I am
honoured to take the floor from this rostrum on behalf
of the President of the Republic, His Excellency
Mr. Denis Sassou Nguesso.
This past week, in this place, we took part in
High-level Meetings that addressed the major concerns
at the very heart of the actions of the United Nations
and those of its Member States: non-communicable
disease; the situation in Libya; desertification, land
degradation and drought in the context of sustainable
development and the eradication of poverty; the
commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the
adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of
Action on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia
and Related Intolerance; nuclear safety; and terrorism.
Clearly, the conclusions that we reached at those
meetings reflect not only the political will and
commitment of Member States to provide collective
responses to those concerns, but also corroborate our
faith in multilateralism.
In unison we have welcomed the Republic of
South Sudan, and we congratulate them on concluding,
after many years of patience, the long and laborious
process of negotiation that brought us the 193rd State
Member of the United Nations. In joining the warm
words of welcome expressed by the delegations before
me, I wish to reiterate the Congo’s support for this
young brother country and to underscore the
commitment of my Government to develop close ties
of friendship and cooperation with it.
Since its creation, the United Nations has put a
great deal of effort into the noble endeavour of freeing
peoples still under the yoke of colonialism and
domination. The history of the United Nations is
intertwined with the emancipation of peoples. The time
has therefore come to do justice to the legitimate
aspirations of the Palestinian people. The Congo hopes
to see a sovereign Palestinian State emerge, master of
its own fate, in this great universal family, within
secure and guaranteed borders and living in peace
alongside the people of the State of Israel in a spirit of
good neighbourliness and cooperation.
With respect to the situation in Libya, particularly
as regards the consequences for the subregion, we
agree that the restoration of peace and security remains
a high priority. For this reason, I wish to express my
Government’s support for the United Nations Support
Mission in Libya.
In the quest for a peaceful solution to the Libyan
crisis, the Congo, together with other African States
members of the Ad Hoc High-level Committee of the
African Union, urges the authorities of the National
Transitional Council to meet their commitments,
particularly with respect to preserving national unity;
involving all Libyan stakeholders, without exception,
in rebuilding the country; protecting foreigners,
particularly African migrant workers; and opening an
inclusive political process for ending the crisis.
In our immediate neighbourhood, both the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroun will
hold major elections in several weeks. My delegation
would like to see that process take place smoothly, in
calm and peace, in order to help democracy take root
and to strengthen political stability.
The intolerable situation in the non-State of
Somalia and the ongoing civil war that has been under
way for 20 years, along with the unprecedented
humanitarian crisis, once again challenge the
international community. We encourage the
Transitional Federal Government to continue and
strengthen its efforts to achieve peace within the
framework of the Djibouti Agreement, with the
participation of all groups that wish to cooperate, and
to renounce armed violence. Here, I would like to
commend the actions of the African Union Mission to
Somalia, particularly for having made it possible to
secure Mogadishu.
We welcome the wave of international solidarity
for the Horn of Africa. In keeping with this
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momentum, the Congo has made a contribution for the
victims of the drought in Somalia.
The President has properly placed the role of
mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes at the
centre of the general debate. For the prevention and
resolution of conflicts, this is indeed a necessary tool
that has proven itself over the years and in all areas.
The experience of mediation in Africa since the
independence of the African States is replete with
lessons regarding the role of this mechanism in settling
the numerous internal crises or inter-State conflicts that
our countries have experienced. In the past, the
Organization of African Unity used meditation almost
systematically. Today, the African Union continues to
benefit from it. Furthermore, mediation is consistent
with the African culture and tradition of dialogue. It is
by drawing from the very source of this tradition that
the Congo was able to launch a productive internal
dialogue that enabled it to overcome the socio-political
turmoil of the 1990s.
The relevant provisions of the United Nations
Charter enshrine the obligation of Member States to
seek, in any dispute,
“a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation,
conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement,
resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or
other peaceful means of their own choice”.
These provisions offer a wide range of possibilities
from among which to select the means appropriate to
bring about a peaceful settlement.
Today more than ever, the quest for peace by
negotiation remains the only way to guarantee lasting
peace. The threat or use of force should be considered
only after having exhausted all possible political
solutions. The Security Council should therefore
strictly limit the conditions under which the use of
force is authorized so as to avoid any manipulation or
deterioration of a situation.
