Belize, 2013

I am once again privileged

to address the General Assembly on behalf of my

country, Belize.

It is with great delight that I congratulate you,

Sir, on your election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. You are a

testament to all the peoples of the Caribbean and the

world of the height to which each of us can aspire

when industry and character are fused into one. Rest

assured, Mr. President, of the unqualified support of

Belize throughout your term in office. I also take this

opportunity to thank your predecessor for his service as

President of the Assembly at its sixty-seventh session.

It is in the quest for the attainment of the two ideals

of peaceful conflict resolution and the enhancement of

the lives of all peoples that leaders of Member States

make this annual pilgrimage in September to address

the General Assembly. Belize commends the United

Nations and its visionary leadership over the years for

its unflinching efforts in discharging the core functions

of the Organization.

The promulgation of the Millennium Development

Goals, in 2000, resulted in all countries working together,

for the first time in human history, to address and

rectify the gaps in their development agenda to reduce

poverty. It was a signal event and a major breakthrough

for the United Nations development agenda. It gave

hope for the provision of huge amounts of desperately

and genuinely needed aid, the transfer of technology

and other development assistance from affluent nations,

financial institutions and philanthropists to nations

mired in poverty. That was undoubtedly good news. It

was reminiscent of the Marshall Plan, which rescued

Germany and Japan from abject ruin after the Second

World War and catapulted them to heights of affluence

they had never experienced before.

By the end of the 1990s, most countries were in

dire straits. According to former Secretary-General

Kofi Annan, more than 60 per cent of the world

subsisted on $2 or less per day, while more than

1 billion people were living on less than $1 per day.

Illiteracy was nearly at 1 billion people. Eight hundred

million people were chronically hungry — one in seven

people on Earth — including 200 million children. And

1.3 billion people lacked even the most basic health-

care, sanitation and education services. Today, 13 years

later, as the Millennium Development Goals are being

implemented, the scorecard reveals that, while a small

minority of countries are showing commendable

success in attaining the Millennium Development

Goals, the vast majority of nations are still mired in

poverty, with scant or no signs of development.

We note with disappointment that rich countries

have not even been able to bring themselves to honour

their commitment to contribute 0.7 per cent of their

gross domestic product as official domestic assistance

to poor countries. The resources being provided by

international and other financial institutions and

by private donors fall far short of what is needed by

poor countries to attain those laudable, and indeed

basic, Goals. It is evident that, for some inexplicable

reason, developed countries have abandoned Goal

8 — developing a global partnership for development. In

the absence of the cooperation of developed countries,

the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals

by poor countries will remain an illusion.

Poor countries possess neither the requisite

leadership cadres, the financial, human and technical

resources, the infrastructure, the necessary levels of

investment and trade nor the institutions to bring about

levels of development that are capable of generating

the wealth needed to underwrite the expenses

associated with the attainment and, most important,

the sustainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

Perhaps even worse, far too many countries have no

realistic prospects for achieving such capacity within

the foreseeable future. Despite that, Belize remains

committed to the attainment of the Goals, which we are

pursuing assiduously.

Given our experience with the Millennium

Development Goals, it is, in our view, eminently fitting

that you, Mr. President, should have kept the spotlight on

the post-2015 development agenda for the sixty-eighth

session of the General Assembly. In that connection,

the theme “The post-2015 development agenda:

setting the stage” is very apt indeed. The Millennium

Development Goals must remain a work in progress. The

post-2015 development agenda must be informed by our

experiences with the Millennium Development Goals.

In that regard, a careful analysis must be undertaken to

ascertain why our rich development partners have failed

to live up to their obligations under the partnership to

provide the promised development aid and expertise to

poor development partners. And new mechanisms must

be devised to ensure that the post-2015 development

agenda does not suffer a similar fate.

As we embark upon setting the stage for the post-

2015 development agenda, Belize has recognized and

identified four underpinning points: that the post-

2015 agenda must be global; that it should integrate

the outcomes of major summits into a cohesive

action-oriented agenda that can be implemented,

building upon successes and improving lessons

learned; that the necessary resources must be sourced

and committed to underwrite the new partnership for

development; and that it must be guided by our core

values of conflict prevention and poverty eradication.

Belize endorses the intergovernmental processes

for the elaboration of the post-2015 development

agenda. Our domestic priorities, which complement the

global agenda, are contained in the document Horizon

2030, which articulates our development framework.

Sector-specific documents emanating from Horizon

2030 inform our national development agenda in areas

such as security, energy, gender, education and health.

