First of all, I would like to
offer my heartfelt congratulations to Mr. John Ashe for
his election as President of the General Assembly at its
sixty-eighth session.

In one month’s time, it will have been 70 years
since the Foreign Ministers of the four major Powers
agreed to set up a universal organization dedicated to
ensuring international peace and security. In Moscow,
in 1943, high representatives of the United States, the
Soviet Union, China and the United Kingdom took that
decision in the very midst of the most devastating war in
human history. They knew that maintaining peace and
the creed of “war no more” required harmonious and
concerted international cooperation. They knew that
it required collaboration among the great Powers and
respect for the principles of international law, as well as
the building of infrastructure for peace. The declaration
published back then rightly spoke of the need to act for
justice among nations. That is important, because it is
from injustice or from the sense of a lack of justice that
many conflicts, both internal and international, have
originated and continue to originate.

On the eve of that anniversary, it is worth examining
to what extent the international community copes
with threats to peace and with open-ended, prolonged
disputes. The Organization and its States Members are
right to be satisfied with the body of work produced
since then to help maintain security and peace. The

United Nations has proven to be an instrument that,
since the Second World War, has made international
relations more civilized in very many areas, not just
in relations among countries but also within them.
Understandably, the world is still far from ideal, but we
should not lose heart. A better world is possible, and
we should not lose sight of that. That is the real ideal
outlined in the Charter of the United Nations, and it
is a duty that belongs to all of us, the Members of the
Organization.

The justified satisfaction with the progress made,
which was ensured with the aid of the United Nations
and enjoyed by the whole of humankind, cannot hide the
weaknesses of the Organization and its ineffectiveness
in situations it was set up to resolve.

One such current situation is the civil war in Syria.
That conflict has led to a large number of victims and
has created a major humanitarian crisis. It is a threat
to regional security and stability. In such situations,
Members of the Organization are authorized to
demand efficient action by the Security Council. That
is a justified expectation of ours based on Article 24
of the Charter. Regrettably, we must conclude that in
the Syrian dispute, members of the Security Council
have spoken out for individual sides in the war and
supported them in various ways, rather than make the
parties stop fighting and commit to peace talks. That
has revealed the lack of capacity and efficiency of the
decision-making mechanisms of the United Nations.

Thisis all the more reason not to procrastinate or
wait for another anniversary as a pretext to return to our
efforts to reform the Security Council in a way that would
also bolster its authority, legitimacy, representativeness
and effectiveness. We are talking about a more systemic
solution that would not limit the Security Council
but would go beyond the Council by reinforcing its
representativeness. We are thinking today about the
significance of the original principle of the right to veto
of the Security Council’s permanent members, in the
light not just of current or future challenges but also of
the changes in the global international order, which are
unfolding before our very eyes. It would be beneficial
if the discussion about those issues could follow a
formula similar to the one that proved successful prior
to the sixtieth anniversary of the Organization, which
brought about a rather ambitious reform agenda for the
Organization, some of which found its way into the
World Summit Outcome adopted by Member States in
2005 (resolution 60/1). Poland was an active participant
in that work and intends to continue its engagement for
further necessary reforms.

The Syrian tragedy, including the use of chemical
weapons, is symbolic of a broader phenomenon — the
ignoring of international values, norms and obligations
adopted by the Organization and the entire international
community. After all, they should apply to everybody to
the same degree, with no one set outside or above them.
Too often, the immediate national interests of countries
have the upper hand. That leads to tragic consequences
in terms of human rights and humanitarian issues,
including the principle of the responsibility to protect,
for which we had such high hopes when it was adopted
in 2005.

Armed conflicts are an extreme manifestation of the
mass violation of human rights. The tragic development
of the situation in Syria, which has claimed more than
100,000 victims by now, could have been prevented,
especially if the Security Council had adopted the
necessary decisions early enough. Therefore, the
solution of the difficult, complex and interrelated
problems of the Middle East entails a comprehensive,
imaginative and impartial approach.

In a context where everyone is focused on security
issues — including new, non-traditional ones, and
where the dominant concerns are the economy. crisis
mitigation, the fight for growth and competitiveness,
competition for markets and land that could provide
valuable raw materials for economic development — we
cannot forget about human rights. Recently, many actors
in the international arena have failed to care about
them. But is it possible for us to ignore them, when, for
instance, the violations are too close to genocide?

Let me remind the Assembly that this year, on
9 December, we will be celebrating the sixty-fifth
anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,
which was, by the way, initiated and drafted by the
Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin. The message from his
research and initiatives, which started in Warsaw in the
early 1930s, is as follows: we must be alert and sensitive
to the symptoms of future violations of human rights; it
is our duty to respond to them and not just show moral
outrage.

As the effectiveness of the response depends on
international cooperation, the United Nations is to be

a centre for such international cooperation. The United
Nations is the best, and often the only, such centre. We
must not allow the instruments for the protection of
human rights developed by the United Nations to be
eroded. Their effectiveness will depend upon whether
we remain united, and not just in name. It is necessary
to establish a mechanism that would, in an objective and
uncontroversial manner, force harmonious cooperation
between the permanent members of the Security Council
in the face of situations that fall under the principle of
the responsibility to protect, in order to ensure that the
prevention of such crimes and the effective response to
them prevail over individual geopolitical interests.

The practice of exploiting children in armed
conflicts is particularly saddening and causes a lot of
outcry. The fact that many Governments tolerate such
practices and that the Organization, despite existing
conventions and protocols, is unable to do more in
this area is unacceptable. Let me remind the Assembly
that the Convention on the Rights of the Child was
also developed on Poland’s initiative. For children,
their safety, development and rights, it is the family
that matters most. Looking at the family and its role
in society makes us aware of how much the family
means when it comes to respecting human rights. We
are particularly sensitive to that in Poland.

What in many countries is a tangible but slight
deficit in the exercise of economic and social rights,
while in many others it is poverty and chronic
underdevelopment. Poverty and underdevelopment are
not just human rights issues and factors that undermine
the dignity of the individual and entire social groups.
They are also the reason that individuals and nations
are unable to ensure survival on their own, or to fulfil
their creative potential for their own benefit and that of
humankind. That is why international efforts aimed at
helping regions and countries that suffer poverty and are
constantly underdeveloped are so important for them to
be able to take the path of sustainable growth and stop
being chronically dependent upon external assistance.
First and foremost, however, that is necessary so that
fundamental human rights are respected and local
residents regain their sense of dignity in order for their
inherent potential to serve the development and enrich
the diversity of the human civilization.

Those objectives will be served by the climate
negotiations that Poland is going to chair when the
nineteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change takes place in November.

We know in Poland that just one single generation
can be enough to make unbelievable progress. When
communism fell in 1989, Poland was a poor country,
economically ruined and badly indebted. It needed
international aid, not in the form of non-repayable
borrowing but debt relief and restructuring, technical
and training assistance, access to markets of better
developed countries and foreign investment.

Coupled with the hard-working nature and
entrepreneurial spirit of the Poles, that has all borne
fruit in abundance. Since then, our gross domestic
product has increased by approximately 400 per cent,
while our emissions have dropped by more than 30 per
cent, as compared with the baseline year. That attests
to the fact that it is possible and realistic to achieve
economic growth while curbing the growth of harmful
emissions.

Obviously, we are aware that there is no single
formula for everyone and no single path to sustainable
growth. There are different baseline circumstances,
environments and cultural and geographical conditions.
The Polish example, however, and that of other post-
Communist countries, should be considered in other
regions of the globe.

The same is true for the European development
model of the European Union, which strives to
combine democracy and human freedom, economic
competitiveness, social justice and solidarity. It is
not about being Eurocentric. It is an experience most
appreciated by those who come to Europe from the
furthest parts of the world and want to stay there. Do
not be misled by the economic crisis in the European
Union, which most countries in the Union are already
beginning to overcome. The European development
model remains universally attractive.

Our experience also suggests that even the most
generous foreign assistance will not replace efforts
made internally by a country. It is frequently an
indispensable precondition, yet is insufficient in
itself. Internal efforts and factors — the freedom and
empowerment of individuals, economic freedom and
the stability of the State — always form the foundation.

Good governance is another important aspect
of successfully pursuing sustainable growth, as it
combines democracy, self-government, human rights,

competence, a lack of corruption and the primacy of
the interest of the country as a whole over particular
interests, whether they are political or economic. The
entire notion of good governance is spelled out in a
resolution of the Human Rights Commission initiated
by Poland in the late 1990s. Only with good governance
in place can international aid bring about desirable
results in combating poverty and taking the route of
sustainable growth.

Poland is an active participant in the international
community, and not just through its bilateral relations
and membership regional organizations such as the
European Union, or supra-regional ones such as NATO
and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe. We are also trying to create a better international
order by being active in the United Nations. Poland, an
unflinching believer in the purposes and principles of
the United Nations, is convinced that it is necessary
to respect the treaties and commitments made by the
Organization — by us — and supports institutions and
programmes that facilitate their implementation.

