Jamaica, 1969

1. Madam President, on behalf of the Government and the people

of Jamaica I extend to you warmest congratulations on your unanimous

election to the Presidency of the General Assembly at its

twenty-fourth session. It is seldom that a woman is

appointed to this high post and it is the first time that a

distinguished and gracious daughter of Africa has become

President of the General Assembly. We who over the years

have been associated with you, as a member of your

country’s delegation to the United Nations, have become

aware of your generosity and sincerity, and we are sure that

you will bring these qualities to bear in the execution of

your duties. We have no doubt that with you as president

this twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly, already

made historic by your presence at its head, will be a

memorable one.

2. I should now like to pay tribute to the late President of

the General Assembly at its twenty-third session, His

Excellency Mr. Emilio Arenales, whose untimely passing

has deprived us and his country of his valuable services.

3. His Excellency Mr. Luis Alvarado, Chairman of the

delegation of Peru, also deserves our tribute for the manner

in which he assumed the functions of the Presidency.

4. On this the eve of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the

United Nations, we the Member States may properly ask

ourselves what we have done to make this Organization

effective in establishing and preserving peace and security in

this world. We may also ask ourselves to what extent the

Organization has been the real stimulus for international

co-operation in solving problems of an economic, social,

cultural and humanitarian character. We find that the high

hopes with which this Organization was born have not

begun to show satisfactory levels of fulfillment in all areas.

5. The traditional actions and policies of some Member

States — and more particularly those of the major

Powers — have not always been evidence of a genuine

endeavour to live within the ideals of the Charter and to make our

Organization the force it ought to be in the world

community. Today, the consequences of those actions are

clear to us. Vast numbers of men, women and children die

in major wars which are called limited wars. Devastation,

hunger and malnutrition, the dread concomitants of civil

strife, leave us cold and impotent. Troops move across

frontiers to a chorus of fruitless denunciations and

stereotyped ritual exchanges. A number of major issues confronting

today’s world and endangering the peace we seek are

not even being discussed at the United Nations.

6. It is time for us to make a reassessment of our

Organization. Indeed, it is high time for the United Nations

to be not only an instrument of national policy but, more

particularly, a beneficiary of such policy. Surely, specific

elements in the policies of Member States should be

directed to the strengthening of the Organization, It is to be

hoped that during the twenty-fifth anniversary year of the

Organization this thorough assessment will take place.

7. Since the twenty-third session of the General Assembly,

man has successfully probed the environment of the moon

and landed thereon. By that act man has demonstrated his

capacity to build a machine of immense and exacting

complexity, to co-ordinate its technology with the human

will and judgement, and to employ that combination in

most spectacular ways.

8. The need is indeed urgent for parallel performance in

the machine fashioned by the world community in 1945.

and known as the United Nations. It was hoped that with

the goodwill and commitment of its members the United

Nations would bring man into an environment of peace and

security. Some powerful Member States charged with the

responsibility for the proper functioning of the equipment

on our planet have given only token support in this regard,

thus delaying the smooth “lift-off” from the “launching

pad”. Some Members of the world community continue to

tinker with parts of the equipment in a spirit of

self-interest, oblivious of the harm being perpetrated on the

whole. If the moon landing could bring home to mankind

the folly and futility of its short-sighted selfishness in

disabling its greatest machine — the United Nations - then, in

the view of my delegation, another great cause would be

well served.

9. I should now like to review some of the issues that are

of immediate interest to the world community. On Viet-Nam,

following the announcement of talks, my Government

shared the hopes for an early settlement of the

conflict. We regret that this has not yet materialized. We

urge. all parties involved to exercise the necessary will and

courage to secure a settlement through those negotiations

and simultaneously to hasten the end of the fighting so that

the work of reconstruction and rehabilitation may begin, in

the interest of the peoples of Viet-Nam — North and

South — and in the interest of the entire world community.

10. Within the recent past my Government was favoured

with a visit from the personal representative of Major-General

Gowon, President of the Federal Government of

Nigeria. A visit was also received from representatives of

General Ojukwu. We were heartened by those visits, as they

reflected a deep interest in bringing an end to the conflict.

