Saint Kitts and Nevis, 2003

My

Government is pleased that the General Assembly’s

presidency at its fifty-eighth regular session is in the

capable hands of my distinguished colleague, the

Foreign Minister of Saint Lucia, Senator Julian Hunte,

whose election bears witness to the importance that this

Organization holds, not just for the Government of

Saint Lucia, but also for the Governments and people

of the Caribbean Community. I trust that as he tackles

the critical United Nations agenda over the coming

year he will incorporate into his work the lessons of

our successes as a Caribbean Community. As with his

predecessor, whose steady leadership was tested during

a year of unprecedented challenges, he, too, can count

on my Government’s continued support.

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to

Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of the

Secretary-General, other staff of the United Nations

and the citizens of Iraq who lost their lives or sustained

injuries in the tragedy of Baghdad last August. We

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share the sorrow of the Secretary-General and his staff,

and extend our profound condolences to the bereaved

families.

I intend to focus our attention on the critical

importance of strategic partnership. Lest my statement

be misconstrued, I hasten to assure the Assembly from

the outset that my Government is neither oblivious nor

indifferent to the multitude of concerns and problems

that attend and threaten our quest for international

peace and security. I will be pleased to share my

Government’s perspective on them later. But allow me

first to share with the Assembly our national

philosophy and policy as they relate to improving the

human condition.

“How does one do that?” you ask. Improving the

human condition is achieved by working towards

human security. Notwithstanding the recriminations

and blame, at the core of the failed World Trade

Organization round in Mexico earlier this month was

the issue of human security. Clearly, countries want

guarantees as Governments struggle to meet the needs

of their citizens. For my Government, human security

means that each citizen has the right to liberty,

education, employment, an improved standard of living

and economic development. We believe that human

security is a comprehensive and holistic concept that

encompasses all aspects of the human condition.

Obviously, there is much that we in the Caribbean

can and must still learn from the rest of the world. But,

equally, there are many valuable lessons that the rest of

the world can draw from our experiences and successes

in the Caribbean. In many areas, the Caribbean is a

testament to the practicality and efficacy of functional

cooperation, and of how, despite the many issues that

divide us, we continue to work together on matters

common to us. Be it at the subregional level of the

Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) or

within the broader Caribbean Community

(CARICOM), the progress we have made in forging

consensus and in building common institutions to

address our shared problems allows us to be able to

share best practices with the United Nations and

demonstrate how, by working together through

cooperative partnerships, each of us can achieve more.

For nearly four decades, for example, the

University of the West Indies has cultivated many

distinguished academics and other notables. Today, it

stands as a beacon of hope for our young people in

their quest for quality higher education. To its credit,

the University continues to work with several

internationally recognized institutions and agencies in

the areas of peace and security, health care and

scientific research, to name but a few. The Caribbean

Examinations Council has responded adequately and

with requisite standards of excellence to the growing

education needs of the English-speaking Caribbean.

When our students complete their education, they stand

shoulder to shoulder with their counterparts around the

world. It is not my intention to boast, but for us it is a

matter of national and regional pride. Further, as the

Assembly’s President is aware, many of our countries

have adopted policies that allow nationals of other

member States to travel to and work in their countries

without the hassle of visa requirements and work

permits. Although we are divided by the sea, the

bridges of commitment and recognition of our common

challenges and the benefits of shared approaches are

bringing us ever closer together.

The Caribbean Development Bank and the

Eastern Caribbean Central Bank are models of how

financial responsibility and cooperation with and

among member Governments in executing fiscal and

monetary policies can facilitate stability, underpin

accountability and engender progress. For decades, the

Eastern Caribbean dollar, the currency of the countries

of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, has

remained the bedrock of monetary stability. We are

also especially proud of the success of the OECS Court

of Appeal, which has worked effectively and dutifully

in dispensing justice throughout the territories over

which it exercises jurisdiction. Further, the prudent and

positive steps toward a Caribbean Single Market and

Economy (CSME), provide evidence of the

determination of Caribbean Governments to cooperate

in almost all endeavours to advance the human security

of our citizens. These are but a few examples of

functional cooperation. In every case, member

countries are better off because they work together

rather than unilaterally.

