I bring greetings from the people of Nicaragua and from our President, Comandante Daniel Ortega Saavedra. We are very pleased to see a brother from Fiji, a Pacific island State, preside over the General Assembly for the very first time. He can count on Nicaragua’s support.
A year ago, the international community agreed to launch the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which offers us a historic opportunity to transform our planet and fight for a just world order so that together, in peace, solidarity and complementarity, we may advocate for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Endemic poverty and inequality have become more noticeable than ever in developing and developed countries alike, especially in vulnerable and marginalized groups, including peoples living under colonial occupation and foreign intervention. It is urgent that we eradicate colonialism and end military interventions and aggressions in order to fully realize the right of our peoples to self-determination and development.
The right to development is a right of all. The international community has yet to answer for the millions of human beings to whom that right remains a dream. Developed countries must comply once and for all with their commitments regarding official development assistance by providing additional, predictable and sufficient financial resources. Nicaragua recognizes the need to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies that provide equal access to social justice based on respect for human rights, including the right to development.
Much has been said in recent days about climate change. The World Meteorological Organization projects that 2016 is heading towards breaking all temperature records since records have been kept, which makes it clear that the agreements reached at the twenty-first session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris failed to establish a firm starting point to address the greatest challenge facing the planet. The voluntary, non-binding formula will lead to an increase in global temperature of 3°C or more, which will have catastrophic effects on highly vulnerable countries.
Many of us feel that what was agreed in Paris is not sufficient ,and we urge more ambitious actions. We note with great concern the worldwide record temperatures and little ambition to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, which corroborates Nicaragua position’s at COP21. Nicaragua, adhering to international law and taking into account the principle of damage recovery, has demanded a global compensation policy in order to address that phenomenon.
We take this opportunity to reiterate our support for the just aspirations of the Republic of China on Taiwan for greater participation in United Nations specialized agencies, in accordance with the demands and needs of that brotherly nation of 23 million inhabitants, which should not be excluded from the Organization.
We in Latin America and the Caribbean have reiterated our desire to assert ourselves as a zone of peace and fair development in order to achieve firm and lasting peace and social justice through dialogue and understanding. We are pleased at and welcome the restoration of relations between Cuba and the United States of America. However, it is disappointing to note the intensification of measures that maintain the cruel, inhuman and criminal economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba.
We reiterate our congratulations to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on having recently assumed the leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement. In that vein, we offer our full support to President Nicolas Maduro Moros and his legitimate Government, which continues to be the victim of aggression, assault and destabilizing policies from the exterior, coordinated with anti-democratic and oligarchic sectors from the past.
We once again hail the signing of the peace agreements in Colombia between the Government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, and offer our best wishes for the peace agreements to prevail and be implemented.
Puerto Rico is Latin American and Caribbean. We demand that the colonial Power resolve this situation through dialogue and negotiation. We call on the United States of America to release the Puerto Rican patriot Oscar López Rivera as a humanitarian gesture.
We express our solidarity and support for the legitimate rights of the Argentine Republic in the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia Islands, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas. The United Kingdom must immediately comply with the relevant United Nations resolutions and resume direct negotiations with Argentina.
We reiterate our solidarity with the Palestinian people in their just struggle for an independent State, with East Jerusalem as its capital. We demand the immediate return of all Arab and Palestinian territories currently occupied by Israel.
We welcome and resolve to maintain our solidarity with the people of Western Sahara in their fight under the leadership of the Polisario Front.
We reiterate our full solidarity with the Government and people of Syria in their fight against international terrorism in defence of their sovereignty and territorial integrity. We stress the need for a political solution negotiated among Syrians and an end to foreign intervention, including the funding and delivery of weapons to terrorist groups. It has pained us to witness the proliferation of terrorist attacks against peoples and Governments. We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
Nicaragua will always promote its policy of peace, unity and understanding among nations, for political and negotiated solutions to conflicts and for the right of our peoples to achieve sustainable development and well- being. As current holder of the presidency pro tempore of the Central American Integration System, we are reinforcing our integration in all fields and working together to combat the scourge of drug trafficking and organized crime. Together with El Salvador and Honduras, we are striving to make the Gulf of Fonseca a zone of peace and development.
We highlight the need to eradicate threats to civic security and social order in our region with a strong and coordinated strategy against organized crime and its ramifications. In Nicaragua, our policies are focused on the human individual and the Nicaraguan family. Our people are ratifying their confidence in our socialist Christian model of solidarity, which ensures that our lives continue to improve in a safe and stable manner, in growth and in peace with our people as principal actors. Through good governance, we have prioritized economic growth, job growth, the reduction of poverty and inequality, the strengthening of gender equality and macroeconomic stability in sovereignity and security in harmony with the Earth.
Nicaragua has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of the most successful countries in terms of gender equality and as the safest country in Central America and one of the safest in Latin America. As one of the three safest countries for investment, we have sustained economic growth of approximately 5 per cent of our gross domestic product in the past five years. We have achieved this success through a model of partnership, dialogue and consensus under the leadership of our Government, working with the private sector and the workers themselves.
We reject the proposals and initiatives put forth by the House of Representatives and Senate of the United States, as they constitute violations of international law and a breach of the Charter of the United Nations. Those legislative bodies have been involved in interventionist policy throughout history and interfered in our own sovereign political, economic and social processes. This interference is notably more intense in the election season.
We in Nicaragua shall continue to strengthen peace, stability, governability and progress through such unprecedented proposals as our model of partnership, dialogue and consensus, which enjoys constitutional status and has helped us to mobilize the economy and achieve important progress in the fight against poverty. The National Reconciliation and Unity Government reiterates its firm commitment to this model, which unites us around the common good and reaffirms our unwavering commitment to peace, security, tranquility and democracy. In the weeks prior to our general elections, our people have demonstrated their support with high approval ratings and willingness to participate in the elections of 6 November with confidence and hope.
Nicaragua will continue to fight for a better world of values, where human beings strive for a sustainable, just, equitative, safe and sovereign development; and where the advances of science and technology, reflected in all areas of our lives, are accessible and shared by all. We will be able to make our world a better one only once we ourselves assume, along with family and society, a steadfast commitment to peace and equality among nations and their respective societies.
I conclude by declaring my hope that peace may prevail.


Papua New Guinea appreciates and applauds the outgoing President of the General Assembly, His Excellency Mogens Lykketoft, for his outstanding guidance of the General Assembly in the conduct of its business this past year.
Papua New Guinea is delighted to see a Pacific Islander presiding for the first time over the General Assembly at this session as its seventy-first President, and joins the international community in congratulating His Excellency Ambassador Peter Thomson on his historic election. We wish him a successful presidency.
We gather here before the sombre backdrop of a world that is beset with multidimensional humanitarian, political, economic, social, peace and security and environmental challenges on a scale that is unprecedented in recent memory. Many of our countries, including my own, have not been spared from the adverse impact of the global situation, and we continue to reel from them. Those challenges are unlikely to be overcome in the short term or by individual countries on their own. That reminds us all of the importance of ensuring that we, the peoples of the United Nations, renew and strengthen our resolve and faith in the letter and spirit of the Charter of the United Nations.
The ongoing sad plight of millions of refugees and migrants — including internally displaced persons and those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives — should not and cannot become the new normal. No country is immune from the implications of that increasing global concern. My Government in Papua New Guinea — in accordance with our international human rights obligations and in close partnership with Australia — hosts, on a humanitarian basis, a regional processing centre on the island of Manus for asylum-seekers who have made perilous journeys from troubled areas of the world, including the Middle East and Asia. That bilateral arrangement has not been without its controversies. My Government has accepted the decision of our Supreme Court earlier this year to close down the facility, as the arrangement was found to be unconstitutional. My Government is now in the process of dismantling that facility and looking at other arrangements with Australia to resettle those refugees who do not wish to settle in Papua New Guinea.
