Barbados, 1998

It is my special pleasure

to congratulate Mr. Didier Opertti, as the honoured

representative of the Group of Latin American and

Caribbean States, on his election to preside over the fifty-

third session of the General Assembly, and to extend to

him the full cooperation of the Barbados delegation. I

wish also to express our deep appreciation to his

predecessor, Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko, for his effective

leadership and management of the fifty-second session of

the General Assembly — the reform Assembly.

This fifty-third session, which is coming to a close

at the dawn of the twenty-first century, compels us to

focus on the preparedness of the United Nations for the

challenges of the new millennium. It could well be a

historic session, if it resolves to equip and re-energize the

Organization to seize this great moment.

The process of global reform is under way. Barbados

strongly supports the proposals of the Secretary-General,

particularly those aimed at improving the Organization?s

efficiency and effectiveness. My delegation is pleased

with the encouraging start to this process. We would

caution, however, against reforms that are driven unduly

by staff reduction targets or predetermined by budgetary

constraints. To do so could well jeopardize

implementation of the very Programmes of Action of the

global conferences — from Rio to Rome — which

constitute the global priorities endorsed by Member

States.

Meaningful reform also obliges us to come to terms

with the financial crisis which has constrained the

Organization far too long, injuring its integrity and

necessitating the use of creative accounting methods to

keep it afloat. Prolonged non-payment of arrears by the

largest contributor is not a proud legacy to the United

Nations of the twenty-first century. Let us put this

Organization on a sound financial footing through prompt

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settlement of arrears, without conditions, consistent with our

Charter obligations.

Reform of the Security Council is also a key

imperative if the United Nations is to remain relevant in the

twenty-first century. In particular, the Council must better

reflect the Organization?s current membership, and it must

conduct its deliberations with greater transparency.

The growing threat to global peace and security has

put the Organization?s capacity to cope under considerable

stress, underscoring the urgent need to streamline and

modernize its peacekeeping machinery. We envisaged that

the end of the cold war would usher in a new era of peace

and stability, but the changed nature of conflict has found

the Organization?s traditional machinery ill-equipped and

the political will to act severely constrained, even in the

face of unthinkable crimes against humanity.

That is why my delegation hails the successful

outcome of the recent Conference of Plenipotentiaries held

in Rome, resulting in the creation of a permanent

International Criminal Court. This landmark Statute is a

fitting complement to the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, whose fiftieth anniversary we celebrate this year.

We are pleased to recall that it was the delegation of

Trinidad and Tobago that introduced the item on the

creation of an international criminal court at the forty-fourth

session of the Assembly, in 1989.

The post-cold-war world has not become a safer place.

New eruptions of strife and the intractability of old conflicts

have worsened the fragile political situation in many

developing countries. Such instability has diverted energies

and resources from the policy priorities of sustainable

development and poverty reduction. Ninety percent of

today?s conflicts take place within countries, not between

countries. And the majority of casualties are civilians, not

soldiers; thus the heightened international concern with the

loss of life and disability of thousands of innocent victims

every year. Barbados therefore joined 121 States in Ottawa

last December in signing the Convention on the Prohibition

of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-

Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. Its entry into

force by 1 March 1999 will come not a moment too soon.

Barbados recognizes the growing danger under which

United Nations peacekeepers carry out their duties and

laments the recent loss of life at a number of stations. We

appeal to all parties to conflicts to respect the neutral role

of these brave and dedicated servants of peace, and turn to

reconciliation and compromise; only then will they be able

to foster the domestic stability that is so critical for

sustained economic growth and for improving the living

standards of their people.

The widening scene of strife and instability threatens

global peace and security on a number of fronts. Stalled

negotiations between Israel and Palestine have renewed

our anxiety about the prospects for peace in a region

weary of conflict. The arm of terrorism has now reached

countries hitherto spared from this scourge. International

trafficking in illegal drugs and arms — in particular,

small arms — poses the most serious threat to democracy

and society in small States.

