At the
outset, I would like to congratulate His Excellency
Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann on his election to the high
and responsible position of the President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-third session and to pledge our
full support and assistance as Vice-President of the
General Assembly.
 Our world is facing major problems and
challenges that demand a strengthened and revitalized
Organization capable of addressing global issues. From
that perspective, the Republic of Moldova fully
supports the United Nations reform process in
accordance with the main directions reflected in the
final document of the 2005 World Summit (resolution
60/)1, subsequent initiatives of the Secretary-General
and resolutions adopted on key aspects of the reform of
the Organization’s structures and management.
 We support strengthening the coordinating role of
the Economic and Social Council in developing global
economic and social policies, promoting dialogue and
intensifying cooperation with international financial,
economic and trade institutions and Governments in
attaining the Millennium Development Goals, as well
as the Council’s involvement in addressing
humanitarian crisis situations and issues related to
post-conflict reconstruction.
 The decision to launch intergovernmental
negotiations will bring a new impetus to Security
Council reform and will stimulate and increase the
efficiency of United Nations activities in the field of
international security and peacekeeping, including
through developing cooperation with regional
organizations and Member States in identifying
solutions to conflicts in different parts of the world.
 The events that occurred in South Ossetia,
Georgia, have proved once again that frozen conflicts
generate instability and threaten regional and
international security. The Republic of Moldova
subscribed to the European Union (EU) declaration
regarding the degradation of the situation in South
Ossetia, delivered at the extraordinary meeting of the
Permanent Council of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe on 8 August 2008, and calls
for the full implementation of the peace plan mediated
under the French presidency of the EU. At the same
time, categorically rejecting all methods of settlement
by force, including those used to ensure territorial
integrity, the Moldovan Government does not consider
that international recognition of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia will stabilize the situation.
 In the specific case of the Transdniestrian
conflict, the Republic of Moldova acted and continues
to act in accordance with the law on basic provisions of
the special legal status of the localities on the left bank
of the Nistru River which was adopted unanimously on
22 July 2005 and which provides for resolution of the
Transdniestrian conflict by political means only.
 Believing that demilitarization and
democratization of the Transdniestrian region are
essential to a viable resolution of the conflict, the
President of the Republic of Moldova has advanced a
number of initiatives on security for and confidence-
building between both banks of the Nistru River.
 A strategy for conflict resolution based on a
complex approach consisting of packaged proposals for
all conflict-related issues — political, economic, social
and humanitarian — has been adopted. It envisages a
special legal status for the Transdniestrian region that
includes respect for the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of the Republic of Moldova, consolidation of
the neutrality status, withdrawal of foreign troops from
the country’s territory and recognition of ownership
rights and firm guarantees for the population.
 At the same time, the activities of the European
Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and
Ukraine (EUBAM) and its close cooperation with the
relevant institutions in charge of border management in
both States have contributed to increased security and
transparency at the border, which creates a more
favourable atmosphere for settlement of the
Transdniestrian conflict. At present our efforts, as well
as those of mediators and observers, are directed to

7 08-53135

resuming negotiations in the Five plus two format with
a view to a final resolution of that conflict.
 The Assembly’s review meeting to assess the
implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-
Terrorism Strategy, on 4 September 2008, emphasized
both the progress registered by the United Nations and
its Member States during the last years and the
deficiencies in the fight against international terrorism.
In that context, I would like to reaffirm that as a party
to 13 international conventions and other, regional and
bilateral treaties in that field, the Government of the
Republic of Moldova continues to take concrete steps
in fighting terrorism in accordance with the provisions
of those instruments, relevant Security Council
resolutions and national documents, including the
National Strategy for Preventing and Fighting Money-
Laundering and Terrorism Funding.
 The Republic of Moldova will further undertake
all possible steps for contributing to United Nations
actions in consolidating international legislation in the
field of countering international terrorism, especially in
view of the finalizing of the development and adoption
of the comprehensive convention on international
terrorism and organization of the high-level conference
on terrorism under United Nations auspices. We
consider that in the framework of those activities,
increased attention should be given to the issues related
to fighting terrorism that is fuelled by separatist
tendencies that affect States’ sovereignty and territorial
integrity.
 Climate change is an inherent challenge for
sustainable development. Global warming and its
effects, including natural disasters and food and energy
crises, have become major threats for the global
population and for international security. After the
terrible drought of last year — the consequences of
which we are still overcoming — the Republic of
Moldova was hit this summer by the most serious
floods of the last two centuries, which affected over
10,000 hectares of agricultural and private lands,
destroyed hundreds of houses and other buildings and
caused damages exceeding $120 million.
 We would like to express our gratitude for the
assistance provided by the United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs by other
specialized institutions, including the United Nations
Development Programme and UNICEF, and by
Member States to alleviate the consequences of the
floods.
 The Republic of Moldova fully supports the
activity of the High-Level Task Force on the Global
Food Security Crisis, established and headed by the
Secretary-General. Development and implementation
of a comprehensive plan for food security, in
cooperation with relevant United Nations agencies and
the Bretton Woods institutions, would constitute an
important step for overcoming the food crisis.
 The Government of the Republic of Moldova is
undertaking concrete action with a view to reducing
the impact of the food crisis on the situation in the
country. At present, a national agriculture and food
security programme is being developed. We consider
that the high-level meeting on the Millennium
Development Goals held on 25 September and the
organization of annual meetings on monitoring the
engagement and implementation of those goals
constitute new and important opportunities for
implementing the achievement of all internationally
accepted development objectives. Their implementation
is still possible in the majority of countries if
consolidated actions directed towards concrete results
are established and continuously sustained and
developed until the year 2015.
 The progress achieved with the support of the
European Union (EU) in the implementation of the
Moldova-EU Action Plan and in conforming the
national standards to the European standards has
opened new opportunities for the advancement of
Moldovan-European relations. We highly appreciate
the constructive cooperation with the EU in that
process and continue to rely on the assistance of its
member States in ensuring development and the
gradual integration of our country into the European
Union.
 At the same time, we rely on the support and the
opportunities offered by the United Nations and
Member States with a view to promoting the political,
social and economic policies of the country and its
European integration aspirations and to ensuring
settlement of the Transdniestrian conflict, withdrawal
of foreign military troops and accomplishment of the
development priorities of the country.
 I would like to reiterate the attachment of the
Republic of Moldova to the ideals of the United
Nations and its commitment to continuously cooperate

08-53135 8

with Member States towards achieving the important
objectives of the Organization.


Since the last time we
gathered here in this great Hall, we have passed a year
of great hopes and grave fears. We have witnessed the
hope-inspiring glory of human accomplishment at the
Olympic Games in Beijing but shuddered at crumbling
stock and housing markets around the world. We have
a growing global understanding on climate change and
the issues relevant to it, but seen millions of lives
threatened by the shortage of food in many countries
and witnessed with disbelief the brutal slaughter of
innocent people at the hands of terrorists in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Algeria and several other
parts of the world.
 Since I spoke at this rostrum in the last session of
the General Assembly, my country, Afghanistan, has
grappled with a number of important challenges, none
more troubling than the problem of international
terrorism. Terrorist forces have significantly increased
their attacks and brutality, and enjoyed freedom in their
sanctuaries.
 While Afghanistan has borne the brunt of terrorist
violence, the scourge has now spread like a wildfire
across the wider region. In Pakistan, where, until
recently, extremist circles remained mainly focused on
destabilizing Afghanistan, today terrorist violence is
unfortunately also directed within Pakistani territory
and against the Pakistani people.
 Daily acts of intimidation and violence against
communities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in particular
on both sides of the Durand Line, the killing of
political and tribal leaders and the burning of schools
are the upshots of the continued spawning and spread
of terrorism and extremism in the region.