We are committed to being part of the global solution to the affront to the dignity of humanity and human rights imposed by forced migration. We pledge to act together with the international community to address not only the root causes of that issue, but also to better assist the affected victims and impacted countries of origin, transit and destination. The desire to halt the inhumanity and indignity must be our moral compass. We therefore commend and support the strong leadership shown by the Secretary-General and other leaders of the world in directly addressing that serious issue, particularly through the World Humanitarian Summit and other relevant meetings on migrants and refugees.
In the context of human rights protection and promotion, Papua New Guinea welcomes this morning’s adoption by the Human Rights Council of the set of recommendations for Papua New Guinea’s second universal periodic review. As challenging as they are, my Government is committed to addressing the various issues raised in that report (A/HRC/33/10).
Papua New Guinea’s Constitution sets the protection and promotion of human rights as an enduring and sacrosanct principle, to which we remain steadfastly committed. That encompasses all the rights and freedoms articulated in the Charter of the United Nations and particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other human rights treaty obligations under international law.
As Papua New Guinea embarks on implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other multilateral agreements, we are guided by our National Strategy for Responsible Sustainable Development, our Medium-Term Development Plan and the long-term strategic Vision 2050 development road map as we work towards becoming a prosperous, secure, healthy, peaceful and progressive nation. The importance of ensuring the fundamental and inherent rights of our citizens continues to remain central to that process.
For Papua New Guinea, the key to realizing the enhancement of our citizens’ human rights and freedoms while ensuring our fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals also hinges on fostering the right enabling environment. That includes the rule of law, good governance, capacity-building, economic growth, multi-stakeholder partnerships and national ownership and leadership. Papua New Guinea’s concern for human rights is also demonstrated by our long and proactive membership in the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, which addresses the aspirations for self-determination of colonized peoples and territories. That process must be completed, and our commitment remains undiminished.
Papua New Guinea is concerned that the international community, despite all its efforts, is unable to contain the ongoing wars caused by economic, religious, ethnic and other factors, including acts of terrorism. My Government is hopeful that the high- level meetings conducted over this past year will help address many of the root causes of those conflicts.
Many of today’s ongoing conflicts are also fuelled by the proliferation of firearms, especially small arms and light weapons. We therefore welcome global efforts to regulate the arms trade, which will minimize global conflicts and the displacement of people.
The United Nations Charter and the universal and transformative Goal 16 of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development are instructive on the nexus between peace, security and sustainable development for the benefit of humankind.
Let us seize this opportunity to work hand in hand in order to resolve the simmering conflicts and tensions that continue tragically to afflict many parts of the world. Those events have dire consequences not only for those directly affected but also for the rest of the international community. Papua New Guinea joins the international community in calling on all adversaries in armed conflicts around the world to lay down their arms and resort to peaceful means for the settlement of conflicts.
On nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, Papua New Guinea is staunchly opposed to their existence, testing and use. Complete disarmament of those murderous weapons is what the world needs for peace and security. In that regard, Papua New Guinea is concerned over the ongoing nuclear weapons and missile tests carried out by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in contravention of the relevant Security Council resolutions. We strongly condemn such acts, as they threaten regional and global peace and stability.
For our part, my country is making a modest contribution through the United Nations peacekeeping operations in South Sudan and Darfur. We stand ready to work with the United Nations and further cooperate in international peacekeeping. We also learned hard but important lessons from our own internal armed conflict in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville two decades ago. We thank the United Nations and other partners for the valuable support provided in resolving that conflict. At the regional level, we continue to effectively support the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands as it transitions to its conclusion next June.
The year 2016 has been heralded as the year of the implementation of recently adopted international development agreements, in particular the transformative and inclusive 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which underscores the importance of eradicating poverty and ensuring that no one is left behind. It now forms the key driver for multilateral and bilateral cooperation, as well as national engagement, in improving the quality of life for all.
We therefore welcome and support the sensible theme for this General Assembly session chosen by the new President. The challenge is to ensure that the 2030 Agenda is led and driven nationally with support, as necessary, from development partners. To that end, we appreciate and have supported the first high-level review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and are committed to ensuring their full implementation in our country and globally as well. Papua New Guinea agrees with the high-level political forum’s outcome, which recognizes that the key to the 2030 Agenda hinges on ensuring national ownership and leadership, multi-stakeholder engagement and partnership, and a paradigm shift away from the business-as-usual modus operandi.
My Government is committed to delivering on the SDGs for the people of Papua New Guinea. We are building on the important lessons learned from the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. We are in the process of translating and integrating the SDGs at the national level within the framework of the National Strategy for Responsible Sustainable Development. That is further guided by our medium- term plan and our long-term Vision 2050 development plan for a prosperous nation.
My Government recognizes that the 2030 Agenda aligns fully with our current national development priorities with regard to education, health, infrastructure, sustainable economic growth, and law and order, which we are already implementing throughout the country. In that regard, my Government has legislated and is implementing a robust and unprecedented decentralized governance structure that now enables our 89 districts throughout the country to be fully funded and directly involved in identifying, designing and implementing the national development priorities specific to their respective areas. We are engaging the private sector, faith-based organizations and civil-society organizations, which are adding value to our national development.
We also stress the importance of mobilizing resources, including financial support from all available sources, so as to be able to deliver on the SDGs nationally. That is why the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on funding for development is pivotal and needs to be fully implemented. At our national level, we have recently concluded taxation-system reforms so as to strengthen financial resource mobilization in support of our national development agenda.
The attainment of the SDGs at the national level is also dependent on the growth and strength of the global economy. The ongoing depressed global economy, with low agricultural commodity prices compared to prices in the petroleum, oil and gas and mineral sectors, continues to constrain our national efforts to achieve sustainable development. We urge concerted global efforts to spur our economic growth so that we can support delivery on the SDGs.
For us, development cooperation is also an important element that constitutes 40 per cent of our annual development budget and remains a key component for the successful pursuit of our national development priorities, including the SDGs. For development partners to be meaningful supporters of national SDGs efforts, it is imperative that they align their assistance to national development policies, strategies and plans rather than undertake parallel paths that can be unhelpful.
Papua New Guinea is highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Therefore, in order to demonstrate our commitment to combating climate change, we supported the adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015, signed it in April 2016, and ratified and deposited the instrument of ratification at the Secretariat yesterday. We welcome and congratulate those countries that have ratified the Paris Agreement, and we urge those that have not yet done so to do so, particularly countries that emit high levels of carbon.
I am also pleased to inform the Assembly that we have signed a privileges and immunities agreement with the Green Climate Fund yesterday. That will assist in facilitating the funding and support necessary for the implementation of our nationally determined contributions.
As an archipelagic State, Papua New Guinea is concerned with the state of the world’s oceans, since a large proportion of our people’s lives and livelihoods, including our cultural heritage, is linked with the oceans and seas. The health, productivity and resilience of the oceans and seas are increasingly under threat from uncontrolled and poorly regulated human activities, including illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, land-based pollution, plastic and marine debris, and ocean warming and acidification. In order better to address those concerns, my Government recently approved an integrated National Oceans Office, and we are setting in place, in close partnership with our development partners, the necessary policy framework and legislation.
At the regional level, under the auspices of the Pacific Islands Forum, our collective support, leadership and advocacy for a healthy, productive and resilient oceans and seas have been harnessed under the region’s Pacific Oceanscape Framework. Papua New Guinea therefore welcomes and endorses the United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 on oceans so as to advance action on the world’s ocean development agenda. Likewise, we commend the United States Government for convening the Our Oceans Conference last week to address those concerns, including through the promotion of partnerships.
It is also important to ensure that the activities on the high seas not compromise efforts to conserve and sustainably use ocean resources within our national jurisdiction. For that reason, we urge a timely conclusion to the Preparatory Committee process on the elements of a draft text of an international, legally binding instrument, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
We look to a secure future for our people, based on the sustainable development, management, conservation and use of our ocean and its resources. We must urgently change the way we think about our ocean and its resources. Transformational change and action must start now.