Similarly, the abuse of the international justice
system, which has become a political weapon targeting
Africa in particular, is a dangerous aberration that must
be corrected.
Beyond its main theme, the current session is
being held, as have preceding sessions, at a time in our
shared history when the United Nations is solidly
mobilized around its three main pillars of activity,
namely, international peace and security, economic
development and sustainable development, as well as
the related aspects of protecting the environment and
human rights. With respect to the range of challenges
old and new that the United Nations is expected to
meet, it will be viewed as effective and legitimate only
if it adapts to the new realities of our world.
United Nations reform is therefore urgent. It must
be based on the principles of democracy, justice and
equality. The position of the African Union on Security
Council reform is well known in this body. The
reforms will be contingent on the willingness of all
Member States to make the Organization an institution
that embodies modern values and that is open to the
future.
In order for the United Nations to effectively and
efficiently fulfil its key role in steering global affairs,
its Member States must carry out reforms, first to
restore the central role of the General Assembly as the
most representative deliberative body, and then to
foster the participation of more developing countries in
the decision-making process.
The global challenges identified by heads of State
and Government at the Millennium Summit, held in
September 2000, include sustainable development and
environmental protection. These issues have figured
prominently in international negotiations for many
years and influence the implementation of the two
United Nations framework conventions on the
environment.
The causes of climate change and their impact on
human life and the environment are well known.
Regardless of the explanations proffered,
environmental pollution is caused by human activity.
Consequently, we hope that the negotiations on a post-
Kyoto climate regime will conclude with the adoption,
at the seventeenth session of the Conference of the
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change, to be held soon in Durban, of an
international instrument that could be opened for
signature at the Rio+20 Conference.
In Central Africa, the countries of the Congo
Forest Basin, for their part, have made a commitment
to sustainably manage their forests through
conservation, forest certification, combating illegal
logging, good forest governance, the gradual
streamlining of the logging industry and
implementation of the process to reduce emissions
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from deforestation and forest degradation in
developing countries. This effort, which should be
continued, has resulted in very low deforestation rates.
This is one of Central Africa’s major contributions to
global efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. The
international community should support and encourage
it.
On the initiative of the Republic of the Congo,
the first summit on the world’s three tropical forest
ecosystems was held in Brazzaville from 29 May to
3 June. That summit, which brought together the
countries of the Amazon, South-East Asia and Congo
Basins, resulted in the conclusion of a cooperation
agreement on these three tropical forest ecosystems
with the support of United Nations agencies and other
partners. The agreement is to be signed in Rio de
Janeiro on the sidelines of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development, to be held in June 2012. In
that regard, I wish to express the gratitude of the
Congolese Government to Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon for his personal support to this initiative.
As the Assembly is aware, the conservation and
sustainable management of forests requires substantial
human, material and financial resources, which forest
developing countries do not have. Those countries are
desperately awaiting the release of the “fast start”
funds that developed counties announced at
Copenhagen and the delivery of the innovative,
predictable and permanent sources of funding agreed at
Cancún, as well as technology transfer and capacity-
building.
In mentioning these climate and environmental
issues, I cannot but think of Mrs. Wangari Maathai,
who passed away yesterday. I pay tribute to the
memory of this first Nobel Prize-winning woman of
African politics, who the world will remember as an
avant-garde activist in the fight to protect the
environment. Her commitment to reforestation and
restoring biodiversity won her the recognition of the
countries of Central Africa, who designated her as a
Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Basin Forest. I
should like to take this opportunity to express my
deepest condolences to the Government and the people
of Kenya, as well as to the family of the deceased.
The events taking place in the Arab world are
replete with lessons, as were the enormous changes
that transformed the European landscape after the fall
of the Berlin Wall, in 1989. Everywhere, the hymn of
freedom and democracy has resounded. We know that
the overthrow of a political regime does not necessarily
bring freedom and democracy. They must be won and
nurtured by other victories that cannot be imposed
from without. The world has changed and we must face
the facts inherent in these new geopolitical challenges,
which have led to the emergence of new forces on the
international stage. Freedom of expression thrives here,
in the United Nations. Let democracy not stop on its
threshold. The United Nations must be the sanctuary of
those who are building the future. A safer, fairer and
more prosperous world for all will then emerge.