Jamaica, 1994

May I, on behalf of the

Government and the people of Jamaica, convey warmest

congratulations to Mr. Amara Essy on his election as

President of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session.

I wish to assure him of the full support and cooperation of

the Jamaican delegation in the deliberations on the many

important issues before the Assembly.

Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate

Ambassador Insanally of Guyana on the skilful and

innovative manner in which he presided over the forty-

eighth session. We in the Caribbean are justifiably proud

of his contributions to the Assembly’s deliberations.

Last year I emphasized that the international

community was at a crossroads where we were faced not

only with matters of economic progress but also with an

environment full of conflicts and strife. My outlook was,

and still is, one of optimism, an optimism rooted in the

recognition that the old political and military order has

passed and that history has, for the second time in less

than two generations, provided us with the opportunity to

embark on a process of international consensus-building.

This is an exciting and daunting task, particularly for a

small island State like Jamaica, whose faith and

commitment to multilateralism and the United Nations

remain unwavering.

Our most pressing collective challenge is to make

this Organization a more effective instrument for peace

and development. The United Nations is being called

upon to respond to a host of new challenges, including

emergency humanitarian assistance, peace-keeping,

peacemaking, development and post-conflict rebuilding.

The past year has seen human misery and dislocation of

fearful proportions in Haiti, on the high seas of the

Caribbean, in Rwanda, in the refugee camps of Zaire and

Tanzania, in Bosnia and in Afghanistan. Their underlying

causes are political, social and economic. The United

Nations can and should bring to these and other situations

a broadly encompassing view of the indivisibility of

political, economic and social processes.

The Organization and its resources and the will and

vision of its Members must be mobilized to address the

imperatives of social and economic development. We

must seek to promote a new era of international

cooperation for global human security.

The global nature of this challenge is inescapable.

It has become evident that no State by itself can control

the spread of environmental degradation and pollution,

transnational migrations and diseases such the AIDS

epidemic. Economic globalization and the accompanying

liberalization of trade and financial flows, now link

developed and developing economies, North and South,

East and West. Global solutions and coordinated

strategies must consequently form the basis of our

actions.

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Globalization brings new opportunities, but it also

brings new dangers. Despite the general trend towards

improved economic management, economic disparities are

widening. Developing countries are being marginalized

from the growth trends in the international economy. This

is a matter of concern to Jamaica as we, like a large

number of other developing countries, have placed high

developmental priority on export-led growth and on

attracting investment flows. Structural adjustment

programmes have also been undertaken at great social cost.

The contributions of the United Nations and its specialized

agencies in areas such as institution-building, poverty

alleviation, productivity enhancement, small enterprise

development and financing, and the strengthening of human

resources, continue to be vital elements in enhancing the

productive potential of developing countries. This will, in

turn, enable our countries to benefit more fully from and to

participate more effectively in a liberal and increasingly

organic global economy.

The United Nations must now work vigorously

towards the implementation of an agenda for development.

A meaningful agenda for development must set priorities in

programmes and resources that respond to the challenges

posed by the international environment for developing

countries. These priorities must address all issues to which

adequate multilateral solutions have yet to be found. These

include the burden of debt; inadequate flows of official

development assistance; the debilitating brain drain; the

reverse transfer of resources to multilateral financial

institutions; the social costs of structural adjustment and the

non-transparent trade barriers and protectionist measures

that remain in place in industrialized countries against the

products of developing countries even as the general trend

towards liberalization and trade in goods and services is

accelerating. The agenda must strengthen the role of the

United Nations in the area of international economic policy-

making and coordination. It must seek to enhance the

relationship of the United Nations with the Bretton Woods

institutions.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the

founding of the International Monetary Fund and the

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the

two Bretton Woods institutions established under the

umbrella of the United Nations. I wish to emphasize that

we should continue to examine the roles and policies of

these institutions. We must make the changes that five

decades of experience indicate are necessary so as to

improve the prospects for growth and development of

developing countries — change which can be carried out

without undermining the health and vitality of the

international economy or the fiscal integrity of these

institutions. Major developed countries should re-examine

their opposition to the sound proposals for change that

have been put forward repeatedly by developing

countries — proposals that range from increasing

international liquidity to longer adjustment periods. Over

the years, the International Monetary Fund has moved

from the supervision of a fixed exchange rate system to

assisting developing countries through financial crises,

while the World Bank has made the transition from post-

war reconstruction to funding development in the third

world. Now is an opportune time to reassess their

respective roles, given new global dynamics and changing

patterns of trade and investment. The Fund and the Bank

need to quickly adapt to the current global economic

system if they are to remain relevant to contemporary

realities.

