Haiti, 2013

I would

first like to express my warm and fraternal gratitude to

the President of the Republic of Haiti, His Excellency

Mr. Michel Joseph Martelly, for the trust he has placed

in me and, above all, for his courage and unwavering

determination to build a new Haiti. I would also like to

congratulate Mr. John Ashe, Permanent Representative

of Antigua and Barbuda, for his election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth

session, as well as to salute Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon.

I am proud to speak in this forum of modern global

history, one that has witnessed so many great leaders

discussing their vision for a world that is more just and

a humankind that is more enlightened and balanced.

It has been 13 years since the States Members

of the Organization, buoyed by the basic values of

freedom and equality, met to launch a new world order

for development when they adopted the Millennium

Declaration (resolution 55/2). It has been a strong period

for the United Nations, which continues to stand out

through its efforts to call on the peoples of the world to

unite to overcome the challenges linked to poverty and

social exclusion.

I speak on behalf of Haiti when I voice our pleasure

at the increasing vitality of the Organization, which

over the years has succeeded in preserving the ideals

of peace and solidarity. My country has always sought,

with the United Nations, to provide a better future to

generations to come. We have done so enthusiastically,

because over the past two centuries, Haiti — the land of

Toussaint Louverture, Alexandre Pétion, Jean-Jacques

Dessalines and Henri Christophe — has never missed

the great historic events. It is up to all of us to preserve

this vital tool for the future of humankind.

The theme of the sixty-eighth session of the General

Assembly is “The post-2015 development agenda:

setting the stage”. This is the ideal opportunity for

Haiti to present to the entire world an initial assessment

of the work carried out by the Government, work which

largely meets the aims of the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs) and which allows us to see a burgeoning

new Haiti.

Before presenting those achievements to the

Assembly, it is important to recall the situation that

Haiti found itself in when President Michel Martelly was

sworn in. In January 2010, Haiti was in a particularly

critical situation, especially because of the devastating,

large-scale earthquake. The natural disasters following

the earthquake exacerbated the already very difficult

problems. Despite daily difficulties, Haiti is now

resolutely and definitively on the path of progress.

Our country is gradually recovering from the natural

disasters it experienced and today is facing the future

with confidence. We have adopted effective measures

and policies that are focused on a strategic long-term

development plan.

The aims underlying our Government’s action go

hand in hand with the achievement of the Millennium

Development Goals. However, the development under

way cannot take place without a deep-seated reform of

the public administration and good political governance.

That is why the rule of law is one of our priorities.

In that regard, we have made great strides in 28

months. A Supreme Council of the Judiciary has been

put in place to ensure the independence of judges and

of all the justices appointed to the Court of Cassation.

The professionalism of the Haitian National Police

enables us today to provide and guarantee security and

to create a climate conducive to investment, which is

necessary to combat extreme poverty. The performance

of our police force has meant that Haiti is now ranked

as one of the safest countries in the Caribbean.

Next year will mark the tenth anniversary of the

military and police presence of the United Nations

in Haiti. The Haitian Government welcomes the

implementation of the plan for the gradual withdrawal

of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti,

which is now possible thanks to the considerable

progress achieved in the area of security.

The implementation of the constitutional

mechanisms envisaged in the context of the rule of law

is an ongoing priority for the Government. We have

managed to create a climate conducive to political

stability and to the expression of ideas and democratic

values. The Haitian press enjoys full freedom, and

members of the political opposition exercise their rights

without restrictions.

I would also like to mention the commitment and

work of the Government in consolidating the rule of

law and ensuring the sustainability of democratic

institutions. To that end, the Government continues to

give its full support to the transitional college of the

Permanent Electoral Council to ensure that legislative

and local elections take place as soon as possible.

Despite its lack of resources, the Haitian Government

has already allocated significant funds to the electoral

body. The President of the Republic of Haiti is personally

involved in initiating a dialogue with stakeholders and

political parties and is encouraging them to participate

in the upcoming elections in order to respect the process

of democratic change, as it is essential to the rule of law.