The international community is all too familiar with the constant and increasing calls by Member States and other stakeholders to reform the United Nations system, including the Security Council, so as to reflect today’s global circumstances. While Papua New Guinea recognizes that changes in any institution are never easy, we remain concerned about the slow and merely incremental pace of the reforms of the United Nations. With respect to the Security Council, while we welcome the incremental progress made in the past year, we have, however, witnessed in the process of the selection of the next Secretary-General of the United Nations over the past few months the unjust and archaic procedures and processes that render the majority of sovereign Member States unequal in this premier multilateral forum that espouses sovereign equality.
Another glaringly unfair practice in the existing United Nations system is the underrepresentation of qualified women at the senior management level of the Secretariat. The United Nations must not merely preach about gender equality and empowerment, it must be seen to exercise and implement what it advocates. Nevertheless, Papua New Guinea commends the Secretary-General for his efforts to reform the United Nations system. Every effort must be made by all Member States to ensure that the United Nations is reformed to better suit today’s world and be fit for purpose so as to serve its membership justly and fairly.
We thank the outgoing President of the General Assembly for his innovative initiative to introduce transparency and inclusiveness for Member States in what has long been a closed and opaque process in the selection of a new Secretary-General of the United Nations. Papua New Guinea notes the process underway to select the next Secretary-General to succeed the incumbent, whose term comes to a conclusion at the end of December 2016. Papua New Guinea looks forward to working with the next Secretary-General, and we pledge our support in continuing the reform agenda.
On behalf of Papua New Guinea, I join previous speakers in paying tribute to the current Secretary- General for his outstanding leadership in bringing the international community together to address the unprecedented challenges during his tenure of office. For Papua New Guinea, he has also been the champion of small island developing States and the Pacific. We deeply value and appreciate the fact that he is the only serving United Nations Secretary-General who has visited our region twice and has also enabled a regular annual dialogue with Pacific Islands Forum leaders, including his invitation to tomorrow’s meeting. Those actions clearly attest to his visionary and caring leadership for our regional issues. On my Government’s and the people’s behalf, I wish him and his wife good health and every success in his next endeavour.


This is a special moment for Fiji as you, Sir, assume the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-first session — the first Fijian and the first Pacific Islander to attain this high Office at the United Nations. Your nation is honoured and proud. On behalf of every Fijian, I offer you, Mr. President, my warmest congratulations and wish you every success as you guide our deliberations over the next 12 months.
I want to thank those nations that supported Fiji’s bid for the presidency, including our neighbours and friends among the Pacific small island developing States. I also thank Mr. Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark for his leadership during the seventieth session.
Fiji fully supports the agenda that you, Sir, have outlined for the coming session, which seeks to persuade the world to begin implementing the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals that the 193 Member States adopted last year. As you rightly stated, Sir, when you took your oath of office last week, the seventy- first session must, for integrity’s sake, be the year that we witness the wheels turning. We have collectively pledged to mobilize the global community to end all forms of poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change. And we have pledged that, as we do so, we will leave no one behind, wherever they live on the planet. That is our promise to the 7.5 billion people across the world, whose interests we represent. It is a promise that must be kept — a “universal push to transform our world”, as the theme of this session puts it.
A centrepiece of the seventy-first session and one of our most critical priorities is the high-level United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14, which is to be held in New York next June on the theme “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. Fiji is proud to be co-hosting that gathering with Sweden, and I ask everyone to give that initiative their full support. The world must act quickly and decisively to reverse the environmental degradation of our oceans and seas, and the reckless and irresponsible use of those precious resources.
For a small island developing State such as Fiji, that is as pressing as the need to address the challenges of climate change and deal with the extreme weather events and rising seas that pose such a threat to our way of life in the small island developing States and other vulnerable parts of the world. Many millions of people in maritime and coastal communities the world over are looking to us for decisive action to address the growing crisis of population, pollution, overfishing and the loss of marine habitats.We must not fail them.
Fiji also comes to the seventy-first session with a plea to all nations that have yet to do so to ratify the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We are proud to have been the first nation in the world to ratify the Agreement and launch the ratification instruments. But we also come with the message that Paris must be merely the first step. We are alarmed by scientific predictions that the 2°C cap on global warming over pre-industrial levels agreed to in Paris is not enough to save us.
Seven months ago, the Fijian people were given a terrifying glimpse into the future that the experts say awaits us when we were struck by the biggest tropical cyclone ever to make landfall in the southern hemisphere, Cyclone Winston. Packing winds of more than 300 kilometres an hour, it killed 44 of our people and left many thousands homeless. Mercifully, it spared our main tourism areas — our principal source of income — so our wider community and our wider economy remained intact. But if this is what awaits us as global warming triggers weather events that are more frequent and more extreme, then God help us.
In common with other small island developing States, we face a nightmare scenario in which a single event scoring a direct hit could wipe out our economy, set us back for decades and make it impossible for us to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Our message from the Pacific therefore is this: the 2°C cap is not enough. We need the world to go one better and embrace the 1.5°C cap that we, members of the Pacific Islands Development Forum, called for in the Suva Declaration on Sustainable Human Development in the Pacific.
We also need deeper cuts in carbon emissions and more decisive global action than what we are currently witnessing. But as a first step, I appeal to all Member States to ratify the Paris Agreement and to turn away from what I have termed “the coalition of the selfish” — those countries that would see vulnerable nations battered and submerged rather than alter their pampered, carbon-driven lifestyles.
I am proud to report that Fiji is heeding the President’s call to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. First and foremost, we have placed sustainable development at the core of our national agenda. The Green Growth Framework for Fiji, which I launched in 2015, is a blueprint for the future direction of our nation. It has been incorporated into our new five-year and 20-year national development plans that we will be unveiling in the coming months. These plans stipulate that no development whatsoever in Fiji will be permitted unless it can be conclusively demonstrated to be sustainable. We regard the preservation of our natural environment on land and at sea as our number-one priority. We are willing to make sacrifices to fulfil our solemn duty to the Fijian people to preserve their surroundings.
Article 40, paragraph 1, of our Constitution gives every Fijian the right to
“a clean and healthy environment, which includes the right to have the natural world protected for the benefit of present and future generations”.
I make a solemn pledge to my own people and to the wider global community that, while my Government remains in office, Fiji will never be among the ranks of those nations that have compromised their futures for short-term financial gain. We intend to raise our living standards by other means, especially by making things that other people want to buy and by providing services they want to access. We are taking the Fijian- made brand of quality products and services to the four corners of the Earth and managing our economy responsibly in accordance with international best practices, with a particular emphasis on infrastructure development, service delivery and providing for the less fortunate.
Of prime importance is our education revolution, by which we are equipping Fijian young people with the knowledge and skills to have satisfying, sustainable livelihoods and contribute to our nation’s progress. We are providing free schooling for the first time and have established our first tertiary loan scheme and more scholarships for gifted students in order to open up a gateway of unprecedented opportunity to our universities and a new network of technical colleges. We have set our sights higher than ever before to become a smarter, more dynamic country at the hub of the Pacific, the crossroads of our region, and to evolve into a modern nation State that is a beacon to our neighbours and respected around the world.
I am pleased to report that we have made a strong start as a nation on the long but determined journey to achieve that goal. Not only are our people being given more opportunity than at any time in our history, not only are we creating a more equitable society, which includes targeted assistance for the vulnerable and the country’s first pension scheme, but Fiji is also currently experiencing a record period of economic growth, with seven straight years of expansion.
Even in the wake of Cyclone Winston, we expect to see growth of nearly 3 per cent this year. Our message to the world is simple: Fiji is open for business. Fiji has attractive incentives for investment and some of the most favourable corporate and personal tax rates in the Pacific region. We have state-of-the-art communications and an educated, English-speaking work force. We are investing in new roads, airports and other infrastructure and have dramatically improved the efficiency of our ports. We also have our pristine environment, spectacular islands, coastlines and waters. In addition, our standard of hospitality has made the Fijian people famous the world over.
