I warmly
congratulate Mr. Al-Nasser on his well-deserved
election as President of the General Assembly at its
sixty-sixth session. I am confident that under his able
and dynamic stewardship, we will achieve our goals. I
thank former President Joseph Deiss for the success of
the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly. I also
thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the wise
selection of the theme “The role of mediation in the
settlement of disputes by peaceful means” for this
year’s general debate.
 I take this opportunity to welcome South Sudan
as the 193rd Member of the United Nations and
warmly congratulate the people of the newest State on
attaining their freedom and independence.
 I believe that peace is the basis for development.
I also believe that peace prevails when justice prevails.
Therefore, justice at home and abroad is important for
ensuring the peaceful mediation and settlement of
disputes. My father and the father of my nation,
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who espoused
the principles of “friendship towards all, malice
towards none” and “peaceful settlement of disputes”,
also believed in this, and declared it from this rostrum
37 years ago.
 Thus, justice for peace found its place in my
Government’s domestic and foreign policy and has
contributed to strengthening Bangladesh’s secular,
democratic and progressive ideals. A strong foundation
in the rule of law has also helped in the peaceful
settlement of disputes with our neighbours and formed
the basis of our participation in United Nations
peacekeeping operations. Emphasis on peaceful
negotiations has also enabled Bangladesh to maintain
an annual gross domestic product growth rate of 6 per
cent, create thousands of jobs, reduce poverty and
expand social safety net schemes to the poor,
disadvantaged, elderly and deprived women.

41 11-51360

 The role of the United Nations has changed since
its establishment. The maintenance of international
peace and security now includes the new challenges of
intra-State ethnic strife, terrorism, transnational crimes,
climate change, poverty, energy and water security, as
well as the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
However, the successes of the United Nations have
reinforced the belief that, in the twenty-first century, it
remains the most legitimate and universally accepted
international body with the ability to harness the global
collective will necessary for the peaceful settlement of
disputes through mediation.
 Bangladesh therefore commends the Secretary-
General’s report on enhancing mediation and its
support activities (S/2009/189) for promoting the better
use of the United Nations mediation mandate, and
co-sponsored resolution 65/283 on strengthening the
role of mediation in the peaceful settlement of
disputes, conflict prevention and resolution.
 To demonstrate its strong commitment to conflict
resolution, Bangladesh has partnered in many United
Nations endeavours for peace, democracy and
development. Our contribution to United Nations
peacekeeping of 102,294 peacekeepers in 52 missions
and 36 countries has sadly led to the loss of the lives of
103 brave Bangladeshis. Our involvement also includes
the first all-women United Nations police unit in Haiti.
 As Non-Aligned Movement Coordinator in the
Peacebuilding Commission, Bangladesh is always
advocating in favour of peacebuilding, development
and preventive diplomacy in post-conflict societies.
Unfortunately, we remain woefully underrepresented at
the planning and strategy-making levels of the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which should
be promptly redressed. As a member of the Human
Rights Council and the Economic and Social Council,
we conscientiously promote democracy, secularism,
justice and the rule of law, and equal rights for women,
children, minorities and other vulnerable groups. As a
member of the executive bodies of the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations
Population Fund, UNICEF, UNESCO and the Food and
Agriculture Organization, we are committed to setting
global norms and standards in development practices.
 Since I believe that justice brings peace, in 1997,
during my previous term as Prime Minister, I mediated
the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord for the
marginalized communities of the Hill Tracts region.
The Accord, which was signed after intense
discussions, ended a 20-year conflict that cost over
20,000 lives. During the same term, I mediated the
signing of the 30-year Ganges Water Sharing Treaty
with neighbouring India. During my current term, this
month we mediated and signed memoranda of
understanding with India on our border demarcation,
an issue that had been pending for the past 64 years,
causing obstructions in the everyday life of my people.
I am committed to settling all our problems with
neighbouring India through discussion.
 During my current term and soon after forming
the Government, one of the most dangerous challenges
that I have faced was the mutiny of our border forces,
which took 72 lives. Yet, that time, too, I chose a
mediated settlement, thereby avoiding possible further
loss of life. As a result, I came to believe that there can
be no peace without justice. We have established an
independent International Crimes Tribunal to try those
responsible for war crimes committed during our
liberation war in 1971. Their eventual punishment will
strengthen our democracy and show that the State is
capable of just retribution.
 As a State party to the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court, we believe in the
Statute’s mandate of bringing perpetrators to justice. I
am fully committed to battling terrorism in all its
forms, having personally suffered from acts of terror.
Here, I recall with profound sadness the brutal
assassination of my father, the first President of
Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
and 18 of my immediate family members, including
my mother and three brothers, on 15 August 1975. I
also recall the grenade attack on me and my followers
at a peace rally on 21 August 2004, which left 24 dead
and nearly 500 injured. I miraculously escaped but
with permanent loss of hearing.
 I often think of all the victims of terrorism,
especially those of the 11 September 2001 attacks in
New York, as well as attacks that have taken place
elsewhere in the world. Indeed, if peace is to prevail,
these terrorists must be brought to justice.
 Our Government has a zero-tolerance policy
towards terrorism. Our aim is to break the nexus
between terrorism, extremism and radicalization and
eliminate all of them from Bangladesh, a State party to
all United Nations counter-terrorism conventions. At
the same time, we are strengthening our democratic

11-51360 42

institutions, such as the commissions on elections,
anti-corruption, human rights, information, as well as
our judiciary, legislature and law enforcement
agencies, which are tools for eliminating terrorism and
extremism.
 Since justice begets peace and peace is vital for
development, our policies are attuned to ensuring
peoples’ rights. In pursuing the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), we are also fulfilling our
people’s aspirations. The United Nations Award for
MDG 4 on reducing child mortality, which I received
last year, is a case in point. We are also on track to
achieve MDG 1 on poverty alleviation, MDG 2 on
universal primary education, MDG 3 on gender
equality and MDG 5 on reducing maternal mortality.
Our poverty reduction strategy is in tandem with the
Millennium Development Goals and intends to raise
12 million people out of poverty by 2015.
 For development, we have integrated women’s
education into our State policy. There is a saying that
goes, “If you educate a boy, you educate a person; if
you educate a girl, you educate a family and a whole
nation”. Therefore, during our first term from 1996 to
2001, we adopted a national women’s development
policy that has been revised during our current term to
make it more relevant. The policy provides for the
empowerment of women, their participation in
decision-making, their protection, and gender equality.
Education for girls is free up to the twelfth grade, and
steps are on their way to ensure their free tuition until
graduation.
 Following the 2008 general elections, women’s
participation in politics increased with their election to
12,828 reserved seats in local Government bodies and
64 members in the national Parliament. We also have
five women Cabinet ministers in charge of agriculture,
home, foreign affairs, women’s and children’s affairs,
and labour. The Opposition Leader, the Deputy Leader,
a Whip and, of course, the Prime Minister are all
women. For the first time in our history, two women
Members of Parliament have been made Chairs of
Parliamentary Standing Committees. Women now
occupy high positions in the Supreme Court, in civil,
police and armed services, and in United Nations
peacekeeping missions. Female business ventures also
receive support from the Small and Medium Enterprise
Foundation.
 To achieve our election pledge of a digital
Bangladesh and to make Bangladesh a middle-income
country by 2021, the golden jubilee year of our
independence, we are expanding the reach of
information and communications technology
throughout the country. UNDP Administrator Helen
Clark was with us this year to witness the launching of
e-connectivity through our 4,500 information and
service centres, which provide Internet access to
millions of rural people. We have also set up an
e-centre for rural communities, which connects 8,500
post offices, a high-tech park, e-governance
capabilities and an e-infrastructure-building process.
 I believe in that health for all is an essential
precondition for development. Primary health-care
services are delivered through 11,000 community
health centres in rural areas, with each providing
services to 6,000 people. My Government has also
recently started raising awareness about autism and
developmental disorders in children. Last July, we
launched the Global Autism Public Health Initiative in
Dhaka to help those disadvantaged with such disorders.
 However, to pursue those efforts and to develop
socio-economic security, least developed countries
(LDCs), such as Bangladesh, need international
support. The support must come from granting us
market access, removing trade barriers, the fulfilment
of overseas development aid and combating climate
change. The commitments made in Istanbul this May
on agriculture, energy, infrastructure, water and
migration would also strengthen the economic stability
of LDCs. It is now time for development partners to
implement the commitments made in Monterrey, Paris
and Brussels before the conclusion of the Doha
Development Round. Support must continue to enable
LDCs to fulfil their Millennium Development Goals.
 Such support is especially important for
Bangladesh under the extra tension of climate change.
A metre rise in the sea level due to global warming
would inundate a fifth of our landmass, displacing over
30 million people. That would be the largest
humanitarian crisis in history. In order not to lose time,
we have prepared a 134-point adaptation and
mitigation plan that includes river dredging,
afforestation of 20 per cent of the land, increasing food
production with crop varieties adapted to climate
change, et cetera. We also established the Climate
Change Trust Fund with $300 million from our own

