The Bahamas, 2008

On behalf of the

Government and people of the Commonwealth of the

Bahamas, I congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption

of the presidency of the Assembly at its sixty-third

session, and I assure you of the full support and

cooperation of my delegation. I should also like to take

this opportunity to commend Mr. Kerim on his

stewardship of the Assembly at its sixty-second

session, which has just concluded.

The Bahamas commends the Secretary-General

for this opportunity to assess our global commitment.

We first committed ourselves to the creation of a

society for all in 1995. Five years later, we

recommitted ourselves to that objective and signed on

to the development agenda, a noble objective. We are

now at the halfway point, and we must judge for

ourselves whether the progress made has been good

enough. We believe that efforts to achieve the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and

ultimately create a society for all must be carried out in

tandem with steps to achieve full employment and

decent work for all.

The implementation of the MDGs is simply the

implementation of my Government’s philosophy and

programmes. It is with considerable satisfaction,

therefore, that I am able to report that the Bahamas has

achieved many of the MDG targets and indicators.

Over a two-year period, assistance to the poor in the

Bahamas and to low-income families is being increased

by 45 per cent.

The issue of international migration and

development is of particular concern to the Bahamas.

We have been burdened for some 60 years now with

irregular and unauthorized migration, which places

increased demands upon the education, health and

social services of the Bahamas. It also represents

potential national security threats, particularly as

organized crime networks have become increasingly

involved in the cross-border smuggling of illicit drugs,

firearms and human cargoes. Therefore, the Bahamas

looks forward to the discussion scheduled to take place

during this session on the follow-up to the 2006 High-

level Dialogue on International Migration and

Development.

New and emerging problems continue to slow

global development, and the current food, energy and

financial crises threaten to erode the gains made over

the past 10 years towards ending poverty, hunger and

malnutrition and reducing deaths. Apart from the

consequential increase in production costs for all

consumer goods, the growing cost of energy is

affecting the travel plans of many, with direct negative

consequences for tourism, the primary industry of the

Bahamas.

Of equal concern is the persistent challenge of

climate change, especially for small island developing

States such as the Bahamas, where 80 per cent of our

landmass is within 1.5 metres of sea level. It is no

surprise to find the Bahamas listed among the 100

countries most vulnerable to the consequences of

climate change and sea-level rise. Potential impacts of

further rises in temperature include not only the

environmental degradation of marine and terrestrial

ecosystems — loss of biodiversity and compromised

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groundwater tables, agricultural lands and fishery

resources — but also the social and economic losses

that might be expected from labour displacement.

My Government has recorded its commitment to

preserve our marine and terrestrial environments and to

meet the targets established by the United Nations

Convention on Biological Diversity for 2010 and 2012.

Indeed, we fully expect to exceed our commitment to

conserve at least 20 per cent of the near-shore marine

resources across the Bahamas by 2020. That reality

informs the Bahamas’ desire for urgent action on

climate change.

The increasing number and fury of tropical

storms and hurricanes passing through the Caribbean

are, I believe, yet another indication of the negative

effects of global climate change. This year alone, those

tropical storms and hurricanes have had a devastating

effect on a number of countries in our subregion,

including the island of Inagua in the southern

Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the

Turks and Caicos Islands and Haiti. They pose a

singularly peculiar threat to our countries, as they are

capable, literally in one fell swoop, of wiping out all

the development gains we have achieved over many

years of hard work.

That is especially true for Haiti, where conditions

are especially grim. The Bahamas is pleased that the

United Nations has remained actively engaged in Haiti.

The Bahamas commends the work of the United

Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. As the current

Chair of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response

Agency, I am pleased that the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) has been able to contribute to the relief

efforts in Haiti, but Haiti’s needs remain at proportions

that can be addressed only by the international

community. We are heartened by the flash appeal for

Haiti under the auspices of the United Nations Office

for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The current global economic climate presents a

formidable challenge to both developed and developing

countries. The Bahamas has established a comparative

and competitive advantage in a number of international

service industries by laying a solid foundation based

upon the rule of law, with its attendant protection of

private property rights, combined with sound

macroeconomic policies and a commitment to

democratic ideals that foster an enduring political

stability.

