It is with infinite
pleasure, Mr. President, that I join other speakers who
preceded me in expressing our felicitations to you on
your election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at its sixty-sixth session. We owe an
immense debt of gratitude to your great country, the
State of Qatar, for making you available to the service
of the international community. We are confident that
under your guidance and leadership the sixty-sixth
session will achieve a successful outcome, one which
will make a difference to the lives of multitudes of
disadvantaged people around the world. May I also pay
tribute to your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Joseph
Deiss, whose effective and exemplary stewardship of
the sixty-fifth session earned our deep respect and
admiration.
As the world’s problems have in recent decades
increased in numbers and complexity, so have the
challenges and responsibilities of the United Nations
Secretary-General, the head of our grand institution. I
am pleased to note that the Secretary-General, His
Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, has acquitted himself
extremely well, at times under very difficult
circumstances. We specifically wish to commend him
for his concerted efforts in raising the alarm on conflict
situations and emerging threats to international peace
and security. Allow me therefore to seize this
opportunity to sincerely congratulate Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon on his well-deserved reappointment for a
second term.
My delegation is of the conviction that all
problems and challenges confronting humanity can be
resolved within the letter and spirit of the United
Nations Charter and international law. In that
connection, we must each do our part and work
together to improve the lives of our people by
conquering hunger, disease and illiteracy, to encourage
respect for human rights and freedoms and to respond
to natural disasters and different humanitarian
situations.
Once again this year, the world has experienced a
number of natural and man-made disasters, including
violent, senseless attacks that have claimed numerous
lives, left many homeless, caused massive destruction
of property and caused intolerable pain and suffering.
11-51384 2
My delegation wishes to express our heartfelt
condolences to all those countries that have been
victims of those tragedies.
Our profound sympathies and heartfelt
condolences go to the Government and people of Japan
for the unfortunate Fukushima incident, triggered by a
massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck
that country early this year. We also wish to convey our
condolences and sympathies to the Government and
people of Norway on the recent senseless and
horrifying attack that left many people dead.
The humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa
equally deserves our attention. We commend the
United Nations for calling the attention of the
international community to the plight of the victims of
that disaster. We in Botswana have made our modest
contribution to that relief effort. We express our sincere
appreciation to the United Nations system and the
international community as a whole for their generous
and timely response to those tragedies.
At the inception of the United Nations, the
international community pledged a solemn
determination to safeguard succeeding generations
from the scourge of war. In the intervening period, the
world has seen monumental changes with profound
effects on humanity. The end of colonialism and the
cold war, the defeat of the inhuman system of
apartheid, the institutionalization of conflict prevention
and resolution mechanisms around the world, as well
as the strengthening of collaboration between the
United Nations and regional organizations in dealing
with conflict situations, come to mind in this regard.
For decades the people of South Sudan have been
engulfed in a seemingly endless bloody conflagration,
accompanied by heavy loss of human life, destruction
of property and condemnation to untold misery and
suffering. However, we are delighted that the people of
South Sudan, with the assistance and support of the
international community, have realized their long-
cherished dream. They now face a new dawn of
freedom and nationhood. Allow me, therefore, to pay a
fitting tribute to South Sudan on the assumption of her
rightful place in the comity of nations as a sovereign
and independent State and the 193rd Member of the
United Nations.
South Sudan will obviously need the full support
of the international community in addressing the
plethora of challenges of nationhood, including
outstanding issues from the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement such as the future of the Abyei region, and
other separation issues that could easily undermine this
fragile transition. Botswana will endeavour, within the
limit of her resources, to assist our brothers and sisters
in South Sudan translate their political freedom into
tangible social and economic benefits.
The evolving situation in Côte d’Ivoire is also a
cause for optimism. While many security concerns
remain, we believe President Ouattara and his
Government have put in place the necessary measures
to consolidate peace, build confidence, promote
national reconciliation and set the country on the path
to normalcy, reconstruction and sustainable
development. We urge the international community to
remain actively engaged in supporting this process.
While notable strides have been made towards
resolving some conflicts, regrettably the same cannot
be said of many other conflict situations, such as those
in the Middle East, Somalia and Syria, where peace
remains elusive, with attendant hardship and misery.
On Somalia, my delegation takes note of the
conclusion of the recent Kampala Accord between the
President of the Federal Transitional Government and
the Speaker of Parliament, which is a welcome move
towards improving the political situation in that
country. However, we remain concerned about the
deteriorating security situation and the growing
humanitarian crisis in that country, and we call on all
parties to remain engaged and to fully honour their
obligations under that Accord.
Regarding the Middle East, Botswana shares the
general frustration at the prolonged impasse in the
situation in that region. We call on both the
Palestinians and Israelis to remain engaged in the
negotiations on the basis of a two-State solution, in
which the two peoples will live side by side in peace
and harmony.
There are other emerging threats to international
peace and security. My delegation is deeply concerned
about States that continue to violate with impunity
their obligations under their constitutions and
international law to protect their citizens from any
armed conflict.
This very Organization is founded on the premise
that Governments have the primary duty and
responsibility to do all in their power to safeguard the
3 11-51384
legitimate aspirations of their people for a better life,
including ensuring their safety and security. It is
therefore imperative that Governments provide an
environment conducive to addressing the legitimate
concerns and grievances of their people through
inclusive dialogue and mutual understanding.
Consequently, it is not acceptable under any
circumstances for any State to use military force
against the civilian population — the very citizens it
has sworn to protect. I believe we all agree that this is a
clear violation of human rights and international law
and an infringement of our common value system
enshrined in the United Nations Charter.
