Sierra Leone, 2014

I bring to the

Assembly fraternal greetings and best wishes from

Mr. Ernest Bai Koroma, President of the Republic of

Sierra Leone, and his beleaguered people. President

Koroma deeply regrets that, for obvious reasons, he is

unable to participate in the sixty-ninth session of the

General Assembly. He has, however, instructed me to

deliver to the Assembly this message from him:

“I congratulate the President on being elected

to conduct the affairs of the sixty-ninth session of

the Assembly and assure him of the support and

cooperation of my country, Sierra Leone, during

his tenure. To his predecessor, Ambassador John

Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, let me, on behalf

of my Government and people, express our

appreciation for his astute leadership and skill in

smoothly directing the work of the past session of

the General Assembly.

“My sincere thanks and appreciation go to

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his constructive

and dynamic leadership of the Organization. Sierra

Leone deeply appreciates his forward-looking and

laudable initiatives on the issues of sustainable

energy and climate change, among others. In

particular, I appreciate his robust response to the

Ebola epidemic that is causing so much havoc in

our lives and threatening our dignity and our very

existence. We will continue to support those highly

ambitious and commendable initiatives for a better

and safer world.

“Sierra Leone commends the President on

the choice, appropriateness and sense of urgency

of the theme of the sixty-ninth session of the

General Assembly, and we join him in calling

for a structured dialogue, strengthened global

partnership and enhanced cooperation for its

achievement. Sierra Leone wishes to reiterate the

need to generate the required global political will

to address unfinished business in the context of

the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by

focusing on implementation gaps and new and

emerging challenges. As Chair of the small Group

of Seven Plus States, Sierra Leone reaffirms the

call of this group of fragile and post-conflict States

for the support of goal 16 of the outcome document

of the Open Working Group on Sustainable

Development Goals. Goal 16 is one of 17 priorities

of the post-2015 development agenda and envisages

promoting peaceful and inclusive institutions as a

stand-alone aim.

“My country is battling one of the biggest life-or-

death challenges facing the global community. As

I stated in my address to the Secretary-General’s

high-level meeting on response to the Ebola virus

disease outbreak, Ebola is unlike previous threats,

not because something similar has never occurred

before, but because the Ebola outbreak has mutated

into a phenomenon for which my country, my

region and the global community were grossly ill-

prepared. Isolated communities are becoming less

frequent in our globalized world. Mutating viral

diseases like Ebola can no longer be neatly isolated

simply by sealing off a country in a corner of the

world. The Ebola outbreak in our region provides

the first challenge to infrastructure, human capital

and public health and surveillance systems that

are too weak to deal with the faster occurrences

of animal-to-human, and human-to-human

transmissions of highly contagious diseases that

have been made possible by quicker transportation,

increasing urbanization and dense networks of

people moving between rural and urban areas and

across borders.

“We have been slow to meet this new challenge

because no one recognized that this confluence of

trends could emerge with such virulence in West

Africa. Our international partners were slow to

recognize the threat for what it was, and when

recognition did come, it was accompanied by a

spontaneous reaction of fear and panic that led to

the closure of borders and the imposition of travel

restrictions to and from Sierra Leone and our

subregion.

“This is the very first time Ebola has come to

our region and to my country, Sierra Leone. We

did not bring it on ourselves. We are rebuilding

our infrastructure, implementing policies that

were increasing our growth rates, improving our

health-care and literacy indicators, enhancing

our peace, and strengthening our democracy.

We are contributing troops to the United Nations

peacekeeping operations in other lands, as our share

of the peace dividend. The world was lauding us for

doing so many things right, for being a symbol of

fast-paced recovery from a decade-long devastating

civil conflict, for promoting and protecting human

rights, and for advancing along an impressive path

of socioeconomic reconstruction. We were gearing

up our health-care system to fight the known

ailments of our land, such as malaria, maternal

and infant mortality, Lassa fever, tuberculosis

and typhoid, when Ebola struck. Based on the

knowledge we had, based on the advice we were

given by our international partners, we mobilized

to meet this unfamiliar threat. But the staff,

equipment, medicines and systems we had were

inadequate, and this slowed our effective response.

