YouSaid · the spoken record

Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi

lines on the record: 119
first: 2015-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 6
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We are witnessing an alarming rise in instability, insecurity and violent conflicts which are causing untold devastation and human suffering. The unremitting loss of innocent lives and the escalation in humanitarian crises have reached tragic levels, making it imperative for the international community to take urgent and decisive action. We take this opportunity to commend all humanitarian and human rights organizations for the good work they do on behalf of humankind. The growing involvement of non-State actors and radical extremists in most conflict situations is deeply troubling. The activities of such entities introduce additional layers of difficulty to the processes for the management and resolution of conflicts.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“If anything should be mandatory, it should be that approach. In summary, the more refugees a country takes, the bigger its reward or support and the lower its contribution to the fund. We welcome the Secretary-General’s initiative to convene the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit next year. It should not only enhance existing and new efforts to address the issue of migration, but should also ensure comprehensive, coherent and cohesive approaches for responding to the critically urgent issue of the global humanitarian architecture. Botswana remains gravely concerned about the serious threats to international peace and security in many parts of the world, which arguably present the greatest challenge to human development.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Nor should Europe be blamed for the tragic drownings at sea, which are the fault of migrants’ countries of origin. Botswana believes that the issue of migration warrants the urgent attention of the international community, with a view to developing a comprehensive 15-29664 3/25 A/70/PV.23 01/10/2015 and lasting solution. The imposition of quotas to make it mandatory for countries to accept migrants or refugees is not the best solution. Instead, consideration should be given to rewarding and supporting the countries that accept migrants or refugees by setting up a special fund under the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Europe, or preferably the entire international community, should contribute annually to such a fund, based on an assessment of each country’s economic status and whether it is hosting refugees.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The flow of international migrants has continued to grow exponentially since the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, which was held in New York in October 2013. Conflict, political instability and poverty are the main push factors for migration from developing to developed countries, as evidenced by the thousands who continue to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in search of economic opportunities. The grave conditions to which migrants are exposed, along with the unprecedented levels of humanitarian crises to which their movements contribute, are cause for great concern. It is wrong to blame any single European country for its immigration policy, since each country has to assess its own ability to accommodate such influxes.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Discussions have commenced in various United Nations platforms on how the Organization should transform itself to be better structured and better equipped to effectively and efficiently carry out its mandate and better serve the best interests of its Member States. Botswana believes that chief among the scores of considerations should be the coordination between and among the different United Nations agencies for stronger system-wide coherence that extends to improved cooperation with regional and subregional organizations. That, we believe, would go a long way towards enhancing international efforts to address the myriad challenges to development and to durable peace and security. We cannot speak about development or about peace and security without considering the increasingly disturbing phenomenon of migration.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The scale of the required assistance goes well beyond the obvious need for infrastructure development, strengthening of institutions, access to technology, skills development and the development of social protection floors, inter alia. It is critically important to extend financing for development in order to address the specific needs and challenges of individual middle-income countries instead of employing a one-size-fits-all policy framework. Failure in that regard would be detrimental to the development trajectory of middle-income countries, with a real possibility that they could relapse to least developed country status.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In November 2014, the landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) met in Vienna to adopt the Vienna Programme of Action on Landlocked Developing Countries, which identifies six priority areas, including infrastructure development and maintenance, international trade and trade facilitation, regional integration and cooperation, and structural economic transformation. Botswana, like other LLDCs, will require a substantial augmentation of its capacity to implement any of those areas. That also holds true for middle-income countries, a category to which Botswana belongs. Figures show that 75 per cent of the world’s poorest populations live in middle-income countries. The clarion call is therefore to explore the mechanisms by which such countries can be assisted in order to address entrenched and widespread poverty.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Developing countries are the hardest hit, because they have limited capacities to respond to such effects and therefore require substantial assistance in developing climate-smart technology in order to reduce their vulnerability and to transition to low-carbon growth paths. In the pursuit of global development that leaves no one behind, the Botswana delegation believes that particular focus should be given to countries in special situations and to the specific support they require to build their economies.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Climate change, if left unchecked, is arguably the greatest environmental challenge the world is facing, with potentially catastrophic consequences for our planet and future generations. We continue to witness a dangerous rise in sea levels, melting glaciers, a severe decline in agricultural output, changing weather patterns and health challenges caused by the changing climate conditions. Climate change also presents a serious security threat, for it displaces millions of people and condemns an even greater number to sub-par living conditions. We extend our condolences to all those who have lost loved ones or who have experienced the destruction of property caused by natural disasters.