Republic of the Congo, 2009

I

would like at the outset to welcome the election of

Mr. Ali Treki to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-fourth session, which is taking

place at a time when major challenges continue to test

the effectiveness of our Organization. From this

rostrum, I would also like to pay tribute to his

predecessor, Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, and to

his courageous and energetic actions throughout his

term. I also thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for

his exceptional work at the head of our Organization at

a time in history when important reforms are being

undertaken.

I wish to emphasize the extent to which, now

more than ever, the United Nations symbolizes hope in

the face of the major challenges threatening our planet,

which no nation can meet alone. People have never had

such need of that hope.

The Summit on Climate Change, held recently at

the initiative of the Secretary-General, called once

again upon the collective conscience of all nations

large and small, united and stirred by a common

resolve to work to build the better world of which the

founding fathers of our Organization dreamed. In this

village that our world has become, we Members of the

United Nations are the guarantors of people’s liberties

and rights, their security and their future, their dignity

and the promise of world peace.

Mr. Hackett (Barbados), Vice-President, took the

chair.

I know what solidarity owes to the dedication of

the United Nations, and what peace owes to its actions,

commitment and determination. And I foresee what the

future will owe it. It is here that are forged freedom

and human rights, solidarity and universal justice — in

a word, the destiny of humankind. The men and women

here know that more than a billion people still live on

less than a dollar a day and that children die

unnecessarily of hunger and disease. All of us here

know how climate change is abetting these scourges

and how the countries least responsible for it suffer the

most from its effects. Producing only 3.8 per cent of

greenhouse gas emissions, our continent is the most

affected by global warming. Poor populations are its

main victims. The agriculture, fauna and infrastructure

of coastal regions are on the front line.

The Brundtland report of the World Commission

on Environment and Development (A/42/427, annex),

submitted to the General Assembly in 1987, gave us,

more than 20 years ago, the following definition of

sustainable development: “development that meets the

needs of the present without compromising the ability

of future generations to meet their own needs”

(Ibid., p. 54).

Sustainable development is not a concept, as we

have all learned at our own expense; it is an issue

fraught with genuine responsibilities. The balance of

ecosystems has never been so threatened. Urgent

measures are required in Africa and in all nations to

guarantee food security, combat drought and

desertification, and restore natural ecosystems. Such

measures require the mobilization of significant

resources.

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When one’s main resource is the forest, one bears

an immense responsibility. We represent the Earth’s

second most important environmental lung, after the

Amazon. Together with our Latin American brothers,

we are aware of our responsibility as guardians of

forests that represent an essential treasure for all

humankind.

Since the 1990s, the Congo has worked

continuously with the international community to

combat global warming and to implement a policy of

forest protection. Today, our action is more essential

than ever. Our forests represent vast carbon sinks of

global importance for regulating the greenhouse-gas

effect. They are our common salvation and home to

400 species of mammals, more than 1,000 species of

birds and more than 10,000 species of plants, 3,000 of

which are endemic. Gorillas, forest buffaloes,

chimpanzees, bonobos and forest elephants — these

are what must inspire our action, as they help to

maintain the ecological functions of natural systems.

In 1999, the countries of the Congo basin

launched a unique forestry experiment by proclaiming

their common resolve to preserve their biodiversity and

promote the sustainable and joint management of their

forest ecosystems, as well as by ensuring the use of

resources for Central Africa’s economic and social

development. The resulting plan is one of the strategic

components of the New Partnership for Africa’s

Development. It represents a significant contribution

by Central Africa to the effort to address the problems

related to global warming. Unfortunately, the funds

necessary for the programme’s implementation are still

lacking.

The countries of the region have nonetheless

made great progress in forest preservation. Today,

Africa requests that the forthcoming Copenhagen

Conference consider mechanisms for adaptation,

mitigation, capacity-building, technology transfer and

financing based on the principle of equity. In

Copenhagen, we must take earnest account of the

forests, which represent carbon sinks of global

importance for regulating and stabilizing our planet’s

climate.

The economic and financial crisis, whose effects

we continue to feel, is the most serious economic

recession that the world has experienced since the

Great Depression of the 1930s. This crisis should help

to raise our awareness. It justifies an overhaul of the

international financial architecture and can enable us,

through new commitments, to realize the vision of a

more unified and equitable world. But time is running

out, in Africa more than elsewhere, and the adoption of

decisive measures can wait no longer.

Halfway towards the deadline for achieving the

Millennium Development Goals, our success will

depend on the international community’s new choices

and on the effective implementation of announced

measures. The commitments undertaken at the April

2009 London summit of the Group of 20 must be

honoured, and we hope that the meeting to be held in

Pittsburgh will fulfil all our expectations.

In its capacity as African Union co-mediator,

together with Libya, of the crisis between Chad and the

Sudan, the Republic of the Congo welcomes the

willingness, expressed by both parties at the African

Union summit, to relaunch negotiations based on the

Doha Agreement of 3 May 2009. We also note with

satisfaction that the tripartite initiative aimed at a joint

settlement in the subregion, with the assistance of the

United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office in the

Central African Republic, the General Secretariat of

the Economic Community of Central African States,

the Commission of the Central African Economic and

Monetary Community and the General Secretariat of

the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States, should

enable us to curb the insecurity on the borders of

Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Chad for

the long term.

We welcome the significant progress seen

recently in relations among the countries of the Great

Lakes region on our continent. The warming of

relations between the Democratic Republic of the

Congo and Rwanda, the revitalization of the Economic

Community of the Great Lakes Countries, and the

normalization of relations between Uganda and the

Democratic Republic of the Congo reflect the common

will of the Great Lakes countries to work to

consolidate peace.

With respect to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, we

encourage any initiative to promote sustained dialogue

between the parties in the quest for a definitive and

equitable solution to the crisis.

We welcome the unanimous adoption, on

24 September 2009 at the historic Security Council

9 09-52470

summit (see S/PV.6191), of resolution 1887 (2009),

which reflects the determination of the international

community to work towards disarmament and nuclear

non-proliferation for a safer world.

In the light of these many challenges, we call for

strict compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation

Treaty in all its aspects, including the right of all

countries to develop nuclear technologies for civilian

purposes.

The Congolese people renewed their confidence

in me last July. That confidence is based on the concept

that we call the “path of the future”. That path proposes

opening the Congo to modernization and

industrialization, to the pursuit of peacebuilding, the

strengthening of democracy and the rule of law, to the

promotion of good governance and to the protection of

human rights. We have pledged to open a new path to

the future and to mark it with proper behaviour and

clean technologies. We have pledged in my country to

never sit on our hands and watch the Earth suffer. That

is a promise which I repeat here.

Our African storytellers have often said that men

were the dream of the Earth. I solemnly promise that

not only will Africans do everything in their power to

never become its nightmare; they will, on the contrary,

open up a gateway to the future for all of us.