We market ourselves to the world as a holiday destination with the slogan “Fiji — where happiness finds you”. Whatever the challenges of Cyclone Winston, I can confidently say that the Fijian people have never been happier. The joy that erupted when our world-champion rugby sevens team won the gold medal at the Rio Olympics was shared by every Fijian. It has brought us together in celebration and seen us more unified in recent weeks than at any other time in our history. It has also inspired us to imagine what else our small nation can do if we put our minds to it.
As many in the Assembly are aware, we have had considerable challenges through the years in forging a common identity and producing an equal and just society for every citizen, but I am here to say that those days are over. As Fiji approaches its first half-century as an independent nation in 2020, we are finally one nation, one people, with a great sense of national optimism and a great deal to look forward to.
To reflect our new-found confidence, we are also in the process of re-evaluating our relationships with the rest of the world. Last week, I assumed the position of Foreign Minister as well as Prime Minister, and I intend to steadily reform this Ministry and to refine certain aspects of our foreign policy to give it a new direction and a renewed sense of purpose.
First and foremost, we are going to place trade at the centre of our foreign-policy effort, with the promotion of the impressive collection of quality products and services under the Fijian-made brand. Some of these products and services are already making a global impact, but we believe we can do a lot more — whether it is our water, our cosmetics, foodstuffs and other manufactured goods, the more efficient marketing of Fiji as a prime holiday destination, or by spreading the wings of our boutique national airline, Fiji Airways, flying to other destinations in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
We intend to immediately boost the level of collaboration between our Foreign Ministry and our Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, which have too often operated in isolation. Our diplomats and trade commissioners will be instructed to make it a priority to work more closely with Fijian exporters to promote the Fijian-made brand, as well as to access goods and services of international standards from new and old trading partners that benefit Fijian consumers.
More broadly, we are rethinking some of our foreign policy positions and objectives. This includes a re-evaluation of the central principle of Fijian foreign policy for some years of being “friends to all and enemies to none”.
Of course, we seek friendly relations with all nations and are certainly not in the business of making enemies. But we intend, in future, to choose our friends in a more discerning manner and to align ourselves more closely with those countries that share our underlying values and principles. These include, above all, adherence to international law and adherence to human rights and human dignity, along with other shared values such as mutual respect, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, the resolving of disputes by peaceful means and non-interference in one another’s internal affairs.
This change of direction will not be sudden. It is certainly not going to produce a dramatic change in the international company that Fiji keeps. But we are definitely seeking closer relations with nations that share our values and basic outlook, especially those nations that respect human life and the rights and dignity of their citizens, adhere to the principle of social justice, uphold the rule of law and insist on equality and respect for all human beings, as we in Fiji do.
As part of our wider commitment to human rights, we are seeking membership in the Human Rights Council for the two-year term that commences in 2018. We would be the first Pacific nation to serve on the Council, and I ask all member States to support our bid.
Fiji will continue to play a disproportionate role in the international community in relation to its size, whether it be our continuing commitment to United Nations peacekeeping and sending our men and women in uniform to protect ordinary people in troubled parts of the world, or our lead role in drawing global attention to the urgent need for action on climate change.
It is certainly a proud moment for me, as the leader of our small nation, to stand here before the nations of the world with you, Sir, behind me, as President of the General Assembly. Congratulations again on your appointment. I thank you for bringing such honour to our nation. Every Fijian — indeed, the entire community of nations — wishes you well as you preside over the deliberations of this seventy-first session and the great issues of our time on which the future of the world depends.


Allow me at the outset to congratulate the President of the General Assembly on his election to preside over the seventy-first session of the Assembly. I wish to assure him of Belize’s fullest support.
Thirty-five years ago, Belize became a State Member of the United Nations. Membership confirmed our independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and our place among equals in the community of nations. Regrettably, however, membership has not been able to resolve the territorial claim laid on our country some 80 years ago by Guatemala.
Our track record since our independence confirms that Belize holds sacrosanct the dignity of human beings, the principles of justice, equality, inclusivity and the rule of law. Belizeans are inherently altruistic and compassionate. In the nascent years of our independence, when civil war ravaged our Central American region, Belize was the beacon of hope and sanctuary of choice for thousands of refugees, including Guatemalans, desperately seeking to escape the scourges of war, poverty and oppression. Belize welcomed thousands of refugees, amounting to well in excess of 30 per cent of our population at the time. Indeed, even to this day, the flow of migrants into our country continues unabated. Belize is a nation of migrants living in unity, peace and harmony.
Our diversity, national identity and pride have long been a source of strength for our people. We have never cowered in the face of the repeated threats to our security by our neighbour, Guatemala. We remain steadfast in our resolve to protect and preserve our sovereignty and territorial integrity. Though many perils lurk along our forested borders and in our maritime and riverine territories, we have been protecting and patrolling our borders with determination, so as to ensure the safety and security of our beloved homeland. At the same time, our untiring diplomats have striven mightily to resolve the long-standing territorial dispute, which is our paramount foreign-policy concern, by using all the diplomatic channels and means at their disposal.
Regrettably, though not unpredictably, there have been hostile incidents between the civilian and military personnel of both Belize and Guatemala on our southern border on the Sarstoon River. Guatemalan naval personnel have repeatedly impeded the peaceful ingress and egress of civilian and military Belizeans on the river, wrongfully claiming that the river is theirs. However, as the northern side of the river is clearly Belizean territory, the unimpeded use and enjoyment of that side of the river is the right of every Belizean citizen. Belize has therefore promptly and properly protested each attempt to impede our citizens from using the river. Additionally, we have engaged our Guatemalan counterparts in dialogue under the good offices of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States with a view of putting a speedy end to that potentially perilous practice.
At the same time, the situation along our western border has also been vexing. Continuous illegal entry by armed trespassers from Guatemala have persisted despite the valiant efforts of our border patrol to deter them. The trespassers engage with impunity, day and night, in gold panning, hunting for wild game and birds, pillaging Mayan temples, logging illegally and cultivating crops, including marijuana, for commercial purpose. In the process, our priceless forest is being decimated, our potable and sea waters are being compromised, and our coral reefs are being choked to death by sediments that run off the denuded mountainsides after each torrential downpour.
Fully cognizant of the devastating environmental impact that such practices are having in neighbouring countries and further afield, Belize cannot afford to let the same thing happen to us. From time to time, in the course of attempting to apprehend the trespassers, firearms have been used by Belize security personnel and by the trespassers, who are invariably armed. Indeed, between September 2014 and March 2016, a Belizean Tourism Police officer was killed and a Belize Defence Force sergeant was ambushed and shot, though not fatally, by trespassers entering Belize from Guatemala.
Tragically, and much to Belize’s regret, on 20 April 2016 a Guatemalan minor was fatally shot and his father and brother injured when they came in contact with a Belizean patrol in one of our protected national parks in the dead of night. The Belize Police forthwith began an investigation. Moreover, officials of the Organization of American States (OAS), stationed in the Adjacency Zone between Belize and Guatemala, immediately commenced their own investigation. And, at the specific behest of Guatemala, Belize requested the Secretary General of the Organization of American States to launch an official special independent investigation into the incident. The Organization of American States commissioned two senior eminently qualified specialists to undertake that special investigation, with the full knowledge and approval of the Guatemalan Government. At the time of their appointment, Guatemala expressed no reservations as to their competence, suitability or otherwise, to undertake that investigation. Last August, the Special Commission delivered its findings to the Secretary General of the Organization of American States.
