Dominican Republic, 2009

We convey our warmest congratulations to the

renowned Libyan diplomat Mr. Ali Treki on his recent

election to preside over the General Assembly at this

sixty-fourth session, as well as for his call for a

dialogue among civilizations, for interreligious

understanding, for the promotion for peace and

security and for closing the divide between rich and

poor.

Exactly one year ago, when we were taking stock

of progress made towards meeting the Millennium

Development Goals at the midterm point, something

unexpected occurred: the collapse of some of the most

emblematic investment banks, and with that the

worsening of the global financial crisis.

Before this crisis occurred, however, the world, in

particular the developing countries, was already

affected by the impact of two other crises that had

begun simultaneously: the crisis involving oil prices

and that involving food prices.

As a result of the first of these crises, that is, the

oil crisis, vigorous and intense social protest broke out

in various parts of the world. Suddenly, all products

became more expensive. Governments were forced to

use their currency reserves to pay their oil bills and

were forced to allocate subsidies for the sake of

maintaining civic peace and democratic governance.

When it comes to the second crisis, the food

crisis, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the

United Nations established that as a result of the food

crisis, the number of people suffering from hunger

worldwide rose by 150 million, which meant that for

the first time in human history the total figure

exceeded the number of 1 billion human beings.

Before these two crises broke out, the World

Bank had already indicated that in order to meet the

Millennium Development Goals in the remaining seven

years — that is, between 2008 and 2015 —

$250 billion were still needed, or $50 billion every

year. Obviously, with the outbreak of these crises,

which gravely affected the economies of developing

countries, the resources needed to meet the objectives

that had been set to cut by half the level of poverty

worldwide would have to be increased significantly

above the projected figures established by the World

Bank.

As one can see, the situation last year was already

bleak at the time of submitting for analysis and

evaluation the achievements that had been made and

future challenges to meet in order to achieve the

Millennium Development Goals. In spite of the dark

clouds that were gathering on the global economic

horizon, we still felt optimistic; we held the illusion

that we might meet our targets. After all, we had made

continuous progress towards meeting some of the

Goals. But from then on, we witnessed the deluge of

the global financial crisis. Since then, the storm has

been so intense that it has created a widespread state of

anxiety and fear at a global scale the likes of which has

not been seen in many decades.

According to the Director-General of the World

Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, 400,000 more

children and tens of thousands of women will die every

year as a direct consequence of the global financial

crisis. Today, while the meetings of the General

Assembly of the most important global organization

are being held, 25,000 children will die in various parts

of the world. That is the equivalent of saying that a

child will die every three seconds, or 18 children every

minute.

By the time I conclude my statement this

afternoon — my 15 minute statement — worldwide

270 children will have died, whose early deaths could

have been avoided. Throughout the course of this year,

9 million children, which is equivalent to the entire

population of my country, the Dominican Republic,

will have lost their lives for no reason or justification.

This represents a human tragedy of epic proportions, a

true catastrophe. It is morally and politically

unacceptable. For that reason, it is important to call

upon the General Assembly to declare a state of

emergency with regard to compliance with the

Millennium Development Goals.

When facing the challenges to our efforts to meet

the eight goals established in the year 2000 for

improving the human dignity and living conditions of

millions of people worldwide, it is possible to adopt

different attitudes. We might consider that we have

failed and that these goals can never be met; that they

represent a new utopia and therefore the only path

31 09-52228

remaining is to abandon any effort to meet those goals.

Clearly that would be a cowardly and irresponsible

attitude — the worst possible decision. It would mean

leaving all those in need of human solidarity and

compassion out in the cold. A second attitude would be

to reconsider the goals and then extend the timetable to

fulfil them; that would seem logical and reasonable.

However, that reasoning encounters one obstacle — the

fact that children, the poor and the women of the world

cannot wait.

The only real way to ensure fulfilment of the

Millennium Development Goals by the planned 2015

date, is for the General Assembly to work towards

promoting true commitment among nations and

governmental and non-governmental institutions to

urgently assume their task to achieve economic and

social development for all people affected by poverty,

hunger, disease and illiteracy.

It cannot be argued that the resources available to

address this urgent task are insufficient. We have seen

in the diligent manner used to address the collapse of

the international financial system that — as the saying

goes — where there is the will there is a way.

Looking ahead, the first thing to be considered is

that with the forecasted end of the global economic

recession and the resulting gradual recovery of

economic growth, we must ensure that we never again

witness such a sudden and abrupt increase in oil and

food prices as a result of excessive speculation and the

transactions of the futures market. We issue this

warning because we have been observing with concern,

an increase in milk prices over the past three weeks on

the international market that have risen by more than

$1,000 per ton without any valid justification.

We must set aside all individual interests,

resistance and obstacles that stand in the way of the

reform of the global financial system and the stock

markets, in order to establish new mechanisms for

regulation and supervision that will guarantee that no

crisis such as this one will ever occur again.

Because of the lack of compliance to date by the

majority of developed countries with their

commitments made during the Copenhagen World

Summit for Social Development to contribute to the

development of the poorest and most vulnerable

nations and due to the prevailing situation of the global

recession, we draw the attention of the General

Assembly to the possibility of finding new sources of

financing for the Millennium Development Goals.

In that regard, we suggest the creation of a

working group to carry out professional, high-quality

research and submit a report containing

recommendations and a plan of action geared towards

establishing a fine to benefit development on capital

deposited in fiscal havens, offshore banks and

international financial centres. Placing financial

resources in such fiscal havens means that every year

we witness tax evasion in a sum equivalent to

$250 billion — a figure — according to the World

Bank — equal to the total sum of external aid

necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

According to the Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development (OECD), some

$7 trillion is currently deposited in tax havens which

do not contribute one single cent towards fiscal

income. OXFAM has indicated that more than

$50 billion in fiscal income slips through the fingers of

developing countries each year as a result of offshore

banks and tax havens. The organization Christian Aid

has also affirmed bleakly that tax evasion is

responsible for the deaths of more than 5 million

children between the year 2000 and 2015 — the years

we set to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

There are abundant resources in the world and

what is happening is that they are unfairly and

unequally distributed due, inter alia, to an existing

global financial architecture marked by the lack of

transparency, secrecy, money-laundering, evasion and

fraud. Our only hope of changing the current situation

of economic decline and social deterioration and the

moral crisis that is shaking up the world lies in

adopting brave, wise and timely decisions in this

prestigious global forum.

The peoples of the world are waiting for these

decisions. They are aware that their right to a dignified,

honourable and happy life depends upon that. We

cannot let them down. We must act with justice

courage, a sense of history and with a vision of the

future.

I cannot conclude this statement without touching

upon the current prevailing situation in Honduras. The

United Nations passed a resolution condemning the

coup d’état which took place in this Central American

nation in June of this year and called for the return of

democratic order. The same attitude was adopted by the

09-52228 32

Organization of American States, the European Union,

the African Union and by the League of Arab States.

Despite the entire world’s condemnation of that assault

on democracy, the de facto Government of Honduras

has remained in power, thereby underscoring the

weaknesses of the international community to take

action.

President José Manuel Zelaya — the sole

legitimate President of Honduras, who was scheduled

as the sixth speaker to take the floor in the General

Assembly this afternoon — has, in a great display of

personal courage and daring, preferred to return to his

country. It is now to be hoped that we the

representatives of the peoples gathered here at this

world forum will be able to act with the same dignity,

sense of responsibility and level of commitment when

it comes to the supremacy of democracy, freedom and

justice.