With regard to education, more than 1.2 million

Haitian children have benefited from the free education

programme put in place by the Government. We have

achieved that in particular by establishing a universal,

free and compulsory education programme. That

is a major achievement for Haiti, and one that is in

keeping with one of the most important Millennium

Development Goals: the achievement of universal

primary education by 2015. The Government is aware

that this achievement does not resolve the challenge

of providing access to quality schooling for everyone.

That is a new objective that we are determined to

achieve. Moreover, an ambitious programme to combat

illiteracy is under way. It will impact more than 250,000

people in 2014.

With regard to combating hunger and extreme

poverty — another Millennium Development

Goal — despite the serious social inequality in Haiti,

the Government has made considerable efforts to

avoid a humanitarian crisis. To achieve its goals in the

fight against extreme poverty, the Government has

invested more than $150 million in social assistance

and protection programmes, which is a first for our

country. The programmes are aimed at helping the most

vulnerable.

Since 2012, three ministries have been established

to strengthen public policies for the elimination of

extreme poverty. The Government is pursuing a

national food-security policy that includes a series of 15

measures that are expected to yield results in the short,

medium and long terms. In the short term, the objective

is, first, to stabilize the price of basic consumer goods

and, secondly, to provide assistance to those living in

extreme poverty. In the medium and long terms, the

objective is to increase national production and to reduce

our food dependence. We have also introduced a social

innovation that is unprecedented in the history of our

country by initiating a series of social programmes for

the most vulnerable groups under the theme “Help the

poor”. After one year of operation, those programmes

are now reaching more than 1 million Haitian people

living in extreme poverty: thousands of mothers,

students, older persons, disabled people and victims of

natural disasters.

Finally, along the same lines, I would like it to be

noted that of the 1.5 million earthquake refugees who

were living in tents in subhuman conditions, more than

1.25 million have now been rehoused.

In the twenty-first century, people are still starving

in Haiti. That is unacceptable and intolerable. As

Nelson Mandela said, “overcoming poverty is not a

gesture of charity, it is an act of justice.” For President

Martelly and myself, combatting extreme poverty is a

commitment that we make to history.

In terms of health care, there are considerable

challenges to be met in Haiti. The prevalence of

certain diseases, the high rates of infant mortality

and the shortcomings in health-care infrastructure

have deprived millions of Haitians of good-quality

health services. That situation was exacerbated by the

earthquake in 2010. Furthermore, in October 2010,

there was a very serious outbreak of cholera in Haiti,

for which the Haitian people continue to pay a heavy

price in human lives.

Given the catastrophic consequences of that

scourge — more than 8,000 dead and 650,000 people

infected — the Haitian Government is proposing that

a significant amount of the new global fund to combat

cholera be earmarked exclusively for the eradication of

the disease in Haiti. While we continue to believe that

the United Nations has some moral responsibility with

regard to the outbreak of the epidemic, it is nonetheless

true that the Organization has already supported some

of the Government’s efforts to combat the disease.

However, those efforts are far from enough. We

would therefore like to propose the establishment of

a joint commission, including members of the Haitian

Government and representatives of the United Nations,

to consider ways and means to definitively eradicate

the disease in Haiti.

In the face of those major public health challenges,

the Haitian Government has not stood idly by. Working

with our national and international partners and public

health experts, we have managed to curb the spread

of HIV/AIDS. In terms of treating AIDS today, Haiti

has moved from a prevalence rate of 5.5 in 2000 to 2.2

today, with a projected 1.5 for 2015. Such results are a

just reward for the years of effort that have made Haiti a

model universally recognized in international scientific

and academic circles. But we will not stop there. Much

remains to be done in terms of prevention and treatment.

We very much hope that we can definitively halt the

spread of AIDS and make treatment more affordable.