29 08-51749

 The callous attack on the Marriot hotel in
Islamabad over the weekend, the bombing of the Indian
Embassy in Kabul and the terrorist attacks in the Indian
cities of Bangalore and Ahmedabad were the most
disturbing demonstration of terrorists’ growing reach.
 Undoubtedly, terrorism will not go away until we
dismantle the elaborate institutional support terrorists
enjoy in the region and eliminate their secure
sanctuaries. That will be possible only if we engage in
sincere regional and international cooperation.
 The democratic transition in Pakistan, heralded
by the historic elections of last February, has been a
most promising development in our region.
 We in Afghanistan have warmly welcomed the
inauguration of the civilian democratic Government. In
particular, I take the opportunity to once again
congratulate my brother, President Asif Ali Zardari, on
his election as the President of Pakistan. I assure my
brothers, President Zardari and Prime Minister Gillani,
that Afghanistan stands ready to take several steps for
each single step that Pakistan will take to address the
challenge of radicalism and terrorism.
 To the extent that terrorism in our region
continues to be a global threat, evolving in nature and
tactics, the struggle against it must continue unabated.
In this context, I recall with appreciation this year’s
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit in
Bucharest, where around 40 countries with existing
military commitments in Afghanistan once again
reiterated their strong resolve to stay the course.
 Among the most significant outcomes of the
summit was the emphasis on the Afghanization of the
security sector as a measure to ensure sustainability
and enhanced effectiveness. To that end, I call for a
redoubling of efforts by the international community
aimed at enabling the Afghan national security
institutions, both the army and the police, to take on a
greater share of the war against terrorism and for the
protection of our people.
 Above all, Afghanization of military operations is
vital if the problem of civilian casualties is to be
addressed effectively. The continuation of civilian
casualties could seriously undermine the legitimacy of
the fight against terrorism and the credibility of the
Afghan people’s partnership with the international
community.
 Whereas the military endeavour at the regional
and international levels remains the primary response
to the threat of terrorism, success will only be possible
if the local population is empowered to confront it.
Therefore, while terrorism and a persistent
environment of insecurity are at work to subvert
Afghanistan’s growth, we must do what it takes to win
the battle of Afghanistan’s economic development.
 Last June, my Government launched the
Afghanistan National Development Strategy at the
Afghanistan donors conference in Paris. If the pledges
made at the conference are translated into timely
commitments, I am confident that we will attain the
development goals set out in our Strategy.
 On behalf of the people of Afghanistan, I thank
President Nicholas Sarkozy of France for his
leadership in excellently organizing the Paris
conference. I also thank the United States and all the
other countries around the world that pledged
generously towards the implementation of the
Afghanistan National Development Strategy.
 As in the security sector, Afghanization of the
development process is the key not just to the goal of
ensuring ownership but also to the effective
implementation of our Development Strategy.
Afghanization of the development process can be
achieved through a meaningful commitment by our
friends and donors to aid effectiveness. In that context,
while urging a shift away from the use of parallel
structures and wasteful mechanisms, I strongly endorse
the role of the United Nations and the special
representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kai Eide,
in coordinating the international community’s
participation in Afghanistan’s development and State-
building processes.
 Thanks to the selfless sacrifices of men and
women of Member States and the determination and
sacrifices of our own people, the journey of
Afghanistan’s reconstruction is resolutely under way.
Today our people are more educated, healthier, better
off and more optimistic about their future. We have
built thousands of new schools and reconstructed many
more, where millions of our youngsters go to school
and prepare for the responsibilities of tomorrow. Our
rapid economic growth, with double-digit growth rates
almost every year, has resulted in higher income and
better living conditions for our people. Our rural
development programmes have improved lives in

08-51749 30

thousands of our villages that had never before seen an
agent of the State among them.
 We have also taken a number of legal and
institutional measures to intensify our anti-corruption
efforts, such as establishing the High Office of
Oversight and Anti-Corruption, including special units
in the Office of the Attorney-General and in the
judiciary to oversee efforts aimed at eliminating
corruption through preventive, educational and
enforcement measures. We are committed to ensuring
more concrete results in the coming years.
 Also very important, on counter-narcotics, this
year we have registered a 20 per cent decline in total
opium production, while the number of poppy-free
provinces has reached 18, making 50 per cent of the
country virtually poppy-free. The key to sustaining our
success will be ensuring alternative livelihoods for our
farmers, investing to a greater extent in law
enforcement and interdiction and, above all, addressing
the far greater dimensions of the world’s drug trade
that lie outside Afghanistan, such as reduction of
demand in foreign markets and stricter border controls.
 Our efforts in counter-narcotics and in other areas
have been complicated by the acute shortage of food
within the country. In collaboration with the United
Nations, we have launched a humanitarian appeal that
we hope will receive a timely response from our
partners in the international community.
 The United Nations Charter promises freedom,
justice, a dignified life, security and peace, and it is
incumbent on all of us to work together to ensure that
those promises are kept. Today, there are still too many
corners of the world where conflict and tension are
putting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people
in jeopardy.
 We deeply sympathize with our Palestinian
brothers and sisters and their struggle and suffering.
We urge a just and comprehensive settlement that fully
realizes the rights of the Palestinian people, including
their right to an independent State, living in peace, side
by side with the State of Israel.
 Today, once again, this Assembly session has
brought us together at a time when our world is poised
between great opportunities and menacing challenges. I
am confident that we will make use of our growing
collective ability as a community of nations to do what
is right for the betterment of our world.


Allow me to congratulate
you, Sir, on your election as President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-third session. I am pleased to see
a member of our regional group of Latin America and
the Caribbean in that high office. I am convinced that
your longstanding diplomatic experience and in-depth
knowledge of current international issues will enable
you to successfully discharge the high responsibility of
your office. I would also like to recognize the able
stewardship and valuable work of your predecessor,
Mr. Srgjan Kerim, during the Assembly’s sixty-second
session.
 To the Secretary-General of the Organization, His
Excellency Ban Ki-moon, I pledge Suriname’s full
support in implementing the resolutions of the United
Nations to achieve the objectives of the United Nations
Charter for sustainable development, international
peace and security and respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms.
 We are commemorating the sixtieth anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this
year, while many of these rights are still under serious
pressure. New threats, such as global warming and
climate change and most recently the global food and
energy crises, are an infringement on people’s rights to
food, health, education, security and the overall
freedom to live in dignity. Those tribulations are
intertwined and universal and thus beyond the control
of any single nation. Millions of vulnerable people are
therefore looking to the international community, with
the United Nations at the helm, for effective measures
to bring some kind of relief.
 The Economic and Social Council recently
recognized the seriousness and complexity of the
global food crisis and reiterated that its consequences
require a comprehensive response by national
Governments and the international community. It is
essential for us to intensify our combined efforts, and
we therefore support the emergency global partnership
plan for food, called for by Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon in his address to the General Assembly high-
level event on the global food and climate change
crises.
 The financial and monetary implications of the
global crisis require substantial political and financial
commitments from us all, from national Governments,
from multilateral organizations, including international
financial institutions, and from the private sector. We
will have to change the way that we, human beings,
behave towards Mother Nature and we will have to
find a solution to policies and regulations that are
detrimental to our progress, such as protectionist
agricultural policies in developed countries that are
causing low production in the agricultural sector of
many developing countries. If we do not find lasting
solutions now, the cost of our inaction will be
unacceptably high, and the threats that we will most
likely pass on to the next generation will be
devastating.
 My country, Suriname, was on the right track
towards achieving some of the Millennium
Development Goals, including poverty reduction
sustained by economic growth rates of over 5 per cent
annually in the past three years, with predictions by
renowned international financial institutions of
approximately 8 per cent growth for the coming years.
As a result of the current food and energy crises, as
well as the recent volatility of financial markets, it has
now become a challenge for us to keep up the pace and
quality of our development.
 My Government has taken action and has already
put some measures in place to respond to the new
difficulties we are facing because of those external
developments. We have expanded social security to
cover the most needy, such as children, the elderly and
people with disabilities, we have put in place food
programmes for schoolchildren, and we have increased
salaries and Government pensions, which had
weakened as a result of years of inflation. The
Government has now called upon the private sector to
follow its lead and restore eroded salaries and
pensions.
 Africa, the cradle of humanity, is a continent with
immense capability, endowed with indispensable
human and natural potential. Paradoxically, in many
parts of the continent, development is lagging behind
or even absent, and development perspectives are
bleak.

27 08-51839

 My country commends Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon for holding the important high-level meeting
on “Africa’s development needs: state of
implementation of various commitments, challenges
and the way forward”, which took place just two days
ago. It is our genuine expectation that the outcome of
that meeting will lead to new and unique opportunities
for impacting positively on and contributing to the
development of Africa.
 Suriname remains committed to the promotion
and protection of human rights. My country
underscores the principle of equality before the law
and emphasizes that everyone should be held
accountable for their actions. Against that backdrop,
Suriname acceded to the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court on 15 July of this year.
We thus expressed our commitment to fighting the
impunity of the perpetrators of gross human rights
violations. However, providing the Court with its full
potential to meet its mandate depends on a collective
commitment at the global level.
 Environmental disturbances today are of such
magnitude that we can no longer ignore their negative
impact on the world’s resources. As a country with 90
per cent of its territory covered by forests within which
lies one of the largest stretches of pristine tropical
rainforests on earth, Suriname is aware of its value and
potential to contribute to the global mitigation of
climate change, the conservation of biodiversity and
the protection of water resources.
 However, the contribution of the international
community to the preservation and protection of such
globally valuable resources is not proportionate to the
sacrifice made by the forested countries. Moreover,
forested countries like Suriname with very low
deforestation rates are forgotten in mechanisms devised
to compensate for deforestation.
 Suriname recently hosted the Paramaribo
Dialogue, a country-led initiative on financing for
sustainable forest management in support of the United
Nations Forum on Forests. During that international
dialogue, multiple stakeholders from all over the world
came together to develop substantive proposals for the
establishment of an international financial framework
to assist in future sustainable forest management.
 We stress the importance of new financing
mechanisms, since good management of forests and
other natural resources cannot and should not be at the
expense of the development of our own peoples, the
peoples of countries with high forest coverage and low
deforestation rates. We therefore look forward to
substantial investments to support the sustainable
development of such countries.
 Suriname has supported the restructuring process
of the United Nations from the start, with the aim of
achieving a more effective and efficient Organization
that would be better equipped to adequately address
old and new challenges. In that process, we expect that
the role of the United Nations as a partner in
development will gain further relevance and achieve a
more coherent and enhanced presence in support of
capacity-building and sustainable development.
 Suriname is also currently engaged in a “One
UN” policy process, through which it responds to the
need for coherent involvement of the United Nations in
its development efforts. To that end, Suriname and the
United Nations agencies signed the Country
Programme Action Plan for the period 2008-2011,
which also addresses the pursuit of the Millennium
Development Goals.
 We have entered an era of growing anxieties and
concerns that go beyond national borders. The
contemporary world situation requires harmonization
of the United Nations with current international
developments. Suriname believes that the United
Nations should be given the tools and instruments to
enable the Organization to address global challenges in
support of a comprehensive and coherent development
agenda in the interest of all the nations of the world.


