Belize, 1992

On behalf of the Government and people of Belize

I extend congratulations to Mr. Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria on his election to

the presidency of the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly. We are

confident that he will steer the Assembly with wisdom and energy.

My delegation also pays special tribute to the Secretary-General for his

untiring efforts in bringing us closer to peace.

Five hundred years ago the Colombus enterprise set off a chain of events

that created the world we know today. Some may find in this anniversary cause

for celebration, but the peoples of the Americas, of Africa and of Asia mourn

the ruthless exploitation of nature and humanity that was unleashed by those

events.

The enterprise brought Christianity to the Western Hemisphere. It led to

the creation of one world. It took humanity inexorably along the path to

economic globalization and interdependence in all spheres. It also led to the

creation of many dual worlds: in our Hemisphere, the European world and the

indigenous world, the white world and the black world; the rich and the poor;

the dominators and the dominated. And on our planet this tragic dichotomy is

writ large in the great divide between North and South.

The sermon of the Catholic Friar Antonio de Montesinos delivered in 1511

was and remains a telling message to the world. "Tell me," he said, "what

right have you to enslave them? What authority did you use to make war

against them who lived at peace on their territories, killing them cruelly

with methods never heard of? How can you oppress them and not care to feed or

cure them, and work them to death to satisfy your greed?"

We are not here to lament tragic occurrences of a distant past, but to

record the facts of an unacceptable present reality, for the world order whose

foundations were laid then continues to this day. At this historic juncture of world history, we are called upon to create

a new world order, an order based on justice and respect, an order that can

produce peace. We should be in a better position than ever before to launch a

united struggle to achieve this goal. We have seen the consequences of

injustice and intolerance, and we are waking up to the obvious that we live

on one planet, and that the welfare of one is inextricably linked to the

welfare of all.

Just a few days ago the people of Belize celebrated the eleventh

anniversary of independence. On that occasion the Financial Times of London

wrote about Belize as an oasis of calm with a promising future:

"Its judicial, political and educational systems work reasonably well ...

It is possible to be optimistic about tomorrow."

Our goal is to become more productive, more competitive and more adaptable to

the changes that lie before us at the dawn of the unfolding century. But even

as we celebrated, we reminded ourselves of the need for fundamental changes in

the present world order if people around the world are to achieve their

expectations for a better quality of life. And so we feel compelled to add

our modest voice to the rest of humanity's and propose the outlines of

policies that will give us all a chance to pursue and maintain sustainable

development and social equity.

With the Assembly's indulgence, I will say a few words about three

critical and interrelated blocks we believe must be used to build a new world

order: justice, respect and peace.

Justice for all. Five hundred years after, it cannot be right that

200 million people in our Hemisphere are living in critical poverty. This

cannot be right because, among other things, our region, Latin America and the

Caribbean, is rich. With 8 per cent of the world's population, that region

possesses 23 per cent of the world's potentially arable land, 46 per cent of

the tropical forest, and 31 per cent of the available surface water.

Nor is it that we have not been producing wealth. Since 1982

Latin America and the Caribbean have been transferring a net US$20 billion to

US$30 billion every year to the industrial world. The poor are subsidizing

the rich.

The external debt of our region has not been reduced but has escalated

alarmingly, from US$285 billion in 1981 to US$500 billion today. At the same

time, the application of structural adjustment policies has enormously

increased the social debt in so many countries of the region since the burdens

of payment have fallen disproportionately on the poor, their plight worsened

by sharp cuts in social programmes and public services.

Cancellation or reduction of the debt of underdeveloped countries would

be an act of justice. It would be a first step in the process of constructing

a new world order that will enable sustainable development to take place based

on a new socio-economic strategy that puts people first.

We wish to emphasize that to achieve sustainable development we must

build a new international order based on principles different from those that

now govern international relations. We must reach agreement on a common

strategy that respects the principles of non-intervention in the internal

affairs of States and the right of each country to select its own path to

development. In this day and age there is no place for the unilateral use of

force and for claims made by States to exercise extra-territorial rights. The

new international order must ensure for countries of the South adequate access

to compatible technology, respect for the principle of gradualism for free and

fair trade, just and stable prices for our products, food security, an end to

the North's practices of protectionism and non-tariff barriers, adequate

financial flows and the provision of investment funds that produce mutually

beneficial results.

There is now a growing international recognition of the universal

validity of the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. We

welcome this growing trend towards democratization in our region and in the

world. We deem it necessary to echo the words of the Jakarta Message of the

Tenth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement: no country should use its power to

dictate its concept of democracy and human rights or to impose

conditionalities on others. Human rights must be addressed on the basis of

universality, individuality, impartiality and non-selectivity.

