Gabon, 1995

As I address the General Assembly on behalf of the

Gabonese Republic, I wish first of all to discharge the

duty of sincerely congratulating you, Sir, on behalf of my

delegation and on my own account, on your unanimous

election to the presidency of the fiftieth session. The

Assembly’s choice reflects the appreciation of all States

Members of the United Nations for the contribution of

your country, Portugal, to the quest for solutions to the

problems besetting the world. Your election highlights

your talents as a diplomat and statesman and your wide

experience.

It gives me pleasure also to express our gratitude

and admiration to your predecessor, Mr. Amara Essy,

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Côte d’Ivoire. The

Gabonese Republic hails that fine diplomat and thanks

him for the dedication and readiness to act he placed in

the service of the world Organization at the forty-ninth

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session; his work was a source of pride for the entire

African continent.

I cannot fail to mention the Gabonese Republic’s

staunch support for the Secretary-General, His Excellency

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in his tireless efforts in the

service of peace, security and development.

I wish now to say a few words about the unique

nature of this session, during which the Assembly will

convene in special meetings to mark the fiftieth anniversary

of the Organization. At those special meetings, Heads of

State or Government will have an opportunity to assess the

impact of some of the action we have taken pursuant to the

purposes and principles of the United Nations. True, those

purposes have not been completely fulfilled, but in all

fairness we must acknowledge that there has been

considerable progress, especially on respect for human

rights, fundamental freedoms and peace, without which

nothing is possible. Yet development remains a major

concern, despite the efforts that have been devoted to it.

Every nation represented here is a reflection of

mankind, whose common values the founders of the United

Nations evoked. Among those values I would highlight

those of greatest concern at the end of the twentieth

century: peace, freedom and development.

Gabon’s dedication to the ideal of peace is a constant

element in its foreign policy and its diplomacy. The

inclusion of that ideal in the Charter was most appealing to

the leadership of Gabon and eased our accession to

membership of the United Nations, on 20 September 1960.

Hence, as a Member of the United Nations we took our

proper place alongside other nations, in the harmony of our

respective differences.

I wish to pay tribute to the founders of non-alignment,

who were the first to reflect in deeds, through the doctrine

of peaceful coexistence, the principles enshrined in the San

Francisco Charter. Twenty-five years later, the relevant

resolutions of the General Assembly confirm that

interpretation. We are duty-bound to go back to the source

in order to respond to the need — the urgent need — for

new, creative thinking in favour of peace.

It is an honour and a duty to recall that Gabon’s

experience in the settlement of conflicts has its living roots

deep in Bantu civilization. Our view of solidarity among

peoples gives a role to Gabon’s commitment to cooperate

with all States Members of the United Nations whatever

their ideology or the nature of their political regime. This

promotes the virtues of dialogue and tolerance among

peoples and nations, virtues we practice in our homes and

within our families, virtues that, through the international

action of President Omar Bongo, the Gabonese Republic

has built into a principle of our diplomatic and political

culture.

Our idea of peace, then, is primarily functional in

nature. It reminds us every day that the state of peace

among nations is a continuous process, one which

requires at all times vigilance, courage and consistency in

our efforts. Gabon can state with pride that it is dedicated

to the peaceful conduct of its relations with all the

components of the international community.

“We are judged by our actions”, a great thinker quite

rightly observed. Those actions that we have been able to

inscribe in the registry of peace, both bilaterally and

multilaterally, follow the path traced by the Charter of the

United Nations. They illustrate, first of all, our

unswerving loyalty to the Organization, which makes us

automatically involved in all the missions and all the

actions it has undertaken anywhere in the world where

peace has been threatened or might be threatened. The

efforts made quite recently by the international

community to heal the open wounds in Rwanda have had

our full support. The efforts made by the same

international community in Angola have often been

supplemented by our direct or indirect involvement. It

goes without saying that with regard to these situations

my country appeals to the community of nations to

continue its multifaceted assistance for the reintegration

and rebuilding of those two countries. This appeal is

addressed also to all the other areas of tension in Africa

and in the rest of the world.

