Ecuador, 2010

I would like to commend the election of His

Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss as President of the

General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session and to

welcome his excellent proposal for the main subject of

the general debate, “Reaffirming the central role of the

United Nations in global governance”. This is also part

of Ecuador’s policy of strengthening multilateralism.

To that end, we have continuously encouraged regional

integration as the logical response to an ancestral

heritage that never kept or defended borders between

friendly countries.

The wish for a united South America came to

fruition with the establishment of the Union of South

American Nations (UNASUR) as an area for genuine

integration aimed, inter alia, at eliminating inequality

and strengthening democracy. On 26 November,

Ecuador will hand over the pro tempore presidency,

which it has held since August of 2009, to our sister

country of Guyana. In the same vein, Ecuador has

fostered South-South cooperation as a mechanism for

development, encouraging cooperation among the

legitimate representatives of States parties. We believe

that countries must be heard and their requirements and

realities addressed, and that cooperation should be a

reality over the medium term.

I should stress that one of the most important

endeavours developed within this space was the

solidarity extended to the sister country of Haiti and its

legitimate Government for its reconstruction, to attain

the development it yearns for and to strengthen its

institutions as it deserves.

I wish to place special emphasis on the

importance we accord to the issue of climate change.

Ecuador is one of world’s 19 megadiverse countries. Its

Amazon forest boasts the Yasuní Park, declared by

UNESCO as a world biosphere reserve in 1989.

Scientists agree on the unique value of this park, for its

extraordinary biodiversity and state of conservation

and for the cultural heritage it holds. The park

concentrates Amazonia’s highest densities of

amphibian, mammal, bird and plant species. Yasuní is

also a Pleistocene reserve. There, species were not

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affected by glaciation, which preserved a process of

differentiated evolution of new species. Moreover, the

Yasuní National Park is the home of two indigenous

peoples that have opted to live in voluntary isolation

with respect to Western culture: the Tagaeri and the

Taromenane. Both belong to the Huaorani culture,

possessing age-old wisdom and cultural heritage.

The wealth of the park also extends underground.

In Yasuní there are oil resources from which Ecuador

could obtain 846 million barrels of heavy crude. Three

years ago, the President of Ecuador, the economist

Rafael Correa, launched the Yasuní-ITT Initiative

before this forum (see A/62/PV.7), which proposed

keeping that oil underground, unexploited. If we fulfil

this aspiration, we will prevent the emission of

407 million tons of carbon, the main cause of climate

change, and we will leave intact the planet’s richest

world biosphere reserve. To do this, we need to raise

global awareness and gain the relevant international

contribution, equivalent to at least half of the total

revenue of $3.6 billion that the State of Ecuador would

earn if it were to exploit the oil reserves.

Ecuador is a country that is making major efforts

to achieve development. But, as an act of generosity,

the people of Ecuador have decided not to receive

50 per cent of the income that this oil would generate,

so long as the international community makes the same

effort.

The Yasuní Initiative, as President Correa himself

has said, is not just symbolic. It is the most important

initiative for our country and for the entire planet. It

would protect one of the areas richest in biodiversity —

perhaps the richest in the world — and there is no

doubt that it would contribute to mitigating climate

change. The world will be able to assess the way of life

of Amazon peoples, in particular that of the most

vulnerable among them: the indigenous peoples in

voluntary isolation.

We have already created a capital fund

administered by the United Nations Development

Programme with the participation of the Ecuadorian

State, our civil society, and representatives of our

fellow contributing countries.

I call upon our brother countries throughout the

world, especially the industrialized countries, to

support the Yasuní Initiative and, acknowledging the

responsibility we all share for climate change, to seek

original solutions to a problem that threatens the very

survival of the human species. Ancestral Amerindian

wisdom teaches us that the Earth was not inherited

from our parents; rather, this magical creation is lent to

us by our children.

