I have the great honour to speak at
the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly on
behalf of His Excellency Mr. Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Mbasogo, President and head of State of the Republic
of Equatorial Guinea, who is not able to be here to
participate, as he would have liked, owing to numerous
high matters of State.
In the name of the Government and the people of
Equatorial Guinea, I would first like to address our
most sincere congratulations to you, Sir, on your
unanimous and wise election as President of the
General Assembly at this session. We wish you great
success in leading its work and deliberations. I also
extend our thanks to the other elected members of the
Bureau. Most especially, we wish to express our
admiration and respect to His Excellency Mr. Ali
Abdussalam Treki, outgoing President and eminent
diplomat of Africa, who did outstanding work as
President at the sixty-fourth session and who is
responsible for our beginning this session with
optimism.
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea reaffirms its
resolute commitment and attachment to the ideals,
principles and objectives of the United Nations. In that
context, I salute Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and
reiterate to him the recognition of the Government and
people of Equatorial Guinea of his wise administration
at the head of this great Organization. In particular, we
appreciate his vision and the timeliness with which he
has identified the seven strategic themes of our current
world, which merit the greatest attention from every
State Member during this session.
Equatorial Guinea is taking part in the work of
this session with a good deal of optimism with regard
to an eventual and gradual solution of the problems
today facing humankind in general, and the African
continent in particular. Above all, that is because since
the 1990s there have been several initiatives aimed at
encouraging sustainable development. Those initiatives
have been promoted through major world conferences
and summits that have addressed such major subjects
as population and sustainable development, food, the
environment and financing for development. In the
context of this 2010 session, we shall consider the
implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of
those major summits and conferences, such as the
Millennium Summit.
What can we see after more than 10 years since
those summits, especially the Millennium Summit? As
has been wisely pointed out in previous interventions
in the Assembly, there is no point in doing things in the
same way and expecting different results.
Unfortunately, both the report of the Secretary-
General (A/65/1) and the interventions delivered in
recent days by different delegations during the High-
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level Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals
indicate that rather than improving, the number of
people who suffer from hunger has increased, the
number of those living in poverty remains high and the
environment has been degraded. The latter has led to
serious climactic changes and the ensuing natural
disasters, including constant flooding, earthquakes,
hurricanes and so on, which have caused total
destruction in several countries and seriously
undermined people’s ability to survive.
Were that not enough, there has also been an
increase in acts of international terrorism, organized
and cross-border crime and piracy on a continental
level. There has also been a worsening in the acute
economic crisis, which continues to affect all
humankind. All those phenomena illustrate the need for
greater awareness and coordination on the part of every
country on the planet.
All of us must focus our efforts, energy and
resources on promoting and maintaining peace and
security in the world, fostering a healthy environment
and actively working and cooperating to eradicate
nuclear weapons and to forcefully combat terrorism
and international organized crime. We should work
side by side to shape a world where there is a sense of
participation and equality among men and women; a
world where Security Council reform allows for better
representation, participation and decision-taking that
reflect the will and interests of every region and
country of the world — large, medium or small.
Previous interventions have underscored the
importance that “every Member country of the United
Nations be clearly involved here, at the heart of the
United Nations, to respond to urgent matters of today’s
world”. It was that call that, in 2007, inspired His
Excellency the President of the Republic of Equatorial
Guinea to propose to the General Conference of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization — UNESCO — the creation of an
international prize for scientific investigation in the
field of life sciences. That $3 million contribution is
destined for the international scientific community, and
its purpose is to seek solutions and remedies to the
major pandemics and diseases that afflict the world
today in general and especially the African continent.
Despite the great need of the international
scientific community, despite the potential to alleviate
the suffering of vulnerable communities, particularly in
Africa, despite having been duly approved by the
States members of the UNESCO Executive Board, and
despite the unanimous decision of the international jury
for the prize designating three international scientists,
most of them from developing countries, as winners,
this prize is still being blocked simply for being the
initiative of an African leader.
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea cannot but
denounce the manipulations and manoeuvres of the
new UNESCO administration against the humanitarian
initiative of the people of Equatorial Guinea. As a State
member, we find it unprecedented and therefore
disturbing that a decision made by the Executive Board
of a United Nations agency is not carried out by its
leadership. What is most disturbing is that clear
manipulations and injustices of certain undeclared
interests have become apparent even in the heart of the
United Nations-related organizations, as is,
unfortunately, the case with UNESCO, where we
believed that all the member States had the same
consideration and rights.