43 11-51360

funds and the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience
Fund with $110 million from donors.
 Bangla is spoken by over 300 million people
worldwide. I earnestly appeal to Member States to back
my proposal to declare Bangla one of the official
languages of the United Nations. I also seek their
support for Bangladesh’s annual flagship resolution on
a culture of peace, which I launched in 2000, when I
was Prime Minister for the first time.
 Throughout my half-century in politics, I have
always been a crusader of peace. I believe that peace is
achievable by eliminating injustices, which includes
Repression, the absence of the rule of law, inequality,
economic disparity, deprivation, poverty, the
suppression of self-determination, the denial of
secularism and multi-ethnicity, the negligence of equal
rights for women and the marginalized, and the lack of
transparency and accountability of Governments.
Those types of injustices, according to the Uppsala
Conflict Data Programme, led to the loss of more than
5 million lives from 1964 to 2011. I believe that such
deaths could have been avoided by strengthening the
mediation instruments of the United Nations and by
placing people at the centre of peace and development.
 In fact, my life experiences have inspired me to
come up with a new peace model, based on the
empowerment of people. It is a multidimensional plan
that champions democracy and places people’s
empowerment at the centre, with six mutually
reinforcing peace multipliers. They are: first, the
eradication of poverty and hunger; secondly, the
reduction of inequality; thirdly, the mitigation of
deprivation; fourthly, the inclusion of excluded
persons; fifthly, the acceleration of human
development; and sixthly, the elimination of terrorism.
 I call it the people’s empowerment model. It
reaffirms that all people should be treated equally, and
emphasizes the empowerment of people and the
enhancement of human capabilities for the realization
of peace.
 Prosperity is achievable with the removal of
injustice and disempowerment in an environment of
peace. That is possible by individual nations through
sincere implementation of what is right, sometimes
under the guidance of the United Nations. Let us all try
to test that model of people’s empowerment, which I
believe has the potential to transform our world of
7 billion people into one where our future generations
may prosper and live in happiness.
 May Bangladesh live forever. Long live the
United Nations.


On behalf of His Majesty and the people
of Brunei Darussalam, I would like to congratulate our
new President, His Excellency Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz

11-51384 20

Al-Nasser. These are not only personal congratulations.
We also congratulate his country, Qatar, our fellow
Member of the United Nations. We greatly appreciate
its significant efforts to promote dialogue, consultation
and mediation in many difficult situations, both in its
own region and far beyond. Thus we thank the
President, as its representative, and warmly welcome
him to the General Assembly as the representative of
us all.
 We would also like to express our appreciation to
his predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss. His
term of office saw another impressive contribution by
the United Nations to meeting the great international
challenges Members face in the first decade of this new
century.
 Some of that work began right here, in this
building, with our efforts to reform the Security
Council and revitalize the General Assembly. Other
efforts addressed our world at large and the
confrontation between essential economic growth and
critical environmental realities that it faces. Still others
were aimed directly at the people we represent. Those
efforts addressed their health and food security;
considered their personal and legal status, whether at
home or as members of immigrant communities; and
examined the systems of governance under which they
live.
 This is a fine record, and we thank the outgoing
President for his leadership. He was greatly assisted in
his work by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. We offer
the Secretary-General our very best wishes for the
coming year. We welcome his reappointment and join
fellow Members in thanking his staff and the United
Nations volunteer workers, peacekeepers and agencies
for all of their efforts in many extremely difficult
situations.
 It is a tribute to their work that one of the
longest-running and most complex situations of all has
been resolved this year. As a result, we add our own
words of welcome to the Government and the people of
South Sudan as a new Member of the United Nations.
We also commend all parties involved in the process of
dialogue, negotiation and final resolution. At the same
time, it is our deepest wish that these same sentiments
may soon be expressed to the parties directly involved
in efforts to reach a fair and equitable two-State
solution to the situation in Palestine.
 The President of the Assembly has asked us to
consider the role of mediation in the settlement of
disputes by peaceful means. In doing so, we follow the
direction given by His Majesty the Sultan in his
address to the General Assembly in 1984, when we had
the honour of becoming a Member of this great
Organization. In outline, it committed us to mutual
respect for territorial integrity and the principles of
dialogue and negotiation in disputes, no matter how
long or how frustrating the process may be.
 We still adhere to that principle. We give
whatever practical assistance we can, whenever asked.
We do so directly, through peacekeeping and
monitoring efforts, and indirectly, through financial
contributions made bilaterally and to relevant United
Nations and regional bodies. In these ways, we seek to
follow the commitments made in our first General
Assembly debate.
 Nevertheless, we increasingly recognize that
those commitments were made over a quarter of a
century ago. Twenty-five years is a common definition
of a generation in human terms, which means that a
new generation is now moving into positions of
authority. Behind it, a further generation is now
coming of age. It has no personal memory of the global
situation that shaped international policy in the Cold
War era. Although both generations are naturally still
influenced by those times and the leaders who brought
them to this point, they are also new generations, for
whom the new century shapes world affairs.
 In our statement to the General Assembly three
years ago (see A/63/PV.10), we outlined our approach
to this by broadly setting out what are now regarded as
the challenges of this new century. Some involve
security in all of its forms — political, physical and
economic. Others address the natural environment and
the effects of climate change. Still others raise
questions about sustainable development and many
challenges arise from the concept of good governance,
both nationally and in world organizations such as the
World Trade Organization, the International Monetary
Fund, the Group of Twenty and even the United
Nations itself. We have given our full support to the
great institutions of which we are members and will
continue to do so.
 But our Government has emphasized one thing
throughout this year in all international gatherings we
have been privileged to attend. It is not a change in our

21 11-51384

overall approach; it represents a particular focus. It
means that more and more we are trying to identify the
challenges in basic human terms, because we feel that
such a focus relates directly to the wise theme the
President proposed for this debate.
 We acknowledge with deep respect that
successful mediation has always been a cherished
objective of the United Nations, and we strongly
support that ideal. At the same time, however, we
maintain that no mediation can be successful unless the
parties involved share common ground.
 What concerns us is that the dynamics of the
twenty-first century have the potential to exclude many
from this common ground. It will become the exclusive
territory of great unseen globalized forces, whether in
the market, the workplace or in the world of great
decision-making forums. That development could be so
divisive as to destroy any common ground.
 We believe such common ground will only be
created by ordinary people, as individuals and in their
families and communities, who feel that they are
indeed occupying that common ground. For them,
political security lies in the principles of diplomacy
among all nations, especially respect for each other’s
traditions, values, beliefs and ways of life. Physical
security means the rule of law. Economic security is
food on the table, a job and the best possible support
for health, education and old age.
 In all these efforts, we have felt well guided by
the United Nations, above all through the
encouragement it provides towards achieving the
Millennium Development Goals and the confidence in
the future that they give to all people. That, we believe,
will lead us towards the common ground we are trying
to discover. It will be reached when it is shared among
the most powerful of industrialized nations and the
smallest of threatened island communities. The search
for common ground is the immense task of both
present and future generations. We believe that only
when it is concluded can mediation successfully
perform the role suggested in the President’s theme.