We continue to incorporate in our national

policies many of the agreed principles of sustainable

development. Additionally, our regional campaign to

fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and treat its victims has

witnessed encouraging results under the Pan-Caribbean

Partnership against HIV/AIDS. My Government wishes

to commend the World Bank and the William J. Clinton

Presidential Foundation for their pledges of support for

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our work in this regard. We hope that our cooperation

efforts will be a model for future partnerships in our

region and beyond.

I promised earlier that I would share my

Government’s perspective on some of the decisive

issues that confront us internationally. I preface my

remarks with a reminder that just over a decade earlier

we stood on the threshold of a new era of opportunity.

We celebrated the collapse of major ideological

conflicts, which previously held us captive, even, I

dare say, on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. As one

leader remarked, nations and peoples quietly harboured

dreams that the last decade of the twentieth century and

the advent of the twenty-first century would herald new

opportunities to address and redress asymmetrical

issues that had frustrated our collective aspirations and

individual potential. None of us, I am sure, would

likely admit that we may have squandered such

prospects. However, a little more than a decade later,

ideological rifts seem to have been replaced by

political chasms and new dangers.

Consequently, we must re-evaluate our concept of

security. The Organization of American States, in its

meeting of foreign ministers last year in Barbados,

took the bold and timely step of redefining security

within its hemisphere. Security, the foreign ministers

declared, is diverse in scope and multidimensional in

nature, requiring multifaceted approaches to address

political, economic, social and environmental issues.

This concept clearly recognizes that we cannot separate

national, regional and international security issues from

political, economic and social stability and their

security implications.

We in the Caribbean recognize that, whereas

globalization is a viable instrument of growth and

prosperity for some, it has become the vehicle of ruin

and despair for many of the already poor people around

the world. While countries that prosper praise

globalization and free trade, countries that suffer see

themselves as no more than the guinea pigs, the passive

objects of globalization, with very little hope of

advancing human security for their poor citizens.

How do we encourage our citizens to have faith

in a system that punishes their legitimate efforts? How

can we tell the poor farmers in the developing world,

struggling to eke out an existence, to hold out hope

when farmers in rich countries are subsidized and

rewarded for overproduction? How do we ask our

citizens in small vulnerable economies to sacrifice and

adopt free trade wholesale, while larger, more

developed economies devise new ways to deny them

crucial market access. Unless we address such

inequities, there will always be resentment and

mistrust. We must therefore work together to level

these bumps on the road to development. Also, we

must rob the uncivil forces of the arguments they use to

feed and exploit the anger and despair of the poor and

dispossessed.

I turn now to the United Nations. In our view, the

United Nations remains central to international peace

and human security. The myriad challenges facing us

today require collective action and partnership. I hasten

to add that, although the United Nations still lacks

important elements of transparency and democracy in

the operations of the Security Council, it nevertheless

represents the most practical framework our nations

have to address regional and international concerns in a

holistic manner.

I trust that, when the dust of discontent settles,

we will appreciate that no country can act alone in

pursuit of international peace, development and human

security. My Government calls on the United Nations

membership to embrace a bold vision and commitment

to fighting the pull of isolation and the lure of

economic and financial engineering. Our reality today

encompasses the struggles to find positive and

sustainable methods for advancing our citizens’

development against uncivil forces or rogue ideologies

working relentlessly to undermine them.

My Government calls on the United Nations and

Member Governments to further subscribe to and

promote partnership by fulfilling the Millennium

Development Goals. The Millennium Goals are

essential steps to improving the human condition. They

are also a reliable basis for addressing many of the

inequities of globalization. We urge Member States to

work to meet these goals. We can relent only when the

other half of the world’s population ceases to live in

abject poverty, when larger sectors of the world’s

population can find work, and when all parents are able

to send their children to school.

Despite its exclusion from this international

fraternity of nations, the Republic of China on Taiwan

remains a valuable partner for peace and development

with fullest respect for international law. We trust that

its contributions and its citizens’ right to adequate

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representation can be guaranteed in the best interest of

brotherhood so that all people can live in peace and

enjoy the fruits of prosperity through partnership.

Saint Kitts and Nevis therefore urges the

United Nations to avail itself of every possibility to

facilitate a sustainable resolution of the impasse that

hampers Taiwan’s efforts to engage in international

dialogue and contribute to the common interests of

mankind.

Let me end by reaffirming my Government’s

commitment to multilateralism and to strategic

partnership.