It is with great pleasure, Mr. President, that we participate
in the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly
under your presidency. My delegation joins previous
delegations in congratulating you on your election,
which simultaneously pays tribute to our sister nation of
Uganda and recognizes your personal and professional
qualities as an experienced diplomat. We wish you
success in carrying out your term and assure you, Sir,
of the Cabo Verde delegation’s support and cooperation.
To your predecessor, the President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-eighth session, His Excellency
Ambassador John Ashe, we would like to and express
our recognition of and appreciation for the dedicated,
dynamic and able manner in which he guided the work
of the previous session. We would also like to take
this opportunity, on behalf of the Government of Cabo
Verde, to congratulate and pay tribute to Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon for his efforts in seeking peace
and global solutions for the challenges that currently
confront us and require shared political will in the
pursuit of global solutions.
As a small island State, Cabo Verde is particularly
grateful to the Secretary-General and the international
community for convening, and the success achieved in,
the third United Nations Conference on Small Island
Developing States, held in Samoa. We also congratulate
the Secretary-General for his initiative in convening
the United Nations Climate Summit 2014, as the
issue of climate change is of particular importance to
island States, due to our specific vulnerabilities. For
us, finding solutions to the adverse effects of climate
change is not just an option, but a matter of survival
and territorial integrity, making it essential to mobilize
the political will and international cooperation with
respect to that issue. The strategies recently agreed
upon in Samoa point to paths, modalities of action
and effective implementation that will increase those
States’ resilience and make them better equipped to
deal with the consequences of climate change.
Cabo Verde is pleased with the adoption of
urgent measures to face climate change as one of the
sustainable development goals. The achievement of
that goal requires development strategies and policies
that will help create a more resilient planet Earth and
strengthen the means of their implementation.
The data recently released in the fifth assessment
report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
focus our attention on alarming scenarios resulting
from the persistent increase in global warming, which
will put the more vulnerable countries in situations
that may threaten their development. It should be
noted that, in addition to other consequences, there
will be an increase in tropical cyclones, drought and
desertification, rising sea levels, ocean acidification,
loss of biodiversity, weak agricultural production and
food insecurity. For the Government of Cabo Verde,
it is important to ensure that the negotiations that
will take place next December in Lima translate into
significant progress with respect to the content of the
new agreement to be signed in Paris in December 2015.
Raising awareness regarding the need to reduce
the levels of global warming and to foster low-carbon
economies must also be taken into consideration. We
support reducing global warming to under 1.5°C, which
is both economically feasible and a basic requirement
for sustainable global development. We also hope that,
as we work towards the conversion of our interests, the
foundational principle of common but differentiated
responsibility will be respected. A compensation
mechanism for the effective and full implementation
of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and
Damage should be considered. We are convinced that,
if nothing is done, the consequences resulting from
climate change will affect us all and that we all will
pay for our inaction. As the Secretary-General of the
United Nations likes to say, we are all in the same boat.
International cooperation, both with respect to
climate change and in other areas, is key. In order to be
effective, it must be more consistent and pragmatic in
national systems and international structures alike, and
development financing for countries must be based on
criteria reflecting their real needs and vulnerabilities.
We hope that clear directives and commitments
are agreed upon in the next Conference on Financing
for Development, to be held in Addis Ababa in July
2015, and that they lead the way to achieving the
unfinished business of Millennium Development Goal
8. We hope that they will ensure the redefinition of
the criteria for the allocation of financial resources
for development based on the principles adopted in
Paris and reaffirmed in Busan. For Cabo Verde, a
country that recently graduated into middle-income
status, albeit lower-middle-income, it is important
that innovative mechanisms be designed to provide for
greater consistency in development financing and to
support economic sustainability.
The previous session of the General Assembly was
convened under the theme “The post-2015 development
agenda: setting the stage”. The theme chosen for
this session is “Delivering on and implementing a
transformative post-2015 development agenda”. We
are thus asked to take the next step — that is, to work
on the adoption of a people-centred agenda aiming
to eradicate extreme poverty and reduce inequalities
among nations. That request is made in a complex
and difficult international environment. In our view,
it will be achievable only if there is solidarity and if
the international community joins forces to promote
sustainable development.
The results achieved under the framework of the
Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals,
which conducted its work during the previous session of
General Assembly, point to possible actions and options
for a truly transformative post-2015 agenda. With
respect to Cape Verde, our country is close to achieving
all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For
us, the post-2015 agenda must reflect all lessons and
assessments of the MDGs and other internationally
agreed goals, and the goals for 2030 must provide for
the acceleration of the development process.
