Barbados, 1996

It is my pleasure to

congratulate Ambassador Razali on his election as

President of the fifty-first session of the General

Assembly. The Barbados delegation shares fully the

confidence expressed in his leadership and assures him of

its cooperation in the work of this Assembly.

Let me also warmly commend his predecessor, His

Excellency Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral, for his

outstanding stewardship of the fiftieth session, including

the Special Commemorative Meeting on the occasion of

the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. That

celebration, which brought together 128 Heads of State or

Government, stands as a fitting memorial to the historic

event.

My country’s knowledge of and appreciation for the

United Nations system has deepened since we had the

honour to host the United Nations Global Conference on

the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing

States in 1994. The Barbados Declaration and Programme

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Fifty-first session 3 October 1996

of Action outlined the way forward for the relationship

between small island developing States and the international

community. The Barbados Conference was the first and to

date the only follow-up Global Conference to the United

Nations Conference on Environment and Development,

because it was recognized that small island developing

States have a critical role to play in sustainable

development.

Barbados and other members of the Alliance of Small

Island States will unremittingly pursue the follow-up to the

Programme of Action because our survival depends on it.

We have, however, been disappointed to note that so much

of the promise of the Programme of Action for the

Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States

has as yet gone unfulfilled, and we will engage the

international community further to ensure that our concerns

are addressed.

Barbados welcomes the coming into force of the

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the

establishment of the International Seabed Authority and the

International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. This new

regime for the world’s oceans is of particular interest to us

and to small island developing States in general, because of

the critical link between the maritime environment and our

land mass. Small island developing States are in some ways

just coastal zones, and as such have a particularly intimate

relationship with the oceans, upon which we depend for

food and which are pivotal to our tourism industry.

It is in this context that we view with apprehension the

use of the Caribbean Sea for the trans-shipment of nuclear

and other hazardous materials. While we understand the

needs of countries to dispose of and reprocess waste

materials, and we recognize their right to do so under Law

of the Sea, International Maritime Organization and

International Atomic Energy Agency regulations, we fear

the consequences of accidents for an environment which is

so highly fragile. The Caribbean presents a unique

combination of factors which demand that it be treated with

special care: large numbers of small island developing

States, a semi-enclosed sea subject to violent seasonal

storms, and the presence of one of the most intensively

used shipping passages, the Panama Canal. The Heads of

Government of the Caribbean Community have repeatedly

declared their opposition to the use of the Caribbean Sea

for trans-shipment of nuclear materials. We look forward to

deepened dialogue with flag States and other concerned

States and organizations to ensure that we are all aware of

what is being shipped, when and where, and how best to

manage it.

The vulnerability of Caribbean micro-States is

further increased by narco-trafficking. This illicit trade

threatens the very existence of our democracies, a point

that was reinforced earlier this year when the United

Nations International Drug Control Programme held a

conference in Barbados on drug enforcement and

rehabilitation cooperation in the Caribbean.

Regional cooperation is the responsible and effective

means for implementing international agreements dealing

with this matter. The response of the international

community to our peculiar set of problems has been

encouraging, but it must continue to be upgraded. We

suffer not so much because we are major end-users, but

because of our strategic location in this traffic. We will

continue in our efforts, with the limited resources we

have at our disposal, to ensure that the drug traffic does

not undermine the foundations of our democracies. We

will not stand accused of not cooperating with our

partners, but neither will we allow our hard-fought

sovereignty to be sacrificed in the tug-of-war between the

moral and societal imperative to curtail demand and the

need to reduce supply.

As we herald the International Decade for the

Eradication of Poverty, this delegation is appalled that in

1996, despite the advances in technology and the new

wealth being generated by the forces of globalization,

millions of children still do not have access to the most

basic necessities.

Just as we argued at the Second United Nations

Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) that

humankind has a right to housing, Barbados fully supports

the notion that individuals have a right to adequate

nourishment. We look forward to the World Food Summit

later this year in Rome as being the catalyst for major

change towards alleviating hunger.

Women are among the most impoverished groups in

our societies, and gender equality is a major vehicle for

achieving sustainable human development. Although

Barbados ranks high on the human development index,

particularly as it relates to gender equality, the Beijing

Platform for Action remains for us a critical policy and

action framework.

The landmark fiftieth session was an occasion for

solemn reflection on the mission and performance of the

United Nations and for a constructive assessment of the

challenges which confront the Organization in the post-

cold-war world. Member States have left no doubt about

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the critical role that the United Nations must continue to

play in fostering global peace and security and promoting

sustainable development. They have recognized that,

notwithstanding its shortcomings, this Organization remains

the only universal mechanism which offers the hope of

achieving the goals for humanity enshrined in its Charter.

The task with which we have been charged is to revitalize

the United Nations and to strengthen its capacity to meet

the new demands of rapid global change. My delegation

therefore attaches the greatest importance to the Working

Groups established by the General Assembly to advance the

reform process, in order to make the world a more peaceful

place and to improve the Organization’s effectiveness in

promoting economic and social development.

Reform is now the order of the day. No country or

institution can neglect the reality of globalization or the

technological revolution that drives this process. It poses

major challenges for countries and societies, particularly

small developing countries. We recognize only too well our

own vulnerability to marginalization, stemming from

intense global competition and reform of major global

institutions, including the United Nations. Barbados

therefore follows with special interest the consultations

taking place in the Open-ended Working Group on the

Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the

Membership of the Security Council and other Matters

Related to the Security Council. The question of equitable

representation of small States is of particular concern, and

we are studying closely those proposals which take this

concept into account. At the same time, we note with

satisfaction the broad convergence of views on enlargement

of the Council, and the importance being given to measures

to improve its working methods and procedures, to enhance

its democratic and representative character, and to foster

greater transparency.

