The Bahamas, 2001

The President has been

elected to chair at what is undoubtedly one of the most

challenging sessions of the General Assembly in recent

times. My delegation congratulates him on his election.

We pledge our full support to him and express our

confidence that under his leadership the work of the

Assembly will have a positive impact on our collective

efforts to meet the many challenges facing our world.

My delegation would also like to take this

opportunity to commend his predecessor, Mr. Harri

Holkeri of Finland, for his leadership as President of

the fifty-fifth session, the Millennium Assembly.

We are in times of great tragedy but also of

laudable triumphs. The Secretary-General and the

United Nations have rendered outstanding and

inspiring service to the world’s peoples. Mr. Secretary-

General, we celebrate with you and this Organization

the well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize awarded to you,

even as we express our appreciation for the exemplary

leadership that you continue to provide to the United

Nations.

My delegation also wishes to take this

opportunity to express its sincere sympathy to the

Governments of the United States and the Dominican

Republic and to the families of those who lost their

lives in the crash of a United States commercial aircraft

in New York yesterday.

While recognizing the many challenges the global

community will face in the twenty-first century, leaders

at last year’s Millennium Assembly nonetheless were

optimistic that peace and prosperity would be

important hallmarks of the new century. Their hopes

have been severely undermined by the indefensible acts

of terrorism perpetrated in the United States on 11

September 2001. The horrific scenes of death and

destruction in New York, Washington, D.C., and

Pennsylvania, so indelibly etched in our minds, have

no doubt changed the world forever. The Government

and the people of the Bahamas mourned with countries

all over the world, including our sister Caribbean

countries that lost loved ones, and expressed our

sadness at the senseless loss of life and wanton

destruction of property.

Even as events in Afghanistan unfold, the United

Nations, and indeed the world, now face a dilemma:

how to confront the grave challenge which

international terrorism has defiantly issued to the world

and at the same time meet the Charter obligations to

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promote human rights and social progress and better

standards of life in larger freedom. We must be

visionary and creative in ensuring that the resources

and energies of the United Nations and of the

international community are used to implement a

balanced agenda that will deal effectively and

resolutely with terrorists and terrorism and that will

also continue to have a positive impact on human

rights, economic and social development and other

common objectives.

The international community has spoken with one

voice in condemning international terrorism as a major

destabilizing force in the world. The acts of 11

September 2001 fundamentally shifted security

concerns regarding terrorists and terrorism to the

workplace, streets and homes of innocent people,

creating anxiety, insecurity and uncertainty worldwide.

Significantly, the terrorist acts have had serious and

damaging consequences on a rapidly globalizing world

economy. The economies of both industrialized and

developing countries have been severely disrupted,

with grave implications for future economic and

financial stability. The economic outlook, particularly

for many developing countries, is indeed grim. The

small economies of the countries in the Caribbean have

experienced massive disruption because of their

vulnerability to external shocks and heavy dependence

on tourism, especially from the North American

market. There has been significant loss of employment

in the tourism, financial services and related sectors,

even as government revenues have fallen and foreign

reserves are threatened.

The countries of the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) have moved decisively to assess the

implications of the terrorist attacks on its member

States. As Chair of the Conference of Heads of

Government of CARICOM, the Bahamas was host to a

special emergency meeting of the Conference, held on

11 and 12 October 2001, which adopted the Nassau

Declaration on International Terrorism. That

Declaration sets out the action that Governments would

take to mitigate the impact on the region’s tourism,

aviation, financial services and agricultural sectors,

which are the major contributors to the gross national

product, foreign exchange earnings and employment in

the countries of our region.

CARICOM heads of Government also

unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms and

reaffirmed their commitment to work with the

international community in the multifaceted fight

against terrorism, in accordance with international law

and conventions. It is therefore our hope that the

international community will support the countries of

CARICOM during this difficult and challenging period.

We in the Bahamas have taken our obligation to

cooperate in the fight against terrorism very seriously.

