africa —
from the supreme decision-making body with respect
to international security.
 I am certain that completion of Security Council
reform will lead to greater trust and less suspicion in
the management of today’s great challenges in the
realm of international peace and security.
 My country has always advocated strengthening
conflict prevention as a means to ensure international
peace and security at less cost. Efforts to that end must
be tirelessly pursued.
 Prevention also includes effectively supporting
young people to prepare them for their responsibilities,
protect them from the risks they face and channel their
energies towards participation in the development of
their countries. We need to remove the obstacles that
deter or prevent them from fulfilling their potential and
divert them to risky behaviour of all kinds that harm
public order and the stability of States.
 That is why my Government was firmly
committed to the holding of the United Nations High-
level Meeting on Youth. Now that it has taken place,
we need to do our utmost to ensure that its conclusions
on youth are translated into specific actions as soon as
possible. The great interest in that High-level Meeting
shown by young people around the world reflects their
will to become more involved in the search for
appropriate solutions to the challenges facing
humankind.
 The Government of my country also believes that
it would be useful for the United Nations to hold youth
hearings every year, or every other year, to enable
youth from around the world to address a specific
subject, with broad participation of young delegates
and young leaders of non-governmental organizations.
Such regular mobilization of the world’s young people
in the heart of the United Nations would make our
world Organization more inclusive and closer to our
peoples.

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 For us in Benin — and I quote the President of
the Republic, Mr. Boni Yayi — “there is no doubt that
only those societies that give young people
opportunities will be able to meet the challenges to
come”.
 From 16 to 20 November 2010, Benin hosted an
international symposium on the fiftieth anniversary of
the independence of African countries. That meeting
culminated in the drafting of an important historic
document entitled “The Fiftieth Anniversary
Manifesto”. The African Union, at its most recent
summit, held in Malabo on 30 June and 1 July, adopted
the Manifesto as a reference document for the
renaissance of the African continent.
 The Anniversary Manifesto details, in the context
of globalization, felicitous prospects with regard the
challenges facing Africa in the coming 50 years, which
will require new partnership approaches to promote
development and more effective collective action for
the renaissance of the continent. I firmly hope that the
Manifesto will be taken to heart equally by the United
Nations and lead to synergy and better coordination of
efforts to mobilize the international community for the
economic development of African countries so as to
meet the legitimate aspirations of the people of the
continent.
 In conclusion, I want to note that recent history
teaches us that the greatest threats to international
peace and security come from peoples who have long
been frustrated. The Palestinian question makes the
Arab nation a frustrated nation. The United Nations
today has the means to find a just and lasting solution
to the Palestinian problem, and it must not fail to meet
its historic responsibility.
 We support a free and independent Palestinian
State living in peaceful coexistence with the State of
Israel. Benin gives ongoing support to the one-land,
two-State solution and calls upon the Security Council
to facilitate the prompt resolution of the problem, to
bring relief to the Palestinian people, who endure daily
suffering.
 We believe in the virtue of mediation. The choice
of that option as a way to resolve conflicts around the
world in this sixty-sixth session of the Assembly offers
a last chance for the two parties to re-engage in
dialogue to finally bring lasting peace to the Middle
East and to the world. The peace that we all so wish for
must be based on universal respect for the cardinal
principles and fundamental values contained in the
United Nations Charter.


