I congratulate the President of the General Assembly on his election to preside over the Assembly at its seventy-seventh session and assure him of Uganda’s full support. I would like to thank His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid for his stewardship of the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session. I pay tribute to the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres, for his commitment to the work of the United Nations.
The seventy-seventh session of the General Assembly is being held in person for the first time since 2020, when the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic made it impossible to do so. It is a timely reminder of the urgent need to strengthen international cooperation, collaboration and solidarity so that the world may take transformative actions to address the common challenges that include, inter alia, poverty, health, pandemics, climate change, food insecurity and biodiversity loss.
As we celebrate 77 years of the United Nations, we need a revitalized Organization that is fit for purpose. We need our Organization to be stronger than ever before. We believe that multilateralism is fundamental and crucial in addressing our common challenges. We believe that, by acting together in solidarity as nations, the world can effectively address the current and emerging challenges. Responding to COVID-19 has taught us a lot. We should scale up cooperation in vaccine production capacity and resource mobilization in order to support efforts to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are thankful to our bilateral and multilateral partners that supported our response to the COVID-19 challenge.
The Government of Uganda attaches importance to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and continues to register progress in its implementation. It has continued to strengthen its institutional coordination to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and its national SDG secretariat has been strengthened to support the coordination architecture in order to ensure that the country stays on track in implementing the SDGs. The Government of Uganda has fully mainstreamed the SDGs in its national development plan and is working together with the United Nations family and other stakeholders. That will sustain and strengthen collaboration with all actors. However, the effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda will require support in areas such as transfer of technology, capacity-building and financing.
Climate change remains one of the greatest challenges of our time. Our collective effort to fight climate change is an irreversible process that must continue. However, we must note that, despite contributing an insignificant amount of global greenhouse-gas emissions, the African continent, like many developing regions of the world, suffers the effects of climate change to a disproportionate degree. Uganda, for instance, continues to experience prolonged droughts and the melting of ice caps on its highest mountain, Mount Rwenzori, as well as floods, erratic rainfall patterns and landslides.
Moreover, as His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has said before, the climate change problem is also the result of irresponsible and sometimes greedy human actions. Similarly, if underdevelopment persists, we can forget about conserving the environment. It is regrettable and hypocritical that some of the regions and nations that mismanaged the environment and are disproportionately responsible for global warming have embarked on a rigorous campaign to thwart the efforts of other countries to responsibly and sustainably develop their oil and gas sectors. Our view is that development should be environmentally friendly, inclusive and provide benefits for all — it should leave no one behind.
Uganda has continued to scale up investments in climate adaptation and mitigation measures, specifically with regard to increasing access to clean energy in
order to enhance production, as well as increasing forest and wetland cover, among other interventions. Climate change action must uphold the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and be consistent with a country’s national context. We therefore urge developed countries to fully deliver, in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, on the commitments to the goal of providing $100 billion per year to assist developing countries in the climate change actions they take to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.
South-South cooperation, a framework of international cooperation within the global South, continues to play a vital role in supporting developing countries in their efforts to address interlocking challenges. We applaud the countries of the global South for their solidarity in responding to global challenges. Uganda will continue to work towards and support the strengthening of North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation at the United Nations. As host country of the third South Summit, to be held in Kampala from 10 to 12 December 2023, we look forward to welcoming the leaders of the Group of 77 and China.
The world currently faces many challenges that undermine international peace and security. The Russia-Ukraine military conflict continues to cause more suffering, destruction and displacement of the civilian population, mostly women and children. The longer it persists, the more suffering, destruction and displacement we will witness. We are deeply concerned about the loss of life and the serious humanitarian situation. Uganda supports dialogue with a view to reaching a peaceful resolution to the crisis. My President has said many times that,
“We think the best way is to negotiate. Everybody
who wants peace in the world should support
negotiations in order to get a balanced peace that
ensures safety for all.”
Terrorism is currently one of the major global threats to peace, security, stability and social and economic development. No region of the world has been safe from the scourge of terrorism. Terrorism and violent extremism continue to bring death and suffering to innocent people. Terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab and the Allied Democratic Forces continue to commit terrorist acts in our region. As a community of nations, we must be unwavering in our resolve to prevent and combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
We should act in a coordinated manner at the national, regional and global levels to counter that threat. Uganda will continue to support and actively participate in global and regional counterterrorism efforts.
Peace, security and development are inextricably linked and should be pursued simultaneously. Recently, we have seen some progress in our quest for peace and security in our region. Uganda, working with partners in the region and beyond, continues to support and advance peace and security efforts in the region. We remain actively involved in regional initiatives, such as those of the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the East African Community and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, and we are encouraged by the progress that we have made and continue to make. We believe that long-term and sustainable solutions lie in those collaborative processes. The international community, in particular the United Nations, should therefore continue to support conflict-prevention initiatives undertaken by those regional and subregional organizations. Experience has shown that, when and where that has happened, the chances of success have been high.
The conflicts in our region and beyond have led to an inevitable refugee influx into Uganda. Currently, we have more than 1.5 million refugees in the country — the largest refugee population on the continent of Africa and the third-largest in the world. We are committed to working with refugee-sending countries and regional and international partners to address the causes of the refugee crisis. We urge the international community to continue supporting our efforts in the region in that direction.
The need to reform the Security Council is now more urgent and imperative than ever before. The current geopolitical realities make an increasingly compelling case for a comprehensive reform of the Council to make way for equitable representation. Africa, which has more than 1 billion citizens and accounts for more than 70 per cent of the issues on the agenda of the Council, continues to suffer the historical injustice of having no representation in the permanent category of Security Council membership — and is also underrepresented in the non-permanent category. It is time for the long-standing injustice and imbalance perpetuated in the current configuration of the Security Council to be addressed. Uganda supports the comprehensive reform of the Council and urges Member States to continue working towards achieving progress in the
intergovernmental negotiations so that Africa can assume its rightful place in the Security Council.
The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries (NAM) remains a strong pillar in addressing global challenges within the United Nations. We remain actively involved in NAM, in line with its purposes and principles. In that regard, Uganda will continue to collectively work with other NAM countries to further strengthen the critical role of the Movement at the United Nations. As host of the nineteenth NAM Summit, to be held in Kampala from 5 to 9 December 2023, we look forward to welcoming the leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement.