YouSaid · the spoken record

René Garcia Préval

lines on the record: 40
first: 2007-09-24
most recent: 2010-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
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

“I would be remiss if I were not to convey, on behalf of the Haitian people, our condolences to the many peoples who have suffered lately from natural disasters in Chile, China, Pakistan, Guatemala and Mexico. I shall conclude by referring to the presidential and legislative elections that will mark the end of my term and the end of a particularly difficult year for the people of Haiti. It is important that that difficult process be conducted with rigour, fairness and transparency, so as to consolidate our young democracy. Therefore I appeal to all national actors and our international friends, so that together we can make our way through that electoral crossroads successfully.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In that sense, South-South cooperation affords new promise, and I invite the leaders of the countries of the South to strengthen those channels for the well-being of our respective peoples. Some of the statements I have heard in this session of the General Assembly seem to presage a new and different consciousness, which may be what is required for our vision of a new humanity. Still, as always, we must be mindful to that commitments and action match the expansive rhetoric. This is the moment for Haiti to renew its call for the lifting of the embargo against Cuba. Besides having been condemned in many Assembly resolutions, an embargo of this kind is absolutely contrary to the values we advocate in matters of international commerce.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“The so-called war against drugs consists of a few little skirmishes in the consumer countries but full- scale bloody battles in the production and transit countries, whose very existence is sometimes jeopardized. Are the countries of the South still to be pilloried as responsible for the production and transit of illegal drugs even though the engine for this lucrative trafficking is demand for drugs in countries of the North? What shall I say about the arms trafficking, which flows from the North to the South and supports the drug trafficking? It is for us to provide the answer to those questions, and we cannot sidestep them much longer without rushing to our common doom. The only hope lies in a renewed humanism, clear-sighted, embracing of all life and the environment, on which we are dependent and for which we are responsible.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“The global village will not be able to maintain forever its fashionable neighbourhoods side by side with wretched slums where humanity is dissolving: a socio- economic North and South — not a geographic one. In Haiti, living on an island in a part of the world that has always been swept by hurricanes, we are particularly worried about global warming and the climatic disturbances that come with it: more frequent and more devastating cyclones and a rising sea-level. Must the poor continue to pay for the waste, the unbridled appetite for energy of their wealthier brethren? Must they renounce their efforts to improve their standard of living in order to feed the consumer frenzy of the industrialized countries?”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In truth, the globalization that began centuries ago, with the colonization and the importation of African captives to work as slaves on sugar-cane and coffee plantations, whose products would then be exported to the West or the North, needs to be reinvented. The time has come for us to invent a new kind of globalization, one that is based on the simple concept of our common humanity, on trust, cooperation and mutual respect, on respect for our environment and all forms of life in it. We must, as a matter of urgency, do away with a vision that sees profit as a veritable god, reduces citizens to the level of simple consumers, and regards planet Earth as a colony that we can destroy.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“What shall I say about the defence budgets which every year exceed by far what would be needed to attain the Millennium Development Goals? And what shall I say about the incalculable wealth that has simply evaporated in speculation, in the arrogant supremacy of the virtual economy over the real economy? 11 10-54965 Are we going to continue sacrificing the well- being and lives of millions of human beings, the future of planet Earth, to this culture of fear and greed? What shall I say about the fact that official development assistance continues to fall, when in 2005 the developed countries committed to doubling the amount by 2010? What happened to the decision to encourage a more open trading system, when assistance to farmers in developed countries is over three times the amount of official development assistance?”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“And that vision also had the advantage of providing countries and their partners in the international community with a clear, straightforward structure for planning development and organizing cooperation with the countries that were committed to help achieve the Goals. While significant progress has been made in the right direction, five years from 2015 there is still a long road to travel because the developed countries have not fully lived up to the commitments made with respect to the Millennium Development Goals, particularly their financial commitments. What shall I say about the trillions of dollars that have been swallowed up over the last 10 years in wars that have been as bloody as they were unjustified?”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“We have just held an important high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Ten years ago, when 189 countries met here to make the collective commitment to achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015, the international community was actually in agreement on what the world should look like in 2015 — a world well on the way to reducing extreme poverty, where children and mothers would not have to die because of lack of health care, where all children would be able to go to school, where millions of people would no longer die of hunger every year, where women would be able to fulfil their potential in a society without any gender-based discrimination. That vision was the right one, because it placed human dignity at the very heart of all development programmes and the international cooperation agenda.