Not since the
prelude to the two world wars have there been so much
uncertainty and anxiety within the international system.
The sands are indeed shifting, as the President of the
Assembly stressed at the opening of this sixty-sixth
session (see A/66/PV.1).
 The shifts in the struggles for freedom and the
struggles for rights, some of which we in Saint Lucia
take for granted; the shifts in the number of natural
disasters that devastate country after country; financial
meltdowns, increases in the price of energy and food,
and food shortages have all converged and met at a
moment when the challenge to cope weighs upon us
all. However, the weight carried by a small island State
bears down like an elephant on an ant, and although the
ant is capable of carrying many times its own weight, it
would never choose to carry an elephant.
 The current world economic and financial
situations are not of our making but they affect us more
than anybody else. It continues to confound us how the
States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), with
the exception of Haiti of course — small island States
like us, with limited resources, limited populations,
limited land mass and small economies — can be
classified as middle-income. With that classification,
we are not eligible for special arrangements in finance
and trade. There must be something wrong with that
classification. We continue to argue that the
methodology employed for such categorization puts
small island developing States (SIDS) at a great
disadvantage in terms of receiving favourable aid and
trade packages, thereby adversely affecting our
development strategies.
 The continued attrition of trade preferences at the
multilateral level challenges our very small — and, I
reiterate, very vulnerable — economies and requires
our Governments to employ creative structural
arrangements and adjustments and fiscal exercises to
keep our economies afloat. The present application of
the terms of trade and conditions of aid are very
unfavourable to us.
 Emphasis therefore has to be placed on the
consideration of a balanced approach to foreign
investment and environmental integrity, and investors
must not place undue pressure on small States. Rather,
there should be an understanding of our challenges and
our willingness to work in a win-win situation.
Favourable mechanisms for finance and technology
transfer would enable small island States to take
advantage of the benefits that these offer as
prerequisites for sustainable development. This is all
we ask, nothing more — a chance to claim our part.
 We stress our vulnerability to natural disasters
and their disproportionate effect on small island
economies, and we seek rapid and meaningful response
mechanisms at the regional and international levels in
order to enable our vulnerable economies to recover as
quickly as possible. Almost every year, gains made
during the first half of the year are eroded in the last
quarter by weather-related phenomena.
 Saint Lucia is still recovering from Hurricane
Tomas, which struck the island in October 2010. Let
me take this opportunity to thank those who
contributed so generously to our recovery. Of course,
we will still accept any generous contributions.
 Saint Lucia, like other SIDS, recognizes the vital
role that oceans play in national and global economic
development. In light of this, the Government of Saint
Lucia remains committed to ensuring the sustainable
development of both coastal and marine resources.
 For a number of years now, Saint Lucia has had
legislation in place that speaks to effective fisheries
management with laws on open and closed seasons for
certain fisheries such as lobsters and, in order to
prevent the capture of juvenile fish, mesh-size limits
for nets and fish-trap fisheries. The Government is also
targeting large pelagic fish and other species not
traditionally harvested by local fishers, in order to
reduce pressure on coastal and reef fishing. In addition,
a number of marine reserves and marine management
areas have been established, with the most well-known
of these being the Soufriere Marine Management
Association, which has been used to inform the
establishment of other marine parks within the
Caribbean and, I may add, globally.
 The Government of Saint Lucia has adopted an
institutional framework for integrated coastal zone
management and is working towards ensuring its
successful implementation through a Caribbean coastal
zone management unit and a coastal zone management
advisory committee.

11-51687 8

 I dwell on the issue of oceans and seas because
the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise are
real to SIDS, and Saint Lucia, through a number of
projects and programmes, is seeking to build the
island’s resilience to these impacts through the formal
adoption of a national building code and the
development of environmental impact, physical
planning and development regulations.
 Nevertheless, Saint Lucia has recognized the
importance of having access to data and models at the
national and local levels in defining and informing the
country’s response to climate change, and in this regard
is taking a number of steps to build the requisite
database by working with various national, regional
and global organizations.
 The Caribbean Sea is an important international
shipping route for both tourism and trade. Considered
by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) to be a biodiversity hotspot, the Caribbean Sea
is and will remain our livelihood. It keeps us afloat, but
it can also drown us if we do not manage it properly;
that is what seas do. It therefore needs special
attention, and our Government is promoting an
integrated management approach to the Caribbean Sea
area in the context of sustainable development. We
therefore support the work of the UNEP Caribbean
Environment Programme, and we hope that funding
will be made available to that programme to enable us
to achieve our goals.
 For all these reasons, Saint Lucia would like to
call on the international community to ensure that there
is a strong focus on oceans in the preparatory
negotiations for the upcoming United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). We
cannot forget the importance of oceans to SIDS in
providing energy and food security, and to the world as
a whole in regulating our climate. Oceans are a
regulatory mechanism for climate.
 As countries worldwide prepare for the Rio+20
Earth summit, we note that the green economy is a
major theme for discussion. Renewable energy and
energy efficiency are at the heart of the green economy.
Petroleum giants like British Petroleum and Shell are
now turning to investments in solar and wind energy.
Countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil
have positioned themselves as strong proponents of
renewable energy. Sustainable energy technologies
have been and continue to be a subject of significant
research and development, with very promising results.
 At the policy level, a number of countries,
including my own, have articulated noble and
ambitious energy policies to steer us into the future. In
negotiations taking place pursuant to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
climate change mitigation is inextricably linked to
sustainable energy development and continues to
generate much debate as State parties seek to find
lasting solutions to the problem of greenhouse gas
emissions.
 But while the United Nations endeavours to
promote equity and equality among individual
countries, our capacities are not the same. Countries
like ours yearn to enjoy the benefits of sustainable,
renewable energy sources, but despite having
significant potential for renewable energy, we have not
yet been able to meaningfully develop these resources.
It is therefore imperative that the international
community take decisive action to assist small island
States, isolated as we are, in achieving energy security
through renewable energy and energy efficiency
programmes. Financing is a critical element in the
development of new and renewable forms of energy.
 So far, SIDS have largely been overlooked, as
investments are made in larger economies where
greater economies of scale and profits beckon. Even
with the existence of avenues such as the clean
development mechanism, which should also promote
sustainable energy projects, the results have not been
very encouraging for SIDS. We hope that, not too long
from now, that situation may change.
 We applaud the efforts and resources put into the
conservation and preservation of the world’s forests to
reverse desertification. We think, however, that
considerable attention should also be given to what I
term “small stands of trees” in our small island States.
Although we call them forests, to those who have very
large forests they are small stands of trees, but they are
important to us because they are critical and crucial to
soil fertility and therefore guarantee production and
productivity in agriculture, thereby promoting food
security and the alleviation of poverty.
 Similarly, Saint Lucia welcomes the adoption of
the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing
and is grateful to the Government of Japan for
providing an implementation fund for developing