Nuclear tests have created new fears about the

proliferation issue. We will continue to support the goals

of non-proliferation, leading to the elimination of all

nuclear weapons.

Barbados will continue to condemn, in the strongest

terms, all acts of terrorism. We will work assiduously

with regional partners, the United Nations International

Drug Control Programme, and the international

community to implement the Barbados Programme of

Action to fight the scourge of drug-trafficking.

The lesson of this security situation is clear.

Remedies are beyond the capacity of individual countries,

even the most developed. The reality of global

interdependence demands a greater commitment to

collective security goals and better coordination of actions

against the global security threat.

I now turn briefly to another dimension of the global

security problem — namely, human security. In this

connection, let me acknowledge the debt of gratitude

which developing countries owe to the distinguished

Pakistani economist, the late Mahbub ul Haq, my friend

and colleague. More than any other, he made the human

condition central to modern development thinking,

especially through his pioneering work in the Human

Development Report series of the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP). His intellectual

contribution to the debate on sustainable development and

poverty reduction was substantial. It focused policy

attention on people, and in particular on the plight of

more than one fifth of the world?s population that lives in

conditions of poverty and hopelessness.

This concern with the right to development for all

people should be a central component of the discussion

on globalization and liberalization and the impact of these

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phenomena on developing countries, especially the poorest

countries. We believe the United Nations must be the

conscience of the international community on behalf of the

poor and vulnerable in this global conversation.

My delegation therefore welcomed the recent high-

level dialogue of the General Assembly on the social and

economic impact of globalization and interdependence and

their policy implications. We found the discussions

instructive. There was broad agreement that the process of

globalization has opened new possibilities for faster

economic growth and improved living standards through the

free flow of capital across borders. However, many

developing countries have not yet shared in the fruits of this

process. And while the benefits are obvious, the associated

risks, though grave, are less evident. Who would have

envisaged that the East Asian economies would be engulfed

by a financial crisis of such a scale, and to such a degree

of volatility and dislocation as to threaten the very fabric of

their societies and, indeed, the global economy?

While many questions have been raised about the pros

and cons of unrestricted capital flows which underlie this

crisis, and the role of the Bretton Woods institutions in this

global order, reassuring answers are few. Clearly, the crisis

points in part to deficiencies in the global architecture and

governance of finance. We discern a world economy so

radically altered from that of even a decade ago that we are

obliged to focus on the deficit in our understanding of how

it works, and on how to design a new structure for its

orderly governance. Since there is as yet no settled

approach to adjustment policy towards globalization — in

particular, measures to protect the poor and vulnerable

groups — the voice of the United Nations must be raised

in debate on these critical areas of enquiry.

Small island developing States, given their

vulnerability to both environmental and economic shocks,

are following with much anxiety these developments in the

global economy. We welcome a number of ongoing studies

on the vulnerability of small island developing States. In

December 1997, an Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting on

Vulnerability Indices for Small Island Developing States,

convened by the United Nations Secretariat, concluded that

as a group, small island developing countries are more

vulnerable than other groups of developing countries. More

recently, a high-level committee established by the

Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, and chaired by

The Right Honourable Owen Arthur, Prime Minister of

Barbados, held consultations with key international

agencies, including the World Bank, the International

Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization

(WTO), on the vulnerability of small island developing

States, particularly in the current global situation.

As if to reinforce this reality, just a few days ago

hurricane Georges dealt us a brutal reminder, wiping out

in a matter of hours economic growth which took years

to accumulate. We lament the heavy loss of life and the

widespread destruction of property in a number of our

sister islands of the Caribbean, as well as in the southern

United States. We join in the appeal for urgent

international assistance.

