The Bahamas, 1993

Twenty years ago the

Bahamas took its seat as the 138th Member in this Assembly

of the United Nations, and we proudly assumed the solemn

obligations and responsibilities conferred by the Charter.

This session marks our twentieth anniversary, which we

celebrate with our friends of the now reunited Germany with

whom we were admitted.

As we reflect on the global events of those two

decades, we see a world significantly transformed. Where

there was a single Soviet Union and a single Yugoslav

Republic, we now have the Commonwealth of Independent

States and the Baltic States. In addition, the admission of

many new States to this great Organization has resulted in

an almost complete universality of membership. It is

therefore with much joy that we warmly welcome all new

Members and extend to each the fraternal hand of friendship

and partnership in the continued struggle for human dignity

and development.

The Bahamas has also witnessed significant national

development since its membership. Today we are one of the

most stable and democratic societies. We are proud of this

achievement, and we encourage all those who would to

6 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

follow our example of freedom, justice and peace, buttressed

by sound principles of human and national development.

We have yet another reason for celebration. Your

unanimous election to the presidency of this forty-eighth

session of the General Assembly, Sir, is an historic occasion

not only for you personally and for your great country but

also for every Caribbean Government and person.

Bahamians, together with all Caribbean peoples, therefore

pay high tribute to you and to your country. We are fully

conscious of your impeccable and enviable credentials as a

diplomat, and we are satisfied that those same skills will

serve to guide us through this session, despite its challenges,

to successful and lasting results.

Permit me also to pay high tribute to your predecessor,

Mr. Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria, for his outstanding

contributions to the forty-seventh session of the General

Assembly. His presidency witnessed significant

achievements and today we are the beneficiaries of his

visionary leadership.

While we who are privileged to represent our

Governments have the luxury of pronouncing international

policies, the Secretary-General enjoys no such luxury. His

is the responsibility of going beyond the rhetoric to the

substance of the many resolutions and decisions which we

adopt in this Assembly each year. His task is therefore

dauntingly complex. Nevertheless, he has borne his

enormous responsibilities with great dignity and high

distinction.

In this connection, we cannot help but recall the biblical

injunction: "Out of Egypt have I called my Son". (The

Holy Bible, Matthew 2:15) Like his predecessor, he has

performed beyond our expectations, and is deserving of our

praise for his proficiency in assisting this Organization in

shaping contemporary history so dramatically.

At this juncture I wish to take this opportunity to

extend the deepest sympathy of the Government and the

people of the Bahamas to the people and the Government of

India, who suffered such tragic loss of life and property

during the recent devastating earthquake, and to reaffirm our

solidarity with them during this time of national disaster.

It would be very easy for me on behalf of my

Government and country to rehearse the developments of the

past year and offer the members of the Assembly some

observations. However, we believe that a focus on the

future is more timely.

As we near the fiftieth anniversary of the Organization,

it is the view of the Bahamas that that significant turning-

point should be seized as an opportunity to assess where we

are and what is required to move further ahead in the

fulfilment of the principles of the Charter, so that the

forthcoming anniversary will indeed be cause for celebration.

In reflecting on what is required to move ahead, we

invite all Member States to focus with us on how each one

of us, given our varied capacities, can assist the Organization

in moving closer to the full achievement of the principles

enshrined in the Charter.

There is no question that the United Nations, in its

often unappreciated role in the promotion of such objectives

as international cooperation and respect for human rights,

has been vindicated in this approach by successes far beyond

expectations.

In the political sphere, such successes include the

fostering of a shift to democracy in Eastern Europe; the

dramatic reduction, through voluntary destruction, of nuclear

weapons; the Mission of the Organization of American

States (OAS) and United Nations in Haiti; the establishment

of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons

Responsible for Serious Violations of International

Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former

Yugoslavia since 1991; the establishment of the Transitional

Executive Council in South Africa; the very recent signing

of the historic peace accord between Israel and the Palestine

Liberation Organization (PLO), as well as the Declaration of

Principles between Israel and Jordan; and the repelling of

aggression and the restoration of sovereignty in Kuwait. In

this context, the Security Council resolution that determines

the Kuwaiti boundary must be respected.

In addressing the hurdles which must be overcome

before lasting solutions are achieved, we believe that more

emphasis should also be placed on the expanded economic,

social and military role of the United Nations. That role is

demonstrated by the peace-keeping forces dispatched

globally and by the recent successful Conferences on

Environment and Development and Human Rights, as well

as by the forthcoming conferences on women, population

and development, the Summit for Social Development and,

most importantly for the Bahamas, the forthcoming

Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island

Developing States, scheduled to be held at Barbados in 1994.

The Bahamas places particular emphasis on the role of

the United Nations in the economic and social fields and

fully expects that the revitalized United Nations will provide

an enhanced capacity for the Organization to perform that

Forty-eighth session - 11 October l993 7

important role. It is in this context, therefore, that we

support the efforts of the Secretary-General to restructure the

Organization in the economic and social fields.

As members are aware, success invariably brings

greater responsibilities and challenges. Indeed, these greater

responsibilities, challenges, and even attendant impediments,

have regrettably already begun to sour the excitement of the

many achievements attained. But we must not let this

reverse side of success debilitate us. We must remain

focused so that narrower vested interests do not hinder the

achievement of goals set in the wider interest. We must

permit no circumstance to impede the earliest cessation of

the atrocities of war for a return to peaceful settlement of

disputes. We must be sensitive to and respond practically,

in the spirit of the Charter, to national needs, pressures and

civil unrest. The call for regional action in the settlement of

disputes and peace-keeping will also need to be further

emphasized as we seek to maintain the integrity of the

Organization.

