Allow me at the outset to convey to the President my
congratulations on his election and to acknowledge,
through him, the Latin American and Caribbean States
that made his presidency of the General Assembly
possible. Let me assure him and the other Assembly
officers that my delegation will support them
throughout the sixty-third session of the General
Assembly.
I also wish to thank the Secretary-General for his
resolute action in favour of peace and reiterate to him
our sincere and full support.
Finally, allow me to state what a great honour it
is for me to take the floor today for the first time at the
rostrum of this prestigious Hall.
The great and deeply missed poet Aimé Césaire
said: “A civilization that is unable to resolve the
problems that beset it is a decadent civilization.” We
know what the sufferings of our civilization are. We
have identified the solutions needed to treat them. The
issue at stake here is implementing those solutions.
Eight years ago, in this very Hall, all the States
Members of the United Nations adopted the
Millennium Declaration, the decisive tool in the fight
against poverty, to promote peace, security and human
rights, and to ensure a sustainable environment. It
provided the framework for eight precise goals
accompanied by clear time frames — the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
My message today is a simple one. The
international community cannot afford to fail in the
implementation of the MDGs, in spite of the threefold
food, energy and environmental crisis seriously
affecting the whole planet. To achieve the goals that we
set ourselves at the dawn of the new millennium, we
will have to step up our efforts and pursue concerted
action in the only universal forum we have — the
United Nations.
Eight years ago, we drew up together a scorecard
with quantified goals and defined the steps to be taken
to reduce poverty, fight hunger in the world and
combat pandemics. Eight years ago, the situation was
very alarming; we could not have imagined that things
were to get worse.
Since then, we have been faced with the energy
crisis and increasingly scarce resources, the food crisis
and soaring prices of basic food products, and the
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climate crisis resulting from the impact of human
activities on the environment. Adding to that already
very dark picture, we must now face the financial
crisis, whose repercussions continue to be felt and
whose full impact is yet to be seen.
Each country is suffering the consequences of
those crises in a different way depending on its
geography, its economy and its commercial and
financial market exposure; and each country is
attempting to face them with its own means. The
Principality of Monaco, within its capabilities, has
chosen to fight two of those crises — the food crisis
and the climate crisis — with the resources at its
disposal.
Much of the progress achieved in recent years in
helping those populations suffering from hunger and
malnutrition has been erased by soaring increases in
the price of basic foodstuffs. Two billion human beings
are seriously at risk even as world cereal production
has reached a record high in 2008. The African
continent, and in particular sub-Saharan Africa, with
60 per cent of its population affected by the crisis, is
once again the worst-affected continent.
It remains nonetheless undeniable that the right to
food is among the basic human rights. During the
High-Level Conference in Rome last June, the
international community adopted the Declaration on
World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate
Change and Bioenergy. Monaco fully supports the
measures advocated in the Declaration and joins the
call for the establishment of a world partnership
centred on the High-Level Task Force on the Global
Food Security Crisis.
A year ago, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II
announced here his decision to substantially increase
Monaco’s official development assistance (ODA). The
Principality’s Government is sparing no effort to reach
the target of allocating 0.7 per cent of its gross national
income by 2015 by increasing our ODA by 25 per cent
every year and focusing its actions on the least
developed countries.
In 2008, 22 countries, mainly located around the
Mediterranean basin and in sub-Saharan Africa, have
benefited from a development partnership with the
Principality. In addition to that bilateral cooperation,
Monaco contributes on a regular basis to large-scale
programmes of the United Nations system, such as the
World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization, the
United Nations Development Programme and the
United Nations Population Fund, whose expertise and
structures facilitate the greatest assistance to the
poorest populations.
Moreover, climate change and the imbalances it
creates have a direct impact on the sustainability of our
actions for development. The climate crisis,
desertification and the shortage of water resources have
exacerbated the food crisis.
Antoine de Saint Exupéry said: “We do not
inherit the Earth from our parents; we borrow it from
our children.” Pursuing that analogy, the international
community is not allocating sufficient funds to repay
that loan.
Under the leadership of our Head of State and in
collaboration with the Prince Albert II Foundation, the
Government has committed itself actively in the
International Polar Year to raise awareness among as
many people as possible of the consequences of global
warming. In that regard, the Arctic ice cap deserves all
our attention since it serves as both an indicator of the
consequences of global warming and as a vector of
climate change through its gradual disappearance.
Last year, when adopting the resolution on oceans
and the law of the sea, member States expressed their
deep concern over the vulnerability of the environment
and the fragility of ecosystems of the polar regions,
particularly the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic ice cap. At
Monaco’s initiative, the decision on sustainable
development of the Arctic region was adopted at the
tenth special session of the Governing Council of the
United Nations Environment Programme, which was
held in the Principality in February 2008.
We will pursue our commitment to that cause in
the coming months when Monaco will host meetings
on the Arctic: the first in November 2008, organized by
the French presidency of the European Union, and the
second organized by UNESCO early next year. I would
also note that the Principality has solemnly confirmed
its interest in the polar regions by acceding to the
Antarctic Treaty on 31 May, and that His Serene
Highness Prince Albert II will join a scientific mission
to Antarctica in January.
Notwithstanding the obstacles we have
encountered on the road since 2000, we have to stay on
track. Indeed, let us roll up our sleeves, consult each
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other and work together to multiply our forces and
create genuine synergy.
I would like to reiterate here the deep
commitment of the Principality of Monaco to the
United Nations, the only genuinely universal
organization, which has human rights and the
promotion of dialogue among nations at its very core.
The Charter of the United Nations guarantees the
sovereign equality of States and the rule of law.
Monaco has been a Member of the United Nations for
15 years. Since joining, our small Principality has
covered a lot of ground on the international scene,
becoming a member of the Council of Europe in 2004
and, very recently, joining the Union for the
Mediterranean.
Without the United Nations, it is doubtful that
human rights would have acquired their universal
status, which today is indisputable. This year and next,
many anniversaries remind us yet again of the essential
role of the United Nations: the sixtieth anniversary of
the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the
Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and the
twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The world has changed since the San Francisco
Conference. Today, our task is to modernize the United
Nations and ensure that its institutions adequately
reflect our democratic principles and new geopolitical
balances. As His Serene Highness Prince Albert II
stated here last year, Monaco supports the expansion of
the Security Council.
Only the combined efforts of all partners will
allow us to make real progress in the fight against
poverty, to promote health care and education, improve
access to water and protect the environment. As
indicated in the June 2008 recommendations of the
MDG Africa Steering Group, the primary responsibility
for achieving the MDGs remains with African
Governments, which have shown tremendous
leadership in recent years and launched ambitious
programmes to attract the financial support of their
development partners.
We have seen real progress since 2000, in
particular in the area of health. Monaco, for its part,
contributes to various WHO and UNICEF programmes
and participates in efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, sickle
cell anaemia, tuberculosis and malaria. However, the
greatest national efforts, if made on an individual basis
and without coordination, will not be enough to fight
the scourges that affect our planet, and the African
continent in particular.
The evaluation of ODA policies, the sharing of
good practices, the coordination of development
assistance, partnership with the private sector,
microfinance and the pursuit of alternative revenue
sources are all instruments that, together with the
priority to be given to the central role of women in the
economy, will enable us to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals in the next seven years.