I would like to commend the election of His
Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss as President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session and to
welcome his excellent proposal for the main subject of
the general debate, “Reaffirming the central role of the
United Nations in global governance”. This is also part
of Ecuador’s policy of strengthening multilateralism.
To that end, we have continuously encouraged regional
integration as the logical response to an ancestral
heritage that never kept or defended borders between
friendly countries.
The wish for a united South America came to
fruition with the establishment of the Union of South
American Nations (UNASUR) as an area for genuine
integration aimed, inter alia, at eliminating inequality
and strengthening democracy. On 26 November,
Ecuador will hand over the pro tempore presidency,
which it has held since August of 2009, to our sister
country of Guyana. In the same vein, Ecuador has
fostered South-South cooperation as a mechanism for
development, encouraging cooperation among the
legitimate representatives of States parties. We believe
that countries must be heard and their requirements and
realities addressed, and that cooperation should be a
reality over the medium term.
I should stress that one of the most important
endeavours developed within this space was the
solidarity extended to the sister country of Haiti and its
legitimate Government for its reconstruction, to attain
the development it yearns for and to strengthen its
institutions as it deserves.
I wish to place special emphasis on the
importance we accord to the issue of climate change.
Ecuador is one of world’s 19 megadiverse countries. Its
Amazon forest boasts the Yasuní Park, declared by
UNESCO as a world biosphere reserve in 1989.
Scientists agree on the unique value of this park, for its
extraordinary biodiversity and state of conservation
and for the cultural heritage it holds. The park
concentrates Amazonia’s highest densities of
amphibian, mammal, bird and plant species. Yasuní is
also a Pleistocene reserve. There, species were not
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affected by glaciation, which preserved a process of
differentiated evolution of new species. Moreover, the
Yasuní National Park is the home of two indigenous
peoples that have opted to live in voluntary isolation
with respect to Western culture: the Tagaeri and the
Taromenane. Both belong to the Huaorani culture,
possessing age-old wisdom and cultural heritage.
The wealth of the park also extends underground.
In Yasuní there are oil resources from which Ecuador
could obtain 846 million barrels of heavy crude. Three
years ago, the President of Ecuador, the economist
Rafael Correa, launched the Yasuní-ITT Initiative
before this forum (see A/62/PV.7), which proposed
keeping that oil underground, unexploited. If we fulfil
this aspiration, we will prevent the emission of
407 million tons of carbon, the main cause of climate
change, and we will leave intact the planet’s richest
world biosphere reserve. To do this, we need to raise
global awareness and gain the relevant international
contribution, equivalent to at least half of the total
revenue of $3.6 billion that the State of Ecuador would
earn if it were to exploit the oil reserves.
Ecuador is a country that is making major efforts
to achieve development. But, as an act of generosity,
the people of Ecuador have decided not to receive
50 per cent of the income that this oil would generate,
so long as the international community makes the same
effort.
The Yasuní Initiative, as President Correa himself
has said, is not just symbolic. It is the most important
initiative for our country and for the entire planet. It
would protect one of the areas richest in biodiversity —
perhaps the richest in the world — and there is no
doubt that it would contribute to mitigating climate
change. The world will be able to assess the way of life
of Amazon peoples, in particular that of the most
vulnerable among them: the indigenous peoples in
voluntary isolation.
We have already created a capital fund
administered by the United Nations Development
Programme with the participation of the Ecuadorian
State, our civil society, and representatives of our
fellow contributing countries.
I call upon our brother countries throughout the
world, especially the industrialized countries, to
support the Yasuní Initiative and, acknowledging the
responsibility we all share for climate change, to seek
original solutions to a problem that threatens the very
survival of the human species. Ancestral Amerindian
wisdom teaches us that the Earth was not inherited
from our parents; rather, this magical creation is lent to
us by our children.