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Since then, with the assistance of the international community and support from the United Nations, we have set up a commission to coordinate resources for rebuilding. This commission is an important strategic mechanism for helping the country manage transparently and with discipline the resources mobilized within the international community to support our country as it rebuilds. The commission has already adopted over 30 projects, on education, health, infrastructure and so forth, costing over $1 billion. May I extend my thanks to those countries and agencies that have followed up on their commitments to make financial contributions. I trust that a similar effort will be made by others as well so as to help us respond quickly to the over one million Haitians who are still living in tent cities and temporary shelter.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Our nation was born in 1804 and, although poor and since then deprived of resources, it has never hesitated to extend material support to peoples struggling for freedom, including in greater Colombia, which is today Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama, under the leadership of Francisco Miranda and then Simón Bolívar. Despite our limited resources, Haiti has always demonstrated its firm belief in one human race. And therefore we fully appreciate that immense movement of solidarity and compassion of the international community for our country, from the moments immediately after the earthquake right up to the commitment on 31 March at the New York conference by which it agreed to participate in rebuilding Haiti on the basis of the plan of action prepared by the Haitian Government.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Those are the words that come to mind and I think that is how we must describe the acts of heroism of the Haitian people. Let us show our respect for them. My country has lived a unique history since its birth immediately after a war of independence that took the lives of one third of its people and caused unimaginable destruction. And in the wake of the American and French revolutions of the eighteenth century, that war of independence challenged the human race to recognize the universal character of the proclamation of humankind’s right to freedom, dignity and equality by making the men and women of Haiti free.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Allow me to also thank those Haitians living abroad, in New York, Miami, Chicago, Montreal, Paris, Santo Domingo, the French West Indies and many other parts of the world, who joined the great international solidarity movement and, in their commitment, endeavoured for the most part to establish structures that would help our country rebuild. I would be remiss were I not to pay special tribute here, publicly, to the people of Haiti 10-54965 10 themselves, a people who have been deprived of everything and yet who have demonstrated the immeasurable wealth of their humanity. Towns that had been destroyed did not become the scenes of widespread looting. The people showed such dignity and kindness, such exemplary stamina in their suffering, such boldness, devotion and courage, such solidarity, spirit of self-sacrifice and love for others.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“My first words will be to pay tribute to the memory of hundreds of thousands of Haitians and those who came to help — including about 100 United Nations staff, in particular Mr. Hédi Annabi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General — who all lost their lives during the earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January. But every tragedy offers some solace in terms of human solidarity. Therefore once again on behalf of the Haitian people and on my personal behalf I would like to thank all the people and Governments across the world, ranging from the Dominican Republic, our closely attached neighbour, to those at the far corners of the globe, that rushed to our assistance. That assistance was crucially important to us, in particular during the first few weeks when the need was so urgent.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“The world that is being remoulded around us is a world in which wealth and poverty can no longer be confined within closed spaces, separated by impassable borders. Climate change has no borders. Viruses and diseases are elusive undocumented visitors. The hunger of the poor is a threat and will continue to threaten the happiness of the rich. The question that we have to collectively ask ourselves today is this: will we perish together because we were not able to take up our mission together with courage, or will we agree to mobilize for a new plan for humanity under a new form of governance, one that is responsible and based on solidarity, in order to save our beautiful planet, and to give our children the opportunity to build a better world?”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“We do not need that in these difficult and uncertain days, when our planet is being put to a severe test by a combination of crises of all kinds, multidimensional crises whose solution will depend on our collective capacity to deal with them effectively, equitably and with solidarity. The announced high-level dialogue on the democratization of the United Nations, if approached with courage and determination, will put us on the road to changing its structures and its way of functioning. Such reforms can only be a source of inspiration and a model for small countries, stricken like us by long- standing difficulties, for ending institutional fragility and arriving at political stability and a fully functioning rule of law. This Assembly is among those to whom fate has entrusted the destiny of our planet.