For years, one of the priorities of our policy has been
the promotion of human rights and democracy. Poland
currently holds the presidency of the Human Rights
Council. The European Endowment for Democracy was
established on Poland’s initiative as well. Our country’s
share in development aid is growing, particularly
within the European Union. Next November, Warsaw
will host the climate summit, where we will preside
over the most important development process, namely,
that of climate-related negotiations.

Poland has always been active in efforts aimed
at ensuring the non-proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction, particularly chemical weapons.
Drawing on our experience and rich relations with
other countries, we wish to continue to contribute to
reinforcing international peace and security. That is
why we are seeking a seat on the Security Council for
the period 2018-2019. We believe that as a member of
the Security Council, we will be able to help achieve
the purposes and principles of the United Nations, as
well as represent the interests of Member States in line
with the letter and spirit of the Charter of the United
Nations.


At the outset, I offer my
condolences to the families whose loved ones died as
a result of the terrorist attack on a shopping mall in
Kenya. Having suffered many terrorist attacks over
nearly three decades, we Sri Lankans condemn this
cowardly act.

The United Nations has consistently ensured
cooperation among States and provided a universal

platform for discussions on a range of issues, contentious
or otherwise. It is imperative that we jealously protect
and abide by the principle of equal treatment of countries
that has been the very basis of this global Organization.
Be it on economic or political issues, equality must
form the bedrock of all international interactions.

Reflecting on the work of the United Nations, we
note that matters of a political nature have overridden
the most basic issues that affect the underprivileged
and marginalized who make up the majority of
world society. The commitment to the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) brought about a real sense
of optimism. The theme for this session is timely, as
progress in the MDGs should be evaluated, with their
deadline fast approaching.

Appreciable progress has been made in the MDGs,
although the results are uneven among and within
countries. According to World Bank projections, by
2015 sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia will be home
to approximately 40 per cent of the developing world’s
population living in extreme poverty. This diminishes
our sense of optimism. It is fitting for the United
Nations system to examine the causes of the failure in
improving the lot of the deprived.

In the context of Sri Lanka, my vision has been to
distribute the benefits of growth across all segments
of the population and to prevent inequalities, social
exclusion and adverse environmental effects. The
socioeconomic achievements in my country are the
result of people-centric Government policies.

Despite the fact that my country has had to
contend with one of the most ruthless terrorist groups
in the world, the 2004 tsunami and the global food,
energy and financial crises, Sri Lanka’s attainment
of the MDGs is exemplary. The statistics speak for
themselves. Sri Lanka was ranked ninety-second out of
187 countries in the 2012 Human Development Index.
Absolute poverty in Sri Lanka declined to 6.5 per cent
in 2012 from 15.2 per cent over a period of five years,
surpassing the MDG mid-term target.

The goal of universal primary education will be
easily achieved by 2015. The key dividend from this
strong educational infrastructure has been a drastic
reduction in the unemployment level. Sri Lanka’s
accomplishments in health care include an infant
mortality rate of 9.4 per 1,000 live births, highlighted
by UNICEF as a success story.

Sri Lanka’s sense of pride in our early recognition
of the crucial role women play in political and
socioeconomic development is amply warranted, as we
elected the world’s first female Prime Minister, the late
Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Sri Lanka was ranked
sixteenth in the Global Gender Gap Report 2010.

Sri Lanka has mainstreamed the issue of youth in
its post-2015 development agenda and is at the forefront
of international efforts advocating the interests of
youth. Sri Lanka will be hosting the Commonwealth
Youth Forum 2013 in November and the United Nations
World Conference on Youth in May 2014. I take this
opportunity to extend an invitation to all Member States
to join in celebrating youth at the World Conference.

I also call upon the United Nations to declare an
international skills day as recognition of the way in
which skills development for youth paves the way for
reduced poverty. An innovative development has been
the establishment of a Youth Parliament to sharpen
the awareness of democracy and skills among the new
generation and prepare them to assume leadership.

It is of the utmost importance that Member States
individually decide on their own means to achieve
the MDGs. The unique sociocultural practices and
traditions of countries should be taken into account
when designing these processes.

The post-2015 development agenda needs to be an
intergovernmental process, in line with the outcomes
and agreed principles of the United Nations Conference
on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Centuries of
growth in advanced economies have left little carbon
space for the developing world, thus challenging their
growth. The thin line on which economic development
and protection of the environment must be balanced
will remain a great challenge in future development
policy-setting. It is therefore critical that developed
countries honour their commitments and compensate
for their damage to the environment on the basis of
common but differentiated responsibilities.

The eradication of poverty must be the primary
goal of the post-2015 development agenda and must
promote accelerated economic growth in developing
countries. Ensuring sustainable growth with social
equity demands a balanced approach to development.
High rates of investment, efforts to strengthen the
quality of human capital and technology transfers are
crucial for sustainable growth.

The mechanisms on financing and technology
mandated by Rio+20 need to be urgently implemented.
The sustainable development financing strategy, in its
formulation, must seek to provide for enhanced and
predictable financial support to developing countries.
Sri Lanka supports the establishment of a technology
facilitation mechanism under the United Nations,
recommended in the Secretary-General’s report
(A/67/348). The mighty advocates of rights-based
approaches should also honour their international
commitments relating to development financing.

Calls for reforms in the current international
financial institutions continue to be relevant. Their ad
hoc policies have proven to be untenable in the long
run. It is imperative for the international monetary and
financial institutions to give expression to the solid
voice of the developing world. Also, those countries that
are economically blessed must shed their practice of
leveraging through those institutions. A comprehensive
structural reform of the existing imperfect global
economic order needs to be fully addressed to reflect
current realities.

The world is in need of a fair international economic
system to revitalize partnerships for development.
That includes State and non-State actors and blue
chip companies emerging as new partners. Moreover,
South-South cooperation is crucial due to the shift in
economic power and should be actively promoted to
complement North-South cooperation.

It is disturbing to observe the growing trend in
the international arena of interference by some in the
internal matters of developing countries in the guise
of ensuring security and guarding human rights.
Therefore, we continue to witness agitation the world
over, leading to violence and forcing political change
accompanied by turmoil. It is time to contemplate
whether such movements have led to better stability
in those countries or produced different results due
to inappropriate external factors. In fact, the positive
outcomes envisaged by those responsible have not
come to pass, but indeed contributed to making those
countries unstable. Do unilateral or group actions not
erode the authority of the Security Council?

That trend needs to be arrested, as it has now
extended into areas where it is detrimental to the well-
being of populations. The turmoil results from attempts
to impose a type of democracy upon countries with
significantly different cultures, values and history. The
world needs no policing by a few States, particularly
when the United Nations is mandated to ensure
international security through multilateral engagement.
That engagement, to be complete in our time, must
ensure the protection of the human race against the
flagrant abuse of modern science in such forms as
nuclear and chemical weapons.

Deepening uncertainties in the Middle East are
disturbing. We await the coexistence of Palestine and
Israel on the basis of pre-1967 borders. Sri Lanka looks
forward to welcoming Palestine as a full Member of the
United Nations.

We salute the people of Africa in their efforts
to achieve better living conditions and economic
prosperity. Sri Lanka continues to demonstrate
solidarity with the African people in their pursuit of
further socioeconomic growth.

Unilateral measures, such as embargoes and
economic sanctions imposed on countries, are
disturbing. Such initiatives bring suffering not only
to those specifically targeted, but to a wide range of
humankind without any justification. Yet again, I
stand in support of the people of Cuba in overcoming
economic hardships and in gaining full access to
economic opportunity.

Permit me to address briefly the post-conflict
developments in my own country. I am proud that Sri
Lanka has eradicated separatist terrorism spanning
three decades and is in the process of addressing the
issues of development and reconciliation. Sri Lanka’s
Government, at all times responsive to the priorities
reflected in public opinion, is engaged in all measures
required for meaningful progress in those fields.

A significant event in that regard was the
opportunity that the people of Northern province
enjoyed at the elections, held three days ago, to elect
their representatives in the provincial council. It is a
matter of legitimate satisfaction to me that this was
made possible after the lapse of almost a quarter of a
century. There can be no doubt regarding the crucial
importance of that measure in the context of political
empowerment and reconciliation. It is clearly the
responsibility of the international community to assist
with those efforts and to ensure their success for the
benefit of all the people of Sri Lanka.

In spite of the visible progress made and consistent
engagement with United Nations mechanisms,
many countries are surprised at the disproportionate

emphasis on Sri Lanka and its unequal treatment in the
multilateral framework. The basis for that relentless
pursuit is also questioned. It is my conviction that the
United Nations system should be astute in ensuring the
consistency of standards applied so that there is no room
for suspicion of manipulation of the United Nations
system by interested parties to fulfil their agendas.

