Dominica, 2001

I am pleased and

honoured to address the Assembly on behalf of the

Government and the people of the Commonwealth of

Dominica. I wish to extend my congratulations to you,

Sir, and your country, the Republic of Korea, on your

election to the high office of President of the fifty-sixth

session of the General Assembly, confident that your

proven diplomatic skills will serve you well in guiding

the affairs of the General Assembly with efficiency and

purpose. Your immediate predecessor, Mr. Harri

Holkeri, is most deserving of our thanks and

appreciation for the very able manner in which he

presided over the Millennium Summit and the fifty-

fifth session of the General Assembly. Permit me

further to congratulate the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, on his election to a second term and on the

award of the Nobel Peace Prize to him and the United

Nations.

This general debate is being conducted in unusual

circumstances. The horrendous terrorist acts of 11

September 2001 have altered the lives of many in ways

traumatic and fundamentally tragic. I must again

extend deepest condolences and pledge the full support

and solidarity of the Government and the people of the

Commonwealth of Dominica to the Government and

the people of the United States of America and to all

bereaved families, including those who lost their loved

ones on flight 587.

The ripple effects of those acts have resonated in

locations far removed from New York City,

Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, aggravating

economic and social conditions and seriously

disrupting efforts aimed at meeting the many

challenges confronting the United Nations and the

international community. In short, in one way or

another and to a lesser or greater degree, we are all

victims of those acts of terrorism that were visited

upon the United States of America two months ago.

The Commonwealth of Dominica condemns,

without reservation, what is undoubtedly the worst

terrorist act of our times. We are in strong accord with

the sentiments and mandates contained in Security

Council resolutions 1368 (2001) and 1373 (2001) and

General Assembly resolution 56/1, all of which call

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upon the international community to take unified and

cooperative action to prevent and eradicate acts of

terrorism. We understand the need for the exercise of

the right of self-defence in pursuit of those objectives,

and we support the actions being taken to bring justice

to the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of the

terrorist acts of 11 September 2001.

Cognizant of the importance of international

cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Dominica

has proceeded to establish a task force to put in place

the necessary legislative and executive measures for

the implementation of Security Council resolution 1373

(2001). But to be effective beyond the immediate

crisis, counter-terrorism measures, mechanisms and

strategies must be sustained through a comprehensive

approach that seeks to create and strengthen, through

the United Nations, a legal framework against

international terrorism, complemented by strenuous

efforts aimed at improving the social and economic

conditions which adversely affect the poor and

dispossessed.

Beyond the immediate peace and security issues

affected by the events of 11 September, there has been

a considerable impact on the global economy, which

has been thrown into an accelerated decline, with

consequences that are particularly disturbing for small

developing countries like the Commonwealth of

Dominica. In the Caribbean there is strong evidence of

damage to vital sectors of our economy, such as

tourism, financial services and agriculture. The actual

and projected losses of jobs in the region are in the

thousands, and for those countries that were already

experiencing fiscal pressures the prospect of higher

unemployment and decreased revenues is daunting.

Complicating the problem is the great concern

that in the fight against terrorism and in the drive to

enforce counter-terrorism measures, certain areas in

which developing countries in the Caribbean region

have a competitive advantage, such as the financial

services sector, may be subjected to inordinate pressure

and be unfairly targeted and linked to illegal activities

such as money-laundering. We are convinced that well-

regulated, competitive tax jurisdictions should be

treated separately and distinctly from illegal activities

such as money-laundering. The Commonwealth of

Dominica remains firmly committed to the struggle

against international terrorism to the same extent that

we strive to ensure that our financial services sector, a

major pillar of our economic diversification thrust,

does not provide support to the perpetrators of criminal

activity in the financing of terrorism.

The current effort against international terrorism

is important, and our focus on that activity is

warranted. There are, however, other dimensions of the

global agenda which should command the attention of

the international community and the United Nations.

They cannot be relegated to the back burner of our

concerns. They comprise a wide range of economic,

social, political and humanitarian problems faced on a

daily basis and, for the most part, by the poor and

disadvantaged of the world. Indeed, some of them are

likely to be exacerbated by the fight against terrorism,

and their successful resolution will continue to be the

greatest challenge of the United Nations and the

international community.

At the Millennium Summit last year there was

general agreement on the issues needing urgent

attention and the goals to be achieved. One year later

those goals appear to be as far from being realized as

ever. Commitment appears to be lacking on all fronts.

