Mr. Chairman, Fellow Delegates, Colleagues, and Distinguished Guests,
It is a great pleasure and honor for us, the Republic of Yemen, to be here today. We are eager to collaborate with you, fellow delegates, so that we may face the world’s problems with the ambition to benefit the world. All three agenda items represent serious problems facing the world today, and the opportunity has been given to change what is causing these issues. If the right thing is done during this session, then we may witness improvement in the lives of many. We must work together, not for individual gain, but the benefit of all. The goal is clear. From the preamble of the United Nations Charter, we must strive to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small,” so that together we may stand in the face of the challenges of today.
The Republic of Yemen is eager to work with the UN on fighting the endemic problem of human trafficking and kidnapping. Yemen experiences many kidnappings each year due to the lack of security and strength of jihadist movements in rural areas. In Yemen, radical movements lead to kidnappings of foreigners for ransom each year, something that should be considered intolerable This is in addition to high number of piracy kidnappings in Yemen’s proximate bodies of water, Sea of Aden and the Red Sea, which usually result in high ransoms, leading to the loss of between 13 and 16 Billion dollars are lost each year. If maritime piracy goes unchecked over the next century the total loss could be in the hundreds of billions. The Republic of Yemen believes that the United Nations need to focus specifically on kidnappings from radical movements, countries with low security, and maritime piracy as they are very dangerous, expensive, and intruding on the human rights of all.
The topic of immigration to Europe, as well as the status of immigrant populations, is one that we are especially eager to address. Yemen has received many immigrants each year from Northern Africa. Some of these immigrants remain in Yemen, but many others continue on to Europe. We recognize the problems other countries face when they debate whether to accept these immigrants into their population, but the Republic of Yemen would like to stress that racial or religious discrimination should not be a factor in determining the citizenship of an immigrant. We also would like to ensure countries recognize the many different conditions that people may be coming from; the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees should be referred to here. All sides of the debate on immigration must be examined when we determine the best possible resolution for better interests of the world.
The Republic of Yemen is excited to work with other countries on the improvement of human rights, specifically regarding the working conditions of women in the Middle East. Yemen recognizes that different nations and people have separate views on what is acceptable and not acceptable regarding human rights. The different backgrounds of the members here today lead to different opinions on human rights. Once recognition of different cultures has been reached, Yemen is eager to establish further human rights laws that will be viewed as acceptable for both western cultures and Middle Eastern ideals.
In a perfect world, we would not be meeting today to address these problems. But despite our challenges, we are confident that the world can come together to solve the problems that have affected so many and will continue to do so. This is why we are meeting today: to face the problems with courage and to achieve goals that will make the world a better place for all people. In the recent words of Ban Ki-Moon: “The great goals are within reach. We can achieve them by looking forward, pulling together, uniting our strength as a community of nations in the name of the larger good.”
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