Equatorial Guinea, 2000

As head of the delegation of the

Republic of Equatorial Guinea, and on behalf of His

Excellency Don Santiago Nsobeya Efuman, Minister

for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and

Francophone Affairs, I am honoured to address the

Assembly.

First, I congratulate you, Sir, former Prime

Minister of Finland, on your election to preside over

the deliberations of the General Assembly at its fifty-

fifth session. We also sincerely congratulate Mr. Theo-

Ben Gurirab, Minister for Foreign Affairs of our sister

Republic of Namibia, on the excellent work

accomplished during the previous session and on his

acclaimed activities in coordinating the preparations

for the Millennium Summit, which has just ended.

I also take this opportunity to extend particular

congratulations to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, and his team for their full commitment to

promoting the mandate of the United Nations, as well

as for the plan to strengthen its future work, as

reflected in his outstanding report.

We warmly welcome the Republic of Tuvalu to

the United Nations.

Just two weeks ago we celebrated within these

four walls the most important event in the history of

humankind, when our heads of State and Government

established general guidelines that must govern the

future of our Organization, and that form a strong

foundation on which we can, and must, work. We must

now follow up all the proposals and recommendations

made by our leaders, with the firm goal of

implementing them, which would result in a promising

future for all nations — those of the North and South

and East and West.

His Excellency Obiang Nguema Mbasogo,

President of the Republic, head of State and founding

chairman of the Democratic Party of Equatorial

Guinea, in his address on the first day of the

Millennium Summit, affirmed that the turn of the

century showed us a threatened world, one constantly

in danger of collapse and in a permanent state of

uncertainty about its destiny and the survival of

humankind, one that conveyed an apocalyptic feeling

that was shared by all alike — nations large and small,

rich and poor.

In order to follow up the proposals and

recommendations of the Millennium Summit, we must

start with the fact that democracy begins at home. In

our specific case, that means the United Nations, which

is our shared home, where the voice of the majority

must prevail; that is a basic principle of the historic

San Francisco Charter of 1945.

Equatorial Guinea therefore joins the call for

urgent, much needed reform and empowerment of the

United Nations — an appropriate formula for achieving

the fair and just representation of the African continent

and other regions of the world, which we regard as a

fundamental issue, particularly with regard to the

Security Council. If this is not achieved, an

environment of distrust may result, as well as a

weakening of the role of our great Organization and its

all-important task of promoting and ensuring

international peace and security.

At present, some individuals enjoy a level of

wealth which in the past was inconceivable, while the

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victims of poverty continue to suffer intolerable forms

of deprivation. The poor remain marginalized and

excluded, and day by day their ranks are increasing

considerably. Almost a quarter of the world's

population now lives in poverty.

Today, pensions and social security protect many

individuals from poverty, but poverty in old age

remains prevalent around the world. Poverty must be

the main concern in United Nations endeavours. The

struggle against poverty must be strengthened, and if

possible poverty must be eradicated, because the

subject of poverty eradication is an ethical, social,

political and economic imperative of humankind, as is

finding solutions to the conflicts and fratricidal wars

that take millions of victims in different parts of the

world.

Poverty eradication requires an improvement in

economic growth and in employment opportunities.

The causes of poverty must also be tackled in the

context of sectoral strategies, such as strategies for the

environment, food security, health, education,

population, immigration, housing, development of

human resources, rural development, drinking water

and sanitation.

Poverty eradication is therefore one of the

primary tasks to which the peoples of the twenty-first

century aspire, as an action which will promote the

development and prosperity of the human being and

will consolidate the culture of democracy and the

respect for human rights.

Other problems that need analysis and solutions

from the international community are the rights of the

child, the integration of women in development and the

thorny issue of the foreign debt. As for the rights of the

child, we must see to it that the activities and the

follow-up of the World Summit for Children are

integrated with economic actions to be implemented as

a result of the other United Nations conferences held in

the 1990s. In this respect, we must see to it that there is

renewed thinking about the obligations stemming from

the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the

Child by each country and a renewed commitment to

them. This must guide our actions in the future.

As for the subject of women, we must eliminate

all discriminatory practices against women and respect

the procedures and the provisions that are inherent in

the convention on this subject, as well as the

recommendations stemming from the Fourth World

Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 and

from the special session of the General Assembly held

in June 2000.