The situation in South Africa today, while mitigated by glimmers of hope,

still presents a picture of daily massive abuse of human rights of black

people. Apartheid, by whatever name, is still firmly in place. We cannot be

complacent about the one-step-forwards, two-steps-backwards syndrome that has

apparently settled on the politics of that suffering country. The

international community must help the South African people to defend the

advances made so far and to advance the negotiations rapidly so that the

people of South Africa may soon be able to start building a truly democratic

State, free of the blights of racism, repression and exploitation.

The people of Palestine, those in the territory and those scattered in

the cruel diaspora, cry out for immediate and effective action to allow them

to exercise their rights to their territory, to self-determination and peace.

The institutionalized denial of the rights of Palestinians in the occupied

territories continues unabated - starting with the right to life and passing

through all categories of rights.

How can we allow such denial and abuse to continue on the threshold of

the twenty-first century? My delegation earnestly calls on all parties

involved rapidly to conclude negotiations for a just solution to the

Palestinian question and on this body to do everything possible to facilitate

the process, beginning with the effective enforcement of all relevant United

Nations resolutions.

In the Arabian Gulf region, as in other regions, we must be alert to any

violations of the principle of territorial integrity. We cannot condone the

acquisition by force of an island, no matter how small, or of any territory.

In our hemisphere the people of Haiti continue to suffer gross violations

of human rights under a military dictatorship that deprives them of the first

fruit of their decades-long struggle for democracy. We in the Caribbean feel

a special concern for - indeed a special debt towards the people of Haiti.

As our Caribbean novelist George Lamming said recently:

"The first and most decisive blow struck at the Plantation, destroying

its hegemony, was the triumph of the Haitian war of independence."

Yet today the democratic triumph of the Haitian people is frustrated as

President Aristide remains in exile.

As a Caribbean country we cannot remain silent in the face of this

injustice. Neither can we condone the systematic strangulation of another

Caribbean nation in violation of all norms of international law. Justice must

be for all. It cannot be selectively dispensed.

Perhaps the greatest contribution to world peace and development made by

modern environmentalists has been to remind us of what our ancestors

instinctively knew: that we cannot use the Earth's resources for our own

benefit, but that if we wish to survive we have to respect the Earth in all

its diversity.

Since that fateful landing 500 years ago, the assault on nature in our

hemisphere has resulted in an ecological destruction unprecedented in world

history. Countless numbers of plant and animal species have been permanently

lost to humanity. The real tragedy, however, is that in this supposedly

enlightened age the destruction continues.

We are destroying the planet by conscious acts of devastation, and the

double tragedy for us in the South is that even when these acts take place

within our jurisdictions we are rarely the authors and hardly ever the

beneficiaries of their short-term gains. While we accept the responsibility

for conserving our common environment, we cannot unilaterally close off

options for development to our people when their need is so great. What is

needed is effective international cooperation that, recognizing our

interdependence, compensates us for our efforts.

We in Belize are taking this responsibility seriously. We have set aside

more than a quarter of the country's land mass as environmentally protected

areas; we have resisted the seductions of mass tourism and opted for

sustainable eco-tourism. We are about to pass a comprehensive environment

protection law.

We are also struggling to come to terms with the demands of maintaining

biodiversity. The regional report, "Our Own Agenda", reminds us that

"diversity of life forms is indispensable for the survival of the

biosphere and the human species. Biodiversity is acknowledged today as a

common value, and its conservation is of a high priority for all".

We also believe, however, that we the world community will never succeed

in respecting and preserving biodiversity if we do not respect and preserve

homodiversity. Our biggest incentive to preserve the environment is

to preserve the human species and enhance its prospects for sustainable

development. While it is true that we are all Earth's children, we are also

enriched by differences. We are one people with many cultures, many

languages, many distinct ways of life, many different creeds. We are one

tapestry, but with many different threads. We must respect these differences,

or there will never be peace.

The phenomenal growth in migration all over the world should convince

even the most sceptical that it is in everyone's interest to learn to respect

the diversity of peoples. This phenomenon, while creating tensions in the

short term, will, we believe, enhance the probability of all of us learning to

live with people whose cultures are in many ways different from our own.

Either that, or we condemn ourselves and our children to perpetual strife.

