Equatorial Guinea, 1996

At the outset, Sir, allow me

to join with earlier speakers in congratulating Mr. Razali

Ismail on his election as President of the General

Assembly at its fifty-first session. His election is

unquestionably a recognition of the role that his country

has been playing in advancing the ideals of our

Organization. It is also a great honour, and a personal

tribute to his well-known experience as a diplomat. We

wish him every success in his work during this session.

We are aware of the substantial number of topics for

discussion during this session, and their subject matter.

First, however, I wish to discharge the duty given me by

the President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, His

Excellency Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and convey to the

representatives of the friendly countries meeting here

today his greetings and wishes for success in their work

during this session.

A rapid review of our agenda reveals that many of

the issues go to the heart and central purposes of the

United Nations. However, it is also true that most of them

have been the subject of broad-ranging and thorough

debate at many other sessions of the Assembly. To avoid

repetition, therefore, I shall briefly sum up my country’s

position on these main issues.

During the past 50 years the United Nations has

constantly worked to heighten the awareness of the

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international community and the conscience of the world

with respect to international peace and stability, justice,

equality and development throughout the world. We do not

wish to sound pessimistic, but this session of the Assembly

is taking place in a context of great uncertainty. Some are

even questioning whether the United Nations still has the

ability to contribute to solving the problems that have arisen

on a daily basis in recent years. For this reason, the first

problem that we must face is whether what we have been

building over the past 50 years is valid when tackling these

issues. For Equatorial Guinea, the answer is “yes” in

principle. However, we must also acknowledge that the

system we invented 50 years ago must be adapted to

current realities.

Apart from considering the various options for

reforming the United Nations system, we must ask

ourselves seriously whether we are prepared to provide the

Organization with the legal machinery to make its important

decision-making bodies — the General Assembly and

Security Council — more democratic. My country believes

that the credibility of the United Nations is at stake. We

have within our grasp an opportunity to make the United

Nations the centre for the global harmonization of our

endeavours to achieve the common purposes articulated in

the Charter. When making decisions that affect all the

countries in our Organization, therefore, the necessary

consensus must prevail for us to find appropriate solutions.

Given this belief, I wish to make a modest contribution on

certain issues that we consider vital to the Organization.

Reform of the Security Council is an extremely

important and complex issue, which calls for very careful

thought. Equatorial Guinea is in favour of establishing

machinery to allow for broad consensus in the decisions

taken by that body. We therefore support the arguments of

those who believe that there is a need for an increase in the

number of permanent and non-permanent members of the

Security Council.

We believe that, as others have said, exercise of the

veto should evolve towards mechanisms that will make its

use more objective. The United Nations should also keep in

mind the fact that the cooperation that will make

sustainable economic development possible in the

developing countries is not just an option; it is an

imperative, if we wish to eradicate the poverty and

destitution that breed violence and socio-political instability

in many countries and regions of the world.

Present-day Equatorial Guinea has learnt the hard

lesson of what it means to live in democracy and pluralism

in a difficult socio-economic climate. Therefore, we

believe that the preservation of peace and stability and the

fostering of democracy are closely linked to the right of

all the world’s peoples to development.

For that reason, Equatorial Guinea is concerned

about the fate that the resolutions adopted at four

important world summit meetings of recent years — the

United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development at Rio de Janeiro, the World Summit for

Social Development at Copenhagen, the Fourth World

Conference on Women at Beijing and the World Summit

for Children at New York — can expect at the hands of

the international community. Are we once more going to

fail to fulfil the hopes of our peoples, who had rejoiced

to see the Organization take such salutary initiatives? The

debt problem remains unresolved, although timid steps

have recently been taken by the World Bank and the

International Monetary Fund.

Where my country’s domestic affairs are concerned,

we are building a participatory democracy founded on the

people, by the people and for the people. Thus, our

development policy is concentrated on the welfare of our

citizens. Indeed, within that approach the Government of

Equatorial Guinea is pursuing a programme to promote

human rights, with the technical and financial assistance

of the United Nations Centre for Human Rights. In this

connection, a number of courses and seminars are being

offered for public order and security personnel as well as

for administrative and judicial authorities responsible for

law and order.

We are daily and progressively enhancing the degree

of democratization of State political structures at the rural

community, municipal, parliamentary and governmental

levels to facilitate transition.

In the economic sphere our efforts are directed to

reforms that will be an impetus to sustainable

development that can improve the standard of living of

our population. Nevertheless, we must note here my

country’s concern at a trend in the international

community to erect barriers that hinder the efforts being

made by many developing countries to harness the

resources needed for development.

In recent years, in fact, we have witnessed a

contradictory phenomenon: on the pretext of calling for

the restoration of unquestioned principles of democracy

and respect for human rights, many developing peoples

are being deprived of the resources that will enable them

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to meet their basic needs. The donor community must, once

and for all, learn to distinguish between the demands of

certain selfish political interests and the aspirations of

peoples to freedom, democracy and development.

In the case of Equatorial Guinea, our aspirations to

consolidate a State based on the rule of law, democracy and

development are held hostage to certain intransigent and

radical political groups that are deliberately flooding the

international community with disinformation that runs

counter to my country’s present-day socio-political realities.

For a number of years now, either out of ignorance or

because of vested interests, the donor community has

wielded the weapon of economic blockade, which has made

it impossible to establish democracy on a sure footing in a

number of countries.

However, we are pleased to inform the Assembly that

our ideals of peace, republican order and healthy social

coexistence have enabled Equatorial Guinea today to attract

world interest. Foreign investment is increasing at a rapid

rate, cooperation with friendly countries and international

economic institutions is growing and economic growth will

exceed 7 per cent by the end of this year. We believe that

ultimately Equatorial Guinea will be able to lay the

foundation for the country’s overall development in all

areas.

We would therefore like to take this opportunity to

appeal to the international community gathered here to

judge Equatorial Guinea by what is actually happening

there, and thus to confirm the objective reality of our

movement towards progress and prosperity.