Equatorial Guinea, 2010

I have the great honour to speak at

the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly on

behalf of His Excellency Mr. Teodoro Obiang Nguema

Mbasogo, President and head of State of the Republic

of Equatorial Guinea, who is not able to be here to

participate, as he would have liked, owing to numerous

high matters of State.

In the name of the Government and the people of

Equatorial Guinea, I would first like to address our

most sincere congratulations to you, Sir, on your

unanimous and wise election as President of the

General Assembly at this session. We wish you great

success in leading its work and deliberations. I also

extend our thanks to the other elected members of the

Bureau. Most especially, we wish to express our

admiration and respect to His Excellency Mr. Ali

Abdussalam Treki, outgoing President and eminent

diplomat of Africa, who did outstanding work as

President at the sixty-fourth session and who is

responsible for our beginning this session with

optimism.

The Republic of Equatorial Guinea reaffirms its

resolute commitment and attachment to the ideals,

principles and objectives of the United Nations. In that

context, I salute Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and

reiterate to him the recognition of the Government and

people of Equatorial Guinea of his wise administration

at the head of this great Organization. In particular, we

appreciate his vision and the timeliness with which he

has identified the seven strategic themes of our current

world, which merit the greatest attention from every

State Member during this session.

Equatorial Guinea is taking part in the work of

this session with a good deal of optimism with regard

to an eventual and gradual solution of the problems

today facing humankind in general, and the African

continent in particular. Above all, that is because since

the 1990s there have been several initiatives aimed at

encouraging sustainable development. Those initiatives

have been promoted through major world conferences

and summits that have addressed such major subjects

as population and sustainable development, food, the

environment and financing for development. In the

context of this 2010 session, we shall consider the

implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of

those major summits and conferences, such as the

Millennium Summit.

What can we see after more than 10 years since

those summits, especially the Millennium Summit? As

has been wisely pointed out in previous interventions

in the Assembly, there is no point in doing things in the

same way and expecting different results.

Unfortunately, both the report of the Secretary-

General (A/65/1) and the interventions delivered in

recent days by different delegations during the High-

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level Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals

indicate that rather than improving, the number of

people who suffer from hunger has increased, the

number of those living in poverty remains high and the

environment has been degraded. The latter has led to

serious climactic changes and the ensuing natural

disasters, including constant flooding, earthquakes,

hurricanes and so on, which have caused total

destruction in several countries and seriously

undermined people’s ability to survive.

Were that not enough, there has also been an

increase in acts of international terrorism, organized

and cross-border crime and piracy on a continental

level. There has also been a worsening in the acute

economic crisis, which continues to affect all

humankind. All those phenomena illustrate the need for

greater awareness and coordination on the part of every

country on the planet.

All of us must focus our efforts, energy and

resources on promoting and maintaining peace and

security in the world, fostering a healthy environment

and actively working and cooperating to eradicate

nuclear weapons and to forcefully combat terrorism

and international organized crime. We should work

side by side to shape a world where there is a sense of

participation and equality among men and women; a

world where Security Council reform allows for better

representation, participation and decision-taking that

reflect the will and interests of every region and

country of the world — large, medium or small.

Previous interventions have underscored the

importance that “every Member country of the United

Nations be clearly involved here, at the heart of the

United Nations, to respond to urgent matters of today’s

world”. It was that call that, in 2007, inspired His

Excellency the President of the Republic of Equatorial

Guinea to propose to the General Conference of the

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization — UNESCO — the creation of an

international prize for scientific investigation in the

field of life sciences. That $3 million contribution is

destined for the international scientific community, and

its purpose is to seek solutions and remedies to the

major pandemics and diseases that afflict the world

today in general and especially the African continent.

Despite the great need of the international

scientific community, despite the potential to alleviate

the suffering of vulnerable communities, particularly in

Africa, despite having been duly approved by the

States members of the UNESCO Executive Board, and

despite the unanimous decision of the international jury

for the prize designating three international scientists,

most of them from developing countries, as winners,

this prize is still being blocked simply for being the

initiative of an African leader.

The Republic of Equatorial Guinea cannot but

denounce the manipulations and manoeuvres of the

new UNESCO administration against the humanitarian

initiative of the people of Equatorial Guinea. As a State

member, we find it unprecedented and therefore

disturbing that a decision made by the Executive Board

of a United Nations agency is not carried out by its

leadership. What is most disturbing is that clear

manipulations and injustices of certain undeclared

interests have become apparent even in the heart of the

United Nations-related organizations, as is,

unfortunately, the case with UNESCO, where we

believed that all the member States had the same

consideration and rights.

