At
the outset, allow me to convey to Mr. Joseph Deiss, on
behalf of my country, our heartfelt congratulations on
his election to the presidency of the General Assembly
at this session. His proven experience and skill will
ensure that our deliberations are successful. I thank his
predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki,
for the excellent manner in which he discharged his
mandate. To the Secretary-General, His Excellency
Mr. Ban Ki-moon, I reiterate the support of Gabon for
his tireless involvement in building a world that is
more free, just and united.
I take this opportunity to express from this
rostrum my gratitude to all here and the entire
international community for the solidarity they
extended to the people of Gabon when my predecessor,
the late President Omar Bongo Ondimba, passed away.
I am also grateful for the many forms of support
extended to us throughout Gabon’s process of
democratic transition, which has highlighted the
credibility and reliability of our institutions and our
people’s sense of responsibility.
For almost a year now, I have engaged Gabon in
broad-ranging economic, social and political reforms
centred on promoting our environmental heritage and
industrial sector and on making the service sector more
dynamic. When I took office, I presented the three
strategic pillars of an emergent Gabon: Green Gabon,
Industrial Gabon and Services Gabon.
By putting Green Gabon at the head of that list, I
wanted to underscore the central role that this sector
will play in Gabon’s economy. I see Green Gabon as a
cross-cutting approach that underlies our overall
development strategy. Industrial Gabon draws upon
efforts to promote our natural resources, while
respecting the basic principles of environmental
preservation. Services Gabon highlights the country’s
ownership of new information and communications
technology, the promotion of tourism, transportation
improvements and the development of human
resources.
In the light of this vision, we have established a
climate council to mainstream the issues of climate
change into our national development policies. In the
same vein, we have just entered into a partnership with
Brazil and with France to establish a satellite imaging
facility to monitor the forest cover of the Congo basin,
which comprises more than 2 million square kilometres
of equatorial rainforest.
The many initiatives in which I have engaged my
country are aimed in particular at improving
governance, fighting corruption, reducing State
expenses and preserving the environment, all of which
requires international support. We bear in mind, of
course, that our future depends above all upon our own
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efforts to manage our resources, achieve good
governance and serve the greater good.
Beyond our desire to mobilize further national
and international resources, we continue to be firmly
committed to the quest for peace and security, both
regionally and globally. Through our membership in
the Security Council, we are fully shouldering our
responsibilities and making our contribution to the
quest for a world that can look to the future with
confidence.
The theme of our debate gives us yet another
opportunity to assess the role of the United Nations in
global governance. Our world still bears the scars of
the terrible financial and economic crisis of 2008,
which spared no country. The rapid and robust
mobilization of the international community, and the
United Nations in particular, in the face of this crisis
demonstrated its ability to respond when it is motivated
and supported by genuine political will. Such
international solidarity should be made systematic, and
we hope it will be renewed in efforts to deal with the
emerging challenges that we face today.
Given the complexity of the new crises we face
today, we need to design a new approach to conflict
management. Peacekeeping has not had just successes;
quite the contrary, there are many cases in which, for
lack of resources and ambition, the United Nations has
been unable to intervene and thus abandoned
defenceless populations to rebels and other armed
groups.
It is time for us to move beyond peacekeeping so
that we can adopt, when circumstances require, a
philosophy of imposing peace. We need to give
ourselves the capacity to deploy robust peace missions
commensurate with the nature of the conflicts that
continue to destabilize certain States. Peacekeeping in
and of itself will not be able to meet the challenges of
security. I reiterate my call for a culture of conflict
prevention, which has the advantage of both averting
many casualties and saving the modest resources that
are so necessary to our countries’ development.
The quest for peace and security remains a
constant concern in Africa and elsewhere. The
imminent referendum on Southern Sudan appears to be
clouded with uncertainties. Indeed, the hope of a
political settlement to that thorny regional issue is
paralleled by the fear of the balkanization of a
continent that has already suffered too many divisions.
The stakes in the Sudan today perhaps foreshadow a
cycle that will mark Africa’s future. I appeal to the
parties and the international community, in the interests
of the populations involved, to take full stock of their
responsibility to ensure the success of a process
leading up to the referendum.
Here, I commend the commitment of the United
Nations and the African Union to supporting the
implementation of the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement, to which my country remains committed.
Specifically with respect to Darfur, I call on all parties
to be further involved in the Doha political process. I
take this opportunity to pay tribute to the State of Qatar
for its efforts to that end.
In Somalia, I commend the support of the United
Nations for the efforts of the African Union Mission in
Somalia to put an end to instability in that country.
