Gabon, 2010

At

the outset, allow me to convey to Mr. Joseph Deiss, on

behalf of my country, our heartfelt congratulations on

his election to the presidency of the General Assembly

at this session. His proven experience and skill will

ensure that our deliberations are successful. I thank his

predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki,

for the excellent manner in which he discharged his

mandate. To the Secretary-General, His Excellency

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, I reiterate the support of Gabon for

his tireless involvement in building a world that is

more free, just and united.

I take this opportunity to express from this

rostrum my gratitude to all here and the entire

international community for the solidarity they

extended to the people of Gabon when my predecessor,

the late President Omar Bongo Ondimba, passed away.

I am also grateful for the many forms of support

extended to us throughout Gabon’s process of

democratic transition, which has highlighted the

credibility and reliability of our institutions and our

people’s sense of responsibility.

For almost a year now, I have engaged Gabon in

broad-ranging economic, social and political reforms

centred on promoting our environmental heritage and

industrial sector and on making the service sector more

dynamic. When I took office, I presented the three

strategic pillars of an emergent Gabon: Green Gabon,

Industrial Gabon and Services Gabon.

By putting Green Gabon at the head of that list, I

wanted to underscore the central role that this sector

will play in Gabon’s economy. I see Green Gabon as a

cross-cutting approach that underlies our overall

development strategy. Industrial Gabon draws upon

efforts to promote our natural resources, while

respecting the basic principles of environmental

preservation. Services Gabon highlights the country’s

ownership of new information and communications

technology, the promotion of tourism, transportation

improvements and the development of human

resources.

In the light of this vision, we have established a

climate council to mainstream the issues of climate

change into our national development policies. In the

same vein, we have just entered into a partnership with

Brazil and with France to establish a satellite imaging

facility to monitor the forest cover of the Congo basin,

which comprises more than 2 million square kilometres

of equatorial rainforest.

The many initiatives in which I have engaged my

country are aimed in particular at improving

governance, fighting corruption, reducing State

expenses and preserving the environment, all of which

requires international support. We bear in mind, of

course, that our future depends above all upon our own

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efforts to manage our resources, achieve good

governance and serve the greater good.

Beyond our desire to mobilize further national

and international resources, we continue to be firmly

committed to the quest for peace and security, both

regionally and globally. Through our membership in

the Security Council, we are fully shouldering our

responsibilities and making our contribution to the

quest for a world that can look to the future with

confidence.

The theme of our debate gives us yet another

opportunity to assess the role of the United Nations in

global governance. Our world still bears the scars of

the terrible financial and economic crisis of 2008,

which spared no country. The rapid and robust

mobilization of the international community, and the

United Nations in particular, in the face of this crisis

demonstrated its ability to respond when it is motivated

and supported by genuine political will. Such

international solidarity should be made systematic, and

we hope it will be renewed in efforts to deal with the

emerging challenges that we face today.

Given the complexity of the new crises we face

today, we need to design a new approach to conflict

management. Peacekeeping has not had just successes;

quite the contrary, there are many cases in which, for

lack of resources and ambition, the United Nations has

been unable to intervene and thus abandoned

defenceless populations to rebels and other armed

groups.

It is time for us to move beyond peacekeeping so

that we can adopt, when circumstances require, a

philosophy of imposing peace. We need to give

ourselves the capacity to deploy robust peace missions

commensurate with the nature of the conflicts that

continue to destabilize certain States. Peacekeeping in

and of itself will not be able to meet the challenges of

security. I reiterate my call for a culture of conflict

prevention, which has the advantage of both averting

many casualties and saving the modest resources that

are so necessary to our countries’ development.

The quest for peace and security remains a

constant concern in Africa and elsewhere. The

imminent referendum on Southern Sudan appears to be

clouded with uncertainties. Indeed, the hope of a

political settlement to that thorny regional issue is

paralleled by the fear of the balkanization of a

continent that has already suffered too many divisions.

The stakes in the Sudan today perhaps foreshadow a

cycle that will mark Africa’s future. I appeal to the

parties and the international community, in the interests

of the populations involved, to take full stock of their

responsibility to ensure the success of a process

leading up to the referendum.

Here, I commend the commitment of the United

Nations and the African Union to supporting the

implementation of the Comprehensive Peace

Agreement, to which my country remains committed.

Specifically with respect to Darfur, I call on all parties

to be further involved in the Doha political process. I

take this opportunity to pay tribute to the State of Qatar

for its efforts to that end.