My first
words are addressed to the President of the General
Assembly, at its sixty-third session, my friend Miguel
d’Escoto. I am pleased that the responsibility of
presiding over our deliberations has fallen to a
distinguished Latin American of such political and
diplomatic eminence in his country and in the region.
 The President has invited us — and because of its
great importance we are obliged to comply with his
suggestion — to focus our debate on the impact of the
world food crisis on poverty and hunger in the world.
 This Organization was founded at the end of a
world conflagration in order to banish war forever and
to prevent armed confrontations between nations or
groups of nations. Although it has not been possible to
avoid all such events, certainly it has acted as a
deterrent force that has prevented wars that might have
proved even more devastating. The nations of the
world decided that it would be here that conflicts
among its Members would be resolved.
 Now we have to act on a conflict that is not
between Member States, but is rather one of all States
against hunger and poverty. It is difficult to explain
why, if the world is producing sufficient food for all,
854 million people find themselves in a state of food
insecurity and more than 1.7 billion people are
suffering from iron deficiency. In the last few days we
have noted how hundreds of millions of dollars have
been directed to rescue commercial enterprises, while
we still view with indifference the fact that every year
5.6 million children younger than 5 years are dying
directly or indirectly because of malnutrition — that is
640 each hour. In other words, since the moment when
we began our deliberations this morning, 5,000
children younger than 5 years have died. They did not
die because of terrorist acts, which all condemn, nor
because of natural disasters, which we all regret. They
died for a reason as simple as it is tragic — they were
poor. This situation is simply indefensible.
 As part of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), we undertook to reduce the number of people
suffering from hunger by one half and the number of
people who live with an income of less than $1 per day
by one half between 1990 and 2015. How can we meet
this objective if the price of rice has risen by 74 per
cent and that of wheat by 130 per cent? How can we
meet this objective if more than one billion people who
have escaped extreme poverty run the risk of suffering
from hunger unless we do something to stop this
upward spiral of food prices?
 What is the point of ensuring that more people
earn more than a dollar a day if the rise in food prices
has in fact altered that measurement of extreme
poverty? I do not want to suggest that nothing is being
done. The World Food Programme is doing formidable
work and donor countries have made extraordinary
contributions to alleviate the crisis and bring food to
the countries that need it most.
 The deliberations of the Human Rights Council,
the High-level Conference on World Food Security
held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture
Organization and the meeting of the High-level Task
Force on the Global Food Security Crisis constitute
additional expressions of the concern of international
bodies.
 But the fact is that we face a reality that has
already caused social disruption and to which no
immediate solution is in sight. The major mission of
the United Nations is the preservation of peace, and
peace is not just the absence of armed conflict between
countries, but also lies in the tranquillity of nations and
entails the elimination of adverse factors that may
disturb that tranquillity.
 As if skyrocketing food prices were not enough,
they have now been compounded by unjustified
speculation, which has raised the price of fuel to
absurd levels. It is no longer just the exorbitant
earnings of oil companies that are at stake; what is at
stake now is the hunger of millions of people who have
seen their efforts and hopes go up in smoke without
even knowing what has hit them.
 This means that we must see to it that from the
United Nations reforms that have been so often
postponed there emerges a strengthened General
Assembly so that, as an expression of all its
membership, it may act with authority in response to
such situations as those before us today. The
Constitution of almost all States of the world provides
for the declaration of a state of emergency as a
mechanism for dealing with imminent threats to
national security or to social harmony.

19 08-51606

 I am convinced, and I want to say so today, that
because of the price of food, we are facing a threat to
social peace and that the General Assembly could so
declare it so that all governmental forces, private
initiatives and international bodies may coordinate
their efforts in a crusade to rescue hundreds of millions
of people from the clutches of poverty.
 The world food price crisis cannot be dissociated
from climate change, as if these two problems were not
interrelated. Climate change has led to irregular crops
through droughts and floods that have had such a
severe effect on food stocks.
 If the problem of the scarcity and the lack of food
is something that we have to deal with
comprehensively, we should take measures to mitigate
the polluting effects of carbon, at least by market
mechanisms or a limiting of carbon production. It is
indispensable to develop more efficient technologies,
such as wind and solar energy, to take the place of
fossil fuels, if our response is not to remain a
temporary palliative but may offer a lasting,
sustainable solution; we must see to it, without further
delay, that we tackle both problems, the food crisis and
climate change, in an integral, comprehensive and
consistent manner.
 It is only thus that we will be able, without
further delay, to arrive at responses that are not just
stopgaps, but lasting, sustainable solutions. Indeed,
ever-greater importance is to be attached to the way we
relate to the ecosystems that sustain life throughout the
world, and how that affects the survival of our species
and civilization.
 We must understand that the environmental
agenda of the twenty-first century cannot be built on
the basis of the idea of a conflict between the
environment and the market, nor between the
environment and trade barriers, but on the basis of
opportunities which the market and trade offer to
stimulate new ways of addressing the environmental
issues that affect us all.
 We know today that there is no intractable
contradiction between conservation and development,
as perhaps there might have appeared to be when the
United Nations convened the first meeting to discuss
the subject in 1972. Let us make no mistake. The
opposite of conservation is not development, but waste.
It is clear from the intimate relationship that exists
between environmental problems and those that have to
do with social and economic development that the best
way to promote natural capital is to promote social
capital.
 The only way to create a different environment is
to build a society free of the problems of poverty,
underdevelopment and ignorance which today limit our
capacity to establish harmonious relations among all
social sectors, and between them and their natural
environment.
 We have the resources to do it: technology,
scientific knowledge and, above all, political
leadership and innovative capacity. But we can only
succeed through a common approach to environmental
management, shared by all the members of the global
community who are already moving in this same
direction.
 The international community has been happy to
see that on the other side of the Pacific, tensions have
abated, but we note with concern that threats to
international peace and security have emerged in other
parts of the world.
 Panama has set forth its positions in the Security
Council. I shall therefore only refer to what was also
suggested by the President, that is, the need to
democratize this Organization.
 Over the last four years, I have heard from
countless speakers a widespread demand for the United
Nations to finally adapt its structures, which the
50 signatories of the original Charter designed 60 years
ago, to the reality of an Organization with 192 Member
States and a geopolitical situation very different from
that which then existed.
 It has become a ritual repeated year after year for
every Head of State, foreign minister or ambassador to
call, without much success, for a recrafting of the
Organization. For myself, as is shown by the
commitment of my country to the United Nations, for
the fifth time in five years, I come to this podium to
ask with the same vigour and energy for the political
will to implement reforms.
 Panama made a proposal, which, like all the
others, could not be the subject of consensus. We still
stand by it. We stand by the idea that this Organization
must modernize itself, and soon. We cannot allow a
situation where, in the absence of agreement, we end
up by abandoning the spirit of reform that has inspired
us up till now.

08-51606 20

 I propose therefore that we agree, before the end
of the decade, upon initial fundamental reforms which
will begin to turn the wheels of modernization. There
are numerous examples in different parts of the world,
as well as in my own experience as a member of the
Government, that allow me to assure members that
small reforms, which may appear insignificant to begin
with, eventually lead to other, more profound reforms.
We must start somewhere.
 I would like to express my gratitude to the
General Assembly for granting my country, Panama,
the honour of non-permanent membership of the
Security Council over the past two years. Panamanian
diplomats and jurists contributed to the drafting of the
Charter of the United Nations and, since that time,
Panama’s representatives have contributed the wealth
of their experience so that the principles which inspired
the Charter can continue to prevail. You may rest
assured that we will not rest until this Organization, so
vital for peace in the world and the sole hope for
millions of the poor, is finally endowed with a legal
structure appropriate for the twenty-first century.