Topping the list of our domestic priorities at this

time is the resolution of the Guatemalan claim, which

poses an existential threat to our nation and requires

urgent resolution if the peoples of our two countries

and our region are to continue to enjoy the peaceful

coexistence that has characterized our relationship thus

far. When I addressed the Assembly last September

(see A/67/PV.20), I was pleased to report that our

two States had agreed to submit to the citizens of our

respective countries, in a simultaneous referendum to

be held on 6 October 2013, six days from today, the

question of whether it was the will of our respective

constituencies that the Guatemalan claim be submitted

to the International Court of Justice for a final

resolution. Regretfully, however, last April, Guatemala

gave official notice to both Belize and the Organization

of American States that the Guatemalan Government

had decided not to proceed with the referendum and

was proposing that it be postponed sine die. Not

unexpectedly, that decision was not well received in

Belize.

The Guatemalan claim is a constant source of

anxiety for our citizens as well as for investors in our

country. Furthermore, both our territorial and maritime

border regions have been suffering from depredations

and environmental degradation as a consequence of the

wanton and sustained illegal activities of Guatemalan

campesinos, fishermen and criminal elements engaged

in narco-trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling,

illegal panning for gold, the extraction of xaté and other

exotic plants and animals, the illegal felling of timber

and the pillaging of our ancient Mayan ruins. The

felling of timber in our rainforests is contributing to

the denuding of our mountains, which results in violent

flooding in the rainy season and the transfer of topsoil,

sand and silt into the sea. Those soils are then ultimately

deposited on our pristine barrier reef, choking and

destroying its fragile ecosystems and compromising

the health of the entire reef and the marine ecological

system that thrives there.

Additionally, the increasing trespassing by

Guatemalans into our country has given rise to more

frequent violent encounters between Guatemalans

and members of the Belize Defence Force, resulting

in fatalities in some instances. Those incidents put a

heavy strain on the relations between our country and

Guatemala and the peace of our region as a whole.

While Belize appreciates that the activities of

the Guatemalans in our border regions are the direct

result of poverty and failed development in their

own country, we are concerned by the fact that such

activities create the conditions for conflict. There are

some 65 Guatemalan villages along the 141-mile-long

Belize-Guatemala border. The villagers there are

largely indigent and unemployed. Absent higher

employment and increased security patrols on both

sides of the border, the incursions of Guatemalans will

not, in our view, abate, but will only get worse.

Belize is resolved to do everything in its power

to protect its citizens and territorial integrity, but our

efforts alone will not be sufficient to put an end to the

forays of Guatemalans into our country. Input from

the international community will be vital in assisting

with the development of income-generating enterprises

in the border regions to ameliorate the poverty there,

which is what compels Guatemalans to trespass in

those regions.

Border conflicts are dangerous by nature. In his

memoir, Interventions: A Life in War and Peace, former

Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote:

“[Conflicts] suck in their neighbours, send

thousands of refugees spilling into other countries,

create havens for armed groups and terrorists,

and they cause the spread of criminal networks

and cross-border lawlessness, including piracy. In

short, conflicts ... are inherent generators of global

insecurity, the causes of which need to be addressed

by wealthy and poor States alike.”

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the

Organization of American States and the group of

friends who support the efforts of Belize and Guatemala

to resolve the Guatemalan claim peaceably and, in the

interim, to ensure that peace is maintained between our

two countries.

Climate change is another existential threat,

looming not only over Belize but over all nations of

the world, large and small. In our view, it is urgent

that the international community arrive at consensus

as to the imminence and magnitude of the threat

posed to humankind by climate change, as well as

on the way forward in dealing successfully with that

perilous phenomenon. That is another threat that can

be successfully dealt with only by the United Nations.

Combating the threat will necessitate huge expenditures,

the deployment of cutting-edge technology and, most

likely, the cessation of the use of fossil fuels.

Developing countries such as Belize will need both

technical and financial assistance from the international

community and international financial institutions to

adapt to the changes being brought about by climate

change and to mitigate the deleterious effects thereof.

Belize has established a national climate

-change committee to coordinate our Government’s

interventions in all areas relating to climate change. We

are also establishing a new climate-change policy and

strategy that provides for the scaling up of mitigation

and adaptation efforts at all levels. We applaud the

Secretary-General for his decision to convene a high-

level meeting on climate change in the near future.

The security of its citizens is a paramount obligation

of every Government. The Belize Government takes

that responsibility seriously. However, the threats to

the security of our citizens are so numerous in today’s

globalized world that no single country has the capacity

to tackle the issue on its own. Consequently, Belize works

actively with our multilateral and bilateral partners in

funding the necessary resources, technical assistance

and training in our quest to secure our citizenry. We

are party to the Central American Security Strategy,

which is dedicated to combating the activities of

national, regional and transnational criminals. We also

collaborate closely with security and law enforcement

authorities in our region, including Canada, the United

Kingdom, the United States and Mexico.