I would like to take this
opportunity to congratulate you, Sir, on your election
as President of the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth
session. I have no doubt that, under your able
leadership, the Assembly will be able to complete its

31 11-51670

deliberations and proceedings successfully. In that
respect, I wish to assure you of Malaysia’s full support
for your presidency. Permit me also to congratulate His
Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon on his reappointment as
Secretary-General.
 The theme you have chosen for the general
debate, “The role of mediation in the settlement of
disputes by peaceful means”, is apt, fitting and timely.
Indeed, the United Nations itself was established as an
instrument of mediation to promote peace, security and
stability among the nations of the world. Many in this
body have spoken about the importance of settling
disputes through mediation. Malaysia shares that view.
 In the final analysis, peace can be achieved only
if people are willing to engage in mediation. Now,
more than ever before, mediation must be made to
work in the Middle East crisis, as it is the only option
available for the achievement of lasting peace.
 Year after year after year, we have hoped for a
peaceful and just resolution of the Palestinian issue. In
the time that we have spent hoping, we have also come
to realize that mediation is the only means of providing
a sustainable resolution to all conflicts and crises. As
such, all of us have a role to play in ensuring that it is
effective. Patience and prudence have their merits, but
patience and prudence must not result in paralysis. This
body and the Security Council have adopted numerous
resolutions on Palestine, yet there has been no tangible
outcome.
 We support the application of the Palestinians to
the United Nations and welcome the readiness of both
parties to hold talks on the basis of the existing
international legal framework. In that connection,
Malaysia fully supports the legitimate rights of the
Palestinian people to an independent State of Palestine,
based on the two-State solution, taking into account the
security concerns of both parties.
 For some time now, our world has been battered
by unprecedented political challenges, devastating
national calamities and financial crises. During that
time, our institutions and mechanisms have seemed
incapable of handling these challenges and the pace at
which they surface. To compound the situation, while
we address long-standing causes of international
instability, non-traditional threats to peace and security,
such as terrorism, pose additional challenges.
 As we share the grief of those who lost their
loved ones in the 9/11 attack 10 years ago, we must
strengthen our resolve to eradicate terrorism in all its
forms and manifestations. That can be achieved only
by addressing the root causes of terrorism, which
would cut off sympathy and support for those
committing acts of terrorism. We must at the same time
win the hearts and minds of the people to ensure that
our victory over terrorism is not short-lived.
 But the winning of hearts and minds is only half
of what I would call the battle of perceptions. The
other half consists of combating expressions of
extremist sentiments. Despite our continuing efforts to
promote world peace and harmony, we still witness the
increasing trend to perpetuate and fuel Islamophobia.
There have been attempts to pit Islam against the West,
demonize Islam and to link Islam with terrorism. Those
irresponsible acts further intensify the divide between
the broader Muslim world and the West.
 The real issue is not between Muslims and
non-Muslims but between moderates and extremists in
all religions, whether Islam, Christianity or Judaism. It
is in light of the growing tide of extremist sentiments
around the globe that the Prime Minister of Malaysia
called for the creation of a global movement of
moderates at this Assembly last year (see A/65/PV.19).
This clarion call has come at the right moment in
history. We must ensure that the voices of moderation,
which currently constitute the silent majority, prevail
over those of extremism in efforts to find solutions to
the growing challenges faced by the international
community.
 There has been wide acceptance of this
movement at the highest levels of global political
leadership, such as the Asia-Europe Meeting and the
East Asia Summit. More recently, the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations has endorsed the movement of
moderates as its contribution to global developments.
Malaysia will work diligently to ensure that the global
movement of moderates will complement the ongoing
activities of the United Nations Alliance of
Civilizations and other intercultural and interfaith
dialogues so that moderation will triumph over
extremism.
 We cannot turn a blind eye to the needs of States
that are severely affected by natural calamities. The
situation in Somalia has touched the hearts of many.
For our part, Malaysia last month pledged $1 million to

11-51670 32

the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Trust
Fund for Somalia and dispatched a humanitarian
mission to mitigate the sufferings of our Somali
brothers and sisters. A valiant Malaysian son lost his
life carrying out this mission. However, such incidents
will never deter us from continuing to provide
humanitarian assistance to all other countries in need.
 In the field of the environment, we seem to be
losing focus. We know that we are not lacking in good
plans, but that we lack political will and the means to
implement those agreed plans. As much as we are
concerned about implementation failures, we are also
concerned at the paralysing differences in on the areas
of institutional framework and sustainable
development. The failure of the Commission on
Sustainable Development to deliver a successful
outcome last May clearly demonstrated that.
 The lack of progress and unwillingness to honour
commitments under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change is another example. We
must ensure that the principle of common but
differentiated responsibilities, coupled with historical
responsibility, is enshrined in all our endeavours to
achieve a successful conclusion on climate change
negotiations and sustainable development.
 In moving towards the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development, there are new
thoughts on strengthening the institutional frameworks
for the environment. If the current institutional
frameworks are unable to meet the daunting
environmental challenges, we may have to look at new
mechanisms that are inclusive and participatory, with
equitable decision-making responsibilities.
 Nuclear disarmament occupies a central role in
the work of the United Nations. This is reflected by the
fact that the very first resolution adopted by the
General Assembly spoke, among other things, of “the
elimination from national armaments of atomic
weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to
mass destruction” (resolution 1(I), para. 5 (c)). Yet
65 years on, it remains a silent dream. All States need
to do their part in order to achieve more substantive
progress in this area.
 Malaysia is committed to working with other
Member States to realize the goal of a nuclear-weapon-
free world. We will continue to advocate the total
elimination of nuclear weapons through a nuclear
weapons convention. To progress further on that issue,
consensus is required on commencing the multilateral
negotiations process. This, in turn, will require good
faith on the part of the States possessing nuclear
weapons. I call on all those States to demonstrate such
good faith.
 It is apparent that the current international
financial architecture is unable to cope with recent
developments in the world financial markets. The
World Bank has warned that we are about to enter a
danger zone. We need a new financial architecture that
will be transparent, equitable, representational and
participatory and that will reduce volatility. Lessons
can be learned from the economies of developing
countries that embarked on economic reform and
strengthened their financial institutions following the
Asian financial crisis. Let us put pride aside and learn
from each other.
 In our quest to move up the value chain and
enhance competitiveness, Malaysia has embarked on
its own transformation programmes based on the
concept of One Malaysia, the Government transformation
programme, the economic transformation programme
and the new economic model. As part of the
transformation programme, Malaysia has taken a giant
leap in reforming its internal security and emergency
laws, which will be replaced by legislation to prevent
subversive action, terrorism and organized crime.
 Malaysia is transforming and reforming itself to
better adapt to a changing global landscape. We believe
that the United Nations must do the same. We would
like to see a comprehensive reform of the United
Nations so that it will be able to face current realities
and address present challenges. Most particularly, the
Security Council should be comprehensively reformed
to make it more legitimate, representative, democratic
and transparent. The Council must be effective,
transparent and accountable to the larger United
Nations membership in order to strengthen its
mediation capacities. It must not remain beholden to
the veto holders.
 In that respect, I return to the President’s theme.
We need to adopt mediation in the search for peace. To
that, I would add the principles of transformation and
moderation. A combination of mediation, transformation
and moderation will constitute a winning formula to
realize lasting world peace. Let us take up the
challenge with the fortitude required and together
implement it for a united and a better world for all.


Solomon Islands,
with much pride, wishes to thank our Secretary-
General, His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for
honouring my country with a historic visit earlier this
month. He is the first Secretary-General to have set
foot on a Pacific small island developing State with
least developed country (LDC) status. His re-election

13 11-51372

to a second five-year term speaks to his strong
conviction in advancing multilateralism and his
attentiveness to the challenges facing all members,
including the vulnerable countries. We once again
pledge our support to the Secretary-General during his
second term in office.
 Let me take this opportunity to acknowledge the
leadership and tireless work of Mr. Joseph Deiss as
President of the General Assembly during the past
session, and to congratulate the President of the current
session on his election. I am confident that, under his
leadership, the responsibilities of the United Nations
will be strengthened, especially at a time when there is
nervousness in world markets, with the threat of a
possible double-dip recession becoming more real
every day; a time when the world is witnessing unrest
in Asia, riots in Europe and famine in the Horn of
Africa; a time when the narrow interests and ambitions
of some are being cycled through the United Nations
system, thereby harming the principles for which this
Organization stands.
 In this respect, the theme for the sixty-sixth
session, “The role of mediation in the settlement of
disputes by peaceful means”, is fitting and timely. The
Organization was set up to preserve peace for all, not
conditional peace for some. It is about honest
international cooperation built on a spirit of optimism
and positivism. It is about interaction between States
with a sense of duty and an awakened conscience to
effect change. Multilateral diplomatic and political
initiatives need to take centre stage instead of military
solutions, which may lead to lengthy and protracted
conflicts.
 The role of mediation in Solomon Islands is about
creating a common voice among the 87 different
languages spoken in the country. The Government
remains committed to building a cohesive multicultural
society with equal opportunities for all. The Solomon
Islands Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and
Peace, along with the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, is in its third year of continuing to build
bridges between formerly conflicting parties by
conveying a message of tolerance, respect, dialogue
and understanding among Solomon Islanders.
 I am pleased to say that my Government is
reforming and improving our democratic system by
setting the goal of continuing national consultations on
the Political Parties’ Integrity Bill, introduced in 2009
by the previous Government. We are developing a
comprehensive policy to identify legislation that needs
to be reviewed or enacted.
 Solomon Islands has set itself progressively
ambitious goals within the various international
frameworks. We can achieve all of those goals only by
having focused a relationship with the United Nations.
We feel that the United Nations needs to engage in
special outreach to countries with special needs,
especially those lagging furthest behind, so as to assist
them in implementing the outcomes of global
agreements. To make a difference, the international
community must honour its commitments, and do so by
giving sufficiently to ensure that the required economic
transformation occurs in LDCs and small island
developing States (SIDS).
 Multilateralism has provided the basis for our
foreign policy. We opened a second Permanent Mission
to the United Nations, in Geneva, in June this year, and
would like to see our action reciprocated with an
enhanced United Nations country presence in Solomon
Islands. We have an over-regionalized United Nations
system that has seen problems grow in the Pacific.
Small as we are, three of our Pacific countries have
experienced conflict over the past two decades, and
five of the 12 are listed as least developed countries.
 Today, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) claim
six in every 10 lives in the Pacific. Non-communicable
diseases are pandemic in the region. In that regard,
Solomon Islands has put in place a non-communicable
diseases strategic plan for the period 2011-2015.
Prevention remains the cornerstone of our NCD policy,
as does the development of our primary health
coverage across the country. We will continue to need
sustained external support in the short to medium term
so that we can implement our NCD programmes.
 Solomon Islands, as a least developed country,
applauds the adoption in May of the 10-year Istanbul
Programme of Action for the least developed countries.
The Programme provides an opportunity to lift
880 million people within the international community
out of poverty. The 48 LDCs have developed a
programme with the ambitious target of seeing half of
the LDCs graduate by 2020. The programme focuses
on investing in the productive sectors of LDCs in order
to tackle our development challenges by triggering
stable, sustained and inclusive economic growth.
Partnership is critical to support investment in income-