We would also like to briefly note that the twenty-
ninth special session of the General Assembly on the
follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and Development was held on
22 September. The lesson that we can take away from
that important event is that the post-2015 agenda must
place people at the centre of the objectives and goals to
be agreed upon, which also means rigorous respect for
human rights. On the other hand, the common good,
progress and the well-being of all citizens must be goals
to be pursued by all Governments as we develop and
implement our development policies and programmes.
In addition to being a matter of social justice,
ensuring gender equality and equity also turns out to be
a smart choice, as no country can aspire to develop and
establish social peace and cohesion while excluding
a significant portion of its population — that is, the
female population.
Gender-based violence is an unacceptable
phenomenon in our societies. The Government of
Cabo Verde is committed to changing the reality in our
country in a significant and positive way, even as we
are aware that there still is much to do in that regard.
The issues related to international security and the
threats against peace that they represent are matters
of particular concern. The recent upsurge in acts
of terrorism is a genuinely dangerous threat to the
territorial integrity of States and to the stability of
entire regions. The systematic and massive violation of
human rights and the barbarism that has come with it are
altogether unacceptable. The international community
cannot allow this challenge to the humanistic values of
our civilization, which are also enshrined and promoted
by the United Nations. The Government of Cabo Verde
therefore vigorously condemns all forms of terrorism
and calls on the international community to urgently
take appropriate measures to stop such attempts to
wreak havoc and mete out suffering to innocent people.
We are particularly concerned with recent
developments in the Middle East and Africa. We
believe that States have the moral obligation and
collective duty to fight against the subversion of the
universal principles of peace, tolerance and respect for
differences. We believe that the United Nations has an
important role to play when it comes to respect for the
principles set out in its Charter and in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
Cabo Verde is a peace-loving nation that favours
dialogue and the peaceful resolution of disputes. We
believe in and defend the principles of the Charter, as
well as observance of the standards of international law,
respect for human rights and the promotion of human
dignity. As a result, we understand that no State or
organization can replace the United Nations in playing
its fundamental role of maintaining global peace and
security and that any use of force can be tolerated only
when exercised within the framework of the principles
set forth in the Charter of the United Nations.
Cabo Verde sees urgency in finding a solution
for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and believes that
there is no justification for the deaths of thousands
of innocent people, the unwarranted suffering of an
entire population and the desolation and destruction of
infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. We therefore urge the
parties to begin negotiations that lead to lasting peace
and that allow both States, Israel and Palestine, to live
side by side in security. We also consider it important
to find a negotiated means to end the conflict in Syria
and to open humanitarian aid corridors.
We are concerned with the conflicts that persist
on our continent, such as in Libya, the Central African
Republic and the Great Lakes region, as well as the
actions of terrorist groups in Somalia, Mali and Nigeria.
We support and stand side by side with the African
Union in finding solutions to the problems that affect
peace and security in those sister nations and on the
continent in general.
In the context of Africa, we also wish to commend
the progress achieved in the Republic of Guinea-
Bissau, its return to constitutional order and the
re-establishment of democracy. We wish our sister
nation the greatest success in the pursuit of peace and
development.
In the West African subregion, the issue of security
in general and maritime security in particular is of
particular concern to the authorities of Cabo Verde.
Our country is located at the confluence of routes
connecting the African, European and American
continents, which places us in a vulnerable situation,
as these routes are also used by transnational organized
crime, resulting in a direct threat to the stability of
States and their democracies.
Cabo Verde, in association with other States
and organizations in the United Nations system,
has attempted to combat the illegal activities that
have unfairly punished this part of the West African
subregion, such as the trafficking in drugs, arms and
human beings, maritime piracy, terrorism and illegal
fishing. As those are phenomena of a transnational
nature, we believe that no country in the subregion
is in a position to effectively combat them without
greater international cooperation and the combination
of efforts, means and strategies. Therefore, we would
like to count on more consistent support from the
international community.
The Security Council has rightly determined
that the current Ebola epidemic in West Africa is a
threat to international security. The situation in the
three countries most affected by the epidemic should
prompt the international community to engage in more
organized and coordinated actions to provide aid, more
effectively save lives and prevent the spread of the
disease to neighbouring countries, to the rest of Africa
and to the world.
Cabo Verde welcomes and supports the efforts
made by all nations and organizations involved in
that struggle, particularly the Secretary-General’s
initiatives in that regard. The inclusion of this issue in
the Security Council agenda, the adoption of resolution
2177 (2014) by unanimity, and the debate that followed
(see S/PV.7268) are an unequivocal expression of the
international community’s awareness of the priority
that must be given to the efforts to halt and control the
epidemic, which could have catastrophic consequences
for our affected sister nations, particularly the Republics
of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, to which Cabo
Verde offers its friendship and solidarity.