Grenada, 1993

It is with profound pleasure

that my delegation conveys greetings and best wishes from

the Government and the people of Grenada to the United

Nations General Assembly at its forty-eighth session.

My delegation is pleased to extend sincere

congratulations to you, Mr. President, on your election to the

presidency of the General Assembly during this forty-eighth

session. We are especially pleased because you create

history by being the first person from the region to which

Grenada belongs to hold the prestigious post of General

Assembly Presidency, coming as you do from our sister

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country, the Republic

of Guyana.

My delegation takes this opportunity also to commend

Mr. Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria for the excellent manner in

which he conducted the Assembly’s proceedings at its forty-

seventh session. My Government also wishes to extend its

commendations to the Secretary-General,

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his indefatigable efforts in

the service of the Organization.

The Grenadian delegation is pleased to extend a warm

welcome to the six new Members of the United Nations:

the Czech Republic; the Republic of Slovakia, Eritrea,

Monaco, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and

Andorra.

Forty-eighth session - 12 October l993 15

The problems of developing countries are still daunting.

Every country must try to help itself. My Government

continues to pursue its own economic structural adjustment

programme, with which the people of Grenada have shown

great understanding and cooperation. But prolonged

difficulties in the economic sector can give rise to attitudes

and conditions that can adversely impact upon social

development and administrative capacities, and so my

delegation calls on the international community to show

greater flexibility in assisting the adjustment process of

Grenada and other countries experiencing economic

conditions similar to Grenada’s.

Poverty, debt, inadequate resources, marginalization and

the lack of secure markets for our products deal serious

blows to social, economic and political stability. Further, the

impact on small, undiversified economies from liberalizing

trade regimes and regional trading blocs has been shocking.

The fact is that free trade is not always synonymous with

fair trade: factors of size, resource endowment and levels of

development must be duly considered in settling trade

relations. This is particularly so with small, open, primary-

producing economies, where one serious natural disaster,

such as a hurricane, can devastate all the fruits of our

national labour invested in bananas, cocoa and nutmeg.

In this scenario, concessioned trade is very much

needed to produce anything like a level playing field.

Developing countries will not progress on sympathy; they

require equity. Small countries such as Grenada cannot do

it all alone. We need assistance for diversification, for

development of our human resources and for the

implementation of sustainable development.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development (UNCED) has placed before the world a wide

range of challenges for managing the environment in a

sustainable way. Developing countries, in particular small

island nation States, like Grenada, are anxious that all

Governments should move faster to effect the programme

laid out by UNCED’s plan of work on sustainable

development, Agenda 21.

Greater emphasis needs to be placed by donor agencies

on training, as well as on technical and financial assistance

to developing countries to aid in sustainable forestry and

agricultural practices. My delegation is convinced that the

problems of the environment cannot wait. Grenada is

particularly pleased with Agenda 21’s special recognition of

the peculiar difficulties confronting the development of small

island developing States and with the Global Conference on

the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing

States (SIDS), arising from that recognition, that will be held

in Barbados in April and May 1994.

It is Grenada’s sincere hope that that Conference will

serve to generate a better understanding of the challenges

and predicaments confronting small island developing States,

and that it will produce the necessary partnership and

establish a sound path to their sustainable development.

Much of the important negotiations preparatory to the

Conference remains incomplete. My delegation is concerned

that the success of the Barbados Conference may be

jeopardized unless an intercessional mechanism is arranged

to provide for the advancement of the negotiations prior to

April 1994.

Grenada joins the rest of the world in rejoicing over the

success of diplomatic perseverance in Afghanistan, El

Salvador, Nicaragua, Cambodia and Haiti. Grenada is,

however, highly disturbed by the renewal of politically

motivated violence in Haiti. Grenada will continue to rally

behind the United Nations and the Organization of American

States in their efforts to restore democracy and stability to

Haiti. Grenada welcomes the Governors Island negotiated

settlement aimed at restoring to Haiti the legitimate

Government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. We

support the establishment of an international constabulary

force in that country. We call on all in Haitian society to

give democracy and peace a chance.

Grenada wishes to record its satisfaction over the

historic attainment of formal recognition between Israel and

the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). We further

applaud the signing of the Palestinian autonomy agreement

between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. It

is a long-awaited peace initiative which will pave the way

for the continued peaceful negotiation of tougher issues.

Such a step will, in the long term, contribute to making the

Middle East and the world a more peaceful place.

Grenada welcomes the peace agreements initialled

between Israel and Morocco and between Israel and Jordan

as steps in the right direction.