When we struggle together for justice for all and we learn to respect

nature and humanity, we give ourselves the opportunity of creating a world in

peace. But we cannot talk about creating a peaceful world unless we first

acknowledge that the world is not in peace and identify the major causes of

this situation.

We consider it more important to prevent conflicts than to separate

combatants after conflict has broken out. One cannot speak about keeping the

peace when there is no peace to be kept. We believe, therefore, that the

United Nations should concentrate much more on a new, expanded role of

peace-building.

However, we can work effectively together only if the structures we use

to define and implement our common strategy are based on the very principles

we proclaim. We cannot espouse democracy in our various countries while our

own collective Organization is not only profoundly undemocratic but based on a

world power relationship that is no longer valid.

There is an urgent need to reform the United Nations system. In

particular, the Security Council must be democratized. As His Excellency

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations, states in his

report, "An Agenda for Peace",

"regional action as a matter of decentralization, delegation and

cooperation with the United Nations efforts could not only lighten the

burden of the Council but also contribute to a deeper sense of

participation, consensus and democratization in international affairs".

(A/47/277, para. 64)

In our hemisphere we support moves to strengthen the Organization of

American States and its related institutions and join the efforts to make them

more effective mechanisms for addressing our common concerns.

Closer to home, we are committed to an expanded Caribbean Community

(CARICOM), as recommended by the West Indian Commission in its report entitled

"Time for Action". The Commission recommended that CARICOM initiate proposals

for the establishment of an Association of Caribbean States directed to both

economic integration and functional cooperation, with membership open to all

CARICOM member States, the other island States of the Caribbean and the Latin

American countries of the Caribbean littoral.

The Commission's recommendations are being carefully studied, but we can

say that the concept of an expanded Caribbean Community has always been on

Belize's agenda, not least because we are both a Caribbean and a Central

American country, and we feel called upon to provide one of the vital links

between the two subregions. The task of bringing them closer together is made

easier by Guatemala's recognition of Belize as an independent sovereign State,

and we are confident that with goodwill on both sides there will be a

satisfactory resolution of Guatemala's territorial claim, which is still

outstanding.

Another important principle that our Organization is pledged to respect

is that of universality. This session is enriched by the presence of 20 new

Members, and we must support the call for a return of the Republic of China to

the international community. We cannot continue to ignore the reality of

20 million people organized in a State, and we are confident that those people

are capable of making a useful contribution to our work at the United Nations.

We all rejoice at the end of the cold war. We can all breathe easier now

that the threat of a nuclear holocaust has been reduced. But while none of us

died as a result of the cold war, during all those years millions died from

poverty, and hundreds of millions suffered hunger, malnutrition, lack of

education, poor housing and the indignity of unemployment. The tragedy is

that the system continues to take its toll.

Now that the cold war is ended, are we not entitled to expect something

more than triumphalist declarations of this fact? It is unforgivable that,

while military budgets remain so largely disproportionate to any rational

security need, children are dying from hunger or preventable disease. If,

over the next five years. Governments in our hemisphere alone were to reduce

their military budgets to a level 20 per cent below 1990 figures, a minimum of

$50 billion would be available at the end of that period for the war on

poverty.

Let us not forget that poverty and misery have principally affected women

and young people; they have borne the brunt of the hardships produced by

structural adjustment policies. We must make a firm commitment to implement a

gender perspective aimed at the integration and mobilization of women as full

participants in, and beneficiaries of, the development process.

At the same time, we must take special measures to provide young people

with the education and employment that will allow them to lead healthy and

productive lives. In this context, we cannot but agonize at the terrible toll

that drug abuse and drug trafficking are taking on our young people. We must

redouble our efforts in the fight against these evils. Adequate resources

must be mobilized internationally and made available for the interdiction and

eradication of drugs, as well as for treatment and rehabilitation.

We harbour no illusions about the enormity of our task or about the

chances of our succeeding in creating a just and peaceful world. But, no

matter what the odds, we must make a solemn commitment to give it our best

shot. We owe it to the millions who have gone before us and who have

struggled against injustice and poverty. We owe it to the suffering peoples

of our time. Above all, we owe it to the children who will inherit the world

we make for them. We must all reaffirm our commitment to full and effective

implementation of the Declaration and the Plan of Action of the World Summit

for Children. It is for the children that we must construct a world system

that will guarantee the quality of life necessary to ensure their well-being.

The challenge is there for us. All we can do is begin the task; the

children must pursue it. We must begin now if the children are to have any

chance at all. We must do so with a sense of urgency. Time is running out.

This is the moment to act with God's help and the support of peoples

represented here at the United Nations.