9 11-51687

countries. We see that as a great opportunity to help
our communities to benefit from their biological
resources and the traditional knowledge associated
with them, so that they too can play their role in the
conservation of biological diversity. In accordance with
the declaration of 2011-2020 as the United Nations
Decade on Biodiversity, we urge all countries to work
closely together to conserve biological resources for
the present day and posterity.
 The recently concluded High-level Meeting on
non-communicable Diseases provided an opportunity
to deepen relations and collaboration with Member
States, regional and international agencies and
development partners, and to share technical expertise,
best practices and resources as we continue to strive to
meet clearly defined goals and objectives. As a
member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM),
which spearheaded this initiative, Saint Lucia wishes to
place on record its appreciation for the commitment of
all Member States, United Nations agencies,
particularly the World Health Organization, and other
interested groups in addressing the scourge of
non-communicable diseases. We nevertheless need to
set targets, implement programmes and measure
success if we are to make progress beyond just another
meeting.
 Saint Lucia, like all of the other CARICOM
member States, is grappling with security threats
engendered by the illicit trade in small arms and light
weapons and trafficking in narcotics. The associated
rise in crime and violence involving the use of firearms
has had a significant adverse effect on the socio-
economic and human development of our countries.
Saint Lucia will therefore spare no effort in working
towards concluding an arms trade treaty that is legally
binding, robust and comprehensive; contains the
highest possible standard for the transfer of
conventional arms, including small arms, light
weapons and ammunition; is effective in regulating the
arms trade, particularly in preventing diversion; and is
universal in subscription.
 Saint Lucia welcomes the Republic of South
Sudan as the most recent member of our community
and wishes it progress, peace and prosperity. We look
forward to welcoming the State of Palestine to this
body after successful negotiations have been
concluded. That is our hope.
 The anachronistic, half-century blockade imposed
on the people of our neighbour, Cuba, suffocates that
people’s right to prosperity and progress. The outdated
mechanism’s illogical application does not fit twenty-
first century geopolitics, economics or
humanitarianism. We therefore add our voice to others
that have spoken before us in calling for an end to this
blockade and to all limitations on the rights of the
Cuban people to progress and prosperity.
 In the spirit of the greater good, we are pleased
that, since 2009, Taiwan has been able to participate in
the World Health Association (WHA), in recognition of
the fact that global health issues require universal
participation and cooperation to overcome those major
problems that affect the peoples of every corner of the
globe.
 Sustainable development, like health, is one of
those issues that require global participation and
cooperation. Taiwan is a leading economic and
technological powerhouse and can contribute
substantially not only to health but to a range of global
issues that face the world today. We urge the United
Nations to find suitable means to permit Taiwan to
participate in its specialized agencies and mechanisms,
including the International Civil Aviation Organization
and the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change all of which have worldwide
implications, along the lines of the WHA model.
Surely, 25 million people living on planet Earth can
contribute to this body of peoples.
 In conclusion, the shifting sands are revealing an
international system on the brink of change. We are at
a moment when a decision taken here in this great
Assembly will reverberate throughout history.
Decisions taken here can create a State or divide a
State; they can bring peace or bring renewed conflict.
The theme for this general debate — “The role of
mediation in the settlement of disputes by peaceful
means” was well chosen. Let it guide our work this
year and beyond.


