It is a great honour for
me to have this opportunity to address the General
Assembly at its sixty-fourth session to share the views
and offer the contribution of the Republic of
Mozambique on some of the challenges facing the
world today.
I would like, on behalf of my delegation, to
congratulate His Excellency Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki
on his unanimous election to preside over this session
of the General Assembly. I assure him of the full
support and collaboration of Mozambique for the
successful discharge of his noble mission.
We pay tribute to his predecessor, Father Miguel
d’Escoto Brockmann — a great sponsor of popular
liberation — for the resolute manner in which he
presided over the General Assembly at its sixty-third
session, and for his tireless efforts in favour of and
devotion to the poorest and most disadvantaged. Father
Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann’s engagement as an
advocate for those suffering in the Palestinian
territories and his strong leadership, demonstrated by
bringing together the 192 Member States of the United
Nations to address the financial and economic crisis,
have given us a vivid example of how commitment and
generosity, combined with vision and resolve, can
11 09-52604
make a difference in bringing the international
community together in the search for solutions to
current global problems.
I wish to convey to this gathering the warmest
greetings of His Excellency President Armando Emílio
Guebuza, who could not be present today due to
pressing national commitments. Indeed, on 28 October
this year, Mozambique will hold its fourth general
election. There will also be elections for provincial
parliaments for the first time in the country’s history.
These elections attest to our strong political will and
commitment to further strengthening democracy in the
country, where the rule of law and the promotion and
protection of the human rights of all Mozambicans
unite us in our fight against absolute poverty and for
peace, stability and sustainable development.
As a result of this enabling political environment,
Mozambique has recorded steady economic
performance and signals of economic stability over the
past five years, with an average gross domestic product
growth rate of 7.8 per cent. Poverty levels decreased
from 69.4 per cent in 1997 to 54.1 per cent in 2003. As
a result of our discernible progress in education,
health, water and sanitation, we expect to reduce
poverty to 45 per cent by the end of the current year.
However, the current global financial and economic
crisis is constraining our progress towards that goal; it
was recently forecast that our economic growth may
slow to 4.3 per cent in 2009.
In this context, the Government’s focus is to
ensure that the effects of the crisis, combined with
cyclical natural disasters, as well as diseases like
pandemic HIV/AIDS and endemic malaria and
tuberculosis, are not deepened and do not create
conditions that would prevent our return to the
economic and social growth I just described.
Mozambique welcomes the launching, here at the
United Nations on 23 September 2009, of the African
Leaders Malaria Alliance, and pledges to play an active
role in support of this new mechanism aimed at
coordinating our responses to the scourge of malaria.
Climate change is another pressing challenge.
Therefore, we cannot afford to fail to seal the deal in
December at the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change, in Copenhagen. It is our hope that the
commitments made during the Summit on Climate
Change, held on 22 September, will inspire the
deliberations in Copenhagen.
In southern Africa, we continue our efforts
towards regional economic integration, the
consolidation of democracy, good governance and
political stability. It is within this framework that
progress has been made in the implementation of the
Free Trade Area in the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), and that free and fair elections
have been held in a number of countries in the region.
In spite of these advances, we continue to face
challenges in many areas that still demand our
attention, in particular those of peace, security and
stability. In this regard, Mozambique, in its capacity as
chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and
Security Cooperation, will strive to ensure the success
of the common regional efforts to eradicate pockets of
instability so as to enable our countries to concentrate
on achieving the social and economic development
goals that our peoples are longing for.
We are encouraged by the progress made in the
implementation of the Global Political Agreement in
Zimbabwe, which is enabling the country to move
towards an atmosphere of political and social stability
conducive to permanent dialogue, reconstruction and
economic recovery. The economic challenges facing
Zimbabwe, associated with the current global
economic crisis and the continued sanctions applied by
some international development partners, make the
desired rapid economic recovery hard to achieve. We
therefore reiterate the SADC call for the removal of all
sanctions against Zimbabwe.
We are concerned by the attempts to undermine
the agreements signed in Maputo by all Malagasy
political movements on 9 August 2009, and we
condemn any unilateral decision that violates the spirit
of the agreements. We reaffirm our support for the
ongoing political dialogue in Madagascar and urge all
political stakeholders to fully implement the Maputo
agreements.
In addition to the subregional efforts to address
the current situation of conflicts in Africa, a special
session of the African Union was convened in August
in Tripoli to consider a wide range of conflicts with a
view to finding solutions and establishing consolidated
and sustainable peace, security and stability on the
continent. It is in this spirit that Mozambique
commends and supports the ongoing initiatives at the
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regional and continental levels aimed at promoting
durable and sustainable peace and stability in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur and
Somalia, among other areas.
With regard to the Middle East, Mozambique is
encouraged by the prospects for an effective, viable
and durable two-State solution for the Palestinians and
Israelis, as well as for broader Arab-Israeli
normalization as a result of the commitments made by
relevant stakeholders during this general debate.
The time has come for us to act together at the
national, regional and international levels to ensure the
speedy and full implementation of the internationally
agreed development goals, including the Millennium
Development Goals. We reiterate our recognition of the
vital role played by the United Nations in coordinating
international efforts in the search for sustainable
responses to the problems facing the world today.
In this regard, it is worth recalling the urgent
need to accelerate the ongoing reform of the United
Nations, including the reform of the Security Council,
the revitalization of the General Assembly, and the
process of reforming the United Nations system to
make it more effective, efficient and coherent and thus
more responsive to the development needs of
developing countries. Indeed, as one of the eight pilot
countries testing the Delivering as One initiative,
Mozambique is fully engaged in the reform of the
United Nations system at the country level.
Mozambique strongly believes in multilateralism,
and that the United Nations is at the centre of it. We
also believe that the United Nations is a special forum
that brings together the universal aspirations for a
peaceful, secure, stable and prosperous world, where
the values of tolerance, respect for human rights and
international cooperation for development are upheld.
In conclusion, I wish to reiterate Mozambique’s
commitment to continuing to engage in international
efforts to address issues of global concern, in particular
the fight against poverty, the negative impact of
climate change, and the promotion of sustainable
development.