Ivory Coast, 2010

I would like to congratulate you, Sir, on your

brilliant election to the presidency of the sixty-fifth

session of the General Assembly. That election is a sign

of the unanimous recognition of your personal

commitment to promote the role of this Organization

and to defend its ideals. It is also the crowning moment

in a talented diplomatic career that you have led with

skill and tact. It is therefore to you as a skilled

diplomat that I would like to pay warm homage.

It is also my pleasure to express to your

predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki,

my delegation’s appreciation for the quality of the

work he undertook and the results achieved under his

presidency. Finally, allow me to pay tribute to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his personal

commitment and tireless efforts to support peace and

development throughout the world. Furthermore, I

wish to convey my deep gratitude to him as well as the

gratitude of His Excellency Mr. Laurent Gbagbo,

President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, as well as

that of the people and Government of Côte d’Ivoire for

his commitment to reach a settlement of the crisis in

Côte d’Ivoire.

By proposing the theme of reaffirming the United

Nations central role in global governance for this

session, Mr. President, you celebrate the primacy of

multilateralism over unilateralism as a method for

managing global affairs in the best possible manner.

Moreover, you are transforming our Organization into

the forum of choice for dealing with issues of global

concern. That vision is, without any doubt, in line with

that of developing countries in general and my country,

Côte d’Ivoire, in particular and can only take shape if

the United Nations retains its credibility by adapting to

an international context that has considerably changed

since its founding in 1945. This requires urgent and

thorough reform, because we believe that our

Organization has resisted the widespread changes in

the world that it was established to serve.

Because the United Nations is at the crossroads

of all of the world’s problems, it is here that we can

fully assess what has happened since it was founded.

This is the appropriate place to assess the progress

achieved as well as the failings. It is also here that we

can envisage solutions to problems that now confront

the world. Those issues include poverty, which is the

source of all evils, and which remains an open wound

on humanity, which continues to make progress to the

point where it is already considering human

settlements on the moon. But unfortunately, at the same

time, humanity is forgetting that more than a billion

men and women across the planet Earth suffer from

hunger. Women’s lives are lost as they give life.

Millions of children die before reaching the age of 5,

and access to drinking water is limited in Africa. The

AIDS epidemic and the malaria epidemic kill more

people than all the wars combined. If the world is

powerless, the United Nations must be adapted to

provide proper responses to those imbalances, because

there are not two worlds, there is just one world, which

is our common heritage. Managing that world must be

done in a joint manner, and it must be shared equitably.

The United Nations must demonstrate the example and

show the path forward.

In that regard, my country’s position has

remained unchanged. For Côte d’Ivoire, that long-

sought reform must aim for balance in the main bodies

of the United Nations, including in particular a larger

Security Council and improvement in its working

methods. That is why my delegation places much hope

in the successful outcome of the intergovernmental

negotiations that were launched by the General

Assembly on reform of the Organization in general and

the Security Council in particular.

This session of the Assembly is taking place at a

moment when the global economy is beginning a

fragile recovery, following the most serious economic

crisis the world has faced since the Great Depression of

the 1930s. That crisis has shown, and indeed has

exacerbated, the vulnerability of integrated world

economies, ruined development efforts and threatened

collective security. Many countries, mainly developing

countries, are continuing to suffer the effects of the

9 10-55396

crisis through a drop in the purchasing power of their

people, the growing shortage of official development

assistance, falling foreign direct investment and growth

in unemployment.

If, as the experts tell us, the global economy has

begun to recover this year, it nevertheless continues to

be fragile, with a growth rate of a mere 2.2 per cent. In

such a situation, we must seek, in solidarity and by

combining our efforts, the most appropriate solutions

to consolidate that tendency to growth. Meeting that

fundamental requirement will allow us to establish

throughout the world societies that are safer, more

equitable, more inclusive and more stable.

My delegation therefore calls on the

industrialized countries to make a reality of their

commitments with regard to developing countries,

especially in terms of official development assistance,

if the developing countries are to reach the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

Côte d’Ivoire also hopes to see the diligent

implementation of the conclusions of the United

Nations Conference on the World Financial and

Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development,

which was held here from 24 to 26 June 2009,

particularly those calling for reform and strengthening

of the financial and economic system and of the

international financial architecture in order to adapt

them to current difficulties. It also desires that

that reform should not only allow developing countries

in general and those of Africa in particular to have

more adequate representation in international financial

institutions, but should also promote economic and

financial policies that are better adapted to their needs.

Along those lines, I would like to pay tribute to

the summit of the Group of Eight (G-8) held in June

2010 in Muskoka, Canada, which reaffirmed, inter alia,

the commitments of the G-8 with regard to official

development assistance and the guarantee of aid

effectiveness. It called for the effective mobilization of

all public and private resources for the achievement of

the Millennium Development Goals. It also

emphasized the urgent need for collective action to

achieve the MDGs, particularly improvement in

maternal health and reduction of infant mortality.

On that specific point, my delegation would like

to welcome the creation within the United Nations

system of UN Women, a special body responsible for

gender issues and the advancement of women. That

new body and the establishment of a trust fund to

support initiatives for women is a real cause for hope

for developing countries, particularly those in Africa,

in their struggle against poverty, discrimination and

social inequalities. In that connection, I wish to

warmly congratulate Ms. Michelle Bachelet on her

appointment to head UN Women and assure her of the

full cooperation of the authorities of Côte d’Ivoire in

fulfilling her mandate.

