Belize, 2005

We congratulate the

President of the General Assembly on the assumption

of his office. His extensive experience in multilateral

affairs will undoubtedly be an invaluable asset in our

work.

The 2005 world summit has clearly demonstrated

that, in five years, we have not given poverty

eradication the highest priority on our international

agenda.

It is clear that in too many countries the

Millennium Development Goals will not be realized; in

some, the situation is worse than five years ago. How

then do we assure the marginalized people of our world

that we are serious about achieving the Millennium

Development Goals by the year 2015? The only way is

by showing that there is the global political will to use

the outcome document as a platform for action.

In his report “In larger freedom”, Kofi Annan

stressed that the priority objectives of the United

Nations over the coming years should be to secure for

people “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear”.

What is often not recognized is that a person who is not

free from want can only live in fear.

The greatest evil — the most effective and

consuming terrorism of our age — is the terrorism of

abject poverty. It is a poverty in which millions of

people live in terror because they know that sooner, not

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later, they might die from hunger or from preventable

diseases.

Every day in our region of Central America and

the Caribbean, our people face threats to their human

security: from AIDS, drug trafficking, trafficking in

human persons, crushing poverty and growing

inequality.

A new security approach is therefore required to

contain these threats. We must promote the

humanization of security rather than embark on efforts

to militarize globalization. We must focus on stopping

the deaths that occur every day, most often from

preventable causes. Global security cannot be built on

a minefield of poverty and disease.

Prioritizing human security does not mean

neglecting national sovereignty or State security. As

part of our national security strategy, we remain

committed to fostering a culture of peace and the

peaceful resolution of conflicts.

In the Middle East, we are encouraged by the

Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. We join others

in calling upon the Government of Israel to continue

the withdrawal from all Palestinian territories. We look

forward to the implementation of its commitments in

accordance with the road map that will lead to the

realization of two independent States, Palestine and

Israel, coexisting side by side in peace and security.

The 23 million people on Taiwan also deserve to

live in peace and security. We therefore continue to

urge the United Nations to take up the plea of Taiwan

to participate in this world body. Taiwan has earned its

place among the community of nations.

Belize continues to be plagued by an

anachronistic claim to its territory from our neighbour

Guatemala. But, encouragingly, earlier this month

Belize and Guatemala signed a new agreement under

the auspices of the Organization of American States.

Under that agreement, if we are unable to resolve the

dispute through negotiations, the Secretary-General of

the Organization of American States can then

recommend that we submit our differences to an

international juridical body. We therefore hope that we

can ensure the early and final resolution of this dispute,

so that we can cooperate more effectively to combat

our common problems of poverty and underdevelopment.

We all recognize that there can be no security

without development. The world summit outcome

document maintains the vision of development

elaborated in the Millennium Declaration, the

Monterrey Consensus, the Johannesburg Plan of

Implementation and other outcomes, including the

Mauritius Strategy.

If we are to make measurable progress in

development, we must urgently implement the global

partnership for development. That global partnership

involves returning development issues to the forefront

of trade negotiations. Without a deeper commitment

from developed countries to trade regimes that are

more just, the future of the sugar and banana industries

in countries such as Belize hangs in the balance. We

must therefore spare no effort to ensure that the latest

Doha development round concludes on terms

favourable to developing countries like Belize.

As a coastal nation with a significant population

in low-lying areas, my country emphasizes the need for

new action to ensure environmental sustainability,

particularly as it relates to climate change. We agree

with the Secretary-General that:

“One of the greatest environmental and

development challenges in the twenty-first

century will be that of controlling and coping

with climate change.” (A/59/2005, para. 60)

The increased temperatures occasioned by

climate change are likely to lead to greater frequency

of life-threatening weather systems. The most

vulnerable to these changes will be small island

developing States and coastal nations like Belize. It is

therefore incumbent upon the international community

to improve the framework for action to cope with

climate change. The eleventh session of the Conference

of the Parties to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change is an opportunity to

forge wider and more inclusive cooperation to address

that grave danger.

So much of what we hope to achieve depends on

a United Nations that is effective and credible. Some

recent reports point to systemic problems throughout

the United Nations Organization. These, in our view,

provide evidence of an Organization that is flawed —

not one that is irrelevant. Belize therefore continues to

view the United Nations as an indispensable

Organization. It is the only global Organization that

has the capacity to meaningfully foster peace, security

and sustainable development for the peoples of our

world.

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But the United Nations must reinvent itself to

meet the needs of today’s geopolitics and unique global

challenges. The General Assembly and the Economic

and Social Council must be revitalized and

strengthened. Similarly, the Security Council must be

reformed to make it more accountable, inclusive and

representative of the current membership of the United

Nations.

The establishment of the Peacebuilding

Commission and of the Human Rights Council are

important, but we must define ways in which these

bodies can reinforce the work of the other principal

organs of the United Nations.

In the five years that have elapsed since the year

2000, our collective lack of political will has resulted

in the loss of millions of children, women and men to

hunger, disease, HIV/AIDS and other preventable

causes. But we can halt and reverse that trend. We must

give a reformed United Nations, as the ultimate

expression of multilateralism, the means to carry out

its mandate, as set out in Article I of the Charter: “To

achieve international cooperation in solving international

problems of an economic, social, cultural or

humanitarian character”.

Our world is besieged by such problems. We can

carry out this mandate by implementing all the

commitments we have made since the year 2000, or we

can ignore them and condemn many millions more to

live in misery or die in pain. The choice is ours.