First of all, let me say
how pleased I am to come before the General
Assembly and to address it on behalf of His Excellency
Mr. Bingu Wa Mutharika, President of the Republic of
Malawi. The President was unable to attend due to
other State commitments, but he sends his greetings to
you, Sir, the Secretary-General and all the peoples of
the United Nations.
 At the outset, I would like to extend my sincere
congratulations to you, Sir, on your election as
President of the General Assembly. Your election is a
manifestation of the confidence that the people of the
United Nations have in your leadership. I wish you
well as you lead this body in the next several months.
 Allow me also to take this opportunity to
congratulate Mr. Joseph Deiss, the President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session, for his
effective leadership during his tenure. I had the
opportunity of working with him in Istanbul, and he
was very helpful to me personally as a new participant
in those international activities. He also showed much
interest in Africa. I hope that, whatever he does in
future, he will continue to show interest in Africa.
 Let me also take the opportunity to congratulate
Mr. Ban Ki-moon on his unanimous reappointment as
Secretary-General. His endorsement has demonstrated
the international community’s confidence in his
leadership. I remember his visit to Malawi this past
year, when he came to visit the Millennium Village.
The people of Mwandama village anxiously await his
return, and they have sent word through me to ask him,
whenever he has time, to come back to Malawi.
 Let me take this opportunity to join other
speakers in congratulating our brothers and sisters of
South Sudan for achieving their independence. I am
particularly excited about this because, when South
Sudan gained its independence, Malawi was Chair of
the African Union and played a small part in its
emergence as an independent State. I am very excited
about that. The emergence of South Sudan is, I believe,
a good manifestation of the importance of mediation
and negotiation in the settlement of disputes by
peaceful means. There is no question in my mind that
the remaining issues that exist between South Sudan
and the Sudan will also be resolved in a peaceful
manner. I therefore wish them well.
 The theme of this general debate is “The role of
mediation in the settlement of disputes by peaceful
means”. I consider this an opportune time to discuss
that particular issue because today we are faced with
new problems, including inter-State and intra-State
problems. There is a new phenomenon of people who
become divided over ethnic, linguistic, religious or
cultural differences within States. Methods must
therefore be found to resolve disputes within States.
 I therefore wish to commend the United Nations
and to encourage the establishment of durable
mechanisms to ensure that disputes between and within
States are resolved in a peaceful manner. In that
context, I congratulate the African Union, regional
organizations and other international organizations for
the mediation work they have done, especially in
Africa. I would like to encourage developing countries,
especially African States, to make sure to adopt the
practice of resolving disputes in universities and to
train people at regional and local levels in dispute
settlement and resolution techniques.
 There are a number of issues facing the United
Nations and the world, but my country has identified
five that I hope will be put at the forefront of the
United Nations agenda at this and future sessions. The
first issue is that of disaster relief and management.
Disasters have now become a major problem in most of
our countries. They strain the resources of the least
developed countries, particularly in Africa. We face
problems of floods, heavy rains, droughts, earthquakes,
heavy winds and hurricanes almost every day. Such
developments have the effect of turning back the
progress made with respect to the Millennium
Development Goals. Therefore, I would like to invite
the international community to set up mechanisms in
Africa and elsewhere in the developing world that can
assist us in managing disasters.
 My country also attaches importance to the issue
of climate change. Climate change has become an
extremely difficult issue in Africa, where crops are
destroyed because there is either too much rain or too
little rain, too much wind or too much sunshine. All
these possibilities are due to climate change. Therefore,
I encourage the international community to come up
with mechanisms to manage climate change. I know
that countries like Malawi have not contributed to the

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incidence of climate change. Nevertheless, we feel we
do have a collective responsibility to make sure that
the issue of climate change is addressed. I hope that the
upcoming seventeenth Conference of the Parties to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change, scheduled to take place in South Africa, will
address this particular problem.
 The third area to which my country attaches
importance is the issue of peace and security. As we are
all aware, no matter how much development we
achieve, it will be meaningless if there is no peace and
security in our countries. Unfortunately, in our
countries, especially in Africa, we now face a lot of
challenges. There are movements of people who are
bent upon bringing about unconstitutional changes of
Government, thereby causing instability.
 In the case of Malawi, we are committed to
maintaining peace and security. We are also committed
to democracy and good governance. In this regard,
Malawi has, for example, instituted a number of
bodies, such as the Malawi Human Rights
Commission, an ombudsman, an anti-corruption bureau
and the Department of the Auditor General. All these
institutions are institutions of good governance aimed
at improving the governance in our part of Africa, and
certainly in Malawi.
 Another issue that is of importance to Malawi in
particular and to Africa in general is the issue of self-
determination. We still have over 2 million people in
different parts of the world living under colonial
domination. I want to urge the international community
to make sure that by the end of the Third International
Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism — from
2011 to 2021 — all the territories under colonial
domination will be free and independent. I think that
self-governance is a very important concept. The self-
determination of colonized peoples is enshrined in the
Charter of the United Nations.
 Of course, there is another element of self-
determination which the United Nations obviously has
to address, namely, that of self-determination outside
the colonial context. It is an extremely complicated
problem that needs to be addressed and studied. First
of all, what does self-determination mean within the
context of non-colonial States? What are peoples
within the context of non-colonial States? It is an issue
that obviously we must address because it is an
important one.
 Finally, my Government attaches great
importance to the role of the Security Council. There is
no question that the Council has played an extremely
important role since the creation of the United Nations
in 1945. However, I think it is obvious to everybody
that the structure created in 1945 is no longer
applicable to the present situation. We need therefore
to make sure that the Security Council is democratized.
We need to make sure that majority of countries,
especially those most affected by the Security Council,
like Malawi and others in Africa, are given a role to
play in the Council. I therefore would like to endorse
Africa’s common position, known as the Ezulwini
Consensus, that two permanent member seats and five
non-permanent seats in the Security Council should be
given to Africa.