In Somalia, I commend the support of the United

Nations for the efforts of the African Union Mission in

Somalia to put an end to instability in that country.

Yesterday’s mini-summit on the situation in that

country attested to the United Nations ongoing interest

in reaching a settlement on the question of Somalia.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the

reconfiguration of the mandate of the United Nations

Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo — now

the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission

in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — essentially

aimed at enhancing protection for civilian populations,

should be highlighted. It demonstrates the willingness

of the United Nations to adapt to changing situations

on the ground. I call on the countries of the region and

the international community to support the efforts of

the Congolese Government in its determination to

ensure security and stability throughout its territory.

With respect to the situation in Western Sahara, I

encourage the parties to restart the Manhasset talks,

under the auspices of the Secretary-General, in order to

end the current stalemate and move towards a political

solution acceptable to all.

Finally, with respect to Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea,

Niger and Madagascar, I urge the international

community to support them in holding free, democratic

elections in accordance with the various arrangements

reached to that end.

The search for peace in the Middle East is

another area of concern to the international community.

I commend the diplomatic efforts undertaken by the

United States, which have brought about the

resumption of direct talks between Israelis and

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Palestinians. I also thank the other Quartet members

and Egypt for their involvement in that process. It is

my hope that these consultations will continue and lead

to the establishment of a Palestinian State, living side

by side with Israel within secure and internationally

recognized borders.

The terrorist threat, unfortunately, continues to

weigh heavily on international peace and security. No

nation large or small is spared. Defeating this scourge

will require effective cooperation among all Member

States, with the assistance of the United Nations and its

specialized institutions. We will also need to give

ongoing attention to other cross-cutting threats to

international peace and security, such as piracy, the

proliferation of weapons, drug trafficking and

transnational organized crime. We commend the efforts

already undertaken by the United Nations in this area,

particularly the strengthening of the legal regime and

mechanisms to counter those threats.

With respect to the issue of climate change,

together with other heads of State and Government in

Copenhagen, I undertook the quest for a consensus on

the idea of a legally binding instrument. We support the

negotiations undertaken in Copenhagen and continued

in Bonn and hope that they will lead, in Cancún, to the

reaffirmation of the commitments taken, particularly in

terms of financing for the fight against climate change

in developing countries and the 20 per cent reduction

of greenhouse gasses in the industrialized countries by

2020.

The advancement of women is undeniably one of

the areas in which the United Nations has made

genuine progress. The recent establishment of a new

institution called UN Women, the primary mission of

which is to better coordinate all the activities related to

gender issues, clearly illustrates the fact that our

Organization is addressing this concern. I take this

opportunity to convey my sincere congratulations to an

extraordinary woman, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, for her

appointment as head of this new entity.

Given the many challenges facing humanity, we

owe it to ourselves to work together in a coordinated

manner to provide a global response that matches the

aspirations of our peoples. The universality of the

United Nations symbolizes the shared destiny of the

world’s people, and the Organization thus has a central

role to play, both in global governance and in the

emergence of a more just economic and social order.

From that standpoint, I reaffirm the need to adapt our

Organization to the changing international context.

Revitalizing the work of the General Assembly,

reforming the Security Council and ensuring the

coherence of the United Nations system are areas that

have to be dealt with to strengthen the central role of

our Organization.

At a time when we are realigning our common

efforts with the current international environment and

when democratizing global governance is emerging as

a necessity, I would like to reaffirm, from this rostrum,

Africa’s aspiration to fully take its place among the

family of nations. We fervently call for the

democratization of the United Nations system in order

to adapt it to today’s realities.

Indeed, we believe that it is an anachronism that

Africa is under international pressure to reaffirm

democratic values while those same laudable values

cannot be applied within our own Organization. I

believe the time has come for Africa to shoulder all its

responsibilities, stop its continual reliance on

assistance from its partners and take its own destiny in

hand. This affirmation of Africa’s place on the

international scene leads me to call for its permanent

presence in the Security Council. We are prepared to

meet that challenge in order to treat the wounds of a

history replete with injustices done to the continent.

Beyond the democratization of the United

Nations system, which we wholeheartedly call for, the

credibility of our efforts also requires that we meet the

development promises made to humankind.

Africa’s destiny assuredly hangs on compliance

with the commitments undertaken in Monterrey,

Gleneagles, Doha, Paris and, more recently, in

Muskoka and Toronto. Those commitments should not

be postponed indefinitely.

As humanity is one in its essence and varied in its

forms, it is important that the management of the

world’s affairs be done with the collaboration of all, in

order to ensure that the generations to come can look to

the future with confidence.