We are very pleased with the adoption, earlier this

year, of the Arms Trade Treaty and we will, in due

course, ratify it. We have also enacted a whole raft of

legislation to strengthen our crime-fighting capabilities.

The Belize Government invests as much as 26 per

cent of its annual budgeted expenditure on the education

sector. We believe that education is one of the quickest

ways to lift our people out of poverty. Also, one half of

our population is below the age of 25 and approximately

37 per cent is below the age of 18. They will all need

world-class education and skills training if they are

to be able to compete successfully in global markets.

At this time, Belize is not able to provide education

and training at that level locally and cooperates with

its international partners for the provision, in large

measure, of such education.

Non-communicable diseases and disabilities

are impacting the countries in the Caribbean region

very negatively. In our own country, the incidence of

cancers, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, chronic lung diseases,

hypertension and strokes is reaching epidemic

proportions. Empirical data reveal that in low-

and middle-income countries, non-communicable

-isease-related impairments account for 65.5 per cent

of persons living with disabilities. It is therefore urgent

that the United Nations work to address the afflictions

that are blighting the lives of untold numbers of our

citizens.

At the most recent meeting of the Heads of

Government of the Caribbean Community, a historic

decision was taken that the Community should pursue

all the necessary steps to recover reparations for the

descendants of the victims of the transatlantic slave

trade from the nations that participated in and benefited

from that trade. Belize urges the United Nations to lend

its support to that initiative, which seeks to address, at

least in part, the unspeakable evil perpetrated by the

European nations that participated in the trade.

Earlier this year, Belize successfully rescheduled

its debt obligations with its commercial bondholders,

an exercise that enabled us to avoid the spectre

of sovereign default. Despite that restructuring,

however, Belize’s capacity to finance its development

programmes is still challenged, and it continues to

rely on cooperation with its bilateral and multilateral

partners to achieve its development goals. In that

regard, Belize would like to express its gratitude to

the United Nations and its related agencies, including

the United Nations Development Programme, the

United Nations Population Fund, UNICEF, UNESCO,

the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United

Nations, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

and the Pan American Health Organization, which

work tirelessly to support the implementation of our

national development objectives. We also wish to thank

the many nations that are currently partnering with us

in development.

Belize would like to enlist the support of the

United Nations in helping to persuade the international

financial organizations that per capita gross domestic

product is not in itself an accurate measure of a nation’s

wealth or stage of development, particularly in the case

of heavily indebted middle-income countries like ours.

Such a method of assessment would disqualify those

countries, including my own, from eligibility for badly

needed concessionary financing, and that eventuality

could well lead to reversals of their hard-won gains.

The Government of Belize is committed to a rights-

based approach to the development of our country and

people. To that end, we have embraced the international

human rights regime and are making our best efforts to

enable inclusive growth. In that regard, we are pleased

to inform the Assembly that the Government of Belize

has, in consultation with its stakeholder partners at

the national level, submitted the report for its second

universal periodic review for consideration by the

Human Rights Council at its seventeenth session, in

October.

I would like to inform the Assembly that we, too,

condemn the cowardly terrorist act that took place

recently in Kenya.

Earlier I referred to my country’s position on the

post-2015 development agenda — that the agenda

must be inclusive if we are to achieve meaningful

development. We need to ensure that all our countries

are allowed to participate in a meaningful manner,

and that includes the people of the Republic of China

on Taiwan. We cannot deny the significant advances

they have been able to make in such a short time, or

their contributions in support of global goals and

commitments, especially in the area of development

cooperation. Their experience can teach us about

advancing our own development.

Every year the Assembly votes to lift the economic

embargo on Cuba. We continue to support that call.

Belize also continues to call for an urgent and

peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The situation in the Middle East troubles us. As

responsible citizens of the world, we condemn the

use of chemical weapons and welcome the framework

agreement — led by Russia and the United States of

America and supported by the Security Council — that

we hope will lead to the removal of all chemical and

biological weapons from Syria. We also call on other

nations to abide by the Convention on the Prohibition

of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use

of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction.

As we approach the end of an era and look towards

the post-2015 development process, our Government,

policymakers, planners and all levels of society will

be challenged to focus on what we want and what we

can achieve together. We must commit to a process

of ensuring that we adopt goals and objectives that

reflect global priorities and are adapted to our national

contexts. Our agenda must be reflective of the world’s

most pressing problems, which include, but are not

limited to, environmental sustainability, inequality,

growth with equity and social inclusion.

We are confident that under your guidance,

Mr. President, that process will be an inclusive,

accessible and transparent one.