Dominican Republic, 2010

Eight years after Switzerland became a full Member of

the United Nations, we are delighted to see that the

presidency of this General Assembly at its sixty-fifth

session fell to the 2004 President of the Swiss

Confederation, Mr. Joseph Deiss, to whom we wish the

greatest success in his tenure.

In 1998, the twentieth special session of the

General Assembly was held to contribute to the

elimination or substantial reduction of the illegal

production of drugs and drug abuse by 2008. Ten years

later, at a follow-up review meeting supported by this

prestigious world body, the conclusion was reached

that little progress had been made regarding the

proposed goals and that there were therefore plenty of

reasons for the international community to be

concerned about the growing threat posed by the global

drug problem. It was determined that a new 10-year

plan was needed to cover the period until 2019, when

the General Assembly will have once again to convene

Member States in order to assess the outcome of

measures implemented to eliminate the most serious

threat to our citizens’ safety at the dawn of the twenty-

first century: transnational organized crime and illegal

drug trafficking.

Today, almost 250 million people between the

ages of 15 and 64 consume drugs worldwide. Although

that consumption extends to many regions around the

world, the highest concentration of users is found in

areas with the most pronounced economic and social

development, such as the United States, Western

Europe and Central Asia.

Drug consumption is harmful to health, causing

personality disorders that often lead to loss of will,

apathy and the development of pathological behaviour.

Furthermore, tens of thousands of people die every

year as a direct result of drug consumption, while

others, depending on the way these toxic substances

are consumed, are affected by diseases such as

HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C.

Today, illegal drug trafficking constitutes a global

black market, a kind of underground or hidden

economy for the growth, manufacture, distribution and

sale of this merchandise in the form of marijuana,

opium, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines and other

varieties of such substances and others. That market,

which is ruled like any other by the laws of supply and

demand, now amounts to the astronomical sum of

approximately $400 billion a year. That astronomical

sum means that the global drug trade is worth more

than the gross domestic product of 122 of the

184 countries that appear on the annual World Bank

economic index. Every year, the global drug market

generates more wealth than countries such as Chile,

Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Israel, South Africa and

Portugal. But, at the same time, it is more

economically powerful than many of the world’s

leading petroleum producing countries such as Kuwait,

Qatar, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and the

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

In pursuit of its goals of conquering markets and

accumulating wealth, transnational organized crime has

begun availing itself of a new type of unprecedented,

inhumane and cruel violence. Drug trafficking uses

kidnapping, contract killings, torture and beheadings

both in battles between drug trafficking groups and

against the people and institutions that confront them.

Drug trafficking sows fear and terror. It executes public

servants as well as ordinary citizens. It murders

journalists, teachers, doctors, students and housewives.

Drug trafficking knows no limits or borders; it knows

only horror, barbarism, bloodshed and crime.

It is so powerful that it influences and interferes

in vital areas of government, such as the armed forces,

the police, intelligence services and the justice system,

in its attempt to make State institutions serve its

macabre and sinister interests.

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In the face of all of this, some people are right to

wonder whether transnational organized crime and

illegal international drug trafficking can be defeated. Is

it really possible to tackle and defeat all that this form

of international crime entails?

Our response is: yes, it is possible. It is possible

to take it on and to defeat it. It is possible to reduce it

and to mitigate its harmful effects. However, to do so,

several elements need to be in place. First, we need

genuine commitment at the global level and authentic

and genuine political will at the level of national

Government.

We also need a paradigm change or a new

strategic vision that will focus our efforts to fight the

problem, not only on the supply side, as has

fundamentally been the case so far, but also on the

demand and consumption side.

It is imperative that we curb indiscriminate gun

sales and human trafficking. We need to implement

exchange and cooperation policies among the narcotics

producer, transit and consumer countries. We need to

introduce new technologies, strengthen intelligence

systems, better train and enhance the professionalism

of those in charge of ensuring public safety, design

prevention mechanisms, generate educational

opportunities, reduce poverty and create jobs, and get

communities involved in building protective networks

against crime.

We hope that, in 2019, when the General

Assembly convenes its member States to evaluate the

outcome of its new 10-year Plan of Action on

International Cooperation towards an Integrated and

Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem

(see resolution 64/182), we will be in a position to say,

for the sake of our families, our young people, our

societies and, ultimately, of humanity as a whole, “We

have prevailed. We have defeated the leading threat to

the security our peoples at the beginning of the twenty-

first century. We have beaten drugs.”

It is important also to note that the human and

material losses experienced as a result of natural

disasters in 2010 are a great cause for concern. To date,

we have seen 47 floods and landslides, affecting

countries as far apart as India and Brazil, China and

Colombia, Russia and Congo, Kazakhstan and

countries of East Africa, Mexico and Central America,

Pakistan, Yemen and the Sudan.

To date, there have been 12 hurricanes, cyclones

and typhoons, affecting countries such as Mexico,

India, the Solomon Islands and Madagascar. To date,

we have suffered eight serious droughts, followed by

fires, in Bolivia, California, the Caribbean, China,

Spain and Russia. To date, there have been seven

earthquakes, from the tragedy in Haiti to China, from

Tajikistan to Chile, and from Afghanistan to Mexico.

That does not include the volcanic eruptions —

these too made no distinction between rich and poor. In

the case of Iceland, the volcano led to the most serious

interruption of air traffic since the Second World War.

In addition, we need to take into account the numerous

cold snaps, avalanches and storms that have occurred

and their resultant epidemics — foremost among them,

cholera in Africa and dengue fever in Latin America

and the Caribbean.

As we can see, vulnerability to natural disasters

around the world is on the rise, and development levels

are falling quickly as a result. Most of these natural

disasters are caused by climate change or global

warming. It is therefore imperative that this world body

adopt, as soon as possible, guidelines to regulate the

emission of carbon dioxide and to protect the planet’s

biodiversity.

There is much work to be done around the world

to draw up and adopt policies and practices that will

enable us to prevent the impact of natural disasters. In

this context, it is crucial to incorporate risk

management into development and land-use planning.

We need to design and implement early warning

systems in coastal areas, cities at risk, schools and

hospitals. And we need urgently to re-equip critical

infrastructure to ensure that it is adequate to withstand

future catastrophes and to minimize human loss. Faced

with this situation, the Dominican Republic intends to

participate actively in the work of the Global Platform

for Disaster Risk Reduction, whose next meeting will

take place in Geneva, Switzerland, in May 2011.

Likewise, with advisory assistance from the

United Nations Development Programme and New

York’s Columbia University, in October we will be

meeting with the ministers responsible for social policy

as well as the mayors of cities at greatest risk in order

to review ongoing activities in the integration and

planning of natural disaster risk management.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to

suggest, as we did during a visit to L’Aquila, Italy, that

33 10-54833

the United Nations system create a world alliance of

countries at risk in order to exchange experiences,

knowledge and ideas, and to pass along best practices

learned during catastrophes. We are convinced that this

would be a major contribution to the design and

implementation of measures that will help save lives

and minimize material damage.