Monaco, 2013

Twenty years ago

I took the floor for the first time before the General

Assembly. A few months before that, on 28 May 1993,

Monaco had become the one hundred and eighty-third

State Member of the United Nations, the smallest

Member State of the only universal Organization. The

decision of Prince Rainier III, my father, reflected

the will to fully assume our role as a responsible and

committed State within a changing world, where new

opportunities and new challenges were becoming

interdependent and transcending borders.

That vision remains unchanged over the passage

of time. My country continues to shoulder all its

responsibilities on the major issues that bring us

together here today. Faithful to its principles and to

its past, the Principality of Monaco wishes to make

its contribution in the most effective way possible to

the task of building peace, to which we have been so

attached over the centuries.

Therefore, inspired by a conviction that our shared

humanity requires that each of us treat our fellow

human beings with respect and dignity, tolerance

and comprehension, we have endorsed the values and

principles of the Charter of the United Nations, which

we aspire together to defend and to promote. That

important decision to fulfil the responsibility that each

Member State has is strengthened by the conviction,

originating from the holding of the first Earth Summit,

in 1992, that sustainable development, without which

we cannot aspire to our ideal of peace, must be planned

with respect for the environment of our planet.

It is in a sombre international context that we are

going to define the post-2015 development agenda,

an agenda that will be the cornerstone of the work of

the Organization and will be crucial to establishing

its political legitimacy for decades to come. The

growing insecurity in the world, characterized by the

fragmentation of societies, threatens the progress made

in many fields and causes multidimensional regional

instability that is likely to further deepen existing

differences.

The recent attacks perpetrated in Kenya, Pakistan

and Iraq are another shocking illustration of that

problem. They remind us that many parts of the world

are still subject to deadly terrorist attacks. Allow me

to extend to the families of the victims and to their

Government my deepest condolences.

I must also speak out against persisting conflicts,

which hamper development and cause an unacceptable

humanitarian situation. With regard to Syria in

particular, the number of displaced civilians and

refugees in bordering countries is of great concern. A

new threshold was crossed with the use of chemical

weapons, an extremely serious violation of international

law that cannot be tolerated. Monaco associates itself

with those who continue to advocate for a political

settlement of the conflict, especially in the light of

the recent agreement on the control and destruction

of chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria. Those

responsible for the use of chemical weapons cannot go

unpunished.

The International Committee of the Red Cross,

which I wish to pay tribute to for its determination to

fulfil its mandate in spite of difficult circumstances,

must be given access to populations in need and must

be assured that it is able to conduct its activities in full

security.

The tenth anniversary of the attack on United

Nations staff in Baghdad is a sad reminder that we

need to relentlessly continue with our efforts on

behalf of United Nations staff, who too often have

become deliberate targets. That deplorable situation

will be given attention in the coming world summit

on humanitarian aid to be held on the initiative of the

Secretary-General, which we fully support.

The evolution of factors that lead to humanitarian

emergencies forces us to examine the ways in which

the Organization can act in such circumstances, which

include conflicts, natural disasters, climate change and

environmental degradation. We must recognize that the

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to

which I express my deepest gratitude, needs to be given

the means and the resources required for it to carry out

the mandate we have given it.

To those who criticize or threaten the progress of

the United Nations, the results accomplished show that

our courageous political decisions, in the fields of both

security and development, are timely and positive.

Together, in the year 2000, we defined the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which today

have made it possible for billions of people to live

better. Those successes are all the more remarkable

given that progress has been achieved in spite of the

effects of many crises of a financial, economic, food

and energy nature, some of whose consequences linger

and are even worsening.

Tomorrow, the special event devoted to the

MDGs will be an opportunity to reiterate our priority

commitment to eliminating poverty and an opportunity

for us to redouble efforts to hasten the achievement of

the Goals.

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2013

indicates the areas that require urgent action and the

significant gaps that exist, not only among countries

but within their borders. We cannot tolerate the fact that

there are still people who have been rejected by society,

people for whom the hope born of a new millennium

remains a broken promise. It is not acceptable that in

today’s world human beings still live close to complete

destitution, where even their basic needs go unmet.

That is why we applaud the Secretary-General’s efforts

on behalf of his mobilization campaigns — Education

First, “Every woman, every child” and Scaling

Up Nutrition — which push us to shoulder our

responsibilities towards the world’s most vulnerable.

Education, the promotion of women, the protection

of children, public health and the conservation

of natural resources are priority elements in the

international cooperation policies that I have outlined.