Two important conferences were held this year

which offered opportunities for international attention and

action. In Barbados, the Global Conference on the

Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing

States adopted a programme of action which now requires

the support and assistance of the United Nations system

and the donor community for its speedy and effective

implementation. The recently concluded International

Conference on Population and Development in Cairo

produced a landmark document highlighting the

inextricable linkage between population, sustained

economic growth and sustained development. Next year

in Copenhagen, the World Summit for Social

Development will endeavour to adopt a global approach

to the eradication of poverty, the generation of productive

employment and the enhancement of social integration.

We will also meet in Beijing at the Fourth World

Conference on Women to continue to put in place

measures which will create an enabling environment for

women. Jamaica will actively participate in these

important processes.

I have chosen to focus at the outset on what Jamaica

sees as the development imperative and priorities of the

United Nations because we are convinced that the path to

development and the path to peace are one and the same.

Jamaica fully supports an open, non-discriminatory

trading system governed by transparent rules and with an

effective mechanism for settling disputes. We therefore

await the implementation of the conclusions of the

Uruguay Round and the establishment of the World Trade

Organization. We will work actively within the new

organization to ensure the promotion of development

through trade, placing special importance on those

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General Assembly 22nd meeting

provisions in the conclusions of the Uruguay Round which

seek to ensure a regime of fairness and equity in the overall

context of a programme of free trade.

The international community and its institutions are

dynamic. The choice is whether we actively shape the

change that inevitably comes with the passing of time and

with new circumstances, or whether we merely react to

events. The World Trade Organization is an example of

purposeful design by the international community. Yet

another — a truly historic one — is the United Nations

Convention on the Law of the Sea. As is widely known,

the Convention, which establishes a regulatory mechanism

for the oceans, the seas and their resources, will enter into

force on 16 November of this year. The inaugural meeting

of the International Seabed Authority will be held in

Kingston on that date. This will be both an end and a

beginning. The event will mark the end of a process that

began nearly twenty years ago and the opening of a new

and historic chapter in international juridical and economic

relations.

The inaugural meeting will see the establishment of

the International Seabed Authority. We are extremely

proud that Jamaica will host this important organization,

which has responsibility for regulating and exploiting the

world’s vastest resource base. It must be emphasized,

however, that the success of the Authority will require the

cooperation of all parties concerned, in order to ensure that

the goal of universality is achieved. It is important that the

Authority receive the necessary resources to enable it to

operate effectively, in a way consistent with principles and

practices applied to institutions within the United Nations

system.

I wish again to pay tribute to those who have

contributed to the United Nations Convention on the Law

of the Sea, to its ratification and to the establishment of the

International Seabed Authority.

We invite all States to join in the momentous first

meeting of the Authority in Kingston from 16 to 18

November. We look forward to welcoming the Secretary-

General of this Organization, His Excellency Mr. Boutros

Boutros-Ghali, who has graciously accepted the invitation

of the Government of Jamaica to be at the inaugural

meeting.

Since I spoke to this body last year, the Republic of

South Africa has resumed its seat in the General Assembly.

The installation of a majority government in that country,

under the leadership of President Nelson Mandela, is a

historic development of which the entire international

community is justifiably proud. The dismantling of

apartheid was a consequence of the long and valiant

struggle waged by the South African people. It was also

a victory for multilateralism and an important reminder of

the critical role that multilateral organizations such as the

United Nations can play in resolving difficult international

issues. The Government and the people of Jamaica

welcome a non-racial, democratic South Africa into the

international community of nations.

