Federated States of Micronesia, 1994

I am

honoured to address this forty-ninth session of the General

Assembly. First, I wish to congratulate Mr. Amara Essy on

his election to the presidency, and to say that his

experience makes him an excellent choice to ably lead

this body to meet the challenges ahead. I also take this

opportunity, on behalf of my Government, to congratulate

the former President, His Excellency Mr. Samuel

Insanally, and express our appreciation for his

contributions. The same appreciation is extended to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros-Ghali, for his strong and

effective leadership, so instrumental in the success of the

work accomplished by this Organization.

We note with great sympathy the terrible volcanic

eruption in Papua New Guinea. We express the hope that

this Organization and its Members will take all possible

measures to assist in alleviating the suffering and

destruction caused by this disaster. We also express our

sympathy to the people and the Government of the

Republic of Estonia for the recent accident and loss of

life in that country.

We join the other members of this Assembly in

warmly welcoming the new South Africa here. Their

struggle was long, arduous and painful. The people and

Government of Micronesia share the joy of the

Government and people of South Africa at having

achieved their objective.

My Government welcomes the historic steps taken

toward peace in the Middle East and expresses its support

for the ongoing bilateral negotiations between the parties

in that region. In the light of these positive developments

in the peace process, the General Assembly should reflect

this new reality in the course of this forty-ninth session

and provide an environment conducive to further dialogue

between parties.

We gather at a time in our history when new

grounds of cooperation are being woven into greater

dimensions of solidarity. This is fortunate because we

also face urgent challenges to the future of our planet.

From the point of view of a small developing State, we

come to this Assembly with immediate concerns on such

issues as climate change, sustainable development, nuclear

waste and natural disasters.

Linked with all these concerns is the issue of human

rights. The road from Vienna, where the world

community met only a few hundred miles from where

"ethnic cleansing" was taking place in Bosnia and spoke

of improvements in the field of human rights, has been

marked with new signposts leading us in the right

direction, namely, the establishment of the post of United

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Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the

election of Ambassador Jose Ayala Lasso to that post.

However, the scenery along the way is not that much

different from what it was for many years before this.

Today, the atrocities and violations of human rights that are

continuing in Bosnia seem to be even overshadowed by

newer outbreaks of human rights violations in such areas as

Rwanda, Haiti and other parts of our world. This

Assembly must continue to devote its attention and

resources to human rights.

Several weeks ago at Brisbane, Australia, the Heads of

Government of our 15 Pacific States, including the

Federated States of Micronesia, held the annual meeting of

the South Pacific Forum. As is their practice each year, the

leaders discussed matters of common concern within our

region and expressed consensus views in a communiqué

that has already been presented and included in the records

of this Assembly. The Federated States of Micronesia

subscribes to the views expressed in that communiqué, and

will be guided by it in many of our actions here in the

coming months.

The South Pacific Forum also decided, at its recent

meeting in Brisbane, to seek observer status at the United

Nations during this forty-ninth session. In attaining

observer status with the United Nations, the South Pacific

Forum will address the increasing importance placed on the

role of regional organizations and the contributions they can

make towards the objectives of the United Nations. We

believe that the Forum, as an observer, can increase the

effectiveness of our region’s work on such critical issues as

climate change, conservation of biological diversity and

effective implementation of the results of the Global

Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island

Developing States.

One long-standing major concern of our Government,

which is shared by Forum members, is the testing of

nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction

within our region. We are relieved by the continued

moratorium on nuclear testing by France and the United

States, but we remain deeply concerned at the possible

consequences that may flow from China’s insistence on

proceeding with its programme. We will not breathe easy

until a moratorium on all testing is made permanent, and to

that end we hope that rapid progress will be made towards

concluding a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty.

Despite our outspoken concerns in numerous

international venues during recent years, the Pacific

region’s vastness and seeming emptiness still makes it an

attractive location for environmentally unfriendly

activities. Too often, when we have attempted as island

countries to halt movements through our waters of toxic,

radioactive and hazardous materials, our voices have not

been heard. As if the dangers of such transport were not

bad enough, today we confront an even more repugnant

prospect, that of our region becoming a permanent

dumping ground for the world’s nuclear waste. I wish to

emphasize here that the Federated States of Micronesia is

and will remain diametrically opposed to the use of our

region by countries which are unwilling to store their

waste within their own borders. As part of our dedication

to finding more effective means to prevent these outrages,

the Federated States of Micronesia has the honour of

chairing the ongoing negotiations within the Forum group

towards a regional treaty banning transboundary

movement of all hazardous wastes.

Through these and other appropriate actions, we are

determined to see that the Pacific region is treated by the

rest of the world community with the same degree of

concern for the long-term health and welfare of our

people and their environment.