The report discloses that the deceased had been detained by security personnel in Belize a mere month prior to the incident. At the time of his detention, he was illegally carrying a .22-calibre rifle and was in illegal possession of wild game. He was neither mistreated, arrested nor prosecuted by the Belizean authorities. Instead, he was promptly sent back safely to his country. The report further discloses that the deceased, his brother, also a minor, and their father were knowingly and unlawfully well within Belizean territory on the night of the incident, and that none of the wounds inflicted was caused by weapons carried by personnel of the Belize Defence Force. The wounds were inflicted by small-calibre firearms carried on the night of the incident by two members of a local conservation-oriented non-governmental organization that was part of the Belize patrol. Shots were fired by both groups, the Guatemalans and the Belizean joint patrol, on that ill-fated night. And, the following morning, elements of the Guatemalan Army, along with civilians from a nearby Guatemalan village, entered Belizean territory illegally, visited the site, contaminated the scene and withdrew and withheld evidentiary material that could have been useful to the investigation.
In the wake of the incident, Guatemala launched a fanatical public-relations campaign against Belize, falsely alleging that the Belize Defence Force was responsible for the death of the minor. In addition, the Guatemalan President publicly announced the massing of troops along our western and southern borders.
However, the report of the Special Independent Commission chronicles what really took place on the night of the incident. The objective, impartial findings of fact established the correctness of Belize’s position from the start, and the wholly erroneous nature of the allegations levelled against our country by Guatemala. The report completely absolves Belize of any and all blame for the incident. It makes manifest the wrongness of Guatemala’s accusation against Belize and against the personnel of our Belize Defence Force. Guatemala has since then publicly rejected the Commission’s report. However, it is certainly irresponsible, if not reprehensible and utterly unacceptable, that Guatemala should now seek to reject the results of a process that it had specifically requested and agreed to and which was conducted by OAS-appointed independent third-country professionals with impeccable credentials and with no axe to grind. Moreover, the wanton threat of the use of force by a nation against its neighbour is wholly uncalled for, recklessly dangerous and in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and can in no way be countenanced.
Belize’s only wish is to live in peace and harmony with all its neighbours, including Guatemala. We fully appreciate that with each passing day, with more and more Guatemalans trespassing into our country, despoiling our natural resources and engaging in illegal and destructive activities, the potential for violent incidents and conflicts has become increasingly probable and problematic. That situation makes a prompt and peaceful end to the anachronistic and unfounded territorial claim on our country an urgent imperative.
Belize acknowledges the centrality of the United Nations in the multilateral order and as a uniting force for championing the common good. Its leadership likewise remains central to international peace and security, to development and to the rule of law. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is truly a historical milestone for the entire world. The essence of sustainable development is entrenched in the Belize Constitution. Our economic development has fully embraced the indivisibility of social and environmental policies. From the early 1990s, Belize began to put in place development plans for its fledgling industries that are consistent with a progressive legal regime for environmental protection.
Complementary to those economic and environmental developments, Belize is incrementally providing free public education at the primary and secondary levels. It has established a Maya Land Rights Commission so as to implement measures for the identification and protection of rights arising from Mayan customary land tenure. It is rolling out a national health-insurance policy, and work is in progress to advance national efforts towards gender equality and equity.
The national debate on social issues recently took a turn that could set a precedent. A High Court ruling held that Section 53 of our Criminal Code, which criminalizes consensual sexual acts between same-sex partners, is unconstitutional. The ruling also expands the definition of “sex” to include sexual orientation. However, in response to the request of a not inconsiderable segment of our population, our Government has launched a limited appeal against the judgment, challenging only the expanded definition of “sex” by the High Court.
In April, Belize was among the first countries to sign and ratify the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We also commend the United States of America and China for their leadership for doing so as well. Belize fully supports efforts, under the auspices of the United Nations, to design a new international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, and welcomes the decision to convene a high-level United Nations conference to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 in June 2017.
In that spirit of inclusiveness, Belize urges that the Republic of China on Taiwan be accorded meaningful participation in the work of the United Nations. The Taiwanese Government has been working assiduously to promote international cooperation and development, in line with the spirit and principles of the Millennium Development Goals. It has also fully embraced the Sustainable Development Goals. We urge the international community to welcome Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the mechanisms, meetings and activities of the United Nations specialized agencies, including the World Health Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Setbacks in the global economy and externalities resulting from institutional policies, both public and private, to safeguard against financial and other security risks, as well as the adverse impacts of climate change, have all conspired against Belize’s sustainable development trajectory. Today, we are rebuilding our country in the aftermath of Hurricane Earl, which in less than eight hours resulted in the loss of some 5.5 per cent of our gross domestic product.
Belize fully endorses the views and sentiments that all other delegations have expressed in their pleas for urgent relief from the deleterious consequences of the decisions by global banks to withdraw correspondent banking relationships from our financial institutions.
Belize celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary of independence on the same day as the International Day of Peace. Peace and stability in our hemisphere are critical to the development and well-being of the peoples of the Americas. For that reason, Belize remains concerned about the status of the controversy
between Guyana and Venezuela. We urge the Secretary- General to urgently exercise his authority under the 1966 Agreement to resolve the controversy over the frontier between Venezuela and British Guiana in order to arrive at a choice of options that would definitively settle the border controversy.
Belize strictly adheres to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign States. In that regard, we stand in solidarity with the Government and the people of Venezuela in their efforts to resolve their domestic issues in accordance with their laws and Constitution. We also remain very concerned about the unabated cholera epidemic in Haiti, and urge the United Nations to take all necessary steps to help the Haitian people end that terrible scourge, occasioned by agents of the United Nations. Belize welcomes the tremendous progress already made in the peace process in Colombia, which we fully support. We look forward to an early and successful implementation of the agreement. We also commend the progress made in the bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States. Belize reiterates its call for an early end to the economic embargo against Cuba.
We join others in calling for an early end to the tragic conflicts in Syria and Libya, which are an affront to humanity. We adhere fully to the right of peoples to self-determination, and reiterate our solidarity with the struggle for liberation and independence of our Sahrawi brothers and sisters. Belize remains disheartened, although not discouraged, by the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We believe that the only just solution to that conflict is one that results in two sovereign and independent States, living side by side in peace and security within secure and recognized borders.
We stand in solidarity with South Korea in the face of North Korea’s irresponsible experiments with nuclear and missile programmes, including the conduct of nuclear tests, in violation of Security Council resolutions. We join the international community in condemning those actions, which pose a clear and present danger not only to South Korea, but to the entire world.
While we are heartened by the indefatigable efforts of the United Nations and other philanthropic organizations and individuals to alleviate the suffering of migrants and other displaced persons worldwide, it is evident that much more needs to be done. We in Belize pledge to do all in our power and within our means to discharge our obligations to all suffering persons who seek our succour.
In a country as small as Belize, in a world as big as ours, we are all citizens of planet Earth, big or small. The policies that we devise at any level must be reflective of that reality. It is up to us leaders, working together and shouldering our respective sovereign responsibilities, to ensure that every nation, large and small, and every individual, man, woman or child, shall have a say in our noble endeavours to achieve a more just, equitable and secure world. Our task is clear. Its attainment is not impossible, but neither is it without difficulty. Let us get it done. Belize stands ready to do its part.
In conclusion, as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is beginning to prepare to leave office at the end of 10 sterling years of service to the United Nations and to the world as a whole, Belize takes this opportunity to thank him and to wish him every success in his post- Secretary-General life. We also take this opportunity to thank the United States President, Barack Obama, as he too prepares to leave office later this year. We wish him every success in his post-presidential life.


May I take this opportunity to congratulate the President on his well-deserved election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-first session. His distinguished career, experience and impeccable credentials assure us of a successful session. Let me hasten to pledge my delegation’s full support and cooperation to the President during his term of office. I also wish to commend his predecessor, Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, for his outstanding leadership during the previous session.
Similar accolades go to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, under whose leadership the Organization continues to discharge its mandate with honour and commendable zeal. We may recall that, under his stewardship, the United Nations dealt with several challenges, most of which were handled with great success. As we prepare to bid him farewell, we do so with pride, as he has indeed discharged his responsibilities with honour and dignity. He will leave an indelible footprint, and his successor will follow in his footsteps, continuing the good work done.