I am honoured to extend
congratulations to Mr. Al-Nasser on his appointment to
the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-
sixth regular session. As two small countries, Qatar and
Grenada share much in common. Accordingly, we look
forward to his leadership and stand ready to support
him for the good of all the members of the General
Assembly and the United Nations itself. We welcome

9 11-51197

his theme on mediation because we believe that when
mediation is properly applied it can minimize
confrontation in the world. I also commend the
outgoing President, Mr. Joseph Deiss, for his
stewardship and dedication during the past year.
Grenada congratulates Mr. Ban Ki-moon on his
election to a second term as Secretary-General and
wishes him continued success.
 Now in its thirty-seventh year of independence
and membership of the United Nations, Grenada
renews its commitment to the principles of the United
Nations Charter, believing that universal adherence to
those principles provides guidance to the United
Nations to act on what may seem intractable, for the
United Nations is intended to lead, perhaps more so in
difficult times.
 Grenada supports the pursuit of international
peace and security. We believe firmly in the rule of
law, the promotion of democracy and respect for
human rights. We also support the fight against
terrorism, as well as the campaign against the illicit
drug trade. All these pose serious threats to the security
of our changing world. My Government reiterates its
commitment to the United Nations Charter. In support
of the role of the United Nations, this year the
Government of Grenada has signed three global
conventions, including the Convention on Cluster
Munitions, helping to bring about disarmament.
 We are all obliged to work selflessly to preserve
our planet for future generations. The avoidance of
nuclear confrontation is one sure way. We therefore
congratulate all Governments that have expended much
time and effort on nuclear non-proliferation.
 Since we met a year ago, the world and the
United Nations itself have faced many challenges —
economic, social and political — all of which
undermine stability and people’s survival. The
economic crisis continues to weigh heavily on
Grenada. Our population is experiencing high food and
fuel prices, national revenues have decreased, and debt
continues to be high. The green shoots of recovery that
others have experienced have not reached us. For us,
the economic crisis of 2008 still rages and we must
find a way out of it. Social and political strife remain,
if not in Grenada, in other parts of the world. These
demonstrate that the search for freedom and justice is
far from over.
 Human suffering and instability anywhere in the
world hurt us all, even in tiny Grenada, where
unemployment in major capitals affects our tourism
and even our remittances from abroad. The major
challenge facing Grenada as a small island developing
State is how to reduce our weaknesses, how to increase
our resilience, and how to pursue development for
people today and for their children tomorrow.
 How are we to respond? We must attempt to
achieve growth with equity, especially for women and
youth, and to support general improvements towards
people’s advancement — that is, create stable
environments and opportunities for our people to
thrive — and we must do so while contributing to a
just, peaceful and democratic global framework. We
believe that whatever the challenge, our common
political will for fairness and justice must remain our
overarching guiding principles in matters economic,
social and political.
 Grenada’s main response so far has been to
strengthen our democratic processes and to advance the
Caribbean regional integration movement. At the
national level, we promote social inclusion in the
governance of the country that engages civil society,
the media and the people as a whole. We have
instituted consultations and participation in major
policy and legislative matters, including the revision of
old laws and the making of new ones. At the regional
level, we are working with the Organization of Eastern
Caribbean States and the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM), two groupings that constitute the
unbreakable link with our national undertakings and
how we engage internationally.
 Grenada’s efforts to achieve sustainable
development can be helped by both the December 2011
Durban Climate Change Conference and the June 2012
United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20). Grenada appeals to all parties
to negotiate seriously and to meet commitments at both
of these Conferences. These global meetings must
bring added value to the ongoing efforts of Grenada
and other developing countries, especially small States.
Durban 2011 and Rio+20 must surely deliver
meaningful and attainable outcomes, including
fulfilling old obligations and delivering on new ones,
especially on climate financing and the broader
financing for development.