In this connection, we particularly underscore the need

for the fullest support of the implementation of the

Governors Island Accord on the restoration of democracy in

Haiti, not only on the basis of unrelenting moral pressure

but, equally, through material and technical assistance

towards fostering the economic revitalization and enduring

health of that country’s democratic institutions.

While the unpleasant spectacle of politics through

conflict has reasserted itself at the centre of the world stage,

regrettably, politics has two companions, which often

influence it, though rarely gaining the same degree and

magnitude of attention given to politics. These two

companions are economic and social tensions. We must

ever be vigilant of these two, often unruly companions.

Again, we must find our focus in the purposes and principles

of the Charter.

Against that background, there are several questions I

feel must be put as part of the deliberations we will

undertake during this session.

First, is the peace dividend releasing adequate resources

and civilian expertise to impact developmental needs?

Secondly, should life after self-determination for the

newer members of the international community provoke

stagnant growth in those less-recently sovereign?

Thirdly, is there sufficient retraining and assistance to

ensure that the trade liberalization facilitated by megablocs

promotes fair, democratic and transparent institutional

strengthening and the widest empowerment?

And, lastly, how do we ensure that environmental

awareness, as a catalyst for a better quality of life globally,

does not become yet another trade conditionality?

These questions are being posed because, if they are

neglected or inadequately addressed, the new world order

will be but a shifting of power centres and a spawning of

new seeds of international economic, social and political

instability.

In many countries, including the Bahamas, social

tensions are reordering national priorities. We must return

to basics in dealing with problems of a pandemic nature,

such as poverty, illicit drugs, crime, violence, international

terrorism, human rights violations and disease, especially the

urgent necessity for dealing with the devastations caused by

acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Throughout this global village our Member States are

facing the disintegration of the traditional family values,

coupled with rampant unemployment. We must

re-emphasize those spiritual values which respect life, the

dignity and worth of the human person and his or her

importance to national life and development. In order that

our peoples will avoid hopelessness and survive the adverse

effects of economic decline, we must share more directly the

burden of action for solutions with those community

institutions and social partners which are the teachers and

the examples of positive spiritual and moral values.

Fundamentally, the Bahamas remains morally persuaded

of, and financially committed to, the goals and worth of the

United Nations. To underscore this commitment, The

Bahamas has recently deposited instruments of accession to

international agreements in some of the priority areas on the

United Nations agenda, including the International Covenant

on Civil and Political Rights, The International Covenant on

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the

Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women

and the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and

we shall shortly sign the chemical weapons Convention. In

reality, the approaches and solutions found in these

Conventions have long been traditional Bahamian policy and

practice.

Despite a 100 per cent increase in the regular budget

assessment for the Bahamas over the past five years, we

remain unwavering in our acceptance of the necessary

sharing of the financial burden in order that this

Organization may achieve its objectives. On the other hand,

8 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

the Bahamas wishes to have consideration given to the level

of its assessment, and in that process we shall be submitting

evidence that our reputed comparatively high per capita

income not only masks the true indigenous per capita

income situation, but also belies the increasing demands

arising from the development needs of our widely scattered

archipelago. We submit that, given these circumstances,

there ought to be some mitigation available to the Bahamas,

given these circumstances.

The Bahamas is very cognizant that we remain one of

the few cases of comparative political tranquillity and

unassailed natural beauty. Our commitment to the

maintenance of national unity and the preservation of the

environment is unwavering. We therefore believe that the

Bahamas is ideally suited as a propitious setting for difficult

negotiations, and we offer the Organization our facilities,

which, we are convinced, will enhance the conduct of such

affairs. We further pledge our commitment to contribute, to

the extent possible, to making operational the

Secretary-General’s "Agenda for Peace" and Papua New

Guinea’s proposed agenda for development. We see these

agenda items as practical approaches to dealing with

problem-solving for conflict resolution, peace-keeping and

post-conflict peace-building, and poverty alleviation.

As we approach the fiftieth year of our Organization’s

existence, to ensure even better years ahead our watchwords

should be "perspective" and "purpose": perspective in not

losing sight of the goals of our founding fathers, who

emphasized the primacy of people in the preamble to our

Charter; and purpose in recognizing and accepting that the

means for, and the road to, the end of international disorder

and insecurity must begin with the individual. Our initially

separate personal attitudes, motives and actions ultimately

determine whether there will be an international climate for

peace or one for disorder. The success of our Organization

is therefore dependent, at one and the same time, on our

international, collective and personal actions.

In our Caribbean corner of this global village, the

Bahamas continues its efforts in the struggle to bring about

peace and democracy in neighbouring Haiti. The success of

this process will permit our own social and economic

landscape to be relieved of the extra burden of caring for the

thousands of illegal immigrants from that country who defy

the sometimes harsh elements of nature in search of a safe

haven in our relative paradise.We trust that the world - and

especially the Member States of this Organization - has

taken due note of the enormous weight imposed upon our

small country by this undertaking. The Bahamas has well

demonstrated its concern and care for its neighbours of the

Republic of Haiti. I call to mind the famous statement by

one of the young residents of Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Town

United States of America . When asked about the concern

and care he demonstrated for his brother he replied, "He

ain’t heavy, Father; he’s my brother". The fact is, our

brother is heavy, but we bear him gladly, in Christian

charity, and in full and great expectation of imminent peace

in Haiti.

Our Bahamas remains proudly and immovably in

league with this great Organization.