By nature, human beings have the capacity to
achieve the most challenging and noble goals in life
through strong commitment and dedication. I am
confident that, by our own collective efforts, those
results will prove to be beneficial to all humankind.
As Buddha, the Enlightened One, said, “Atta hi attano
natho” — “You are your own master.” Let those timeless
words of wisdom guide the destiny of the world. May
the Noble Triple Gem bless us all.


At the outset, allow me to express our sincere gratitude
for the honour of addressing the General Assembly from
this rostrum. I bring greetings from His Excellency
Mr. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, President of
Turkmenistan, who wishes the General Assembly the
best of luck at this session. I congratulate Mr. John
William Ashe on his election as President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-eighth session and wish him all
the best in fulfilling his forthcoming tasks. I would also
like to thank Mr. Vuk Jeremi., President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, for his skill and
effectiveness in that post.

Turkmenistan considers this session to be an
important phase in the process of consolidating the
efforts of the international community to strengthen
universal peace, stability and security by adopting
meaningful decisions on sustainable development and
to counter emerging challenges and threats. We believe
that strict adherence to the principles and norms of the
Charter of the United Nations is the main prerequisite
for ensuring long-term peace and strategic stability.

In that belief, Turkmenistan adheres to a steady
and resolute policy of peace, good-neighbourliness and
the active promotion of peacebuilding processes. As a
matter of principle, we reject the use of military force as
a tool of foreign policy and international relations. Our
country is convinced that solutions based on the use
of force are doomed to fail. They neither eliminate the
causes of conflicts nor create conditions for adequate
responses to the many issues that arise from military
action. Therefore, at the heart of Turkmenistan’s policies
is the will to resolve any situation by peaceful, political
and diplomatic ways and means, which it considers to
be the main legitimate resources available within the
United Nations. This approach is based on our common
goal to establish a world without conflict.

At the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly,
Turkmenistan’s President launched an initiative aimed
at the adoption of a United Nations declaration on
prioritizing political and diplomatic ways and means
for the resolution of international challenges. Today,
the elaboration of such a document has become a top
priority. Turkmenistan therefore reaffirms its firm
desire to engage in a meaningful discussion on this
initiative with all interested Member States. We are
convinced that the adoption of such a declaration would
help to expand and strengthen the legal basis for the
work of the General Assembly, the Security Council
and other United Nations entities dealing with issues
relating to world peace, stability and security.

The challenging processes unfolding in today’s
world call for a responsible, thoughtful, effective
and efficient approach on the part of the United
Nations. That is also linked directly to the important
challenges of disarmament. By playing an active role
in the multilateral dialogue on disarmament issues, my
Government is demonstrating its firm commitment to
complying with the core international norms regulating
the disarmament process and the non-proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction through practical
action. Following this course of action and taking
into consideration the need to energize the discussion
and meaningful consideration of disarmament issues,
Turkmenistan proposes the convening in 2014 of a high-
level international meeting on disarmament issues.
We are prepared to create all the necessary conditions
and to provide the appropriate infrastructure for this
meeting in our capital city.

Nowadays, problems related to strengthening
peace and stability and to ensuring the stability of
countries and nations are among the most important
topics in global politics. Their resolution will depend
primarily on the establishment and effective legal
and organizational operationalization of international
political cooperation. In this context, we advise the
General Assembly at this session to embark on the
consideration of issues relating to the improvement of
various forms of multilateral interaction that could serve
as a political platform for finding mutually acceptable
decisions on urgent regional and international policy
matters.

It should be noted in that regard that the
United Nations fulfils its purpose. For example, the
establishment of United Nations preventive diplomacy
centres in various regions of the world has become a

highly effective form of joint work to strengthen security,
prevent conflicts and eliminate their underlying causes.
It is well known that the first such centre, the United
Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy in
Central Asia, based in Ashgabat, opened in December
2007. In our view, the experience of creating new
mechanisms and institutions aimed at forming a system
of international interaction at the global and regional
levels must and should be replicated by States Members
of the United Nations.

Taking into account the need to enhance the
effectiveness of inter-State contact at the regional
level, Turkmenistan has launched a forum of peace
and cooperation, aimed at establishing a standing
mechanism for political dialogue in Central Asia.
We believe that the forum will contribute to the
elaboration of consensus-based approaches to finding
solutions to the most important issues relating to the
present and future development of Central Asia and
its neighbouring regions. Moreover, the forum could
become the basis for the establishment of a consultative
council of the Heads of State of Central Asia. We are
convinced that the development of new formats for
political interaction among States within the region,
coupled with the effective functioning of United
Nations regional structures, will provide a reliable
foundation and stability for the entire architecture of
inter-State relations in Central Asia.

To a great extent, attaining the goals of
comprehensive and universal security will depend on
ensuring security in the sphere of energy. Furthermore,
the achievement of that goal is one of the most
important components of a stable world economy and
serves to protect it against distortions and disruptions.
In that connection, the development of an international
mechanism that provides for a set of guarantees for the
global energy supply is a task of paramount importance.
It is also necessary to underscore the importance of
the joint work and coordinated efforts of all Member
States aimed at developing and adopting consolidated
approaches to the solution of energy security issues.

The establishment by the United Nations of a new
universal international legal tool kit is a key element
of that process. It should, in our view, consist of the
following three major elements: a multilateral United
Nations document providing the legal basis for
relations in the area of the global supply of energy
resources; a corresponding United Nations structure
that would ensure the implementation of the provisions
of the aforementioned document; and an international
database designed for the collection and analysis of
data on the implementation of international obligations
assumed by the participating States.

It is common knowledge that on 17 May 2013 the
General Assembly adopted by consensus resolution
67/263, submitted on the initiative of Turkmenistan’s
President, entitled “Reliable and stable transit of energy
and its role in ensuring sustainable development and
international cooperation”. The importance of that
document lies primarily in the fact that it forms the
basis for a global energy partnership that takes into
account the interests of producer States, transit States
and States that are consumers of energy resources.

In accordance with the letter and the spirit of that
resolution, our country proposes to Member States
the establishment, during the current session of the
Assembly, of an international group of experts for the
development of a new mechanism for energy security.
To that end, the Government of Turkmenistan proposes
to convene an international meeting of experts on
that topic in 2014. We are ready to engage in close
cooperation with all Member States and the United
Nations Secretariat with a view to organizing and
holding such a forum.

Currently the resolution of issues of security and
sustainable development depends largely on the level
of international cooperation in the important areas of
transport and communications. The geo-economic
potential of new transport and transit routes in the
world is enormously significant. Such routes involve
vast spaces and enormous human resources and
attract considerable investments. All of that creates
opportunities to transform the transport sector into
one of the most important factors in sustainable
development.

Turkmenistan is convinced that the twenty-first-
century transportation architecture provides the
framework for a breakthrough in integration, in joining
the common efforts of regions and in the pooling of
resources and industrial and human potential. It is
our firm conviction that the future belongs to such
a combined system of transport communication,
involving major international and regional maritime,
road, railroad and air hubs, their optimal integration
and the use of their specific advantages.

The practical implementation of that idea
became the subject of a high-level event on modality,

interconnectivity and the post-2015 development
programme, which was held in New York on
26 September. It was organized by the Government of
Turkmenistan and the International Road Transport
Union. The event focused on the search for effective
solutions relating to the establishment of modern,
diversified and safe transport infrastructure throughout
the world.

We consider it necessary to continue the multilateral
dialogue on transport issues that was initiated during
the current session of the General Assembly. In that
connection, Turkmenistan would like to submit a
proposal to host in 2014 in Ashgabat an international
conference on the role of transport and transit corridors
in ensuring international cooperation, stability and
sustainable development.

With regard to the achievement of the sustainable
development goals, we believe that the greatest attention
should be focused on promoting the economic interests
of States, while maintaining an appropriate ecological
balance and preventing harm to the environment. That,
in turn, implies the use of cutting-edge environmental
technologies and the development of innovative
solutions for the preservation of nature. Preserving
the significant environmental component of the global
economic space has therefore become an integral part
of its effectiveness.

We highly value the efforts undertaken by the
Secretary-General, as well as the successive actions
of the international community at the United Nations
Climate Change Conferences in Copenhagen and
Cancun and during the seventeenth Conference of the
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change, held in Durban, which have
gradually laid the foundations for the development
of comprehensive decisions at the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development.

We look forward to the continuation of a constructive
international dialogue on that topic during the sixty-
eighth session of the Assembly. We are convinced that
it is necessary to combine our efforts in that area at
the international, regional and national levels, and to
effectively coordinate the efforts of States with those of
the United Nations.

Taking into account the numerous aspects of the
climate change issue, Turkmenistan wishes to state at the
current session of the General Assembly that it stands
ready to make its contribution to the strengthening of the
role of multilateral international mechanisms aimed at
preventing the negative consequences of global climate
change. In particular, we refer to the need for enhancing
the implementation of the provisions of the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. In that
connection, we are prepared to host in Turkmenistan
the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification in 2014.