Barbados shares with developing countries the

growing concern about the impact of globalization and

liberalization, given its limited resource base and technical

capacity. We recognize that adaptation to this irreversible

process is an imperative, not an option, and that countries

will pay a high price for policy of inaction. Barbados is

therefore implementing a broad program of social,

economic and institutional reform to better manage rapid

global change while deepening its integration into the

regional economy, especially the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM). The recent conference of heads of

Government, held in Saint Lucia from 30 June to 4 July,

marked the silver jubilee of CARICOM, and gave further

impetus to the process towards a single market and

economy.

In response to the increasing policy demands of

globalization, CARICOM States have established

technical machinery, under high-level political direction,

to underpin regional negotiations under way within the

hemisphere. These negotiations will lead to a Free Trade

Area of the Americas (FTAA) in 2005. This will be the

largest and most differentiated of regional trading blocks.

We recognize that technical support will be required on

an ongoing basis to ensure that small States develop the

capacity to negotiate effectively, share equitably in the

benefits of trade and secure transition arrangements on

entry that will minimize economic dislocation.

At the wider international level, Barbados was

pleased to host in May 1998 the sixty-seventh session of

the Council of Ministers of the African, Caribbean and

Pacific (ACP), as well as the meeting of the twenty-third

joint ACP-European Union (EU) Council of Ministers.

These consultations focused on future ACP-EU relations,

in particular, the structure of cooperation following the

expiration of the Lomé Convention in the year 2000.

Following those gatherings, Barbados assumed the

presidency of the ACP Council of Ministers, which will

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today, 29 September, launch formal negotiations for

successor arrangements to the Lomé Convention. Here

again, the participation of CARICOM will be bolstered by

the technical work and direction of the regional negotiating

mechanism. CARICOM States will seek opportunities for

fruitful cooperation and information-sharing with other ACP

members during the course of these critical negotiations.

Even a passing reference to ACP-EU relations triggers

our concern about the long-standing and still unresolved

issue of banana exports from CARICOM States to the

European Union. The WTO decision on this matter, if

implemented, will have a devastating impact on affected

countries? economies and on the livelihood of large sections

of their populations. Moreover, it would create uncertainty

about investment and the overall prospects for development

in the region. CARICOM States remain deeply seized of

this question and hope that a satisfactory solution of this

grievance can be reached soon.

My delegation looks forward to the special session of

the General Assembly in September 1999, at which the

Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable

Development of Small Island Developing States will be

reviewed. Within the framework of the Alliance of Small

Island States (AOSIS), we will participate actively in the

preparatory process, including the planned donors?

conference in February 1999. We believe that conference

will provide a useful opportunity to foster support for a

portfolio of priority projects that will boost implementation

of this Programme over the next several years.

We attach similar importance to the meeting of the

Commission on Sustainable Development scheduled for

April 1999, which will help deepen our preparation for the

special session. That meeting will focus on sustainable

tourism and oceans, the virtual lifeline of small island

developing States. It will underline our concern with the

preservation and sustainable management of our marine

resources and highlight our anxiety over the use of the

Caribbean Sea for the trans-shipment of nuclear and other

hazardous materials through this fragile marine ecosystem.

That is why CARICOM States will seek recognition of the

Caribbean Sea as a special area in the context of

sustainable development.

The special session will be an important landmark in

the implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action.

Barbados is proud of this international Programme that

bears its name. It remains a sound blueprint for policies

which support the sustainable development of small island

developing States, taking into account their special needs

and vulnerabilities. We believe that with the continued

cooperation and support of our international partners we

can strengthen the implementation of the Programme of

Action and consolidate its long-term viability.

Let me conclude by saying that the fifty-third

session of the General Assembly has before it many

critical issues for consideration. My delegation believes,

however, that none has higher priority than renewed

commitment to this indispensable Organization and to the

strengthening of its capacity to meet the challenges of the

new millennium. Small island developing States believe

deeply in the United Nations. It has placed their

vulnerability firmly into the consciousness of the

international community. But more than that, this is the

only institution which embodies the goals of peace and

security, sustainable development, democracy and social

justice, which define our common humanity.

Barbados pledges its full commitment and support to

this universal mission.