Ecuador has reached its targets related to the

Millennium Development Goals, and it continues to

promote them, including by setting an example for the

international community. However, I wish to state very

firmly that the Millennium Development Goals left out

a very significant segment of the population and that,

soon, they will reveal deficiencies in the social policies

of countries. I am speaking here of the excluded among

the excluded, the forgotten among the forgotten. I am

referring to people with disabilities.

Let us be clear: disability is not incapacity, but

rather diversity. As there is geographical, cultural or

bioclimatic diversity, there are also diverse capacities,

and that is where talent, heart, dedication, perseverance

and willingness lie. Ecuador has undertaken a

bio-psychosocial, clinical and genetic study of all

persons with disabilities in the country. We never in

our wildest dreams imagined what we would find in

that study: human beings left in holes in the ground, in

cages, with silence as their only company and death as

their only hope, human beings ashamed and shaming

others.

That situation no longer exists in Ecuador.

Although much remains to be done, we have already

accomplished much. As of now, we can locate via

satellite every person with disabilities in Ecuador who

needs help and provide them with the technical

assistance they need, accessible and dignified housing,

medical care, rehabilitation and integration in the

workforce and the education system. In addition, we

have created a subsidy, equivalent to a minimal living

wage, to acknowledge the work and the dedication of

those who care for persons with severe physical or

mental disabilities.

The expertise of the sister Republic of Cuba

played a significant role in the execution of this

detailed study. Cuba is perhaps the country that shows

the greatest solidarity in Latin America because, when

the time to help comes, they do not take into account

the fact that they still suffer under the most infamous,

illegal and illegitimate blockade in human memory,

and which Ecuador condemns with all the energy of a

grateful people.

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I must highlight the inescapable urgency of

addressing the subject of human migration. Allow me

to make an appeal to all countries, especially

developed ones, to sign the International Convention

on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers

and Members of Their Families, which was opened for

signature 20 years ago: 20 years ago. What, I ask

myself, are we not one single race? Have we not

similar problems?

I also ask myself: do we not share the same

evolution? Do we not have the same hopes for the

future? Let us share the realization of the dream of

universal citizenship. Let human beings travel

wherever they want, whenever they want, as they do

when they are at home and among family, and as

should be the case around the world.

I want to reiterate the Ecuadorian position

condemning all forms of colonialism and occupation of

territories by foreign forces. We reaffirm that dialogue

must always be the mechanism of choice for the

settlement of conflicts.

We believe in the sovereign right of all countries

to development and to the peaceful use of nuclear

energy. We want a world without nuclear weapons. We

therefore recommend preaching by example. I will

repeat that: we want a world without nuclear weapons,

but our approach is to preach by example, so that that

which we demand from others also becomes first and

foremost a requirement for ourselves. I call for a

definitive decision. Let us dismantle nuclear arsenals,

so that just as we criminalize the manufacturing and

marketing of illegal drugs, we would also criminalize

the manufacturing and marketing of weapons of mass

destruction — and if only that could be done for all

weapons.

There can be no world governance without peace.

Nature is the best teacher of peace. I was born in the

Ecuadorian Amazon basin. We call Earth our Pacha

Mama. She and we are the same. The travelling poet

Walt Whitman said, referring to all human beings, to

all other beings on Earth and to the Earth itself, “every

atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (Song of

Myself). We are made of the same atoms, which we

share. We come from dust, we whirl around for some

time and then we return to dust, to our Pacha Mama, to

Mother Nature. But she has been abused and

disrespected. Even so, in her agony, she is still

generous. Rabindranath Tagore said that the Earth has

been insulted and reviled, but in return offers her

flowers and her fruits.

I call on Member States, our brother countries, to

share this revolutionary vision, to find peace and to

make it everlasting, to change the history of the

invaded, the polluted, the humiliated and the forgotten

of the Earth.

Let us create an army of warriors that carry no

weapons on their shoulders or ammunition in their

packs, but whose weapons are ecology, medicine, the

defence of human rights and human solidarity, an army

that fights the only disability that truly exists, which is

the human disability. The only disability that exists is

that of the heart. The enemy is inequality, which,

although fierce, will be defeated. We will succeed, of

course. Of course we will succeed.