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 Developed countries must meet their
commitments to poorer nations. At the sixteenth
session of the Conference of the Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in
Cancún last year we made some progress on climate
change and we must build on that. We welcome the
establishment of the Transitional Committee of the
Green Climate Fund and hope to see it capitalized and
fully launched in Durban. We are deeply disappointed
that some countries are blocking the mandated review
of 1.5 degrees Celsius as the potential global average
warming limit. We call on those States to withdraw
their objections and support the movement to a safe
threshold for islands and for the world. We are
convinced that an adequate global response to climate
change must remain at the top of the global agenda. A
legally binding outcome must be part of the outcome of
climate negotiations.
 I call on partners to hasten the disbursement of
fast-start funds, especially to small island States. These
disbursements must be consistent with the scale of the
damage already done and the continuing threats that we
face from environmental degradation. We express
solidarity with our Pacific sisters and brothers, who are
daily losing territory to sea-level rise, perhaps faster
than we are in the Caribbean. They have my pledge
that we will continue to support them.
 Naturally, we are taking responsibility for
ourselves. This year we are launching a sustainable
energy programme for 24 small island developing
States. The Small Island Developing States Sustainable
Energy Initiative (SIDS DOCK) will provide the
foundation for low carbon economic growth and
adaptation to climate change. It will facilitate energy
efficiency and provide renewable energy to 24 small
island developing States. On behalf of the Alliance of
Small Island States I thank the Government and people
of Denmark for making the first contribution of an
initial US$ 14.5 million to SIDS DOCK. We also thank
our partners the World Bank and the United Nations
Development Programme for facilitating the
programme. We invite the international community to
join Denmark in financing this effort.
 In a similar vein to our climate change efforts, we
look to the Rio+20 meeting to advance our path to
sustainability. One of the key outcomes for Grenada
and other SIDS must be the development of a green
economy, one that combines investments, jobs and
livelihoods with environmental resources; and a blue
economy, one that takes into account coastal- and
ocean-based income generation. For indeed, peoples’
livelihoods are largely based on environmental
resources and services, including agriculture,
agro-industries, forestry, mining and tourism. The
Rio+20 meeting can and must be a turning point for
political commitment and financing for development.
 We know that the United Nations is capable of
leadership. However, it can be more effective if it
anticipates and responds to twenty-first century
challenges. That includes recognizing the fact that
dozens of mature States, many in the developing world,
are ready and able to take responsibility for the
management of the global agenda. The United Nations
must be reformed. How else will it support its growing
agenda? How else can it manage this new global
agenda for global sustainability, peace and
peacekeeping and disaster response within a
democratic multilateral system that is constantly
evolving? What worked for 65 years must be reshaped
for today. That is why we call for reform of the
Security Council to make it more representative and
inclusive. Failure to do this will deny that body the
political legitimacy it needs to maintain and indeed
enhance its leadership role in the world and to make
the best decisions. Grenada joins with other member
States in the Caribbean Community and calls for
expansion of the Security Council in both its
permanent and non-permanent categories and more
openness in its working methods. We call for a
Security Council seat for small island States within a
reasonable time frame and we also call for stronger and
more enhanced United Nations-CARICOM relations to
benefit the people of our Caribbean region.
 Grenada welcomes the formation and launch of
the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women, which is aimed at promoting
the rights of women and girls and equality between the
sexes. That is an early success of United Nations
reform.
 Grenada is firmly committed to the principle of
self-determination. On 14 July Grenada joined with
other Member States in welcoming the Republic of
South Sudan as the 193rd Member of the United
Nations. We salute the efforts of its people to usher in
peace at home and within the region.
 I turn now to the seemingly intractable problem
of moving Palestine from a State-in-waiting to an

11 11-51197

internationally recognized State. This cannot be
separated from the international clamour for
democratic rights now led by the Arab Spring. The just
aspirations of the people of Palestine must be
addressed, and Palestine must not be left behind in the
historical sweep towards open and sustainable
democracies. Equally, the Arab Spring should also be
the occasion for the renewal of a commitment to
Israel’s security. Peace depends on viable democracies
and sustained security. That is why Grenada is
disappointed that the Palestinians and Israelis have not
concluded talks over their long-standing dispute. We
urge a return to these talks and look forward to the
peaceful coexistence of these two States.
 It is quite obvious that the world continues to
experience the wrath of nature. We grieve at the waste
of human life and the environmental destruction caused
by disasters worldwide. We express our solidarity to
Member States that have experienced floods,
earthquakes, tsunamis and droughts in the past months.
Grenada calls for a strong global response especially
for the humanitarian crisis now unfolding in the Horn
of Africa.
 Grenada welcomes the new President of the sister
CARICOM State of Haiti and wishes him and his team
success as they rebuild Haiti after the devastation of
the earthquake. While we thank all those who have
helped, much still remains to be done. We call on all
who have pledged to help Haiti to deliver on their
pledges and support the efforts of the Haitian people.
Turning now to another Caribbean concern, Grenada
again urges the United States of America to completely
lift the harsh economic embargo against the people of
Cuba. All but a handful of the United Nations
membership have consistently voted for the removal of
that embargo.
 We acknowledge that responding to the complex
and interconnected issues on the United Nations
agenda is a major task, even for the United Nations.
Nevertheless, responding must be at the top of the
United Nations agenda. We maintain support for
sustainable development, action on climate change, and
support for justice and peace. Grenada commends the
Secretary-General for organizing a number of high-
level meetings on important topics. We are moved to
single out the High-level Meeting on non-communicable
diseases. This scourge is negatively affecting not just
developing countries but many developed countries as
well. The proliferation of non-communicable diseases
poses a very serious challenge to small island States
like Grenada because of their effects on the labour
force and demands on the shrinking finances of the
country. We therefore welcome the outcome of the
High-level Meeting and we pledge to implement its
recommendations.
 Finally, last year, building on the conclusion that
the United Nations is a real force for good in the world,
I challenged the Organization to harness its strength to
better achieve that purpose. This year, drawing on the
message of youth to make the world a better place, I
repeat that call. It is my hope that, under the
stewardship of the President, the General Assembly —
and the United Nations as a whole — will continue to
be the main global force for the good of humanity.
Grenada will do its part to advance this singular and
inspiring goal.