Ecuador has reached its targets related to the
Millennium Development Goals, and it continues to
promote them, including by setting an example for the
international community. However, I wish to state very
firmly that the Millennium Development Goals left out
a very significant segment of the population and that,
soon, they will reveal deficiencies in the social policies
of countries. I am speaking here of the excluded among
the excluded, the forgotten among the forgotten. I am
referring to people with disabilities.
Let us be clear: disability is not incapacity, but
rather diversity. As there is geographical, cultural or
bioclimatic diversity, there are also diverse capacities,
and that is where talent, heart, dedication, perseverance
and willingness lie. Ecuador has undertaken a
bio-psychosocial, clinical and genetic study of all
persons with disabilities in the country. We never in
our wildest dreams imagined what we would find in
that study: human beings left in holes in the ground, in
cages, with silence as their only company and death as
their only hope, human beings ashamed and shaming
others.
That situation no longer exists in Ecuador.
Although much remains to be done, we have already
accomplished much. As of now, we can locate via
satellite every person with disabilities in Ecuador who
needs help and provide them with the technical
assistance they need, accessible and dignified housing,
medical care, rehabilitation and integration in the
workforce and the education system. In addition, we
have created a subsidy, equivalent to a minimal living
wage, to acknowledge the work and the dedication of
those who care for persons with severe physical or
mental disabilities.
The expertise of the sister Republic of Cuba
played a significant role in the execution of this
detailed study. Cuba is perhaps the country that shows
the greatest solidarity in Latin America because, when
the time to help comes, they do not take into account
the fact that they still suffer under the most infamous,
illegal and illegitimate blockade in human memory,
and which Ecuador condemns with all the energy of a
grateful people.
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I must highlight the inescapable urgency of
addressing the subject of human migration. Allow me
to make an appeal to all countries, especially
developed ones, to sign the International Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of Their Families, which was opened for
signature 20 years ago: 20 years ago. What, I ask
myself, are we not one single race? Have we not
similar problems?
I also ask myself: do we not share the same
evolution? Do we not have the same hopes for the
future? Let us share the realization of the dream of
universal citizenship. Let human beings travel
wherever they want, whenever they want, as they do
when they are at home and among family, and as
should be the case around the world.
I want to reiterate the Ecuadorian position
condemning all forms of colonialism and occupation of
territories by foreign forces. We reaffirm that dialogue
must always be the mechanism of choice for the
settlement of conflicts.
We believe in the sovereign right of all countries
to development and to the peaceful use of nuclear
energy. We want a world without nuclear weapons. We
therefore recommend preaching by example. I will
repeat that: we want a world without nuclear weapons,
but our approach is to preach by example, so that that
which we demand from others also becomes first and
foremost a requirement for ourselves. I call for a
definitive decision. Let us dismantle nuclear arsenals,
so that just as we criminalize the manufacturing and
marketing of illegal drugs, we would also criminalize
the manufacturing and marketing of weapons of mass
destruction — and if only that could be done for all
weapons.
There can be no world governance without peace.
Nature is the best teacher of peace. I was born in the
Ecuadorian Amazon basin. We call Earth our Pacha
Mama. She and we are the same. The travelling poet
Walt Whitman said, referring to all human beings, to
all other beings on Earth and to the Earth itself, “every
atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (Song of
Myself). We are made of the same atoms, which we
share. We come from dust, we whirl around for some
time and then we return to dust, to our Pacha Mama, to
Mother Nature. But she has been abused and
disrespected. Even so, in her agony, she is still
generous. Rabindranath Tagore said that the Earth has
been insulted and reviled, but in return offers her
flowers and her fruits.
I call on Member States, our brother countries, to
share this revolutionary vision, to find peace and to
make it everlasting, to change the history of the
invaded, the polluted, the humiliated and the forgotten
of the Earth.
Let us create an army of warriors that carry no
weapons on their shoulders or ammunition in their
packs, but whose weapons are ecology, medicine, the
defence of human rights and human solidarity, an army
that fights the only disability that truly exists, which is
the human disability. The only disability that exists is
that of the heart. The enemy is inequality, which,
although fierce, will be defeated. We will succeed, of
course. Of course we will succeed.