Jamaica, 2011

I would like to

congratulate the President on his assumption of the

presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth

session. We are confident that his extensive diplomatic

experience will inform his leadership at this session. I

assure him of my delegation’s full support.

During the sixty-fifth session of the General

Assembly, we benefited from the skilled leadership of

His Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss. I wish to recognize

his sterling contribution to the work of that session.

We join others in welcoming the newest Member

of the United Nations family — the Republic of South

Sudan. The emergence of South Sudan as a sovereign

State underscores the fundamental value and relevance

of the theme of this year’s General Assembly session,

namely, “The role of mediation in the settlement of

disputes by peaceful means”. We salute the tenacity of

the people of South Sudan in their struggle to gain

statehood after five decades of conflict. We urge all

sides and factions not to allow rivalries and revenge to

impede growth and development. The international

community must assist South Sudan as it embarks on

the daunting journey of stabilization and nation

building.

We look out at a global political landscape that is

marked by turbulence and uncertainty. The

developments over the past several months in the

Middle East and North Africa in particular are stark

reminders that the legitimate aspirations of citizens for

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freedom, inclusive Government and respect for human

rights cannot be indefinitely suppressed.

Longstanding disputes and pockets of political

instability and conflict continue to fester in several

parts of the world, resulting in social and economic

dislocation and humanitarian crises. If the United

Nations is to effectively respond to those situations of

conflict, its preventive diplomacy capacity, including

mediation capacity, must be strengthened.

Many conflicts have their roots in racial and

religious intolerance, resulting in social exclusion,

marginalization and the alienation of people. The High-

level Meeting to commemorate the tenth anniversary of

the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme

of Action against racism, racial discrimination,

xenophobia and related intolerance, obliged us to

reflect on the global community’s inadequate

compliance with the objectives of the Programme of

Action. Recognizing the danger in such situations of

potential conflict and providing full support for the

Programme are congruent with the principles implied

in the theme for this session of the General Assembly.

Related to that is the continued support of the

international community for the project to erect a

permanent memorial to the victims of slavery and the

trans-Atlantic slave trade, as a visible message of the

Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. Jamaica

thanks all those countries that have contributed to the

erection of the memorial and looks forward to its

completion within a reasonable time frame.

Peace and development are mutually reinforcing

and intrinsically linked to growth and prosperity. It is

therefore important that we consciously seek to

strengthen and support the role of the Peacebuilding

Commission, recognizing the linkages between

peacekeeping and peacebuilding and the transition

from stabilization to consolidation.

The resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

is long overdue. It is time to end the occupation of

Palestinian territory. It is time for the people of

Palestine and Israel to live in peace and mutual

security. Jamaica remains unwavering in its support for

a just, lasting and comprehensive agreement that

recognizes the Palestinian State within the pre-1967

borders and guarantees the security of Israel. The focus

must now be on ending the stalemate and reviving

direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine. In that

regard, Jamaica welcomes the declarations to the

General Assembly by both Palestine and Israel of their

readiness to do so.

Both sides must now re-engage in good faith,

taking no action that could undermine the possibility of

a durable solution. Central to that must be Israel’s

cessation of settlement building and expansion in the

occupied territories and, on the part of the Palestinian

leadership and people, the renunciation of violence

against Israel and acceptance of its right to exist. The

door to peaceful negotiations will not be forever open,

nor can there be a continuing delay to Palestine’s

assumption of its rightful place in the global

community of States.

The spread of globalization is well advanced, and

our economies and growth prospects are interlinked in

a vast network of economic opportunities. In these

difficult financial times, developing countries are

forced to take painful policy decisions aimed at

recalibrating our economic plans to address immediate

challenges while laying the groundwork for the

fulfilment of our long-term development goals.

The balancing act that this involves can have dire

consequences for our most vulnerable nationals. We all

have to take ownership of our own development

process and the necessary steps to provide an economic

environment that is conducive to growth and

prosperity. To that end, we are compelled to adopt

approaches that are innovative, pro-active and

collaborative. It is through adopting such approaches

that many countries and regions have made significant

inroads in the attainment of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs).

I wish to refer to the struggles of two

neighbouring Caribbean countries to achieve

development. Haiti, in the wake of its disruptive

disaster, and in line with its successful efforts for

political organization, needs the continued support of

the international community to foster its development,

if its democratic gains are to be consolidated. Cuba

must have the space to foment its own development,

free from the decades-long embargo that has slowed its

growth, but not its will to improve the welfare of its

people and that of other developing countries. A strong

Cuban economy, integrated into the Caribbean

marketplace, is essential to the region’s development.

We are faced with the reality that, although we all

operate in one global economy, with the same

aspirations for growth and sustainable development,

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we do not all have the same resources or capabilities.