At the
outset, allow me to convey my sincere congratulations
to the President on his election to the presidency of the
General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session. I wish him
every success in his endeavours and assure him of the
Romanian delegation’s full support.
 Clearly, the theme chosen for this year’s general
debate, “The role of mediation in the settlement of
disputes by peaceful means”, is both wise and topical.
Romania has a strong interest in the topic, given our
long tradition of mediation, as well as the number of
unresolved conflicts in our region. Some conflicts have
persisted for years and even decades and remain
unresolved. Other conflicts have erupted suddenly,
scotching the hopes for a brighter future and for the
development of entire regions.
 In the current security environment, mediation
and conflict prevention instruments are highly
important, yet under-utilized. A strengthened legal
foundation for mediation and strengthened mediation
activities of the United Nations and regional and
subregional organizations are necessary, as well as the
increased involvement of Member States in mediation
efforts.
 We must continue at all times to be guided by the
fact that mediation for peace and conflict-prevention at
an early stage are much more beneficial than crisis
management and peacekeeping. To that end, we urge
the reporting and periodic evaluation of any and all
conflict situations, anywhere in the world and without

11-51681 14

regard to context, by the Security Council and by all
United Nations Member States.
 The protracted conflicts in Eastern Europe
continue to require our undivided attention. We
reiterate the importance of the international
community’s continued involvement with them with a
view to achieving peaceful solutions within the
existing regulatory frameworks. We continue to attach
great importance to dialogue between the parties in
order to achieve mutually acceptable solutions based
on respect for the sovereignty, independence and
territorial integrity of States within their internationally
recognized borders.
 In that context, we welcome the opening of
dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, facilitated by
the European Union (EU) following the resolution
adopted in 2010 by the General Assembly (resolution
64/298), and reiterate the central role of the United
Nations and the framework of Security Council
resolution 1244 (1999). Recent problems have yet to be
overcome through cooperation, although the dialogue
remains on track.
 We support the Geneva talks co-chaired by the
United Nations, the EU and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe on the situation in
Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Progress on the
humanitarian situation should not be held hostage to
political setbacks, and urgent solutions are thus
necessary to address that situation.
 With regard to Afghanistan, we are witnessing
progress in the Afghan authorities’ gradual takeover of
responsibility in the fields of security, reconstruction
and socio-economic development. We welcome the
steps taken by the Afghan Administration for national
reconciliation. We trust that a rigid framework with
fixed time lines for the transition period is unnecessary.
Instead, the transition process should be tailored
according to the particular realities and conditions
required for the normal functioning of Afghan society.
 Romania considers that progress in Afghanistan
also depends on the efforts of the authorities in Kabul
and the continued commitment of the international
community. In that context, we welcome the role and
efforts of the United Nations, other international
organizations and Member States and reaffirm
Romania’s commitment to building democratic
institutions in Afghanistan.
 I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the valiant
women and men who serve the cause of peace
worldwide. Many of them, including Romanians, have
lost their lives or were wounded on mission. We extend
our deepest gratitude and respect for their sacrifice.
 Recently, important statements were issued on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Romania favours a
sustainable peace in the Middle East, and our country
strongly supports the principle of two States — Israel
and Palestine — living together, side by side, in peace
and security. The only viable solution that could be
effectively applied to that case and form the basis of a
global and sustainable peace would be through direct
negotiations. Romania is chairing the Fourth
Committee during this session, and we are ready to
encourage, from that position as well, all diplomatic
efforts aiming at achieving progress in the Israeli-
Palestinian peace process.
 This year’s General Assembly session is taking
place under the powerful image of the tremendous
political transformations in North Africa and the
Middle East. Romania warmly welcomes those
transformations. What has become known by now as
the Arab Spring recalls in our minds and hearts the
events that took place more than 20 years ago in our
part of the world. Twenty years later, we are proud of
our accomplishments on the path of democracy-
building. Yet we know, first hand, that the journey is
difficult and sometimes daunting, with many
challenges lying ahead, not the least among them is the
fact that the political forces in those countries must
remain focused on their goals of freedom, democracy
and justice that inspired them at the very beginning.
 Therefore, one of Romania’s priorities is to assist
the countries in transition in North Africa and the
Middle East in their democratic quest. Romania is
already supporting democratization in its proximate
regions and beyond. Currently, most of our
development assistance funds are dedicated to building
democratic institutions, consolidating the rule of law
and protecting and promoting human rights and
fundamental freedoms.
 In July in Bucharest we convened an international
workshop on electoral and political matters pertaining
to democratic transition. The event was organized in
partnership with the United Nations Development