Furthermore, our country would like to launch an
initiative aimed at the establishment of a specialized
entity, a subregional centre on technologies relating
to climate change in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea
basin. We believe that such an entity would help the
countries of our regions to substantially strengthen
their interaction in the sphere of environmental security
and would contribute to the effective coordination of
interregional efforts in that field.

The challenges confronting the community
of nations in the area of security and sustainable
development cannot be resolved unless we find a
solution to the humanitarian issues at the international
level. In particular, we are referring to the serious global
problem of the fate of refugees and stateless persons.
As a permanent member of the Executive Committee of
the High Commissioner’s Programme of the Office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
Turkmenistan has accumulated valuable experience in
resolving the issues facing people who were forced to
leave their home countries. Together with the Office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
we propose that all interested parties become familiar
with Turkmenistan’s practical work in granting
citizenship to refugees and stateless persons.

In that connection, it would be advisable to work
jointly with United Nations humanitarian agencies to
develop an appropriate social programme. Moreover,
taking into account the outcomes of the International
Ministerial Conference of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation on Refugees in the Muslim World, held
in Ashgabat in May 2012, we consider it necessary to
develop long-term solutions to such issues, on the basis
of generally recognized norms of international law.
With a view to discussing those issues, we are ready
to host in Turkmenistan in 2014 a high-level event in
cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees.

Today, as Member States actively discuss the
role and place of the United Nations in international

relations, Turkmenistan declares that constructive and
multilateral cooperation with the United Nations is
the top priority of its foreign policy strategy. In that
connection, we believe that it is precisely the United
Nations that is the main and universal international
Organization, which adopts decisions concerning
the most important issues of global development and
comprehensive peace and security. Since its inception,
the United Nations has demonstrated its role as the
foundation of the entire system of international stability,
through mechanisms to ensure justice and to resolve
the most complex international problems.

Similarly, we share the opinion of the Organization
today that the issue of providing it with fresh impetus
is increasingly relevant, in view of the rapidly changing
realities of the modern world. Therefore, Turkmenistan
supports a strengthened and expanded role for the
United Nations at the global level.

We are firmly convinced that international
law and the provisions of the Charter of the United
Nations — based on peace, equal rights and respect for
nations, their rights and sovereignty — must remain
the foundation of the world order in the twenty-first
century.


The President of the General Assembly has chosen for
this session and this general debate the theme “The post-
2015 development agenda: setting the stage”. He has
thus called on the Assembly to be bold and ambitious,
to work together towards the same objective, to prove to
the world that we will not accept defeat, and to exert our
collective responsibility in order to eradicate poverty
and promote sustainable development.

Luxembourg stands ready to do so. We are ready
to work towards a renewed global partnership based
on a common understanding of our shared humanity,
on a new spirit of solidarity, cooperation and mutual
accountability, and on coordinated action that embraces
security, development, governance, human rights and
the rule of law.

To live free from fear, conflict and violence
is the most fundamental human right, and yet we
witness unspeakable violations of human rights and
international humanitarian law every single day. The
use of missiles, bombs, cluster munitions and chemical
weapons, the systematic imposition of sieges, forced
displacements, torture, sexual violence, violations
and abuses committed against children, more than
2 million refugees, more than 100,000 dead — these
are the chilling results of two and a half years of brutal
repression and conflict in Syria. The list of war crimes
and crimes against humanity committed on a daily
basis continues to grow.

Against such horror, I repeat once again that the
situation in Syria must be referred to the International
Criminal Court. Allow me to quote High Commissioner
for Refugees António Guterres:

“Syria has become the great tragedy of this
century — a disgraceful humanitarian calamity
with suffering and displacement unparalleled in
recent history”.
The Syrian people need assistance now, and they
have the right to such assistance under the most basic
criteria codified in international humanitarian law. The
Syrian authorities must urgently meet the demands of

humanitarian actors by immediately facilitating their
free and unimpeded access to the affected populations.
It is urgent to remove bureaucratic obstacles, to
ensure the delivery of medical supplies, to institute
humanitarian pauses, to open up humanitarian routes
and to allow access to populations in need across
borders and across conflict lines.

As a non-permanent member of the Security
Council, Luxembourg is working with Australia to
amplify the demands of humanitarian actors to the
parties to the conflict in Syria and to secure them in a
unified message from the Security Council. I hope that
those efforts will come to fruition very soon.

While we have been able to make progress in
past few days on the issue of chemical weapons, and I
hope we will adopt, a few hours from now a Security
Council resolution establishing a strong and binding
mechanism to ensure the control and destruction of
the Syrian chemical weapons as soon as possible. Yet
we cannot and must not forget the humanitarian crisis
that continues to unfold in Syria and its neighbouring
countries, particularly Lebanon and Jordan but also in
Iraq and Turkey. For its part, Luxembourg has fulfiled
the pledges it made in Kuwait City on 30 January last,
and we have just decided to increase our humanitarian
aid to the populations affected by the Syrian crisis to
€7.6 million.

The vigorous appeal made on Tuesday by the
Secretary-General should resonate with all of us. Let us
break our deafening silence and live up to our collective
and individual responsibilities. We all agree that a
lasting solution to the conflict in Syria can only be
political. Here too, let us live up to our responsibilities;
let us seize the momentum created by the agreement
on chemical weapons, set a date for the “Geneva II”
conference, and encourage the parties to participate
therein in order to start down a road, on the basis of
the Geneva communiqué of 30 June 2012 (S/2012/523,
annex), leading to a cessation of hostilities and to a
necessary political transition in Syria that meets the
legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.

Tragic as it may be, the situation in Syria must not
lead us to forget the plight of the Palestinian people.
We must not forget the urgent need to see the creation
of a contiguous and viable Palestinian State, living
in peace and security, side by side with the State of
Israel. I welcome the commitment and resolve of the
Secretary of State of the United States, John Kerry,
to restart direct negotiations between the Israelis and
Palestinians. I also praise the political courage and
the sense of responsibility shown by the Israeli and
Palestinian authorities in accepting to return to the
negotiating table. Eight rounds have been held since
14 August. We hope that the negotiations will intensify
in October and lead to a result within the agreed time
frame of nine months.

We all know that this initiative is probably our last
opportunity to act. We must not let it slip away. If we do,
it could lead to dramatic consequences. The time has
come to make difficult decisions, to take the necessary
historic measures in line with the long-term interests of
the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. The time has come
to implement the two-State solution. This is no time
for unilateral acts that fuel the dynamic of mistrust.
Building illegal settlements and destroying Palestinian
homes and infrastructure in the West Bank, including
in East Jerusalem, must stop immediately. The attacks
on Gaza must stop. All violence must stop.

With its partners in the European Union,
Luxembourg stands ready to pursue its active
contribution to the ongoing efforts, in close cooperation
with key stakeholders, the Quartet and countries in the
region. There can be no security in Israel without a
viable Palestinian State. There can be no security in
the region without peace in all countries of the Middle
East.

We must shake up the status quo. We must break
the cycle of violence. This imperative also applies to
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great
Lakes region. We dearly hope that the Peace, Security
and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic
Republic of the Congo and the Region, signed on
24 February in Addis Ababa, represents a turning point
for consolidating peace and regional stability. The
second meeting of the Regional Oversight Mechanism,
held at the level of the Heads of State and Government
on Monday in New York City, led to the adoption of
regional benchmarks and indicators on progress, which
will facilitate the implementation of the Framework.

This is an important first step. It must be
followed by concrete action at the political, security
and economic levels. The parties must fulfil all their
commitments diligently and in good faith, including a
commitment neither to tolerate nor to provide assistance
or support of any kind to armed groups, in particular
the Mouvement du 23 mars, which continues to operate
in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. We
must tackle the root causes of recurring violence and

lay the foundation for reviving the regional economy
in order to initiate a virtuous circle that will allow the
people of the region to start down the the path towards
sustainable development.

The commitment of the international community is
all the more necessary in a situation that, regrettably,
has received far less attention. I am referring to
the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in the Central
African Republic, affecting the entire population of
4.6 million people. Law and order and the rule of law
have collapsed. Human rights violations have become
commonplace, as have arbitrary arrests and detention,
torture, sexual violence against women and children,
rape and extrajudicial executions. According to our
sources, Séléka militias have also recruited and used
at least 3,500 child soldiers. No one can be indifferent
to those figures. The humanitarian situation continues
to deteriorate. The prevailing insecurity has further
reduced access to the affected populations. We must act
immediately.

Restoring security and law and order must be our
first priority. We strongly welcome the decision of the
African Union Peace and Security Council to authorize
the deployment of an international support mission
to the Central African Republic. The United Nations
should give its full logistical and financial support to
this African-led mission. Our credibility is at stake.