Uruguay, one of the founding States of the United
Nations, sees the fundamental principles of its foreign
policy fully reflected in the Charter of this
Organization.
 For that reason, we believe it important at the
outset to reassert the validity of those principles in the
present international context and to emphasize once
again the traditional Uruguayan position of full respect
for international law, support for multilateralism,
peaceful settlement of disputes, sovereign equality of
States, rejection of the use or threat of use of force,
non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States,
the self-determination of peoples, the promotion and
protection of human rights and international economic
and social cooperation.
 It is worth repeating that this list is not simply an
inventory of good intentions, but of legal principles
and fundamental values. Their enshrinement in the
Charter of the United Nations gives them the status of
international law, to whose validity and enforcement
all States must conform.
 Furthermore, those principles are crucial guiding
tools in a world that presents us today with major
challenges. We, nations gathered here, have the moral
and legal duty to find suitable solutions that will make
peace and development the rule of coexistence for our
peoples.
 As we all know, a severe food crisis is currently
afflicting too many countries throughout the world. If a
sustainable and lasting solution in to be found, we must
address the structural factors influencing and causing
the crisis. Correcting the distortions in the multilateral
trade system, in particular in agricultural trade, is
certainly a decisive element in ensuring a plentiful
supply of food that will meet the needs of the entire
population of the planet.
 Uruguay believes that, in addition to tackling this
serious crisis with urgent measures, we must make
progress towards a long-term solution. That inevitably
means redoubling our efforts to strengthen the
multilateral trade system and swiftly resuming the
negotiations in the World Trade Organization. It is
essential that we do so, particularly in the area of
agriculture, in order to guarantee world food security
and to avoid a reversion to protectionist practices that
would only further aggravate the situation.
 The food crisis is not the only crisis affecting us,
however; another major challenge facing the world
economy is undoubtedly that of energy. Here, as with
agriculture, Latin America requires the technological
cooperation of developed countries. Likewise, when it
comes to developing the production of alternative
energy sources, such as bioenergy and biofuels,
research and technical assistance are essential if we are
to benefit from the opportunities provided by such
production without affecting food security or the
environment. The United Nations has a crucially
important catalytic role in that regard.
 In addition, we cannot overlook the current
financial crisis of the major developed countries, which
demonstrates the global interconnectedness and
interdependence among States. Although developing
countries are certainly not the cause of the crisis, its
effects afflict and punish the economies of emerging
countries.

08-53129 30

 With regard to the environment and sustainable
development, Uruguay is a party to the major
international conventions in that area. While we have
emphasized the importance of international
cooperation, we have also always emphasized the
individual responsibility of every State to actively
protect the environment in its own territory and waters,
and have always valued the vigilant participation of
civil society in that regard.
 That is why, while we receive significant
investments that contribute to our industrial
development, my country also exerts rigorous control
over the environmental practices of the entities
involved, applying internationally recognized standards
and requiring the use of the most modern technologies
available, with effective control over the environmental
impact of those undertakings. The Uruguayan
Government thus reaffirms its unwavering commitment
to protecting the environment as a human right and as a
fundamental component in the achievement of true
sustainable development.
 Another major issue on the agenda of the General
Assembly is the Millennium Development Goals
agreed by Member States in September 2000, which
Uruguay has fully endorsed. In that context, Uruguay
has taken firm steps to achieve the Goals. We need
only highlight, among other policies with a significant
social content, the recent launching of our
comprehensive national health system — aimed at
transforming the health-care model by prioritizing
primary health care and prevention in order to
guarantee a basic right of all citizens — as part of the
social inclusion policy that Uruguay is implementing.
 Given its strict adherence to international law,
Uruguay is also firmly committed to consolidating
international peace and security, as demonstrated by its
status as one of the 10 major contributors of troops to
United Nations peacekeeping operations and as the
world’s largest contributor per capita in terms of troop
numbers. Our country is currently participating in
16 United Nations peacekeeping missions deployed in
Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. Since we began
to participate in peacekeeping missions, Uruguay has
gained experience in matters related to reconstruction
and peacebuilding in areas devastated by conflict,
making great efforts to put an end to hostilities so that
various societies and communities can agree on peace
and achieve national reconciliation.
 However, as our international experience has
taught us, peacekeeping, while essential, is not
sufficient to return affected countries to institutional
normalcy and an orderly and peaceful life. That is why
the strong involvement of the international community
is needed in peacekeeping efforts to effectively ensure
the building of stable, democratic and prosperous
societies through robust institutional mechanisms for
resolving their conflicts. For that reason, Uruguay
submitted its candidature to the Peacebuilding
Commission in February 2007. We hope to be able to
contribute to the attainment of those noble objectives
in that forum.
 The cause of peace requires, in institutional
terms, a strengthened and effective Organization. That
brings us to the topic of the United Nations reform
process. The negotiations in that regard have not
proceeded with the scope and speed originally
envisaged. Although the two recently established
bodies, the Human Rights Council and the
Peacebuilding Commission, have been in existence for
a few years, we have not yet been able to move on to
Security Council reform — which is essential — and
only a few timid steps have been taken in the process
of reforming the Secretariat and the General Assembly.
 Uruguay reaffirms its support for the process of
Security Council reform in the permanent and
non-permanent membership categories. However, we
will not support the creation of new members with the
right of the veto, since we believe that the issue of
extending the veto must not be included in the package
to be agreed upon in the intergovernmental
negotiations. Moreover, in keeping with its traditional
position since the founding of the United Nations, our
country disapproves of the right of veto, which is a
privilege that runs counter to the full democratization
of our Organization.
 In the area of reform, we also view the One
United Nations pilot project in two ways. We see it
first as an instrument through which reform of the
operational activities of the United Nations system
could be put into practice; and secondly, as a
cooperative exercise in areas of priority identified by
the Uruguayan Government in the context of a national
development strategy based on sustained and
sustainable economic growth with equity and social
justice. However, we understand that the programme
should adapt itself to specific national priorities and
needs. That is why no single model is applicable to all

31 08-53129

pilot countries, given their inherent differences from
one another.
 I also wish to refer to a topic of particular
relevance for Uruguay — the situation of so-called
middle-income countries. Those countries find
themselves in a paradoxical situation. Although there
are certain indicators of economic growth, negative
circumstances that hinder sustainable and sustained
growth in the medium- and long-terms have not been
taken into account, nor has it been possible to prevent
dramatic erosion of some of the progress made. In
particular and with dramatic effect, the well-known
clear vulnerability of the economies of developing
countries in a globalized world economy subjects them
to the effects of external crises with clear, direct
consequences, such as rising poverty and inequity in
income distribution, as well as strengthened migratory
trends, to mention just some effects that Uruguay has
experienced directly.
 Finally, in affirming its unwavering commitment
to the fight against terrorism, Uruguay reiterates its
rejection of all terrorist acts and vigorously condemns
all attacks against civil populations and public
infrastructure, the destruction of which adversely
affects the civil population. Terrorism must be
unequivocally condemned and cooperation between
States must increase in order to ensure that such acts
do not go unpunished.
 We must be careful, however. The fight against
terrorism must always be waged based on the rule of
law, and consequently in the strictest respect for the
standards of international humanitarian and human
rights law.
 The same applies to drug trafficking. Our country
has continued its unrelenting fight against illegal drug
trafficking. Our effort targets both supply and demand.
Thanks to that policy and beyond our success in
stamping out the illicit traffic in those substances, our
country has been at the vanguard of our continent in
terms of its policies to prevent consumption and treat
those affected by drugs.
 Both terrorism and drug trafficking severely
compromise the full enjoyment of human rights, the
safeguarding of which has been one of the strategic
policies of the current Government. We want respect
for human rights to be more than routine rhetoric; it
should enjoy full expression in the daily life of its
citizens. On that basis, our country has prioritized
strengthening legislation and the competent national
bodies, and has sought to extend international human
rights and to consolidate institutions that effectively
protect and secure the international enjoyment of
human rights and prevent their violation. In short, the
protection of human rights is one of the central axes of
the Republic’s foreign policy and is without a doubt
Uruguay’s basic political institutional asset.
 As is evident, the effective protection of human
rights calls for a strong jurisdictional body to guarantee
its application. In that context, the creation of the
International Criminal Court (ICC) was a fundamental
contribution to the progressive development of
international law and an event of tremendous legal and
political importance. In 2006, Uruguay enacted a
national law pledging full cooperation with the ICC.
Respectfully, we urge the international community as a
whole to do the same in order to prevent genocide, war
crimes and crimes against humanity from going
unpunished.
 In conclusion, I would like to stress that, with
conflicts threatening peace and international security
and taking into account the growing interdependence
of States as a result of globalization, it is now crucial
to emphatically reaffirm the relevance of the United
Nations as the lead body and ultimate multilateral
forum for finding appropriate solutions to today’s
major global challenges.
 The pursuit of multilateralism therefore implies a
search for collective responses to international
conflicts and problems, in accordance with
international law and in the framework of the
principles of the United Nations Charter, which
regulates peaceful coexistence between nations.
Indeed, we must uphold the ideals that inspired the
establishment of the Organization. That is a civilizing
project that we cannot abandon as it represents
unfinished business that we owe it to ourselves and to
generations to come to complete.


