Monaco, 2008

Allow me at the outset to convey to the President my

congratulations on his election and to acknowledge,

through him, the Latin American and Caribbean States

that made his presidency of the General Assembly

possible. Let me assure him and the other Assembly

officers that my delegation will support them

throughout the sixty-third session of the General

Assembly.

I also wish to thank the Secretary-General for his

resolute action in favour of peace and reiterate to him

our sincere and full support.

Finally, allow me to state what a great honour it

is for me to take the floor today for the first time at the

rostrum of this prestigious Hall.

The great and deeply missed poet Aimé Césaire

said: “A civilization that is unable to resolve the

problems that beset it is a decadent civilization.” We

know what the sufferings of our civilization are. We

have identified the solutions needed to treat them. The

issue at stake here is implementing those solutions.

Eight years ago, in this very Hall, all the States

Members of the United Nations adopted the

Millennium Declaration, the decisive tool in the fight

against poverty, to promote peace, security and human

rights, and to ensure a sustainable environment. It

provided the framework for eight precise goals

accompanied by clear time frames — the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs).

My message today is a simple one. The

international community cannot afford to fail in the

implementation of the MDGs, in spite of the threefold

food, energy and environmental crisis seriously

affecting the whole planet. To achieve the goals that we

set ourselves at the dawn of the new millennium, we

will have to step up our efforts and pursue concerted

action in the only universal forum we have — the

United Nations.

Eight years ago, we drew up together a scorecard

with quantified goals and defined the steps to be taken

to reduce poverty, fight hunger in the world and

combat pandemics. Eight years ago, the situation was

very alarming; we could not have imagined that things

were to get worse.

Since then, we have been faced with the energy

crisis and increasingly scarce resources, the food crisis

and soaring prices of basic food products, and the

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climate crisis resulting from the impact of human

activities on the environment. Adding to that already

very dark picture, we must now face the financial

crisis, whose repercussions continue to be felt and

whose full impact is yet to be seen.

Each country is suffering the consequences of

those crises in a different way depending on its

geography, its economy and its commercial and

financial market exposure; and each country is

attempting to face them with its own means. The

Principality of Monaco, within its capabilities, has

chosen to fight two of those crises — the food crisis

and the climate crisis — with the resources at its

disposal.

Much of the progress achieved in recent years in

helping those populations suffering from hunger and

malnutrition has been erased by soaring increases in

the price of basic foodstuffs. Two billion human beings

are seriously at risk even as world cereal production

has reached a record high in 2008. The African

continent, and in particular sub-Saharan Africa, with

60 per cent of its population affected by the crisis, is

once again the worst-affected continent.

It remains nonetheless undeniable that the right to

food is among the basic human rights. During the

High-Level Conference in Rome last June, the

international community adopted the Declaration on

World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate

Change and Bioenergy. Monaco fully supports the

measures advocated in the Declaration and joins the

call for the establishment of a world partnership

centred on the High-Level Task Force on the Global

Food Security Crisis.

A year ago, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II

announced here his decision to substantially increase

Monaco’s official development assistance (ODA). The

Principality’s Government is sparing no effort to reach

the target of allocating 0.7 per cent of its gross national

income by 2015 by increasing our ODA by 25 per cent

every year and focusing its actions on the least

developed countries.

In 2008, 22 countries, mainly located around the

Mediterranean basin and in sub-Saharan Africa, have

benefited from a development partnership with the

Principality. In addition to that bilateral cooperation,

Monaco contributes on a regular basis to large-scale

programmes of the United Nations system, such as the

World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s

Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization, the

United Nations Development Programme and the

United Nations Population Fund, whose expertise and

structures facilitate the greatest assistance to the

poorest populations.

Moreover, climate change and the imbalances it

creates have a direct impact on the sustainability of our

actions for development. The climate crisis,

desertification and the shortage of water resources have

exacerbated the food crisis.

Antoine de Saint Exupéry said: “We do not

inherit the Earth from our parents; we borrow it from

our children.” Pursuing that analogy, the international

community is not allocating sufficient funds to repay

that loan.

Under the leadership of our Head of State and in

collaboration with the Prince Albert II Foundation, the

Government has committed itself actively in the

International Polar Year to raise awareness among as

many people as possible of the consequences of global

warming. In that regard, the Arctic ice cap deserves all

our attention since it serves as both an indicator of the

consequences of global warming and as a vector of

climate change through its gradual disappearance.

Last year, when adopting the resolution on oceans

and the law of the sea, member States expressed their

deep concern over the vulnerability of the environment

and the fragility of ecosystems of the polar regions,

particularly the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic ice cap. At

Monaco’s initiative, the decision on sustainable

development of the Arctic region was adopted at the

tenth special session of the Governing Council of the

United Nations Environment Programme, which was

held in the Principality in February 2008.

We will pursue our commitment to that cause in

the coming months when Monaco will host meetings

on the Arctic: the first in November 2008, organized by

the French presidency of the European Union, and the

second organized by UNESCO early next year. I would

also note that the Principality has solemnly confirmed

its interest in the polar regions by acceding to the

Antarctic Treaty on 31 May, and that His Serene

Highness Prince Albert II will join a scientific mission

to Antarctica in January.

Notwithstanding the obstacles we have

encountered on the road since 2000, we have to stay on

track. Indeed, let us roll up our sleeves, consult each

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other and work together to multiply our forces and

create genuine synergy.

I would like to reiterate here the deep

commitment of the Principality of Monaco to the

United Nations, the only genuinely universal

organization, which has human rights and the

promotion of dialogue among nations at its very core.

The Charter of the United Nations guarantees the

sovereign equality of States and the rule of law.

Monaco has been a Member of the United Nations for

15 years. Since joining, our small Principality has

covered a lot of ground on the international scene,

becoming a member of the Council of Europe in 2004

and, very recently, joining the Union for the

Mediterranean.

Without the United Nations, it is doubtful that

human rights would have acquired their universal

status, which today is indisputable. This year and next,

many anniversaries remind us yet again of the essential

role of the United Nations: the sixtieth anniversary of

the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the

Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and the

twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the United

Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The world has changed since the San Francisco

Conference. Today, our task is to modernize the United

Nations and ensure that its institutions adequately

reflect our democratic principles and new geopolitical

balances. As His Serene Highness Prince Albert II

stated here last year, Monaco supports the expansion of

the Security Council.

Only the combined efforts of all partners will

allow us to make real progress in the fight against

poverty, to promote health care and education, improve

access to water and protect the environment. As

indicated in the June 2008 recommendations of the

MDG Africa Steering Group, the primary responsibility

for achieving the MDGs remains with African

Governments, which have shown tremendous

leadership in recent years and launched ambitious

programmes to attract the financial support of their

development partners.

We have seen real progress since 2000, in

particular in the area of health. Monaco, for its part,

contributes to various WHO and UNICEF programmes

and participates in efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, sickle

cell anaemia, tuberculosis and malaria. However, the

greatest national efforts, if made on an individual basis

and without coordination, will not be enough to fight

the scourges that affect our planet, and the African

continent in particular.

The evaluation of ODA policies, the sharing of

good practices, the coordination of development

assistance, partnership with the private sector,

microfinance and the pursuit of alternative revenue

sources are all instruments that, together with the

priority to be given to the central role of women in the

economy, will enable us to achieve the Millennium

Development Goals in the next seven years.