Cameroon

Allow me at the outset, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Cameroon, His Excellency Mr. Paul Biya, who has done me the signal honour of representing him at these important meetings, to congratulate Mr. Csaba Korosi, as well as the other members of his Bureau, on his outstanding election as President of this seventy-seventh session of the General Assembly. I take this opportunity to assure him of the support of the Cameroonian delegation in achieving the objectives he has set. I would also like to commend his predecessor, Minister Abdulla Shahid of Maldives, for the availability and efficiency with which he carried out his mandate throughout the seventy-sixth session. Finally, allow me to reiterate our appreciation to our Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres who, despite the challenges and difficult times of the hour, has managed to stay the course by engaging with courage, determination and dedication in the defence of the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. The President has proposed that this general debate be structured around the theme entitled “A watershed moment: transformative solutions in the face of intricate challenges”. That theme comes at the right time, in a particularly difficult context where the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has, for nearly three years, continued to affect the course and management of world affairs, whose complexity at the global, regional, subregional and national levels no longer needs to be demonstrated. At the political level, rivalries for power, interest and hegemony are growing all over the world. As a corollary, the arms race is intensifying and continuing to entrench itself, especially on the seas and oceans and in outer space. Many hotbeds of tension in various regions of the world are the main theatres of operations where these shocks are felt, the waves and collateral effects of which amplify the threats and suffering that were already weighing heavy on peoples and nations in terms of loss of human life, material loss, migration, the deterioration of the environment, the disruption of financial systems, and food and energy crises, to name but a few. That is the case in the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe that we have been witnessing for more than six months. Indeed, the Cameroonian Government is following with the greatest attention the conflict situation between Ukraine and Russia. As members know, the peaceful settlement of disputes between States has always been one of the fundamental principles of my country’s foreign policy. In that respect, Cameroon has, from the start of the crisis, reiterated its position by calling on the two parties to open negotiations with a view to reaching a joint solution so that the ideals of peace, security and sustainable development that underpin our Organization may prevail. On the African continent too, hotbeds of tension persist. In our efforts to find solutions, we unfortunately see that some of our partners very often come up with preconceived recipes for everything and everyone. Faced with these trends, which continue year after year, it is important that the voice of Africa be heeded and supported, especially when it is raised by the African Union. Economically, socially and culturally, the improvement observed before the COVID-19 pandemic is gradually giving way to a slowdown and even a decline in the progress and hope born of the courageous measures taken at the level multilateral and national since the early 2000s. From a legal point of view, international commitments are no longer being met or are being met in dribs and drabs, due to selfishness, insufficient political will and even the crisis in multilateralism. In such a context, it is no exaggeration to affirm that the fate of our species and the destiny of humankind are at stake. The very first global and urgent challenge of the hour is the climate crisis. No one is ignorant of the fact that the climate is changing, the cycle of the seasons is out of order and fires are increasing, as are unprecedented floods and hurricanes in various parts of the world. Temperatures are reaching worrying levels; bodies of water, like Lake Chad, a source of life and prosperity for local populations, are reduced to their bare minimum. This is the time to call for compliance with the commitments made within the framework of the various international conferences dedicated to climate change. It is therefore more than urgent that action be taken to finalize the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, particularly with regard to mobilizing financial resources in favour of developing countries and to raising our ambitions for the global climate. The twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled to be held in Egypt late this year, is of crucial importance in that regard. It must provide urgent and decisive answers for the survival of the planet and better address that concern with innovative technologies. The fight against climate change is a fight we all must wage on behalf of us all and every day. It is a truly universal responsibility. Aware of this major challenge and its responsibilities, Cameroon has made a commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and has set up an appropriate legal and institutional framework to that end. Thanks to the forest massif of the Congo basin, one of the ecological lungs of the globe, the countries of Central Africa, united in the Central African Forest Commission, are making a major contribution to the search for solutions to climate change throughout the world. They ask in return that sufficient financial and technological resources, regularly promised by developed countries, be granted to them to enable them to keep, maintain and regenerate that important ecological basin. The same is true of the funding needed to implement projects designed as part of the Green Sahel initiative or the restoration of the Lake Chad basin. Moreover, on the occasion of the revision of its nationally determined contribution, Cameroon has confirmed its commitment to this international momentum by increasing its greenhouse gas reduction commitments from 32 per cent to 35 per cent, 12 per cent of which are unconditional and 23 per cent of which are conditioned on the support of the international community for our efforts to address climate change. For Cameroon, the fight against climate change is seen as a development opportunity and not as an insurmountable challenge. Each country holds one of the digits of the access code to the new era in which the planet aspires to breathe newly clean air, without carbon but rich in oxygen. The younger generations challenge us and call us to more action and not to wishful thinking. Like other priority threats, the migration issue is acute. Despite the efforts of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and despite the efforts also made by host countries and development