These actions are also illustrated by our appreciation

of and satisfaction with the progress achieved in the quest

for peace in the Middle East with the signing of the Taba

Agreement in Washington; and in Central Europe as a

result of the new atmosphere brought about by

discussions that made it possible for all the parties

involved in the situation in the former Yugoslavia to meet

together in New York. In our view, all these factors bear

witness to the fact that the international community is

prepared to attenuate as much as possible the anguish

caused our peoples by the risks of war in the world.

Nevertheless, every one of us would readily agree

that real threats to peace in international relations still

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exist today. The outline of a new world order is still hard

for us to grasp; it shows us the paradoxical picture of a

fragile peace. Yet our expectations of the establishment of

this new world order are not fruitless. For the time being,

Gabon gives due value to the dynamics which led, at the

global and regional levels, to the creation of the

mechanisms designed to prevent conflicts.

While peace has the virtue of making us feel safer,

freedom can open up prospects for individual and collective

development. In the view of the founders of the United

Nations, freedom is a decisive element for the establishment

of an environment and an overall spiritual framework

allowing for the emergence of social progress and the

establishment of better living conditions. Those who signed

the Charter received a mandate, as it were, to create the

conditions for this, to the benefit of the people in their care.

The results of this commitment to implement the principle

of the right of peoples to self-determination and the

principle of respect for human rights are known to all, just

as we all know of, and regard highly, the actions taken by

our Organization to inspire, to support and even to initiate

policies undertaken in these fields. In this context, any

policy contrary to this which calls these achievements into

question will give rise to the reactions necessary to preserve

the balance between States and to restore everyone’s rights.

Therefore, our dedication to the principle of the

inviolability of borders in Africa is a guarantee of our

independence and our freedom, since it shows that we

accept freedom for other States as well.

My country’s experience in promoting and protecting

basic political, cultural and social human rights in recent

years has been outstanding. The establishment of a State

based on the rule of law with a transition from a single-

party system to a pluralist democracy has taken place

smoothly. The results of this transition, and the promises

born of this experience for democracy in our country,

flowed from the fact that they dovetail with our cultural

values, whose spiritual foundations favour the individual’s

place in society, as the founder of and justification for our

cities.

In Gabon, dialogue is valid only for human beings

since it is human beings who initiate it and carry it out for

their own benefit. An example of this Gabonese practice of

dialogue was the results achieved barely a year ago at the

meeting held by representatives of the majority and

opposition political parties in Paris in September and

October 1994 to define together the ways and means for the

consensual governance of our democracy that was then

being threatened. These results will be reflected in the

signing of the so-called Paris Agreements in the presence

of international observers.

Social conflicts and confrontations between opposing

political forces can be overcome by rational discussions

and tolerance of the opinions of others. We are truly

convinced that coups d’état are not relevant in present

times. That is why Gabon, through its President, Omar

Bongo, firmly condemned the unfortunate events which

occurred in Sao Tome and Principe, and more recently in

the Comoros.

Freedom, security and peace are in our view the

very bases of our democracy. To be sure, this democracy

is only taking its first steps, but it will undoubtedly enable

the Gabonese people to reach a new stage in its history

and its political life.

Another dimension of the political and social

problems in Africa and everywhere in the world is the

status of women in society. In my country, women have

the same rights as men. Our educational system ensures

free access by all school-age children to instruction; that

is in the interest of the entire Gabonese nation. In social

terms, then, taking into account the recent concerns

relating to the status of women and children, as illustrated

in the World Summit for Children in New York in 1990,

and the Beijing Conference in 1995, the Republic of

Gabon has made choices that are in line with the spirit of

the actions initiated by the United Nations.

Once again, I would mention the founders of our

Organization and praise their generosity of spirit in

placing the happiness of peoples in the context of

extending freedom.

The solidarity advocated for States as the absolute

prerequisite for defining ensuing strategies was designed

to discourage them from any inclination of selfishness in

the implementation of those strategies.

Unfortunately, however, we must admit that this

legacy has, instead, come to look more like “every man

for himself”, a standard that has been set up as providing

the ways and means to find happiness. The differences

among nations have revealed the gaps between peoples

the world over at the level of their development.

