I
would like first of all to pay tribute to you, Sir, for
your election as President of the General Assembly at
its sixty-fifth session, and wish you every success as
you carry out your duties in that role. Cape Verde
offers you its full support.
I also appreciate the commitment of and the very
fruitful work carried out by his predecessor,
Ambassador Ali Abdussalam Treki, who was able to
lead the Assembly during its sixty-fourth session with
remarkable dynamism.
We confirm our support for the Secretary-
General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, as he seeks to make the
United Nations system ever more effective in working
for the legitimate aspirations of the peoples of the
world to peace, dignity and progress.
Our theme this year is reaffirming the central role
of the United Nations in global governance. The points
which I shall develop relate to that theme, which is a
cross-cutting issue par excellence.
First of all, we have to save the planet. To do that
would seem self-evident — here everybody would
seem to agree — yet if one considers the negotiations
underway with reference to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, there is a
tendency towards pessimism rather than optimism.
Scientists have for some time now shown that our
planet seriously risks not being able to provide for life
in all in its plenitude because of the consequences of
global warming. We know today that time to act
effectively is running out.
The participants at the Copenhagen Summit left
knowing that there was no time left for quibbling. We
said that last year here ourselves. Now is the time for
us to take concerted, coherent and systematic action, so
that we can substantially reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, slow down global warming and avoid a rise
in the sea level which could jeopardize vast coastal
regions of the world, and in particular the small island
developing States, which are particularly vulnerable
and suffer first-hand the consequences of increasingly
frequent and extreme inclement weather.
Cape Verde is a State of the Sahel. For a long
time, therefore, we have faced drought, desertification
and dramatic water scarcity. Those phenomena strongly
influence what we do to preserve the environment and
achieve human development.
We are seeking to adapt to and reduce the impact
of climate change, whether it be in the specific terms
of land reclamation and water conveyance or in the
development of renewable energy, all of which are part
of our national growth dynamics, alongside education,
health, employment, infrastructure and so on.
We are in process of implementing an ambitious
programme to use surface water by building dams and
reservoirs to support the modernization of agriculture,
the development of livestock farming and food
processing — all of which will help farmers
everywhere. Following the food crisis of two years
ago, , similar efforts were made in Africa and small
island developing States to help farmers make a profit,
help the economy make progress and help countries
face the challenges of climate change. Financing,
without which there would be many failures, projects
would be abandoned and obstacles would remain
insurmountable, was a key factor. So we need quickly
to set up the financing announced within the fast-track
framework. Time is running out.
We believe that the international community,
particularly the developed countries and large
emerging countries, must address the increased threat
to global security and the repercussions for everybody
of the devastating consequences of natural disasters
and must continue to support the specific dynamics
affecting the most vulnerable States with respect to
climate change in the areas of mitigation and
adaptation and help them minimize the risks
threatening them in the present situation, knowing that
some of them are already facing the problems of
population shifts and forced migration.
Solidarity is not a meaningless word for people
who live on islands. For some individuals, it is a
question of survival; for nations, it is a question of
their continued existence as peoples. Let us not offer
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up the weakest as sacrificial lambs, for tomorrow all of
us may be in a similar situation. Let us also not forget
that conflicts resulting from water scarcity on the
planet are foreseeable, which should be a major
concern that we must start tackling as of today.
We wish to reaffirm here that the ocean, which is
for our island country our vital environment, our
civilization and our inspiration, as well as our potential
for the future, must be protected and preserved. Just a
few days ago, with six coastal countries in West Africa
and Norway, we signed an agreement that will help us
collectively to better manage this huge common
potential and to keep watch over the protection of our
ocean interests. With the coastal States along the
Atlantic Ocean, particularly those in the southern
Atlantic, we confirm our resolve to make it an area for
trade and active solidarity, not unfair competition.
Instead of making the ocean just one more element to
be gobbled up by human greed, let us try to preserve its
unique value as a precious container of life and
guardian of the hopes of the planet.