11-51372 14

generating activities, employment creation, infrastructure
development, rural agricultural development and
investment in smallholder farmers. Solomon Islands, in
reaching out to the 85 per cent of its population living
in rural areas, is currently implementing parallel
sectoral and constitutional reforms and land reform
programmes.
 Solomon Islands supports the call for the
Secretary-General to conduct structured discussions on
a post-2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
agenda. As we all must realize and admit, we will fall
short of achieving the Millennium Development Goals
come 2015. The review must examine the means of
achieving the social and development goals. That
means looking at the MDGs from a sustainable
development perspective. Solomon Islands looks
forward to that discussion.
 On climate change, we call on the Secretary-
General to garner the necessary political will from our
developed partners to adopt a second commitment
period in Durban under the Kyoto Protocol. This would
avoid a gap between the first and second commitment
periods and would be sufficient to ensure the survival
of all vulnerable people and prevent climate change
impacts from reaching irreversible levels.
 Problems associated with climate change are
growing challenges for our country. We are taking
several practical measures. The Government is
planning the relocation of our national referral hospital
to higher ground. Efforts to build a resilience policy on
food and water security are progressing under the
adaptation programme. Our climate change challenges
are growing, and fast-track funds promised two years
ago must be made available to vulnerable countries as
a matter of real urgency. Solomon Islands is in the
process of establishing economic growth centres
throughout the country, and we are looking at powering
these centres with renewable energy, which we view as
a necessity and a condition for growth.
 Solomon Islands is grateful for the growth of
South-South cooperation and its policy engagement
within the international community, especially support
from such countries as Cuba, India and Papua New
Guinea. We also welcome new non-traditional partners
with our region, including Luxembourg, Georgia and
Italy, who have rendered support and are instrumental
in complementing the support from our traditional
partners the European Union, Australia, New Zealand,
the Republic of China and Japan.
 Solomon Islands, as a post-conflict country,
remains engaged with the Australia-led Regional
Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI),
with support from New Zealand and other Pacific
Islands Forum member countries. The Secretary-
General, during his recent trip to my country, had a
bird’s eye view of the achievements of RAMSI in the
restoration of law and order and the reform of our
economic and governance systems. My country
remains grateful to all our Pacific neighbours for their
support and reiterates that any winding down of
RAMSI activities should be done in a calculated and
responsible manner.
 We continue to seek homegrown solutions within
the region. The Melanesian Spearhead Group has
agreed to establish a Melanesian regional police
academy, bringing together Fiji, Papua New Guinea,
Vanuatu and Solomon Islands discipline forces to
respond to emerging needs, from disasters to conflicts.
Solomon Islands hopes to join Fiji, Vanuatu and Papua
New Guinea in having its police force participate in
United Nations missions. Work is still in progress, and
we hope to conclude it soon.
 Within my region, Solomon Islands continues to
support the inscription of the French territory of New
Caledonia on the United Nations decolonization list
and will extend similar support to French Polynesia,
working with all stakeholders, including the
Administrator. In particular, the Melanesian Spearhead
Group countries strongly support the inscription of
New Caledonia and French Polynesia for
decolonization.
 The current international system has pushed us to
the edge of our finite natural resources. The United
Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in
Rio next year will be another global opportunity to
identify gaps within existing sustainable development
frameworks, from the Barbados Programme of Action
and the Mauritius Strategy, which recognize the special
situation of small island developing States, to the
Istanbul Programme of Action for LDCs. We strongly
urge signatory countries to honour their commitments.
 Solomon Islands looks forward to the
negotiations scheduled for late this year. Already, we
are in the midst of preserving the last global stock of
tuna by creating the world’s first sustainable industrial

15 11-51372

fishing industry through a subregional intergovernmental
mechanism. Fisheries remain our source of food and
income, and we will need to maximize returns from
these resources in a sustainable manner by bringing
together three pillars of sustainable development on
equal footing and in a balanced and sustainable
manner.
 Solomon Islands is host to the regional Pacific
Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, and we continue to
register our interest in hosting the regional marine
scientific and technological centre of the United
Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea to advance
marine scientific research in the Pacific region and to
foster the transfer of marine technology for the
development of our ocean and marine resources.
 Solomon Islands believes in dialogue and
engagement with all countries of the world, including
Fiji. We do so within the framework of the United
Nations Charter and the Melanesian Spearhead Group
principles, with mutual respect for each other’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression,
non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,
equality, mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence with
each other. We would like to encourage all States to do
likewise.
 I am equally pleased to say that, since my
Government came into office some 14 months ago, we
have established relations with more than 27 countries
and will continue to reach out to all countries to ensure
that Solomon Islands remains connected in our
interlinked world. On this note, I welcome a new
member to our family of nations, South Sudan. We
offer South Sudan our friendship and look forward to
working with it on all issues of common concern to our
countries.
 The 51-year-old economic blockade of Cuba
remains an issue stuck in time. Solomon Islands, in a
spirit of friendship and in observation of the principle
of good neighbourliness, makes a humble call on our
partner and friend, the United States, for the
unconditional lifting of the economic blockade against
the people of Cuba. We request that the two States
renew, restore, revive, redeem and reclaim their
friendship and respect for each other’s sovereignty
within the letter and spirit of the United Nations
Charter.
 Solomon Islands will host the eleventh Festival of
Pacific Arts next year to celebrate and promote the
unique and diverse indigenous cultures of the Pacific.
The Festival will give us an opportunity to express our
sense of pride, awareness and recognition of the
“Pacificness” of the isolated communities within the
Pacific and to develop and preserve a deep sense of
solidarity and unity through our ancient music, body
art, dances and languages. We look forward to
receiving our guests in 2012.
 On the long-standing conflict in the holy land,
Solomon Islands supports the work of the Quartet. We
note that more than two-thirds of United Nations
Member States recognize Palestine as a State. Solomon
Islands, in the name of peace, believes that the
international community must have the strength and
stamina to act decisively, build on the two-State
solution and overcome the distrust that exists in the
region multilaterally.
 On Security Council reform, Solomon Islands
continues to support the intergovernmental
negotiations on expansion in the number of permanent
and non-permanent seats of the Council. My delegation
is mindful of the fact that the most recent Security
Council reform occurred in 1965. The world has
changed since then. We need to streamline the current
negotiating text within our informal intergovernmental
negotiation process and join other small island
developing States in calling for a non-permanent seat
in the Security Council explicitly for small island
developing States.
 On the issue of human rights, I am pleased to say
that Solomon Islands has submitted its national human
rights report to the Human Rights Council. For a
developing country, the right to development is the
core of the country’s policy. Putting people at the
centre of development, their meaningful participation
and the fair distribution of national wealth and benefits
will bring peace to an angry man, feed a hungry child
and empower our womenfolk.
 My delegation would like to acknowledge the
change in nomenclature within the 53-member Group
of Asian States to the Asia and the Pacific Small
Islands Developing States Group. This is an important
development and truly represents the diversity of
membership that exists within the Asia Group. We
applaud our Asian colleagues for taking such a
decision.
 On the issue of gender, Solomon Islands has huge
challenges, to the extent that it will seek a regional seat

11-51372 16

within the Executive Board of United Nations Entity
for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
Solomon Islands is presenting its candidate as a Pacific
SIDs-endorsed candidate, and with the support of the
Assembly it hopes to give an LDC and SIDS flavour to
the Board.
 On Taiwan cross-strait relations, my delegation
continues to commend the ongoing dialogue between
the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People’s
Republic of China. We note Taiwan’s continuous
contributions to the global health system in terms of a
wide range of international development programmes,
and welcome its participation as an observer to the
World Health Assembly. We continue to call for such
arrangements to be extended to other United Nations
treaty bodies, including the United Nations Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to ensure the
meaningful participation of Taiwan and its people in
the affairs of the international community. Solomon
Islands also acknowledges Taiwan’s climate change
mitigation and renewable energy programmes with
developing countries, and would like to see the
application of similar observer arrangements extended
to Taiwan within the UNFCCC.
 Let me conclude by expressing once again my
delegation’s confidence in translating our global
agenda into action within the next 12 months. Many
lives depend on that. On behalf of the Government and
people of Solomon Islands, I assure the Assembly of
our support and cooperation.


