Benin, 2013

As he is not personally able to participate in

this general debate, the President of the Republic of

Benin, Mr. Boni Yayi, has asked me to represent him.

At the outset, I would like congratulate the

President on his election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-eighth session and, through him,

to honour his country, Antigua and Barbuda, for that

success, which demonstrates the trust that it enjoys

within the international community. I would also like

to congratulate the outgoing President, His Excellency

Mr. Vuk Jeremi., who demonstrated great leadership in

fulfilling his very busy term of office. I would also like

to thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his efforts

at the head of the world Organization, in particular

since January 2012, as part of the implementation of his

programme “The future we want” (resolution 66/288,

annex).

Benin fully supports the implementation of

that programme, which focuses on issues that are

fully consistent with the views and priorities of the

Governments of the least developed countries (LDCs),

in particular those of my Government with regard to

governance matters, namely, sustainable development

and preventing conflicts, disasters and violations of

human rights, as well as ensuring the participation of

all stakeholders in the management of public affairs.

Two years from the 2015 deadline established for

the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs), we can see that major efforts have been made

by States to achieve the Goals. Assessments conducted

at different levels have shown that least developed

countries are falling far behind in implementing the

Goals, in spite of the significant progress that has been

made.

Nevertheless, it is a fact that achieving the Goals

has become a top priority of my Government’s work

and mobilizes a significant share of available resources.

We should therefore welcome the campaign started in

April to commence the countdown of the last 1,000

days leading up to the 31 December 2015 deadline.

We have reason to hope that the new dynamic

and the new life that has been breathed into efforts of

the international community will enable significant

improvement in the performance of least developed

countries. Benin has taken that opportunity to develop

a road map that includes a stopwatch for the last 1,000

days in order to speed up the achievement of the Goals

by 2015. My country is one of 16 African countries

deemed able to achieve at least five of the eight MDGs

by that date.

I would like to commend the leadership of the

United Nations and its relevant bodies, as well as other

partner agencies, in mobilizing energies to assist States

in achieving the Goals. It is important to fully include

in the post-2015 development agenda those MDGs

that have not been achieved on time and give them top

priority in order to ensure there is continuity with the

new normative framework established by the United

Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held

in Rio de Janeiro and the demands that will result from

the goals currently being developed. In that regard, the

main theme for the general debate of the sixty-eighth

session — “The post-2015 development agenda: setting

the stage” — is quite timely and perfectly in line with

the consultations that have taken place at various levels

to develop that agenda.

Thanks to the meticulous clarification of issues and

challenges by the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons

on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, appointed by

the Secretary General to present recommendations

to him, we have a galvanizing vision and appropriate

materials to build a unique, coherent programme

regarding all those points, and pragmatic enough to

ensure that everybody on the planet is placed on a

sustainable development path so everyone can have

access to shared a prosperity that leaves no country or

person aside.

The post-2015 development agenda must be

universal in nature. It must also be broken down into

specific measures targeting reforms and corrective

measures needed to re-establish any balances that have

been upset or threatened. From that standpoint, it is

of crucial importance that the situations of greatest

current concern to the international community should

enjoy particular attention, as stipulated in principle 6 of

the 1992 Rio Declaration. We should therefore strongly

support what is stated in the Secretary-General’s report

entitled “A life of dignity for all” (A/68/202), that

the needs of the least developed and most vulnerable

countries should form the basis for defining the goals

of the programme.

It is a welcome fact that the situation in those

countries has already been the subject of significant

thinking, with key action programmes that cover

periods that go far beyond 2015. In that regard, the

Istanbul Programme of Action for the Least Developed

Countries for the Decade 2011-2020 is and should

be perceived as an integral part of the post-2015

development agenda. Its main aim is to ensure the

transition of half of the 49 least developed countries to

a higher-income level by 2020.

Against that backdrop, Benin is quite clear about

its responsibility as the head of the global coordination

bureau for the LDCs. We intend to propose the holding

of an international conference on the theme “New

partnerships for developing the productive capacities

of LDCs in the context of the implementation of the

Istanbul Programme of Action”, to be held in Cotonou

in April 2014. That effort already enjoys strong support

from the United Nations and some development partners

from diverse cooperation frameworks, whether they are

North-South, South-South or according to other types

of triangular partnerships. I appeal for goodwill to

help make that voluntary initiative a decisive turning

point in terms of mobilizing the necessary resources

to help least developed countries make the leap to

industrialization based on their competitive advantages.

That route offers LDCs a possibility for creating decent

jobs so they can make the most of their demographic

advantages and turn that into a factor for stability and

prosperity.

We must enhance the role of quality, relevant

and transformative education at the heart of the

social, economic and development agendas — an

education system focused on the real needs of society

and the modern world. In that regard, I welcome the

establishment by the Secretary-General of the Global

Education First initiative, which is a platform for

leading an open debate on the aims of education in

the current context and to prepare children for living

active, productive and personally enriching lives. That

is a prerequisite for meeting the challenge of social

inclusion of young people.

Benin has been honoured to participate actively

since February in the work of the group of Member States

championing the initiative. I urge the international

community to support that noble project, which is a

guarantee of adequate, inclusive training for youth. I

call on all countries to join the Initiative in order to

contribute to the collective thinking and its efficient

implementation.

At Rio de Janeiro we affirmed the inextricable

link that exists among the economic, social and

environmental pillars of sustainable development.

However, that vision will not materialize if we set aside

the existing relationship among peace, security and

development. We should invest more in guaranteeing

peace and security as an essential factor for sustainable

development. At a time when we are thinking about the

broad outlines of the post-2015 development agenda, we

should also forge a consensus on the path to follow and

the means to strengthen the bases of international law

pursuant to respect for the essential principles of the

Charter of United Nations, to which all States Member

of the Organization have freely acceded.