We are
extremely pleased to see Mr. Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann presiding over the sixty-third session of the
General Assembly. I take this opportunity to express
my sincere thanks to His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
Secretary-General of our Organization, for his
commitment and active role in the service of the
United Nations and for promoting its ideals of justice
and peace.
 The world today is faced with innumerable
challenges. We who govern our respective countries
bear a heavy responsibility. We must become
increasingly concerned about the fate of our world.
Why are we going through all these crises? Why are
there so many centres of tension throughout the world?
Why is there so much poverty and vulnerability in our
universe? Why is terrorism spreading throughout the
globe? Those are questions that must be addressed by
each one of us, by our collective conscience and, first
and foremost, by the United Nations, whose key
purpose remains the defence of the ideals of peace,
justice, solidarity and development.
 Today’s reality is quite different. Unfortunately,
all those values are far from being solidly established.
The most privileged nations must therefore show
greater concern for the fate of some parts of the world
and, in particular, for developing countries where
violence, hunger, disease, injustice of all sorts conflicts
and their consequences are facts of daily life.
 The double crisis of food and energy, to mention
but two, requires a new surge of solidarity at the
international level. The crisis affects the entire world,
but is felt particularly in developing countries.
Furthermore, we firmly believe in multilateralism. That
is why the reform of the major organs of the United
Nations is required today to ensure greater firmness
and effectiveness.
 Last March, Operation Democracy in the
Comoros put an end to a rebellion that had shaken the
island of Anjouan and re-established constitutional
legality. As I promised, free, transparent and
democratic elections took place on the island last June,
enabling us to complete the establishment of local
Governments on the islands of the Union of the
Comoros.
 Therefore, I would like to pay heartfelt tribute to
the African Union, the League of Arab States and the
friendly countries of Tanzania, the Sudan, Libya,
Morocco, Senegal, France and the United States of
America, which have all supported us morally,
materially or financially in our task to complete
without bloodshed the delicate operation of freeing the
island of Anjouan.
 Firmly resolved to consolidate the renewed
stability and in line with the commitment made to our
partners, I have decided to organize as soon as possible
an inter-Comorian conference to bring together
political movements, local island Governments, civil
society and the Comoros’ partners. The conference will
focus on the outstanding institutional issues that have
long been a source of misunderstanding between the
central Government and the federal entities. Initial
contacts with the international community have been
established to muster the support necessary to convene
that national gathering which is required to improve
the functioning of our national institutions.
 Economic difficulties cannot allow us to lose
sight of other major challenges, including environmental
problems, which particularly affect the small island
developing States, of which the Indian Ocean islands
are a part. Thus, as head of State of the country
currently holding the chairmanship of the Indian Ocean
Commission, which has observer status at the United
Nations, I would like to reiterate our subregional
organization’s desire to contribute to implementing the
Mauritius Strategy. I also take this opportunity to thank
the European Union for having agreed to finance a
programme of support for the Indian Ocean
Commission within the framework of the tenth
European Development Fund as the Union’s

15 08-51845

contribution to the implementation of the Mauritius
Strategy.
 I appeal to the United Nations and to the
international community to support the efforts of the
Indian Ocean Commission to ensure the successful
development and integration of its Member States and
to pay particular attention to the issue of implementing
the Mauritius Strategy.
 Every individual and every nation aspires to
justice, dignity and freedom. Those are the ideals of the
United Nations system to which we must remain
faithful if peace, security and development are to
ensure the progress of humanity.
 On the basis of respect for those values, allow me
to inform this Assembly of the great concern of the
people and the Government of the Comoros with
regard to the issue of the Comorian island of Mayotte. I
would like to note that, following talks undertaken with
France on that issue since last September following my
meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy, I did not
intend to raise the issue at this session. The high-level
working group that was set up for that purpose on the
initiative of the French President provides, I believe,
an ideal bilateral framework to study all aspects of the
issue.
 However, the intention recently declared by the
French authorities to organize a referendum in 2009
with a view to transforming Mayotte into a French
department forces me to raise the issue here. It will be
agreed that such a decision, coming at a moment when
discussions are under way between the two parties, will
not favour an open and constructive dialogue.
Therefore, in order to throw further light on the
justification of the Comorian claim to the island of
Mayotte, allow me to set out certain important facts
that need to be taken into account when we analyse the
issue.
 Throughout the years of French colonization, the
Comorian archipelago, comprised of the four islands of
Anjouan, Grande Comore, Mayotte and Mohéli, was a
single physical, geographical, religious, cultural and
linguistic entity. Under French domestic law, and ever
since Anjouan, Grande Comore and Mohéli were
established as a French protectorate, they were
combined with Mayotte to form a single territory.
 The first text on that issue was the decree of
September 1889. Since then, the political and
administrative unity of the Comoros archipelago has
never been questioned in any document, despite the
plethora of provisions adopted with regard to the
Comoros. I would refer, for example, to the law of
9 May 1946, the law of 17 April 1952, the decree of
22 July 1957, the law of 22 December 1961 and the
law of 3 January 1968.
 Thus, each time the French legislature or
regulatory authority has acted, it has done so by
considering the archipelago of the Comoros to
constitute a single territory.
 It is clear then that the French Republic has never
called into question the territorial unity of the
archipelago of the Comoros, while international public
opinion has consistently considered that the four
islands of the Comoros form a single territory, subject
to the French Republic and administered most recently
under the provisions of article 72 and following the
French Constitution.
 It was in that spirit that at the end of 1974 we
implemented the procedure provided for by article 53
of the French Constitution, which aimed to gain the
support of those affected by the accession to
independence of the archipelago of the Comoros.
 In accordance with the law of 23 November 1974,
the people of the archipelago of the Comoros were
invited to vote on whether they wished the territory to
gain independence.
 In all the islands, namely, in Anjouan, Mohéli,
Mayotte and Grande Comore, on 22 December 1974,
overall a positive answer was given to the question
posed.
 The question was put to the Comorian people as a
single, indivisible people and over 96 per cent voted in
favour of independence, in accordance with the law
based on article 53 of the French Constitution.
 However, at that time the French Parliament,
rather than simply ratifying that decision of the people,
wanted to draw up another law organizing another
referendum on the pretext that in Mayotte about 60 per
cent had voted against.
 But the question had been put to the Comorian
people, comprising the population of Mayotte,
Anjouan, Mohéli and Grande Comore, and the result
translated into overall terms as that did not in any way
affect the letter and spirit of the law.

08-51845 16

 Faced with the unwillingness of the French
Parliament at that time to recognize the irrevocable
verdict of the Comorian people, the late President
Ahmed Abdallah Abdérémane, with the backing of the
Comorian people, unilaterally declared the
independence of the Comoros on 6 July 1975.
 Looking beyond such measures, which come
under French domestic law, I should like to stress the
principle of the inviolability, under international law,
of borders inherited from the colonial era and thereby
to make it clear that the Comorian demand is indeed in
conformity with the law.
 Lastly, I would like to remind the Assembly that
the Comoros, comprising Mayotte, Anjouan, Mohéli
and Grande Comore, was admitted into this prestigious
Organization on 12 November 1975, as demarcated by
its borders, without France showing its opposition to
that admission.
 Today, there are good grounds for our great
concern over France’s official statements regarding the
departmentalization of the Comorian island of
Mayotte. Those statements are not in keeping with the
principles of justice, fairness and respect for
international law, for which the great country of France
is known.
 For that reason, my country as of now considers
any ballot organized on the question of making the
Comorian island Mayotte a department to be null and
void. Such are the facts — and the facts speak for
themselves.
 However, today the reality is that France is in
Mayotte notwithstanding the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and all the other international
organizations that have been regularly seized of the
matter. Against that background, I have entered into
talks with the French President, His Excellency
Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, who has shown a willingness to
find a solution to the problem.
 It may therefore be hoped that that legitimate
claim of the Comoros to the island of Mayotte will
soon have a happy outcome. I am particularly
confident of that, because many outstanding problems
throughout the world have been settled and others are
on the way to being settled since His Excellency
President Nicolas Sarkozy assumed France’s highest
office.
 Let me take this opportunity to make a solemn
appeal to the French Government to strive to preserve a
climate conducive to a committed dialogue, which has
our support and which, in order to result in a
negotiated settlement will need to take into account the
concern of the Comoros that its national unity and
territorial integrity be respected.
 Moreover, I urge the international community to
help to reconcile the views of the two parties along
those lines, because the unity of the four islands of the
Comoros, as well as peace and lasting stability for the
archipelago, are a prerequisite for its harmonious
development.
 In conclusion, may I express the sincere thanks of
the Comorian delegation to all the American authorities
for the particularly warm welcome and the good
arrangements made to ensure the success of this sixty-
third session of the General Assembly.