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The Organization remains the privileged place for debating the problems of our world and for allowing the voices of the poor and of those left behind to be heard. We cannot allow its work to be hindered by its inability to take into account the voice of the majority. We cannot allow its agencies to exist only for themselves, relegating to second place their primary mission of service. I agree with the President that our Organization needs profound reform so that it becomes more effective, more transparent and genuinely democratic. If it fails to accomplish this, the United Nations risks being resented by the small and derided by the big.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“I have begun discussions with some of our partners to move quickly to a thorough evaluation of new needs created by the damage to our infrastructure with a view to developing a comprehensive reconstruction plan, which will serve as the conductor for cooperation efforts with our country. Last Tuesday, on the occasion of the opening of the general debate of the sixty-third session of the General Assembly (5th meeting), I listened very carefully to the opening statement of the President. The creation of the United Nations was an important conquest in the history of mankind’s struggle to find a remedy for poverty and to build a world of peace based on equality and respect for everyone’s rights.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The day when development aid aligns itself with these criteria, the fight against poverty and hunger will really turn a corner in this world of ours. We will then see that the poor are not as poor as all that. We will see that they have available to them assets that political parties, institutions and cooperation programmes are not sufficiently making use of. We all realize that the lands and the unregistered houses the 5 08-52272 poor possess and the informal businesses they are involved in are also capital that can legitimately circulate in the economy and participate in the creation of new wealth. This system simply has to be formalized. And we have to give property title to those who own those lands and those houses. We also have to formalize this trade.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“We are simple workers who have been moulded by hard labour and blessed with a keen sense for commerce and creating businesses. If the international community wants to do something useful with Haitians, that would be to help us use our potential. The liberalization of trade can be beneficial to humanity, particularly to the poor, who have the ability to produce for a greater market. But this liberalization must be done without hypocrisy or duping anyone. It must be carried out on the basis of clear, transparent rules that are the same for everyone, and the powers that promote them must begin by respecting those rules themselves. Setting up and maintaining genuine productive capacities and trading under fair conditions are the initial conditions that would enable poor people to escape from the chains of poverty.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“We must rebuild its production capacity and social fabric and give our young people a new dream, the poor new hope, and our citizens of all political leanings and all social strata new confidence. We need a reconstruction project thought out in a systematic approach and able to count on genuine solidarity to mobilize the necessary resources for its implementation. That is why we are sceptical with regard to imported food aid and the traditional way in which it is carried out. We have to break this paradigm of charity in our approach to international cooperation, for charity has never helped any country to emerge from underdevelopment. The Native Americans that lived in our country and the Africans that replaced them helped a large part of humanity to amass its current wealth.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“While I salute that huge wave of generosity towards my country and am grateful for that solidarity, recognizing it was necessary for the immediate needs of those affected, I cannot fail to draw attention to the concerns that it raises for Haitians. I am worried because I know how deep-rooted our problems are. I am concerned because I am apprehensive about the time when that solidarity, exhausted in the first wave of humanitarian compassion, will leave us, as always, alone — really alone — in the face of new disasters, to see as if in a ritual, the same mobilization exercises. I am concerned because the Haitians risk finding themselves alone in ensuring the only real task that needs undertaking today: that of rebuilding the country.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“However, beyond those calamities that we could, quite easily, attribute to nature, how can we ignore other disasters for which we humans are directly responsible through war and the destruction that we bring about with such determination in various areas of the world? To all citizens of those countries affected by the violence of men and by natural disasters, to their families and their representatives here at this Assembly, on behalf of the Haitian people I address my best wishes for courage in their reconstruction efforts and in their quest for peace and happiness. And I can assure them of our feeling of solidarity and fraternity in that effort.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Despite the suffering that the Haitian people are enduring today because of the cumulative effect of the disasters that befell them, I cannot help turning my thoughts to our neighbours, countries such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, our brother nations in the Caribbean Community and even some States on the southern coast of the United States that have also suffered considerable damage as a result of those first hurricanes of the season — and I stress, the first hurricanes of the season. How can we not remember either the sight of the disasters that have struck India, Bangladesh and other regions of the Asian continent?”