They are structured around the eight MDGs, especially

maternal and child health, the fight against pandemics

and neglected diseases and the promotion of food

security, and in particular they are geared towards the

least developed countries. It seems to me that a policy

of international cooperation should respond as much

as possible to their interests, so that a virtuous circle

of development can be launched and help build a more

just, stable and less unequal world.

Important advances have often been accompanied

or completed by the adoption of measures emerging

from the Organization’s major conferences and

summits. By strengthening the treaty regime on human

rights, disarmament and the fight against terrorism, and

through the regimes established by the Security Council,

Member States have endowed themselves with the

means to reaffirm their faith in multilateralism, which

is the reason for the Organization’s existence, and in

the rule of law, which is the foundation of our collective

action. It is vital that we speed up the implementation

of the Programme of Action adopted in Istanbul in 2011

at the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least

Developed Countries.

The work that lies ahead for the President of the

General Assembly comes at a turning point in our

history. Under his leadership, the General Assembly

must not only speed up the implementation of the MDGs

but also prepare the post-2015 development agenda and

define the sustainable development goals in accordance

with this session’s theme “The post-2015 development

agenda: setting the stage”.

His valuable experience and unreserved dedication

to the Organization, and to sustainable development in

particular, will guide our deliberations. We are grateful

to have him, a son of Antigua and Barbuda, a small

island developing State, presiding over the upcoming

discussions, since we are confident that he is all too

familiar with the issues at stake.

He should also rest assured that Monaco’s

representative, in its capacity as Vice-President, is

ready to support him in his noble task.

Based on lessons learned from the MDGs, together

we will build an ambitious new development programme

capable of responding effectively to the demands of our

new reality. I have climate change in mind in particular.

Greenhouse-gas emissions continue to increase at the

global level, despite the fact that we have identified

climate change as one of the greatest dangers of our

era. The Secretary-General can count on my country’s

contribution to the upcoming summit on climate

change, which he intends to hold next September. His

willingness to bring together leaders from every sector

of society — civil society, the private sector, the world

of business and finance and, above all, young people,

all of them agents of change — is the only path of hope

for the radical transformation that is needed. There is

no alternative to defining a new programme and a new

paradigm.

At the current rate, if we do not change our

behaviour, we will need the equivalent of two planet

Earths to meet the needs of the world’s population,

which, as we know, will reach 9 billion in 2050 and

has always been concentrated in urban and coastal

zones, whose natural resources are particularly

vulnerable. That simple fact should prompt us to adopt

sustainable modes of production and consumption,

in accordance with the decisions taken at the United

Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. That

essential change of mindset presupposes that we place

human beings at the heart of the development issue. It is

no longer a question of agreeing on development plans

for agricultural, artisanal and industrial capacities. We

must consider that it is human societies and individuals

who deserve all of our attention. We must study

economic and environmental issues in the light of their

impact on the lives of people and communities. Taking

those needs into account means that we must reflect

further on how to ensure responsible development that

respects the environment and is truly sustainable.

The Assembly is aware of my personal commitment

to issues involving the oceans and seas. In accordance

with the Monaco Message on the acknowledged

importance of the oceans in “The future we want”

(resolution 66/288, annex), which was adopted in

November 2011, I am once again committing to

promoting the role of the oceans in the definition of

the post-2015 agenda and to reiterating my support for

a sustainable development goal focusing on the oceans.

Climate regulation, food and nutrition security, energy,

tourism, transport and international trade — all areas

directly or indirectly affected by the oceans — are

linked to the three pillars of sustainable development.

I think it is also essential to reaffirm how fundamental

the oceans are to the world and how serious are the

risks presented to them through the excessive human

activity that contributes to their acidification and the

acceleration of the drop in the resources they contain.

In that context, I would like to say how crucial I

believe it is that the international community address the

status of the high seas without delay, and how urgent it

is that protected marine areas be established, especially

in the polar regions. If the viability and sustainable

management of the oceans are to be achieved, only

an unswerving political willingness to form strong

partnerships that unite all the parties concerned will be

able to combat the effects of the overfishing, pollution

and acidification of the oceans and restore them to

health and productivity.

Strengthening cooperation and partnerships, as well

as deciding on concrete action, are also at the heart of

the preparations for the third International Conference

on Small Island Developing States, to which I want to

give my full support, along with a needed boost in the

solidarity that is essential to promoting sustainable

development.

The stakes are clear. Let us, who wish to reaffirm

the central place that the Organization occupies in

international governance, give it the means to assure

that leadership role by being ambitious and resolute

in our task. Let us remember the words of the novelist

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “Being a human being

means being responsible”.