I have the honour to
deliver this statement on behalf of His Excellency Paul
Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, at this
sixty-first session of the General Assembly.
Each year the General Assembly provides an
excellent opportunity for us to review our collective
commitments as reflected in the Charter, as well as
more recent ones such as those set out in the
Millennium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit
Outcome. We therefore view the beginning of the
sixty-first session of the General Assembly as an
opportunity to breathe new energy into our collective
responsibilities articulated at previous conferences and
summits. It is my earnest hope that we shall seize this
opportunity to take stock of our successes and
shortcomings and devise practical solutions to realize
these commitments, particularly the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
In its preamble, the United Nations Charter
expresses our collective determination to promote
social progress and better standards of life in larger
freedom. This statement formed a basis for the
Millennium Declaration in 2000 and our renewal of
those commitments at last year’s World Summit. All of
the outcomes of previous conferences and summits
reflect the recognition of our collective interests and
responsibilities in addressing the common problems
affecting humankind.
Today, there is no greater danger threatening
humanity than extreme poverty. Forty per cent of the
world’s population, or 2.5 billion people, live in
absolute poverty on less than $2 a day, while more than
800 million people suffer from hunger and
malnutrition. For sub-Saharan Africa, the statistics are
even more staggering; in most cases, 60 to 70 per cent
of national populations live on less than a dollar a day,
while life expectancy at birth is less than 50 years.
This is clearly unacceptable at a time when the
rest of the world enjoys unprecedented levels of
affluence and technological and scientific
advancement. As for the poor, their daily lives are a
trial that nobody would wish to experience. We must
not permit another five years to pass only to find out
that no progress has been made and only to simply
renew the same commitments. We must, therefore,
devise means to do things radically differently and in
an accelerated manner.
There are a number of areas that require our
urgent attention if we are to make progress in attaining
the MDGs by 2015 and in eventually eradicating
poverty. I will highlight a few of these areas, which, in
our view, are the most salient. Regardless of one’s
definition of good or effective governance, what has
been proved is its importance in the sustained socio-
economic development of a nation. We believe that the
key features of good or effective governance include a
political culture that fosters inclusive and competitive
participation; robust national institutions that pursue
effective and coherent national development strategies;
effective management and oversight institutions; and,
of course, the consolidation of the rule of law. It is our
view that, by embracing good-governance principles,
we are setting the stage for the attainment of our global
and national targets.
Rwanda is strongly committed to these principles
and has submitted itself to the scrutiny of our African
peers under the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD) African Peer Review
Mechanism (APRM). The APRM is an African
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initiative aimed at promoting good governance through
constructive self-assessment and peer review. We
welcome the acknowledgements of the progress we
have made in many areas and commit ourselves to
continuing to make improvements in the areas
identified in the peer review report.
In the spirit of mutual accountability, it is our
belief that the principles of good governance that
prevail at the national level should also guide our
relations with our development partners. Both sides of
the ongoing governance debate should be given
adequate and equal attention, particularly since aid
effectiveness is also critical to the attainment of the
MDGs.
We believe that improving the quality and
increasing the quantity of official development
assistance (ODA) is another important set of measures
that would improve development prospects. The
quality of ODA should be improved by adopting needs-
based approaches, providing more budget support,
supporting national poverty reduction programmes,
reducing waste and overhead, and channelling aid to
sectors that enhance productive capacities rather than
perpetuate dependence.
It is critical that there be harmonization of the
objectives of trade and development policies on the
part of our development partners. Trade policies should
complement, rather than undermine, the attainment of
the development goals. We must recommit ourselves,
both in principle and practice, to an open, rules-based,
non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading
system. Any progress that developing countries like
Rwanda might achieve in attaining the MDGs will not
be sustainable unless measures are taken to provide
greater opportunity for those countries to access the
markets of the developed world, thereby increasing
household and national incomes.