Our view is that any leader who sanctions such
use of force on his people forfeits the legitimate right
to be recognized as representing the interests of his
people. The international community should therefore
spare no effort in applying all the necessary measures
at its disposal to protect civilians from such repressive
Governments and to hold them accountable for their
atrocities. In this regard, support for the International
Criminal Court (ICC) is crucial for realizing the full
implementation of the Rome Statute.
We commend the Security Council for its swift
and resolute action on Libya under its resolution 1973
(2011), which authorized NATO to protect civilians in
that country.
However, we remain concerned about the delay
and procrastination on a number of situations in Syria.
The Council’s condemnation of human rights
violations and the military assault on civilians by Syria
came rather too late. It failed to convey a clear and
unequivocal message of revulsion to the Syrian
authorities and to urge them to respect international
humanitarian law and human rights. Crimes against
humanity have been committed in Syria, and the
leadership in that country should answer for such
crimes through the ICC.
It is important that the international community
remain vigilant against any breach of international
peace and security and also respond in a decisive,
consistent and timely manner to any such instances. We
find it unacceptable that such countries as mentioned
can continue to belong to a community of peace-loving
nations.
Botswana recognizes the National Transitional
Council (NTC) in Libya as the interim Administration
until there is an elected Government. We therefore
welcome the NTC into the United Nations family to
represent the Libyan people during this session.
The chosen theme for this session — the role of
mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes — is
both timely and pertinent. It is timely, given the
multiplicity of mediation efforts in which the
international community is currently engaged as part of
an effort to find a peaceful solution to the conflicts
raging in various parts of the world. It is pertinent in
that forging international peace and understanding is
the raison d’être of this very body.
In order to maintain momentum in governance,
my delegation believes that countries emerging from
conflict should also commit themselves to the strict
observance of human rights and national and
international humanitarian law, as well as of the values
of accountability and transparency, guided by effective
application of the rule of law. In this respect, I wish to
reiterate my country’s support for all efforts geared
towards assisting countries emerging from conflict to
make successful transitions to post-conflict
rehabilitation, reconstruction and economic recovery.
Allow me now to turn to another critical pillar of
the United Nations mandate, namely, sustainable
development and the eradication of poverty. Now more
than ever, our global citizenry is demanding practical
actions to address the global challenges we face. They
believe — and rightly so — that collectively we are
equipped with enough resources, institutions, policies
and lessons learned to respond effectively to existing
and emerging global challenges. They therefore expect
us to muster the requisite political will to find durable
solutions to those challenges.
For them, it is no longer acceptable for children
to die from HIV and AIDS or any other preventable
disease just because the Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights hinders access
to affordable treatment. They do not accept that over
113 million children have no access to primary
education. It is certainly no longer acceptable for
people to die from cholera and other waterborne
diseases when affordable technology for clean water
and sanitation exists. Nor is it acceptable for our
people to continue to be exposed to the dire
consequences of climate change, while we debate
endlessly instead of concluding a comprehensive,
11-51384 4
legally binding climate change regime to curb global
warming and its effects.
In other words, our people want us to do more
with the collective resources that we have at our
disposal.
The residual effects of the financial and economic
crisis, coupled with ongoing uncertainties in the global
economy and the prevailing high cost of energy and
food, have compounded the setbacks experienced in
the implementation of internationally agreed goals and
commitments, including the Millennium Development
Goals. We must ensure that sustainable development in
all its three pillars — social, economic and
environmental — remains the key framework for
attaining a balanced approach towards development in
our countries. In that context, poverty eradication
should remain the centrepiece of all our policies and
programmes.
As we prepare for a common global policy on
sustainable development in Brazil in June of next year,
we are increasingly concerned about the negative trend
the negotiations are taking. The ongoing climate
change negotiations, the failed nineteenth session of
the Commission on Sustainable Development and the
ongoing discussions on the 2012 United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development continue to
expose deep divisions among our countries.
Unfortunately, those divisions undermine the
implementation of existing commitments and threaten
prospects for an effective global sustainable
development regime. We believe that the Rio+20
processes present an excellent platform for all Member
States, individually and collectively, to muster their
resolve towards the attainment of sustainable
development.
Similarly, the seventeenth Conference of the
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change, to be held in South Africa later this
year, offers the international community yet another
valuable opportunity to reverse the harmful effects of
climate change on our planet. We must forge a spirit of
cooperation and partnership, including through South-
South cooperation, public-private partnerships,
resource mobilization and technology transfer, as well
as capacity-building, to assist countries such as my
own to exploit the abundant coal reserves for
sustainable energy production in a manner less harmful
to the environment.
Significant progress was made in that respect last
September, when we resolved to take effective
measures to further strengthen support for and meet the
special needs of regions and countries struggling to
achieve economic and social development, including
middle-income countries. Recent experience has shown
that even that category of countries, which have made
small gains in poverty reduction, are still vulnerable in
the event of further global economic and financial
upheaval.
The limitations imposed by our fragile economy
and the landlocked position of my country, Botswana,
also call for the speedy implementation of the Almaty
Programme of Action, accompanied by renewed efforts
to level the playing field in international trade. We
must muster the political will to conclude the Doha
Round of the World Trade Organization trade
negotiations as soon as possible.
We as nations, individually and collectively, face
the greatest challenge of our time — the uplifting of
humankind. In fulfilling that mammoth task, our
greatest hope lies in our ability as leaders to summon
our courage and political will to do what is right.
Let me conclude by reaffirming Botswana’s
commitment to working with other Members in our
common endeavour to put our Organization at the
service of humanity.