I am
highly honoured to address the Assembly on behalf of
the Government of the citizen revolution, of the
President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa Delgado, and of
the people of Ecuador at these paradoxical times of
both crisis and hope.
 Allow me to convey the fraternal greetings of the
people and the Government of Ecuador to you, Sir —
President of the Assembly and former Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, Father Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann — on your election to such an important
position. We agree with you on the need to attach the
highest priority to the fight to eradicate poverty and to
pay special attention to relevant issues such as climate
change, the energy and food crises, human rights,
disarmament, the rights of women and children and the
preservation of cultural and biodiversity.
 With the end of the cold war, we believed, not
without reason, that the confrontation between two
ways of life and two great Powers would give way to
the solution of the planet’s pressing economic and
social problems. Two decades have elapsed since that
historic date, and we see with concern that that crisis
has deepened, that social cohesion is harder to obtain,
that new threats to security have intensified, and that
the use of force and the number of conflicts have
increased.
 My country is convinced that the strengthening of
the multilateral system is an imperative in the world of
today. We have no other option to guarantee peace and
security in the world than to renew our political
decision to progress in the reform of the United
Nations system, and in particular of the Security
Council. This year, we have taken a significant step in
that direction with the General Assembly’s adoption of
decision 62/557, which provides a general framework
to advance these negotiations. Let us hope that we
make progress.
 The debate on the need to increase membership
of the Security Council and to democratize the Council
and make its working methods more transparent and
inclusive is undoubtedly one of the fundamental
elements of the reform process. However, at the same
time, we should not forget that another of the central
points required to give back to the United Nations the
role that it should have is to strengthen its democratic
and representative organ par excellence, namely the
General Assembly.
 Nor should we forget that any process of reform
will be incomplete if it does not include the
democratization of the organizations that make up the
United Nations system. In the twenty-first century we
cannot continue working with a system in which most
countries cannot access the decision-making bodies

08-53135 36

because of structures that respond to the special
circumstances that prevailed when those bodies were
created. We need to urgently build a multilateral
system that responds promptly and effectively to
today’s challenges and that recognizes the fundamental
principles of international law, such as the sovereign
equality of States. Only with thorough-going reform
can the United Nations regain the lead role that it
should play in international affairs.
 We cannot understand that States Members of this
Organization continue supporting peacekeeping
budgets of billions of dollars and yet have serious
concerns about increasing budgets for development
programmes, especially fundamentally important
programmes to fight poverty, HIV/AIDS, malaria and
the effects of climate change. Our citizens are
beginning to call us to account with regard to the
resources that we contribute annually to this
Organization and the results that we obtain. That is
why we consider positive the proposal stressed by the
President of the General Assembly to commence a
truly thorough and democratic reform of this
Organization.
 To work for development and the reduction of
poverty and to deal adequately with the needs of
millions of human beings who are struggling today in
misery, disease and despair, is an absolute requirement
in order to guarantee peace and security. Therefore, my
country assigns high priority to economic and social
policies aimed at overcoming unequal distribution of
income and employment, and at guaranteeing the right
of its population to health, education and social
security. These efforts must be accompanied by
decisive and effective support from developed
countries, through a substantial increase in official
development assistance (ODA) — cooperation that
cannot be subject to conditions of any kind and that
must supplement national efforts based on sovereign
development policies.
 There is still much to do, however, if we are to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
As we have stated in several forums, Ecuador
considers that the MDGs are basic minima for survival
and that we should go beyond them. In our country, we
have left behind an outdated concept based on market
growth indices and are currently working actively and
with impressive results on increasing the quality of life
of the citizens of Ecuador. We call this concept of
“buen vivir” — “living well” — which means living
with dignity and in accordance with our cultural values
and in harmony with nature.
 Ecuador and, I am sure, all developing countries
hope that the Doha Conference on Financing for
Development will produce positive results for our
countries, such as access to external financing for
development, relief of the external debt servicing
burden, the reform of international financial
institutions and the effective alignment of official
development assistance with the national strategies and
policies adopted by sovereign countries, together with
the strong commitment of donor countries to allocate at
least 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product
(GDP) to official development assistance. Middle-
income countries deserve special attention since they
account for more than 41 per cent of the poor of the
planet.
 The United Nations should actively promote
South-South cooperation. We believe that the High-
level United Nations Conference on South-South
Cooperation to be convened by the General Assembly
in 2009 is evidence of the role which the Organization
should play in this area. It will constitute an excellent
opportunity to strengthen and enhance this important
cooperation.
 Likewise, it is necessary that there be a special
place for economic and social development in the work
of the United Nations. Without a total fulfilment of the
commitments that have been undertaken and without a
true inclusion of our needs based on our own agendas
for development, we cannot talk of international peace
and security.
 Ecuador wishes to highlight, at this juncture, the
vital role that the Group of 77 and China and the
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) have to play on these
and other issues. During the last NAM ministerial
meeting, held in Tehran, Iran, in July, we reiterated our
conviction that this important mechanism of political
agreement is central in ensuring that our countries’
interests are fully taken into account.
 Ecuador also assigns importance to the role of the
United Nations in establishing a world order based on
respect for international law, the norms and principles
set out in the Charter, and the promotion of and respect
for human rights international humanitarian Law.
 My country supports the actions the United
Nations is taking to address the serious security

37 08-53135

problems we face, such as the fight against terrorism,
the worldwide drug problem and the fight against
transnational organized crime. Accordingly, we
welcomed the recent positive outcome of the first
review of progress in the implementation of the Global
Counter-Terrorism Strategy. My country will continue
to give its support to these important initiatives.
 Ecuador also supports negotiations aimed at the
eventual adoption of a legally binding convention on
terrorism. However, we believe that, given the vitally
important implications of the issue, such a convention
should expressly and unequivocally cover the
obligations of all States to fight terrorism in the
framework of international law, human rights,
international humanitarian law and the principles and
norms established in the Charter of the United Nations.
 The fight against terrorism cannot be an excuse
for some States to feel released from their obligation to
respect fundamental norms of international law, such as
respect for the sovereignty and the territorial integrity
of other States and non-intervention in their internal
affairs. Likewise, the violation of the human rights of
alleged terrorists — who have been tortured,
incarcerated in clandestine military prisons and
deprived of the basic right to defend themselves —
also constitutes a very serious precedent. These
practices must be condemned by the international
community. Sovereignty, the inviolability of territory,
the non-use of force and non-intervention in the affairs
of other States are the only guarantee for peaceful
coexistence among the peoples of the world.
 Ecuador assigns high priority to the actions of the
international community to ensure that States comply
in good faith with their human rights obligations. We
believe that the Human Rights Council, which is
consolidating its position as the best mechanism for the
preservation and protection of human rights, has
substantially improved its working methods. But all
countries must make an effort to set aside their
political objectives to allow the Council to effectively
fulfil the purposes for which it was created.
 Ecuador feels that the Universal Periodic Review
system established by the Council is a good step in that
direction. For this reason, my country was glad to be
the second country in the world to submit its review, in
April 2008. On that occasion, we reiterated our
unfailing commitment to respect for and protection of
human rights. We were able to share with the
international community the substantial advances made
in the implementation of our national human rights
plan, and we voluntarily made additional
commitments.
 The adoption of the United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was a milestone.
My country was actively involved in the negotiation of
that important instrument and is now committed to its
implementation and follow-up in order to contribute to
national policies aimed at consolidating the identity,
culture and effective exercise of the political, economic
and cultural rights of the indigenous peoples and
nationalities of Ecuador.
 The issue of migration is of singular importance
to my country. The Government of Ecuador is therefore
implementing a comprehensive immigration policy,
contained in the National Human Development Plan
for Migration, that includes programmes, projects and
actions aimed at guaranteeing the protection and a
comprehensive approach to migration issues and of
migrant persons, regardless of their origin or
administrative status within the territory of a State.
 The free movement of persons is a right that must
be protected, and I believe that no Government
represented here is opposed to that. However, the
regulation of such movement must be in strict
accordance with the principles of international
humanitarian law and the human rights of migrants. In
the words of the President of my country, Rafael
Correa Delgado, “there are no illegal human beings,
only practices that violate the rights of persons”. In
that respect, we are deeply disturbed by the return
directive issued by the European Union. We believe
that, today more than ever before, our countries must
join together to demand effective compliance with the
obligations arising from international human rights and
on migration agreements. Emigration and return must
both be an expression of freedom.
 The new Constitution of Ecuador establishes the
principle of universal citizenship, the free movement of
all peoples on Earth, and a progressive end to the
concept of “foreignness” in order to transform unequal
relations between countries, especially between the
North and the South. We must not forget that migration
is often a direct consequence of economic models
based on exclusion, in which the market, the
accumulation of wealth and selfishness paper over the
true needs of human beings.

