First, I
would like to warmly congratulate Mr. Ali Abdussalam
Treki on his election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at its sixty-fourth session. I would also like
to pay a well-deserved tribute to Father Miguel
d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the Assembly at its
sixty-third session, for the work he accomplished
during his mandate. And I reaffirm the confidence and
support of my country for the Secretary-General as he
continues his efforts as the leader of this Organization.
Gabon has just gone through a critical phase in its
history as a nation. With the loss of President Omar
Bongo Ondimba on 8 June, our country saw the start of
a delicate period of political transition, during which
we had to dig deep to find the strength necessary to
confront our destiny. Under the relevant provisions of
our founding laws and the leadership of interim
President Rose Francine Rogombé, we were able to
bring our electoral process to a successful conclusion,
culminating in a vote on 30 August. As a result of this
unprecedented election, Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba was
officially proclaimed the elected President of the
Republic by the Constitutional Court, which under the
law has a month to examine claims or appeals resulting
from the election before the elected President takes
office, given that nine unsuccessful candidates have
appealed to the high court.
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As members know, ensuring such an important
democratic transition in the brief time allocated under
the law was very challenging for our country, and I am
proud to say that we have met it, considering what was
at stake and what we knew had to be done. I submit
here my own tribute to the people of Gabon, the
majority of whom have proclaimed their support for
the values of peace and democracy. I would also like to
thank the peoples of Africa and of the entire world, as
well as the representatives of States and international
and civil society organizations who came to observe
the elections in Gabon and to nourish our democratic
process with their experience. As we open a new page
in our march towards progress and development, we
know we can rely on the international community and
on the friends of Gabon all over the world to confront
the challenges of today and tomorrow.
As regards those challenges, we are determined,
today more than ever before, to spare no effort to
establish good political and economic governance and
to consolidate our gains and our legacy in the areas of
stability, peace and democracy. We are also motivated
by our determination to pursue our endeavours in
maintaining regional and international peace, by
strengthening our links of solidarity and fraternity with
all our neighbouring countries.
The sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly
is opening its deliberations in an international context
marked by a number of successive crises: economic
and financial, food, energy and environmental. We
must bring urgent and lasting responses to these
various crises by acting collectively to curb them and
ensuring that our peoples achieve the development they
desire with all their heart. The United Nations
Conference on the World Financial and Economic
Crisis and Its Impact on Development, held in New
York from 24 to 30 June, was an important initiative,
enabling us to express our concerns and declare our
commitment to fighting the crisis and its repercussions
for our countries.
The unity we reached on measures to be taken to
deal with the crisis will require the complete and
unified participation of our countries in developing
appropriate solutions. Beyond the specifics relating to
each country, we must make sure together that the
measures and actions taken to fight the crisis be
proportional in scope to its gravity and intensity.
The food crisis was at the centre of our
discussions during the sixty-third session of the
Assembly and was the focus of two important
declarations, one adopted at the High-level Conference
on World Food Security, held in Rome from 3 to 5 June
2008, and one adopted at the thirteenth African Union
Conference of Heads of State and Government, held in
Sirte in July. We must now implement the declarations
and measures adopted as a result of meetings held at
the international and regional levels. It is only through
strict adherence to our commitments that we will be
able to identify the adverse effects of such crisis
situations on the development of our respective States.
The challenge of feeding a planet whose
population is growing is intimately linked to the
questions of the environment and climate change. The
harmful effects of global warming on our ability to
increase agricultural production in such a way as to
bring about a lasting solution to the food crisis are no
longer in doubt. I am pleased once again that this
question was chosen as a theme for the recent high-
level dialogue organized by the Secretary-General on
the sidelines of the current session, with a view to the
forthcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference in
December. In this regard, we reaffirm our support for
Africa’s common position on climate change, adopted
in Addis Ababa in August by the heads of State or
Government of the African Union.
My country, Gabon, whose forests are among
those that make up the great Congo basin, has adhered
unreservedly to the various international conventions
concerning the struggle against climate catastrophe and
the protection of biodiversity. We have resolved to
assume our share of responsibility by dedicating 11 per
cent of our territory to humanity, by creating, among
other things, 13 national parks.
The interdependence of the crises the
international community faces highlights, now more
than ever before, the need to breathe new life into
efforts to ensure international peace and security, but
also to conduct collective action at the global level. It
is with this conviction that Gabon has submitted its
candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the Security
Council for the period 2010-2011, for which it was
endorsed by the African Union at its thirteenth
Conference of Heads of State and Government, held at
Sirte in July.
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My country is also convinced that this
Organization cannot remain frozen, but must evolve in
order to enable it to adapt better to the current
international context. It is for this reason that world
leaders, through the Millennium Declaration
(resolution 55/2) and the 2005 World Summit Outcome
(resolution 60/1), reaffirmed the need to strengthen the
United Nations to allow it to fulfil its principal
missions more effectively.
In that regard, my country welcomes the progress
made since the 2005 World Summit in implementing a
great many of the important recommendations of the
Outcome Document in the framework of the United
Nations reform process. While pleased with these
major advances, we must continue our efforts to bring
these reforms to completion. Building a more just and
secure world capable of responding to its peoples’
profound aspirations depends on it.