Let me at
the outset commend Mr. Al-Nasser on his unanimous
election as President of the General Assembly at its
sixty-sixth session. I hereby pledge to him my
delegation’s full support for his efforts to successfully
move forward the agenda of this session. I wish also to
commend his predecessor, Mr. Joseph Deiss, President
of the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session, for
his stewardship.
 I would be somewhat remiss if I did not
commend Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his
leadership of our treasured Organization. I am pleased
to lend my voice to those of other Heads of State and
Government who have commended him on his
reappointment for a second five-year term beginning
1 January 2012 and to wish him every success in his
bold quest to develop an Organization that is both
effective and efficient and can bring about meaningful
change in the complex world in which we live.
 Mr. Al-Nasser’s choice of the theme for the
general debate, namely, “The role of mediation in the
settlement of disputes by peaceful means”, could not
have been more timely or appropriate.  Mediation is
one of the cornerstones of the Organization. While it is
true that mediation should not be the only tool
available to the international community to mitigate
conflicts, there is nevertheless a growing interest in
mediation and its use as a promising and cost-effective
tool in the peaceful settlement of disputes, conflict
prevention and resolution.
 In addition, we, as a community of nations, have
on many occasions recognized the useful role that
mediation can play in preventing disputes from
escalating into conflicts and conflicts from escalating
further, as well as in advancing the resolution of
conflicts and thus preventing and reducing human
suffering and creating conditions conducive to lasting
peace and sustainable development, and in this regard,
recognizing that peace and development are mutually
reinforcing.
 In the general debate of the sixty-fifth session, I
as well as others called for lasting peace in the Middle
East (see A/65/PV.20). I also issued a call for
implementation of the two-State solution, which would
have Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace
and security. Neither of these notions is new; sadly,
neither is anywhere close to realization, Given the
current state of affairs, it should come as no surprise to
anyone that the Palestinian people would seek a
different option — full membership in our
Organization or, failing that, a vote by the General
Assembly that would elevate the status of Palestine
from non-voting observer entity to Observer State, a
status equal to that of the Holy See.
 As we have said in previous debates, we remain
fully supportive of the aspirations of the Palestinian
people and of the idea of a two-State solution, which
would allow the Palestinian people the right to govern
themselves and reach their potential in a sovereign and
contiguous State. It was against this backdrop that we
decided to join with others that have already done so
and grant recognition to the State of Palestine. As we
did then and do now, we believe that recognition of the
State of Palestine will contribute to the quest for a
negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
and to the creation of lasting peace and stability in the
region, and ultimately result in a viable Palestine and a
secure Israel, based on the 1967 lines, with mutually
agreed swaps to ensure that secure, recognized borders
exist for both sides.
 Many of today’s conflicts are fuelled by the
illegal trade in small arms and light weapons. Those
small weapons of mass destruction have had a
devastating impact on the countries of our region over
the past decade, and have been directly implicated in
the associated rise in crime and violence involving the
use of firearms. Needless to say, those weapons have
had a significant adverse impact on security and socio-
economic and human development in our countries.
 In their 2007 annual reports, both the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World
Bank identified our region as having higher murder
rates than any other region in the world. They also
stated that small arms and light weapons were used in
more than 70 per cent of those murders. We never
sought that dubious designation, which was anything
but welcome.
 This is why, at our most recent summit in July
2011, my fellow Heads of State of the Caribbean
Community adopted a Declaration on Small Arms and
Light Weapons in which, inter alia, we agreed
 “to accord the highest national and regional
priority to matters related to combating and

37 11-51360

eradicating the illicit trade in small arms and light
weapons and their ammunition” [and] “to
intensify and sustain engagement in the United
Nations effort for the conclusion of a legally
binding Arms Trade Treaty”.
I call on all States Members of our Organization to join
our region in this worthy endeavour.
 The very existence of many developing countries
as viable States is at stake. The world financial and
economic crisis continues to threaten debt
sustainability in our countries through its impact on the
real economy and the increase in borrowing we had to
undertake in order to mitigate the negative impacts of
the crisis.
 The recent gyrations in the major stock markets
of the world do not inspire hope for lasting global
economic recovery any time soon. Now more than
ever, if we are to overcome the current crisis we need a
new mechanism for restructuring and resolving
sovereign debt that takes into account the multiple
dimensions of debt sustainability.
 This seemingly unending economic crisis has
affected our countries not only in economic terms, but
also through the presence of barriers to trade, as well
as the financing embedded in some of the anti-crisis
measures adopted by some developed countries. More
importantly, the crisis has impacted our social
development, which in turn has led and continues to
lead to a major loss of jobs and difficulties in financing
social programmes that address poverty or the
provision of basic amenities. All those factors threaten
our efforts to attain the internationally agreed
development goals, including the Millennium
Development Goals.
 While my country has made good progress with
the United States on our online gaming dispute, we
urge the United States to remain committed to reaching
a mutually agreed outcome that will bring value to our
economy and is implementable by the United States.
 With so much at stake, we will soldier on in our
quest to seek market access openings in key sectors
and other innovative incentives that could include but
would not be limited to financial and technical support,
forensics, equipment and training for dealing with drug
trafficking and for the creation of decent jobs for the
people of Antigua and Barbuda.
 Mine is not the only country in the Caribbean that
has experienced trade-related difficulties with the
United States. A far more pernicious economic,
commercial and financial blockade has been imposed
by the United States of America on Cuba, and although
the overwhelming majority of membership of the
United Nations has repeatedly called for that blockade
to be lifted, it continues unabated. As a country
committed to the norms of the multilateral trading
system and the freedom of trade and navigation, and as
a nation that rejects the extraterritorial application of
another country’s national law, we call on the United
States to immediately and unconditionally lift its
economic blockade against the people of Cuba.
 On 19 September, almost 11 years to the day
since the World Health Assembly endorsed the
landmark Global Strategy for the Prevention and
Control of Non-communicable Diseases to reduce the
toll of premature deaths due to non-communicable
diseases (NCDs), the General Assembly adopted a
Political Declaration (resolution 66/2) that, among
other things, calls for the launch of a global NCD
campaign.
 While there is much to be lauded in the
Declaration, we are nevertheless disappointed that
some of our original expectations, including a clear
goal for the launching of the global NCD campaign
with a corresponding road map, may not have been
fully developed. However, we believe that, if
rigorously implemented, the Declaration will
contribute to the attainment of the Millennium
Development Goals. Let it be known that we will do
our utmost to ensure that the momentum generated at
that meeting is not lost.
 Two days ago, we held a one day High-level
Meeting to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the
adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of
Action — the internationally recognized blueprint for
action to fight racism that was adopted by consensus at
the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance,
held in Durban, South Africa. To this day, the
Declaration remains an innovative and action-oriented
agenda to combat all forms of racism and racial
discrimination.
 This tenth anniversary is a chance to strengthen
political commitment to fighting racism and racial
discrimination. It is also an opportune time to revisit