We all know the disastrous effects of the unregulated
trade in conventional arms — violent repression, armed
conflict, crime and widespread violence. That is why
the Arms Trade Treaty is so important. The General
Assembly adopted the Treaty by a very large margin
five months ago. Luxembourg is proud to have been
among the first sponsors of that important initiative.
We are proud to have signed the Treaty as soon as it was
ready for signature on 3 June. The national ratification
procedure has started, and members can count on our
support to ensure that the Treaty comes rapidly into
full force. In that regard, allow me to congratulate the
homeland of the President of the General Assembly,
Antigua and Barbuda, on having ratified the Treaty.
I also welcome the fact that more than 110 States
Members of the United Nations, including the United
States of America, have already signed this new legal
instrument.

The Arms Trade Treaty is a significant step forward
for international law, international humanitarian law
and human rights. In that context, I welcome yesterday’s
important Security Council debate on the impact of the
illicit transfer, destabilizing accumulation and misuse
of small arms and light weapons on international peace
and security (see S/PV.7036), as well as its adoption of
resolution 2117 (2013). The Council has thereby rightly
underscored the need for an integrated response from
the international community that takes into account the
negative effects of those illicit activities on security,
governance, the rule of law and development, as well
as the links between such activities and other threats
to international peace and security such as terrorism,
piracy and transnational organized crime.

The recent callous attack on a shopping centre
in Nairobi has again demonstrated the importance of
our ongoing vigilance in the fight against terrorism.
This unacceptable act must encourage us to further
support African efforts aimed at freeing Somalia from
the threat of Al-Shabaab. During the New Deal for
Somalia conference held on 16 September in Brussels,
I had the opportunity to reaffirm that Luxembourg
remained committed to working alongside Somalia.
We are convinced that with the determined support of
the international community — the African Union and
the United Nations in particular, the Government and
people of Somalia will be able to continue their journey
towards peace, security and prosperity.

The risk of the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction remains just as real a threat as the threat of
terrorism. Yesterday, negotiations between the Islamic
Republic of Iran and the E3+3 Governments, led by
the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy, Ms. Ashton, resumed here
in New York. We support those efforts. We seek solid
negotiations quickly leading to concrete outcomes and
a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Sanctions are not in and of themselves an end.
They are a global response to Iran’s refusal to meet its
international obligations and to cooperate fully with the
International Atomatic Energy Agency. We encourage
the new Iranian leadership to engage in constructive
dialogue, to take the measures necessary to prove to the
international community that its nuclear programme is
intended for exclusively peaceful purposes, and to turn
a new leaf in its relations with the global community.
I hope that the recent phone call between President
Obama and President Rouhani will help move the
situation in that direction.

When we talk about sustainable development and
the creation of the post-2015 development agenda, we
cannot ignore the devastating effects of conflicts and

violence on development. The crisis situations and
threats that I have just mentioned illustrate this clearly.
We must also speak firmly about governance that is
conducive to development, institutions that guarantee
the rule of law, freedom of expression, and transparent
and accountable Governments. We must talk about
justice, the fight against impunity and respect for
international law.

Luxembourg fully subscribes to the Secretary-
General’s call for the post-2015 objectives to be based
on the international norms and principles of human
rights. Those objectives must apply to everybody and
help address the global challenges of the twenty-first
century, building on the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). They must contribute to eliminating
poverty and promoting sustainable development, and
be integrated into one coherent framework.

The special event held the day before yesterday
by the General Assembly allowed us to take stock of
ongoing work towards achieving the MDGs and to
welcome significant progress made, but also to identify
the sectors where it will be important to redouble our
efforts. As the Secretary-General has reminded us,
the picture before us is only half finished. We must
therefore speed up the march towards attaining the
MDGs. We must renew our commitment. We must keep
our promises.

My country will continue to do its part. Since 2009,
our official development assistance has amounted
to 1 per cent of our gross national income. We are
determined to maintain this effort despite the crisis.

At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development in June 2012, we reaffirmed our
commitment to sustainable development in its three
interdependent dimensions: economic development,
social inclusion and environmental sustainability. We
reiterated our determination to address the threats that
climate change and environmental degradation pose to
humankind. With its European partners, Luxembourg
has made binding commitments to reduce its carbon
emissions and to mitigate the effects of climate change.
We are resolved to do our all to achieve a universal
climate agreement in 2015.

Last year in the Hall of the General Assembly,
our Head of State, the Grand Duke, underscored
Luxembourg’s willingness to serve the United Nations
(see A/67/PV.9). Today, I take this opportunity to thank
the Assembly for having elected my country to a two-
year term on the Security Council. That tenure, the first
in our history, is not only an honour but a responsibility
that we do not take lightly. Each day since 1 January,
Luxembourg has worked in concert with its partners
to contribute to the maintenance of international peace
and security and to assume our common responsibility
to prevent, to preserve and to protect. No task is more
noble. No task is more urgent in the current context.


For the second time in my tenure as Prime Minister
of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, I have the
pleasure and honour to welcome a distinguished son
of our Caribbean civilization to the presidency of the
General Assembly. Even as we thank your immediate
predecessor for his service as the President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, we look
forward to your tenure, President Ashe, with boundless
pride and unbridled optimism.

Mr. President, for this year’s general debate, you
have chosen the theme “The post-2015 development
agenda: setting the stage”. This is also the year in which
you will lay the groundwork for the United Nations
International Conference on Small Island Developing
States, which will take place in Samoa next September.
Your dual focus on the international development

agenda and the peculiarities of small island States make
this sixty-eighth session one of the most important in
my country’s 33 years of membership in the United
Nations.

Let me first say that the people of Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines are deeply pained at the horrendous acts
of terrorism recently committed in Kenya. I reaffirm
yet again our solidarity with the Government and the
people of Kenya.

William Shakespeare cautioned that what is past,
is prologue. Similarly, Mr. President, your invitation
to consider the future of the international development
agenda requires us to first consider the ways in which
our recent and long-ago steps and missteps shape our
future developmental challenges and opportunities.

I begin with an unfortunate, inconvenient truth:
our collective failure to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) is largely rooted not
in the shortcomings of earnest and hardworking
developing countries, but in developed countries’ abject
abandonment of Goal 8, “Develop a global partnership
for development”. The Organization’s own MDG Gap
Task Force noted in its report entitled “The Global
Partnership for Development: The Challenge We Face”
that the quest for such a global partnership experienced
significant backsliding in 2013 and that “the political
momentum for advancing international development
cooperation seems to have waned”.

Sixteen of 25 developed countries decreased
their aid budgets last year, and official development
assistance (ODA) contracted for the second consecutive
year, the first such contraction since the creation of
the MDGs. In a time of crisis, when assistance is most
needed, ODA is itself in a deep and prolonged recession.
The twists and turns by so many developed countries
on this issue have been most disappointing. Without
predictable flows of meaningful, non-discretionary
assistance, the post-2015 development programme will
remain, substantially, a fleeting illusion to be pursued
but rarely, if ever, attained.

At the same time, I applaud the efforts of those
developed nations that take their ODA commitments
seriously. I hail, too, a raft of other countries that are
in a genuine developmental and functional partnership
with us. These include Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba,
Venezuela and Taiwan. Indeed, Taiwan, a country not
washed by our Caribbean Sea, has been remarkable in its
principled and practical conduct of intergovernmental
relations. Surely the time has now come for this
exemplar of the magnificent Chinese civilization to be
permitted to participate fully in the work of the various
agencies of this world body.

Our debate on the future developmental agenda of
the international community is taking place against the
backdrop of the ongoing global economic and financial
crisis. The global economy remains precariously
poised, and for every nation that seems to have turned
the corner, another plunges back into recession. The
impact of the crisis on development has been palpable
and has rendered the MDGs unattainable in many
countries. Therefore, if we are to discuss the post-
2015 development agenda, we must also discuss the
reform agenda of our outmoded international financial
architecture, whose failings contributed to the current
crisis, and whose continued stasis is a reckless invitation
to future economic turmoil.

Despite the challenges of the ongoing exogenous
shocks, including natural disasters, and the encumbrances
imposed by an insufficiently flexible international
financial architecture, my country continues to make
significant strides in our people-centred approach
to development and poverty alleviation. This past
June, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was one of
18 countries recognized by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for having
achieved the part of Millennium Development Goal 1 on
halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015 — and
we have reduced it to below 5 per cent — and the more
stringent World Food Summit goal of halving the
absolute number of hungry people by 2015.

For a small, vulnerable country to achieve this task
ahead of schedule and in the midst of this debilitating
global economic and financial crisis is truly outstanding.
We have done so while maintaining and advancing
good governance, individual liberties and democracy
in accordance with global best practices.

But the ambitions of my Government are far greater
than Goal 1 of the MDGs. Having more than halved
hunger, we have now set our sights on the elimination of
hunger altogether: to achieve zero hunger. We hope that
the United Nations and the international community
can partner with us effectively in fulfilling that historic
ambition. Our policy goal of ensuring that no man,
woman or child goes to bed hungry will have its own
positive knock-on effects on poverty reduction, health
and arresting the spread of chronic non-communicable

diseases — which itself should also be of central
importance to our post-2015 development agenda.