In addition to being acutely vulnerable to the vagaries

of the global economic environment, the development

prospects of many developing countries are frequently

undermined by environmental degradation and climate

change.

Classifications that are ostensibly positive, such

as our own designation as an upper-middle-income

country, serve to obscure several of the development

challenges that we continue to face, particularly in

accessing development financing and assistance, which

are critical to our development process and the

attainment of the MDGs. The range of socio-economic

characteristics and levels of development of countries

that fall in the middle-income category is indicative of

the need for us to move towards harmonization of the

criteria used in classification and resources allocation.

Developing countries like ours have undertaken

painful adjustments to achieve fiscal discipline and

macroeconomic stability within an open economy. We

continue to pursue free trade agreements at the

regional, hemispheric and global levels. However, the

missing link to progress is the urgent need to build

capacities in developing countries through

infrastructure development, institution-building and

expanding and enhancing productive capacity for

competitiveness and to meet international quality

standards.

Moving from an economy primarily driven by

commodities to one that is value-added, knowledge-

based, innovative and technology-driven is a

transformation that, although challenging for

developing countries, must be achieved. Without

effective partnerships between the large and small

economies for mutual benefit, balanced trade and

shared growth, that is unlikely to occur.

I speak here positively of the increasing South-

South cooperation that offers hope to many developing

countries. We have long recognized that we can

maximize our growth prospects through increased

economic partnerships and investment opportunities,

which ultimately lead to improvements in trade

relations. Indeed, the reality is that development aid is

an essential resource, which is used by developing

countries to offset the financial burden involved in the

execution of major development projects.

Unfortunately, much development aid and

assistance to developing countries continue to fall short

of the agreed goal of 0.7 per cent of gross national

income, as some of our developed partners fail to meet

their commitments. Closing the gap between

commitment to development and the provision of

resources that will facilitate the implementation of its

various components requires political courage. We

commend those partners who have maintained or

exceeded their official development assistance targets

despite their own economic challenges.

We continue to count on the support of our

partners and the international community to help drive

our social and development goals and to keep our

safety nets in place. International financial and

development assistance help to strengthen our

development process and to address setbacks from

external shocks on our economic planning and social

investments. Development funding is critical in the

recovery of our agricultural, mining and tourism

industries, which are often adversely affected by

climate change and the impact of natural disasters. So,

too, are the transfer of technology and capacity

building.

We urge our partners to recommit to the

development agenda, both here at the United Nations

and within the context of the Bretton Woods

institutions. We reiterate our call for the reform of the

international financial institutions towards increased

transparency and accountability, and an increased role

for the developing countries in decision-making.

We welcome the increased attention that the

Group of Twenty (G-20) has paid to development

issues and are encouraged by the consultative approach

in its relations with the United Nations. It is imperative

that the G-20’s activities in respect of development

accord with the central role of the United Nations in

economic development.

The Doha Development Round of trade

negotiations, which began in good faith nearly a

decade ago, has the potential to significantly improve

the development prospects of most developing

countries. We therefore urge the full re-engagement of

all parties in the process, so that we might move

beyond the current impasse and usher in a new era of

multilateral trade relations. This must take into account

the preservation of policy space and flexibility for

developing countries in areas that are integral to our

ability to build competitiveness and trade capacity. We

remain hopeful that at the eighth Ministerial

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Conference, to be held in December, we will consider a

package of measures as the basis for a more balanced

trade regime that will serve as a catalyst for increased

economic growth and prosperity worldwide. We must

commit to ensuring that development remains a central

objective of the negotiations.

We support coordinated and collaborative efforts

within the context of the review and implementation of

the Aid for Trade Initiative in support of developing

countries. We will continue to work with our

international partners and aid and development entities

in expanding the Initiative to build on the supply-side

capacity and infrastructure of developing countries, so

that we can take advantage of trade opportunities and

connections within the global economy.

Jamaica has embarked on an export-led trade

policy with the full involvement of the business sector

within the context of the World Trade Organization

Trade Policy Review institutional framework. The

strategic formulation of our trade policy process

includes collaboration with the private sector

particularly given its central role and expertise in

manufacturing and exporting. Our success in trade

development is strongly dependent on partnerships

with the private sector as we agree to policy directives

and pursue an export-led trade initiative, while being

mindful of our resources and capacity to export, as

well as business opportunities and market intelligence

globally.

Other critical challenges such as food security,

energy security, climate change, poverty and diseases,

continue to demand the attention of the international

community. Precisely because of their transnational

character, many of these problems require multilateral

cooperation and action in an inclusive framework that

involves both developed and developing countries.

A year ago, world leaders gathered at the General

Assembly to take stock of the progress made towards

the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

We renewed our commitments to achieving those

targets by 2015. We acknowledge the support and

partnership in the midst of the global economic

challenges. Nonetheless, with four years left until the

2015 deadline, we are deeply concerned at the slow

pace of delivery on commitments made in several key

areas, namely, ODA, trade, debt relief and access to

new technologies and affordable essential medicines.