The attainment of the MDGs will require
additional resources. We thus consider it essential to
increase the quantity of aid. We welcome the decision
by some developed States to dramatically increase the
volume of ODA over the next few years, and we are
grateful to them. We also congratulate those States that
have reached or exceeded the internationally agreed
0.7 per cent of gross national income for the ODA
target, and we welcome the decision by those States
that have set timetables to achieve or exceed that target
by 2015. The challenge is, therefore, to translate these
commitments into tangible disbursements and the
implementation of real poverty reduction programmes
on the ground.
The most serious challenge to our development
and the attainment of the MDGs is the unprecedented
price level of fossil-fuel energy on the one hand, and
the reduction in hydroelectric generation capacity on
the other.
There is a danger that the successes registered so
far towards the attainment of the MDGs could easily be
reversed if the current energy sector cost trends
continue unabated. It is critical, therefore, that we
invest heavily in sustainable alternative energy sources
for the long term. In the short- and medium-term,
however, we shall need to find ways to mitigate the
effects of energy price shocks if we are to sustain and
accelerate the attainment of the MDGs.
The scourge of war continues to cause the
massive loss of human life and blight entire
communities. The ongoing conflicts in some parts of
Africa and the Middle East pose a serious threat to
international peace and security and require our
collective efforts to reach political settlements to these
conflicts.
Our painful experience in Rwanda has taught us
that peace comes at a price. There can be no peace
without reconciliation and recognition of the rights and
interests of all people, including the rights of States to
exist and the right of self-determination. We have
learned that no community’s rights can or should
supersede another’s. We have learned the value of
sharing and the value of communities’ living side by
side in peace and mutual respect.
Rwanda is happy to contribute to the promotion
of international peace and security through its military
and police contributions to the United Nations and
African Union peacekeeping missions in the Sudan,
Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and the Comoros. We are
committed to continuing these contributions for as long
as they are required and as long as our resources
permit. The Security Council and the Secretariat should
continue to work towards better-conceived and more-
effective peacekeeping operations, towards greater
participation by regional organizations in conflict
resolution and towards the institutionalization of
lessons learned from the past. There is also an urgent
need to institutionalize relations between the United
Nations and regional organizations, particularly the
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African Union, in the areas of conflict resolution and
peacekeeping.
We warmly welcome the reforms adopted during
the previous session of the General Assembly. We take
this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Jan Eliasson,
President of the sixtieth session, and all Member States
on the reforms, including the setting up of the
Peacebuilding Commission, the establishment of the
Human Rights Council and the renewed commitments
to combat HIV/AIDS adopted at the special session of
the General Assembly in June. There has also been
commendable progress on management reform,
including the establishment of an ethics office,
strengthening whistle-blower protection and reforming
procurement procedures to prevent corruption. We look
forward to working together with other delegations
during this session to improve coherence, efficiency
and effectiveness within the Secretariat and to continue
to review the Organization’s mandates, so that the
United Nations may be strengthened to respond better
to the expectations of Member States.
It is our hope that this session of the General
Assembly might achieve greater progress with respect
to Security Council reform. Rwanda supports the
common African position on this issue and believes
that reform of the working methods to promote
transparency and accountability is most urgent. The
reform process should enable States that are not
members of the Council to participate more actively in
its deliberative and decision-making processes,
especially on issues that affect them. A reformed
Council should be seen by all States, especially the
smaller States, to be more accessible, transparent,
credible and legitimate.
In the next few months, the General Assembly
will elect a new Secretary-General upon
recommendation of the Security Council. Rwanda
supports the common African position that the next
Secretary-General should be from Asia. As far as the
election process is concerned, we appeal for greater
transparency in that process in accordance with the
Charter and the basic principles of democracy.
In conclusion, in today’s globalized world, our
interdependence has never been more self-evident. As a
result, the imperative for our collective action is
greater than ever. Once again, the onus is on all of us
to translate our many challenges and opportunities into
a shared destiny of peace, security and prosperity for
all.