Gabon, 2008

At the outset, on behalf of His Excellency El

Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese

Republic and head of State, whom I have the honour to

represent here, I should like to sincerely congratulate

you, Sir, on your election as President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-third session. You can be assured

of our full and entire readiness to cooperate to ensure

the success of your weighty mission. It is also my

pleasure to pay a well-deserved tribute to your

predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Srgjan Kerim, for the

talent and dedication that he showed in guiding our

work throughout the sixty-second session. Finally, to

His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of

the United Nations, I express my encouragement as he

carries out his lofty duties at the head of our

Organization.

The food crisis that is currently raging is

characterized by rising prices for foodstuffs. Its causes

are both structural and immediate. Indeed, the

predominance of biofuel crops over subsistence crops

and the implementation of trade policies based on

subsidies and export restrictions have a disastrous

35 08-51570

impact on food security. The food riots of the second

half of 2008, which have taken place throughout the

world — particularly in Africa — in response to

soaring food prices, reflect a major crisis and express

the increased difficulties faced by hundreds of millions

of people in feeding themselves.

One hardly need repeat the words said by

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali when, in November 1999,

he addressed the thirtieth session of the Conference of

the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United

Nations (FAO): “Hunger is as unacceptable as war.” It

is therefore urgent that we make a lasting response to

the food crisis by taking collective action at the global

level to halt it and ensure food security for our most

vulnerable populations.

Here, I should like to commend the adoption, on

5 June 2008, of the Declaration of the High-level

Conference on World Food Security by heads of State

or Government meeting in Rome. Likewise, at the

regional level, we welcome the conclusions of the

regional meeting on the food crisis held on 29 July

2008 in Kinshasa under the auspices of the Economic

Community of Central African States. At the

continental level, we call for the effective

implementation of the July 2003 Maputo Declaration,

which sets out a framework for accelerating

agricultural development and food security; the 2006

Abuja Declaration, which advocates a green revolution

in Africa; and, more recently, the Sharm el-Sheikh

Declaration on the challenges of the increase in food

prices and agricultural development.

It is in that contact that Gabon, like other

countries of the South hit by this crisis, has taken

urgent fiscal and budgetary measures supported by a

six-month suspension of import duties and taxes on

consumer products and a suspension of the value-added

tax on such products, causing a substantial loss in

terms of the State budget.

In addition, from a medium- and long-term

perspective, Gabon is working together with

international partners, in particular FAO and the United

Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to

implement its national poverty reduction strategy and

its special food security programme. The latter

incorporates aspects related to water management,

intensifying vegetable production and diversifying and

increasing agricultural production. We are prepared to

go even further, because we must banish the spectre of

hunger and malnutrition once and for all. The

achievement of Millennium Development Goal 1

depends on that.

Furthermore, the food crisis poses the problem of

the role and place of agriculture in our economies.

Rather than making us overly concerned, it should lead

us to rethink that sector in order to increase its

contribution to the development of our countries.

The challenge of feeding a planet with a growing

population is closely linked to the environmental issue

and to climate change. Environmental degradation is

characterized by the degradation of natural resources,

including the growing water shortage, the increase in

arid lands, deforestation and the effects of global

warming. All these elements prevent an increase in

agricultural production that could contribute to a lasting

solution to the food crisis. Thus, we must do our utmost

to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

That is why my country welcomes the road map

adopted during the negotiations held in Bali, as the

outcome of the thirteenth session of the Conference of

the Parties to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change. The road map is an

important step towards the formulation of a follow-up

to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012.

Here I should like to commend the recent efforts made

by the industrialized countries at the Group of Eight

(G-8) summit held in Hokkaido, Japan, in July 2008, at

which they once again reaffirmed their will to halve

their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

For its part, my country, Gabon, whose forests are

one of the components of the important Congo

Basin — the planet’s second ecological lung, after the

Amazon — has acceded without reservation to the

conventions related to the fight against climate change

and the preservation of biodiversity. Indeed, we have

decided to shoulder our share of the responsibility by

devoting 11 per cent of our territory to humankind

through, inter alia, the establishment of 13 national

parks. Naturally, those efforts require others, in

particular the admission of our forests into the carbon-

trading mechanisms and the granting of compensatory

measures to African countries by industrialized

countries, which are the primary emitters of carbon

dioxide.