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the issue of reparations for slavery, which is central to
any discussion about racism, colonialism and poverty.
Antigua and Barbuda has long argued that the legacy of
slavery, segregation and racial violence against peoples
of African descent has severely impaired our
advancement as nations, communities and individuals
across the economic, social and political spectrums. In
obtaining redress for the injustices suffered by African
slaves and their descendants, today’s Caribbean and
African peoples would advance immeasurably the
process of genuine healing.
 Those who choose to differ have argued that,
unlike victims of the Holocaust or those who have been
interned during wars and have subsequently received
remunerations, neither the victims nor the perpetrators
of slavery are alive today, and that it is unfair to hold
the descendants of slave-owners responsible for the
actions of their ancestors.
 On this we strongly disagree. However, no one
should disagree that racism and other legacies of
slavery continue to shape the lives of people of African
descent. Thus, reparations must be directed towards
repairing the damage inflicted by slavery and racism.
That is why we call on former slave States to begin the
reconciliation process by issuing formal apologies for
the crimes committed by those nations or their citizens
over the 400 years of the African slave trade. To help
counter the lingering damage inflicted on generations
of peoples of African descent by generations of slave
trading and colonialism, we call on those very States to
back up their apologies with new commitments to the
economic development of the nations that have
suffered from that human tragedy.
 The United Nations has declared 2011 to be the
International Year for People of African Descent.
Throughout the year, nations and communities of the
African diaspora have undertaken a number of
initiatives aimed at the realization of the full
enjoyment of economic, cultural, social, civil and
political rights; participation and integration in all
political, economic, social and cultural aspects of
society; the promotion of a greater knowledge of and
respect for their diverse heritage and culture, with
pronounced emphasis on encouraging multilateralism
and development approaches; and the creation of a
global Afro-centric movement.
 The time has come for peoples of the African
diaspora to begin helping themselves. A key part of
that process is the first African Diaspora Summit, to be
held in South Africa in mid-2012. The Summit and its
preparatory process will provide a platform for the
African diaspora to put in place economic policies
aimed at ensuring sustained economic cooperation
among public and private stakeholders, so as to
promote development, entrepreneurship and business
opportunities in diasporan regions.
 By 31 October, our planet will reach a milestone
of sorts. Somewhere on the Earth’s surface, the planet’s
7-billionth inhabitant will be born. Seven billion
people! If nothing else, that milestone will serve to
reaffirm our determination as the international
community to implement sound development policies
and promote the inherent right and dignity of each
person. Coming amid the preparations for the 2012
United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development in Rio de Janeiro, a world of 7 billion
inhabitants reminds us of the critical need to pay
attention to population dynamics if we are to
understand the needs of our people, proactively plan to
avoid development pitfalls, and develop forward-
looking policies that promote the health and dignity of
every human being on Earth, while at the same time
safeguarding the planet we call our home.
 By making the necessary investments to develop
quality human capital, with equally strong measures to
promote gender equality with the active promotion of
women and youth participation in all spheres of life,
we will create the enabling conditions for transforming
the economies of developing countries in order to
eradicate poverty and achieve the internationally
agreed Millennium Development Goals. Policies
responsive to the needs of our population not only
contribute to dynamic, growing economies but are a
prerequisite for addressing the huge challenges related
to access to food, energy, water and sanitation, climate
change, fast-paced urbanization and migration. It is not
enough to merely respond to anticipated challenges; we
must take innovative and proactive approaches to seize
the opportunities presented by a world of 7 billion
people.
 As the countries of Latin American and
Caribbean region reflect on and respond to those global
challenges, we have determined that our own destinies
are interwoven and that, as developing countries, we
must unite and coordinate our efforts in a systematic,
structured and deliberative way. We have done just that

39 11-51360

with the creation of the Community of Latin American
and Caribbean States.
Antigua and Barbuda fully endorses and supports the
objectives and ideals of the Community and wishes to
acknowledge the efforts of countries such as Mexico,
Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba and our sister CARICOM
member States for bringing the organization into being.
 As we prepare for an important Summit in
Caracas, Venezuela, in December, we intend to lay the
foundation of a dynamic, responsive and meaningful
community of nations that share a common history and
that have a great deal to gain in our coming together in
this way to reshape the agenda, thereby creating a
greater balance in the pursuit of happiness, prosperity,
peace and democracy in our hemisphere.
 Within my own subregion, the eight small
developing countries that make up the Organization of
Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have a common
currency union, the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union
(ECCU). We have been adversely affected by the
global financial and economic crisis and we are faced
with a protracted recovery. The impact of the global
crisis was manifested in steep declines in our tourist
arrivals and expenditures, direct foreign investment
and remittances. Our real gross domestic product
(GDP) fell by 5.7 per cent in 2009 and is estimated to
have declined by a further 2.2 per cent in 2010,
influenced by declines in value added in construction,
manufacturing, agriculture, wholesale and retail,
transport and financial intermediation. The crisis has
also had a marked impact on our fiscal positions, with
an accompanying increase in public-sector debt.
 Despite those challenges, there is a positive side.
Our countries have strong liberal democratic systems
and the rule of law is upheld. We also have a stable
currency that has been pegged to the United States
dollar at a rate of 2.7 Eastern Caribbean dollars to
$1 since 1976. That has been responsible for
comparatively low inflation and confidence in the
monetary system. In response to the global and
regional economic and financial crises, ECCU
members have crafted a very strong response to those
challenges. We have upgraded our current economic
integration arrangements to an economic union status
and a new treaty to that effect, the revised Treaty of
Basseterre establishing an OECS Economic Union, was
ratified in January 2011.
 We have put in place a number of institutional
arrangements, which have served us well in addressing
the effects of the crisis over the past two years. We
adopted the ECCU Eight Point Stabilisation and
Growth Programme in 2009, aimed at stabilizing and
transforming the ECCU economies. As part of the
financial programming, we have set fiscal targets,
which have been approved by the Monetary Council
and published. The targets are intended to move our
countries on a path towards achieving a debt-to-GDP
ratio of 60 per cent by 2020.
 My region remains deeply concerned that AIDS
has claimed 30 million lives and orphaned 16 million
children since it was first discovered in 1981. My
region remains committed to intensifying national
efforts to create enabling legal, social and policy
frameworks to eliminate stigma, discrimination and
violence related to HIV and to promote
non-discriminatory access to HIV prevention,
treatment, care and support.
 As a small developing nation, we can easily
identify with the President’s call for enhancing South-
South and triangular cooperation. This, after all, was
perhaps his signature issue during his tenure as
Chairman of the Committee on South-South
Cooperation. His choice of improving disaster
prevention and response also resonates with us. The
increase in the frequency and intensity of natural and
man-made disasters and the devastation wrought by
them on vulnerable countries such as my own leave us
with no choice but to develop ways to build our
capacities so that we are better prepared to withstand
these disasters.
 In addition to his main theme for this session, we
also support the President’s call to focus on United
Nations reform and revitalization so as to ensure that
our Organization remains relevant, efficient and
effective and is able to adapt to meeting the ever-
changing global challenges.
 His fourth focal area of sustainable development
and global prosperity is perhaps the one with the most
scope for collective action. The United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012
will certainly provide a forum for the international
community to, among other things, recommit to
sustainable development, the eradication of poverty
and achieving the Millennium Development Goals by
ensuring the balance among the economic, social and

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environmental aspects of sustainable development,
with the human being at the centre of our efforts.
  We can no longer ask whether we can, but we
need to give an account of exactly how we will meet
the enormous political, economic, humanitarian and
environmental challenges our planet faces. The global
economic crisis continues to shake the pillars of our
economic system: banks, businesses, Governments,
private sectors and even our own families. Now more
than ever, we need a more efficient, effective and
focused United Nations that is both transparent and
accountable to help us address the extraordinary array
of geopolitical and humanitarian challenges: famine in
Somalia, the continued crisis in Haiti, the aftershocks
of the Arab Spring, ongoing conflicts in some countries
and difficult transitions in others, in addition to the
deeper political, economic and environmental
transformations that are reshaping our world.
 In an increasingly uncertain world, the world’s
people are looking to us here, in this great Hall of the
United Nations, for answers. We are their best hope for
building a safe, secure and just world. We cannot
afford to disappoint. We know that rescuing the planet
will require us to invest in people, particularly women
and youth. It will require us to re-emphasize the
prevention of conflicts and natural disasters alike, and
it will require us to devote new efforts to assist nations
in transition from war to peace, autocracy to
democracy, poverty to prosperity.
 Let us show the people of the world that we are
indeed up to these enormous tasks. Then, and only
then, will we be able to say: “Yes, we did!”