On foreign debt, we fervently appeal to donors

that they cancel the foreign debt of the developing

countries with the understanding that the funds

released will be injected into the most vulnerable

sectors in the economies of those countries, such as

education, health, water and sanitation.

We are gratified that among the major areas of

progress in the twentieth century we see a growing

awareness in humankind regarding respect for and

promotion of human rights, democracy and good

governance. In our country, because of the imperative

of survival and the objectives of well-being and

progress, we will continue on the agreed path towards

the necessary restoration of all the rights to which our

vulnerable and marginal groups aspire, in other words

women, children, the disabled, refugees and those

persons displaced by crisis and disasters. At the present

time in Malabo, the capital of our nation, we have

officially established the Centre for the Promotion of

Human Rights and the Committee in Support of the

Equatorial Guinean Child. This Committee was

established under the chairmanship of the First Lady of

the nation, Her Excellency Mrs. Constancia Mangue de

Obiang.

We have also experienced democracy in a spirit

of joy with fraternity and without divisiveness, as is

described by our national anthem, and also without

internal upheaval. The national constitution, known as

the Magna Carta of Akonibe, clearly stipulates the

establishment and institutionalization of political

pluralism in Equatorial Guinea. This has made it

possible for a number of political parties to be

established. These parties have signed a national

covenant with the political party which is in power

with the purpose of establishing and strengthening

mechanisms for dialogue among the parties. At the

present time, all are participating actively in aspiring to

political power in the country. In this respect we thank

God, the Creator, for having inspired us in this model

of participatory and peaceful democracy.

In September 1997 at the Congressional Palace of

Bata, the National Economic Conference was held with

the participation of all social sectors in our country. In

the final report of this important event, we find the

recommendations for programmes and projects to be

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implemented by the Government in the short, medium

and long-term as our economic development strategy.

We cannot conceal our concern at the steady

decline in international cooperation resources towards

Equatorial Guinea, as we have recently seen in many of

the projects and programmes that are implemented in

the country with external resources. In this respect we

want to avail ourselves of this forum to invite the

international community to steadily increase the

volume of international cooperation activities in

Equatorial Guinea.

With the primary purpose of ensuring peace and

security in our subregion, we hope that the United

Nations will support the appropriate mechanisms for

the maintenance of peace, security, stability,

cooperation and development in the Central African

subregion, following the political will of the heads of

State of that subregion, inspired by the establishment

of the Council of Peace and Security in Central Africa

(COPAX), a body for political and military agreement

among the member countries of the Economic

Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

As regards the promotion of measures for the

maintenance and the strengthening of peace and

security, we have, within COPAX, a Central African

Multinational Force (FOMAC) and an Early Warning

Mechanism for Central Africa (MARAC). The

Government of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea has

contributed with determination to financing these

institutions so that they can function properly.

We sincerely regret the armed conflicts that exist

at the present time on the African continent and in

other parts of the world, for example, the case of

Angola, the situation of the countries in the Great

Lakes region and the crisis in Sierra Leone. We

welcome the ceasefire in the conflict between Ethiopia

and Eritrea, and it is our hope that the parties will

undertake dialogue with a view to a lasting peace.

Likewise, we view with satisfaction the restoration of

peace and authority in the sister republic of Somalia. In

this respect, we commend the United Nations, the

Organization of African Unity, the League of Arab

States, the Islamic Conference and all of those who

directly or indirectly contributed to the arduous task of

restoring peace to that country.

We strongly condemn the proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction. We support the struggle

against crime and the struggle against the global

problem of drugs and related crimes and against illicit

arms trafficking and international terrorism. We fully

support the initiative reaffirmed by the Central

American countries in their commitment to make

Central America a region of peace, freedom,

democracy and development and particularly to

gradually and progressively stimulate the Central

American Union to ensure a promising future for that

region.

In the Middle East, we congratulate the

commendable political work done by the President of

the United States Bill Clinton to mediate a lasting

peace in the region. We hope that a proper

interpretation and implementation of the proposals and

recommendations of our leaders at the Summit, as well

as the outstanding statements made at this

distinguished Assembly, will guide us towards a better

and more prosperous future for all the nations of the

world.