Botswana, 2010

It is my singular

honour to extend my congratulations to you, Sir, on

your assumption of the presidency of the General

Assembly. I wish to assure you of the full support and

cooperation of my delegation in the discharge of your

onerous responsibilities. My commendation also goes

to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and his

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staff for their commitment to the advancement of the

work of this noble Organization.

As Member States, we continue to find refuge in

the provisions of the United Nations Charter and the

full assurance that, when we are individually faced

with insurmountable challenges and difficulties, we

draw from the collective strength of the international

community.

Working together for a common purpose, for the

common good is actually the sacredness of this, our

grand institution. In this regard, we must all remain

steadfast in our partnership on the agenda for poverty

eradication, the pursuit of international peace and

security, the combating of disease, the promotion of

youth empowerment and gender equality, the

promotion and protection of democracy, the rule of law

and human rights, personal advancement through

education, better health for all and harnessing

technology for sustainable development. It is on

account of this abiding faith and belief in the viability

and primacy of the United Nations that, in spite of our

resource limitations, we have over the years faithfully

fulfilled our obligations to this Organization.

The deliberations of the recently concluded High-

level Plenary Meeting on the review of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs), our global blueprint for

monitoring universal progress towards shared

development goals, clearly cast light on our strengths,

weaknesses and vulnerabilities, individually and

collectively. For this reason we need to redouble our

efforts to accelerate the implementation of the MDGs

in the remaining five years.

Botswana is classified as an upper-middle-income

country. However, despite having enjoyed stability and

steady economic growth over a sustained period of

time, the country still has to contend with a plethora of

development challenges — ironically, in an

environment of diminished international development

assistance and support. The vulnerability of economies

such as that of my country became evident during the

triple global crises of food, energy and, most recently,

the world economic and financial meltdown. To this

end, we call for continued development assistance for

middle-income countries, lest their hard-earned gains

be reversed.

In this era of growing and complex global

challenges, the need for a more dynamic and proactive

global financial, economic and political architecture is

far more apparent than ever before. More specifically,

the recent crises point to an international monetary and

financial architecture that needs profound reform in

order to enhance its early-warning capabilities and

resistance to external shocks, as well as to facilitate the

integration of poorer countries into the global

economy.

Botswana welcomes the important milestones

achieved in strengthening United Nations operational

activities for development and improvements in

funding for development-related activities, as well as

in strengthening the institutional framework for the

gender architecture through the creation of the United

Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the

Empowerment of Women — UN Women. The creation

of the Entity constitutes an important step in fulfilling

the commitments undertaken at the 1995 Beijing World

Conference on Women, whose main objective was the

promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of

women.

Botswana fully supports the strengthening of the

institutional capacity of the Peacebuilding

Commission. We believe that the role of the

Commission should be properly defined by a robust

mandate, through the amendment of the founding

resolutions and the provision of adequate resources in

order to enable it to effectively discharge its mandate.

On a related subject, we fully concur that

disarmament and non-proliferation are essential for the

promotion of international peace and security. To this

end, my delegation welcomes the progress made in

some areas but remains deeply concerned that the

Conference on Disarmament continues to be

deadlocked.

I wish to seize this opportunity to reaffirm

Botswana’s commitment to the objectives of the Treaty

on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which

we continue to demonstrate through effective

implementation of its provisions as well as compliance

with the decisions of the successive Review

Conferences. Consequently, Botswana associates itself

with the outcome of the 2010 Review Conference of

the States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation

of Nuclear Weapons. We fully support the call by

developing countries for the peaceful use of nuclear

technology in areas such as agriculture, the

environment, water management and medicine.

However, countries that intend to embark on such use

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of nuclear technology should do so in a transparent

fashion and in full cooperation with the International

Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We therefore call for

increased financial support for the IAEA Technical

Cooperation Programme as well as for the Agency’s

capacity-building, in order to share technology

utilization in the relevant areas.

Botswana continues to be deeply concerned about

increasing threats to international peace and security.

As a peace-loving nation, we believe in the peaceful

resolution of conflicts. It is because of this strong

belief that we condemn, without reservation, all acts of

terrorism, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, on which

our well-known position remains unchanged. My

delegation does not believe that the 9/11 attack was

orchestrated by the United States of America.

One issue of deep concern to my delegation is the

erosion of democracy, respect for human rights and the

rule of law in some parts of the world. There is

therefore an urgent need for us to reverse this trend,

especially because it undermines all the efforts we

have made to date to launch our countries on a path of

peace, stability and sustainable development. To this

end, we commend the various civil society

organizations that have consistently sounded alarm

bells regarding incidents of human rights violations

whenever and wherever they occur.

My country is of the view that the International

Criminal Court needs to be supported in its efforts to

resolve outstanding cases of arrest warrants that have

been issued against persons indicted for the

commission of serious crimes. It is in this context that

Botswana remains resolute and steadfast in its support

for the work of the International Criminal Court. We

welcome the landmark decision of the Rome Statute

Review Conference held recently in Kampala, Uganda,

to extend the jurisdiction of the Court to cover the

crime of aggression.

Nowhere is our shared responsibility as members

of the international community more critical than in

protecting and nurturing our shared environment and

our planet, Earth. To this end, it is pertinent to point

out that climate change has increasingly become one of

humanity’s most daunting challenges. The devastating

natural disasters recently experienced in certain

quarters of our globe amply demonstrate our

vulnerability as inhabitants of the Earth.

I wish to seize this opportunity, on behalf of the

Government and the people of Botswana, and indeed

on my own account, to express our sympathy and

solidarity with all the countries that have been victims

of such disasters. We would like to extend our

condolences to all the families who lost their loved

ones and those whose property and livelihoods were

destroyed. We extend our profound appreciation to the

Governments as well as private sector and civil society

organizations that responded positively to the

international humanitarian appeal launched by the

United Nations on behalf of the affected countries. In

particular, we would like to recognize the countries

that led humanitarian interventions. We remain

optimistic that the next Conference of Parties to the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change will achieve a successful outcome, one that

fully addresses the interests and concerns of both

developing and developed countries.

In conclusion, we pray that this sixty-fifth session

of the General Assembly will go down in history as

marking a milestone in efforts aimed at addressing the

most pressing global challenges of our time, as well as

bringing hope and inspiration to the billions in despair

throughout the world.