It
is an honour for me to participate in this session of the
General Assembly. We have heard extremely
significant speeches, which have, deservedly, captured

17 11-50692

the attention of the Assembly. However, as I speak in
this lofty forum of the international community, I
would like to lay out Mexico’s views, a country that, as
one of the founding States of the United Nations, has
actively contributed to ensuring that the Organization
once again plays its role in promoting peace, justice,
security, equity and sustainable development among
nations.
 The world faces major challenges, about which
we have spoken today. We have talked about terrorism,
war, peace, climate change and poverty. We know that
we are afflicted by other problems, such as the global
economic crisis. I would like to refer to just a few of
them now, as I am aware that our duty is to strengthen
the United Nations, to make it less bureaucratic and to
once again turn this into an Organization that is able to
tackle the pressing challenges of our time. Faced with
this reality, Mexico is shouldering its international
responsibilities firmly and with determination.
 I would now like to refer to the problem that I
think today most afflicts the poorest people in the
world. More than 1 billion people, on every continent,
are living on less than $1.25 a day. This is the problem
of poverty. Over the past five years, the price of food
has risen by more than 50 per cent. Over the past
12 months, the average increase has been 26 per cent.
This means that the poorest families, who allocate most
of their income to food, have sunk even deeper into
poverty.
 This is why poverty has increased around the
world. This is why we once again see famine in the
Horn of Africa, in various nations on that continent, in
Asia and in Latin America. This is why, in addition to
the democratic awakening of certain nations, we have
seen many people suffering from hunger who have
taken to the streets. Hunger is what has, in many cases,
awakened their awareness of democracy.
 Why the hike in food prices? That is the first
question we must ask ourselves. It is partly because
developing countries have grown rapidly, and that is a
good thing. China, India and many others have reached
growth rates that allow their people to have greater
access to food. What is left to do is to develop the
necessary technology to increase our capacity to
produce food.
 Secondly, drought and climate change have been
other contributing factors. We have not truly realized
that climate change is a serious threat to humankind as
a whole. In particular, climate change is behind the
drought that has restricted food production in recent
years.
 Thirdly, there is financial speculation and
speculation on the financial markets. Let me point to
one bit of data. In 1987, financial agents and
companies bought just 7 per cent of food on the world
markets. Today, more than 30 per cent of sales of corn
and wheat in the world are made by financial
companies. Why do they want corn and wheat? Is it to
trade them on various markets or to distribute them to
certain regions? Of course not. Trade companies and
distributors buy 70 per cent of wheat and corn, but the
remaining 30 per cent is bought by financial firms with
one specific purpose in mind, namely, speculation. We
see how they buy and sell the rights to food with the
sole intent of driving up market prices, when thousands
of children are dying of hunger across the various
continents.
 I am someone who believes in markets, economic
freedom and enterprise. But I also know that the time
has come for restrictions to be imposed on unbridled
markets, which are also behind world hunger.
 The second challenge that I would like to refer to
is drug trafficking and international organized crime.
Everyone is surprised by the dozens, hundreds and
even thousands of deaths caused by repressive
authoritarian regimes, and of course, we also repudiate
these. However, we also have to be aware that
organized crime today is killing more people — and
more young people — than all of the current dictatorial
regimes put together. Today, thousands of people —
tens of thousands of people in Latin America, in
particular between Mexico and the Andes — are dying
because of criminals. I greet with affection and respect
my colleagues from Central and Latin America who are
here today.
 Today, the world faces the challenge of
unscrupulous criminals who have no respect for
borders and who do grave harm to the citizens of many
nations. The power of crime is stronger than many
Governments, although assuredly not ours. This stems
from two fundamental factors, namely, the exorbitant
profits that flow from drug trafficking and unlimited
access to the purchase of powerful weapons.
 With respect to weapons, why do criminals have
unrestricted access to AK-47s, R-15s and grenade
launchers? In my view, having fiercely fought

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criminals and having seized 120,000 weapons in five
years, the answer can be summed up in a single word,
profits — the runaway profits of an arms industry that
sees in every war, whether a civil war in some distant
country or a battle among criminals, an opportunity to
sell ever more weapons.
 It is urgent for us to put in place serious controls
in countries that produce and sell high-power
weaponry, so as to prevent them from filling the
arsenals of organized crime. The United Nations has its
work cut out for it in that regard. The United Nations
must continue to promote the draft international arms
trade treaty and to prevent weapons from being
diverted towards activities that are banned by
international law.
 Moreover, organized crime feeds off the
astronomical profits produced by the illegal sale of
drugs around the world. Unfortunately, the demand for
drugs in those markets continues to increase. We must
recognize that so long as there are drug consumers
prepared to pay tens of billions of dollars to maintain
their addictions or preferences, that market will remain
the primary financial support for criminal activity.
 Mexico is doing its part to energetically fight
crime in all its manifestations. Today more than ever,
however, drug-consuming countries must undertake
effective efforts to radically reduce demand. It may be
argued that this is impossible and that the demand for
drugs is continuing to rise, as is the case here in the
United States, where nearly 30 per cent of young
people use drugs, and in other parts of the world.
 What is the solution? I can honestly say that even
if those countries are unable or unwilling to reduce
their demand for drugs, or if they are resigned to the
fact that it will continue to rise, they still have a moral
obligation to reduce the huge profits that drug
traffickers obtain from that black market.
 It would be best to reduce demand, but failing
that, reduce profits. Drug-consuming nations have the
obligation to find a way to cut that source of endless
economic gain, and to seek every possible solution,
including alternative markets that would prevent drug
trafficking from being the source of violence and
death, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean
and various African countries.
 The third challenge to which I would like to refer
is climate change. Along with Mexico, my Central
American and Caribbean colleagues are experiencing
ever more violent hurricanes that destroy the homes of
the poor and cut short many lives. Ironically, just a few
weeks ago, one of those tropical hurricanes that was
headed for our Caribbean coast landed instead on the
streets of Manhattan. There are still some who are
surprised that there are hurricanes in New York,
unprecedented droughts in Texas and never before seen
floods in Pakistan or Mexico or Colombia or
Guatemala. Even with all this, they still do not accept
the fact of global warming.
 I can proudly state that we have made progress
and that Mexico has done its part in moving towards a
solution to this problem. We organized the sixteenth
Conference of the Parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Cancún,
where important agreements were reached. For
example, for the first time, nations agreed within the
framework of a binding United Nations instrument to
establish a global limit on the rise in temperature of
our planet — of no more than 2° centigrade by the end
of this century.
 We also agreed to establish the Green Fund, to
support developing countries in their mitigation and
adaptation efforts.
 In addition, we created a mechanism for
technology transfer that incorporates methods for
reducing emissions caused by deforestation and soil
degradation, which will allow the poorest countries to
contribute to reducing global warming by preserving
their forests and jungles. In Mexico, more than
12 million people in indigenous communities, who
make their living from jungles and forests and who
have had no choice but to destroy them, today use their
woodlands in a sustainable way and are paid by the rest
of society for the environmental service that their trees
provide.
 With the approach of the seventeenth Conference
of the Parties, in Durban, we fear that without
sufficient political leadership and commitment to its
own Convention by the United Nations, we may lose
part of what we have achieved in the battle against
climate change. We must advance within the Kyoto
Protocol, keeping in mind that the provisions of annex 1
expire next year. What will happen with our
environmental obligations in the light of the failure of
the most relevant nations to take action?

19 11-50692

 The best way to fight climate change is to break
with the false argument that we must choose between
economic growth and combating climate change. They
are in fact perfectly compatible. Through actions that
build sustainable development, we can simultaneously
reduce poverty and climate change.
 Finally, another challenge is the social basis for
reducing poverty and marginalization. In Mexico we
established a programme for transferring money to the
poorest of our population, with incentives for mothers
who take their children to school or health clinics. The
programme offers an average of $80 monthly to the
bottom fourth of Mexico’s poorest families, benefiting
more than 30 million people and reducing extreme
poverty in our country by nearly 50 per cent between
1995 and 2010.
 Recently, we have focused on guaranteeing the
health of all Mexicans. In five years, we have added
2,000 new hospitals and clinics, reconstructed
2,000 more and introduced a national health policy that
already covers more than 100,000 people. This allows
Mexico to proudly state today in the United Nations
that this year we will achieve universal health
insurance, covering doctors, medicines, treatment and
hospitalization for any Mexican who needs them. That
achievement, of which we are proud, confirms the fact
that Mexico has already achieved almost all the
Millennium Development Goals to which it committed
itself.
 Finally, I should now like to discuss a crucial
issue that has to do with the transformation and
modernization of the United Nations. The conflict in
the Middle East is a matter that has clearly tested the
capacity of the Organization. We are particularly
concerned about the stalemate in negotiations between
Israel and the Palestinian National Authority. The
United Nations bears the responsibility for making a
constructive contribution to the peaceful resolution of
this conflict — one that makes possible the existence
of two States, reaffirms the recognition of Israel’s right
to exist and makes the establishment of a Palestinian
State a reality. Of course, we must bear in mind that
this must be a genuine, viable and negotiated solution
in which legitimate and balanced mediation plays a
fundamental role. Such a solution must also be
politically and economically viable and enable Israel
and Palestine to truly exist side by side in peace, so
that new generations of Israelis and Palestinians can
truly know what it is to live together without hatred or
violence.
 We should also remember that no solution can be
found while either of the sides, explicitly or implicitly,
desires the annihilation of the other. In addition, we
must make progress on compliance with United
Nations resolutions in order to put an end to policies
that we all know are contrary to international law.
 It is also vital that we move forward together in
transforming and modernizing the Organization. It is
an excellent thing that the United Nations building is
being renovated; now we need to modernize the
Organization at its core. It must not fail in its
commitment to history and humankind. It is time that
all Member States play our parts in ensuring that the
Organization has the strength and viability that it
needs, and that it lacks. There have been many
occasions, for instance, when the United Nations has
been paralysed by the tyranny of consensus, where a
minority is able to defeat a large majority. Consensus
must no longer be seen as the veto power of the
obstinate; rather it should be understood as the
possibility of building shared and genuinely legitimate
solutions that reflect the will of the majority.
 Keeping the United Nations relevant also
necessarily implies the reform of the Security Council,
whose rules of participation have not been revised in
more than 40 years. Mexico seeks a total reform that
improves representation for all Council members while
at the same time preserving the Council’s capacity to
take action and promoting its members’ accountability.
We cannot allow the chief supranational body to
become a decision-making centre for the few.
 Mexico reaffirms its confidence in the United
Nations as a forum that represents the diversity and
plurality of human beings. Mexico also reiterates that it
will continue to be a strategic ally of the Organization
in the struggle for peace, the war against hunger and
the struggle for security and the progress of all peoples
of the world.