08-53135 38

 As I said, humanism and solidarity are
fundamental principles that guide the actions of the
Government of Ecuador. That is why my country
adopted a State policy on refugees on 16 September of
this year. That policy is aimed at providing
comprehensive assistance to persons placed under the
protection of Ecuador.
 We will honour all our national and international
commitments regarding refuge seekers, but we need
the determined cooperation of the international
community. We must not forget that Ecuador is
currently the country with the largest number of
persons in need of international protection in the entire
western hemisphere. According to studies conducted by
the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees, there are approximately 200,000
Colombian citizens in need of international protection
within the territory of Ecuador. Ecuador is now
implementing a process of extended registration, which
will benefit thousands of Colombian brothers in urgent
need of international protection.
 The severity of the world food crisis is an issue
that our countries must address in a comprehensive
manner while taking all of its dimensions into account.
In that respect, Ecuador believes that subsidies and
other trade distortions have a serious impact on the
agricultural sectors of developing countries. For that
reason, Ecuador firmly supports the proposal to hold a
special session on that issue during the sixty-third
session of the General Assembly.
 In addition, Ecuador is compelled to highlight the
current financial crisis, which also deserves our
Organization’s particular attention. The crisis is further
proof of the decline of our current economic system,
which prioritizes speculative capital over productive
capital, threatens the common good and endangers the
development prospects of the majority of world. It is
not a country-specific crisis, but a systemic crisis of
capitalism that calls for profound and comprehensive
responses.
 Ecuador’s foreign policy reflects its firm
commitment to disarmament and the non-proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction. Ecuador has not only
adhered to international instruments in that field, but
also supports and carries out all the obligations
emanating from those instruments in order to achieve
their effective implementation. We are concerned by
the fact that there are countries that, regrettably, have
not adhered to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons, while others that have adhered to it
are not meeting their obligations, especially in terms of
disarmament and the destruction of their arsenals. With
regard to that policy issue, Ecuador welcomes the
adoption, in Dublin in July, of the Convention on
Cluster Munitions. My country will sign the
Convention in a ceremony to be held in Oslo on
3 December 2008.
 Other issues of great concern to my country
include the fight against transnational organized crime
and its ramifications, the production and illicit traffic
of narcotics, corruption, the manufacturing and illicit
traffic in small arms and light weapons, and human
trafficking. We believe that the United Nations has
taken decisive steps on those issues by adopting
international conventions that allow for cooperation
between our countries in the fight against those
scourges. We believe that adequate and equitable
international cooperation is essential. Such
cooperation, as I said, must respond to the needs of our
countries and be aimed at supporting national policies.
 Ecuador is convinced that a strong and effective
multilateral system is the only means for the world to
overcome the problems it faces and, above all, to
guarantee the well-being of peoples and international
peace and security. It is therefore incumbent upon us to
transform the United Nations.
 To conclude, I have the pleasure of announcing to
the world that Ecuador has made a new step towards
the strengthening of our democracy. Yesterday, the
Ecuadorian nation approved by an ample majority a
new political Constitution — a new social pact based
on a transformed relationship between the State, the
economy and politics, creating a new model of
development aimed at human welfare and harmony
with nature.


I
received the news of your election to the General
Assembly presidency, Sir, with a brother’s pride.
Twenty-one years ago, it was through war in Central
America that we became acquainted. Today it is peace
that allows us to meet once more. In the name of the
people of Costa Rica, and in my own name as well, I
am honoured to extend to you a brotherly Central
American greeting.
 I have come here to speak words of the urgency
that any leader feels at decisive moments in history.
This is not just any year. While we hold this General
Assembly, millions of people who used to be able to
meet their most basic needs have seen the face of
poverty once again. Hunger, that abominable monster
that we had escaped for so many years, has returned to
chase away the dreams of humanity. Pessimism and
hopelessness have taken control of our economies, and,
as always, the poorest among us will pay the
consequences. World military spending has reached
$3.3 billion per day, but international aid continues to
reach the poorest countries at a snail’s pace and fails to
reach middle-income countries altogether. Brutal
hurricanes and intense droughts remind us that this
planet reacts to our irrationality, and the time that
remains for us may be a countdown to disaster if we do
not make a change.
 It may be that in no other General Assembly have
issues more global than now been discussed. Our
interdependence has made us all vulnerable, but in that
interdependence also lies our strength. In the past, a
nation could avert its gaze from distant suffering and
scorn the pain of others. Today, that option does not
exist. Every victory and every failure is shared.
 The man who, motivated by hunger, cuts down a
tree in the virgin Amazon rainforest unwittingly
deprives us of a fraction of the air we breathe in this
room. The European mother who is forced to buy less
food because she cannot afford the costs unwittingly
affects the economy of all nations in the world. The
African child who drops out of school because of a
lack of resources unwittingly determines the future
performance of our species. We are all united in that,
and perhaps for the first time in history, no one can
look in another direction. We are seated simultaneously
at the prosecutor’s bench and at the defence table, in
the public gallery and in the judge’s chair.
 We must take advantage of this moment when
equality among nations is seen in the equality of our
challenges. We will not be able to face our realities
unless we understand them completely. We will not be
able to shine the light of reason upon our Earth if we
intentionally leave some regions in the dark. If we are
seriously to take up the challenges of our time it is
right that like that old protagonist of the Charles
Dickens tale, we open our eyes to our past, our present
and our future; we must guarantee peace and justice for
the past, peace and development for the present, peace
and nature for the future.
 In the Preamble to the United Nations Charter,
the States that make up this Organization undertook to
establish conditions under which justice can be

41 08-51839

maintained. Of those conditions, perhaps the most
important is will: the will to demand that our
obligations are fulfilled; the will to speak out when
international law is violated; and, above all, the will to
ensure that acts that are an affront to all humankind do
not go unnoticed.
 Evil springs not only from action but also and,
above all, from omission. To keep silent when crimes
are grave and responsibilities are clear is not to remain
neutral but is to side with the aggressors. Our recent
past is marked by horrendous, unpunished crimes that
call out, not for vengeance, but for justice. We cannot
accept that evil is banal. If we do not want to repeat the
painful history of Kosovo and Bosnia, of Rwanda and
Kampuchea, then it is time for the international
community to demand that those responsible for the
crimes committed in Darfur be judged before the
international criminal court. Costa Rica will oppose
any attempt to avoid such a path, which is the path of
peace. Forgiveness is based on memory, not on
dissimulation; and peace will be possible only through
memory. We must understand, in the words of Elie
Wiesel, “that the memory of evil will serve as a shield
against evil; that the memory of death will serve as a
shield against death”.
 If the spirit of the past calls on us to hold people
responsible for the violation of human rights, the spirit
of the present calls on us to ensure that those rights are
fulfilled today. Governments can indirectly hurt their
peoples in many ways, one of which is excessive
military spending. In developing nations, in particular,
every long-range missile, every helicopter gunship and
every tank is a symbol of the deferred needs of our
people. On a planet where one sixth of the population
lives on less than a dollar a day, spending $1.2 trillion
on arms and soldiers is an offence and a symbol of
irrationality because the security of a satisfied world is
more certain than the security of an armed world. Latin
America is not immune to this phenomenon. Last year
Latin American military spending reached $39 billion,
in a region that has never been more peaceful or more
democratic.
 I know of no greater perversion of values and no
greater misplacement of priorities. With a small
percentage of world military spending we could give
drinking water to all of humanity, equip all homes with
electricity, achieve universal literacy, and eradicate all
preventable diseases. I am not talking about the utopia
of a world without armies. Unfortunately, that is an
idea whose time has not yet come. I am talking about
tiny percentages of an expenditure that could be
reduced without harming the ability of countries to
defend themselves — particularly developing
countries. That is why my Government has presented
the Costa Rica consensus, an initiative that would
establish mechanisms to forgive debts and use
international financial resources to support developing
nations that spend more and more on environmental
protection, education, health care and housing for their
people and less and less on arms and soldiers. I am
convinced that that will bring us greater development,
greater security and greater peace than all the money
that we have now set aside for our armies. I humbly
ask members today to support this initiative.
 I also ask for members’ support for the arms trade
treaty that Costa Rica is advocating within this
Organization, to prohibit the transfer of arms to States,
groups or individuals if there is sufficient reason to
believe that those arms will be used to violate human
rights or international law, or to interfere with
sustainable development. The destructive power of the
world’s existing 640 million small arms and light
weapons, most in the hands of civilians, deserves the
same attention or even more attention than military
spending.
 However, no matter how urgent it may be to
ensure the present development of our peoples, it is
equally important to ensure their future development.
The spirit of the future, as we look ahead to it, offers
us a desolate image. Imagine an unending desert, a
cracked ground too hot to stand on. Imagine a planet
where life has been displaced and only cockroaches, if
anything, can survive. Imagine a world whose range of
colours, which until now has been endless, is reduced
to grays and dark browns. Imagine polluted air,
impossible to breathe. “This is not a poor copy of
John’s delirium during his exile on Patmos” as Gabriel
Garcia Márquez once said. I am not describing the
Apocalypse but simply the world that awaits us if we
do not take action right away to declare “peace with
nature”.
 Sixty years ago an illustrious Costa Rican, a
visionary and brave man, José Figueres Ferrer,
abolished my country’s army. What had been the
general headquarters of the Costa Rican armed forces
is today our main national museum. Our children have
never seen a column of soldiers on the march; they
know only the march of columns of ants. No Costa