The seventy-first session of the General Assembly comes at a time when the United Nations as an Organization has made significant strides in addressing many of the serious challenges facing the international community. It is to the credit of the United Nations that, since the end of the Second World War, no world- wide conflict has occurred, with the exception of localized skirmishes in various parts of the globe. The international community has enjoyed the longest period of sustained peace and development in modern history.
The intractable conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and the tension on the Korean peninsula and in other parts of Asia, as well as the biggest global refugee problem since the Second World War, are some of the challenges facing the United Nations and the world today. Terrorism continues to rear its ugly head — in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia — with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham and other terrorist entities indiscriminately causing great damage to property and the needless loss of lives. World security is indivisible. Threats of conflict, terrorism and famine in one part of the world will always have debilitating repercussions everywhere — the case in point being the influx of refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Asia into Western Europe.
The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) last year and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change adopted at the recent Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are notable landmarks that have cemented the role of the United Nations as the only forum at which collective diplomacy can bear fruit.
The theme chosen for the current session, namely, “The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push to transform our world”, is most relevant and appropriate at this time when humankind is tottering on a precipice resulting from hunger, poverty, disease and the adverse consequences of climate change. The theme highlights the collective desire of the United Nations to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions. As we may recall, the overriding message of the 2030 Agenda is to leave no one behind.
The unique and special challenges faced by the least-developed countries, the landlocked developing countries and the small island developing States, as well as those emerging from conflicts, should be paramount in our minds as we consider strategies and steps to be taken to bring the Sustainable Development
Goals to fruition. We believe that the inclusion of all stakeholders, especially women and youth, in programmatic and results-oriented action will bring about fundamental changes in the livelihoods and well- being of our societies. In Lesotho women constitute a significant majority of the population and are the backbone of our rural communities. Their human- resource potential must not be underestimated. It is for that reason that we have promulgated laws that allow them access to land, credit and the resources necessary for their unfettered engagement in community activity.
Young people are always at the receiving end of an economic downturn, anytime one occurs. Yet they are endowed with intellect, energy and the exuberance of youth, which can be harnessed for development in the long term. In line with the SDGs, we have undertaken to capacitate youth-owned micro, small and medium- sized enterprises so that they can acquire appropriate skills that will help them create jobs and take advantage of international markets already at their disposal. Special attention is being given to small and medium- sized enterprises, as they form an integral part of industry and are potential employers for unskilled and semi-skilled labour. It is also a point of entry for young entrepreneurs into the manufacturing and services sectors. In Lesotho’s coalition agreement, we have committed to supporting micro, small and medium- sized enterprises through appropriate regulatory policies and access to finance.
The transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the SDGs has not been difficult, as there are many synergies and complementarities between the two programmes. We are also aware of the synergies that exist between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 and the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan of the Southern African Development Community. For our part in Lesotho, we have already begun a process to ensure that the three Agendas are mainstreamed into our national policies and plans. With our limited domestic resources, we are looking for innovative ways of pursuing our development priorities and aligning them to the global, continental and regional agendas. To that end, Lesotho has been working with the United Nations country office to conduct sensitization workshops on the SDGs. So far, we have conducted such workshops for the private sector, civil society and members of Parliament. We are in the process of reviewing our national strategic development plan so as to align it fully with the 2030 Agenda and regional and continental development plans.
We are convinced that a private-sector-led growth strategy that ensures that that sector contributes to economic growth, job creation, poverty alleviation and sustainable development is vital for competition, the expansion of trade and investment opportunities. Sustainable Development Goal 9, which enjoins us to “build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”, recognizes the importance of infrastructure, industrialization and technology for the progress and development of countries like Lesotho.
Economic development cannot be sustainable without a conscious effort to protect the environment. The adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015 is another milestone in the global effort to safeguard and promote humankind’s continuing progress and survival. We welcome the pledges by developed countries to make resources available for the Green Climate Fund.
The threats posed by underdevelopment, climate change and HIV/AIDS have pricked the conscience of humankind for many years. Lesotho has adopted an innovative, indigenous leadership programme that seeks to galvanize the collective wisdom of all levels of leadership to join in the fight against HIV/AIDS in particular, and to ensure that the health delivery system is affordable, accessible and effective. The programme was launched by His Majesty King Letsie III on 25 August. We also launched a test-and-treat programme in April and revived the National AIDS Commission. Those are just a few of the initiatives that the Government of Lesotho has taken to curb new infections, maternal deaths and new incidences of tuberculosis.
We recognize the role of disarmament in the maintenance of international peace and security, and Lesotho remains fully committed to the implementation of the provisions of Security Council resolution 1540 (2004), aimed at preventing the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. We therefore call upon all the nuclear-weapon States to start making deep cuts in their current nuclear-weapon stockpiles, with the ultimate aim of finally eliminating them altogether. The African Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty, which entered into force in July 2009, is a clear demonstration of the continent’s desire for peace and genuine nuclear disarmament.
We should all remain true to the principle of the responsibility to protect, which the General Assembly unanimously adopted less than a decade ago. That principle imposes upon us the responsibility to create conditions of peace, security and harmony, while leaving no room for hostility, violence or aggression. We therefore remain committed to supporting actions by the Security Council that include authorization for military intervention where necessary. Our understanding is that the principles in international law on the non-use of force in international relations, respect for the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of States, as well as non-interference in the internal affairs of other States, remain paramount and sacrosanct in all instances. We commend the Security Council for its work undertaken in keeping with those principles throughout the years.
For that reason, I wish to reiterate Lesotho’s well- known position on the reform of the Security Council, in line with the established position of the African Union, as articulated in the Ezulwini Consensus. We strongly urge that the very important issue of Security Council reform should not be turned into a joke. The sooner it is concluded, the better for humankind and for peace in the world.
We furthermore reiterate our position on the one-China policy, a position that will ensure that the people of China are not dismembered and huddled into imaginary geographic segments.
The right to self-determination and independence is a God-given right that cannot be taken away arbitrarily. It is for that reason that we have never wavered in our support for the independence of the people of Western Sahara. We call upon the United Nations to assist the Secretary-General in resuscitating the negotiations on the holding of a referendum in Western Sahara, so as to determine the will of the Saharawi people. We also urge the Kingdom of Morocco to support the process, so as to bring a lasting solution to the matter and facilitate the return of Morocco to its rightful place in the African Union family.
By the same token, the plight of the Palestinian people has been on the international community’s agenda for far too long. We call for a new initiative that will buttress all efforts aimed at a two-State solution, with the State of Israel and that of Palestine existing side by side in peace. A fresh initiative is required to restart the process that produced the Oslo Accords and bring an end to the suffering of the communities concerned, which have endured aggression for more than 60 years. Surely, a permanent resolution of that seeming impasse is now overdue and urgent for the benefit of the neighbouring countries as well and the world at large.
As I conclude, let me express our hope and expectation that in the next decade, the efforts of the United Nations aimed at accelerating the pace of economic development on a global scale will begin to show tangible results. Let us work together to create a world where the foundations of world peace and security will continue to rest, not on the absence of war but on the international principles of non-aggression, the non-use of force in inter-State relations and the peaceful resolution of disputes, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. We will, hopefully, continue to consolidate the foundations of a world where the true definition of peace will manifest itself in harmonious relations among peoples and in mutual respect and understanding between nations. We will continue to build prosperity for our peoples on the basis of the agreed principles embodied in the SDGs, which represent a pragmatic and visionary programme that seeks to free humankind from the bondage of hunger and poverty. We will ultimately embrace the need to allow reason to prevail over might. That is the future of our dreams — the future that we owe to posterity.


Allow me at the outset to congratulate His Excellency Mr. Peter Thomson, Permanent Representative of Fiji, who has been elected President of the General Assembly at its seventy-first session. We wish him every success in discharging his mandate. Chad pledges its full support.