However, in this sphere, the United Nations has tried

to create a range of instruments and mechanisms designed

to provide our Governments with the assistance they

expect. Whatever the allegiance of the peoples represented

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here, each and every one of us will acknowledge and

appreciate, for example, the role of UNESCO in education,

science and culture; of the World Health Organization on

the basis of its contribution to the eradication of major

endemic and pandemic diseases; or that of the United

Nations Development Programme in carrying out

development projects.

Nevertheless, the overall verdict is still mixed. We

believe that although our actions have allowed humanity to

survive, they have not fully succeeded in improving the

quality of life for most people. In both the South and the

North, our world is still littered, not just with pockets but

with vast tracts of poverty. All our States, small or large,

are being eaten away, to various degrees, by the cancer of

abject poverty.

The United Nations recent decision to hold a world

summit in Copenhagen devoted to social development was

welcomed by Gabon, which was an active participant.

President Bongo himself said that that Summit was the

result of an in-depth analysis of the state of extreme

poverty in which a large part of humanity was living today.

Consequently, for our country, the programme of

action drawn up at the end of the Summit — which, we are

pleased to say, follows up the major guidelines already

found in the United Nations programme of action for the

establishment of a new international economic order, on the

one hand, and the major principles of “An Agenda for

Development”, on the other — should be translated into

action, as hoped.

We are all aware that, by the same token, this

endeavour will require the mobilized contribution of all of

the countries and bodies that constitute the international

community.

At the close of the twentieth century, Africa alone will

have broken all records for underdevelopment. By way of

example, it has three quarters of the least developed

countries; it has the lowest level of growth; it is practically

non-existent in international trade. Unfortunately, Africa is

today a continent apart, despite its enormous potential.

It, nevertheless, accepts the fact that responsibility for

economic recovery is largely in its hands and that this task

depends above all on its own efforts. But it is still obvious

that the enormity of the crisis it is going through and the

level of resources needed make international support for its

efforts necessary.

For Africa in general and for Gabon more

particularly, a more appropriate approach to the debt

burden would favour a solution to this issue, given the

substantial inverse capital flows going to our creditors as

a result of paying back our debt.

Africa wishes to remind the world of its commitment

to face its responsibilities with regard to debt and debt

servicing. This was the position adopted by our Heads of

State at the most recent Summit of the Organization of

African Unity. Gabon supports this. However, it looks to

the shrewdness of its creditors and in the understandable

interest of all parties concerned in this issue, to help us

obtain favourable treatment in conditions for repayment.

Gabon effectively devotes more than half of its

annual budget to debt repayment, thereby crippling its

development efforts — this in spite of the fact that the

machinery for debt reduction advocated in recent years

has discriminated against us by excluding us from the list

of beneficiaries. We suggest that the reason given, based

on the high per capita gross national product, is unfair.

This strange singling out of Gabon, which is still

almost the only country in the so-called middle-income

category in the southern Sahara, is not justified in reality.

This situation places a burden on our economy and

thereby affects our economic relations abroad.

This appeal to the international community for fairer

treatment of my country is not a case of begging — no

more for Gabon than for the rest of Africa — because, as

Omar Bongo stated at the Copenhagen summit: “Africa is

not asking for charity”.

In reality, helping our credibility and viability in

economic and financial terms, actually strengthens the

international trading system for the common good. This

is not a matter of philanthropy but rather of common

sense: helping the South means helping the North, and

ultimately the entire world.

At the end of this rapid reading before this

Assembly, dealing with the themes of peace, freedom and

development, my appeals to our Organization will be

clear to all. It is expected to respond to the concerns I

have just expressed.

On the eve of the special meeting to celebrate the

fiftieth anniversary of our Organization, I hope that all of

its Members will realize the enormous import of this

opportunity, for the world is changing before our very

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eyes. The countries represented here are also changing, at

different rates. Obviously, I cannot accept the idea that the

United Nations itself could fail to keep up with this trend.

For this reason, the measures advocated along these

lines by the Secretary-General of the United Nations could

be supplemented by others that my country would like to

see, from the point of view of restructuring, and therefore

readapting the United Nations system to the realities of

today’s world.

The present context is conducive to this. An overall

reform of the system is required, for the security of our

peoples, and of the States that comprise it, and in the final

analysis, in the interest of renewing the United Nations

itself.

I conclude my speech, therefore, on this note of hope.