It is my singular
honour to extend my congratulations to you, Sir, on
your assumption of the presidency of the General
Assembly. I wish to assure you of the full support and
cooperation of my delegation in the discharge of your
onerous responsibilities. My commendation also goes
to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and his
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staff for their commitment to the advancement of the
work of this noble Organization.
As Member States, we continue to find refuge in
the provisions of the United Nations Charter and the
full assurance that, when we are individually faced
with insurmountable challenges and difficulties, we
draw from the collective strength of the international
community.
Working together for a common purpose, for the
common good is actually the sacredness of this, our
grand institution. In this regard, we must all remain
steadfast in our partnership on the agenda for poverty
eradication, the pursuit of international peace and
security, the combating of disease, the promotion of
youth empowerment and gender equality, the
promotion and protection of democracy, the rule of law
and human rights, personal advancement through
education, better health for all and harnessing
technology for sustainable development. It is on
account of this abiding faith and belief in the viability
and primacy of the United Nations that, in spite of our
resource limitations, we have over the years faithfully
fulfilled our obligations to this Organization.
The deliberations of the recently concluded High-
level Plenary Meeting on the review of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), our global blueprint for
monitoring universal progress towards shared
development goals, clearly cast light on our strengths,
weaknesses and vulnerabilities, individually and
collectively. For this reason we need to redouble our
efforts to accelerate the implementation of the MDGs
in the remaining five years.
Botswana is classified as an upper-middle-income
country. However, despite having enjoyed stability and
steady economic growth over a sustained period of
time, the country still has to contend with a plethora of
development challenges — ironically, in an
environment of diminished international development
assistance and support. The vulnerability of economies
such as that of my country became evident during the
triple global crises of food, energy and, most recently,
the world economic and financial meltdown. To this
end, we call for continued development assistance for
middle-income countries, lest their hard-earned gains
be reversed.
In this era of growing and complex global
challenges, the need for a more dynamic and proactive
global financial, economic and political architecture is
far more apparent than ever before. More specifically,
the recent crises point to an international monetary and
financial architecture that needs profound reform in
order to enhance its early-warning capabilities and
resistance to external shocks, as well as to facilitate the
integration of poorer countries into the global
economy.
Botswana welcomes the important milestones
achieved in strengthening United Nations operational
activities for development and improvements in
funding for development-related activities, as well as
in strengthening the institutional framework for the
gender architecture through the creation of the United
Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women — UN Women. The creation
of the Entity constitutes an important step in fulfilling
the commitments undertaken at the 1995 Beijing World
Conference on Women, whose main objective was the
promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of
women.
Botswana fully supports the strengthening of the
institutional capacity of the Peacebuilding
Commission. We believe that the role of the
Commission should be properly defined by a robust
mandate, through the amendment of the founding
resolutions and the provision of adequate resources in
order to enable it to effectively discharge its mandate.
On a related subject, we fully concur that
disarmament and non-proliferation are essential for the
promotion of international peace and security. To this
end, my delegation welcomes the progress made in
some areas but remains deeply concerned that the
Conference on Disarmament continues to be
deadlocked.
I wish to seize this opportunity to reaffirm
Botswana’s commitment to the objectives of the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which
we continue to demonstrate through effective
implementation of its provisions as well as compliance
with the decisions of the successive Review
Conferences. Consequently, Botswana associates itself
with the outcome of the 2010 Review Conference of
the States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation
of Nuclear Weapons. We fully support the call by
developing countries for the peaceful use of nuclear
technology in areas such as agriculture, the
environment, water management and medicine.
However, countries that intend to embark on such use
5 10-55122
of nuclear technology should do so in a transparent
fashion and in full cooperation with the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We therefore call for
increased financial support for the IAEA Technical
Cooperation Programme as well as for the Agency’s
capacity-building, in order to share technology
utilization in the relevant areas.
Botswana continues to be deeply concerned about
increasing threats to international peace and security.
As a peace-loving nation, we believe in the peaceful
resolution of conflicts. It is because of this strong
belief that we condemn, without reservation, all acts of
terrorism, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, on which
our well-known position remains unchanged. My
delegation does not believe that the 9/11 attack was
orchestrated by the United States of America.
One issue of deep concern to my delegation is the
erosion of democracy, respect for human rights and the
rule of law in some parts of the world. There is
therefore an urgent need for us to reverse this trend,
especially because it undermines all the efforts we
have made to date to launch our countries on a path of
peace, stability and sustainable development. To this
end, we commend the various civil society
organizations that have consistently sounded alarm
bells regarding incidents of human rights violations
whenever and wherever they occur.
My country is of the view that the International
Criminal Court needs to be supported in its efforts to
resolve outstanding cases of arrest warrants that have
been issued against persons indicted for the
commission of serious crimes. It is in this context that
Botswana remains resolute and steadfast in its support
for the work of the International Criminal Court. We
welcome the landmark decision of the Rome Statute
Review Conference held recently in Kampala, Uganda,
to extend the jurisdiction of the Court to cover the
crime of aggression.
Nowhere is our shared responsibility as members
of the international community more critical than in
protecting and nurturing our shared environment and
our planet, Earth. To this end, it is pertinent to point
out that climate change has increasingly become one of
humanity’s most daunting challenges. The devastating
natural disasters recently experienced in certain
quarters of our globe amply demonstrate our
vulnerability as inhabitants of the Earth.
I wish to seize this opportunity, on behalf of the
Government and the people of Botswana, and indeed
on my own account, to express our sympathy and
solidarity with all the countries that have been victims
of such disasters. We would like to extend our
condolences to all the families who lost their loved
ones and those whose property and livelihoods were
destroyed. We extend our profound appreciation to the
Governments as well as private sector and civil society
organizations that responded positively to the
international humanitarian appeal launched by the
United Nations on behalf of the affected countries. In
particular, we would like to recognize the countries
that led humanitarian interventions. We remain
optimistic that the next Conference of Parties to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change will achieve a successful outcome, one that
fully addresses the interests and concerns of both
developing and developed countries.
In conclusion, we pray that this sixty-fifth session
of the General Assembly will go down in history as
marking a milestone in efforts aimed at addressing the
most pressing global challenges of our time, as well as
bringing hope and inspiration to the billions in despair
throughout the world.