In June 2009, humankind was still witnessing
with perplexity the worst economic crisis since the
Great Depression and its devastating consequences on
employment, hunger, poverty, trade, foreign direct
investment, credit, tourism, remittances and health and
education. At that time, my country, Ecuador, felt a
moral obligation to participate, through its head of
State, in the United Nations Conference on the World
Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on
Development, convened by the then-President of the
General Assembly, Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann.
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On that occasion, the President of the Republic of
Ecuador emphasized that the global financial debacle,
which, it goes without saying, originated in the main
financial markets of the North, was a symptom of crisis
in a system in which the speculative-financial economy
took precedence over the real economy. In other words,
that system entailed waiting for money to create more
money and stability of its own accord, instead of
stimulating the production of goods and services to
meet the needs of human beings.
For Ecuador, the gravity of the crisis alone should
have marked a shift towards a stronger role for the
United Nations in global economic governance, with a
view to overhauling the international financial system
and democratizing international relations by
establishing a new world economic order.
Unfortunately, with the exception of a scant few
cosmetic changes in the governance of the Bretton
Woods institutions, the paradoxical multi-million-
dollar bailout of the some of the sectors responsible for
the crisis and a fragile mechanism to follow up on the
commitments contained in the Outcome of the 2009
Conference (resolution 63/303, annex), nothing has
changed. The world continues to await some sign of
financial and monetary regulation and coordination
that would ensure economic stability, access to credit,
full and productive employment, trade financing, debt
sustainability, social safety nets and, of course, a true
global alliance that would protect and promote
development to benefit our people, which is the sole
objective of our efforts.
In its current state, the United Nations has been
unable to rise to the challenges stemming from global
economic instability, which have been exacerbated by
this new stage in the 2009 financial crisis. That is why
Ecuador is aggressively and resolutely promoting the
creation of a new regional financial architecture
capable of mitigating the adverse consequences
affecting our economies as a result of their
involvement in the international financial system.
In that regard, and without abandoning the
pursuit of comprehensive reforms of the global
financial and economic system, my country has
suggested an approach, while taking into account the
political, economic and social circumstances of each
region, involving the adoption of regional monetary
agreements that include a semi-flexible exchange rate
regime and a common reserve fund so as to create a
truly regional exchange rate regime and a regional
currency.
In the case of Latin America, this proposal had its
origins in Latin American forums through the creation
of the Bank of the South. Its main aim is to fund
multinational development projects and to bolster local
and regional currencies linked to a common reserve
fund for Latin America, which would enable us to deal
with the crisis and prevent billions of dollars from our
region being paradoxically deposited into the banks of
developed countries. In the same way, this fund is
complemented by a regional payment system, which
has started to work through the Unified Regional
Payment Clearing System, with excellent results to
date. This system is leading the way towards a
common physical currency in our region.
These regional initiatives can, and should be,
integrated into a regional integration framework that
extends beyond the economic and financial spheres.
Such is the case with the Union of South American
Nations, the headquarters and secretariat of which is
located in our capital, Quito, the Community of Latin
American and Caribbean States and the Bolivarian
Alliance for the Peoples of Our America — Peoples’
Trade Agreement. My country stresses that these
regional responses should be considered as
complementing the urgent global measures required for
better understanding and cooperation among regions.
At the same time, Ecuador urgently calls for a
comprehensive reform of the world economic and
financial system, including measures such as the
creation of an economic coordination council and an
independent mechanism to restructure and solve the
problem of sovereign debt, which, among other
proposals, should be discussed in a follow-up meeting
to the 2009 conference.
However, apart from the economic and financial
crisis, the crisis of multilateralism has also been
reflected in the lack of a timely and suitable response
by the United Nations to the political crises that have
occurred, in particular in the Middle East. These have
once again demonstrated the urgent need to conclude
the long-delayed process of a comprehensive reform of
the Security Council. This reform of one of the main
organs of the United Nations should be primarily
aimed at democratizing its decision-making
mechanisms, guaranteeing full respect for the principle
of equitable geographic distribution, including regional
29 11-51681
representation, improving the Council’s working
methods and strengthening the relationship between the
Council and the General Assembly. All of this would
provide the Council with the necessary legitimacy,
effectiveness and representativeness to implement its
mandates.
At the sixty-fifth session, Ecuador took over the
chairmanship of the Special Committee on
Decolonization with the conviction that, starting in
2011, which marked the beginning of the third
International Decade for the Eradication of
Colonialism, we need new strategies that will lead, in
the near future, to the decolonization of those
territories that are still on the Committee’s list.