08-51839 42

Rican children know the difference between this or that
missile, or this or that combat plane, but they can
distinguish among the trees of the forest and the
animals of the sea; they know the importance of the
water cycle, of wind energy, of rivers and of sun. Ours
is a nation of peace among humans, but we also aspire
to be a nation of peace with all forms of life.
 We have set a goal of becoming carbon-neutral
by 2021. Last year we became the world leader for the
number of trees per capita and square kilometre,
planting 5 million trees. In 2008 we will plant
7 million more. We are leading an international crusade
against global warming and environmental destruction,
with a special focus on the planet’s primary forests.
Today, Assembly members, I ask you to join us.
 The march of humanity through history is neither
linear nor continuous. It is marked by detours and
pitfalls, and even by painful setbacks. As in Pedro
Calderón de la Barcá’s play La Vida es Sueña, one
morning we awake as princes and the next we are no
more than beggars. But not everything in life is a
dream. There are concrete realities that we have been
able to build. There are indisputable achievements in
the history of humankind. This Organization is one of
them. Members may tell me that the United Nations is
founded on the search for peace, understanding among
peoples and respect for international law. That is all
true. But I dare to say that more than anything else this
Organization is founded on hope, the hope that our
march is upward, that our future will be better, and that
a promised land lies behind the deserts of violence and
injustice that, with courage, we have been able to
cross.
 I assure this Assembly that if we confront the
spirit of our past, of our present and of our future, if we
build peace on a base of justice, development and
nature, and if we turn away from forgetfulness, arms
and environmental destruction we will reach that
promised land some day and our children and our
children’s children will never again be beggars in the
kingdom of their dreams.


I would
like to warmly congratulate Mr. d’Escoto Brockmann,
on his election to preside over our debates and to
assure him of the full support of Burkina Faso. I would
also like to express to his predecessor, Mr. Kerim, all
my appreciation for the skill with which he guided the
work of the sixty-second session.
 It is also my pleasure to pay well-deserved tribute
to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who is
investing his efforts with foresight and dedication to
ensure the success of the reform of our Organization in
order to build a safer world and to ensure continuing
progress. I would like to reiterate in particular our
warm thanks to him for the visit he made to our
country last April.
 This session of the General Assembly is taking
place at the midpoint in the timetable for attaining the
Millennium Development Goals and in an international
context marked by threats to global peace. The food
and energy crises have been joined by a financial crisis
of exceptional seriousness. This session is therefore
crucial and provides us with a great opportunity to
assess the measures that have been taken and to take
the necessary corrective measures.
 In that respect, I welcome the initiative to
organize a high-level meeting on the midterm review
of the Millennium Development Goals. The

31 08-51749

conclusions of that meeting, I firmly believe, will help
us to establish appropriate strategies to speed up the
achievement of the Goals.
 The current food crisis throughout the world has
amply demonstrated the ineffectiveness of our
agricultural policies and the fragility of our production
and trading systems. It is urgent to improve how
international institutions function, to relaunch
investment in agriculture and to support farmers’ and
professional organizations in innovative partnerships.
To that end, it is important that we commit ourselves to
major investment in farming, improved organization
for producers, greater control of water resources, more
effective distribution of seeds and fertilizers, and
simpler access to land.
 The energy crisis helps us to prioritize our search
for lasting solutions in favour of renewable
resources — solar, nuclear, wind and bioenergy
resources — because of the impact of energy-related
factors on States’ development strategies.
 Official development assistance has decreased in
recent years in terms of the level of funding and its
effectiveness. Beyond the central and recurring
question of the level of official development
assistance, there are four other dimensions that I
believe are crucial. Those dimensions are, first,
ownership of economic policies and support for
capacity-building in governance in our States;
secondly, harmonizing and simplifying donor
procedures; thirdly, the gradual alignment of assistance
with national development priorities and programmes;
and fourthly, improved coordination between our
technical and financial partners on the ground, under
the leadership of Governments.
 Those are the main requirements with regard to
ensuring more effective public aid. I take this
opportunity to express my thanks to all our
development partners who have always supported us as
we strive for encouraging results.
 The scourge of drugs and narcotics is a threat to
Africa in general and the West African subregion in
particular. Used as departure and transit points for
exporting illegal drugs, some parts of our countries are
experiencing a genuine cross-border crime wave. The
rapid eradication of that scourge requires the solidarity
and active support of the international community.
 With regard to environmental issues, the
international community must invest more if it is to
bring appropriate responses to the climate change
affecting our planet. Scientific and political ideas must
be aimed today at protecting and preserving a fully
functioning ecosystem for future generations.
 Resolving conflicts throughout the world, and
particularly on the African continent, represents a
major challenge for the community of nations. Burkina
Faso, which currently holds the presidency of the
Economic Community of West African States and the
West African Economic and Monetary Union is making
its contribution to enhancing peace and security, which
are indispensable to ensuring progress and democracy.
In Africa, centres of tension remain, but we can
welcome the remarkable progress achieved by
numerous mediation efforts in various regions, which
have demonstrated the capacity of Africans to resolve
their disputes for themselves.
 In Darfur, the Security Council’s decision has
allowed the deployment of the African Union-United
Nations Hybrid Operation. Burkina Faso, which is
taking part in that peacekeeping operation, welcomes
the appointment of Mr. Djibril Yipènè Bassolé as the
Joint African Union-United Nations Chief Mediator for
Darfur. Given the complexity of his mission, I call on
the international community to give him its full support
and to ensure a rapid resumption of the political
dialogue and to strengthen the operational capacities of
the hybrid force.
 We are also concerned by the erosion of the
Somali State and its post-electoral crises. With regard
to Western Sahara, we are encouraged by the efforts
made by the parties to the conflict, particularly the
Kingdom of Morocco, and by the Security Council’s
call for a realistic settlement.
 The Sahelo-Saharan region has been affected by
persistent insecurity for many years. Collective efforts
at dialogue and cooperation are required to restore
peace and security there. In that regard, we welcome
and support the Algiers accord reached recently
between the Government of Mali and the Tuareg
rebels.
 Burkina Faso also welcomes the progress made in
the Middle East. The strengthening of Lebanese
sovereignty, the creation of a viable Palestinian State
and security guarantees for Israel will contribute to
establishing lasting peace in that region.

08-51749 32

 With regard to the Iranian nuclear issue, I hope
that reason will prevail and that negotiations will
reconcile Iran’s rights to civil nuclear power and the
legitimate fears of the international community with
regard to military nuclear proliferation.
 In Afghanistan and Iraq, the situation continues to
be tragic and to claim new victims every day, most of
whom are innocent civilians. Burkina Faso will
continue to invest with the entire international
community in re-establishing peace in those countries.
 The news today is dominated by the conflict
taking place in the Caucasus. While reasserting its
support for negotiations by the European Union,
Burkina Faso hopes that the solution to the crisis will
be based on inclusive dialogue and respect for
international legality.
 I note with pleasure an improvement in relations
between the Republic of China or Taiwan and the
People’s Republic of China. I deeply hope that this
new spirit will open the way to Taiwan’s participation
in the activities of international organizations.
 For many years now, the United Nations has been
committed to a process of reforms that should lead to
the improved effectiveness of its activities in the face
of the demands of the modern world. Despite the
progress that has been made, much remains to be done.
Our resolve to reach that goal must remain constant.
 Burkina Faso has deep faith in multilateralism
and solidarity among peoples. We reassert our
willingness to make our contribution wherever it is
requested to maintain and consolidate peace,
development and democracy.