partners, millions of people continue to flee their homes and homelands to live in deplorable, inhuman conditions due to conflicts, cataclysms and multiple calamities. Faced with the magnitude of a human tragedy that challenges our collective conscience, we have the historic responsibility to act. And my country does not intend to shy away from it. Faithful to its centuries-old tradition of tolerance and hospitality, Cameroon has always been a land of welcome, transit and mixing of peoples. Because of its stability, it represents a safe haven for many populations in search of peace. As all know, Cameroon currently hosts more than half a million refugees and asylum- seekers, which ranks it nineteenth among refugee hosting countries in the world. In addition to the tripartite conventions signed with the UNHCR and the countries concerned to promote the return and resettlement of refugees in their countries of origin, my country last April hosted the Regional Ministerial Conference on Solutions in the Context of Forced Displacement related to the Central African crisis. The Conference was mandated by the Yaounde Declaration, which proposes common and inclusive solutions in favour of forcibly displaced Central Africans. My country plays an active part in all these initiatives, in accordance with the Global Compact on Refugees. At a completely different level, we must also deplore the persistence of terrorism and violent extremism, the effects of which continue to weigh on the world order. Many regions are suffering from the resurgence of subversive operations carried out mainly by terrorist organizations, such as Boko Haram, which is rampant in the Lake Chad basin. The northern part of Cameroon has been badly affected. Faced with the danger and exponential advance of terrorism in various regions of the globe, my country renews its call for the strengthening of joint combat strategies. Such pooling of efforts is aimed at waging a true fight against that threat in all its forms and in all its manifestations, strengthening the capacities of the sovereign States that are its victims, tracking down its financing sources and neutralizing them, and amending and activating international and regional agreements for the uncompromising repression of ever-evolving terrorism. The international community must continue to play its part, in strict respect for the sovereignty of States, in rebuilding and strengthening the fragile stability in all of these areas. We thank our bilateral and multilateral partners that are assisting the Joint Multinational Force established by the countries of the Lake Chad basin to combat and eradicate Boko Haram. That assistance deserves to be increased, given not only the proliferation of regional terrorist groups affiliated with the Islamic State, but also the increasingly sophisticated means of these small groups, whose numbers are constantly growing, owing to the enlistment of ex-combatants from former terrorist hotbeds that have been more or less pacified. It is imperative that the international community continue to invest in the fight against poverty and inequality. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, reinforced by the Secretary-General’s report, Our Common Agenda (A/75/982), must be actively supported and fully implemented. What is most lacking at the moment for the execution of that programme are financial and technological means, as well as synergy among the partners involved in its execution. Cameroon is very committed to that path, as demonstrated by the recent submission of its voluntary national programme at the High-level Political Forum of the Economic and Social Council. Because of its commitment to peace, its territorial integrity and its policy of national integration, the Government of my country continues to show openness and dialogue to put an end to the sociopolitical crisis in the regions of North-West and South-West. Thus, after convening the great national dialogue in 2019, we continued the process of accelerating and deepening decentralization. The disarmament, demobilization and reintegration centres created in those regions and in that of the Far North, host and train in various trades a large number of my young compatriots who have laid down their arms and renounced violence. The State exercises its sovereign prerogatives throughout the national territory. The Government’s current challenge is to pursue the implementation of the reconstruction of the affected regions through the humanitarian emergency plan and the development plan, drawn up in consultation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for the socioeconomic restoration of the regions, aforementioned. At this point, I would like to sincerely salute the dynamic action and contribution of the UNDP in that regard and take this opportunity to thank our bilateral and multilateral partners that contribute to those various mechanisms, which are effective tools in the building of peace in Cameroon. I also make a strong appeal to the international community to mobilize more actively in favour of these plans in order to allow my country to remain the haven of peace that it has always been. In general, regionalization in my country is under way and helping to strengthen the participation of Cameroonians in the management of the affairs of their country. These advances demonstrate that Cameroon is committed, irreversibly and resolutely, to the methodical completion of the democratic project it has set itself, and which responds to the legitimate wishes of the Cameroonian people and its project of economic revival by 2035. In this, Cameroon promotes in all circumstances, through structures created to that end, a constructive and regular dialogue between the various sociological components of its population, as well as the members of its diaspora, with a view to their mobilization for the immense and exhilarating national construction process. Cameroon is firmly committed to and supportive of a reformed and reinvigorated international order and genuine multilateralism based on the ideals, purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations by the founding fathers of our Organization. This is why we support all the reforms currently under way within the United Nations aimed at establishing a more representative, fairer and more effective Security Council. In this regard and within the framework of the democratization of United Nations institutions, Cameroon reiterates its adherence to the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration unanimously adopted by African Heads of State. In conclusion, Cameroon reaffirms its support for all reforms in progress aimed at revitalizing the General Assembly, strengthening the Economic and Social Council and streamlining the Secretariat, following the agenda adopted by the States Members of our Organization in order to consolidate its stature, its dimension and its capacity to better face the global challenges of our era.