Republic of the Congo, 2011

I am

honoured to take the floor from this rostrum on behalf

of the President of the Republic, His Excellency

Mr. Denis Sassou Nguesso.

This past week, in this place, we took part in

High-level Meetings that addressed the major concerns

at the very heart of the actions of the United Nations

and those of its Member States: non-communicable

disease; the situation in Libya; desertification, land

degradation and drought in the context of sustainable

development and the eradication of poverty; the

commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the

adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of

Action on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia

and Related Intolerance; nuclear safety; and terrorism.

Clearly, the conclusions that we reached at those

meetings reflect not only the political will and

commitment of Member States to provide collective

responses to those concerns, but also corroborate our

faith in multilateralism.

In unison we have welcomed the Republic of

South Sudan, and we congratulate them on concluding,

after many years of patience, the long and laborious

process of negotiation that brought us the 193rd State

Member of the United Nations. In joining the warm

words of welcome expressed by the delegations before

me, I wish to reiterate the Congo’s support for this

young brother country and to underscore the

commitment of my Government to develop close ties

of friendship and cooperation with it.

Since its creation, the United Nations has put a

great deal of effort into the noble endeavour of freeing

peoples still under the yoke of colonialism and

domination. The history of the United Nations is

intertwined with the emancipation of peoples. The time

has therefore come to do justice to the legitimate

aspirations of the Palestinian people. The Congo hopes

to see a sovereign Palestinian State emerge, master of

its own fate, in this great universal family, within

secure and guaranteed borders and living in peace

alongside the people of the State of Israel in a spirit of

good neighbourliness and cooperation.

With respect to the situation in Libya, particularly

as regards the consequences for the subregion, we

agree that the restoration of peace and security remains

a high priority. For this reason, I wish to express my

Government’s support for the United Nations Support

Mission in Libya.

In the quest for a peaceful solution to the Libyan

crisis, the Congo, together with other African States

members of the Ad Hoc High-level Committee of the

African Union, urges the authorities of the National

Transitional Council to meet their commitments,

particularly with respect to preserving national unity;

involving all Libyan stakeholders, without exception,

in rebuilding the country; protecting foreigners,

particularly African migrant workers; and opening an

inclusive political process for ending the crisis.

In our immediate neighbourhood, both the

Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroun will

hold major elections in several weeks. My delegation

would like to see that process take place smoothly, in

calm and peace, in order to help democracy take root

and to strengthen political stability.

The intolerable situation in the non-State of

Somalia and the ongoing civil war that has been under

way for 20 years, along with the unprecedented

humanitarian crisis, once again challenge the

international community. We encourage the

Transitional Federal Government to continue and

strengthen its efforts to achieve peace within the

framework of the Djibouti Agreement, with the

participation of all groups that wish to cooperate, and

to renounce armed violence. Here, I would like to

commend the actions of the African Union Mission to

Somalia, particularly for having made it possible to

secure Mogadishu.

We welcome the wave of international solidarity

for the Horn of Africa. In keeping with this

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momentum, the Congo has made a contribution for the

victims of the drought in Somalia.

The President has properly placed the role of

mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes at the

centre of the general debate. For the prevention and

resolution of conflicts, this is indeed a necessary tool

that has proven itself over the years and in all areas.

The experience of mediation in Africa since the

independence of the African States is replete with

lessons regarding the role of this mechanism in settling

the numerous internal crises or inter-State conflicts that

our countries have experienced. In the past, the

Organization of African Unity used meditation almost

systematically. Today, the African Union continues to

benefit from it. Furthermore, mediation is consistent

with the African culture and tradition of dialogue. It is

by drawing from the very source of this tradition that

the Congo was able to launch a productive internal

dialogue that enabled it to overcome the socio-political

turmoil of the 1990s.

The relevant provisions of the United Nations

Charter enshrine the obligation of Member States to

seek, in any dispute,

“a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation,

conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement,

resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or

other peaceful means of their own choice”.

These provisions offer a wide range of possibilities

from among which to select the means appropriate to

bring about a peaceful settlement.

Today more than ever, the quest for peace by

negotiation remains the only way to guarantee lasting

peace. The threat or use of force should be considered

only after having exhausted all possible political

solutions. The Security Council should therefore

strictly limit the conditions under which the use of

force is authorized so as to avoid any manipulation or

deterioration of a situation.

