As we
open this session of the General Assembly the world is
still facing problems of peace and security, crises,
conflicts, inequality among States, poverty, hunger and
disease. To those recurrent problems are added new
challenges, such as climate change, natural disasters,
terrorism, piracy, transnational organized crime, human
trafficking, nuclear proliferation and the world
economic and financial crisis. All these many issues by
their very nature call out to the whole of the
international community and demand global,
collective, coordinated solutions.
The United Nations because of its global nature
offers now more than ever the best framework for
finding lasting solutions. To do that, we need a strong,
reformed Organization that can respond to the new
demands of our time. In this connection, my delegation
welcomes the new entity UN Women and the
appointment at its head of the former President of
Chile, Michelle Bachelet — a brilliant woman, to
whom I wish every success.
We will need to work with determination to bring
about the reforms necessary to restore to the United
Nations its operation as a global Organization and to
make it a real instrument of world governance. The
process must continue with reform of the Security
Council, both in its membership and its working
methods. Also we should continue to deal with the
matter of how to strengthen the General Assembly and
its role.
The High-level Plenary Meeting on the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that ended
22 September culminated in the adoption of an
outcome document (resolution 65/1) that exhorts us to
keep our promises. We welcome it. Indeed, we must
unite to attain these Goals. As I said at that time, just
two days ago, Congo’s commitment to reaching the
MDGs remains firm.
While ten years after the Goals were announced
the overall results in achieving them are mixed,
especially in Africa, it is nevertheless undeniable that
major advances have been made in Africa during that
same period in such other essential areas as peace,
security and democracy. Africa as a whole is
increasingly emerging from a cycle of armed conflicts
that have greatly worked against its forward progress
towards development and prosperity. Today, thanks to
the efforts of the African Union, the backing of the
international community and the involvement of
African leaders themselves, many conflicts have been
or are being resolved. With that in mind, 2010 has been
named a year of peace and security in Africa.
Despite difficulties encountered here and there in
carrying out electoral processes, in a general way
democracy is undeniably making a home in Africa. In
Gabon and Burundi, to mention only those two
countries, the popular will has expressed itself freely.
We nurture the hope that the elections upcoming in the
next months, notably in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, the
Niger, Nigeria, the Central African Republic and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, will play out in a
climate of calm. That is likewise our hope for the
referendum to be held in South Sudan, as called for in
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. In this
connection we call on the international community to
continue supporting that process until it is completed.
On the subject of Central Africa, the United
Nations Office about to open will provide an additional
tool, besides existing mechanisms, to promote good
governance and build peace, cooperation and
development. In the same vein of building confidence
and peace in our subregion, from 15-19 November
Brazzaville will be hosting the thirty-first meeting of
the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on
Security Questions in Central Africa. On that occasion
the States of the subregion will seal their commitment
to fight the traffic in small arms and light weapons, by
signing the Kinshasa Convention.
Since the tragic events that brought such
suffering to my country in the 1990s and early 2000s,
the Congolese Government has invested in the quest
for peace and national reconciliation, and works to
preserve that precious accomplishment. Moreover, our
good neighbour policy — a policy we have always
advocated — is one of the pillars of our foreign policy.
It is evident today in the way in which we are handling
the humanitarian crisis resulting from the arrival in our
territory of over 100,000 nationals from Équateur
Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The signing this past 10 June of the tripartite accord
among the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo and the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees should make
possible an imminent resolution of the problem and
contribute to stabilizing the situation in our brother
country so in need of peace and security, especially on
the eve of its elections.
10-54965 56
Here I would like to thank the all the bilateral and
multilateral partners, namely France, Italy, the United
States of America, the World Food Programme and the
Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, for all
the assistance they have graciously given us.
We have just dedicated a high-level segment to
biodiversity in this year 2010, which has been
proclaimed the International Year of Biodiversity. Yet
another new challenge of our age, biodiversity is
crucial to life on earth and holds especial interest for
the Congo, since we are one of the countries that
houses the Congo Basin, a major carbon sink. We have
no doubt that the results of this segment will resonate
into the upcoming meetings in Nagoya, Japan, in
October and in Cancún, Mexico, in November and
December.
The President of our Republic, Denis Sassou
Nguesso, holds the question of biodiversity to be of
critical global importance, because tropical forests play
a vital role in regulating and stabilizing the global
climate and generally in providing environmental
services. In this context, the Copenhagen Agreement,
which took into account the process of reducing
emissions from deforestation and degradation, known
as REDD-plus, represented the culmination of major
efforts deployed by the three forest basins, the Amazon
Basin in South and Central America, the Congo Basin
in Central Africa and the Mekong Basin in South-East
Asia.
With our partners in dialogue and cooperation of
the Forest eleven tropical rainforest countries, the
Republic of the Congo reaffirms its will and
determination to meet the challenges of conservation
and the promotion of biodiversity. Such an effort can
bring about lasting results only if it is supported by
additional financing that is sustainable and predictable.
The question of human rights is also on the
agenda for this session. My Government promotes
human rights because they are so closely related to
peace and development. With regard to human rights,
the Congo has always acted within the process of
international legitimacy. That is evident in the
philosophy underpinning our Constitution, in what we
do on a day-to-day basis and in our extensive
participation in the relevant international instruments.
Domestically, besides promulgating a law on the
protection of the child in the Republic of the Congo,
our Parliament will shortly adopt a bill on promoting
and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, which
the Government has just submitted to it. The Republic
of the Congo has undertaken a number of initiatives in
this field, thus taking an important step towards
recognizing, defending and protecting the rights of
minorities. Next November, the Special Rapporteur on
the situation of human rights and fundamental
freedoms of indigenous people will visit Brazzaville.
That will be an opportune moment for dialogue and
consultations on matters related to indigenous peoples.
It should also help us speed up the implementation of
recommendations of the universal periodic review, a
Human Rights Council mechanism of which my
country was the subject from 6 to 8 May 2009 in
Geneva.
My country is a candidate for membership in the
Human Rights Council for the period from 2011 to
2014, and we thus reaffirm our commitment to
fulfilling our international commitments and to
supporting efforts of the international community to
strengthening those rights. I therefore take this
opportunity to appeal for the Assembly’s support for
our candidacy in the elections, which will be held in
May 2011.
On 15 August 2010, my country celebrated the
fiftieth anniversary of its independence. The day was
devoted to the theme of remembering, but also and
above all, of responsibilities and action. On that
occasion, the Government announced a number of
socio-economic measures to benefit our people. Those
measures were made possible by the release of
additional financial resources following the significant
foreign debt relief because of Congo’s accession to the
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.
Those measures are part of the Government’s resolve
to move towards attaining the Millennium
Development Goals.
Such an enabling situation will allow my country
to lay the foundations for an emerging economy.
Indeed, it is President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s
ambition to make Congo a modern and prosperous
State that plays its part in the family of free modern
nations. But that ambition, however legitimate, can be
achieved only in a world that is safer, more just and
with more solidarity.
More than ever before, we must return to the
ideals that inspired the founding fathers of the League
of Nations and the United Nations. We must place the
57 10-54965
moral values and the deep aspirations of our peoples at
the heart of our work. This is the world that we all
aspire to. This is the world that we should strive to
build in this Hall.