Cape Verde, 2003

Let me at the

very outset offer my warm congratulations to Mr.

Hunte on his election to preside over this fifty-eighth

session of the General Assembly. With his proven skills

in the field of international affairs and his wide-ranging

experience, we are confident that we will deal

effectively with the many crucial tasks facing this

Assembly. I assure him of the full support and best

wishes of my delegation as he carries out the tasks of

his high office.

Let me also extend our appreciation to the

outgoing President, Mr. Jan Kavan, whose committed

efforts guided the fifty-seventh session of this

Assembly.

I wish to express my delegation’s appreciation for

the indefatigable efforts of the Secretary-General to

preserve and enhance the role of our Organization last

year, which proved to be one of the most difficult in its

existence. One sad sign of this was the bombing of the

United Nations headquarters in Baghdad last month,

which took the lives of Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21

other persons of different nationalities. It was a

monstrous act that deserved strong and universal

condemnation. Nothing could justify such a senseless

attack against the civil personnel of a mission whose

aims were none other than to help the Iraqi people to

face the tragic situation in which they are living. We

thus pay our respectful homage to the memory of those

dedicated persons who lost their lives in the tragedy.

My country fully cooperates with the United

Nations bodies in the struggle against terrorism and

organized crime. However, the fight against terrorism

should not lead the international community to

downplay the importance of promoting development

and fighting poverty and everything associated with it,

including hunger, illness, illiteracy and environmental

degradation. Nor should the international community

forget the need to guarantee the respect of the rights of

peoples and individuals, combat discrimination and all

its aspects that deprive human beings of their dignity.

Very relevant proposals concerning the future of

our Organization have been presented by the Secretary-

General. He stressed the need to accelerate the reform

of the United Nations by adapting it to the realities of

the world in which we live, namely addressing the

question of enlarging the Security Council and

increasing the number of its permanent members,

strengthening the General Assembly and reinvigorating

the role of the United Nations Economic and Social

Council (ECOSOC), as well as of the United Nations

as a whole, including its relationship with the Bretton

Woods institutions.

By their size, economic power, regional and

international influence, there are obvious candidates to

become permanent members of the Security Council.

Their weight in international affairs can no longer be

overlooked. We should not lose sight of the fact that

their contributions to peace, security and development

can bring more legitimacy to the body. The time is ripe

to welcome those countries in an enlarged and more

representative Security Council, in which Africa should

have at least two permanent seats.

Being a member of the Community of Portuguese

Speaking Countries (CPLP), Brazil should, in our view,

take a permanent seat in the Council.

The issues relating to the reform of the United

Nations have been the subject of a longstanding debate

that points to an overwhelming consensus among

Member States. My delegation supports the proposals

made by the Secretary-General and hopes that the

momentum provided by acknowledgement of the

challenges, threats and dangers faced by the world will

be seized by this Assembly and instil its members with

the sense of urgency to come up with appropriate

binding and pragmatic decisions relating to these

issues.

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As the President of the Assembly rightly pointed

out in his inaugural speech, “Many developing

countries do not have a wide range of development

choices available to them and in fact face serious

challenges due to their special circumstances.”

Among these developing countries the

international community recognized small island

developing states as a special case of development and

environment. It will be during the mandate of the

current President of the General Assembly that, by

happy coincidence, an international meeting will be

held in Mauritius to assess the state of implementation

of the Barbados Programme of Action.

Earlier this month, Cape Verde hosted the second

regional preparatory meeting in anticipation of the

Mauritius event. In this context, I would like to

underline the meaning of my country’s commitment to

the process of global support to the sustainable

development of small island developing states, a

process to which my Government is fully dedicated.

The SIDS denomination has now been in

existence for nearly a decade. The work accomplished

by the United Nations toward a greater international

awareness of the problems of small island developing

states has been generally successful.

I take this opportunity to express my

Government’s gratitude to the entire United Nations

system for the central role it has played in cultivating

and maintaining the high degree of international

awareness that is essential to our countries.

However, the recognition of a special category of

countries cannot be justified for the purposes of

classification alone. One would expect that the special

designation would lead to some minimal amount of

special treatment of the countries concerned,

commensurate with their specific disadvantages and

handicaps. Regrettably that is not the case with the

small island developing states. In fact, island-specific

special treatment is almost non-existent, even though

many SIDS are in dire need of greater differentiation in

the current pattern of international cooperation.

I therefore wish to convey my Government’s

hope that the Barbados Programme of Action +10

process, culminating in the Mauritius international

meeting, will constitute a landmark in the history of the

differentiated treatment of developing countries,

particularly small island developing States.

The need for special consideration that is most

commonly shared by small island developing states is

the need to see market-access preferences preserved,

not eroded. Such a need is not a luxury, but a

prerequisite for many SIDS in their efforts to maintain

competitiveness and economic viability in response to

the structural disadvantages resulting from their

remoteness and small size.