Yesterday’s mini-summit on the situation in that
country attested to the United Nations ongoing interest
in reaching a settlement on the question of Somalia.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the
reconfiguration of the mandate of the United Nations
Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo — now
the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — essentially
aimed at enhancing protection for civilian populations,
should be highlighted. It demonstrates the willingness
of the United Nations to adapt to changing situations
on the ground. I call on the countries of the region and
the international community to support the efforts of
the Congolese Government in its determination to
ensure security and stability throughout its territory.
With respect to the situation in Western Sahara, I
encourage the parties to restart the Manhasset talks,
under the auspices of the Secretary-General, in order to
end the current stalemate and move towards a political
solution acceptable to all.
Finally, with respect to Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea,
Niger and Madagascar, I urge the international
community to support them in holding free, democratic
elections in accordance with the various arrangements
reached to that end.
The search for peace in the Middle East is
another area of concern to the international community.
I commend the diplomatic efforts undertaken by the
United States, which have brought about the
resumption of direct talks between Israelis and
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Palestinians. I also thank the other Quartet members
and Egypt for their involvement in that process. It is
my hope that these consultations will continue and lead
to the establishment of a Palestinian State, living side
by side with Israel within secure and internationally
recognized borders.
The terrorist threat, unfortunately, continues to
weigh heavily on international peace and security. No
nation large or small is spared. Defeating this scourge
will require effective cooperation among all Member
States, with the assistance of the United Nations and its
specialized institutions. We will also need to give
ongoing attention to other cross-cutting threats to
international peace and security, such as piracy, the
proliferation of weapons, drug trafficking and
transnational organized crime. We commend the efforts
already undertaken by the United Nations in this area,
particularly the strengthening of the legal regime and
mechanisms to counter those threats.
With respect to the issue of climate change,
together with other heads of State and Government in
Copenhagen, I undertook the quest for a consensus on
the idea of a legally binding instrument. We support the
negotiations undertaken in Copenhagen and continued
in Bonn and hope that they will lead, in Cancún, to the
reaffirmation of the commitments taken, particularly in
terms of financing for the fight against climate change
in developing countries and the 20 per cent reduction
of greenhouse gasses in the industrialized countries by
2020.
The advancement of women is undeniably one of
the areas in which the United Nations has made
genuine progress. The recent establishment of a new
institution called UN Women, the primary mission of
which is to better coordinate all the activities related to
gender issues, clearly illustrates the fact that our
Organization is addressing this concern. I take this
opportunity to convey my sincere congratulations to an
extraordinary woman, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, for her
appointment as head of this new entity.
Given the many challenges facing humanity, we
owe it to ourselves to work together in a coordinated
manner to provide a global response that matches the
aspirations of our peoples. The universality of the
United Nations symbolizes the shared destiny of the
world’s people, and the Organization thus has a central
role to play, both in global governance and in the
emergence of a more just economic and social order.
From that standpoint, I reaffirm the need to adapt our
Organization to the changing international context.
Revitalizing the work of the General Assembly,
reforming the Security Council and ensuring the
coherence of the United Nations system are areas that
have to be dealt with to strengthen the central role of
our Organization.
At a time when we are realigning our common
efforts with the current international environment and
when democratizing global governance is emerging as
a necessity, I would like to reaffirm, from this rostrum,
Africa’s aspiration to fully take its place among the
family of nations. We fervently call for the
democratization of the United Nations system in order
to adapt it to today’s realities.
Indeed, we believe that it is an anachronism that
Africa is under international pressure to reaffirm
democratic values while those same laudable values
cannot be applied within our own Organization. I
believe the time has come for Africa to shoulder all its
responsibilities, stop its continual reliance on
assistance from its partners and take its own destiny in
hand. This affirmation of Africa’s place on the
international scene leads me to call for its permanent
presence in the Security Council. We are prepared to
meet that challenge in order to treat the wounds of a
history replete with injustices done to the continent.
Beyond the democratization of the United
Nations system, which we wholeheartedly call for, the
credibility of our efforts also requires that we meet the
development promises made to humankind.
Africa’s destiny assuredly hangs on compliance
with the commitments undertaken in Monterrey,
Gleneagles, Doha, Paris and, more recently, in
Muskoka and Toronto. Those commitments should not
be postponed indefinitely.
As humanity is one in its essence and varied in its
forms, it is important that the management of the
world’s affairs be done with the collaboration of all, in
order to ensure that the generations to come can look to
the future with confidence.