We also recognize the important consultations which

are proceeding in the other Working Groups. When this

task is successfully completed, we envisage a United

Nations restructured and re-energized, to accelerate

economic and social development in a world where absolute

poverty still afflicts over one billion people who exist on

less than one dollar a day.

Commitment to reform notwithstanding, the capacity

of the Organization to support this global agenda is being

hampered by recurring financial crises. The United Nations

now finds itself at the crossroads. In April 1996, the

Secretary-General cautioned that the United Nations was on

the brink of financial disaster. Regrettably, this outlook has

not markedly improved to date. Given this prospect, it is

clear that resolute action to address this crisis can no

longer be postponed if the integrity of the Organization

and the viability of its mandates are to be preserved. In

our view, we have debated far too long obligations which

are so clearly spelt out in the United Nations Charter.

Barbados holds firmly to the position advanced by

the Group of 77 and China that the crisis derives

essentially from the Organization’s cash flow problem,

created by the failure of major Member States to pay their

contributions in full and on time. More generally, we

support the principle of periodic review of the scale of

assessments, designed to ensure the long-term financial

viability of the United Nations, based on the principle of

capacity to pay; but we do not believe that this should be

linked conditionally to the issue of arrears as we search

for a solution to the present crisis.

This Assembly will once again review the many

unresolved problems which dominate the global political

scene. The world still awaits the dawn of the new era of

peace envisaged at the end of the cold war. As a small

developing country, Barbados is ever conscious of the

peaceful domestic climate it has enjoyed since

independence in 1966, which has fostered its economic

and social development. We therefore share the anguish

of the international community for those countries where

internal strife and regional conflict, and their attendant

human suffering, continue to deny economic and social

progress to millions of their people.

My delegation therefore welcomes the peace process

which is being implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina

under the Dayton accords. Though still fragile, this

Agreement, we think, offers the best prospects for peace

so far, and we hope for an end to a conflict which has

threatened the very credibility of the United Nations. We

hope that the recent elections will be a further major step

in the building of the confidence and trust so crucial to

long-term reconciliation.

Recent outbreaks of violence in the Middle East

have renewed our anxieties about peace in that region.

The international community yearns for the day when a

full and lasting peace is consolidated in this entire region,

bringing to an end the long cycle of violence. We urge all

the parties to re-embark on this journey and redouble their

efforts to recapture the momentum of the peace process,

which has so far brokered agreements between Israel and

Egypt, Jordan and Palestine.

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In Africa, a number of countries remain locked in

prolonged conflict, which has smothered the democratic

process and stalled the development effort. We urge the

international community to do all it can to stem the

explosive situation in the Great Lakes region. Without

peace there can be no development, and without

development there can be no lasting peace. We therefore

hope for an early breakthrough for peace in affected

countries, not only in Africa but also in other regions of the

world, so that the urgent task of development can be

resumed.

In our own hemisphere, the situation in Haiti continues

to be of special concern to countries of the Latin American

and Caribbean region. Thanks to the resolve of the Haitian

people and the support of the international community, a

viable political and development infrastructure has begun to

take root. It holds the promise of nurturing the still-fragile

democracy and accelerating economic and social progress

which has eluded the majority of the Haitian people for too

long. Speaking on behalf of member States of the

Caribbean Community during consideration of this question

at the fiftieth session, Barbados cautioned that the road

ahead for Haiti would be long and difficult, that progress

would be uneven, and that sustained support from the

international community would continue to be crucial.

We believe that this view is still valid. My delegation

therefore welcomes the adoption of Security Council

resolution 1063 (1996) of 28 June 1996, which established

the United Nations Support Mission in Haiti until 30

November 1996. It will provide continuing support to

secure and maintain a stable environment that will buttress

the democratic and development process. However, come

next month, the international community cannot wash its

hands of Haiti, declare victory and leave. As recent events

have shown, stability, to say nothing of democracy, remains

a fragile sapling that will continue to require care and

protection. We urge that Haitians, who were among the first

in this hemisphere to attempt to define their own post-

colonial political system, not be forgotten in the post-cold-

war world.

Developing countries look to a reformed United

Nations to play a major role in shaping the global society

of the twenty-first century. It must build on the

considerable policy consensus that already exists on the

broad priorities of its agenda, including the link between

peace and development, poverty eradication, sustainable

development, social justice and democracy, issues of

governance, and women. It must continue to nurture the

participatory impulse of civil society, which has emerged as

a major influence on the work of the Organization and on

national public policy. It must propel this heightened

concern with the human condition in all its dimensions to

the top of the global agenda.

Barbados shares these priorities for full human

development by fostering the empowerment of all its

people as it expands its economic and social development.

At the same time, it has taken steps to review and deepen

its democratic and human rights traditions through the

establishment of Commissions on Social Justice and

Reform of the Constitution, respectively. These inquiries

will assess the extent to which the promise of a good and

just society has been fulfilled after 30 years of

independence. They reflect the fact that we assign the

highest priority to social policy and to the cause of human

rights and democracy.

The United Nations faces many challenges, but these

are not insurmountable if we renew our faith in its

mission. Barbados believes that this Organization is still

our best hope for fostering peace and social justice and

for coordinating the management of global problems.

Given the agenda before us, we believe this is a time for

more, not less, intensive global cooperation —

cooperation that only the United Nations can foster. We

remain committed to its principles and will do our part to

help fulfil the promise of the Charter.