Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Rio Group on agenda item
99 entitled "Implementation of the first
United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006)".
Mankind has entered a new century with a profound and disheartening
contradiction. On the one hand, great
technological and scientific advances have brought us the vast benefits
of communications without frontiers. On
the other hand, injustice and inequality have increased, thereby condemning
half of the six billion inhabitants of the
planet to lives of poverty, struggling to survive on only 1 or 2 dollars
a day.
Despite the great technological and scientific innovations and the
advances in communications systems, the
problems of poverty, hunger, marginalization and unemployment remain
and their negative impact is causing
increasing concern.
Indeed, Mr. Chairman, studies carried out in our region have shown
that 41 per cent of the population suffers
from malnutrition, 60 per cent of our children are poor and 17 per cent
of women lack proper assistance at
childbirth. The maternal mortality rate is 5 times higher than in the
developed countries. In addition, there are
serious problems of unemployment and underemployment with indicators
that show that 56 per cent of the
population is working in the informal sector of the economy.
Less than two months ago, our Presidents and Heads of State adopted
during the Millennium Summit a
Declaration in which they clearly expressed their intention to spare
no effort to free men, women and children
from the abject and inhuman conditions of extreme poverty.
The Declaration recommends the immediate implementation of the enhanced
facility for relieving the debt of highly
indebted poor countries and the provision of more generous development
assistance, especially for those
countries that are making genuine efforts to devote their resources
to poverty reduction programmes.
One of the goals that were proposed was the reduction by half by the
year 2015 in the percentage of inhabitants
of the planet with incomes of less than one dollar a day and the percentage
of those suffering from hunger. To
ensure that by 2015 also, boys and girls throughout the world can complete
a full cycle of primary education, that
maternal mortality rates are reduced by three quarters, that the spread
of HIV/AIDS is halted and that by 2020
the housing problems of at least 100 million slum dwellers are resolved.
We believe that all of these desires and promises will only be made
reality if we respect the principles of equality
and solidarity between rich and poor nations and if we strengthen the
bonds of international cooperation.
On the other hand, we wonder how men and women now living in poverty
can overcome this tragic situation and
permit their children to live in conditions of greater dignity when
they lack access to education and technology and
enter the highly competitive labour market without adequate preparation.
How can people overcome their poverty if they lack the food that is
necessary for normal physical and mental
development and if their intelligence is below par? How can they overcome
their poverty if they lack food, shelter,
health and education? How can they overcome poverty when their education
does not permit them to face the
challenges of modern life?
The answer to this questions and the accomplishment of the proposed
objectives can only be found through an
effective relationship of solidarity between rich and poor countries,
with adequate financial resources, adequate
international environment and by adopting the correct domestic policies.
The Rio Group wishes to stress the need to balance the emphasis placed
on development and more specifically
on the purely economic aspects of development. Indeed, we believe, first
of all, in the need to give development a
more human meaning that would include integrally and not selectively
the exercise of civil, political, social and
cultural rights. We also wish to stress that the efforts being made
by our countries to achieve development and the
fight against poverty must be accompanied by the building of a favourable
economic environment as one of the
pillars of the international dimension of the right to development.
Poverty has a multi-dimensional character, which is not limited only
to the lack of income but also encompasses
other aspects related to quality of life, illiteracy, poor health, lack
of access to basic services and productive
goods, insecurity, lack of power, social exclusion, physical isolation
and vulnerability.
We therefore, propose that in the consideration of each and every
agenda item allocated to this Committee, and
on a case by case basis, an integrated perspective, from the point of
view of eradicating poverty should be
incorporated.
In addition to the poverty that afflicts the region, Latin America
and the Caribbean has suffered from the
devastating effects of natural disasters, the effects of the phenomenon
of El Niño and the destruction wrought by
hurricanes such as Mitch and George. The results have been not only
the unrecoverable loss of human lives, but
also the impact on our economies, in particular, on road infrastructure,
crops and employment.
Given the force of nature, these phenomena are inevitable. However,
we consider that joint action and solidarity
on the part of the international community as a whole is needed to help
deal with their devastating impact.
Mr. Chairman,
The delegations of the Rio Group pledge to participate actively in
this Forum in order to obtain tangible results as
we seek to fulfil our first objective and challenge, which is to free
our people from the shackles of poverty.
Thank you very much.