Jamaica renews the appeal made by our Prime

Minister at the summit last year for an emergency

programme to re-energize the MDG agenda. Without

such a programme, those targets will remain elusive in

2015 and beyond. The fiscal policy requirements

attached to the resources made available for developing

countries through institutions like the International

Monetary Fund cannot assist in meeting the MDG

targets in the short run. It is therefore critical that we

reinvigorate the Global Partnership for Development

aligned with MDG 8. Critical also must be the

channelling of resources and the fiscal space to support

programmes for economic empowerment and capacity

building. More concessionary loans and grants and

debt-for-equity swaps should be among the instruments

used.

Jamaica is on track to meet most of the MDGs

despite the economic and financial challenges. Through

assistance from the Global Fund, we have significantly

increased access to antiretroviral drugs and reduced the

rates of HIV/AIDS infection, mother-to-child

transmission and AIDS mortality. At the High-level

Meeting on AIDS held in June, Member States

committed to bold new targets for the AIDS response,

including scaling up investments. As a result of its

reclassification as an upper-middle-income country,

Jamaica will not be eligible to access those funds. This

puts us at risk of reversing the gains made in halting

the spread of HIV. We again urge that the factors used

by the relevant multilateral agencies in the

measurement of a country’s wealth be reviewed, as

their classifications often bear no resemblance to the

realities on the ground. They must more carefully take

into account a country’s indebtedness and capacity to

pay, as well as its fiscal capacity to finance

programmes that are taken for granted in respect of

middle-income countries.

We are pleased that the international community

embraced the proposal made by the Caribbean

Community for United Nations emphasis on

non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the silent killer of

millions around the world. The High-level Meeting on

NCDs last week allowed us for the first time to agree

to measures to significantly reduce NCDs. The political

declaration we adopted (resolution 66/2, annex), while

not as ambitious as Jamaica would have preferred,

provides a good basis to address the prevention and

control of NCDs. We urge the United Nations system

and Member States to expeditiously implement

31 11-51384

measures to achieve the agreed targets and indicators

on NCDs.

The famine in the Horn of Africa, precipitated by

the worst drought in half a century, is of grave concern

to us all. It has heightened our awareness of the

devastating impact of natural disasters on poor

developing countries. We must adopt more concrete

measures on food security, building on the progress

made from the World Summit on Food Security and

working closely with the World Food Programme and

the United Nations Office for the Coordination of

Humanitarian Affairs to strengthen international

humanitarian response and assistance, particularly in

areas that are prone to disasters and conflicts. The

plight of starving populations, including mothers and

infants in the region, must push us towards the

commitments of the World Food Summit Plan of

Action.

To sustain the global food market and feed our

populations, we have to engage in greater investments

in science and research to boost agricultural

production — especially in poor rural communities —

as well as to offset the effect of drought and famine.

We equally have to increase investment in transport

and agricultural infrastructure to facilitate the storage

of food, its marketing and packaging and its

transportation to marketplaces.

Speculative action in the global market, with the

attendant volatility in commodity prices, has generated

socio-economic tensions in various countries across the

globe. The constant increases in food prices not only

create further strain on the economy and on social

welfare, but also threaten food security and deepen the

economic challenges of countries that are already

striving to recover from the global financial crisis.

Jamaica therefore welcomes the initiative launched by

President Sarkozy of France for the G-20 to give

serious consideration to this question of financial

speculation in the prices of petroleum and food at the

summit to be held in November. This is a burgeoning

crisis, which the United Nations must also take

seriously.

Climate change presents a clear and present

danger to human development, particularly in small

island developing States and least developed States.

Progress was made at the United Nations Climate

Change Conference in Cancún last December, when

common ground was reached between developed and

developing countries on several key issues. We must

now implement and operationalize those decisions. We

remain disappointed at the slow pace of climate change

financing.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference

in Durban in December will provide yet another

opportunity to forge consensus on effective adaptation

and mitigation strategies within the context of an

ambitious post-2012 climate change framework. A

second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol is

essential, and we remain optimistic that at Durban we

will all demonstrate the necessary political will and

seriousness of purpose to achieve that.

