Your Excellency, President of the Council of Ministers, Mr. Najib Mikati,
Your Excellency, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
On behalf of my colleagues, the Executive Secretaries of the Regional Commissions of the United Nations, a warm welcome to you all.
I thank His Excellency, the President of the Council of Ministers, Mr. Najib Mikati, for agreeing to holding this high level meeting under his auspices.
I also wish to express my deep appreciation to His Excellency, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for encouraging this meeting from its inception, and for personally attending the opening and delivering the keynote address.
It is indeed a pleasure to be meeting in Beirut, a historic Arab capital which has long been a centre for cultural diversity, for innovation and change.
Distinguished guests,
“Spring”, “awakening”, “renaissance”, “revolution” have all been used to describe the popular uprisings ignited in Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia a year ago. Since then, millions of people in the Arab world, young and old, men and women, have flooded the streets calling “the people want”. A demand that has been echoed across the world in the largest protests witnessed since the beginning of the third millennium.
The cry of “The people want…”, with all and the emotions and demands carried within it, marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. The end of the era of muzzled voices and fake promises, shattered hopes, despotism and corruption. An era during which the resources of the region were exploited by self-serving interests, subjugating it to conflict, war and occupation, the longest of which has been the Israeli occupation, which continues to this day in violation of all rights and international laws.
As a result, many opportunities to properly invest the resources of the region and free its people from hunger and fear were missed. Real development indicators deteriorated while the indicators of corruption, oppression and displacement continued to rise.
However, the new era promises to be the era of renaissance of which the Lebanese poet Elia Abu Madi dreamed in his verses a century ago:
A renaissance that would put an end to long-drawn humiliation
A renaissance that would turn all eyes onto us, free us from fear and carry our voices to faraway lands
What Elia Abou Madi dreamed of a century ago is what we are dreaming of today.
Distinguished guests,
There’s disagreement on the future of this new era. Some look at it with great hope, while others view it with pessimism. I do not share the views of the pessimistic, yet I do not blame them. They look around them and see an upsurge in violence in certain countries, and even the beginnings of sectarian and factional tensions. They see economic difficulties ahead. They see poverty, unemployment and deteriorating living standards. This undermines many hopes.
In fact, pessimism is rooted in the fear from uncertainty. The transition from tyranny to democracy is not an easy task. It requires comprehensive reform of State structures, a new social contract and a strong economy that can guarantee the welfare of all citizens, justice and equity, and the end of marginalization and exclusion.
The challenges are even greater where despotism has left a legacy of underdevelopment, and weakened social cohesion and bonds between the citizens of the same country. In such cases, addressing the problems of the past and building national consensus become a priority of the transitional period in order to safeguard the struggle, prevent civil strife and preclude the return of authoritarianism. However, such efforts are often hampered by the interests of regional and international powers that find it hard to give up the influence that they have had, and from which they have richly benefited, for decades.
Our meeting will focus on the challenges and the means to address them. We hope to provide an opportunity for fruitful interaction between leaders from this region, and their counterparts who have successfully led processes of democratic transformation in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Distinguished guests,
Though the future may be unclear and the obstacles on the path are many, the ultimate target remains: Free nations; just, democratic regimes; respect for human rights, an end to marginalization, equal rights to all citizens enshrined in constitutions that do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender or religion.
This future may as yet seem distant, but the peoples of this region are not less worthy, nor less capable or less deserving than other peoples of the world. We, too, have a right to freedom, dignity and justice.
I am certain that we will not fail where others have succeeded.
Thank you.