We have complied with Security Council resolutions,

including resolution 1333 (2000) which calls for the

freezing of funds and other financial assets of Osama

bin Laden, the Al Qaeda organization and individuals

associated with it. The International Obligations,

Economic and Ancillary Measures Order 2001, enacted

in our Parliament in September this year, prohibits any

person dealing with any property and any financial

institution licensed in the Bahamas from transacting

business with Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda or any

individuals or entities associated with them, who, for

these purposes, may be designated from time to time.

We have been able to take such timely action because

of a comprehensive legislative regime enacted in

December 2000 which put in place an effective

regulatory regime to ensure that the Bahamas financial

services sector is not abused by criminals for money-

laundering or any other financial crimes. It was the

enactment of that legislation that resulted in the

Financial Action Task Force’s removal of the Bahamas,

in June of this year, from its list of non-cooperative

jurisdictions in the fight against money-laundering. As

part of its overall review of the international regime for

action against terrorists and terrorism, in October this

year my Government signed the United Nations

Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of

Terrorism. We are following very closely the

discussions on a comprehensive convention against

terrorism, in order to determine what further action the

Government will need to take in this area. We hope that

a comprehensive, practical and implementable

instrument will be adopted that will take into account

the existing anti-terrorism regime. In this we see a

clearly delineated role for the United Nations, and

particularly the Security Council, which is well placed

to articulate a coherent policy for global cooperation in

the fight against international terrorism.

Meeting our obligations, however, has not been

without sacrifice. The Bahamas, like many other

Caribbean countries, has been obliged to divert scarce

resources from other critical development objectives to

initiate the sweeping security changes required at our

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airports and seaports and otherwise to mitigate the

impact of the 11 September events.

For the Government and people of the Bahamas,

the ravages of hurricane Michelle have further

compounded the significant economic setbacks caused

by the 11 September events in the United States. Just

last week, that hurricane made a direct hit on our

archipelagic State, causing extensive damage to

infrastructure, agriculture and vegetation in some of

our major islands. The Government is still determining

the extent of the damage but has already begun the

essential period of reconstruction.

Globalization and trade liberalization are, and

must remain, central issues on the world’s agenda.

Generally, globalization has presented significant

opportunities and has had a positive impact on many

countries. However, for others, particularly in the

developing world, the freer flow of capital, technology,

finance, goods and services across national

boundaries — which is the essence of globalization —

has not met the stated objectives of improving overall

economic prosperity, reducing poverty and closing the

technological gap. On the contrary, the social costs of

globalization — poverty, inequality and

unemployment — remain serious challenges for many

of the countries of the developing world. These

challenges are further compounded by factors including

an onerous debt burden, a limited or inadequate export

infrastructure to effectively participate in the global

trading system, and an inability to access the markets

of the developed world. My Government, nevertheless,

is cognizant that the international trading regime of the

World Trade Organization (WTO) provides a

significant framework within which countries may

benefit from globalization and trade liberalization, and

work towards appropriately addressing the costs and

risks associated with the global trading system. In July

this year, the Bahamas submitted its application for

accession to the WTO, for WTO membership is a

priority for my Government and we hope that our

application will receive the requisite support.

We are in a period, leading up to late 2002,

during which the United Nations is defining its

economic and social development agenda with greater

precision, through a series of assessments of

international action in specific areas. The Bahamas was

pleased to have participated in the Organization’s

review of its work and setting of its agenda for further

action in the areas of racism, racial discrimination and

human settlements and the illicit trade in small arms

and light weapons. My Government believes that every

effort should be made to consolidate those areas in

which progress was made at the World Conference

against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia

and Related Intolerance that took place in Durban,

South Africa, from 31 August to 8 September this year.

Global objectives in respect of human settlements

received considerable impetus from the special session

on human settlements that took place in New York in

June 2001. The Declaration on Cities and Other Human

Settlements in the New Millennium, adopted by the

Conference, should prove invaluable in addressing

chronic problems of inadequate shelter.

The United Nations Conference on the Illicit

Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its

Aspects addressed a problem that for the small

countries of the Caribbean is a particularly serious one.