At the United Nations we share a common

background in the 1983 World Commission on

Environment and Development and the 1987 report

“Our Common Future” (A/42/427, annex). We share an

awareness that the nations of the world are

interdependent, experience interlocking crises and have

a common but differently shaded responsibility. We

have agreed on the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto

Protocol. We share the conviction that inequality,

poverty and the environment and environmental

degradation are linked and that development and the

environment are inseparable. In the light of that

background, we urge a renewed commitment to the

pursuit of development that is sustainable, through

increased attention to all three pillars of sustainable

development — the environmental, the socio-political

and the economic — and a redoubling of efforts to

integrate sustainable development principles at the

international, regional and, most important, national

levels, and

“meet[ing] the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generations to

meet their own needs”. (A/42/427, annex,

conclusion, para. 1)

As a small island developing State, we have a

vested interest in the successful outcome of the 2012

United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development (Rio+20) to review the implementation

of the commitments made 20 years ago at the

Conference in Rio de Janeiro. States and regions are

already assessing the progress that we have made and

the gaps that persist in our efforts to chart a more

sustainable course to development in the period since

the 1992 Conference. Significant gaps that cause

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concern relate to the transfer of technology, capacity-

building and the provision of additional financial

resources for development.

In our efforts to strengthen the international

sustainable development architecture, the emphasis

should be on effectiveness, on the efficacy of

institutions that not only facilitate extensive policy

discussions, but that also move us towards fulfilment

of the ambitious vision that we all embraced in Rio in

1992. We should also aim for institutional flexibility,

which will allow us to address long-standing and

emerging challenges through increased cooperation and

coordination.

Rio+20 will provide us with an excellent

opportunity to renew our commitment to Agenda 21,

the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and, in

respect of the small island developing States, the

Barbados Programme of Action and the Mauritius

Strategy on its implementation.

As host to the International Seabed Authority,

Jamaica attaches great importance to ocean affairs and

the law of the sea. Next year marks the thirtieth

anniversary of the opening for signature of the United

Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, drawn up in

Montego Bay. We encourage Member States to

appropriately highlight that landmark event at the

international level.

The total elimination of nuclear weapons remains

an important goal for the international community.

While we have taken significant steps towards

achieving that goal, significant challenges remain. A

number of key players remain outside the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has still not

entered into force. As we look towards the start of the

preparatory process for the 2015 NPT Review

Conference, there must be unquestionable political will

to address those lingering deficiencies in our push to

achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.

We must continue to build on the momentum

gained from last year’s special high-level meeting of

the General Assembly on transnational organized

crime, which addressed measures to counter the

growing problem, including narco-trafficking and the

illicit trade in small arms and ammunition.

Jamaica, like its partners in the Caribbean

Community, continues to face severe threats to our

long-term socio-economic development from illicit

trafficking in narcotic drugs, small arms and light

weapons and ammunition. We will remain resolute in

our fight against this menace both locally and abroad.

We have achieved marked reductions in crime and

criminal activities over the past year with our

multifaceted strategy to stem the problems, as well as

through the implementation of social intervention and

social transformation initiatives to stem the problem of

crime and violence. We continue to strengthen the

capacity of our security forces and to improve our

justice system, to ensure that criminals are caught and

prosecuted in a court of law.

We firmly believe, however, that we will not see

the full impact of those efforts without an international

regime that regulates the sale and transfer of

conventional weapons, in particular small arms and

light weapons and their ammunition. To that end,

Jamaica is committed to ensuring that the 2012

Diplomatic Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty

results in a legally binding, comprehensive, objective

and transparent Treaty.

In order for the United Nations to deliver on all

our expectations, its organizational structure must

reflect the geopolitical realities of the twenty-first

century. An effective response to global challenges

requires a reformed and dynamic United Nations.

Reform initiatives, spanning a number of years, have

led to the establishment of UN-Women, the reform and

strengthening of the Economic and Social Council, a

more coordinated and efficient response to

humanitarian crises and a change in the way we

conduct our peacekeeping missions. We must continue

our efforts aimed at revitalizing the General Assembly

so that it can effectively carry out its role and

responsibility as the chief deliberative and

policymaking organ of the United Nations.

A glaring failure has been our inability to agree

on reform of the Security Council to ensure that it is

more democratic, responsive and reflective of today’s

political environment. For more than 15 years, the

debates for comprehensive and lasting reform of the

Council have achieved very little. The African

countries and our Latin American and Caribbean region

still have no permanent seat at the table. That injustice

cannot continue. Comprehensive reform can only be

achieved within the intergovernmental negotiating

process. Anything less will be nothing more than a

continuation of the status quo.

33 11-51384

As we continue to work together to achieve

sustainable development for all, it is imperative that we

exercise the requisite political will and make good on

our commitments to the global development agenda.

The far-reaching effects of the multiple and

interconnected crises of recent years have reinforced

our interdependence and the important role of

economic cooperation and partnerships in securing

global peace and prosperity.

We must redouble our efforts to address the

growing challenges of poverty, food insecurity, the

rising costs of food and energy, and climate change. It

is not good enough to engage in extensive

deliberations, to make commitments and issue

declarations without providing the means for their

implementation, including financing, capacity-building

and technology transfer. We must now go beyond grand

statements if we are to fully realize sustainable

development and rekindle the faith of the people we

serve in the United Nations.