Our participation in the international economic,

financial and trading systems has permitted us to

embrace opportunities presented by globalization and

to achieve reasonable levels of growth and

development. Nevertheless, we remain vulnerable to

the challenges posed by our size and the limits on our

representation in global governance.

The Bahamas supports the strengthening of the

United Nations Committee of Experts on International

Cooperation in Tax Matters and its upgrade to an

intergovernmental body. It is the view of the Bahamas

that international tax matters, including issues of

importance to developing countries that are not

adequately addressed in other organizations, should be

discussed in an open, transparent and inclusive forum.

For that and other important reasons the Bahamas calls

for the convening of a major international conference

to review the international financial and monetary

architecture and global economic governance

structures. The case of small developing countries must

be addressed in the context of international systems

that are fair, equitable, objective, open and inclusive.

Therefore, effective permanent representation of

developing countries, particularly small developing

countries, is needed in the international economic,

trade and financial institutions, including the Bretton

Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization,

as well as other bodies, such as the Financial Stability

Forum.

The Bahamas reaffirms its support for the

intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council

reform with a view to expanding the membership of

that body in both the permanent and non-permanent

categories, as well as improving its working methods.

International peace and security is important to us all.

The Bahamas fully supported the General Assembly’s

adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-

Terrorism Strategy in September 2006 as a framework

for collective action to prevent and combat terrorism.

The Bahamas condemns terrorism in all its forms

and manifestations, and we call for, and commit to, the

full implementation of a culture of peace, justice and

human development and respect for all religions and

cultures. I am pleased to report my Government’s

ratification, since taking office last year, of the United

Nations Convention against Corruption, the

International Convention on the Suppression of

Terrorist Bombings and the United Nations Convention

against Transnational Organized Crime — the Palermo

33 08-52272

Convention — and its Protocols. The Bahamas

commends the Secretary-General’s initiative in

organizing the first-ever United Nations Symposium on

Supporting Victims of Terrorism.

Escalating acts of crime and violence, civil

unrest, wars and internal conflicts around the world

continue to threaten our efforts to create a just and

peaceful international environment. The 2008 World

Drug Report indicates that the supply of illicit drugs is

increasing. That has serious consequences for our

subregion. The Bahamas and members of CARICOM

are neither significant producers nor suppliers of

narcotics. We are neither manufacturers nor suppliers

of small arms and light weapons. Yet the meteoric rise

in the illicit trafficking in drugs, small arms and light

weapons, illegal migration and human trafficking

through our subregion creates a formidable challenge

to the national security and socio-economic growth and

development of our countries. Therefore, the Bahamas

reiterates the call made by CARICOM last July for the

illicit brokering in small arms and light weapons to be

addressed in a holistic, transparent and legally binding

manner, with renewed commitments for effective and

enhanced safeguards.

We are poised to mark, on 10 December, one of

the greatest achievements of this great Organization:

the sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Bahamas

reaffirms its commitment to the fundamental principles

of human rights, dignity and freedom for all. The

Bahamas commends the entering into force of the

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

and the adoption of the International Convention for

the Protection of All Persons from Enforced

Disappearances and the United Nations Declaration on

the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

For more than six decades, human rights, poverty

and development and peace and security have attracted

the attention of this Assembly. The complexity of those

issues, coupled with a lack of good governance and

political sensitivity, has too often impeded meaningful

advances. As we celebrate the Declaration’s sixtieth

anniversary, I recall the vision of a former First Lady

of the United States of America, Eleanor Roosevelt, as

expressed in her address on 8 March 1960:

“We are going to have to work for a peaceful

world continuously, without stopping because

differences exist among people. They exist in

families, they exist within nations and they will

exist in the world. And therefore, without any

question you are going to have to work to achieve

peace in the world much more continuously than

you have ever worked.”

That is as true today as it was 48 years ago.