Developing countries need the international

community’s ongoing and substantial support to meet

the new challenges that they face. It is thus urgent that

08-51570 36

all development partners keep their promises, in

particular by doubling official development assistance,

introducing innovative development financing methods

and cancelling debt, whose burden undermines our

development efforts.

This appeal also has to do with the varying

constraints that weigh on developing countries,

particularly HIV/AIDS pandemic, malaria and other

infectious diseases that impact their populations and

their economies. In fact, with regard to HIV/AIDS, the

efforts of African countries to provide universal access

to prevention, care and treatment by 2010 do not appear

to be sufficient to eradicate that modern-day scourge.

The interdependence of the threats confronting

the international community highlights more than ever

the need to provide a new impetus to the efforts to

promote solidarity and international peace and security.

In a number of regions around the world, tensions and

deep crises maintain instability and insecurity, thereby

inhibiting any chance for development.

Specifically with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian

conflict, we can never emphasize enough that only

concerted and thorough efforts based on the principle

of two States — Israel and Palestine — living in peace

and security within secure and internationally

recognized borders will make it possible to bring about

a lasting, just and equitable solution to that conflict.

In Africa as well there are many hotspots of

tension that continue to be concern. That is the case

with respect to Somalia, where the instability that has

prevailed for more than 15 years undermines any

fledgling development. Still, we should commend the

recent efforts to promote a political process that would

be open to all in that country, in particular reaching the

agreement signed on 9 June 2008 in Djibouti between

the Federal Transition Government and the Alliance for

the Reliberation of Somalia under the auspices of the

United Nations, with the support of the African Union.

One hopes that that event, which is a true opportunity

towards a lasting settlement of that conflict, will lead

to the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping

operation that could help end the chaos that has

prevailed in that country since 1990.

The overall security situation in Darfur also

continues to be a source of great concern for the

international community. One should, however,

commend and encourage the tenacious efforts

undertaken in the joint mediation of the African Union

and the United Nations in carrying out an inclusive

process that would lead to a settlement to the conflict

in Darfur, which has lasted for a number of years.

The situation between Chad and the Sudan has

sparked genuine hope, due to the resumption of dialogue

between those two States within the framework of the

various agreements that they have signed, particularly

the Dakar Agreement of 13 March 2008.

With respect to Central African Republic, we can

only commend the meaningful progress made within

the framework of the preparations for an inclusive

political dialogue since the first meeting of the follow-

up committee on peace talks. We encourage the United

Nations and international partners to commit further in

rebuilding that fraternal country.

Lastly, with respect to Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon

welcomes the progress made in the implementation of

the Ouagadougou Agreement and its additional

agreements. We appeal to the various partners of that

fraternal country to support those efforts.

The myriad challenges we have just addressed

can be dealt with only through collective actions at the

global level. That is why the heads of State and

Government recognized in the Millennium Declaration

and reaffirmed in the Outcome Document of the 2005

World Summit the need to strengthen the United

Nations in order to make it a tool that would allow

them to better achieve their priority goals. That is why

my country welcomes the fact that since the 2005

World Summit, most of the major recommendations in

the Outcome Document have been implemented in the

framework of the process of reform of the United

Nations. The establishment of two major bodies — the

Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights

Council, which have been operational since June

2006 — is a perfect demonstration of this.

Bolstered by the major progress made, we need to

continue our efforts over the coming sessions to

complete the reform process. For example, we need to

complete the revitalization of the General Assembly,

the Organization’s most representative deliberative

body. Similarly, consistency in the actions of the

United Nations bodies should be reinforced. From that

standpoint, I wish to commend the Delivering as One

initiative, which has had encouraging results in the

pilot countries.

37 08-51570

Regarding reform in the Security Council, we

need to commend the tireless efforts of the different

Presidents of the General Assembly, which have made

it possible to complete the process of consultations that

should lead to the beginning of intergovernmental

negotiations by 31 January 2009, at the latest. The

building of a more just and secure world that would

meet the deep aspirations of our peoples depends on

that.