Food insecurity, which now affects more than

1 billion people, mainly in developing countries, is a

major and immediate obstacle to development and a

threat to world peace and security.

In the face of that situation, for which the entire

international community is responsible, we need to

find innovative, effective and lasting solutions in terms

of financing for agriculture. My delegation welcomes

the efforts being made by the World Bank, regional

development banks and the specialized funds and

agencies of the United Nations for financing the

agricultural sector. Similarly, it welcomes the launching

in 2009 of the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative, which

allowed the G-8 to mobilize $22 billion to finance

agriculture in developing countries over a period of

three years.

The delegation of Côte d’Ivoire welcomes,

finally, the reform under way of the Committee on

World Food Security and the launching of the Global

Agriculture and Food Security Programme.

Similarly, I would like to recall the proposals

made by President Laurent Gbagbo, at the meeting of

the Group of 77 and China that was held in June 2008

at Yamoussoukro, to set up a mutual support

mechanism for providing food products to importing

countries by producing countries while aiming to

create in the United Nations a stabilization fund for

food products.

Climate change is rightly seen as a global

problem and today represents a serious threat to

humankind’s equilibrium. It therefore requires clear

and committed responses at the international level.

Thus it is important that we rapidly find solutions that

can ensure that future generations will have a world

that is better balanced and guarantees a better future

for humankind.

In that regard, the delegation of Côte d’Ivoire

welcomes the significant progress of the United

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Nations Conference on Climate Change, held from 7 to

18 December 2009 in Copenhagen. Although the

principle of a legally binding accord to succeed the

Kyoto Protocol after 2012 was not reached, the hopes

promoted by that meeting largely justified its being

held. Moreover, the significant progress achieved

confirms us in that opinion.

Among the advances made we would mention,

inter alia, the consensus on the goals for stabilizing the

temperature rise at 2°C, the creation of a mechanism to

mobilize financial resources for the absorption of

greenhouse gas emissions by forests, and the

commitment of developed countries to provide

$30 billion for the period 2010 to 2012, and $100

billion as of 2020 for measures to adapt to climate

change in developing countries.

The diligent implementation of those measures

should allow vulnerable States such as my own to

establish plans to combat climate change, which is

becoming increasingly evident throughout the world in

an upsurge in natural disasters related to drought,

flooding and coastal erosion. The effects of all of those

events on the health of populations and on the

availability of land and potable water compromise the

economic and social development of many States that

have already been weakened by poverty and

pandemics. The United Nations, in line with its

Charter, has the duty to carry out the negotiations that

were begun in Copenhagen and must work resolutely to

that end.

Respect for human rights is a concern for my

country, which has endorsed the set of international

instruments in that regard. Though it was affected by

the socio-political crisis, the human rights situation in

my country is today on a path to normalization, thanks

especially to the valuable help of national and

international non-governmental organizations involved

in that area. The international community could see

that on 3 December 2009 in Geneva, when the Working

Group on the universal periodic review took up Côte

d’Ivoire. That review led to the adoption on 18 March

2010 of a final report that earned my country the

support and encouragement of the States members of

the Human Rights Council for our stated will to pursue

efforts to improve human rights.

The persistence of numerous armed conflicts

around the world continues to threaten international

peace and security. Once again, the role of the United

Nations is vital to resolving those conflicts, which are

hindering the harmonious development of the world.

That is particularly true in Africa, a region that, shaken

by hotbeds of tension, cannot ensure its peaceful

economic and social development, despite its enormous

potential.

In that regard, allow me to stress how happy we

are that the peace so much hoped for is now a reality in

Côte d’Ivoire, following the implementation of the

Ouagadougou Political Agreement, which will permit

the organization of free, transparent and open elections.

The first round of presidential elections has been set

for 31 October 2010. Besides setting that date, the

signing on 9 September 2010 of a presidential decree

finalizing the ballot list allows for the distribution of

national identity and voting cards to the 5,725,720

Ivorians who are on the list that has been validated by

the Independent Electoral Commission and the Special

Representative of the Secretary-General of the United

Nations.

Those signs of progress in the peace process and

the proven determination of political players and the

Ivorian people to move towards free, open and

transparent elections allow us to envisage, with

optimism, the holding of the presidential election on

the appointed date and thus of Côte d’Ivoire emerging

from its crisis.

On that hopeful note, I would like to conclude by

recalling that the various crises of security, food,

energy and finances, compounded by the threat of

climate change, demonstrate the extent to which in the

existence, balance and future development of humanity

are now threatened more than ever. In that context the

United Nations has a crucial role to play in

strengthening indispensable international solidarity and

in seeking effective, collective and appropriate

solutions to those crises and challenges.

However, to be fully engaged with its time and to

remain true to the objectives of its founding 65 years

ago, the United Nations must adapt to the realities of

the contemporary world if it wants to remain the

guarantor of international peace and security and of the

world’s socio-economic development. To that end, we

must strengthen the foundations of this Organization

and — as the theme of this session invites us to do —

reaffirm its central role in global governance. Côte

d’Ivoire therefore calls for international solidarity so

that our common Organization may find the necessary

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solutions to offer to coming generations the hope of a

fruitful and peaceful future.