We must protect and empower women. We firmly
believe that one of the major revolutions to be made in
our time is the one enabling women to truly become
full and equal partners with men in their shared quest
for progress. In Cape Verde, we have made substantial
gains in gender equality and equity, but there are still
major challenges. For example, in our current
Government consisting of 14 Ministers, eight of them
are women. The report on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) for 2010 shows that Cape
Verde has achieved gender parity in primary and
secondary education. Indeed, in some cases, there are
more girls than boys in school.
Major investment in maternal and infant health
means that 98 per cent of births are in a hospital
environment with specialized assistants. Yet, 25 per
cent of women suffer from domestic abuse. In
Parliament and in local authorities, there are few
women participating. Poverty and unemployment affect
more women than men. We continue to work on this
issue, and we think we are going in the right direction.
UN Women, recently launched by Economic and
Social Council, is a universal entity charged principally
with overcoming the obstacles that prevented the four
formerly separate bodies working in the gender area
from responding more effectively to challenges in the
area of gender equality and the empowerment of
women.
UN Women is part of the effort to reform the
United Nations begun nearly two decades ago with a
view towards strengthening system-wide coherence.
We would like to congratulate Ms. Michelle Bachelet
and assure her of Cape Verde’s support in her new
duties to defend, promote and empower women. We
believe that the robustness of her mandate and her
potential role of catalyst for the new entity should
encourage donors to respond positively to meet its
funding needs.
We must continue to work for peace. The
evolving international situation with groups of States
coming together to discuss major regional and global
issues and to propose solutions is evidence of a trend
that, despite everything, is struggling to show its
efficiency and cannot seem to reduce the worry of
some and the doubts of others.
We continue to believe that the United Nations,
where each one of us has his or her place, can play a
truly effective part by ensuring going forward so that
its dynamism is maintained, its mission is clearly
defined, and we all share in the responsibilities and the
decision-making. It is our universal institution that
brings together the essential conditions for handling
the problems of the world and that has been endowed
with the necessary collective responsibility.
Accordingly, the huge mission of promoting and
ensuring better and more effective global governance is
a job that must be carried out by the United Nations.
World peace remains a distant goal, and the
hotbeds of tension, far from abating, persist, ever
closer. Conflicts weaken entire regions, creating
refugees and displaced persons by the millions,
paralysing economies, destroying infrastructure and
obliterating decades of work aimed at promoting
education, health and justice for the people. Sometimes
the very concept of the human being seems to be
vanishing, giving way to an era of modern slaves who
can be moulded and exploited at will. Women suffer
sexual violence, which has become a weapon of war,
and child soldiers are often deployed unscrupulously as
combatants by both sides.
The United Nations, in this arena as in others, is
still the central element, functioning as the collective
conscience of the community of nations, dedicated to
managing our communal actions and finding solutions
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of consensus and cooperation. In this light, the
revitalization of the United Nations seems a
requirement of our time, inviting the participation of
all.
Cape Verde has always favoured universal and
total disarmament. It wishes to help create a world
where fear of the other is replaced by the need to
cooperate with the other and a recognition of the other
as a necessary, complementary partner. We continue to
believe, for instance, in the future of talks between
Israel and the Palestinians, and we continue to hope
that we will see a Middle East with two independent
States living side by side in peace and security. But
restoring credibility to the Middle East peace process
requires, more than anything else, that the parties
honour their own obligations, which derive from their
commitments and from decisions and resolutions
agreed to here in the United Nations. From this point of
view, putting an end to hostilities in Gaza and on
Israeli soil, halting settlement in the occupied
territories, dismantling the wall and ending the
blockade seem to us incontrovertible imperatives. We
ardently hope that the new talks will bring us closer to
peace.
Organized crime is a scourge that my country is
fighting directly, with the support of many of our
partners. Drug traffickers now swarm into our West
African subregion, threatening the stability of our
countries and destroying our efforts towards regional
stability and peace for our peoples. A determined
battle, uniting producing nations, nations of transit and
consumer nations, must be vigorously and tirelessly
waged. We must not allow drugs to turn our children
into pariahs, the unfortunate victims of dirty money.