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“How can I thank the many friendly countries that so quickly mobilized their own resources and logistics 08-52272 4 to come to the aid of the Haitians? How can we express our gratitude in the light of those expressions of compassion and the numerous initiatives of solidarity coming from civil society and the private sector in those same friendly countries? Just as dark clouds have a silver lining, how could I not recall that huge solidarity movement from within even our country, involving civil society and non-governmental organizations, not to forget, of course, the millions of Haitians living abroad, in an unprecedented mobilization, all striving to work together in synergy with the local authorities and specialized agencies of the central Government.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Those hurricanes sorely test our capacity to resist, particularly when it must be borne in mind that all those victims, and their families, and all those businesses, large or small, have to fend for themselves while they wait for the State, and the State alone, to help them to get back on their feet or return to business. There are no adequate market insurance systems to compensate for the losses arising from that enormous damage. I cannot thank the Secretary-General enough for the great outpouring of sympathy that the United Nations system has shown towards the people of Haiti following those disasters. I can hardly express sufficient thanks for the mobilization organized by the United Nations agencies on the ground to bring help to the most vulnerable and assist the affected families to tackle the most urgent problems.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“I am pointing out that those catastrophic events occurred just four months after the first angry demonstrations of the population against the explosion in food prices, reactions that would be repeated on an almost global scale, as though to express a collective cry of the poor regarding what was happening beyond just a global food crisis, as the rejection of an order for which the poor had too long been the only ones to pay the cost. The damage caused four consecutive hurricanes in less than two months has set Haiti back several years.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Just one year ago (see A/62/PV.6), I recalled before this Assembly that I was bringing the words of a people who for 200 years have experienced extreme suffering as a result of all kinds of material privation and complete vulnerability in the face of natural risks and disasters. At that time, I hardly thought that I would find myself here again one year later against the backdrop of the image of hundreds of children, women and the elderly swept away by floodwaters, hundreds of thousands of citizens suddenly finding themselves without shelter, tens of thousands of tons of agricultural harvest destroyed in a few hours, not to mention the incalculable damage to basic infrastructure such as communication networks, art works, irrigation systems, the electricity grid, the water system and other structures.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“It is an approach in which development assistance and the fight against insecurity are supported by the efforts of more developed countries to open up their markets, to encourage flows of foreign direct investment and technology transfers and to support the private sector and entrepreneurial initiatives: a comprehensive approach in which rich and poor understand that they are co-owners of this planet and that its fate is in all our hands.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“But we cannot deal with this scourge alone, and our efforts to improve the monitoring of our land, sea and air borders and strengthen our institutions come up against the power of the networks put in place by the traffickers. The solutions developed to deal with these problems will clearly yield no results if we do not urgently address the issue of economic development, because, as has been eloquently stated in reports of the Secretary-General, development is another name for peace. It follows from that observation that we need a new culture of international solidarity based on a comprehensive and coordinated approach in which the fight against poverty goes hand in hand with sustainable development.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“However, trafficking also has harmful effects on the economic, social and political structures of small States such as mine and poses a serious threat to their sovereignty and security, even if they are only transit States. The approach that has emerged from various international conferences focuses on prevention and demand-reduction in consumer countries first and then to reduce supply in producing countries and suppress trafficking networks. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are on the trade route of one of the most intense flows between the producer countries of South America and the consumer countries of North America. We are firmly committed to helping the countries of the North eliminate the drugs that arrive in their countries by way of our territory as a place of transit.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We have begun to work to strengthen State structures and to plan legal and regulatory reforms to be established to ensure that that endemic evil disappears from our institutional practices, both in politics and in business. But the fight against drug trafficking is of another scale entirely, because it sets us squarely against sophisticated and well-organized adversaries who have access to powerful international networks in both drug- producing and drug-consuming countries. We are sensitive to the human suffering and social upheaval attributable to drug abuse, and we are aware of the efforts being made to treat and rehabilitate addicts, primarily in the major drug-consuming countries.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Mobilizing resources to support the pursuit of the MDGs is a difficult but essential task. It is not only necessary for ethical reasons or because the international community must honour its commitments. Problems that cannot be resolved in a poor State will spill over to richer States, which will thus be forced to revisit problems that they had already overcome by themselves at the national level. The General Assembly has included in the agenda for the present session an item relating to cooperation in combating the activities of transnational organized crime. In that connection, I should like to highlight my country’s efforts to fight against corruption and illicit drug trafficking. In Haiti, we are currently developing ways to deal with corruption.