Statement by His Excellency the
President of the Republic of
Zimbabwe, Comrade Robert Gabriel
Mugabe during the general debate of
the 68th session of the United Nations
Generally Assembly, New York, on
September 26, 2013:
Your Excellency, the President of
the 68tb Session of the United
Nations General Assembly, Mr.
John William Ashe,
Your Majesties,
Your Excellences, Heads of State
and Government,
Your Excellency, the Secretary-
General of the United Nations, Mr.
Ban Ki-moon,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Comrades and Friends
Let me begin by extending warmest
congratulations to you Mr. John
William Ashe, on your election as
President of the 68tb Session of the
General Assembly. Your election to
this esteemed office is a befitting
tribute to the personal and diplomatic
qualities that you have exhibited over
the years.
Mr. President,
Throughout the world, peace and
development have remained the
dominant themes of our times.
People all over the world have been
raising their voices in favour of peace,
development and cooperation and
against war, poverty and
confrontation. Here at the UN we all
acknowledge that peace, security,
development and human rights are
the pillars of the UN system and the
cornerstones of our collective well-
being.
In this regard, the theme for this
Session - The Post-2015 Agenda :
Setting the Stage - is quite pertinent
and timely as it gives fresh impetus to
our undertaking that achieving the
internationally agreed Development
Goals, including the MDGs and
mapping the way forward beyond
2015, requires our collective efforts.
The UN, as the centre for international
cooperation, should lead in
promoting the envisaged
development.
Mr. President,
Thirteen years ago, our global efforts
were mobilised behind the
Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) and we now have less that
1,000 days to meet those targets. Our
review and stock taking exercise reveal
that while there have been some
significant achievements, there are still
gaps and unevenness in the
attainment of these goals. In the case
of Zimbabwe, we have made progress
towards achieving universal access to
primary education, combating HIV/
AIDS, malaria and TB.
Some of the goals, however, are, due
to lack of capacity, mainly financial, off
track and in some areas, progress has
stalled including in those areas
relating to the eradication of poverty
and hunger, child mortality, universal
access to maternal and reproductive
health, environmental sustainability
and access to potable water and
sanitation.
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As a country, we are committed to
undertake coordinated efforts to
accelerate progress to complete the
unfinished business of the MDGs in
the remaining period to 2015. Any
unachieved goals by then, should be
integrated into the post-2015
development agenda.
Mr. President,
Zimbabwe fully shares and supports
the emerging consensus that
eradicating poverty in all its
dimensions should be the
overarching goal of our post 2015
agenda. Eradicating poverty by 2030
may be an ambitious goal, but it is
attainable if we mobilise our collective
efforts. Building on the foundation of
the MDGs, the post 2015 agenda
should go beyond the social
development agenda of the MDGs and
achieve structural transformation in
our economies that delivers inclusive
and sustainable growth.
We expect a shift that will bring about
industrialisation, decent jobs and
qualitative change to the lives of our
citizens. We are determined to
modernise our infrastructure and
ensure access to sustainable energy
for all, food security and nutrition.
However, we recognise that we
cannot do this in isolation from other
partners.
In the same vein, we also support
calls to prioritise gender equality, the
health related MDGs, education and
environmental sustainability in the
post-2015 development agenda
among other issues. These are critical
issues in our quest to achieve
sustainable development for all our
people.
Mr. President,
The lofty objectives of the UN Charter
in the economic arena will remain
unfulfilled unless all Member States
join in efforts genuinely and seriously,
to address challenges that developing
countries face in their pursuit of
development including meeting the
MDGs.
It is therefore imperative that our
discussions address what has so far
been the weakest link – the means of
implementation. It must be
understood that in addition to
national efforts, substantial
international support and an enabling
international economic environment
are essential if the MDGs are to be
achieved by 2015 especially in Africa. It
is therefore important to fulfil the
commitments made to support Africa
in various international fora. The UN
should track the fulfilment of these
commitments.
Mr. President,
Zimbabwe supports the reform of the
UN to strengthen its central role in
promoting multilateralism and to be
effective in tackling current and future
global challenges. We are convinced
that the reform will strengthen the
organisation's capacity to fully
promote and implement the
principles and objectives of the UN
Charter and improve its democratic
decision making.
In this regard, the reforms in the
economic and social actions of the UN
remain of fundamental importance to
us. Our firm belief in multilateral
cooperation means that we place a
premium in the ability of the United
Nations system to deliver efficient
development co-operation.
The democratic transformation of the
architecture of the international
financial system is quintessential as is
a root-and-branch reform of the
international trading system. The
terms of trade have hugely burdened
developing countries for too long.
Mr. President,
Zimbabwe supports the ongoing
efforts to revitalize the General
Assembly which is the most
representative organ of the United
Nations. We believe that the General
Assembly should take the lead in
setting the global agenda and restore
its primacy that has over the years
been encroached upon by other
organs.
We cannot accept situations whereby
the UN Security Council is increasingly
encroaching on issues that
traditionally fall within the General
Assembly's purview and competence,
including in the area of norm setting.
Indeed, recent events have revealed
that its formal decisions have
provided camouflage to neo-
imperialist forces of aggression
seeking to militarily intervene in
smaller countries in order to effect
regime change and acquire complete
control of their wealth. This was so in
Libya where in the name of protecting
civilians, NATO forces were deployed
with an undeclared mission to
eliminate Muammar Gaddafi and his
family. A similar campaign had been
undertaken in Iraq by the Bush and
Blair forces in the false name of
eradicating weapons of mass
destruction which Saddam Hussein
never possessed.
We appreciate the central role that UN
should play in furthering
multilateralism in preference to
unilateralism. In this regard, we
applaud the consultations and
negotiations on the eventual
destruction of the chemical weapons
in Syria. My country expresses its
gratitude and appreciation to Russia
and China for their principled stand
on Syria. We hope and trust that the
Syrian people will soon sit in dialogue
to discuss peace and desirable
political reforms. Those western
countries in pursuit of hegemony as
they pretend to be advocates of
democracy must be resisted.
Mr. President,
For Africa, the reform of the United
Nations Security Council is especially
long overdue. The anachronistic and
unrepresentative character of the
Security Council must be redressed.
For how long should Africa continue
to be denied the right to play a pivotal
role in the United Nations Security
Council as it decides measures on
conflicts within its own borders?
The Security Council needs to be more
representative, democratic,
transparent, accountable and
accessible to the wider membership
for its decisions to have more
legitimacy. Africa's case for the
correction of the glaring historical
injustice of being unrepresented in the
permanent category and under-
represented in the non-permanent
category has been made through the
clear, fair and well-articulated Ezulwini
Consensus. Zimbabwe remains
steadfast in its support of the Ezulwini
demand.
Mr. President,
Zimbabwe strongly condemns the use
of unilateral economic sanctions as a
foreign policy tool to effect regime
change. Thus, the illegal economic
sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by
the United States and the European
Union violate fundamental principles
of the United Nations Charter on state
sovereignty and non-interference in
the domestic affairs of a sovereign
state.
Moreover, these illegal sanctions
continue to inflict economic
deprivation and human suffering on
all Zimbabweans. In the eyes of our
people, the sanctions constitute a
form of hostility and violence against
them for the simple crime of
undertaking the land reform
programme by which land was put in
the hands of the then majority
landless Zimbabweans.
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