Human rights are at stake in that struggle for our
children to live and flourish free of the influence of
drugs, so that tomorrow they may become citizens of
the world.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century
things are evolving in all spheres — and especially in
international politics — because of circumstances and
events, but also because of the political will of the
most enlightened. Is it not time to put an end to
situations that are now obsolete vestiges of the cold
war and the Second World War, such as in the case of
Cuba? The isolation and blockade are sources of
tension and frustration and can hardly serve as the
basis for new hope. Generations are changing, attitudes
are evolving and the aspirations of the young are
different now. New generations have the right to a
future of peace, understanding and healthy exchange.
Let us show the wisdom to offer them a world worthy
of their dreams and aspirations.
We must innovate for the future. When we
became one of the eight pilot countries for the
Delivering as One experiment in 2006, we wanted, of
course, to benefit from positive impact of such a leap
forward in this way in our relations with the various
United Nations agencies. We also wanted to participate
in reforming the United Nations system, so that it
could better meet the demands of the world today.
Moreover, our Government believes that reform means
simplifying the well-known United Nations
bureaucracy. Today we are witnessing real progress and
clear mutual benefits. The funds allotted to our country
are increasing, the effectiveness of the various agencies
is improving, there is a real sense of ownership, and
there is also leadership by the Government and
dynamic synergy among all the parties involved —
pointing us ever forward on this path. The recent
meeting of the eight pilot countries in Hanoi was a
success, and we eagerly await new additions to the
family.
Since independence 35 years ago, Cape Verde has
made great strides in human development and has
become a middle-income country. Between 1990 and
2007 our human development index rose from 0.589 to
0.708. Per capita income, barely $300 per year at the
time of our independence, is now $3,041 per year.
School enrolment stands at 96 per cent. Illiteracy has
been reduced to 18.5 per cent, declining as much for
women as for men. We project 6 per cent growth for
the year 2010.
We have achieved much in education, health and
political participation thanks to our Government’s
policy aimed at eradicating poverty and achieving food
security and gender equality and equity. In the last
decade poverty has dropped from 49 per cent in 1989
to 36.7 per cent in 2002 to 26 per cent in 2007.
Estimates predict a poverty rate in 2010 of 24 per cent.
That progress is the result of investing in people.
Education and vocational training are the strategic axes
of our governance and take up over half of our State
budget. We have also invested in health and social
security. Moreover, the Government is following a
strategy of making the country an international service
provider, so that it can compete in the world economy
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and accelerate growth and job creation, thereby
increasing family income and significantly decreasing
poverty.
While we know that we must act quickly and
decisively to save the planet, we seem to drag our feet
when it comes to matching concrete actions to our
words. While we proclaim the virtues of equality
between men and women and gender parity — and
their positive effects on development and therefore on
peace and security — we still note that substantial
political will at the national level and a determined
drive at the international level are still needed to push
forward the fight to make women full partners in the
future of the world. If peace is everywhere considered
a fundamental, legitimate aspiration of peoples and
nations, and indeed a universal necessity, it is no less
true that it must be won every day, and that millions of
human beings wake to the sound of guns and wonder
every night if they will see the next morning or if their
family will still be alive. Peace can no longer be a
utopian dream or a fragile, always tentative reality, as
in the Middle East, Central Africa or other places in the
world.
In an increasingly interdependent and threatened
world, we need to give our collective energies a chance
and not seclude ourselves in a defeatist attitude of
isolation, bereft of any future. We must be innovative
in our ways of thinking, in our political ideas and in
our vision of the State. We must be innovative and
carry our innovation into our inter-State relations and
our defence of our own interests, so as to promote
equity and democracy in international relations,
promote a greater awareness of fair exchange and
justice in the relations of States and thereby foster
security for all, in a multilateralism driven by the
contributions of all members of the international
community, thus preserving the hope for peace all
around the world.
All the great revealed religions talk of hope and
compassion. Will those universal values be condemned
to remain the poor relations of international politics?
Let us make of their inspired message the bedrock of
our international relations. Let us make the individual
human the centre of our national concerns and our
global interests. That is the basis, it seems to me, of the
responsibility to protect that we proclaim here in this
Hall. Let us make that message a harbinger of the
future for our nations and our peoples, for now more
than ever our destinies are shared and tied to our
Mother Earth. Humankind is humankind’s best
medicine, an old African proverb tells us. We can be if
we want to be.