15 11-51681

Programme, the Electoral Assistance Division of the
United Nations Secretariat in New York and the
Permanent Electoral Authority of Romania. The
workshop was attended by over 40 participants from
Egypt and Tunisia who represented public institutions
involved in organizing elections, the media, civil
society and academic circles and Romanian and
international experts. The seminar focused on sharing
experiences with first electoral cycles in post-
authoritarian regimes as foundational moments for new
democratic societies through credible, transparent and
free elections.
 Romania believes that the political
transformations occurring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and
elsewhere should be endorsed and supported by the
United Nations with all available resources. It is our
collective responsibility to see to it that the proper
conditions for human dignity and prosperity are set up
in all our countries and that progress in the quest for
fundamental freedoms and equal rights for all human
beings is supported. That is part of Romania’s mandate
as a newly elected member in the Human Rights
Council, a mandate we intend to implement in a
constructive, balanced and comprehensive manner.
 Although human rights are fundamental rights,
the current situation in the world is far from
satisfactory. Human rights and democracy are universal
values that require our constant attention and
protection against any repressive actions. In that
respect, the legitimate and peaceful demands by the
people of North Africa and Middle East for respect for
their human rights and liberty are emblematic.
 We reaffirm our will to act in cooperation with
partners to achieve a global and coherent approach
towards the risks and threats to international peace and
security, particularly those arising from the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and
conventional weapons. The best way to reduce the risks
of the use of nuclear arms and materials, in particular
by non-State actors, is to irreversibly eliminate nuclear
arsenals and apply a strict framework for
non-proliferation. We support and call on all States to
consider undertaking long-term responsible
involvement in this area and to focus on global security
interests above all.
 We are all familiar with the current multilateral
framework that governs non-proliferation, disarmament
and arms control. All treaties and conventions have
proved their usefulness so far. Yet, more is needed so
as to increase the effectively of their implementation
and the degree to which their provisions are observed.
We stand ready to work with others to achieve this key
objective for the global security architecture.
 Romania reiterates its commitment to continuing
its active engagement in the preparatory process for the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development. Pursuing an open and transparent
dialogue on the objectives and themes of the
Conference during the current session is one of the
main steps that will help guide our actions.
 The Conference will be a unique occasion for the
international community to place humanity on a path
towards sustainable development and the eradication of
poverty, and, in that context, to establish a clear vision
of the green economy. Economic growth and the need
to promote transition towards a green economy must be
considered opportunities to make more with less,
aiming for a higher standard of living and social
equality for all.
 Climate change should continue to be a
mobilizing factor despite the obvious obstacles. We
should not let differences and the high complexity of
interests undermine our determination. The
negotiations in Durban, based on the decisions of
Cancún and the Copenhagen Accord, should pave the
way towards a swift adoption of a post-Kyoto global
regime.
 A clear and present challenge is that, while we
are trying to set the world on a path of sustainable and
equitable growth, we have to cope with one of the most
severe economic and financial crises of modern times.
The crisis, which still wreaks havoc on international
affairs, has revealed the vulnerabilities of our financial
and economic systems, both national and international.
It has become evident that the world financial system is
not adapted to the realities of global competition.
Indeed, the entire system of economic and financial
governance needs to be revised, and budgets, including
that of the United Nations, need to be kept under strict
control.
 In times of crisis, options are limited. We can
dwell in endless debates on “what should have been
done” or “what might have been”. But this is not the
time for such debates; rather, it is the time to act. As
the President of the European Council said the other
day in the Hall, “We act, supporting the forces of hope

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and fighting the causes of worry” (See ).
We stand by this option. Reforms are needed that lead
to the comprehensive observance of good governance
principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms, as
well as the wise use of available resources. That is the
only option. A country without equal and dignified
citizens can never be rich.