Grenada welcomes the finalization of the demarcation

of the boundary between Kuwait and Iraq, which was

accomplished by the Iraq-Kuwait Boundary Demarcation

Commission on 20 May 1993. We also welcome the

adoption by the Security Council of its

resolution 833 (1993), in which it guaranteed the

inviolability of the boundary between the two States and

called for respect for that resolution.

16 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

My Government is, on the other hand, perturbed by the

continuing wars in other parts of the world, such as the

former Yugoslavia, Liberia, Somalia and Angola. We are

alarmed at the lack of respect for United Nations peace--

keepers and aid workers, and call upon all sides in such

conflicts to turn to peaceful negotiation and respect for

human lives.

The promotion of democracy and the enhancement of

human rights must be vigorously pursued. The process of

democratization has to be entrenched. My delegation,

moreover, looks forward to welcoming to the United

Nations, in the near future, the Republic of China on

Taiwan. With its 21 million people, the Republic of China

on Taiwan, has, over the past 20 years, progressed

economically, socially and democratically to the point where

it can no longer properly be kept out of the United Nations.

The Republic of China on Taiwan has established diplomatic

relations with a number of countries and has significantly

contributed to the uplifting of the struggling economies of a

great number of countries and the development of their

peoples. Surely, these impressive achievements eminently

qualify the Republic of China on Taiwan for admission to

this Organization.

Peace and democracy reaching areas new to them has

noticeably been resulting in the deflection of aid to them, at

the expense of traditional stable democracies. That newly

emerging democracies have to be given due attention cannot

be denied, but this cannot be wholly at the expense of the

old democracies. The peace dividend accruing from the end

of the cold war and the halting of the arms race should be

expansive enough to nurture new democracies without

abandoning old ones to unnecessary and far-reaching social

and societal conflicts. After all, the issue of development is

no less important than the issue of peace.

International peace presupposes domestic quietude in

the States making up the community of nations. This

requires continuing emphasis on human-resource

development and the enhancement of cultural and social

amenities in such areas as education, health and housing. In

this regard, Grenada insists on the protection of the rights of

the child, enhancement of the rights of women and the

strengthening of the family unit. The pursuit of the human

race must be the nurturing of peace by the ending of

discrimination and the enhancement of equality, whether

between sexes or races, or with regard to social origins,

religion or whatever other differences might have been

created through ignorance or arrogance. As we in Grenada

say "A child is a child".

My delegation welcomes the establishment of a

criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It is with great

concern that the world has witnessed men, women and

children being massacred in that region in the name of

ethnicity and religion. Grenada takes this opportunity to

encourage the establishment of similar tribunals in areas

where they may be necessary.

Such cooperation as the world is seeing today in

restoring democracy and civil and political rights to citizens

of warring countries ought to be extended to the field of

international criminal activities. Grenada stands ready to

collaborate with other countries in putting a halt to such

activities as illicit drug production, trafficking and

consumption and money-laundering and their associated ills.

These tend to decay the moral fibre of a society and drain

already scant resources in efforts to combat the menace, thus

frustrating national development processes. Grenada has

accordingly enacted legislation giving effect to the United

Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs

and Psychotropic Substances, of 1988, providing for the

forfeiture and confiscation of the proceeds of crime,

outlawing moneylaundering and promoting bilateral and

multilateral cooperation in the fight against these menaces.

Grenada is very pleased that the South African

Parliament has agreed to establish a Transitional Executive

Council, which is expected to allow the black majority to

participate in the governing of their country. We received

with joy the news that 27 April 1994 has been set as the

date for the election of a Government in South Africa in

which South Africans of all races, colours, beliefs and

genders will participate. We applaud the efforts that have

been made by the Government of President De Klerk and

the African National Congress of Nelson Mandela to usher

in genuine democracy in South Africa. We encourage all

South Africans to give full support to that progress.

Throughout the world, people are looking towards the

United Nations for solutions to their political, economic,

ethnic and social problems. The freeing of the United

Nations from ideological tensions has made this possible; but

we are aware that the United Nations must now be

restructured, the better to meet these ends. The composition

of the Security Council should be re-examined, with new

permanent seats on that Council being allotted to such

countries as Japan, without current permanent membership

being affected. Also, additional seats should be added.

Further, an appropriate mechanism is needed to establish

adequate oversight and accountability in the United Nations.

The capability of the United Nations to conduct

peace-keeping should be enhanced and rationalized.

Forty-eighth session - 12 October l993 17

World security requires all of us, nations great as well

as small, to make extra efforts to attain and maintain peace

and democracy for development. As a community of

nations, let us therefore work diligently and tirelessly to

attain these goals.