Similarly, the abuse of the international justice

system, which has become a political weapon targeting

Africa in particular, is a dangerous aberration that must

be corrected.

Beyond its main theme, the current session is

being held, as have preceding sessions, at a time in our

shared history when the United Nations is solidly

mobilized around its three main pillars of activity,

namely, international peace and security, economic

development and sustainable development, as well as

the related aspects of protecting the environment and

human rights. With respect to the range of challenges

old and new that the United Nations is expected to

meet, it will be viewed as effective and legitimate only

if it adapts to the new realities of our world.

United Nations reform is therefore urgent. It must

be based on the principles of democracy, justice and

equality. The position of the African Union on Security

Council reform is well known in this body. The

reforms will be contingent on the willingness of all

Member States to make the Organization an institution

that embodies modern values and that is open to the

future.

In order for the United Nations to effectively and

efficiently fulfil its key role in steering global affairs,

its Member States must carry out reforms, first to

restore the central role of the General Assembly as the

most representative deliberative body, and then to

foster the participation of more developing countries in

the decision-making process.

The global challenges identified by heads of State

and Government at the Millennium Summit, held in

September 2000, include sustainable development and

environmental protection. These issues have figured

prominently in international negotiations for many

years and influence the implementation of the two

United Nations framework conventions on the

environment.

The causes of climate change and their impact on

human life and the environment are well known.

Regardless of the explanations proffered,

environmental pollution is caused by human activity.

Consequently, we hope that the negotiations on a post-

Kyoto climate regime will conclude with the adoption,

at the seventeenth session of the Conference of the

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention

on Climate Change, to be held soon in Durban, of an

international instrument that could be opened for

signature at the Rio+20 Conference.

In Central Africa, the countries of the Congo

Forest Basin, for their part, have made a commitment

to sustainably manage their forests through

conservation, forest certification, combating illegal

logging, good forest governance, the gradual

streamlining of the logging industry and

implementation of the process to reduce emissions

11-51398 10

from deforestation and forest degradation in

developing countries. This effort, which should be

continued, has resulted in very low deforestation rates.

This is one of Central Africa’s major contributions to

global efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. The

international community should support and encourage

it.

On the initiative of the Republic of the Congo,

the first summit on the world’s three tropical forest

ecosystems was held in Brazzaville from 29 May to

3 June. That summit, which brought together the

countries of the Amazon, South-East Asia and Congo

Basins, resulted in the conclusion of a cooperation

agreement on these three tropical forest ecosystems

with the support of United Nations agencies and other

partners. The agreement is to be signed in Rio de

Janeiro on the sidelines of the World Summit on

Sustainable Development, to be held in June 2012. In

that regard, I wish to express the gratitude of the

Congolese Government to Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon for his personal support to this initiative.

As the Assembly is aware, the conservation and

sustainable management of forests requires substantial

human, material and financial resources, which forest

developing countries do not have. Those countries are

desperately awaiting the release of the “fast start”

funds that developed counties announced at

Copenhagen and the delivery of the innovative,

predictable and permanent sources of funding agreed at

Cancún, as well as technology transfer and capacity-

building.

In mentioning these climate and environmental

issues, I cannot but think of Mrs. Wangari Maathai,

who passed away yesterday. I pay tribute to the

memory of this first Nobel Prize-winning woman of

African politics, who the world will remember as an

avant-garde activist in the fight to protect the

environment. Her commitment to reforestation and

restoring biodiversity won her the recognition of the

countries of Central Africa, who designated her as a

Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Basin Forest. I

should like to take this opportunity to express my

deepest condolences to the Government and the people

of Kenya, as well as to the family of the deceased.

The events taking place in the Arab world are

replete with lessons, as were the enormous changes

that transformed the European landscape after the fall

of the Berlin Wall, in 1989. Everywhere, the hymn of

freedom and democracy has resounded. We know that

the overthrow of a political regime does not necessarily

bring freedom and democracy. They must be won and

nurtured by other victories that cannot be imposed

from without. The world has changed and we must face

the facts inherent in these new geopolitical challenges,

which have led to the emergence of new forces on the

international stage. Freedom of expression thrives here,

in the United Nations. Let democracy not stop on its

threshold. The United Nations must be the sanctuary of

those who are building the future. A safer, fairer and

more prosperous world for all will then emerge.