Ecuador recognizes that peaceful means of
solving disputes are the only legitimate mechanisms
capable of guaranteeing sustainable and lasting peace
for peoples. Among these is mediation, the central
theme proposed by the President of the Assembly for
the sixty-sixth session. Imposing solutions by force
will never perpetuate peace — quite the opposite. We
have witnessed the failure of these methods, which
leads to war. We have suffered the failure of these
wars. My country condemns abusive interpretations of
Security Council resolutions, which systematically lead
to more violence, bloodshed and human rights
violations and which do not foster friendly relations
among countries.
Ecuador’s position with regard to the Middle East
has as its founding principle our full adherence to the
standards and principles of international law and strict
compliance with United Nations resolutions. Forty-
three years after having accepted the partition of
Palestine into two States, on 24 December 2010 the
Government of Ecuador, in a gesture of historic justice,
recognized Palestine as a free and independent State,
within its 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its
capital. My country therefore gave its full support to
accepting Palestine’s request to become a full State
Member of the United Nations, as formally requested
by the Palestinian President a few days ago. We also
support all initiatives directed towards consolidating
lasting peace, to benefit not only Palestine and Israel,
but the entire region. This is a historic time for the
United Nations, and Ecuador hopes that the
Organization will rise to the occasion.
Concerning our region, Ecuador once again
firmly condemns the economic, trade and financial
blockade imposed by the United States of America
against Cuba and demands the immediate and
unconditional lifting of all unilateral measures imposed
in an extraterritorial fashion by that country against our
sister Caribbean nation. The blockade has inflicted
serious economic, social and even humanitarian
suffering on the population.
With regard to the United Nations Conference on
Sustainable Development to be held in Rio de Janeiro,
20 years after the adoption of the international
principles and instruments that set a new course for
international relations, we are now reaching a
watershed moment. Through it, we will be able to take
stock of the implementation, both in the past and over
the coming decades, of these principles and
instruments. This would enable renewed political
commitment to sustainable development, which will
require action on the three pillars, which we define as
the economic, social and environmental areas.
In order to implement the elements pending from
the Rio conventions, Ecuador believes that we should,
first, comply with commitments to reduce greenhouse
gases in order to stabilize the temperature at levels that
will enable us to restore balance to the planet while
upholding the principle of shared but differentiated
responsibilities and equity; secondly, insist on the
transfer of the new and additional financial resources
promised by developed countries, considering the huge
efforts that we developing countries are making in
facing global threats; thirdly, remember that
sustainability is not just an environmental question, but
a shift in the relationships between capital, labour,
nature and politics; fourthly, fix terms for technology
transfers that will enable developing countries to make
progress in capacity-building and in finding options in
their pursuit of sustainable development; and fifthly,
draft international instruments in the field of
sustainable development in order to achieve equality,
not just with regard to a green economy or a
strengthened institutional framework, but also in order
to include development in the comprehensive approach
to improving quality of life, with adequate links
between the three pillars to which I have referred —
what we in Ecuador call “living well”.
Four years ago, here in the Hall, my country
made an unequivocal gesture of its commitment to the
fight against the global challenge of climate change
and the promotion of sustainable development. Indeed,
in 2007, Ecuador presented to the world the forward-
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looking Yasuní ITT initiative, an innovative and
revolutionary idea. Under the initiative, the State of
Ecuador committed to leaving 856 million barrels of
oil underground indefinitely under the Yasuní National
Park, thereby preventing the emission of 407 million
metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
that would have been produced by the burning of these
fossil fuels. All this was conceived as a swap in
compensation for the estimated value of 50 per cent of
the revenue that the exploitation of those resources
would generate.
The Yasuní-ITT initiative, known today
throughout the world, represents a concrete, effective
measure for combating climate change and preserving
the rich biodiversity of the area, along with its water,
the rights of indigenous people living in the park and
nature itself. By foregoing the right to exploit the oil
reserves that lie beneath the Yasuní National Park and
the economic resources that would be required to
develop them, Ecuador hopes that the international
community will contribute at least half of what the
country would have received in profit, acting under the
principle of co-responsibility on the part of countries
that have historically been most responsible for climate
change.