For all of those reasons, the people and

Government of Equatorial Guinea agree that this is the

appropriate occasion and place to once more express

their deep concern regarding the irresponsible, openly

unjust and racist attitude that some actors, masked as

non governmental organizations, are orchestrating

against the praiseworthy initiative and the

humanitarian intentions that led to the creation of the

UNESCO Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Prize to motivate

and encourage the action of scientists around the world

in research for the preservation of life.

The Republic of Equatorial Guinea asks that the

UNESCO Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International

Prize for Research in the Life Sciences come to fruition

without further delay, in accordance with decision 180

EX/57, which was adopted by consensus by all the

States members of the UNESCO Executive Board in

October 2008.

The Republic of Equatorial Guinea is an

independent and sovereign State, governed by a

democratic and pluralist political system that respects

the basic rights of people without racial, ethnic, gender

or religious discrimination. Those principles are

contained in the fundamental law and in the laws that

serve as the basis for our country’s legal system, which

guarantees and promotes the individual and collective

freedoms of the citizens of Equatorial Guinea and

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provides for punishment for offenders who could

violate the rule of law. Indeed, the Constitution of

Equatorial Guinea reserves an important and privileged

place for human rights and basic freedoms, inasmuch

as they are based on the United Nations Charter and

their principles and goals are inspired by the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights.

Therefore, our country has begun a reform of its

judicial system and has already ratified several

international agreements and treaties concerning the

promotion and protection of human rights, which have

come to be an integral part of our legal system.

Likewise, in the last 10 years the Government has

made significant progress in updating and adapting its

legislative, legal and administrative instruments with

regard to the promotion and protection of civil and

political rights, as well as social, economic and cultural

rights.

In addition to those enormous and ongoing

efforts, the Government of Equatorial Guinea has taken

several other relevant measures and provisions to

strengthen the implementation of the laws in force in

the country in order to promote human rights and the

rule of law. A particular instance is the recent

enactment of the new Organic Law of Judicial Power,

which determines the overall organization of the

judicial system and the operation of justice in

Equatorial Guinea.

In recent years, the world’s nations have

witnessed an intensification and increase of violence in

acts of terrorism, in particular starting with the tragedy

that took place in this beautiful and historic North

American city of New York on 11 September 2001.

Such acts have meant that the fight against terrorism

has become a one of the priorities of international and

national policy of all countries.

In that disturbing context, the United Nations and

international law have been defining a set of very strict

obligations that States must comply with in order to

ensure an effective fight against that global scourge,

which affects all States equally, irrespective of

nationality or borders. In particular, we must bear in

mind resolution 1373 (2001), and other related

resolutions of the Security Council, which represents

an important milestone with regard to international

standards in the fight against terrorism. Indeed, that

resolution is a general standard and imposes upon

States a set of obligations that include that of

criminalizing specific conducts, such as the financing

of terrorism or the recruitment of members of terrorist

groups. Consequently, the implementation of

international standards in the fight against terrorism

and, in particular, its criminal classification, is not

merely a decision of domestic criminal policy, but

rather a matter of compliance with obligations imposed

by international law in general.

Our country has been a victim of terrorist attacks

on several occasions in the past five years, and as a

result the Government of Equatorial Guinea has put the

fight against terrorism among the priorities of its

Action Plan for national development, while at the

same time condemning in the most vigorous terms all

acts of terrorism, regardless of their motivation or

origin, since those acts constitute one of the most

serious threats to international peace and security.

Equatorial Guinea remains loyal to its

commitments and is deeply convinced of the need to

continue the efforts it has been deploying in connection

with the Millennium Declaration and in harmony with

the purposes and principles of the United Nations

aimed at overcoming the many challenges of

development.

However, the current situation requires a closer

and more dynamic, effective, sincere and coordinated

cooperation, without any conditions, as well as the

coordinated and united support of all of the political

forces of developed, developing and least developed

countries, with a view to promoting shared prosperity

and a better future for all the world’s countries.

I would like to conclude my statement on behalf

of the Government of Equatorial Guinea by renewing

our strong desire to change the current concept and

management of international affairs — in which the

often exclusive attitudes of certain States and regions

can be discerned — through a firmer and more sincere

commitment of the entire international community in

favour of the current United Nations reform process

which is designed to strengthen multilateralism. Only

in that way can we establish solid and lasting bases for

a world of peace and security — a prosperous world

for today and a solid inheritance for future generations.