I would also like to congratulate and thank His Excellency Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, outgoing President of the General Assembly, for his dedication and his many initiatives to strengthen the role of the Assembly, the most democratic and representative entity of the United Nations.
At the same time, on behalf of Chad and the African Union, I would like to congratulate and render a heartfelt tribute to His Excellency Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, whose mandate will soon come to a close. His leadership, commitment and unflagging dedication during the past 10 years have contributed to buttressing the role of the United Nations and promoting its ideals.
Founded over 70 years ago by 51 Member States, the United Nations today now consists of 193 Member States. The evolution of humankind has made our States
10/56 16-29296 increasingly interdependent and interconnected, just as the challenges have become global and collective in nature. The world in which we live is facing multidimensional threats which prompt great concern.
Armed conflict, terrorism, climate change, mass migration, underdevelopment, poverty, and political, economic and financial crises have reached unprecedented proportions. No continent or region of the world has been spared by at least one of those scourges. Citizens of the world from all walks of life in some cases live in a perpetual state of fear and in others in a state of despair because wars, indiscriminate violence, poverty and the adverse effects of climate change are on the rise and there is slim hope of solving those problems.
The growing number of refugees and displaced persons throughout the world; the ongoing shipwrecks of makeshift boats in the Mediterranean, resulting in the loss of thousands of lives; and the Syrian tragedy, which has been unfolding before our eyes for more than five years, among other challenges, are tangible events that eloquently illustrate our collective powerlessness.
In this world of uncertainty, Africa is the most vulnerable and exposed continent. The victim of colonial plunder and affected by the numerous problems caused by underdevelopment, Africa is today under full attack from terrorism — the greatest threat of the century. Somalia, Libya, Mali, the Lake Chad basin and the Sahel in general are seriously destabilized and the danger is threatening to spread throughout the entire continent. Despite their modest means, the African Union and its member States are highly mobilized and committed to fighting this absolute evil.
That is evidenced by the great sacrifices that the African Union Mission in Somalia has made since 2004, the implementation of the Multinational Joint Task Force by States of the Lake Chad basin and Benin to fight the Boko Haram terrorist group, and the establishment of the Group of Five for the Sahel, which is a framework for security cooperation and countering all cross-border threats in the countries of the Sahel. This impetus for mobilization should be strengthened and supported by the entire international community by all means available, including physical, financial and military, as well as through intelligence-sharing. In that regard, from this rostrum I appeal to all States Members of the United Nations, particularly Africa’s partners, to contribute to the African Fund Against Terrorism created by the African Union at its Summit, held in Kigali in July.
Africa is also working with great diligence to manage the crises and conflicts besetting it by promoting a regional approach to crisis resolution, underpinned by a peace and security architecture. Such an approach, which is deserving of the firm support of the international community, seeks to strengthen the response capacity of regional and subregional organizations in the light of their geographical proximity, knowledge of the terrain and their rapid and flexible deployment capabilities. The African Union Mission in the Sudan, the African Union Mission in Somalia, the African-led International Support Mission in Mali and the African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic are concrete examples of the efforts of the African Union.
The complexity of conflicts throughout the world, including in Africa, is such that no organization can resolve them alone. That is why the African Union has always advocated a strategic partnership with the United Nations to confront security challenges on the continent. The African Union has deployed all of the aforementioned operations on behalf of the international community and in deference to the purview of the Security Council. Consequently, the African Union can legitimately count on the multifaceted and financial support of the United Nations.
We welcome the fact that this long-held position of the African Union is endorsed in the High-level Independent Panel on United Nations Peace Operations in its 20l5 report (see A/70/95), which has been unanimously praised. Accordingly, in the spirit of shared responsibility, at its latest summit the African Union adopted a measure to shoulder 25 per cent of the cost of peacekeeping operations authorized by the Security Council on the continent. The African Union hopes to receive the remaining 75 per cent from the United Nations peacekeeping budget, in keeping with the spirit of the division of labour and cost- sharing. The African Union anxiously awaits the start of constructive discussions with the United Nations on this proposal in order to reach an agreement that could further strengthen the exemplary partnership between the African Union and the United Nations in the interests of peace and the protection of civilians in times of crisis.
16-29296 11/56 The political and security situation in many African countries concerns us deeply. Mali remains a target of attacks by terrorist groups despite the presence of United Nations forces on the ground and the peace agreements reached following arduous negotiations in Algiers. The international community must undertake an in-depth analysis of the situation with a view to ending the conflict through dialogue, without losing sight of tailored and appropriate responses to the terrorist threat.
The situations in Libya and South Sudan remains extremely troubling and requires a more substantial mobilization on the part of the international community, with the vigorous engagement and coordination of the respective regional organizations involved in resolving the crises. In that respect, the joint effort of the African Union and the United Nations to deploy a civilian protection force of 4,000 men, in addition to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, is to be commended. We also call for more concerted efforts between the African Union High-level Implementation Panel for the Sudan and South Sudan and the United Nations to persuade the non-signatories of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur to commit to it.
Despite the successful holding of presidential and legislative elections, the situation in the Central African Republic remains fragile, as evidenced by the latest clashes between armed groups within the country. That situation requires a long-term follow-up, and the newly elected Central African authorities must be further supported in their efforts to normalize the situation in their country. I call on the international community to maintain and strengthen its support for peacebuilding and national reconciliation there. We also urge the political actors in brotherly countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Gabon, to prioritize dialogue and cooperation with regard to pre- and post-electoral crises. The African Union is ready to assist them in settling their disputes through peaceful means.
The serious crises affecting Iraq, Syria and Yemen call on our collective conscience concerning the many who have been killed, wounded, displaced or made refugees, as well as to the destruction of their vital infrastructure. The international community must urgently find a political solution to all of these crises through direct negotiations between the parties in conflict. Concerning the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, we call for a definitive, just and equitable solution that guarantees security for Israel and an independent and viable State for Palestinians, urging both parties to resume dialogue and relaunch the peace process, and setting out a clear framework for future negotiations, along with a deadline, that will make it possible to put an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
Africa is not only a gigantic reservoir of raw materials; it is also home to more than 1 billion men and women who yearn for harmonious development accompanied by social well-being and prosperity. The international community can eradicate poverty in the world only if it upholds the commitments made within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1), which puts people at the very core of all concerns. The implementation of the Agenda must be an absolute priority in order to eliminate extreme poverty, fight climate change, strengthen resilience and promote sustainable economic growth that will benefit all.
In this respect, we stress the urgent need for an effective mobilization of the resources necessary to finance development in accordance with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Africa is committed to playing its part by ensuring an effective coordination of efforts as well as consistency among the goals of both Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030. No region of the world, no State can prosper alone or be surrounded by an ocean of destitution and poverty without experiencing the consequences.
The successive waves of young African migrants moving towards Europe that we see on a daily basis, thousands of whom have drowned, are a challenge to the conscience of the international community. Though we may erect barriers, build ghettos and mobilize naval forces to contain migrants, the phenomenon will not stop until the regions concerned are closely involved in a suitable collective response. The solutions outlined at the 2015 Valletta summit seem, unfortunately, to have fallen short of our expectations and of the challenges. It is not a matter of providing charity to Africa, but, rather, of establishing with it a true strategic partnership aimed at tackling common global challenges. It is not too late to begin collective and concerted action that takes on board the legitimate concerns of all the parties concerned.
12/56 16-29296 One of the major challenges facing Africa is climate change and environmental issues. The advance of the desert, the silting up of the Niger river, the El Niño phenomenon in southern Africa and deforestation are all the most striking signs of climate change in Africa. Lake Chad has shrunk from 25,000 square kilometres in 1960 to less than 2,000 today; this is additional proof of the degradation of our planet’s climate. This ecological disaster, which is endangering coexistence among communities and dangerously threatening food security in the Sahel, will certainly have consequences for the security and the stability of the region, as we see from the strong presence and the accelerated development of the terrorist threat.