The prolongation of strife on the west coast of Africa can

only serve to impede Africa’s progress and to increase its

problems. My Government takes cognizance of the efforts

being made by the Organization of African Unity to put an

end to the conflict, and reiterates its call made at the

twenty-third session of the General Assembly [1679th

meeting] for a cease-fire, an arms embargo and meaningful

negotiations to halt the human suffering and slaughter.

11. The conflict in the Middle East continues to escalate

and to consume the time, energies and negotiating talents

of Member States. Continued hostilities are most unlikely

to hold the answer, and yet the multiplicity of activities

taking-place in the Middle East are tending in the futile

direction of a full-scale war. Resolutions and condemnations,

warnings and pleadings, appear to dwarf the will to

arrest the growing seeds of hate. Security Council resolution

242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 remains the best

foundation for a just and lasting settlement. Jamaica once

again repeats its call to all parties to accept that resolution

and to seek a solution within its terms. In the final analysis,

it appears that the chief participants in that continuing

struggle will need to demonstrate more directly their

determination to bring peace to the Middle East, thus

releasing needed energy and resources for development.

12. In view of the major handicaps to advancement

imposed by the conflicts which I have mentioned, I would

suggest that this Organization set out to find the true

solution that the world body needs and that the Middle

East itself is crying out for. In addition to those handicaps,

we notice that racism is still spreading in Africa. Rhodesia is

well on the road to apartheid; sanctions have proved

ineffective so far, and optimism regarding their success is

undoubtedly at a very low point. Because of the intransigence

of the Government of South Africa, the United Nations, charged

with direct responsibility for Namibia, still

awaits an opportunity to fulfil its mandate vis-a-vis the

people of that country. Thus, instead of being able to work

towards self-determination and independence with the aid

of the United Nations Council for Namibia, the Namibians

find themselves under the loathsome yoke of South Africa.

They are confronted with the unhappy prospect of the

establishment in Namibia of so-called homelands, which

aims at the division of Namibia on a basis that would

reserve the best lands for the use of the white population.

13. The Security Council has spent many man-hours on

Rhodesia and on Namibia. Its resolutions have gone

unheeded through non-compliance in one form or another.

It has also devoted much time to South Africa’s apartheid

policies and to Portugal’s continuing presence and performance

in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea (Bissau). The

United Nations efforts to rectify these issues have not been

effective because some nations are flouting and disregarding

the Organization’s decisions and resolutions against

Rhodesia and South Africa, including the calls for trade

embargoes. By so doing those nations are sabotaging the

United Nations and the objectives of the Charter. They are

guilty of attempting to make this world body impotent on

these issues. They are establishing precedents that will have

serious repercussions on other areas of the world. Jamaica

reiterates its call upon those States, which are supporting

defiance of the United Nations, to respect and implement

its resolutions so that we can achieve the objectives to

which we as Members are committed.

14. It should come as no surprise to find that where the

Security Council is ineffective on South Africa and where

the 30 million black inhabitants of that region continue as

virtual slaves in their homeland, liberation movements gain

and develop strength and daring for the purpose of

achieving self-determination and independence. Indeed,

peace is the common goal which we are all seeking and to

which we are all committed as a matter of policy — global

peace with the threat of nuclear war removed from us,

peace in those several areas of the world where the conflict

involves major Powers directly, indirectly, or perhaps not at

all. Peace, after all, is not only global but regional and local

as well, and we all have an obligation to work for its

maintenance everywhere.

15. My Government has followed with interest the recent

sessions of the United Nations Conference of the Committee

on Disarmament. The draft conventions on the

prohibition of weapons from the sea-bed and the ocean

floor and on biological and chemical warfare are hopeful

signs. We accept them as bases for further work, and it is

our sincere hope that this session of the General Assembly

will give some added stimulus to these endeavours.

We accept them as planks for peace in the work programme

now being advanced in connexion with the twenty-fifth

anniversary of the United Nations and with the Second

United Nations Development Decade.