As the Assembly is well aware, the roots of
underdevelopment and exploitation extend much
deeper than the recent abandonment of MDG Goal 8
by the bulk of developed countries. I arrived at this
year’s general debate from the Caribbean’s first-ever
regional conference on reparations for native genocide
and slavery, which was held in Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines. That stirring and uplifting regional
conference was the first step in the Caribbean’s
quest to address and redress a psychic, historical,
socioeconomic and developmental wound that is, for
the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), 14 nations
wide and 400 years deep.

The genocidal oppression and suffering of my
country’s indigenous Callinago, the Garifuna and
enchained Africans have been rightly adjudged to
have been a horrendous crime against humanity.
Accordingly, the collective voice of our Caribbean
civilization ought justly to ring out for reparations for
native genocide and African slavery from the successor
States of the European countries that committed
organized State-sponsored native genocide and African
enslavement.

The awful legacy of those crimes against
humanity — a legacy that exists today in the
Caribbean — ought to be repaired for the developmental
benefit of our Caribbean societies and all our
peoples. The historic wrongs of native genocide and
African slavery and their continuing contemporary
consequences must be righted and repaired, in the
interests of our people’s humanity.

European nations must partner in a focused, special
way with us to execute that repairing. The demand for
reparations is therefore the responsibility not only of
the descendants, in today’s Caribbean, of the Callinago,
the Garifuna, the Amerindian and the African. It
is undoubtedly an agenda for all of us to advance,
promote, concretize and execute. The European nations
that engaged in conquest, settlement, genocide and
slavery in our Caribbean must provide the resources
required to repair the contemporary legacy of those
historic wrongs. That is undoubtedly a special pillar in
the post-2015 development agenda.

That repairing of the mind, of collective memory, of
our economies and of our societies is part and parcel of
the rebirth, the redemption and the further ennoblement
of our Caribbean, our indigenous populations, our
African descendants and, indeed, of Africa. I say to the
Assembly that the struggle for reparations represents,
immediately, a defining issue for our Caribbean in the
twenty-first century. It promises to make both Europe
and the Caribbean more free, more human and more
good-neighbourly. CARICOM recently decided, quite
rightly, to place the quest for reparations at the centre
of its development agenda.

I am also compelled to speak today on a
contemporary injustice that is entirely within the
capacity of the Assembly to address. In 2010, negligent,
or even reckless, United Nations peacekeepers
contaminated a Haitian drinking water supply, which
led to an outbreak of cholera that killed 8,000 innocent
Haitians and infected 600,000 others. There is no
longer any scientific dispute that the United Nations is
responsible for the outbreak, as has been conclusively
established in the relevant reports. Prior to the United
Nations negligence, Haiti had not seen a single case of
cholera in 150 years. There are more cholera-infected
persons in Haiti today than in the rest of the world.

I continue to be deeply disturbed by the callous
disregard of the United Nations of the suffering it has
wrought in a fellow CARICOM country, and by the
shameful and legalistic avoidance of what is a clear
moral responsibility on the part of the United Nations.
Accordingly, I call on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
to acknowledge unambiguously, and apologize for,
the Organization’s role in that tragedy and to take
immediate steps to compensate the victims and their
families. Anything less will further undermine the
moral authority and credibility of this institution.

Sixty-eight years ago, our predecessors conceived
of a grand experiment, a commitment to bind the
world together in a collective quest for peace, justice
and development. Over time, we have established a
body of rules, laws and expectations that add flesh
to the principles that undergird the Charter of the
United Nations. Now, we are engaged — explicitly
and indirectly, willingly and reluctantly — in a
reassessment of that grand commitment. Today, the
actions of a small subset of powerful nations shake the
very foundations upon which the Assembly was built
and threaten to bring the temple down upon the heads
of those of us who still subscribe to the original tenets
of our institution.

Properly conceived and universally adhered to,
international law is the bulwark against impunity,

unilateralism, and Great Power triumphalism. Today,
there are those in the Assembly who hold a curious view
of international law, as something that must be imposed
against others but which has limited applicability
to themselves. To some in the Assembly it seems
appropriate to disregard international law in the very
enforcement of their distorted view of international law.
Clearly, such conduct is unacceptable, for the simple
reason that it threatens the continued legitimacy of our
entire multilateral system.

Small, vulnerable States, by definition and
necessity, are those most reliant upon an enforceable
body of equitable international law within an effective
system of multilateral diplomacy. It is no surprise,
therefore, that small States like my own have emerged
as some of the strongest defenders of multilateralism,
sovereignty, diplomacy and the rule of law. We view
it as our responsibility to sound the alarm when this
institution threatens to depart from the founding
principles that bind us together.

According to basic reason and historical experience,
no nation is intrinsically superior to another and no
people are innately better than nothers. To be sure, there
are cultural and social differences, but being different
does not imply a condition of being better or worse.
One nation may be more powerful than another, but
that circumstance should never permit the powerful to
ascribe arrogantly to themselves, in laughable vanity,
the doctrine of exceptionalism. Inevitably, that vain
ascription swiftly degenerates into an embrace of the
damning path of the rightness of unilateral force, rather
than an uplifting multilateral force of rightness.

Flagrant examples of a continuing disregard for
international law abound. Surely, it diminishes a
great nation such as the United States of America to
continue with what I consider to be a myopic vendetta
against Cuba by way of an illegal, outdated and hurtful
economic blockade and the absurd declaration that
Cuba is a sponsor of terrorism. All right-thinking
persons across the world justly demand that the United
States end the economic blockade against Cuba and
remove its name from the unilaterally drawn up list
of States that allegedly sponsor terrorism. It makes
no sense whatsoever for international law to become a
prisoner of domestic politics and the vain glories of a
Great Power.

Similarly, the plight of the Palestinian people is
being sacrificed on the altar of political expediency, with
a disregard for the opinions of almost all of humankind.
The issue certainly entails enormous complexities but,
unless it is resolved satisfactorily, sustainable peace
in the Middle East will remain unattainable. Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines hopes that current moves
towards serious negotiations will bear fruit in line with
the principles and mandates that have been spelled out
repeatedly in various United Nations resolutions.

At the same time, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
is very impressed by the efforts of the President of
the United States to embrace diplomacy rather than
military intervention in pursuit of a political settlement
in Syria. The Syrian community in my country, rightly
and anxiously, looks forward to peace in its troubled
homeland. Only the extremists will benefit from a
prolonged civil war. Still, peace cannot be sought
reasonably when a precondition of regime change
is advanced. All sides in the conflict must make real
compromises in the interests of the Syrian people as a
whole.

There is one emerging issue of consequence that
needs to be addressed. It concerns the deeply disturbing
recent reports of the widespread and unrestrained
spying that has allegedly been conducted by the United
States of America against a number of countries,
including its staunchest allies. Indeed, there are reports
that the practice of such electronic espionage is rife,
even within the halls and offices of the United Nations.
We strongly reject such activity as illegal, a violation
of diplomatic conventions and an affront to the comity
of nations. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines believes
the agenda for appropriate corrective action in that
regard, as outlined earlier this week by the President
of Brazil, to be fair, reasonable and achievable by the
international community.

As we continue our collective journey in the quest
for greater and lasting global peace, we are reminded
that wars do not erupt only between countries, but also
within them. We also know that some of the highest
numbers of violent deaths occur in countries that are
apparently at peace.

This year, the international community has
recognized that genuine and lasting peace between and
within nations, cities and villages cannot occur in an
environment that allows an unregulated trade in small
arms and light weapons. The Arms Trade Treaty, which
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines signed on the very
first day that it opened for signature, is far weaker than
we would have liked. Nonetheless, we consider it to be
an important first step in regulating the illicit flow of

small arms and light weapons worldwide, particularly
into the Caribbean region, where the tide of guns is
often accompanied by torrents of narcotics as they
make their way to markets in other countries.

I am deeply disappointed at the international
community’s endless, rudderless and seemingly
vacuous negotiations on climate change. Our failure
to achieve meaningful progress on this matter of
existential urgency is inexcusable. Vulnerable countries
like Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are on the front
line of climate change and are already bearing the brunt
of the increasing fallout of global warming. Meanwhile,
the major emitters and historical polluters pay callously
insincere lip service to our plight. For them, combating
climate change is a question of dollars and cents, not
life and death. They are only too happy to see the
multilateral process fail, so that they can retreat into
ineffectual and painless national commitments. But
those stubborn obstacles to progress must no longer
be allowed to stand in the way of the survival and
development of vast swaths of our planet.

I applaud the initiative of the Secretary-General
to convene a high-level event on climate change in the
hope that such a meeting will give our meandering
negotiations impetus and direction. The post-2015
development agenda will not survive global warming
if it goes unchecked. It is also high time for genuine
negotiations in good faith and for meaningful resources
to assist in mitigating and adapting to the effects of
climate change.

