Guyana, 2005

Following closely, as it

does, on the heels of last week’s High-level Plenary

Meeting, the remainder of the sixtieth session of the

General Assembly is challenged to take steps towards

the early implementation of the agreed outcome. In the

eyes of many, the summit document (resolution 60/1)

is less than satisfactory in terms of both its scope and

its substance. Nonetheless, it represents a common

platform on which we can build further to reach higher

levels of international cooperation.

To you, Mr. President, my dear friend, falls the

task of spearheading that enterprise. Your outstanding

diplomatic experience assures us all that you will

succeed in the mandate given to you. If I am to give

you any advice on how you should now proceed, I

would simply echo — and then perhaps very slightly

paraphrase — the words of Dag Hammarskjöld, your

compatriot and former Secretary-General, when he

said, “Never measure the height of a mountain until

you have reached the top”. To this I would add, then

you will see that the climb was not all that bad.

We owe a debt of gratitude to His Excellency

Mr. Jean Ping of Gabon, the outgoing President, for his

effective stewardship of the work of the Assembly

during the fifty-ninth session. To the Secretary-General

I wish to express our appreciation for his effort to

equip our Organization for the challenges that we

confront today.

I would also like to offer our appreciation and

thanks to our host country, the United States, and to

renew to it our assurances of sympathy with regard to

the severe losses suffered in the wake of Hurricane

Katrina.

As was stated earlier by President Jagdeo of

Guyana (see A/60/PV.8), international development

goals — and especially the Millennium Development

Goals, which were set at the Summit five years ago and

which we have just reviewed — remain an important

benchmark for global development. Aimed at securing

the important prerequisites for our economic and social

advancement in such areas as health, education and

other basic services, they must be fully embraced and

pursued by the international community.

My own country has been diligent in working

towards those objectives. Through a visionary poverty-

reduction strategy and the allocation of more resources

to the social sector, we have been able to improve the

lot of the disadvantaged among our population and

enlarge their opportunities for a better life.

Unfortunately, however, further progress is now being

jeopardized by a number of untoward developments.

Among these has been the recent revision of Europe’s

agriculture policy, and more particularly the European

Commission’s proposal to drastically reduce the price

for the sugar exports of African, Caribbean and Pacific

States. That proposal, if implemented, will seriously

affect our own sugar industry and will plunge many of

our people who depend on it into extreme poverty.

Our economy stands to lose some $40 million per

year, a sum that nullifies the $8 million which we will

have received as a result of the recent Group of Eight

decisions on debt relief. The result is an example of the

skewed and often incoherent policies pursued by some

developed countries. Without consultation or warning,

they adopt measures that wreak enormous havoc on the

economies of developing countries, particularly the

small and the vulnerable.

The only hope on the horizon for us lies in the

promise held out by several recent initiatives, such as

the Millennium Challenge Account of the United

States, the International Finance Facility of the United

Kingdom, the Action Against Hunger and Poverty

Initiative, led by Brazil and other States, and, more

latterly, the levy on air travel suggested by France and

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others for the financing of development. As the review

of the Millennium Development Goals has revealed, an

additional $50 billion will be needed annually to reach

the targets set. New and additional resources are

therefore clearly required if we are to make any impact

on global poverty.

While we in the developing world would prefer to

rely on trade instead of aid for our development, the

prospects for improving our position are bleak. The

road from Cancún to Dalian to Hong Kong has been

tedious, strewn with obstacles and, now, highly

uncertain. As in New York, developed countries seem

content with making broad declarations rather than

specific commitments. The calls by small economies

for special and differential treatment have thus far been

only grudgingly acknowledged. Yet, without full regard

for paragraph 35 of the Doha Declaration, countries

like mine are likely to be further marginalized by the

global economy.

Economic and social progress will come to the

developing world only when its countries are allowed

to have a say in the decision-making on development

issues. The chapter in the 2005 Human Development

Report on our interdependent world quotes an African

proverb that states that “Until the lions have their

historians … tales of hunting will always glorify the

hunter” (p. 113). It is therefore time for the developing

world, which has long been considered only an object

in the development process, to be given a more active

and participatory role in the process. Only then will we

be able properly to address the outcome of our policies.

Many of the prescriptions for poverty eradication

have been based on the time-worn theory of

development that posits that the increasing economic

prosperity of the developed world will eventually raise

the standard of living for all States — that is to say,

that a rising tide lifts all boats. But any serious analysis

of that development paradigm as it has functioned over

the past several decades will amply demonstrate that

that is a very flawed concept. The gap between rich

and poor countries continues to widen, a reality to

which the 2005 Human Development Report amply

testifies.

There therefore has to be a serious global

rethinking of what constitutes real and sustainable

development. We cannot avoid the conclusion that

while the realization of the Millennium Development

Goals will provide the necessary foundation for

development, true economic and social progress cannot

be achieved in the absence of a more comprehensive

policy framework that encompasses significant

assistance and investment flows, wider debt relief,

more equitable trade and economic cooperation and the

transfer of science and technology for development

purposes. That realization has led my Government to

advocate at the United Nations the promotion of a new

global human order: a more comprehensive and holistic

strategy based on equity and social justice.