The objective of a 50 per cent reduction in the number

of persons living in poverty worldwide by the year

2015 suffers from the perennially tepid effort to deal

with the root causes of poverty. Contributions from the

industrial countries are woefully inadequate, and the

required adjustment of the strategies of the

international financial institutions is slow in coming.

The outcome is less than desirable in creating and

maintaining an enabling environment for the more

effective management of projects geared to poverty

reduction.

That lack of commitment is evident in other

areas. A year after the Millennium Summit and six

months after the General Assembly special session on

HIV/AIDS, the international community seems to have

lost interest in a crisis that the Secretary-General

labelled the greatest public health challenge of our

times. As front-page news, HIV/AIDS claimed

attention for only a short time after the special session,

but the disease claimed millions of lives last year and

created millions of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa,

which continues to have the highest rates of infection.

The Caribbean region ranks a close second.

The Global Fund for AIDS and Health proposed

by the Secretary-General is clearly not realizing its

spending target of $7 billion to $10 billion, and will not

be able to achieve the stated goal of reversing the

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spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015, as declared by world

leaders at the Millennium Summit. The majority of

people infected with HIV/AIDS live in the developing

world and the high incidence of HIV/AIDS infection is

considered a function of poverty. The circularity of the

problem has tremendous implications for economic

development, poverty reduction and efforts to raise

living standards in developing countries. The accepted

premise is that international development cooperation

plays a vital role in the development of the mechanisms

necessary for enhancing the trade competitiveness of

developing countries, strengthening financial systems,

and developing human resources, but that role is

clearly undermined by the declining trend in official

development assistance (ODA).

Once again we see the lack of commitment to the

fulfilment of a stated goal. It is generally accepted that

were industrialized countries to meet their promised

official development assistance of 0.7 per cent of gross

national product (GNP), the countries of the

developing world would be much nearer to solving

many of the problems with which they are plagued. As

a substitute for the failed promise, developing

countries have been told to place greater reliance on

foreign direct investment, most of which bypasses the

most needy and the smallest economies. The

Commonwealth of Dominica falls into that category of

States for which official development assistance is

vitally critical to the development of their economies.

That is why the Commonwealth of Dominica and other

States in the region attach such importance to the

convening of the International Conference on

Financing for Development, which will be held in

Mexico from 18 to 22 March 2002. Given the changing

global realities that are impacting adversely on the

economies of developing States, the Conference will

provide an opportunity for us to assess the impact of

declining official development assistance and for

creating new mechanisms for financing development.

Over the past several years and in many different

forums, particularly in the World Trade Organization

(WTO), we have been calling for the formal

recognition of the special problems facing small

vulnerable economies. We fear that without such

recognition it will be impossible for small States to be

fully integrated into the multilateral trading system of

the globalized world. Our fears have been confirmed

both by the generally poor performance of small States

under WTO arrangements and by a very authoritative

report by the World Bank and Commonwealth

Secretariat on the issue of smallness and vulnerability.

The unique characteristics of small vulnerable

economies, which have been articulated in numerous

studies, give a clear indication of the challenges that

these economies face in improving their development

prospects and in adjusting to liberalization and

globalization. Many of these economies are at a

crossroads. The reality is that trade preferences are

eroding; official flows are declining, while historical

ties with former partners in development are fading. It

is therefore imperative that in order to prevent further

marginalization of small economies, steps must be

taken in the multilateral trading system and elsewhere

to address the concerns of those economies and to

ensure their growth and development.

The exclusion of the Republic of China on

Taiwan from membership of the United Nations makes

little sense in today’s world of globalization and

interdependence, particularly in light of the fact that

this sovereign State, with a democratically elected

Government, is the world’s seventeenth largest

economy, the fifteenth largest in international trade, the

eighth largest foreign investor, the fourth largest in

terms of foreign exchange reserves, and the third

largest exporter of information technology (IT)

products. The Commonwealth of Dominica intends no

interference in the internal affairs of any Member

State, nor can such interpretation be validly applied to

our action. Our plea is a simple call for justice for the

23 million people of the Republic of China on Taiwan

and an appeal for the recognition of their right to be

treated in international affairs no differently from

citizens of any other country.

The eleventh of September 2001 will undoubtedly

be remembered for the horrifying nature of the terrorist

acts, the magnitude of the senseless destruction of lives

and property and the forced recognition of our common

vulnerability. But the heroism, the extraordinary

fortitude and selflessness of ordinary men and women,

and the demonstrated triumph of the human spirit over

the worst manifestation of evil, inspire us to hope that

with dedicated commitment we can create for all

mankind a world that is measurably better than that

which we have today. The time to begin is now.