In conclusion, I would like to recall that the Charter
of the United Nations begins with the phrase “We the
peoples of the United Nations.” It is not “We the rich
peoples”, nor “We the militarily powerful peoples”
nor “We the peoples of large countries”; but “We the
peoples” — of the entire world, the whole membership
of this institution. The United Nations does not exist
to confer benefits to select groups, but to secure peace
and development for all. If we are to set the stage for
the future of development, that stage must be inclusive
so that all nations and peoples have a significant part to
play and a stake in the outcomes. Let us make ourselves
worthy successors of the ennobling, humanizing vision
of our venerated founding fathers and mothers.

I shall be saying this ages and ages hence: two
roads diverge in the woods, and I have chosen the one
less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.


Let me begin by extending my
warmest congratulations to Mr. John William Ashe on
his election as President of the General Assembly at
its sixty-eighth session. His election to that esteemed
office is a fitting tribute to the personal and diplomatic
qualities that he has exhibited over the years.

Throughout the world, peace and development have
remained dominant themes of our times. People all over
the world have been raising their voices in favour of
peace, development and cooperation, and against war,
poverty and confrontation. Here at the United Nations
we all acknowledge that peace, security, development
and human rights are the pillars of the United Nations
system and the cornerstones of our collective well-
being.

In that regard, the theme for this session, “The
post-2015 development agenda: setting the stage”, is
quite pertinent and timely, as it gives fresh impetus to
our understanding that achieving the internationally
agreed development goals, including the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), and mapping the way
forward beyond 2015 requires our collective efforts.
The United Nations, as the centre for international
cooperation, should lead in promoting the envisaged
development.

Thirteen years ago, our global efforts were
mobilized behind the Millennium Development Goals.
We now have less than 1,000 days in which to meet
those targets. Our review and stocktaking exercise
reveals that, while there have been some significant
achievements, there are still gaps and unevenness in the
attainment of the Goals.

In the case of Zimbabwe, we have made progress
towards achieving universal access to primary education
and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
However, some of the Goals are off track owing to
lack of capacity — mainly financial capacity — and
in some areas progress has stalled, including in those
areas relating to the eradication of poverty and hunger,
child mortality, universal access to maternal and
reproductive health, environmental sustainability and
access to potable water and sanitation. As a country,
we are committed to undertaking coordinated efforts to
accelerate progress to complete the unfinished business
of the MDGs in the remaining period leading up to 2015.
Any goals that have not been achieved by then should
be integrated into the post-2015 development agenda.

Zimbabwe fully shares and supports the emerging
consensus that eradicating poverty in all its dimensions
should be the overarching goal of our post-2015
agenda. Eradicating poverty by 2030 may be an
ambitious goal, but it is attainable if we mobilize our
collective efforts. Building on the foundation of the
MDGs, the post-2015 agenda should go beyond the
social development agenda of the MDGs and achieve
structural transformation in our economies that delivers
inclusive and sustainable growth. We expect a shift
that will bring about industrialization, decent jobs and
qualitative change to the lives of our citizens. We are
determined to modernize our infrastructure and ensure
access to sustainable energy for all, food security and
nutrition. However, we recognize that we cannot do that
in isolation from other partners.

In the same vein, we also support calls to prioritize
gender equality, the health-related MDGs, education
and environmental sustainability in the post-2015
development agenda, among other issues. Those are
critical matters in our quest to achieve sustainable
development for all our people.

The lofty objectives of the Charter of the United
Nations in the economic arena will remain unfulfilled

unless all Member States join in efforts, genuinely
and seriously, to address challenges that developing
countries face in their pursuit of development,
including meeting the MDGs. It is therefore imperative
that our discussions address what has so far been the
weakest link, namely, the means of implementation. It
must be understood that, in addition to national efforts,
substantial international support and an enabling
international economic environment are essential if the
MDGs are to be achieved by 2015, especially in Africa.
It is therefore important to fulfil the commitments
made to support Africa in various international forums.
The United Nations should track the fulfilment of those
commitments.

Zimbabwe supports the reform of the United
Nations to strengthen its central role in promoting
multilateralism and to be effective in tackling current
and future global challenges. We are convinced that
reform would strengthen the Organization’s capacity
to fully promote and implement the purposes and
principles of the Charter and improve its democratic
decision-making.

In that regard, the reforms in the economic
and social actions of the United Nations remain of
fundamental importance to us. Our firm belief in
multilateral cooperation means that we place a premium
in the ability of the United Nations system to deliver
efficient development cooperation. The democratic
transformation of the architecture of the international
financial system is essential, as is a root-and-branch
reform of the international trading system. The terms
of trade have hugely burdened developing countries for
too long.

Zimbabwe supports the ongoing efforts to
revitalize the General Assembly, which is the most
representative organ of the United Nations. We believe
that the Assembly should take the lead in setting the
global agenda and restore its primacy, which has over
the years been encroached upon by other organs. We
cannot accept situations whereby the Security Council is
increasingly encroaching upon issues that traditionally
fall within the General Assembly’s purview and
competence, including in the area of norm-setting.
Recent events have revealed that the formal decisions of
the Security Council have provided camouflage to neo-
imperialist forces of aggression seeking to militarily
intervene in smaller countries in order to effect regime
change and acquire complete control of their wealth.
That was the case in Libya, where, in the name of
protecting civilians, NATO forces were deployed with
an undeclared mission to eliminate Al-Qadhafi and his
family. A similar campaign was undertaken in Iraq by
the Bush and Blair forces under the guise of eradicating
weapons of mass destruction, which Saddam Hussein
never possessed.

We appreciate the central role that the United
Nations should play in furthering multilateralism in
preference to unilateralism. In that regard, we applaud
the consultations and negotiations on the eventual
destruction of the chemical weapons in Syria. My
country expresses its gratitude and appreciation to
Russia and China for their principled stand on Syria.
We hope and trust that the Syrian people will soon sit
in dialogue to discuss peace and desirable political
reforms. Those Western countries in pursuit of
hegemony as they pretend to be advocates of democracy
must be resisted.

For Africa, the reform of the Security Council
is especially long overdue. The anachronistic and
unrepresentative character of the Council must be
redressed. For how long should Africa continue to be
denied the right to play a pivotal role in the Security
Council as it decides measures on conflicts within
the borders of that very continent? The Security
Council needs to be more representative, democratic,
transparent, accountable and accessible to the wider
membership for its decisions to have greater legitimacy.
Africa’s case for the correction of the glaring historical
injustice of being unrepresented in the permanent
category and underrepresented in the non-permanent
category has been made through the clear, fair and well
articulated Ezulwini Consensus. Zimbabwe remains
steadfast in its support of the Ezulwini Consensus,
which is, in fact, a demand.

Zimbabwe strongly condemns the use of unilateral
economic sanctions as a foreign policy tool to effect
regime change. The illegal economic sanctions imposed
on Zimbabwe by the United States and the European
Union violate fundamental principles of the Charter
of the United Nations on State sovereignty and the
non-interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign
State. Moreover, those illegal sanctions continue to
inflict economic deprivation and human suffering on all
Zimbabweans. In the eyes of our people, the sanctions
constitute a form of hostility and violence against them
for the simple crime of undertaking the land reform
programme by which land was put in the hands of the
then majority landless Zimbabweans. Our small and

peaceful country is threatened daily by covetous and
bigoted big Powers whose hunger for domination and
control over other nations and their resources knows
no bounds.

Shame, shame, shame, we say to the United
States of America. Shame, shame, shame, we say to
Britain and its allies, who have continued to impose
illegal sanctions on our people. Zimbabwe is for
Zimbabweans; so are its ample resources. I ask those
countries to please remove their illegal and iniquitous
sanctions from my peaceful nation. If those sanctions
were intended to effect regime change, well, the results
of the recent national elections have clearly shown them
that they cannot achieve their agenda.

We are preached to daily by the West on the
virtues of democracy and freedom, which they do not
entirely espouse. Zimbabwe took up arms precisely
to achieve freedom and democracy. There was none
during colonialism, and it was British colonialism, for
that matter. Yet we have been punished by the United
States through the odious Zimbabwe Democracy and
Economic Recovery Act, which it enacted in 2001 to
effect regime change in our country. Now that malicious
intent to continue with the relentless persecution of our
small, peaceful country has shown itself again, through
the rejection by the United States of the recent and
absolutely democratic and fair results of our general
elections of 31 July, even as they were applauded by the
African Union and all our regional organizations.

It appears that when the United States and its allies
speak of democracy and freedom they do so in relative
terms. Zimbabwe, however, refuses to accept that those
Western detractors have the right to define democracy
and freedom for it. We made the greatest sacrifice and
paid the ultimate price for freedom and independence
in Zimbabwe, and we remain determined never to
relinquish our sovereignty, as at the same time we
remain masters of our destiny. As we have repeatedly
and loudly said and asserted, Zimbabwe will never be
a colony again.