For all of those reasons, the people and
Government of Equatorial Guinea agree that this is the
appropriate occasion and place to once more express
their deep concern regarding the irresponsible, openly
unjust and racist attitude that some actors, masked as
non governmental organizations, are orchestrating
against the praiseworthy initiative and the
humanitarian intentions that led to the creation of the
UNESCO Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Prize to motivate
and encourage the action of scientists around the world
in research for the preservation of life.
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea asks that the
UNESCO Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International
Prize for Research in the Life Sciences come to fruition
without further delay, in accordance with decision 180
EX/57, which was adopted by consensus by all the
States members of the UNESCO Executive Board in
October 2008.
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea is an
independent and sovereign State, governed by a
democratic and pluralist political system that respects
the basic rights of people without racial, ethnic, gender
or religious discrimination. Those principles are
contained in the fundamental law and in the laws that
serve as the basis for our country’s legal system, which
guarantees and promotes the individual and collective
freedoms of the citizens of Equatorial Guinea and
39 10-55264
provides for punishment for offenders who could
violate the rule of law. Indeed, the Constitution of
Equatorial Guinea reserves an important and privileged
place for human rights and basic freedoms, inasmuch
as they are based on the United Nations Charter and
their principles and goals are inspired by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
Therefore, our country has begun a reform of its
judicial system and has already ratified several
international agreements and treaties concerning the
promotion and protection of human rights, which have
come to be an integral part of our legal system.
Likewise, in the last 10 years the Government has
made significant progress in updating and adapting its
legislative, legal and administrative instruments with
regard to the promotion and protection of civil and
political rights, as well as social, economic and cultural
rights.
In addition to those enormous and ongoing
efforts, the Government of Equatorial Guinea has taken
several other relevant measures and provisions to
strengthen the implementation of the laws in force in
the country in order to promote human rights and the
rule of law. A particular instance is the recent
enactment of the new Organic Law of Judicial Power,
which determines the overall organization of the
judicial system and the operation of justice in
Equatorial Guinea.
In recent years, the world’s nations have
witnessed an intensification and increase of violence in
acts of terrorism, in particular starting with the tragedy
that took place in this beautiful and historic North
American city of New York on 11 September 2001.
Such acts have meant that the fight against terrorism
has become a one of the priorities of international and
national policy of all countries.
In that disturbing context, the United Nations and
international law have been defining a set of very strict
obligations that States must comply with in order to
ensure an effective fight against that global scourge,
which affects all States equally, irrespective of
nationality or borders. In particular, we must bear in
mind resolution 1373 (2001), and other related
resolutions of the Security Council, which represents
an important milestone with regard to international
standards in the fight against terrorism. Indeed, that
resolution is a general standard and imposes upon
States a set of obligations that include that of
criminalizing specific conducts, such as the financing
of terrorism or the recruitment of members of terrorist
groups. Consequently, the implementation of
international standards in the fight against terrorism
and, in particular, its criminal classification, is not
merely a decision of domestic criminal policy, but
rather a matter of compliance with obligations imposed
by international law in general.
Our country has been a victim of terrorist attacks
on several occasions in the past five years, and as a
result the Government of Equatorial Guinea has put the
fight against terrorism among the priorities of its
Action Plan for national development, while at the
same time condemning in the most vigorous terms all
acts of terrorism, regardless of their motivation or
origin, since those acts constitute one of the most
serious threats to international peace and security.
Equatorial Guinea remains loyal to its
commitments and is deeply convinced of the need to
continue the efforts it has been deploying in connection
with the Millennium Declaration and in harmony with
the purposes and principles of the United Nations
aimed at overcoming the many challenges of
development.
However, the current situation requires a closer
and more dynamic, effective, sincere and coordinated
cooperation, without any conditions, as well as the
coordinated and united support of all of the political
forces of developed, developing and least developed
countries, with a view to promoting shared prosperity
and a better future for all the world’s countries.
I would like to conclude my statement on behalf
of the Government of Equatorial Guinea by renewing
our strong desire to change the current concept and
management of international affairs — in which the
often exclusive attitudes of certain States and regions
can be discerned — through a firmer and more sincere
commitment of the entire international community in
favour of the current United Nations reform process
which is designed to strengthen multilateralism. Only
in that way can we establish solid and lasting bases for
a world of peace and security — a prosperous world
for today and a solid inheritance for future generations.