In Haiti, the public health network and the provision

of health care are largely insufficient. New efforts in

terms of prevention must be made.

The question of the environment is of major concern

to the Haitian Government, because the vegetation

cover over a very large area has disappeared. In order to

raise awareness among people about the need to replant

that vegetation, large-scale programmes have been

set up, and others are being drawn up, with the aim

of meeting the challenges of replanting, reforestation,

providing drinking water and sanitation and protecting

ecosystems — all of which have been neglected for

far too long. Without appropriate protection of the

environment, there will be no sustainable development;

no food security is possible for a growing population,

nor can there be a decline in poverty and misery.

As set forth in the noble Millennium Development

Goal on the topic, the Haitian Government, aware of the

need for gender equality, has made significant efforts to

ensure equality between Haitian men and women. While

Haitian society has always accorded an important role

to women, the Government has undertaken significant

initiatives to enable women to have access to highly

responsible positions in public administration. Thirty-

five per cent of the Cabinet is made up of women, and

they have important portfolios. Much remains to be

done to ensure the full emancipation of Haitian women,

particularly among the most vulnerable populations. In

our country, women deserve better access to education

and health-care services.

I conclude by asking the Assembly to observe

more closely the new Haiti that has been emerging

over the past two years despite its day-to-day problems

and the extremely difficult legacy, of which we are all

aware. That Haiti is one where more girls and boys

go to school, where new international-class hotels are

opening up their doors every day, breathing new life

into our tourism, where the economy is growing at the

rate of 4.6 per cent, where inflation has been stabilized

at 6.7 per cent, where for the first time foreign direct

investment has increased by more than 19 per cent

annually, where a fierce fight against smuggling and

corruption is being carried out and where today the

lowest rate of homicide in the Caribbean is seen. The

new Haiti is modernizing the old Haiti little by little

and is adopting courageous reforms. The new Haiti is

increasingly focusing on constructive dialogue with the

country’s social partners — the press, political parties

and the private sector. That Haiti has the courage to

invest in the worst-off and the poorest, despite a degree

of misunderstanding and some criticism.

A new Haiti is emerging. More than ever before,

Haiti feels that it is taking its place in the great family of

the United Nations and in the international community,

without which many of the achievements of the past

three years would not have been possible.

We are doing a great deal with very little.

If the international community had fully met its

commitments — amounting to $10 billion — made at

the 31 March 2010 meeting, the results would be even

better, and the suffering of the Haitian people would be

less harsh. Today, we are still far from our goal, because

only a part of those commitments have been honoured.

Based on its desire for transparency and efficiency

and to avoid duplication of effort on the part of

non-governmental organizations, the Government

has stepped up its leadership role and set up a

mechanism — the National Coordination Framework

for External Development Aid in Haiti — to take over

the management of international assistance.

Haiti is once again present on the regional scene.

This year alone our country has hosted three major

regional summits, including those of CARICOM, the

Ministers of the Association of Caribbean States, and

Petrocaribe. During those meetings, there were also

discussions on the best regional strategies to combat

hunger, abject poverty and exclusion, topics that are in

line with the Millennium Development Goals.

Finally, the Haiti of which I speak is the one that

Haitian men and women are working tirelessly to forge

each and every day. The results are coming; progress

is already palpable. Our country is no longer on the

front pages of the international press owing to repeated

coups d’état, social turmoil, insecurity and instability.

Our country is henceforth stable and secure, thanks

in particular to the tremendous efforts of the Haitian

National Police, with the support of the United Nations

Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

Work on infrastructure and on the reconstruction of

public buildings destroyed by the earthquake has begun.

The country offers excellent investment opportunities

in all sectors. Haiti today is on the right track, moving

towards a new era of social and economic progress and

respect for human rights. We are acting specifically to

achieve progress towards a Haiti that is more solidarity-

based and more prosperous — a Haiti that the entire

world will want to visit to see its extraordinary sights.

Long live Haiti!