The partnership with Africa must also be seen in the fight for the preservation of the environment, which is seriously threatened. In this respect, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, signed on 22 April by all States, creates new obligations and a structural framework for the long-term fight against climate change. There is a great deal left to do to in order to achieve tangible achievements in the implementation of the commitments undertaken by all parties according to the principle of common but differentiated responsibility.
The Agreement will be credible only if it is accompanied by specific action aimed at bridging the enormous gap between the efforts that have been pledged and the noble objectives that are sought, including those established at Copenhagen, namely, mobilizing $100 billion by 2024 for the poorest countries.
The question of United Nations reform, and specifically that of the Security Council, remains a major concern for Africa, which, because of a historical injustice, remains marginalized in this organ. It is unfortunate that such reform, which the African Union has called for at every one of its summits for years, does not seem to prompt any interest. Nonetheless, Africa will continue to call for the creation of a more just and equitable universal Organization, while reaffirming its position on this matter as expressed in the Ezulwini Consensus.
Confidence and hope in the global solutions that the United Nations inspires will be well founded only if all nations, in their diversity, take part in their design and implementation. All of us, as in a marriage, must be faithful to humankind, for better and for worse.


This year marks the twenty- fifth anniversary of Latvia’s independence and membership in the United Nations. My country took its rightful place at the United Nations in 1991, with the clear objective of making a contribution to the collective security, stability and prosperity of the world. As a responsible democratic State based on the rule of law and respect for human dignity and freedom, Latvia remains strongly committed to the essential work of the United Nations.
The United Nations has been, and will be, our platform for global engagement. The far-reaching agreements on sustainable development and climate change have restored trust in the multilateral system’s ability to deliver solutions on pressing global issues. More than ever, the world has great expectations that the United Nations will meet the rising challenges for peace and development and deliver effective and prompt results.
Last year, in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we all pledged to leave no one behind. This promise supports poverty eradication and development efforts in the most challenging contexts. It means addressing persistent vulnerabilities and building resilience in complex, protracted crises and conflict-affected populations. Therefore, strengthening the development and security nexus must become our mission.
All people have the right to live in peace and security in their own countries. Conflicts, poverty, disasters and climate change have contributed to the rise of large movements of refugees and migrants. Some 125 million people around the world are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. The current unprecedented migration crisis cannot be addressed by the most affected countries alone; it is a global phenomenon that requires joint efforts and shared responsibility. The global commitment to shared responsibility shown at the United Nations summit held on Monday goes hand in hand with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Sustainable solutions must be found to ensure opportunities for education, employment and business for persons forcibly displaced during protracted crises and conflicts and to provide support for host communities and countries.
The development of peaceful and inclusive societies, good governance and respect for human rights will also help us to tackle the spread of violent extremism, while military and security measures are necessary to combat Da’esh and similar groups. We need to address the root causes of people’s willingness to choose violent extremism.
Latvia is part of the global coalition against Da’esh that has been instrumental in combating the group in Iraq and Syria. We welcome the NATO decision to step up support for the efforts of the coalition to that end. Only unified, coordinated, collective action at the global, regional and national levels will help us succeed in confronting the new, unconventional threats.
Terrorist attacks continue almost daily. Fighting terrorism must remain our priority. The international community needs a plan for building resilience in the communities that for years have suffered under the barbaric rule of Da’esh. The willingness of local populations will also be required if their future is to be shaped by the primacy of the rule of law and human rights, thus countering the factors conducive to radicalization, extremism and terrorism.
We will not be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals without sustaining peace and preventing conflict. The need for decisive political action to address and prevent the conflict that causes massive displacement and suffering is more urgent than ever. The international community must find political solutions.
The security challenges in the Middle East are marked by a high degree of complexity, spillover and refugee flows. After five years of civil war, Syria has been destroyed. Attacks against civilians, medical facilities and schools continue. This is unacceptable. The perpetrators of international crimes must be brought to justice. A real nationwide ceasefire and improved humanitarian access are the prerequisite for the resumption of talks. Latvia has provided its contribution to mitigating the consequences of the conflict. However, only credible and inclusive political solutions will return Syria to stability. All members of the International Syria Support Group must put their political weight behind the United Nations-led process.
In Libya, the institutional vacuum has created a breeding ground for terrorist groups such as Da’esh. The unification and cohesion of rival parties in Libya is a key element for the country’s long-term stability and its success in the fight against terrorists.
Iran’s diligent implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will contribute to greater stability in the Middle East. In contrast, North Korea’s irresponsible actions, including its repeated nuclear tests, undermine the security of all countries in the region and beyond.
We support all recent international efforts aimed at making progress towards the resumption of the Middle East peace process and find common ground that will bring the two parties back to meaningful dialogue. There is no alternative to a two-State solution reached through peace negotiations.
Ensuring long-term stability in Afghanistan is of vital importance for global and regional security. Adverse developments in that country can have spillover effects on the neighbouring countries of Central Asia, which undermines their potential to develop economic connectivity at the macroregional level. Latvia provides Afghanistan with political and financial support for reform in the country. We call on more active regional cooperation, together with continued international support, to sustain the growth and prosperity of Afghanistan and its people.
In many other countries, the political situation is highly volatile, and some are engulfed in conflict. The United Nations and its peace efforts can help to stabilize these countries and gradually bring them back to normalcy.
We support the United Nations in its aim to make peacekeeping more effective through updating available tools for meeting new challenges. Better planning, equipment and training will improve the effectiveness of peacekeeping and the protection of civilians. There should be greater focus on strengthened collaboration with regional organizations. Building upon experience from other international operations, Latvia is now involved for the first time in a United Nations peacekeeping operation, in Mali.
This is still a very turbulent time for European security. For Latvia, the stability and security of Europe’s neighbours in the East is a strategic priority and remains high on our political agenda. The resolution of protracted conflicts in Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh should have priority on the international agenda. We must remain vigilant and insist that all States, including Russia, abide by their obligations under international law with regard to respecting the borders of sovereign States.
Together with the international community, Latvia will continue to stand for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. We refuse to recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation; it must end. Any discrimination against the Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians in Crimea requires a firm reaction from the United Nations. The international community must work to facilitate the peaceful resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. All parties must fulfil their commitments under the Minsk agreements and make the Minsk process work. Latvia continues to support Ukraine in its reforms and with its humanitarian needs.
The United Nations capacity to address current challenges also depends on the political will to make progress on the necessary reform of the Security Council, which is long overdue. We should all be aiming to strengthen the legitimacy of this important body. Accordingly, the permanent members of the Security Council should refrain from using their veto power in situations involving atrocity crimes. Latvia supports not only this important initiative, but also the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency group’s code of conduct on Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
We are determined to maintain the political momentum for climate action. In April of this year, Latvia signed the historic Paris Agreement. We will strive to ratify the Agreement as soon as possible and encourage others to do the same. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been driving the push for worldwide action on climate change and gender equality. Latvia is grateful to him for his leadership and dedication over the past decade.
The scope of challenges that the world faces is daunting. The bold global agenda requires leadership. The expectations placed on the next Secretary-General of the United Nations are therefore as high as ever. This important job requires courage and readiness to effectively tackle the issues that we face. While we are looking for the best-qualified candidate, we also recall that Eastern Europe is the only region that has never held the post of Secretary-General. I am equally convinced that after 70 years, it is time to choose a woman for the Organization’s top job.
There are many challenges that shape the evolving global landscape, but we now see the clear outlines of the new and better world that can be reached through diligent implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Implementation of the new Agenda will not be easy. Only through an informed and active society, in true partnership with all stakeholders, and through review of the progress made, will we be able to achieve the necessary transformative change by 2030. This is the time for us to act together responsibly. Latvia will continue to play its part in shaping a better future for us all.