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“It is now up to Haitians to benefit from this period of calm by pulling themselves together, reconsidering their fate with a positive vision of the future and returning to daily life as a disciplined, hardworking and law-abiding people while our State strengthens its internal cohesion, modernizes its judicial system and improves its governance and its capacity to intervene, so that it can create and maintain an environment conducive to economic recovery and genuine sustainable development. The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was an act of awareness. Nevertheless, halfway towards the deadline set for achievement of the Goals, it seems clear that many of us including my country will not meet the 2015 targets, despite the considerable progress made in various areas.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Let me take this opportunity to express once again our thanks to the Organization, to the Security Council and to the friendly countries that mobilized their own resources and citizens to come to the assistance of Haitians at this difficult time in their history. Haitians, recalling that they belong to a people who fought for their freedom and carried the torch of liberty to many other shores of the continent, continue to see the presence of foreign armed forces on their soil as a wound to their national sovereignty. Practically speaking, however, that is the only realistic formula currently available that is enabling Haitians to regain freedom and live in peace.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The Security Council will soon extend the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) for another year. Such an extension would be most appropriate. This reminds us that our victory over insecurity, the holding of democratic elections, the improvement of governance in the country and the strengthening of our judicial system were possible thanks in large part to the efforts of United Nations forces within the framework of the Organization’s peacekeeping programme. Certainly, the members of our national police, although young, inexperienced and underequipped, have proved to be courageous and determined in the fight against insecurity, but MINUSTAH’s support at their side has been greatly appreciated.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The organized armed gangs responsible for violence against innocent people have been dismantled and there is no longer any forbidden zone for peaceful citizens anywhere on our territory. The management of our economy has improved considerably. We have stopped printing money. That has reduced the inflation rate which had run rampant for several years and which just a few months ago reached 40 per cent to less than 10 per cent. Our gross domestic product has seen moderate but sustained growth, after having been negative for more than 10 years. We have worked patiently to establish an atmosphere of calm and collegiality within the political class, which is a condition essential for enabling the political forces to put an end to their perpetual factional disputes and to mobilize around genuine national reconstruction plans.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“I speak on behalf of a State whose neighbours, including the most powerful among them, sometimes portray it as a threat to regional security because Haiti appears too frequently on the agenda of the General Assembly or the Security Council, with a burdensome array of problems of insecurity or political unrest. I speak on behalf of a country that analyses somewhat prematurely describe as a failed State because it has trouble making its institutions operational and organizing a way of life appropriate to the majority of its citizens, and because the State itself, unfortunately, often finds itself waging an endless war against its own children. Haiti is on the way to bidding farewell to that State slowly, patiently, yet resolutely.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“I am speaking here on behalf of a people that has endured great suffering over the past 200 years: material deprivation of all sorts, vulnerability to natural threats and disasters, poor access to health care and education, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children from malnutrition, and a very young population 65 per cent below the age of 25 denied any true opportunity for employment. I speak on behalf of a people that seems to be depopulating itself as its most competent professionals forsake a life of difficulties to the benefit of other countries or businesses, and as its children, women and senior citizens, weary of living what seems to be a hopeless existence, take to the open seas on makeshift boats, seeking a better life under other skies.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We are firmly convinced that the new Secretary-General will rapidly bring to bear his experience of the United Nations system, his vast learning and his broad open- mindedness in carrying out the reforms that most Members of our Organization know to be necessary. Despite its difficulties, our Organization remains the principal forum offering all States, large and small, the same space for dialogue to address the fundamental issues surrounding our coexistence and future on this planet. May the Secretary-General be assured of the support of the Haitians in his efforts to increase the effectiveness of the United Nations and to enable it to achieve its full potential.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Allow me at the outset to congratulate Mr. Kerim on his assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty- second session. There is no doubt that his deep familiarity with the academic world, tied to his experience in the political world and in business, is a major asset that will help him to lead us confidently in the Assembly’s work. I sincerely hope that our debates will be fruitful and lead to the adoption of relevant resolutions. Allow me also to welcome our new Secretary- General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who recently honoured us with his first visit to Haiti in August.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)