16. An item of considerable importance on our agenda is

the report of the Preparatory Committee [A/7525 and

addenda], which has been submitted through the Economic

and Social Council in accordance with General Assembly

resolution 2411 (XXIII). My Government appreciates the

efforts of the Preparatory Committee and the contributions

made by the various organizations of the United Nations

system towards the formulation of the strategy for the

forthcoming Decade. My delegation, however, anxiously

awaits agreement by the Trade and Development Board on

the role to be played by the United Nations Conference for

Trade and Development in the forthcoming Development

Decade. There are several unresolved matters of vital

importance to developing countries that fall within the

competence of UNCTAD, such as the commodity agreement

for primary products in order to ensure reasonable

remuneration to producers; the problem of competition

from synthetics produced by developed countries; and in

the field of the transfer of operative technology to

developing countries, the question of patents. It is the hope

of my delegation that matters of such importance as those

mentioned will be resolved early in the forthcoming

Decade.

17. The Development Decade of the 1960s has fallen far

short of the expectations of the international community.

Developing countries are still at a serious disadvantage in

trade with. the developed countries, and are faced with

ever-increasing prices for imports essential to their economic

growth on the one hand, and depressed prices for

their exports on the other. This pattern of trade must be

changed if in contrast to the First, we are to gain positive

results for the Second Development Decade.

18. Today we approach the start of the Second Development

Decade with a deeper conviction based on the

accepted principle that there must be integration of social

and economic planning and that there must also be

integrated programmes of assistance on the part of institutions

whose objective is to help overcome the problems of

development. We recognize that certain areas of development

activities, traditionally regarded as social, are in fact

essential investments in economic progress — that education,

to take the most obvious example, is as vital a prerequisite

to progress as the possession of raw materials or of

potential markets. In my Government’s view, it is applicable

to other so-called social sectors such as health and

housing. It is time that this is recognized so that we can do

away with many of the artificial distinctions between the

social and economic fields in applying for assistance.

19. Recently, this Organization has turned its attention to

an important sector of our population — I refer to youth. It

seems ironic that an Organization dedicated to saving

succeeding generations from the scourge of war has made

very little provision for the active participation of that

generation in its programmes. Indeed, youth’s vision of the

world is almost identical to that envisaged by the Charter.

Young people abhor war because it threatens their future,

They deplore the destruction of the environment because it

impairs the quality of the life on earth they expect to

inherit. They resent racism because it limits the range of

human association and contact and, finally, they oppose

poverty as unnecessary and cruel. They are, in fact, our

natural allies and we take hope in the belief that this

Organization seriously and meaningfully intends to respond

to their desire to help shape the future.

20. My delegation will be prepared to discuss in greater

detail the elements that we believe are essential in any

activity related to young people which the United Nations

may undertake. In the urge to create new programmes we

cannot afford to forget that a number of our traditional

concerns are of vital and immediate relevance to youth, and

that we have a great responsibility for strengthening and

expanding certain existing programmes and also devising

new ones.

21. I should now like to comment briefly on a few aspects

of the proposed international strategy within the limits so

far determined. My Government well understands that the

success of the Second Development Decade will largely

depend on the effort of each Member State. There can be

no substitute for the national effort charted by wise

leadership and fully supported by the citizens in their

determination to achieve economic and social development

within the individual State and, consequently, within the

larger community.

22. Regarding the agricultural sector of the strategy, due

note has been taken of the targets set and the comments

made by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the

United Nations, particularly in connexion with production.

My Government has embarked on a programme designed to

increase productivity of the land by the creation of

nation-wide institutions under which farmers are encouraged

to cultivate specific crops in specific areas, taking into

account ecological conditions. There are farm holdings

which are too small to be economic to the individual

owner. An effort is being made to rationalize productivity

on those holdings by Government subsidy to those who

farm these lands. Jamaica’s effort at rationalization

operates within the framework of the Government

machinery which provides assistance and undertakes the

marketing of produce at guaranteed minimum prices.

