Antigua and Barbuda, 1997

On behalf of the

Government and people of Antigua and Barbuda, I would

like to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to preside

over this fifty-second session of the General Assembly. You

are well known to many of the envoys to the United

Nations, and we feel confident that under your guidance we

will have a productive session. I likewise wish to express

my country’s recognition to the Permanent Representative

of Malaysia, for the manner in which he conducted the

work of the fifty-first session. I also pay tribute to the

Secretary-General, who is entrusted with the advancement

of this Organization at such a critical time in its history.

One cannot walk through the edifices of the United

Nations without being asked to comment on the reform

process and the value of the number of conferences that the

Organization has staged. The conferences of this decade

have certainly had an impact on our understanding of

certain concepts, practices and generationally imparted

beliefs. Though we have taken many decisions,

implementation has proved to be difficult, and a

fundamental aspect of the reason or reasons for this is that

the United Nations needs to be reformed, and Governments

need to zealously renew their commitments to its existence

and continued advancement.

The Secretary-General’s report is most welcome, and

there are many points on which my country is in agreement

and others on which we think continued discussion and

debate are needed. Peace, security and disarmament are

vital to a safe and secure planet, and the countless

individuals who live daily in constant fear — whether

because of terrorists, hatred between ethnic groups,

internecine warfare or religious persecution — gives us

much concern.

The Organization must have trained and equipped

forces at all times, and the decision of a group of Member

States to participate in the establishment of a standby high-

readiness brigade is most encouraging. Additionally, there

is a need for the demobilization of paramilitary groups,

for demining and for an intensification of peacemaking,

peacekeeping and peace-building. Subsequently, the

problems associated with financing peace operations need

to be addressed in a meaningful manner.

Antigua and Barbuda strongly supports the concept

of results-based budgeting and endorses the proposal to

have the Secretary-General and the representatives of

Member States enter into a dialogue aimed at shifting the

United Nations programme budget from a system of input

accounting to one of results-based accountability.

Likewise, my country welcomes the reforms already put

in place in the Secretariat, through which field operations

have been considerably expanded, as a result of

cooperation between the Department of Political Affairs,

the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the

Department of Humanitarian Affairs and other relevant

departments.

We are anxiously looking forward to June of next

year, when the diplomatic conference on the need to

establish an international criminal court will convene.

This undertaking is long overdue, and Antigua and

Barbuda has been working with neighbouring countries to

thwart the dangers of increased international crime, which

is so active in this hemisphere. Of particular concern is

the need for greater coordination among nations if the

blight of narcotics is to be meaningfully tackled. Strong

and determined efforts within certain countries will be

seriously undermined if there is not a united global

approach to manifestations and practices which will

destroy not only the fabric of our societies but the lives

of countless individuals.

The most talked-about aspect of reform, however, is

the “Question of equitable representation on and increase

in the membership of the Security Council and related

matters”. Numerous proposals on the question have been

advanced, some adding more confusion to the existing

deliberations. As such, Antigua and Barbuda wishes to

reiterate its declared position that any expansion should

include developing countries, and that both the Group of

African States and the Group of Latin American and

Caribbean States should be represented.

We would similarly like to see certain restrictions

placed on the use of the veto. We understand that all

efforts at restructuring and reform in the United Nations,

however, should be focused on economic growth and

development. In addition, my country is calling for a

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reversal in the diminishing role of the General Assembly.

The accountability of the Security Council to the General

Assembly must be re-emphasized, and the General

Assembly should more actively assert its role in the

maintenance of international peace and security, in

accordance with General Assembly resolution 377 (V) of 3

November 1950, entitled “Uniting for peace”.

The buzzword that we are constantly hearing is

“globalization”. Those of us from small developing

countries would rather have the emphasis placed on poverty

alleviation, but the present-day reality incorporates the

belief that the emphasized process of globalization and

economic integration is unavoidable. There are new

techniques of production and new forms of organization

which have given flexibility to the location of industrial

activities and have reduced the share of wages in

production costs. In many of our democratic societies

throughout the world, where sacrifices have been made to

reduce unemployment, Governments are faced with the

daunting and even frightening reality that labour is

becoming a dispensable commodity. The International

Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade

Organization all are promoting the emergence of a global

market. The small countries of the Caribbean are forced to

adapt, and our businessmen must accept the reality that the

concept of protected markets is fast disappearing.

The multilateral financial institutions which provide

resources to developing countries at concessional rates

continue to use the gross national product as a basis for

judging our economic wherewithal. Antigua and Barbuda is

deemed to be middle-income, but the reality of my

country’s various vulnerabilities causes our people and

those of other Caribbean countries to bow to the flattery

and highlight the unjustness of this means of measurement.

