Permanent Mission of
the Dominican Republic to the United Nations
Welcome!
The Dominican Republic has presented its candidacy for non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. Our success on October 16, 2007, would represent a very historic moment for the people of the Dominican Republic, as it would be our country's first time ever serving on the Council.
Additionally, a positive election result would be a momentous occasion for the United Nations system, due to the fact that the Dominican Republic would be removed from a list of 75 Member States that have never had the opportunity to serve on the Security Council. The Dominican Republic is one of six remaining countries from among the 51 Founding Members of the United Nations that has never been a non-permanent member of the Security Council.
We are confident that your support would be a bona-fide contribution towards the advancement of a fairer and more equitable representation of countries like the Dominican Republic on one of the most vital organs of the U.N. system.
The Dominican Republic is not only prepared to serve on the Security Council as a voice for the weak, the most vulnerable, and the deprived, as His Excellency Dr. Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic stated in his address to the 62nd session of the U.N. General Assembly, but we are also positioned to harness our countrys commitment to multilateralism as a catalyst towards development, peace, security and human rights for all.
The Dominican Republic is a peaceful country that has been committed to the maintenance of international peace and security as is evidenced by our past and current participation in various peacekeeping operations including those in Kosovo and Côte dIvoire, as well as humanitarian efforts in Mozambique. We have also been a signatory on various international disarmament treaties.
The Dominican Republic has also given continued support to the efforts of the United Nations and its mission, MINUSTAH, in our neighboring country of Haiti.
We have continuously been committed to utilizing multilateralism as a means of combating terrorism and drug-trafficking and as a result, the Government of the Dominican Republic recently hosted an International Summit on Drugs in our Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The next gathering of these and other entities related to this initiative will take place in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2008.
Additionally, the Dominican Republic recently hosted, in partnership with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) a conference entitled, Capacity-Building for the Peaceful Management of Conflict in Central America and the Caribbean.
Since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, the Dominican Republic has been an active Member State and partner. We have served as member of the Commission on the Status of Women for more than 20 years.
After President Leonel Fernandez took office in 2004, we have been designated as one of the seven pilot countries of the U.N.'s Millennium Project, the only pilot country to be located in the Western Hemispherethe
rest being from Africa and Asia. In this capacity we pioneered in 2005, the development of one of the first MDG Needs Assessment and Costing Analysis in order to guide our country's process towards achieving these important U.N. development goals by 2015. As a result, Secretary-General Kofi Annan made an official State visit to the Dominican Republic in August 2006, to formally receive the outcome of this work.
In 2005, the Dominican Republic became the second pilot country for the U.N. Public-Private Alliance for Rural Development as a result of Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resolution E/2005/L35. Since then, the country has demonstrated and implemented practical measures and strategies for achieving the MDGs through effective partnerships between the market and the State. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has highlighted these efforts in his report to the most recent High-Level Segment of the Economic and Social Council held in Geneva.
As a result of the work of the U.N. ICT Task Force and the two phases of the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), in 2006, the Dominican Republic placed the important issue of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for development on the agenda of the Latin American and Caribbean region by hosting and organizing the 26th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), which was held in our Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
We continue to be committed to this work and we sincerely appreciate you having taken the time to receive and consider it (and other activities) as a basis for supporting our candidacy to the Security Council.
We believe, that with your support, we would be able to assume this rewarding challenge of serving on the Security Council for the first time. We look forward to doing so and we thank you in advance for your support.