23. On the question of trade, the problems of developing

countries are well known. The need for international

commodity agreements and arrangements which would take

into account the particular trading patterns of various

groups of developing countries is or vital importance.

Another important aspect relates to the need for the access

of exports of manufactured and semi-manufactared goods

from developing countries to the markets of the developed

world. It is the general recommendation of experts, both

from countries with which there are bilateral arrangements

and from the agencies of this body itself, that developing

countries should continue their policy of industrialization.

Too frequently, this advice is given without due consideration,

by the developed countries, of the concomitant

factors of marketing and advantageous trading arrangements.

24. My Government wishes to emphasize that development

is an international responsibility equal in scope to the

responsibility for the maintenance of international peace.

Against this background, on the eve of the twenty-fifth

anniversary of the United Nations, we propose for consideration

by this body: first, the formulation of a strategy for

international development for the forthcoming decade — a

strategy which should be regarded as a supplement to the

Charter of the United Nations.

25. Second, the establishment of a world resources data

centre which would undertake an inventory of world

resources requirements for their equitable exploitation and

would reflect the size of their reserves. In this context I

should like to recall the proposal by my delegation at the

twenty-third session of the General Assembly that documentation

centres on a programme basis be established in

developing countries by the United Nations [see 1679th

meeting, para. 208].

26. Third, developed countries should be invited to

examine, within the context of an over-all strategy for the

Development Decade, ways and means by which resources

now being transferred to developing countries by both.their

public and private sectors can make a more meaningful

contribution to rapid economic growth. In the public sector

there is an increasing need for untying aid in order to

facilitate the more efficient use of these resources. In the

private sector, on the other hand, there are many instances

in which investments should be more closely linked with

national development plans.

27. Before I close, I should like to make some observations

contingent on what may be called the qualitative

dimension of development in the Second Development

Decade. At the twenty-third session of the General

Assembly a comprehensive resolution [2398 (XXIII)] drew

attention to the necessity of preserving the human environment.

The resolution authorized the Secretary-General to

begin preparations for a United Nations Conference on the

Human Environment to be held in 1972. This question

involves nearly every institution in the United Nations

family. It touches many of the already established items on

the agenda of the General Assembly. We welcome this

effort to co-ordinate national and international activity in a

sphere which affects the very existence of man on earth. We

congratulate the delegation of Sweden for its enlightened

conduct of the co-ordinated efforts which led to the

adoption of this resolution at the twenty-third session.

28. I should also like to express my country’s appreciation

of the thoroughness of the work which the Secretariat put

into the report on the problems of the human environment

which was laid before the forty-seventh session of

the Economic and Social Council. This is a most useful

basis for the commencement of preparatory work for the

1972 conference. My Government was pleased to be

associated with the resolution [1448 (XLVII)] adopted by

the Economic and Social Council.

29. One result of the 1972 conference that we should like

to anticipate is that United Nations offices should give

careful consideration to preparing manuals of environmental

science, using the material available to the conference.

These manuals should be of value in the educational

process at the primary, secondary and university levels, as

well as in the necessary process of mobilizing public opinion.

30. Finally, the year ahead, 1970, stands out in its

particular importance to our world Organization. This is the

year in which we celebrate our silver anniversary — 25 years

spent in trying to improve the lot of man and the world he

inhabits. This is the year that will mark the tenth

anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence

to Colonial Countries and Peoples. This is the

year which will see the start of the Second Development

Decade. This is the year chosen to highlight the need for

greater educational efforts — International Education Year.

31. The present twenty-fourth session of the General

Assembly is a prologue to this important year. The success

of the projects and observances to be undertaken in 1970,

the ability of this Organization to move forward constructively

into the second quarter-century of its existence,

will be influenced in large measure by the quality of work

that is done at this session. The Jamaican delegation hopes

that this will be a true working session, bringing into sharp

focus the changing problems and priorities of the world and

devising more effective means whereby the United Nations

can give them its attention. This, then, is a period of

hope — hope that all Member nations will work together

more fully to realize the goals of our Charter. To this end

Jamaica remains committed.