We must constantly strive to bolster the ramparts of

peace; without them, any development will be in vain,

in the light of the destruction that comes from conflicts

triggered by their violation. I would take as an example

the atrocities that we see, sometimes at a frightening

level, such as what occurred in Syria with the use of

banned chemical weapons, which we condemn in the

firmest possible terms.

We must reinforce the clout of the international

regulatory regimes and make progress in the area

of disarmament, whose paralysis carries great risk

for humankind. In that regard, too, we welcome the

conclusion of the Arms Trade Treaty.

We must better harness the mechanisms for the

peaceful settlement of disputes and conflict prevention.

The partnership between the United Nations and

regional organizations is a valuable tool for building

a more integrated and solidarity-based world. That

solidarity must be clearly displayed against the rise of a

violent extremism that is increasingly dangerous when

it takes root in our societiees by associating itself with

transnational organized crime networks.

All those all equally pressing challenges that the

international community needs to address. We would

benefit from adopting a preventive and proactive, as

well as healing, approach in order to improve the health

of our planet and constantly expand the vital space

necessary for ensuring that humans flourish, if we

really want to ensure the universal access to peace and

shared prosperity that we all so sorely want.

The very encouraging way in which the crisis in

Mali was managed is to the credit of the partnership

between the United Nations and regional organizations.

It proved what the international community can achieve

if it uses its levers of our collective security system in

time. Benin has been honoured to take an active part,

alongside other African countries, in the noble mission

of rebuilding the State in Mali.

The election of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita

is the start of a new era where Mali is returning to the

family of free nations struggling to bring happiness to

their peoples. In that connection, the policies adopted

in the United Nations integrated strategy for the Sahel

must be decisively implemented in order to transform

challenges into opportunities for growth and progress

for the peoples of the region for the certain benefit of

international peace and security.

We must also commend the efforts undertaken

to stabilize the countries of the Great Lakes region,

especially the Democratic People’s Republic of the

Congo, as well as Somalia, where the African Union

has shown its ability to restore and rebuild peace,

with, of course, the support of the United Nations. The

case of the Central African Republic gives us pause,

as it requires a commitment from the international

community commensurate with seriousness of the

current challenges.

The resurgence of piracy and armed robbery at sea

in the Gulf of Guinea has had an enormous impact on

the economies of the countries of the Atlantic coast and

in the hinterlands. The initiatives undertaken with the

support of the United Nations and the backing offered

by our bilateral partners have enabled us to set up

information-sharing centres pursuant to resolutions

2018 (2011) and 2039 (2012) of the Security Council. That

was the aim of the joint summit on maritime security

of the Heads of State and Government of the Economic

Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the

Economic Community of Central African States

(ECCAS) and the Commission of the Gulf of Guinea

that took place in Yaoundé on 24 and 25 June. That

followed the meeting of Foreign Ministers and Defence

Ministers of ECOWAS, ECCAS and the Gulf of Guinea

Commission that took place in Cotonou on 18 and

19 March. After Yaoundé, there was the Malabo summit

of the Heads of State of the Gulf of Guinea Commission

held on 9 July, which took the historic decision to open

the Gulf of Guinea Commission to all States in the area

of the Gulf of Guinea, which gives the arrangements an

inclusive technical consultation framework.

Strengthening regional cooperation means that

we need to set up an international support mechanism

to improve cost-sharing in order to guarantee lasting

results. It is important for the Security Council to adopt

a new resolution to that effect.

More than ever, the United Nations must stand firm

in its role as the best forum for a fruitful multilateralism,

where different initiatives come together to give the

necessary impetus for more inclusive and less unjust

global governance that finds comprehensive, lasting

solutions to crises of every stripe that trouble the world

with disastrous repercussions on human security and

human rights.

The delays in the establishment of a Palestinian State

with all the attributes of an independent and sovereign

State, including full membership in the United Nations,

living side by side with the State of Israel within secure

borders and with full international guarantees is still a

subject of concern. In that regard, Benin welcomes the

efforts of the Obama Administration that have led to

the renewal of dialogue between the Palestinians and

Israelis.

Along the same lines, the paralysis in the United

Nations with respect to different political and military

crises shows how urgent it is to reform the international

system, in particular the Security Council. Achieving

that reform would be real proof of the commitment

of the United Nations to inclusive and less polemic

management of the great problems of today.

The Government of Benin is firmly committed

to the universality, indivisibility and interdependence

of all human rights, which it considers to be the

third pillar of the United Nations system. They are

considerations that govern our participation in the

work of the Human Rights Council, where we strive to

promote a correlation between the behaviour of States

and the international obligations they have undertaken

through a mutual open dialogue and mutually enriching

cooperation as the most effective way for developing

and protecting universally recognized human rights

and the fight against impunity.

Governments must undertake to create more

cohesion between stakeholders and to ensure

understanding and consensus on essential matters

and avoid internal divisions that undermine the State

while negative forces are constantly striving to wreak

havoc. My Government is committed to strengthening

the principles of democracy and the implementation of

effective local development policies. My Government

remains convinced that promoting, developing and

shoring up democracy, far from being a luxury, is a

vital and unavoidable necessity for all African States.

That is why Benin is striving each day to find the

ways and means to strengthen and streamline its political

system so as to permanently anchor it in universal

values. I remain convinced that democracy can be

viable and useful for the people only if it contributes to

development, to promoting the dignity and fundamental

rights of citizens, to strengthening social justice and to

maintaining peace and international security.

In conclusion, I would like to express the compassion

of the people of Benin to the brotherly people of Kenya

for the tragedy they have experienced following the

recent terrorist attack. The same compassion goes out

to all those people in the world who are suffering from

intolerance and its attendant violence.