We welcome the Secretary-General’s new report on

an Agenda for Development. My Government fully

supports the call for a re-evaluation of the role of the

United Nations in development. As the United Nations

approaches its fiftieth anniversary, its global agenda must

be redefined to be more comprehensive and more

focused. The present lack of coordination between the

Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations must

be corrected to synchronize the setting of global policy on

development.

The end of the cold war has presented the United

Nations with a long-overdue opportunity to turn its

attention to development. Yet the cost associated with

expanded peace-keeping operations around the world is

diverting scarce resources at a time when, for many

States, the role of the United Nations in development is

becomingly increasingly prominent. This is a trend that

the United Nations must examine very carefully in order

to find the proper balance among all its responsibilities

under the Charter.

The recently concluded International Conference on

Population and Development in Cairo is testimony to the

global problems associated with our rapid population

growth. The United Nations and the international

community face a pressing urgency to redirect resources

to address population growth and sustainable resource use.

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The world’s population is growing faster than ever before

with an estimated number of 95 million people being added

each year. This unprecedented population growth rate will

have a profound effect on our environment. The action

plan for population and sustainable development has clear

implications for climate change. I wish to draw the

distinction that, although the rate of population growth in

the industrialized world is slower, these countries still add

a disproportionate cost to the environment because residents

in industrialized countries add about four times as much

carbon to the atmosphere each year as do their counterparts

in the developing countries. Micronesia strongly supports

the Programme of Action on Population Control and

Development endorsed at Cairo and is looking forward to

meeting the goals and objectives contained therein.

As an island State, my Government welcomes the

significant breakthrough and the universal acceptance of the

United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea and its

imminent entry into force on 16 November 1994. This is

the culmination of long and arduous negotiations among

countries for more than a decade in shaping what I consider

to be a near-perfect management and conservation regime

for the high seas and the deep seabed which is the common

heritage of mankind. The Federated States of Micronesia

is a party to the Convention and I am happy to inform the

Assembly that my country was among the many countries

which signed the deep seabed mining Agreement relating to

the Implementation of Part XI of the Convention after it

was opened for signature. We look forward to close

cooperation with the international community in the sound

management and conservation of the high seas as well as

our individual territorial waters.

As a developing island State whose economy is

dependent on these resources, Micronesia is committed to

the promotion of responsible fishing practices - not only

within our exclusive economic zone and the zones of our

neighbours in the region, but also in the contiguous high

seas areas adjacent to the zones. The Federated States of

Micronesia has actively participated in all of the substantive

sessions of the United Nations Conference on Straddling

Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. In the

Federated States of Micronesia, we are fortunate that our

islands are located in those latitudes of the Pacific Ocean in

which 50 per cent of the world’s highest grade tuna

resources are located and caught. While we appreciate

having this resource, we remain ever mindful of the fact

that the continued viability of our economy depends on the

rational use of the marine resources present in our waters

and beyond. This principle of rational utilization of

resources forms the foundation for the concept of

sustainable development.

It is not only coastal States like my own, which must

be dedicated to rational use and responsible fishing

practices. Distant water fishing nations must also

recognize and protect the fragile balance of nature that

exists in the oceans of the world to ensure the

sustainability of the resource.

During the last session of the Conference on

Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks,

my Government’s delegation joined the 15 other States

members of the Forum Fisheries Agency in supporting a

binding legal document as the form of outcome for the

Conference. Even so, we do not support any outcome

which would compromise the sovereign rights of coastal

States over the living marine resources occurring within

their own extended economic zones. We do not support

any derogation from the provisions of the United Nations

Convention on the Law of the Sea that recognize the

sovereign rights of coastal States.

I now direct my comments to the recently concluded

Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of

Small Island Developing States in Barbados, which has

been a great success in many ways. For the first time in

the history of the United Nations, we have been able to

put forward an agenda for world attention concerning the

sustainable development of small island developing States.

The Programme of Action that emerged from that Global

Conference is the first post-Rio de Janeiro effort to

amplify the principles of Agenda 21 in a specific context

pointing towards tangible measures for implementation.

While this is a milestone, it will remain little more

than a planning document without the genuine

commitment of our developing countries around the

world. We welcome the recent report of the Secretary-

General on actions taken by the Organization and by the

bodies of the United Nations system to implement the

Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of

Small Island Developing States. We cannot help but feel

a certain impatience to see actions taken that are

accompanied by necessary funding; nevertheless my

Government applauds the steps being taken to ensure that

the results of the Barbados Conference are integrated into

the programme of work of the Commission on

Sustainable Development. Strong partnership in this

regard should be seen not as a conflict between developed

and developing countries, but rather as a shared goal and

an investment for the benefit of the entire family of

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nations. A notable and welcome example of such shared

effort is the upcoming initiative by the United States to

work with all countries towards the revitalization of the

essential coral reefs, which are deteriorating all over the

world.