Our sister island of Montserrat has recently had a

series of severe volcanic eruptions which have caused the

inhabitants much pain and anguish, and Antigua and

Barbuda, along with other Caribbean Community countries,

has endeavoured to render assistance. As a result, the

population of Antigua and Barbuda has increased by some

5 percent, which means that the resources of Government

for housing, health, education and all other services are

strained. Our citizens have, however, rendered much

support, and Antigua and Barbuda will do all in its power

to help alleviate the plight of our brothers and sisters from

that lovely but now unsafe island. We strongly support the

recommendation of the Committee of 24 that the United

Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United

Nations Development Programme should move swiftly to

assist in alleviating the plight of the sturdy but

beleaguered population of the Emerald Isle of the

Caribbean.

There are other dangerous volcanoes in the

Caribbean, and one is presently forming undersea in the

vicinity of Grenada. In 1974 Antigua and Barbuda

experienced an earthquake which measured 7.8 on the

Richter scale and which caused considerable destruction.

In 1995 Hurricane Luis unleashed its fury on our country

for 48 hours and was declared to have been the worst

storm of the century. Indeed, a single hurricane can set

back our development some 10 years. Yet the gross

national product continues to be used to measure our

economic performance, resulting in the absurd distortion

of Antigua and Barbuda’s being deemed more developed

than Mexico or Brazil.

We are pleased to read that at the 1995 Copenhagen

World Summit for Social Development, the conclusion

was reached that an economic system has no intrinsic

value. It has to be assessed in relation to the betterment

of the human condition. As such, a good economic

system should of necessity provide opportunities for

sufficient income to all members of the society; generate

enough resources to enable public institutions to fulfil

their responsibilities and promote the common good; and

permit, in addition to the government, participation by

citizens and other public and private actors in the

decision-making process. To this end, the Government of

Antigua and Barbuda is presently holding meetings in

various forums to discuss precisely the realities of

globalization and the achievement of a single market

within the Caribbean Community.

In June of this year a special session of the General

Assembly was held on the overall review and appraisal of

the implementation of Agenda 21. Though there was

disappointment at the outcome due to the inability of

countries to coalesce around a common position or

common commitments, there was the clear recognition

that the threat to the global commons remains a profound

reality. There is continued overexploitation and

degradation of what has been bequeathed to mankind,

whether in regard to overfishing, overgrazing, excessive

destruction of forests, or air and water pollution. We have

collectively failed to capitalize on the promise and

accomplishments of the 1992 Rio Conference.

Nine out of ten people in both the developed and

developing world have no idea what the term “sustainable

development” means and how it affects them. Nine out of

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ten also have little appreciation of why mutual recognition

and mutual action are necessary. People have not been

made partners in the process of sustainable development,

and Governments should do more to make them so by

education via the mass media, in the schools, in public

debate and in public presentations.

The industrialized countries must take the lead in

changing their patterns of production and consumption to

save the global environment and assist developing countries

such as mine in our effort to meet our peoples’ basic needs,

to eradicate poverty and achieve economic growth. During

the special session in June, Caribbean newspapers reported

that every Caribbean representative zeroed in on the

“poverty issue”.

To eradicate poverty and achieve economic growth is

not an easy task and has been further compounded by the

fact that official development assistance, a crucial part of

the Rio agreements, has fallen from 0.33 per cent in 1992

to 0.27 per cent in 1995. This is well below the agreed and

accepted target of 0.7 per cent of the gross national product

of the industrialized countries pledged to development

assistance. The precipitous fall in official development

assistance has shifted the burden for sustainable

development unfairly to developing countries, destroying in

the process the equitable balance which was reached at that

very important Conference. Private capital and foreign

direct investment, once touted as the panacea for

sustainable development in developing countries, have

shown only selective benefits to some countries and have

bypassed the vast majority. A combination of private capital

flows, foreign direct investment and debt relief as part of an

overall financial package may be a solution.

In recognizing that an integrated approach to

sustainable development is necessary, since political,

economic, social and environmental issues are closely

interlinked and intertwined, we cannot overlook the integral

role that women can and should play in the quest for

sustainable development. In Rio, women were considered

a major group whose involvement was necessary to receive

the sought-after goals. Mainstreaming women’s concerns

and participation in the planning, implementation and

monitoring of all development and management of

environmental programmes to ensure that women benefit is

necessary for sustainable development. In this regard, we

call on the multilateral and bilateral donors to increase their

support for women’s organizations in countries such as

mine to enable them to play an active role in all aspects of

the developmental process.

There is, however, the fact that we must stress

repeatedly: the need to reduce the speed of the

globalization thrust. Dominant Governments and

institutions are setting deadlines and establishing agendas

with such severe demands that most other actors find

them impossible to follow. The alternative to

participation, as it now stands, is marginalization. If all

countries are required to fully participate, then there is a

clear need for selective linking processes with reference

to both national circumstances and national cultures.