“Several months down the road, the

international community has finally come around

to the view that the Ebola outbreak is a challenge

for everyone, and that, while Sierra Leone and its

sister republics are at the front line of this fight,

the heavy aerial and ground support of the world

are required to defeat the outbreak, for Ebola is

in many ways worse than terrorism. As a country,

we have taken extraordinary measures, including

declaring a state of emergency and shutting down

the country for three days to get health educators

into every household in the country. Today, most of

our people know that Ebola may present with the

same signs as malaria, typhoid, diarrhoea and other

infectious diseases, but that it is far more deadly,

and that there is a need to modify behaviour in

order to counter its transmission.

“Socioeconomic disruptions are already being

felt. We are no longer able to engage in our cultural

practices, such as shaking hands when we gladly

receive each other, or hold religious and communal

burial ceremonies. Our people live in fear and

cannot understand the nature of a disease that

claims lives and prevents family members from

burying their loved ones.

“The indeterminate suspension of several

ongoing development projects, and the disruption

to farming, mining, manufacturing, construction,

tourism, trading and public transportation, following

the outbreak of Ebola, are now undermining the

growth and human development prospects of the

country. The International Monetary Fund has

estimated that our gross domestic product will

drop by 3.3 per cent in 2014 from 11.3 per cent to

8 per cent. Ebola has placed a stranglehold on the

socioeconomic prospects of the country, and, in

addition, we risk reversing the hard gains achieved

in peacebuilding.

“We salute the great efforts of countries, as

well as international and national organizations,

that have committed resources to our common

fight. We welcome the adoption of the landmark

Security Council resolution 2177 (2014) and its

General Assembly counterpart, resolution 69/1,

both of which recognize the Ebola outbreak as a

threat to international peace and security. We

also salute the Secretary-General for his initiative

in establishing the first-ever United Nations

emergency health mission, the United Nations

Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, to lead

a concerted and coordinated effort to contain and

defeat this scourge within the subregion.

“We know that to defeat the disease and

prevent future outbreaks anywhere in the world, we

must improve our capacities for quicker response.

In Sierra Leone, this calls for faster deployment of

staff, medicines and equipment at the global and

national levels. Globally, a faster response means

quickening the pace of resource mobilization

and disbursements, as well as the development of

vaccines and curative medicines. Nationally, our

effort must rapidly translate into effective urban

and rural community response initiatives. Any

break in this chain of fast response makes the

challenge more difficult to meet, and not meeting

the challenge means more deaths in our country and

the increased possibility that the virus will mutate

and spread to areas from which it is currently

absent.

“The world needs a faster global response

infrastructure to deal with this new trend that

is today manifesting itself in the West African

nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, but to

which no country can be immune. Ebola is winning

the race against us. To make an impactful start in

reversing this trend, we must have more treatment

beds than there are Ebola cases. Only when the

number of available beds surpasses the number of

cases can we say that Ebola has been brought under

control. This is a fight for all of us. We must prove

that humankind is equal to overcoming this new

challenge to our collective existence.

“We also believe that it is high time for this

Assembly to make its voice heard regarding the

flight bans and cancellations that have accompanied

the deadly Ebola outbreak. The World Health

Organization and many others have advised against

imposing blanket flight bans. We therefore urge

Member States to re-examine their policies of

isolating and stigmatizing Ebola-affected countries

and their respective citizens. The world is too

globalized for policies that shun engagement with a

democratic nation. The United Nations was founded

on a mandate to confront human insecurity, not

shun it. Moreover, this Organization was founded

on the principle of doing better than before. We

strongly urge loyalty to the founding ideals of our

global Organization.

“Despite the daunting challenge facing us as

a nation and subregion, Sierra Leone will remain

a trusted and strategic partner in the global effort

to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable

peace, stability and development. My Government

is committed to forging closer bonds with all

countries, especially within the context of the New

Deal for Engagement in Fragile States.

“As Coordinator of the African Union

Committee of Ten Heads of State on the Reform of

the United Nations, we will continue to advance the

African Common Position on the reform process of

the United Nations by reaching out and engaging

with other interest groups in a bid to reach a common

understanding of how to obtain a strong, inclusive,

united, transparent and accountable Security

Council. While the world now acknowledges the

historical injustice represented by the fact that

Africa is the only continent not represented in

the permanent category of Council membership

and, at the same time, is underrepresented in the

non-permanent category, it is about time for this

Organization to take the necessary bold steps to put

into practice our reaffirmation of the equal rights

of nations, large and small. Indeed, as we gear up

to celebrate 70 memorable years of the existence

of the United Nations, it is an appropriate time

for the Organization to promote the principle of

the sovereign equality of all its Members and to

ensure for all the rights and benefits resulting from

membership.

