As he is not personally able to participate in
this general debate, the President of the Republic of
Benin, Mr. Boni Yayi, has asked me to represent him.
At the outset, I would like congratulate the
President on his election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at its sixty-eighth session and, through him,
to honour his country, Antigua and Barbuda, for that
success, which demonstrates the trust that it enjoys
within the international community. I would also like
to congratulate the outgoing President, His Excellency
Mr. Vuk Jeremi., who demonstrated great leadership in
fulfilling his very busy term of office. I would also like
to thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his efforts
at the head of the world Organization, in particular
since January 2012, as part of the implementation of his
programme “The future we want” (resolution 66/288,
annex).
Benin fully supports the implementation of
that programme, which focuses on issues that are
fully consistent with the views and priorities of the
Governments of the least developed countries (LDCs),
in particular those of my Government with regard to
governance matters, namely, sustainable development
and preventing conflicts, disasters and violations of
human rights, as well as ensuring the participation of
all stakeholders in the management of public affairs.
Two years from the 2015 deadline established for
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), we can see that major efforts have been made
by States to achieve the Goals. Assessments conducted
at different levels have shown that least developed
countries are falling far behind in implementing the
Goals, in spite of the significant progress that has been
made.
Nevertheless, it is a fact that achieving the Goals
has become a top priority of my Government’s work
and mobilizes a significant share of available resources.
We should therefore welcome the campaign started in
April to commence the countdown of the last 1,000
days leading up to the 31 December 2015 deadline.
We have reason to hope that the new dynamic
and the new life that has been breathed into efforts of
the international community will enable significant
improvement in the performance of least developed
countries. Benin has taken that opportunity to develop
a road map that includes a stopwatch for the last 1,000
days in order to speed up the achievement of the Goals
by 2015. My country is one of 16 African countries
deemed able to achieve at least five of the eight MDGs
by that date.
I would like to commend the leadership of the
United Nations and its relevant bodies, as well as other
partner agencies, in mobilizing energies to assist States
in achieving the Goals. It is important to fully include
in the post-2015 development agenda those MDGs
that have not been achieved on time and give them top
priority in order to ensure there is continuity with the
new normative framework established by the United
Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held
in Rio de Janeiro and the demands that will result from
the goals currently being developed. In that regard, the
main theme for the general debate of the sixty-eighth
session — “The post-2015 development agenda: setting
the stage” — is quite timely and perfectly in line with
the consultations that have taken place at various levels
to develop that agenda.
Thanks to the meticulous clarification of issues and
challenges by the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons
on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, appointed by
the Secretary General to present recommendations
to him, we have a galvanizing vision and appropriate
materials to build a unique, coherent programme
regarding all those points, and pragmatic enough to
ensure that everybody on the planet is placed on a
sustainable development path so everyone can have
access to shared a prosperity that leaves no country or
person aside.
The post-2015 development agenda must be
universal in nature. It must also be broken down into
specific measures targeting reforms and corrective
measures needed to re-establish any balances that have
been upset or threatened. From that standpoint, it is
of crucial importance that the situations of greatest
current concern to the international community should
enjoy particular attention, as stipulated in principle 6 of
the 1992 Rio Declaration. We should therefore strongly
support what is stated in the Secretary-General’s report
entitled “A life of dignity for all” (A/68/202), that
the needs of the least developed and most vulnerable
countries should form the basis for defining the goals
of the programme.
It is a welcome fact that the situation in those
countries has already been the subject of significant
thinking, with key action programmes that cover
periods that go far beyond 2015. In that regard, the
Istanbul Programme of Action for the Least Developed
Countries for the Decade 2011-2020 is and should
be perceived as an integral part of the post-2015
development agenda. Its main aim is to ensure the
transition of half of the 49 least developed countries to
a higher-income level by 2020.
Against that backdrop, Benin is quite clear about
its responsibility as the head of the global coordination
bureau for the LDCs. We intend to propose the holding
of an international conference on the theme “New
partnerships for developing the productive capacities
of LDCs in the context of the implementation of the
Istanbul Programme of Action”, to be held in Cotonou
in April 2014. That effort already enjoys strong support
from the United Nations and some development partners
from diverse cooperation frameworks, whether they are
North-South, South-South or according to other types
of triangular partnerships. I appeal for goodwill to
help make that voluntary initiative a decisive turning
point in terms of mobilizing the necessary resources
to help least developed countries make the leap to
industrialization based on their competitive advantages.
That route offers LDCs a possibility for creating decent
jobs so they can make the most of their demographic
advantages and turn that into a factor for stability and
prosperity.
We must enhance the role of quality, relevant
and transformative education at the heart of the
social, economic and development agendas — an
education system focused on the real needs of society
and the modern world. In that regard, I welcome the
establishment by the Secretary-General of the Global
Education First initiative, which is a platform for
leading an open debate on the aims of education in
the current context and to prepare children for living
active, productive and personally enriching lives. That
is a prerequisite for meeting the challenge of social
inclusion of young people.
Benin has been honoured to participate actively
since February in the work of the group of Member States
championing the initiative. I urge the international
community to support that noble project, which is a
guarantee of adequate, inclusive training for youth. I
call on all countries to join the Initiative in order to
contribute to the collective thinking and its efficient
implementation.
At Rio de Janeiro we affirmed the inextricable
link that exists among the economic, social and
environmental pillars of sustainable development.
However, that vision will not materialize if we set aside
the existing relationship among peace, security and
development. We should invest more in guaranteeing
peace and security as an essential factor for sustainable
development. At a time when we are thinking about the
broad outlines of the post-2015 development agenda, we
should also forge a consensus on the path to follow and
the means to strengthen the bases of international law
pursuant to respect for the essential principles of the
Charter of United Nations, to which all States Member
of the Organization have freely acceded.