This brings me to the vexing question of bananas.

The undoing of the Lomé trade agreement and the injury

which this hostile act will inflict on small, banana-

exporting countries of the Organization of Eastern

Caribbean States, of which Antigua and Barbuda is a

member, is tantamount to an act of war. Small, peace-

loving States, causing no harm to any other State under

the terms of the Lomé agreement, have found themselves

yoked by the recent World Trade Organization ruling.

Without some form of protection, the banana industry in

the States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

would collapse, leading to severe social dislocation which

would ultimately manifest itself in political catastrophe.

Be reminded that on more than one occasion, the

President of the United States has cautioned that in this

galloping global economy, small States cannot be

trampled upon by their large neighbours.

When my country chose to host in May of this year

the regional seminar of the Committee of 24, better

known as the Special Committee on Decolonization, it

was because we knew that the Caribbean has many other

obstacles to overcome in the emerging history of our

region and the global community. Highlighted at the

meeting was the principled position of the Special

Committee that the sustained economic growth and social

advancement of the Non-Self-Governing Territories is an

essential prerequisite of the implementation of the

Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial

Countries and Peoples. Of necessity, particular attention

has to be given to the environment, natural disaster

mitigation, public health, education, economic self-

sufficiency, the prevention of crime and illicit drug

trafficking.

The Non-Self-Governing Territories of the Caribbean

have the same problems as the independent countries in

regard to narcotics. There is a multidimensional thrust

upon our entities, as there is the challenge to

governability by non-State actors, the drug operators.

Caribbean countries additionally have to contend with

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extraterritoriality and other forms of sovereignty challenges

from other States, primarily because of conflicting interests

and because the Caribbean States are small and lack

significant power.

The countries of CARICOM are, however,

endeavouring to improve most aspects of their existence,

and new ground in the integration arrangement has been

broken. Haiti has joined the ranks of CARICOM, a

development which is considered to be of immense

significance, and we wish to applaud the decision to have

the United Nations Mission in Haiti extended. There has

been further movement towards the CARICOM single

market and economy. When Protocol II is ratified, the

ground will be laid for the free movement of factors of

production among countries which have agreed to be bound

by its provisions. A plan is being developed for the

sustainability of both tourist and airline industries in the

region. Approval was given to a comprehensive human

resource development plan for the specific purpose of

building a more creative and productive workforce in the

Caribbean. Indeed, the countries of CARICOM are

endeavouring to overcome the major legacy of colonialism:

being placed on the periphery of the industrialized world.

As a collective body seeking the betterment of

mankind, the countries which form the United Nations need

to recognize that human advancement requires managing

markets as well as liberating them. Clearly, unbridled

markets tend to produce a race to the bottom, manifested

through a global search for the location with the weakest

regulatory, environmental, social and labour standards.

What is required is for rich and poor countries to have a

commonality of purpose that ensures a path of sustainable

development. Year after year my country pleads for genuine

acceptance of the principle of multilateralism, yet what is

projected under the banner is of a selective nature projected

by and through the powerful and the dominant. Together

we must find a way towards a global regime that reduces

emissions of greenhouse gases, accepting the necessity of

well-off nations to transfer the technology to make this

possible rather than viewing this shift as another

opportunity for private industry to profit.

It is sad that competitiveness can be pushed in a

direction which handicaps and retards human development.

State socialism failed, and in the process deprived hundreds

of millions of individuals of both liberty and prosperity.

Market forces, taken to the extreme, yield poorly distributed

rates of growth, plunder the natural environment and are

most devastating in regard to the wreckage of humans. The

States of the developing world are not just emerging

markets, they are human societies. Markets must be our

servant, not our master. Clearly, the reality of commerce

is global, but the paths to human development have

historically been proven to be local.

In approaching the twenty-first century, the

Government of the twin island States of Antigua and

Barbuda has decided that it should focus on human

capital and its development rather than focusing narrowly

on the economic question. There will be a continuance of

the policy of carrying out intense investigations and

feasibility studies to decide where to concentrate limited

resources. In addition, even though the Government is

divesting itself of some of its holdings and encouraging

greater private investment in vital services and

commodities, there are some areas, particularly those

surrounding technology, in which the Government has to

remain directly involved and catalytic; it will continue

with its practice of seeking consensus on determining key

industries and activities crucial and critical for

development.

We will continue to take pride in and to cherish the

United Nations, as we recognize its capacity for

achievements in areas beyond the reach of national or

regional authorities. Now the nations which comprise this

body must redouble their collective commitment for

translating vision into reality. That is why it is essential

to have international cooperation for development in the

forefront of our activities. The United Nations is still our

greatest hope for peace, development and social justice.