In a parallel event that took place here at the
United Nations on 23 September with the support of
the Secretary-General and the President, President
Rafael Correa reminded the international community
about the Yasuní-ITT initiative. The proposal has been
enthusiastically received by countries, organizations,
citizens, visionaries and leaders from around the world,
adding up to significant support from both individuals
and the private sector. That response has allowed
Ecuador to broaden its initiative in a manner that will
transform the governance of public resources at the
global level. For example, we have begun to shape the
concept of net avoided emissions, which President
Correa introduced last year at the Cancún Climate
Change Conference. That and the Yasuní-ITT initiative
are two visionary proposals from a developing oil-
producing nation of the South as a contribution to
global challenges in the area of sustainable
development.
Throughout this session, Ecuador will continue to
defend with particular emphasis the right to
development, the human right to water, the rights of
indigenous peoples, the rights of women, girls and
boys, the rights of people with disabilities, the rights of
older adult men and women, the rights of migrant
workers and their families and the rights of all
vulnerable members of society.
For this reason, my country reiterates its concern
about, and rejects, legislation adopted by certain States
whose application leads to measures or practices that
restrict the full exercise of migrant workers’ human
rights and fundamental freedoms. By the same token,
we reaffirm that even as they exercise their sovereign
right to implement such measures to control their
borders, States have the obligation to guarantee the
human rights of migrant workers and should promote
measures that favour family unification and the
protection of minors. States also have the responsibility
to strengthen laws that punish any act of violence
against migrant workers, particularly hate crimes that
foment discrimination based on ethnic, racial or
religious differences, as well as crimes against migrant
workers that are committed with racist or xenophobic
motives.
Ecuador is a peaceful land that espouses universal
disarmament and condemns the development and use
of weapons of mass destruction. For that reason, we
place great importance on disarmament and
international security, and note with concern the
shrinking space for enforcing agreements in those
areas.
The international community has not produced a
single instrument through which the nuclear States
pledge to refrain from using nuclear weapons against
non-nuclear countries during the process aimed at
destroying all such arms. It would seem that within the
Conference on Disarmament the only interest and
concern is to advance within the framework of nuclear
proliferation, downgrading or, even worse,
marginalizing all possibility of progress in the realm of
nuclear disarmament. For that reason, my country
supports the ongoing negotiation process within the
Conference on Disarmament, which includes all
pending matters.
As a proponent of universal disarmament, peace
and sustainable development in harmony with nature,
and as a signatory to the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which
established the world’s first nuclear-free region,
Ecuador sincerely hopes that the pending aspects
regarding the establishment of a nuclear-free zone in
the Middle East will be resolved.
31 11-51681
My country wishes to express its full support for
initiatives aimed at establishing transparency in the
area of conventional weapons and for combating illegal
trafficking in small arms and light weapons, including
landmines and cluster bombs. We also support
measures taken within the context of the Programme of
Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit
Trade in and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. We look
forward to the United Nations Conference on the Arms
Trade Treaty, whose outcome document should be an
objective, predictable and non-discriminatory
instrument.
Since 1953, Ecuador has been part of the great
United Nations undertaking to maintain peace and
security across the world. We have increasingly
contributed to United Nations armed forces for
peacekeeping missions in various countries. We are
currently participating in Haiti, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire,
Liberia, the Central African Republic and the Sudan.
Since 2004, we have participated in the United
Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti as part of the
Chilean-Ecuadoran company of engineers that is
helping to build new infrastructure for that country’s
development, with due recognition from the authorities
and the local populace.
Ecuador foresees increasing its participation in
peacekeeping operations, but our intentions go beyond
that. As a troop-contributing country, we wish to
increase the number of units and armed forces
personnel taking part in such operations. We have
made great efforts to show our commitment to joining
the international community in its struggle to ensure
that regions experiencing the greatest upheaval can
resolve their differences and achieve the peace that is
so necessary.
Let us not be deceived — global multilateralism
is in deep crisis. The United Nations system has not
adequately responded to the convulsive moment
through which we are living. Climate change, the
Palestinian question, the crisis in Libya and investment
in development are just a few examples that illustrate
its ineffectiveness. Solutions to the great problems of
our planet are no longer reached within these walls.
The most powerful countries of the world rely on other
forums, exclusionary and anti-democratic ones, to
decide for everyone else. If we do not act today on
those and other urgent themes, such as the reform of
the international monetary and economic systems as
well as that of certain United Nations bodies, there will
be no point in debating ways to restore the role of this
world body in global governance. It is up to us to
resolve this grave dilemma.