This year has once
again confirmed the importance of the United Nations
as the truly indispensable multilateral forum for
addressing today’s global problems. The humanitarian
crisis in the Horn of Africa, ecological disasters such
as Fukushima, political developments like the Arab
Spring and terrorist attacks such as the assault on the
United Nations building in Abuja last August require
concerted action by the United Nations and its Member
States. Ten years after 9/11, joint action in the fight
against terrorism continues to remain central on the
multilateral agenda.
 In the past nine months, we have witnessed
momentous changes in the Arab world that nobody
expected when we met one year ago. Pressure for
change is driven by the wish of women and men to
choose their own fate and to improve their chances for
a better life. These are legitimate demands. An
overwhelming number of young people were at the
forefront of this enormous tide, which started in
Tunisia and Egypt. We should pay tribute to their
courage.
 In Libya, thousands lost their lives in the struggle
for freedom and democracy. In Syria, and to some
extent in Yemen, the suppression is ongoing. Austria
strongly condemns the systematic human rights
violations and the violence against peaceful
demonstrators. We strongly urge those responsible to
immediately stop the bloodshed and to engage in
meaningful dialogue and reforms. Austria supports the
Libyan people in its struggle for freedom. Over
€150 million blocked in Austrian bank accounts has
been de-frozen for humanitarian use. Both the Austrian
Government and private sector have provided
medicine, relief supplies and desperately needed fuel to
Libya.
 The international community and the United
Nations have to support and assist the transition
process in the Arab world as the United Nations does
now in Libya. This period of change may last for some
time and will be full of challenges. Austria welcomes
all efforts undertaken by Governments in the region for
peaceful and credible change. We encourage the newly
empowered authorities to create a constitutional
framework based on democracy and human rights, in
order to fulfil their mandate for democratic change
responsibly and peacefully.
 The events in the Arab world notwithstanding, we
must continue to focus on the Middle East peace
process. The Middle East took centre stage this week
here at the General Assembly — and rightly so. We
must build trust and we have to foster the belief among
Israelis and Palestinians that a negotiated settlement
can be achieved — a sustainable solution based on two
States living side by side in a secure and peaceful
neighbourhood within mutually recognized borders.
We have no choice but to return to direct negotiations
between the two parties. The Quartet, in its statement
yesterday, has shown a way to do that and has also
proposed concrete timelines. Austria fully supports the
Quartet statement. There is no time to lose.

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 Austria welcomes President Al-Nasser’s choice of
theme for this year’s general debate. We appreciate
Qatar’s strong track record in that regard.
 Last year’s tenth anniversary of the adoption of
Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women,
peace and security reminded us that the promise of
women’s full and equal participation in all efforts of
maintaining peace and security, including in mediation
processes, has not yet come true and that we all need to
intensify our efforts.
 In that context, let me also mention an Austrian
contribution to international mediation efforts. By
inviting political decision-makers from both Khartoum
and Juba to Vienna in recent years, Austria has
managed to offer the two sides a platform for
discussion. We are ready to continue to do so. The
Sudan and South Sudan have a shared past and must
resolve their remaining problems peacefully.
 The United Nations headquarters in Vienna
serves as a dynamic hub for the promotion of peace,
security and sustainable development. I am proud to
announce that a liaison office of the United Nations
Office for Disarmament Affairs will open in Vienna soon.
Over the past year, the International Anti-Corruption
Academy set up its headquarters near Vienna, and the
Vienna Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation
and an office of the International Peace Institute were
established.
 Austria fully stands behind the campaign
launched by the Secretary-General on Monday to
achieve universal access to modern energy services.
We support doubling the rate of improvement in energy
efficiency and the share of renewable energy in the
global energy mix by 2030. Austria provides
substantial support to the energy and environment
efforts undertaken by the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization. Last June, we hosted the
Vienna Energy Forum, where about 1,400 participants
discussed alternative energy concepts to reach the
energy goals of the United Nations.
 The Fukushima nuclear catastrophe should
become a turning point in our approach to nuclear
safety. We owe it to future generations to make safety
concerns come first when using nuclear power. Austria
decided, in 1978, to forgo the use of nuclear energy.
Some countries have recently adopted a similar course,
which we welcome.
 The last time I spoke at the United Nations, it
was during the thematic debate held in April on the
rule of law and global challenges. That was an
important step in the preparation of the high-level
meeting on the rule of law that will take place in
September 2012. Next year’s meeting will provide an
important opportunity to renew the efforts of both the
United Nations and Member States to promote the rule
of law. As a medium-sized country and as a strong
supporter of multilateralism, Austria attaches particular
importance to the rule of law, including at the
international level. The international system can only
properly function if it based on clear and predictable
rules that apply equally to all Member States.
 The promotion and protection of human rights is
a core priority of Austria’s foreign policy. We are proud
to serve on the Human Rights Council for the period
2011-2014. For our membership in this body, Austria
has identified the following priorities, on which we
will take action.
 Austria is firmly committed to respect for
freedom of religion and belief. We are deeply troubled
by recurring attacks against religious minorities in all
parts of the world and among all religions. To foster
tolerance, Austria has hosted a number of high-level
dialogues between religious and secular leaders over
the past decade. We think that that has become a new
and promising field of modern diplomacy, putting the
emphasis on conflict prevention.
 Various forms of child trafficking and
exploitation constitute gross violations of children’s
rights. As a member of the Human Rights Council,
Austria will work to address that issue and to help
develop counter-strategies. We highly appreciate the
work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-
General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Radhika
Coomaraswamy, and we strongly support the renewal
of her mandate.
 Racism, xenophobia and discrimination on the
grounds of ethnic origin, gender, age, sexual
orientation and religious belief are ongoing challenges
and of concern to all of us. Austria is committed to the
fight against those abuses, including anti-Semitism.
Therefore, we will continue to press for action,
including in the framework of the United Nations. We
will also take initiatives during our membership in the
Human Rights Council to strengthen the protection of
journalists against all forms of threat and intimidation.

27 11-51372

 Austria has a 50-year-long track record of
contributing to United Nations peacekeeping
operations. And we will continue our engagement. We
recently decided to deploy 160 Austrian troops to the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), in
addition to our continued presence in the United
Nations Disengagement Observer Force and the United
Nations Truce Supervision Organization. Through its
participation in UNIFIL, Austria wishes to make an
active contribution to the maintenance of peace and
security not only in Lebanon but in the region as a
whole.
 Austria welcomes the positive momentum in
international security policy over the past couple of
years. We salute the Secretary-General’s determined
leadership, including his five-point plan on
disarmament. We look forward to continuing our work
in this positive spirit at the first meeting of the
Preparatory Committee for the Review Conference on
the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons, to be held in Vienna in May of next year.
We, and hope for progress with regard to the
establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the
Middle East.
 Nevertheless, despite our collective efforts, we
have not been able to move forward on new

disarmament and arms control issues. The multilateral
machinery, and in particular the Conference on
Disarmament, remains deadlocked. Unfortunately, the
momentum that we had hoped to generate over the past
year has not materialized. Therefore, in Austria’s view,
the Conference on Disarmament has not only lost its
credibility, it is also risking its legitimacy. Austria will
therefore encourage the adoption of a draft resolution,
at the next session of the First Committee, on how to
move multilateral disarmament negotiations forward.
 Austria remains committed to multilateralism and
to the United Nations as the noblest form of
international cooperation. We will therefore support the
efforts of the President and the Secretary-General to
further strengthen the Organization in order to better
enable us to face the challenges of our time.