Cape Verde, 2011

It is

a great honour to participate in the General Assembly

and a great privilege to greet Members on behalf of the

people and the Government of Cape Verde.

I address the Assembly in the Cape Verdean

language, the Creole of Cape Verde. I believe this is

the first time Cape Verdean Creole is used in United

Nations General Assembly. I do it to share with the

Assembly this piece of authentic world heritage, born

on the threshold of the fifteenth century. Linguistic

experts consider it the oldest Creole of Euro-African

origin and the oldest within the Atlantic context.

I use it also because language is culture, history

and memory. All languages are expressions of

thoughts, knowledge and practices. Languages are no

doubt an expression of civilization. Therefore,

speaking in the Creole of Cape Verde, in this most

important Hall, at a meeting of heads of State and

Government, is a reference to our conviction that the

Creole identity is of anthropological value for all

humanity. It is a way of highlighting our Cape

Verdeanship: our soul and the way of being, the ethos

and pathos of Cape Verde, which is the result of the

intersection of various peoples of the world. The

language is, in and of itself, a synthesis of the meeting

of civilizations. By using it, I also pay vibrant tribute

to Aristides Pereira, the first President of Cape Verde

and a great African fighter for freedom and human

dignity, who recently passed away.

The central theme of this Assembly session — the

role of mediation in the settlement of disputes by

peaceful means — is a crucial and imperative theme

for the world. It reflects the identity, the way of being

and lifestyle of Cape Verdeans. As subscribers to the

purposes and principles of the United Nations, we

believe that peace and human rights are the key factors

in the construction of sovereignty, democratic rule of

law and sustainable development. Therefore, mediators

are required to position and approach matters within

the universal matrix of peace and human rights as the

highest priorities of all States Members of the United

Nations.

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In addition, we consider it crucial to take an

approach focused on the prevention and control of

non-communicable diseases worldwide, especially in

the context of the challenges faced by developing

countries.

Let me offer a few special words regarding the

development of themes such as desertification, land

degradation and drought in the context of sustainable

development and poverty eradication in preparation for

the United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development, scheduled for June 2012, which we

strongly and actively support.

One of the most decisive actions taken by

independent Cape Verde, soon after 1975, was

reforestation, along with orographic correction and the

mobilization of water. As a small island developing

State at the crossroads of two large regions — the

Sahel and Macaronesia — and suffering the effects of

the most stringent climatic randomness of one region

and the oceanic isolation of the other, Cape Verde is

conscious of the importance of the green as well as the

blue economy to the objective of sustainable

development.

We need the United Nations to work out our part

in preventing climate change and food and water

shortages. We count on the United Nations and all

countries of this great General Assembly to converge

both bilaterally and multilaterally towards the green

economy and sustainable development. Therefore, in

Cape Verde there is an ongoing and ambitious

programme for covering 50 per cent of national energy

needs through renewable sources by 2020.

Despite remarkable and positive changes — some

of which have been internationally recognized, such as

our graduation to middle-income country status and

being on the path towards full achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals — I would still like to

take this opportunity to better acquaint the General

Assembly with my country.

Cape Verde, with its ten islands in the middle of

the Atlantic, strategically positioned in the corridor and

the cross-Atlantic flow, is not only a strong partner for

global security, geostrategic interests and world trade,

but is also an active and useful member of the

international community in the fight against trafficking

and related crime. The vast oceanic region of Cape

Verde is an important space for security in the

promotion of regional peace and prosperity and in the

affirmation of an international coalition to fight illicit

transnational crime.

Some may wonder, “What country is this?” Some

think of it as the nation of Amilcar Cabral; others see it

as the country of Cesaria Evora. Cape Verde is a land

that was once an important entrepôt and trans-shipment

base for the African slave trade, for both Europe and

the Americas. Its oldest city — Ribeira Grande, or the

Cidade Velha — was named a World Heritage by

UNESCO in 2009.

Cape Verde is a State that encourages other States

to remember, through memory, history and human

rights, the international slave routes, just as we

remember the Holocaust, another of the heights of

human barbarism. In Cape Verde we can defy our

lusophone partners in the Community of Portuguese-

speaking Countries and our African partners and the

entire world to reaffirm our commitment against

barbarism, dictatorship, colonialism and disrespect for

human rights through the promotion of the candidacy

of the Tarrafal concentration camp on the island of

Santiago as a World Heritage site.

Those who know us know that we are a country

concerned with development. We do not settle for

being middle-income country. We need the partnership

with the international community to fulfil our destiny.

In Cape Verde’s transformational agenda, we

have identified five pillars of our country’s growth and

poverty reduction strategy: promotion of effective

governance, strengthening human development,

confronting the structural and social challenges arising

from competitiveness, and investment in infrastructure

for improving social cohesion.

Cape Verde is developing a foreign policy that

favours democracy, justice, peace, cooperation and

sustainable development. We look at the planet as the

home of all, respecting the sovereignty and will of the

people while emphasizing the global convergence in

the core of humankind. We are therefore concerned

about hunger in the Horn of Africa. We are concerned

that thousands of children die in Africa every day from

hunger. I am concerned that that does not motivate a

stronger international intervention, since the

dictatorship of hunger is the worst of dictatorships.

We urge the United Nations to be more effective

and to make a concerted effort to reverse the image of

that human tragedy in East Africa. We must therefore

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eradicate the geopolitics of hunger. We all need to take

the paradigm of zero hunger in the world.

We are also concerned about wars and tensions

that thrive a little everywhere but are now more

localized and of more intense in Africa, the Middle

East and Asia — to the delight of the dealers in misery,

those who invest in the war industry and in the

suffering of millions of human beings, especially

children, women and the elderly. We must reach a

global consensus that security, peace and stability arise

from the economic and social development of States

and peoples. We must deconstruct war, conflict and

tension between countries and peoples and ensure the

commitment of the sixty-sixth session of the General

Assembly towards that noble goal. We must reiterate

that mediation is essential to settle disputes, whether in

Africa or in the rest of the world.

The global economic crisis is acute. In large

countries it shows signs of settling and in poor

countries it is amplified. If the crisis is global, it

requires global responses against recessionary policies,

such as the protection of domestic markets, and the war

against unfairly priced imports. It also requires global

positions that converge towards social inclusion as a

way to reduce the impact of the economic crisis.

We reiterate our firm position of respect for

international laws, the principles of non-interference in

internal affairs and the sovereignty of peoples and

nations. We do not support double standards for similar

cases, as if peoples and nations were not equal and

deserving of the same treatment, as stated in the United

Nations Charter.

Before concluding, I must emphasize our position

in favour of expanding the reform model of global

governance by the United Nations, allowing, among

the many benefits, small States to have a greater voice

in the decision-making process of the international

system. Cape Verde unequivocally supports an increase

in the number of permanent members of the Security

Council, in the belief that the world is no longer as it

was at the end of the Second World War, nor does it

resemble that of the end of the Cold War.