While several SIDS do enjoy a fair amount of

special treatment, such as the treatment derived from

least developed country (LDC), African, Caribbean and

Pacific States (ACP) or African Growth and

Opportunity Act (AGOA) status, there are still areas of

international cooperation in which the absence of

reference to island status is difficult to understand. One

of these areas — of direct relevance to the question of

trade preferences — is the ongoing debate in the World

Trade Organization concerning the Work Programme

on Small Economies, a debate in which small island

developing states, regrettably, have not been able to

advocate their case under the SIDS designation.

Cape Verde has again been deemed to qualify for

graduation from least developed country (LDC) status

under the criteria and graduation rules used by the

Committee for Development Policy and the Economic

and Social Council. As stressed by my delegation in

the substantive session of the Council in July, we feel

that a decision to graduate Cape Verde from least

developed country status at this juncture would give

the international community a gravely incorrect

impression of our structural progress and prosperity,

whereas Cape Verde remains one of the most

economically vulnerable and aid-dependent countries

in the world.

Here we are faced with a peculiar paradox: in the

context of its support to small island developing states

the United Nations system recognizes the permanent

handicaps of a country, but, at the same time, it is

considering withdrawing the special treatment this

country has been eligible for, without leaving any

alternative treatment available.

In this context, and in the light of the

international recognition of the special handicaps of

small island developing states, my Government urges

the General Assembly to request the relevant bodies of

the United Nations system to re-examine with care the

rule whereby a least developed country would be seen

as qualifying for graduation. We believe that such re-

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examination ought to result in a methodological reform

that will do justice to the least developed small island

developing States.

Africa has made a remarkable effort to respond

positively to the call of the international community

and its own peoples to foster development, promote

democracy, transparency, good governance, the rule of

law and accountability. In the wake of this call African

leaders agreed to establish the New Partnership for

Africa’s Development (NEPAD), in whose success we

are all engaged in order to lead our continent out of

poverty and conflict, ushering in a new era of

prosperity and peace. Its adoption not only by the

African Governments and civil societies but also by the

international community as a framework for African

development will help establish common goals and

clear commitments that will lead our continent on a

promising new journey. We believe that the NEPAD

project should pay special attention to the situation of

the island States.

Noticeable progress has been achieved, both in

the manner of installing democratic Governments

throughout the continent and in putting an end to

conflicts.

In this particular case, we are heartened by the

recent accord between the Sudanese Government and

the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. This constitutes a

very significant step towards putting an end to the

suffering of the Sudanese people. If, as we all

anxiously hope, this agreement brings peace to that

great African nation, it will add to the successes

already registered in Mozambique, Angola and Sierra

Leone, along with the ongoing processes in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Great Lakes

and Liberia.

We must be cautious, however. Conflicts result

from unsettled social and political issues. If these are

not adequately tackled, the risk of new conflicts will

persist. It is important to recall that democracy and the

rule of law can develop unhindered only when and if

the minimum conditions for survival are assured for the

populations and when the rights of individuals and

groups, including minorities, are respected.

The events in Guinea-Bissau two weeks ago

illustrate the fragility of the institutions in a country

that cannot address the basic problems of its

population. While it may be true that political leaders

must be held accountable for not ensuring good

governance, in an environment of poverty, lack of

resources and indebtedness good governance is easily

set aside. These events point to the need for a stronger

commitment of the international community to helping

countries in distress face the tasks of fighting poverty,

consolidating democratic institutions and promoting

economic and social development not only with

promises and advice, but also with concrete means.

Notwithstanding the serious threats that hover

over mankind, a safer, more just and more peaceful

world is now within reach of our living generations.

Never before has mankind had such an array of means

to face the great challenges that continue to defy

humankind, such as hunger, poverty, illiteracy and

curable diseases. Hunger is a case in point. Several

experiences in different regions of the world prove that

hunger can be eliminated if there is determination and

available resources. It is therefore unacceptable that, in

a world awash with food, one in three sub-Saharan

Africans should continue to suffer from chronic hunger.

Last July, at the second ordinary session of the

Assembly of the African Union, held in Maputo,

Mozambique, heads of State and Government of the

African Union adopted a Declaration on Agriculture

and Food Security in Africa. In this Declaration,

African leaders once again demonstrated their firm

commitment to combating hunger on the African

continent.

At the national level, fighting hunger was set as

one of the main priorities of the first Government of

Cape Verde immediately after independence and

continues to have a prominent place in Government

policies in the framework of poverty reduction

strategies. That is why we support the plea made by the

President of Brazil to establish a world committee to

fight hunger.

Three years ago, world leaders endowed

themselves with the important political tool that is the

Millennium Declaration. There is no excuse for the fact

that the promised resources and the proclaimed will

have not been put to work to achieve and even surpass

the arduously negotiated but unanimously agreed Goals

adopted in this very Hall. Despite the difficulties and

uncertainties looming over the Organization, the eyes

of the world are focused on the United Nations because

all believe that our Organization can and should be the

vehicle for achieving those Goals. Let us work together

to make it happen.

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