In our own region, the situation in Haiti has been of

great concern to Jamaica and our Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) partners. The wanton abuse of human

rights that led to the death of Haitians within Haiti and of

many of those who fled in unsafe vessels simply had to

stop.

We welcome the most recent developments in Haiti

and the reaffirmation by the international community of

its commitment to the Governors Island Accord. There

can be no deviation from the critical elements to which

we subscribed. The recent Security Council resolution

sends a strong signal to the military authorities that the

international community will accept no less than the

prompt return of the legitimately elected President, the

restoration of the constitutional authority of the

Government of Haiti, the reform of the army and the

police force, and the building of lasting democratic

institutions. Jamaica, along with several of our

CARICOM partners, is playing its part in this process by

participating in the multinational force and in the United

Nations Mission in Haiti.

Developments in Haiti have underscored the wisdom

of the philosophy of the countries of the Caribbean that

maintaining peace and stability, within the context of

democratic institutions and practices, must be the

fundamental basis for the development of our region.

Within the wider Latin American and Caribbean region,

we are actively strengthening and widening cooperation

among our countries. The establishment of the

Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in July of this

year was a historic development that provides for even

stronger collaboration and cooperation.

We hope that in the interest of the entire region, a

process of sustained dialogue and accommodation

between Cuba and the United States can be initiated, and

that this will lead to conditions that permit the eventual

full reintegration of Cuba into the region and into the

hemispheric community. Jamaica welcomes the call

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made by the Rio Group at its recent Eighth Summit

meeting for the lifting of the trade embargo against Cuba.

The trade and economic prospects of countries in the

region can be strengthened only by the priority now being

accorded to regional and hemispheric relations and by the

growing role, actual wand envisioned, for regional and

subregional organizations, such as CARICOM and the

newly established ACS, as well as by arrangements such as

the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In

the case of NAFTA, which we support strongly, Jamaica

and other participants in the Caribbean Basin Initiative

(CBI) programme continue to press for the adoption, by the

United States Congress of the Interim Trade programme,

which would significantly offset adverse consequences on

existing conditions of access under the CBI.

I feel compelled to return in these final comments to

the mission of this Organization — peace and development.

There can be little cause for comfort when, since 1945, 20

million people have died in wars and other conflicts. It is

disturbing and instructive to learn that some 80 million

persons now live in foreign lands, and that a million

persons immigrate permanently each year, while another

million seek political asylum as they flee both poverty and

internal strife. The increasing flows of refugees and

displaced persons worldwide threaten peace and stability

and exacerbate tensions and conflicts between countries and

in entire regions. We must strengthen international

cooperation in this area and streamline national and

international procedures for dealing with this grave

problem.

To be true to its mission, the United Nations must be

an Organization that reduces both want and war. This is

why I underscored earlier my delegation’s strong belief that

this Organization must become increasingly active in the

promotion of long-term development, which is the

necessary underpinning of a genuine and lasting peace.

The United Nations must not shrink from this aspect of its

mission.

The military and ideological realignment of recent

years has created new opportunities for peace. But these

unprecedented developments must be supported by

institutional reforms and by new approaches on our part.

These institutional reforms must inevitably include the

reform of the Security Council, the principal organ charged

with the maintenance of international peace and security.

In this regard, Jamaica fully supports the call for its

enlargement. We believe that the Security Council must be

truly representative in order to be fully effective.

Expenditure on armaments continues to consume

resources and to divert spending away from human

development needs in both developed and developing

countries. Military downsizing, particularly by

developing countries, has yet to gather the momentum

that was expected at the end of the cold war. The United

Nations has a legitimate role to play in providing

technical and other assistance to help developing and

other countries shift human and material resources from

military to civilian use. We note that the permanent

members of the Security Council are also the world’s

leading exporters of conventional weapons. This is an

issue that should be addressed both in terms of reducing

arms exports, as well as in terms of converting the

resources to the requirements of peace and development.

It would be remiss of me if I concluded my

contribution to this debate without referring to the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations, to be celebrated next

year. As we all prepare for this historic occasion, we

must reflect on the fact that this achievement is in itself

a vindication of the principles on which the Organization

was founded. If we are to survive beyond that milestone

we must remain steadfast to these principles.