We must constantly strive to bolster the ramparts of
peace; without them, any development will be in vain,
in the light of the destruction that comes from conflicts
triggered by their violation. I would take as an example
the atrocities that we see, sometimes at a frightening
level, such as what occurred in Syria with the use of
banned chemical weapons, which we condemn in the
firmest possible terms.
We must reinforce the clout of the international
regulatory regimes and make progress in the area
of disarmament, whose paralysis carries great risk
for humankind. In that regard, too, we welcome the
conclusion of the Arms Trade Treaty.
We must better harness the mechanisms for the
peaceful settlement of disputes and conflict prevention.
The partnership between the United Nations and
regional organizations is a valuable tool for building
a more integrated and solidarity-based world. That
solidarity must be clearly displayed against the rise of a
violent extremism that is increasingly dangerous when
it takes root in our societiees by associating itself with
transnational organized crime networks.
All those all equally pressing challenges that the
international community needs to address. We would
benefit from adopting a preventive and proactive, as
well as healing, approach in order to improve the health
of our planet and constantly expand the vital space
necessary for ensuring that humans flourish, if we
really want to ensure the universal access to peace and
shared prosperity that we all so sorely want.
The very encouraging way in which the crisis in
Mali was managed is to the credit of the partnership
between the United Nations and regional organizations.
It proved what the international community can achieve
if it uses its levers of our collective security system in
time. Benin has been honoured to take an active part,
alongside other African countries, in the noble mission
of rebuilding the State in Mali.
The election of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita
is the start of a new era where Mali is returning to the
family of free nations struggling to bring happiness to
their peoples. In that connection, the policies adopted
in the United Nations integrated strategy for the Sahel
must be decisively implemented in order to transform
challenges into opportunities for growth and progress
for the peoples of the region for the certain benefit of
international peace and security.
We must also commend the efforts undertaken
to stabilize the countries of the Great Lakes region,
especially the Democratic People’s Republic of the
Congo, as well as Somalia, where the African Union
has shown its ability to restore and rebuild peace,
with, of course, the support of the United Nations. The
case of the Central African Republic gives us pause,
as it requires a commitment from the international
community commensurate with seriousness of the
current challenges.
The resurgence of piracy and armed robbery at sea
in the Gulf of Guinea has had an enormous impact on
the economies of the countries of the Atlantic coast and
in the hinterlands. The initiatives undertaken with the
support of the United Nations and the backing offered
by our bilateral partners have enabled us to set up
information-sharing centres pursuant to resolutions
2018 (2011) and 2039 (2012) of the Security Council. That
was the aim of the joint summit on maritime security
of the Heads of State and Government of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the
Economic Community of Central African States
(ECCAS) and the Commission of the Gulf of Guinea
that took place in Yaoundé on 24 and 25 June. That
followed the meeting of Foreign Ministers and Defence
Ministers of ECOWAS, ECCAS and the Gulf of Guinea
Commission that took place in Cotonou on 18 and
19 March. After Yaoundé, there was the Malabo summit
of the Heads of State of the Gulf of Guinea Commission
held on 9 July, which took the historic decision to open
the Gulf of Guinea Commission to all States in the area
of the Gulf of Guinea, which gives the arrangements an
inclusive technical consultation framework.
Strengthening regional cooperation means that
we need to set up an international support mechanism
to improve cost-sharing in order to guarantee lasting
results. It is important for the Security Council to adopt
a new resolution to that effect.
More than ever, the United Nations must stand firm
in its role as the best forum for a fruitful multilateralism,
where different initiatives come together to give the
necessary impetus for more inclusive and less unjust
global governance that finds comprehensive, lasting
solutions to crises of every stripe that trouble the world
with disastrous repercussions on human security and
human rights.
The delays in the establishment of a Palestinian State
with all the attributes of an independent and sovereign
State, including full membership in the United Nations,
living side by side with the State of Israel within secure
borders and with full international guarantees is still a
subject of concern. In that regard, Benin welcomes the
efforts of the Obama Administration that have led to
the renewal of dialogue between the Palestinians and
Israelis.
Along the same lines, the paralysis in the United
Nations with respect to different political and military
crises shows how urgent it is to reform the international
system, in particular the Security Council. Achieving
that reform would be real proof of the commitment
of the United Nations to inclusive and less polemic
management of the great problems of today.
The Government of Benin is firmly committed
to the universality, indivisibility and interdependence
of all human rights, which it considers to be the
third pillar of the United Nations system. They are
considerations that govern our participation in the
work of the Human Rights Council, where we strive to
promote a correlation between the behaviour of States
and the international obligations they have undertaken
through a mutual open dialogue and mutually enriching
cooperation as the most effective way for developing
and protecting universally recognized human rights
and the fight against impunity.
Governments must undertake to create more
cohesion between stakeholders and to ensure
understanding and consensus on essential matters
and avoid internal divisions that undermine the State
while negative forces are constantly striving to wreak
havoc. My Government is committed to strengthening
the principles of democracy and the implementation of
effective local development policies. My Government
remains convinced that promoting, developing and
shoring up democracy, far from being a luxury, is a
vital and unavoidable necessity for all African States.
That is why Benin is striving each day to find the
ways and means to strengthen and streamline its political
system so as to permanently anchor it in universal
values. I remain convinced that democracy can be
viable and useful for the people only if it contributes to
development, to promoting the dignity and fundamental
rights of citizens, to strengthening social justice and to
maintaining peace and international security.
In conclusion, I would like to express the compassion
of the people of Benin to the brotherly people of Kenya
for the tragedy they have experienced following the
recent terrorist attack. The same compassion goes out
to all those people in the world who are suffering from
intolerance and its attendant violence.