The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) is one

source of funding from which Small Island Developing

States could access financial assistance for implementation

of the Programme of Action and other related

environmental endeavours. The Programme of Action

adopted at the Barbados Conference specifically requested

that, since such global environmental problems as climate

change, biological diversity and international waters are of

great significance and concern to small island developing

States, the restructured GEF should be seen as an important

channel of assistance in these areas through the provision

of new and additional resources. At the meeting of Heads

of State the South Pacific Forum, which recently concluded

in Brisbane, Australia, welcomed the restructuring and

replenishment of the GEF and its intention to assist in the

implementation of the decisions taken at Barbados.

We therefore encourage all Member States, during the

forty-ninth session of the General Assembly, to give

meaning to the concept of sustainable development by

supporting the overall outcome of Barbados, including all

enabling legislation. This will give the United Nations

specialized agencies and organizations the mandate to start

implementing the Programme of Action.

In the Framework Convention on Climate Change, we

appealed for a more constructive approach by the

international community, with a view to further

commitments towards the reduction of greenhouse gases, as

called for by the proposed protocol to the Convention

distributed this week to the Parties by the Alliance of Small

Island States. Recent scientific reports have confirmed with

certainty that global warming is occurring. More

importantly, it is also clear that the industrialized countries

must make greater cutbacks in emissions than were

originally envisioned if there is to be any hope of avoiding

disastrous consequences to much of the world -

consequences which cynics were scoffing at only a few

years ago. We welcomed with hope the coming into being

of the climate-change Convention this past March and call

upon all Members of the United Nations to be present as

Parties when the Conference of the Parties to the

Convention convenes in Berlin.

In keeping with its concern for the protection and

sustainable use of the environment, the Federated States of

Micronesia acceded in June to the Convention on

Biological Diversity and is looking forward to the first

Conference of the Parties this November, in the Bahamas.

In this connection, my Government wishes to add its

support to the request made at the last session of the

Intergovernmental Group in Nairobi that work on a

protocol on biosafety should begin without further delay.

The question of ownership and access to ex-situ genetic

resources not presently covered by the Convention must

also be addressed as a matter of priority.

The concept of giving equal priority to the

environment and to development is now widely accepted

but remains in many ways difficult to implement. It will

remain so for many years to come, even though all our

best thinking is to be devoted to it. Sadly, even as we

speak, the quality and stocks of our planet’s natural

resources are deteriorating at an accelerated pace due to

past and current practices. If we are to succeed in

confronting this challenge, the integrated efforts of the

entire international community must call upon the assets

that all countries - large and small, developed and

developing - can bring to bear.

For example, sustainable living, which has been the

way of island peoples for centuries, involves practices and

techniques that are quite relevant to sustainable

development in much of today’s world. The canoes

sailing across our crystal blue lagoons bring to mind a

host of traditions of our people that involve clean use of

the environment and highly effective resource-

management practices. We must approach sustainable

development in a way that respects and builds on the age-

old concept of sustainable living and takes full account of

the wisdom that can be gleaned from indigenous cultures

worldwide.

In other words, my country believes that not only is

it important to have a common vision to combat climate

change and promote sustainable development, but it is

now incumbent upon us seriously to rethink our roles and

how we can all play a vital part in restoring our

environment. As a front-line country in terms of

vulnerability, Micronesia recognizes that we cannot retreat

into the position of treating global environmental issues

only to the extent to which we think we are conveniently

capable, without giving due consideration to their urgency

and magnitude. Addressing this man-made catastrophe

requires many more additional resources and a greater

commitment, especially on the part of the developed

world.

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Our views on these issues are clear and simple: we

are convinced that all our efforts are mounting up to a

long-term investment for the survival and viability of our

ecosystem, the common heritage of mankind. In assessing

what has transpired so far in all related activities geared to

this common objective, I cannot but say how fascinated I

am with the enormous effort that has gone into these

processes. The activities include the negotiations on the

climate-change Convention, the biodiversity Convention, the

desertification Convention and the Convention on the Law

of the Sea, as well as the Conference on Straddling Fish

Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, the Barbados

Conference, the Cairo Conference on Population and

Development, the Commission on Sustainable Development

and the Global Environmental Facility. I cannot but believe

that positive progress will emanate from this massive

human energy and commitment, and that our future will be

secured with this common vision. We are not only

inhabitants of this planet, but custodians of its resources for

future generations. I hope that the greed of mankind will

not in the end triumph over the our inherent responsibility

to leave for future generations an environment that is as

habitable as the one we find today. Sustainable utilization

of our natural resources may be the greatest gift that our

present civilization can contribute to future humanity.