“We are encouraged by the progress made in

strengthening peace and democracy within member

countries of the Mano River Union, and we shall

continue to support initiatives for the sustenance

and growth of democratic order, peace and security

in the subregion. We will continue to adhere to

the Economic Community of West African States

(ECOWAS) protocols for peace, democracy and

stability and will sustain our support for the

building of the ECOWAS logistical depot in Sierra

Leone. We firmly support the African Union

rapid intervention initiative for peacekeeping and

peace-support operations. We have also ratified

the Arms Trade Treaty and the Convention against

Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols

thereto. We are currently working to incorporate

them into our domestic law.

“My Government will continue to contribute

troops and support international peacekeeping

operations for international peace and security, and

we will accordingly seek capacity-building and

other support in such laudable ventures. We are,

however, dismayed by the current trend of events

in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, the

Gaza Strip, Syria, Ukraine, Iraq and other parts of

the world that are still in conflict. We will commit

Sierra Leone to the global search for common

agreement on the root causes of those conflicts

and encourage dialogue to work out resolutions

that are peaceful and sustainable. We support the

two independent States solution in the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict.

“Sierra Leone condemns any act of terrorism

in all its forms and manifestations in the world

in general and in Africa in particular. Terrorism

is a common enemy to international peace and

security. Sierra Leone prides itself on its high level

of religious tolerance, and we believe that people of

all religions and ethnic backgrounds must be able

to coexist in peace and harmony everywhere in the

world. We likewise view acts of drug trafficking,

human trafficking, smuggling of migrants,

marine piracy, cybercrime, abductions and all

other organized or unorganized transnational

criminal activities as serious threats to global

peace, stability and development. My Government

will strengthen national capacities and contribute

through international cooperation to preventing

and combating those crimes.

“As a post-conflict country, we are aware

that sexual violence in conflict is one of the

greatest and most persistent injustices in the world

today. We are therefore supportive of the United

Kingdom’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative

and the subsequent Declaration of Commitment to

End Sexual Violence in Conflict. We support the

work of the Office of the Special Representative

of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence

in Conflict. We also fully support the United

Kingdom Government’s leadership in promoting

global advocacy against the use of children in

armed conflicts.

“We are following the unfolding developments at

the International Criminal Court and are supportive

of the efforts to ensure judicial accountability in

ways that are respectful of Africa’s concerns for

the ability of its statesmen and stateswomen to

steer the countries of the continent towards greater

security, reconciliation, peace and development.

“My Government will continue to support

the work of the Human Rights Council. We are

committed to the moratorium on the death penalty

and have gone a step further in the process of

commuting capital offences to life imprisonment in

our statute books.

“In conclusion, while applauding the

international community for supporting our

aspirations, we wish to remind the world that

fighting the Ebola virus disease in West Africa

is a matter of life and death for the whole of

humankind. The World Health Organization

finally got it right when it declared the outbreak

as a global health emergency, but an emergency

requires a response faster than what is currently

obtaining. We can defeat Ebola and, as already

noted by experts, future outbreaks of diseases

of that nature anywhere in the world can also be

defeated by quickening the pace of response. Our

understanding of that unprecedented outbreak is

better now than at the beginning, and our response

has improved accordingly. While our capacities are

getting better coordinated, there is still room for

strengthening those capacities to ensure effective

national ownership and leadership of all response

mechanisms. Undoubtedly, we can do better than

what obtained at the beginning of the outbreak, and

we must do all we can to end such a grave threat

to our collective survival. We will also continue

our engagement with all stakeholders to build our

public health system beyond Ebola.

“On the occasion of the sixty-ninth session of

the General Assembly, let me reiterate our deepest

condolences to the families and relatives of all our

brave men, women and children who have lost their

lives to the Ebola virus disease. May the Father

most high receive their souls and the souls of all

faithful departed into his merciful hands.”