With regard to the second major area of concern

addressed in the Secretary-General’s report entitled “In

larger freedom” (A/59/2005) — namely, the issues of

democracy, human rights and security — let me say

that Guyana, as a newly restored democracy, fully

supports the promotion of all fundamental human

freedoms and values. After all, they constitute the

bedrock of the United Nations Charter and the basic

rights of our peoples. We therefore welcome the

initiative to establish a Democracy Fund to propagate

the democratic ideal, as well as the setting up of a

Human Rights Council to replace the current

Commission on Human Rights.

Raising the status of the Commission on Human

Rights can do much to enhance respect for human

rights. We are concerned, however, about the

representative character of the proposed Council and

would be seriously distressed if it were to emerge as an

elite directorate sitting in judgement of other States

deemed to be less than equal. The holier-than-thou

attitude of some countries on matters relating to

democracy and human rights is not acceptable in an

Organization founded on the principles of the equality

of States, mutual understanding and respect. No one is

perfect, and we all fall short of the glory of God. It

would therefore be imperative for the General

Assembly, in its further consideration of that proposal,

to carefully examine such issues as the criteria for

membership, size and voting procedures, in order to

ensure that the principles of the Charter are not

vitiated.

Finally, there is the third leg of the report’s

thematic tripod, namely, security. As is now

universally recognized, security is a sine qua non for

the protection of democracy and human rights, as well

as for the promotion of development. It is therefore

essential, in view of the vast array of threats to

international peace and security, that we mount the

necessary defences against the spread of terrorism,

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transboundary crime, arms and drug trafficking,

disease and the increasing incidence of natural

disasters, which must now be an integral process of our

development analysis. Unfortunately, however, the cost

of such measures takes a very heavy toll on our limited

human and financial resources — resources that can be

better spent in the area of development.

To illustrate the challenge we face, let me cite the

case of my own country, which, after suffering a

disastrous flood earlier this year that led to a loss of

almost 60 per cent of our gross domestic product

(GDP) — according to an assessment by the Economic

Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean —

now faces spiralling oil prices, amounting, in terms of

expenditure, to 24 per cent of GDP and heavy revenue

loss to our sugar-export earnings. How can one speak

meaningfully in such circumstances of achieving the

Millennium Development Goals? Small countries like

ours have to find solutions to these pressing problems,

or else run the risk of being thrust further back into

underdevelopment.

For several decades now, we have been seeking to

reform the United Nations system to make it more

responsive to the challenges of our times. To some

extent we have succeeded in our effort but, clearly,

much more remains to be done. We therefore urge the

President to hold to his promise and to pursue the

revitalization of the General Assembly, the most

democratic and representative of the United Nations

organs, to enable it to promote the high principles and

purposes of the Charter. The potential of the

Assembly’s role in fighting the scourge of war and

promoting development is yet to be fully explored and

exploited. At the same time, it is necessary to bring

development issues, which are now largely the purview

of multilateral financial institutions, more fully within

the ambit of the United Nations, particularly the

Economic and Social Council, where developing

countries can have a greater voice on matters

pertaining to their welfare.

Of some urgency is the reform of the Security

Council, the organ responsible for the maintenance of

international peace and security. It is time that the

Council be made more equitable in its composition,

more democratic in its decision-making and more

effective in its operation. The deliberations of the

relevant working group have generated wide-spread

agreement on the need for expansion of the Council’s

membership. The various permutations have been

explored, and all options are on the table. We are now

offered a historic opportunity to reform the Council —

an opportunity that, if not taken now, may not soon

come our way again. My delegation therefore urges the

Assembly to expedite and conclude its work in this

area.

The latest proposal for an advisory Peacebuilding

Commission is a welcome one, since there is a clear

relationship between conflict and development. Much

too often, the gains made in the area of conflict

resolution are rapidly negated by the lack of

accompanying measures to preserve stability and

encourage development. Such a commission, if

properly conceived and constituted, can usefully

complement and optimize the work of the principal

organs of the United Nations.

In the end, however, if we are to achieve a

stronger, more democratic and effective United

Nations, we will have to go beyond the reform of its

organs and agencies to a reform of the attitudes and

behaviour of States, which, while giving lip service to

such concepts as partnership, cohesion and

interdependence, fail to practice those virtues in their

relations with other States. There is always a vast

divide between declarations and deeds. Yet, the

implementation of the common agenda that we have set

ourselves at the sixtieth session is not possible without

a greater commitment to change.

As the 2005 Human Development Report states, it

cannot be business as usual for the United Nations. The

Millennium Declaration must be more than a paper

promise. We need to

“mobilize the investment resources and develop

the plans needed to build the defences that can

stop the tsunami of world poverty”. (2005 Human

Development Report, p. 2)

That is the challenge issued to the sixtieth session

of the General Assembly, and the yardstick by which

its success will be judged. For the sake of the billions

who continue to live in fear and want, we must seek to

achieve that larger freedom that is the birthright of all

humankind.