Let me begin by
congratulating our sisterly country the Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya and you personally, Mr. President, on your
assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly
at its sixty-fourth session. I express our confidence that
your long-standing diplomatic skills and leadership
will lead us to a successful conclusion of the session. I
wish to assure you of the full support of the delegation
of the State of Eritrea in the realization of this mission.
Permit me also to seize this opportunity to pay a
well-deserved tribute to the President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-third session, Mr. Miguel
d’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, for the very able
and effective manner in which he led the affairs of the
Assembly.
Likewise, we commend Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon for his continuous efforts to administer
the affairs of the United Nations, and especially for
convening the Summit on Climate Change last week.
The General Assembly is holding its annual
general debate for 2009 at a very critical juncture. One
year after the world financial and economic crisis
began, this gathering provides us with another
opportunity for reflection.
The Hall in which we meet today and the lofty
purposes for which it was built have both outlived their
time. This body was conceived in another era to
address the challenges of the world order prevailing
after the First and Second World Wars. Therefore, it
cannot realistically cope with the demands of the
twenty-first century. From an objective point of view,
the United Nations should have embarked on a process
of transformation 20 years ago, in concurrence with the
end of the cold war. By now, it should have been
replaced by a reformed Organization fit to address the
challenges of the century we live in and beyond.
The calls to re-engineer this renewed
Organization have not been few. Two decades have
passed without any meaningful results in the direction
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of substantive reform. The financial and economic
crisis and the global awareness that it has spawned are
mere symptoms of the consequences of inaction at the
cost of reform.
The prevailing world order has not succeeded in
guaranteeing the peace and security of our planet, in
spite of all the intentions that brought forth its creation
and of the harsh lessons learned from the two World
Wars. On the contrary, this ageing world order has been
hijacked to serve the interests of the few, opening the
door to a myriad of ramifications.
Financial institutions have been left to operate
unrestrained by restrictions or regulations. Economic
structures that pillage the resources and wealth of
peoples and nations have been consolidated.
Illegitimate military and coercive blunders have been
allowed to fester unchecked. The exploitation of war
and those who help spread it have been honed in a
purposeful manner. The number of people suffering
from poverty and hunger has not been reduced; it has
rather multiplied many times over. Violent extremism
has not received the attention it deserves; rather, it has
been further fuelled and manipulated as a pretext and
excuse for ulterior motives. A culture of the politics of
fear and management by crisis has been nurtured,
exploited and established as a norm. Indeed, world
peace and security have been imperilled beyond
measure. The United Nations itself has been one of the
victims of this world order. Evidence to this effect is
known to us all and is well documented.
Reform and change are long overdue. Despite
fervent calls for reform by the international
community, the few who control our outdated world
order are unfortunately not attuned to the notion of
change. They have instead regarded crises and
suffering as ordinary historical imperatives. To this
end, they have resisted all attempts to introduce change
and, through their clout, influence and advantages,
have been able to block it. Thus, no real reform has
occurred so far.
In this global maelstrom, where even the peoples
of the developed countries have been adversely
affected, none have been more exposed to harm than
the marginalized in Africa. We, the peoples of Africa,
have been victims of poverty and hunger, models of
backwardness, and metaphors for diseases and
epidemics. And the continent has become a breeding
ground for crises and conflicts.
In this regard, the most urgent concern is the fact
that special-interest groups have rendered Africans
paralysed. Hence, instead of resolving our own
problems, we find ourselves mired in poverty, hunger
and disease rather than actively striving to achieve
development and growth. Similarly, when it comes to
the resolution of crises and conflicts, Africans find
themselves dependent on the goodwill of others.
However, criticism cannot be reserved only for
the special-interest groups that steer the prevailing
world order; it must also be apportioned to those
groups that serve as their instruments and partners.
Indeed, the role of Africa in this body, as well as in
other international organizations, can best be described
as inconsequential. The evidence for this unfortunate
situation is also well documented.
If world peace and security are to be preserved,
justice and human rights respected, hunger eradicated,
and economic development and growth made to benefit
the majority in a sustainable fashion, the implementation
of fundamental change in this Organization and other
international bodies should not be left to the goodwill
of the few. The change needed to transform this
outdated world order into a new one must not be
limited to reform; it should be solid, genuine and
capable of bringing peace, security and prosperity to
coming generations. Reform should not be limited to
increasing the number of seats in the Security Council.
It should, rather, steer our world away from its
dangerous downhill path, controlled by a powerful few,
and redirect it towards one that ensures the safety of
all.
Though this is the ideal to which the world’s
peoples aspire and strive for, the African continent, for
obvious and particular reasons, needs to expend more
effort to achieve it. But beyond all the good wishes, the
fundamental reform we are waiting for requires
collective commitment. On this auspicious occasion, it
would not do simply to dwell on various current events
or those consequences spawned by the fundamental
flaws of the world order. Doing so would only confuse
and distort the bigger picture. I have therefore chosen
not to address important issues concerning the Horn of
Africa and Eritrea’s specific problem of the illegal
occupation of sovereign Eritrean territory, which is
already in the records of the United Nations awaiting
responsible and urgent action.