At the
outset, let me convey to the United States authorities
our full gratitude for the always warm and fraternal
hospitality they show us at this great annual event in
New York at the United Nations. I also express my
sincere congratulations to the President, and I wish him
every success and an excellent conduct of the work of
the Assembly at its sixty-eighth session on the post-2015
development agenda. Finally, on behalf of my delegation
and myself, I join the other heads of delegations present
in the Hall to express my full gratitude to Secretary-
General Ban Ki-Moon for his willingness to serve our
world with the commitment and self-sacrifice for which
he is known.

At a time when the world is facing the most serious
kinds of crises, blind barbaric terrorist acts, which
we strongly condemn, have just been perpetrated in
Kenya, claiming dozens of innocent victims, including
women and children. At a time when armed conflicts
are challenging our common abilities to build a world
where peace reigns, the crisis that has been evolving
in Syria for two and a half years, with its litany of
distress and human tragedy, should call on us to reach
an early settlement of the conflict and put an end to the
suffering of the Syrian people. We strongly condemn
the use of chemical weapons in Syria against innocent
populations, just as we vigorously condemn the
perpetrators of that horrible act.

Let me formally draw our attention to other crises
and other evils that, while they may appear to us to be
minor or insignificant, are also every bit as serious.
They are serious particularly because they lead to a
heavy loss of human lives and, for those who live with
them daily, they frequently give rise to frustration,
scorn and a sense of abandonment.

At the same time, those other evils actually should
not even exist, because it was together in the United
Nations that our predecessors unanimously, in a spirit
of the equality of peoples, universal justice, fairness and
humanism, decided with an open heart and free spirit to
make humankind more harmonious for the well-being
of our species. Indeed, it was our Organization that
decided to decolonize all territories under the colonial
yoke. It set the rules, laid out a path, and supported the
peoples to be freed.

Let me also pay tribute to the permanent members
of the Security Council and to all States Members of
the United Nations for the responsible attitude they

have demonstrated since the creation of the United
Nations to the present time in supporting national
liberation movements and organizations, particularly in
our continent of Africa. It is, however, regrettable that,
68 years after its inception and after the adoption of the
Charter, the Assembly continues to bear witness today
to a situation in which the territory of a small island
State — in this case my own country, the Comoro
Archipelago — remains under the thumb of another
State, a major Power and a permanent member of the
Security Council — the State of France.

And yet the Organization came out unequivocally
in favour of the independence of the Comoro
Archipelago, in accordance with resolutions 1514 (XV)
of 14 December 1960 on the Declaration on the Granting
of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, and
2621 (XXV) of 12 October 1970, containing the Plan of
Action for the Full Implementation of the Declaration
on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
and Peoples. Furthermore, resolutions 3161 (XXVIII)
of 14 December 1973 and 3291 (XXIX) of 13 December
1974 reaffirm the unity and territorial and integrity of
the Comorian islands and the inalienable right of its
people to self-determination and independence.

Thus, the Security Council, through its unanimous
adoption of resolution 376 (1975) of 17 October 1975,
recommended to the General Assembly that the
Comoros be admitted to membership in the United
Nations. The Comoros therefore became a Member of
the United Nations, under resolution 3385 (XXX) of
12 November 1975, which reaffirms the need to respect
the unity and integrity of the Comoro Archipelago,
composed of the islands of Anjouan, Grande Comore,
Mayotte and Mohéli. I recall that all Member countries,
including the European countries, voted in favour of
that resolution. France did not oppose it.

Can those who lead our States and Governments,
guarantors of the independence and integrity of their
territory, imagine the frustration and moral torture
of a Head of State who has to deal with such a tragic
situation on a daily basis? In addressing them, I am
letting my heart speak. They may rest assured that
all my fellow citizens do the same daily. What have
we, the Comorian people, done that is so serious that
history does not treat us as it does all other peoples of
the world? Why must we time and time again explain
or justify the united nature of our people, its history, its
geography or its culture? Moreover, when some seek to
persuade us that it is because a part of our population
supposedly expressed a desire to remain colonized, we
sincerely wonder if they are trying to relive the Berlin
Conference of 1885.

If that were indeed the case, are we to understand
that these same people would seek to raise that issue
with all peoples who wish to remain themselves or
change their destiny? Since it is the desire of all people
to strive for freedom, what would happen if one day
the Comorian people of Mayotte called for its freedom
from France? What a historical inconsistency that
would be, and what norms of international law would
the Organization act on?

Since 6 July 1975, the date on which my country,
the Comoros Archipelago, acceded to its sovereignty,
the Comorians have continued to call simply for the
implementation of international law. They have done so
in vain. And yet, in other similar cases, certain major
Powers demand compliance with the same international
law and win their case. Thus, the movement of peoples
among the islands of the Comoros Archipelago, which
is an inalienable right, is impeded by an unfathomable
and unacceptable decision of the French authorities who,
in 1994, imposed a visa on travel between Mayotte and
the three other Comorian islands. That visa system has
to date led to the death of nearly 10,000 of my fellow
citizens, making the strait that separates Mayotte and
the other islands the largest marine cemetery in the
world. Our common conscience requires that we act
quickly.

In all international forums, including the
United Nations, the international community, while
recognizing the right of the Comorians to recover
their territorial integrity, has repeatedly called upon
the two parties involved, the Comoros and France, to
enter into negotiations in order to find a lasting and
equitable solution to this unfortunate territorial dispute
in accordance with international law. Each of my
predecessors in turn undertook negotiations with the
French State, but it is undeniable that we are still at
square one.

Since I was elected President of the Republic, I
have thought a great deal about the issue and consulted
widely. The responsibilities I have assumed require
changing a game that has remained unchanged now
for 38 years. After an initial meeting with my French
counterpart, President François Hollande, in Kinshasa,
on the sidelines of the Summit of La Francophonie, I
understood that the new French authorities were at long
last ready to find a solution to the issue of the Comoros.

I noted and acknowledge that France today is prepared
to play its historic role as a State that is respectful of
international law, regardless of what that law may say
on any particular subject. What France has recently
done for Mali is the most eloquent example of that.

On that note, let me join the Malian authorities and
people and the African continent in general to thank the
French authorities who took the responsible decision to
ensure that the armed forces of the Republic of Chad
and the countries in the West African region join the
French armed forces in helping Mali recover its unity
and territorial integrity. I take this opportunity also to
welcome the presence among us here of His Excellency
Mr. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, President of the Republic
of Mali, and express our joy in sharing with the brother
people of Mali the sense of pride at their having
recovered the integrity of their territory.

Move by the same ideal and the same hope of seeing
my country recover its territorial integrity, I warmly
welcomed the invitation from President François
Hollande to carry out a working visit to France in
order to undertake serious negotiations and give a new
impetus to our relations, particularly on the issue of the
Comorian island of Mayotte. In the wake of that visit,
we signed and issued a political declaration, the so-
called Paris Declaration. Before my visit, I consulted
the Chairperson of the African Union Commission in
order to ensure that our latest effort was in keeping with
the principles upheld by our continental organization
and also to consult her expertise. I take this opportunity
to express all our gratitude to Ms. Dlamini-Zuma,
Chairperson of the African Union Commission, for her
ongoing support to our country.

In thus expressing myself, I call on the entire
international community to bear witness to my request
that the Secretary-General provide his expertise,
support and backing throughout the negotiations for
the new dynamic to which we and the French have
resolutely committed.

I would like to inform the General Assembly that
the issue of Mayotte will henceforth be on our agenda
every year and that we, the Comorian authorities, are
commited to reporting every year on the course of the
negotiations until a lasting settlement is found to the
issue of the sovereignty of my country. My country
calls on the United Nations and other international
organizations with which we are affiliated — including
the African Union, the International Organization
of La Francophonie, the League of Arab States, the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Non-Aligned
Movement and the Indian Ocean Commission — to
provide us with their full support during the negotiations.

A high joint council, the follow-up body to the
Paris Declaration that I mentioned previously, will be
established in the weeks ahead. It will begin its work
this year by considering the problem of the movement
of goods and persons in order to put an irreversible end
to the human tragedies that daily afflict all Comorian
families.

Never has our world has been so close to achieving
the objective for which we, the world’s leaders, meet in
this United Nations temple at least once a year. That goal,
as the United Nations Charter stipulates, is to maintain
international peace and security. It would therefore be
appropriate for me, before I conclude my statement, to
commend the efforts of the international community
that have led to considerable progress in Madagascar,
thereby opening the path to the forthcoming presidential
elections in that great brother country.

In order to ensure that “The post-2015 development
agenda: setting the stage”, which is the theme of the
sixty-eighth session, is not just one more pipe dream,
we need to act quickly to shelter our peoples from fear
and need. Let us dare to fight injustice. Let us dare to
put an end to deadly conflict. Let us dare to make peace
our daily struggle and our sole reason for being, so that
humankind may live in harmony.