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“We look forward to the effective implementation of the integrated and indivisible 17 Goals and 169 targets arrived at through an all-inclusive intergovernmental process, as mandated by the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2/25 15-29664 01/10/2015 A/70/PV.23 in 2012. The Botswana Government embarks on this new course with increased optimism that we shall indeed realize the future that we all want. In December, the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will convene in Paris to adopt a universal, legally binding agreement on climate change. The importance and urgency of this cannot be overemphasized.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“As dusk descends on the MDGs, the Government of Botswana has enthusiastically begun to prepare for the dawn of the new global development framework. Botswana therefore welcomes the highly anticipated adoption of the profoundly ambitious and transformative Sustainable Development Goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1). which represent the culmination of more than two years of exceptionally intensive, broad and exhaustive negotiations. The Agenda represents a global vision for the sustained prosperity of humankind and the living planet, in which universal peace and security form the foundation for sustainable development across all nations.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Poverty eradication, gender equality, the empowerment of women, girls and youth, job creation and equal access to health and other social services remain high on our national agenda. However, we march on with steadfast determination to ensure that every opportunity is seized, every effort is galvanized and every resource is employed to ensure the inherent dignity and fundamental freedoms of all the citizens of Botswana. That includes paying due attention to the needs of the aged and to people with disabilities. In that regard, the Botswana Government is currently in the final stages of developing the country’s National Vision 2030 and National Development Plan 11 in order to ensure firm alignment and complementarity between national aspirations and the building blocks to deliver them.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Social exclusions and inequalities still present a significant challenge in most countries, with women and girls and the youth bearing the heaviest weight of those circumstances. The situation varies from one nation to another owing to their different national realities and capacities, requiring more focused and targeted interventions to effectively address the issues and ensure the sustainability of the developments achieved. In Botswana, we are proud of the tremendous strides we have made in the implementation of the MDGs, particularly given the enormous resource and capacity constraints we faced, and continue to face, as we implement our development programmes and prepare to domesticate the new agenda.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“For the first time, there was a clearly codified global agenda focusing nations around the world on priority areas for meeting the needs of the world’s poorest people and liberating them from the dehumanizing conditions of abject poverty. The Secretary-General’s final report on the MDGs, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015, shows that significant progress has been made in realizing those Goals. Those notable achievements notwithstanding, the sombre truth is that progress has largely been uneven across and within countries and regions. We continue to see multitudes — especially the poorest, vulnerable and marginalized in our societies — subjected to unacceptable living conditions.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The President’s choice of a theme for this year’s general debate, “The United Nations at 70 — a new commitment to action”, is therefore fitting, because it provides a pertinent context for our deliberation and reflection at this critical juncture in our lifetimes. Fifteen years ago, at the Millennium Summit of 2000, the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2), which, inter alia, espoused the need for a people-centred framework for global development. That framework gave birth to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were a landmark set of eight time-bound Goals aimed at addressing extreme poverty and social inequalities.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The significance of this year impels us to pause and recall the purpose, ideals and founding principles upon which the United Nations was established. It is imperative that we reflect on the history of this eminent Organization and that we take account of what we, the international community, have achieved and can still achieve to safeguard the aspirations and integrity of the founders of the United Nations and to uphold the absolute primacy and veracity of the Charter. Furthermore, this year offers an opportunity for us to admit our failures and to draw attention to the areas where we have fallen short of fulfilling our individual and collective responsibility to deliver on all three anchors of human development: peace and security, development, and human rights.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Ban Ki-moon, whose passion and dedication have been, and continue to be, instrumental to the work of the Organization. The year 2015 marks an extraordinarily momentous year in the history of humankind. It is not only the seventieth anniversary of the birth of the United Nations but also the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the twentieth anniversary of the World Summit on Social Development, the twentieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the fifteenth anniversary of the Millennium Summit, to mention but a few. That list of the global milestones is by no means exhaustive, but it demonstrates the resolute and enduring commitment of the United Nations to championing the cause of humankind.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Sam Kahamba Kutesa, whose leadership and purposeful endeavours as President of the Assembly at its sixty-ninth session were significantly evident in international efforts to address the global challenges confronting the world today. The high-level events he convened in that regard demonstrated his genuine commitment to sustainable development, to peace and security and to human rights and human dignity. We are confident that the President’s efforts will further and firmly guide the general membership of the Organization onto a path that ensures the full and effective implementation of the historic post-2015 development agenda that world leaders adopted only a few short days ago. I would be remiss not to seize this opportunity also to commend the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“On behalf of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Botswana, Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, allow me at the very outset to join other delegations in extending our heartiest congratulations to Mr. Mogens Lykketoft on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventieth session. His election bears witness to the excellent credentials he brings to the office, which should greatly support the execution of his mandate during this historic year on the United Nations calendar. We wish to assure him of Botswana’s unequivocal support throughout his term of office. My delegation and I also wish to take this opportunity to recognize, with appreciation, his predecessor, His Excellency Mr.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)