Mauritania

It is my pleasure to deliver the statement of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania for this session on behalf of His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. I would like to convey to the General Assembly his sincere appreciation and wishes for its success. I am also pleased to warmly congratulate His Excellency Mr. Csaba Korosi on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session and to wish him every success in leading this session, which has adopted the theme “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”. I commend His Excellency Mr Abdullah Shahid on his highly competent leadership of the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session. My country would like to express our appreciation and respect to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his diligent efforts to promote and advance the goals of the United Nations. The current session is being held in a very challenging global environment, including the war in Ukraine, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, diverse terrorist threats and the threats of natural disasters caused by climate change. Indeed, the range of crises in the world today and their economic, social and humanitarian repercussions are unprecedented. They represent a major challenge at all levels, particularly in terms of global food insecurity. It is therefore only natural that such difficult conditions have more severe and dangerous consequences for developing countries, owing to their vulnerability and lack of resilience. The war in Ukraine rages at a time when the world has not yet recovered from the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has resulted in disruptions to both fuel and food supply chains, leading to a staggering increase of commodity prices in general. Without the commendable efforts of the United Nations, Tiirkiye and other concerned parties, which led to an important agreement on resuming grain and fertilizer exports through safe corridors, the world would have faced an even greater catastrophe. However, we are of the view that the measures taken by the international community are insufficient. We therefore call today for increased efforts to find solutions that will ensure peace, security and a dignified life for all the peoples of the world, which as the Assembly knows are the very purposes for which the United Nations was established. From this rostrum, my country, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, calls on the international community to assume its responsibilities towards developing and poor countries and to help them quickly confront the challenges that threaten their food security and contain the damage caused by those challenges. In that context, we reiterate our call for the cancellation of the external debt of countries in the African continent. The gap is widening day by day between two worlds — one of which has entered the fourth industrial revolution while the other is still suffering from ignorance, poverty and terrorism under the yoke of backwardness. That calls on us to think carefully, and in a collective way, about finding appropriate ways to address the challenges of our times and maintain the spirit of humanity. Therefore, it is worth recalling that paradox and reflecting on it in this major international meeting, which is being held under the slogan of “solidarity, sustainability and science”. It also constitutes an opportunity to assess the efficacy of the adopted approaches and plans to meet common challenges. Allow me in this regard to briefly mention my country’s efforts to establish the foundations of the rule of law and good governance, consolidate social cohesion, rehabilitate people and preserve their dignity and health as a way of creating the conditions for national renaissance and of overcoming obstacles to progress and prosperity. Our country has taken important steps on the path to perpetuating the values of equality and justice; promoting democracy and individual and collective freedoms, including freedom of the press; adopting dialogue and consultation as a method for managing public affairs; and actively involving civil society in development strategies. It has also enshrined the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary, and enabled Parliament to fully exercise its oversight and accountability role. Transparency has been adopted in the conduct of public affairs, the exploitation of national wealth and the development of legal and regulatory mechanisms that guarantee the eradication of corruption and bribery. Our country has also strengthened efforts to protect and promote human rights by combating new forms of slavery and human trafficking. With regard to strengthening social cohesion, my country’s Government, guided by His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, has implemented important programmes to consolidate national unity and support and do justice to poor and vulnerable groups. These include exercising control over the prices of basic materials, ensuring their ongoing supply to the market and preventing speculation, in addition to covering medical insurance for 15 per cent of the population as a first step towards covering all of them. Moreover, our country is providing the necessary assistance to more than 85,000 refugees from the sister Republic of Mali in the Ambra camp in south-eastern Mauritania, in cooperation with the relevant United Nations representations accredited in Mauritania. Within the framework of investing in human capital, extensive programmes have been prepared to train and rehabilitate young people, enable them to enter the labour market and protect them from extremism. The empowerment of women and their strong participation in political life and the conduct of public affairs have also been enhanced. In the same context, our country has embarked on a promising reform process for our educational system, based on an accurate diagnosis of its deficiencies. All components of the educational community and stakeholders in the country have participated in its preparation, along with specialists. In the field of health care, our country has redoubled its efforts to care for the citizens’ health by expanding and improving the supply of health services and ensuring access to high-quality medicines, all at a time when serious efforts are being made to strengthen and diversify the national economy and make it more resilient and able to withstand shocks and emergency crises. Our country, Mauritania, has been keen to develop a comprehensive approach to combating terrorism and various forms of extremism that takes the security, ideological, economic and social dimensions into account. In that context, we have worked with our regional and international partners to intensify consultation and coordination in its implementation, with all due respect for human rights. As an embodiment of this vision, we consider the Group of Five for the Sahel to be an indispensable framework for confronting terrorism and achieving balanced and comprehensive development in the region. Therefore, we call for it to be supported in its efforts to overcome the obstacles currently in its path. In the field of the environment and sustainable development, our country is focused on renewable energies. The percentage of clean energy has reached 40 per cent of the total energy we consume, and efforts are continuing to raise that percentage to achieve the set goals. In this field, Mauritania is working hard to benefit from its enormous natural capacities, represented by an abundance of wind and sunlight, to produce green hydrogen in a way that supports local industries and serves the country’s economic and social development. We have also achieved important results in our efforts to stop desertification and rehabilitate the areas damaged by it, as well as to rationalize the exploitation of our marine resources and restore the biodiversity of our ecosystem. In that context, my country has high hopes for the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in the sisterly Arab Republic of Egypt in November, and looks forward to the industrialized countries honouring their commitments to reducing emissions and the pledges they made at the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. My country, Mauritania, reiterates its ongoing support for just causes throughout in the world. We stress from this rostrum our adherence to the right of the Palestinian people to dignity and sovereignty within the framework of an independent State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and relevant resolutions. We reiterate our condemnation of the continuing Israeli violations of human rights in Palestine and the other Arab territories. We reaffirm our resolve to strive seriously to reach a political solution that preserves the unity and independence of the sisterly Syrian Arab Republic, the dignity of its people and their right to live in security and peace. We reiterate our support for legitimacy in brotherly Yemen and call for the pursuit of a peaceful solution, in accordance with Arab initiatives and relevant international resolutions. We reiterate our firm position on the conflict in Western Sahara and our support for the efforts of the United Nations and all relevant Security Council resolutions aimed at finding a solution sustainable and acceptable to all. We call for a solution that preserves the unity and sovereignty of the sisterly State of Libya, and support international efforts in this regard. We reiterate our support for efforts to restore the constitutional status in the sisterly Republic of Mali. We express our concern over the continuation of the war in Ukraine, and we call on the relevant parties to come to the negotiating table in order to find a solution that will end the war and spare the region and the world further tragedies and destruction.