We wished the Conference could have been more

forthright in its adoption of measures to better address

these critical issues but readily accept the Programme

of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit

Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its

Aspects as an essential first step. Decisions taken at

these and other United Nations meetings are indeed

decisions of the Organization that the Bahamas hopes

will be implemented as such by all Member States.

Few countries in the world, if any, have been

spared the vagaries of HIV/AIDS. The statistics are

compelling — more than 30 million people affected.

With respect to the developing world they are even

more compelling — more than 95 per cent of those

affected live in the developing world. The Caribbean

region has not been spared, but we are taking decisive

action. Our Pan-Caribbean Partnership launched in

February this year has the full support and commitment

of heads of Government for effective action against

HIV/AIDS in the wider Caribbean region. The

Government of the Bahamas in this regard welcomes

the contribution of the Government of Canada to the

Caribbean HIV/AIDS programme. The special session

on HIV/AIDS held in New York in June 2001 gave

heads of State and Government the opportunity to set

an agenda for slowing and reversing the destructive

impact of HIV/AIDS throughout the world. It is an

agenda that must be implemented to halt and reverse

this tragedy that is devastating populations and

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threatening to reverse the development gains made in

many developing countries. The developing world will,

and must, look for help and support to those having the

technology, research capacity and resources by which

they themselves have been able to control the spread of

this deadly disease.

The year 2002 will also be an active one, both for

United Nations benchmark assessments and

readjustment of priorities and for addressing significant

issues on the international agenda. The International

Conference on Financing for Development will be

convened in Monterrey, Mexico, in March 2002. As

plans develop, we hope that all Members of the United

Nations will come to appreciate the need to ensure that

the Conference provides the framework within which

commitments can be made so that technical assistance

can be provided to poor countries for basic

infrastructural development, the standards of people

worldwide who live in endemic poverty can be raised,

developing countries can be assisted to attract foreign

direct investment, and information technology can be

more freely transferred to developing countries. My

Government, for its part, is of the view that small,

developing, middle-income countries such as the

Bahamas, because of their economic and ecological

vulnerabilities, should not be excluded from

development financing. It is also the view of my

Government that the World Summit on Sustainable

Development, to be convened in South Africa in

September 2002, should be complementary to

undertakings made at the International Conference on

Financing for Development. Ten years after the Rio

Summit of 1992, the ever-increasing fury of natural

disasters, climate change and sea-level rise, and the

depletion of biological resources and overall

environmental degradation, are but some of the issues

begging reassessment that must be part of the blueprint

for determined action emanating from South Africa.

Likewise, the Bahamas hopes that the Second World

Assembly on Ageing, to be held in Madrid, Spain, in

2002, and the special session of the United Nations

General Assembly on children, postponed to 2002,

should assess progress but, more importantly, must

emphasize action that will provide guidance for

national, regional and international policy and planning

in their respective areas.

The initiatives the United Nations will take up in

2002 to review and assess progress in a significant

number of areas should bring clearly into focus the

actions that must be taken by Member States and by the

Organization to accomplish agreed economic and

social objectives. It is the hope of the Bahamas that

these reviews will be followed by a period of intense

implementation of decisions that have been agreed, so

that qualitative and quantitative improvements may be

realized in all areas. We believe that such

improvements are essential but must be in concert with

United Nations initiatives to meet demands in other

critical areas, such as conflict resolution, war, and

humanitarian crises worldwide. They should also be in

concert with the Organization’s efforts to address

effectively and comprehensively issues such as the

illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic

substances, the illicit trade in small arms and light

weapons, alien smuggling and refugee flows, which do

not respect national boundaries. In all such cases, the

danger of inaction could have dire consequences,

particularly for international peace and security.

In conclusion, the current preoccupation with

terrorism has fortunately not paralysed the United

Nations. What it has done is to emphasize the need for

an effective and cohesive United Nations, capable of

responding flexibly to unexpected and contradictory

events in a timely and effective manner with little or no

disruption of its programmes in other areas. We believe

that the United Nations Charter constitutes a viable and

firm foundation for the Organization to balance and

achieve its objectives, to maintain international peace

and security and promote economic and social

progress. The Bahamas fully supports the United

Nations in all its endeavours.