Acceptance Speech

I also feel that this election is a great recognition of the Central African countries, which endorsed Cameroon very early on at the Summit of the Economic Community of Central African States, held in Kintele, the Republic of the Congo, on 19 January 2022.

In addition, and as underlined in my letter of intent and commitment, my present election is also a great honour for my country, Cameroon, a ward of the United Nations, and for the maturity of its diplomacy of presence and active participation on the international scene.

Moreover, this election is, without a doubt, a great tribute to President Paul Biya, whose wisdom and pertinence of views are regularly expressed from the rostrum of our Assembly.

Finally, I also feel that this election is an honour, but above all an obligation for me to humbly and honestly serve the entire international community throughout my term of office.

To all of you, I am infinitely grateful.

We are living in very difficult times, marked by very striking contrasts. Indeed, the prodigious development of science and technology has placed in our hands an impressive body of knowledge and know-how to provide solutions to the needs of present and future generations, in terms of peace, security and economic, social and cultural well-being for each and all.

In this fast-moving digital era, artificial intelligence is now magnifying not just the opportunities, but also the challenges, so quickly, to the point that even the most convinced followers of digitalization are calling for rigorous regulation in order to prevent our fate from being entrusted to the hands of robots, based on assessments by which the slightest error is likely to ruin us.

Despite all this improvement, these possibilities and these potentialities, our era is characterized, unfortunately, by blatant inequalities, selfishness, competition for power and diverse interests, alongside powerful centrifugal forces, which threaten the cohesion and solidarity of humanity.

Geopolitical and geostrategic tensions continue to fuel distrust among States and are intensifying an unstoppable arms race, including in space. An exponential increase in military budgets, the sophistication of military doctrines and rules of engagement on the ground, including the possibility or threat of the use of nuclear weapons, are the frightening realities of the world in which we live today.

Open or latent conflicts are increasing in various regions of the world, with their accompanying suffering and unbearable toll on civilians, refugees and internally displaced populations, whose numbers are currently reaching a dizzying peak. The cases of Gaza and Ukraine are very painfully illustrative in this regard.

Climate disruption, a real question of survival, due to human activity or the vagaries of nature itself, leads to disasters in terms of floods, landslides, hurricanes and fires, just to mention these few challenges facing many countries in almost all regions of the world.

In such a context, countries in special situations, such as the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing States, middle-income countries, African countries and countries in conflict, are the hardest hit. This is why the projects and specific programmes that the Assembly has dedicated to them must be the subject of careful and priority monitoring and implementation measures.

The reforms undertaken so far in order to respond to the realities of our time – whether they concern the revitalization of the General Assembly, the strengthening of the Economic and Social Council or the reform of the Security Council or the international financial architecture – are often blocked or moving forward slowly, well below the expected results.

Those reforms, which have resulted in an appreciable global consensus, including on the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and on which so much hope had been placed, are limping dangerously, due to a lack of resources for implementation, especially when it comes to finance or technology. Action and the political will to move forward are timidly on rendezvous, if not absent in many cases.

In short, the tools at our disposal to promote the well-being of present and future generations are underutilized, while those oriented towards war are overexploited, in a divided world where diverse forces are in a dynamic state of confrontation.

We must therefore increase efforts and stimulate political will, so that we may act more energetically to change this situation.

Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary-General,
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

For all these reasons, the theme of my mandate will be “Unity in diversity, for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for everyone, everywhere”. In other words, freedom from fear and want are prerequisites and catalysing factors for the full enjoyment of human rights and, ultimately, of human dignity.

I have also stressed that the General Assembly is the most appropriate forum where Member States, in all their diversity, are called upon to express concerns, proposals and opportunities in complete freedom and serenity; in other words, the challenges and hopes of the different peoples and nations of the world. In this respect, the Assembly is the highest and most representative deliberative body, where States must debate, not fight. In short, to use an African image, it is a great drum that gives voice to peoples and nations.

But the Assembly is also the most appropriate place, the great baobab tree under which nations large and small, rich and poor, harmonize their views towards common ends and actively seek a consensus, with an average of shared views representing the median. This enables everyone to give and receive, thereby consolidating coexistence and the shared enjoyment of the dividends of peace, development and human dignity.

We must be constantly guided by this momentum as we formulate the Pact for the Future currently under negotiation, the Declaration on Future Generations and the global digital compact.

Over and above deliberations and consensus, what we have to strive for is decisive action by providing the ways and means to implement the solutions that we arrive at.

In this respect, I would like to repeat the concluding words of my letter of intent and commitment, which constitute a leitmotiv that constantly underpins my mandate: beyond our diversity and our differences, let us take action and work together to promote peace, end and prevent war and encourage harmony of hearts and minds; let us strive to make faster progress towards sustainable development, shared prosperity and harmony with nature and the environment, whose abundant but not unlimited resources must be used moderately, judiciously and wisely, while taking corrective and transitional measures for the sake of present and future generations; and let us strive to promote human dignity everywhere and for everyone, a dignity that each of us carries within us in its fullest form, in larger freedom.

In short, let us take action, let us strive to strengthen multilateralism based on a solid foundation anchored in the purposes, principles and objectives enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.

Throughout my term of office, I pledge to serve in this way, in strict compliance with the terms of the oath I will swear, with great availability and attentiveness to all Member States and other partners. I will work closely with the Secretary-General of our Organization, Mr. António Guterres, who works tirelessly on a daily basis in the various fields of activity covered by the United Nations and where he has made numerous concrete proposals that deserve to be taken into consideration in our deliberations. I will also cooperate with the heads of the other main organs, in particular the President of the Security Council and the President of the Economic and Social Council, in accordance with the requirements of the General Assembly. I will act with transparency, intellectual and moral probity, impartiality and objectivity, in accordance with the Assembly’s rules of procedure, and with the firmness, flexibility and adaptability required for consultation and active consensus-building.

I thank you for your kind attention.