Saint Kitts and Nevis, 2013

I am

particularly pleased to extend congratulations to

you, Sir, on your election as President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. I am indeed proud,

given your stellar service to the General Assembly

and of the service you have rendered to your native

land, Antigua and Barbuda, and to the Latin America

and Caribbean region in general. As a member of the

Organization of the Eastern Caribbean regional group

and the wider Caribbean region, Saint Kitts and Nevis

pledges its full support to you throughout your tenure at

the helm of the General Assembly. I am confident that

your expertise and skills will position you favourably

to guide the general debate and the extensive work

programme of the various committees and agencies of

this body.

Sir, Saint Kitts and Nevis wishes to place on record

its appreciation to your predecessor, the President of the

General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, Mr. Vuk

Jeremi., for the important contributions that he made

to advance the work of the institution during his own

tenure.

We begin the sixty-eighth session fully cognizant

of the diverse challenges with which we must contend,

and equally seized of our obligation as a Government

and people to contribute to the global priorities that

inform the work of the Assembly. We see the relevance

of maintaining sharp focus on those areas that are quite

integral to the national and international development

agendas. I refer to matters such as sustainable

development, the maintenance of international peace and

security, the promotion of human rights, disarmament,

the promotion of justice and international law, and

the effective coordination of humanitarian assistance

efforts. Those, we believe, are the core principles for

informing any plan of action to advance towards the

post-2015 era with the confidence that our shared vision

for meeting the goals we set, will be realized.

Just a few days ago, Saint Kitts and Nevis

attained another milestone, celebrating three decades

of nationhood with a very strong commitment to

maintaining the stability and prosperity of our nation,

drawing on our own creativity as a Government and

a people. Therefore, this year’s statement is very

significant for our proud nation. As one of the smallest

States Members of the Organization in the western

hemisphere, we are pleased with the significant strides

that we have made as my Government pursues a process

of transformation for sustainability in a nation that is

not immune to global developments that continue to

have a negative impact on its national agenda.

However, my Government is working assiduously

to transform our former sugar-based economy into one

that is service-oriented, driven mainly by tourism and

hospitality and supported by international financial and

offshore education services and by manufacturing and

agriculture. In all of this, we are aware of the momentum

and impact of information and communication

technology as a tool that will assist us in developing

our national economy.

As far as the manufacturing sector is concerned,

we have developed a cluster of light manufacturing

enterprises that service the North and South American

and European markets with quality electronic and

electrical components for construction, cable television,

and the aerospace and aircraft industries. Indeed, our

present economic trajectory will ensure that we meet

both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and

our own sustainable development goals in the post-2015

development agenda. That is why the theme for this

session — “The post-2015 development agenda: setting

the stage” — is perceived to be quite relevant.

My delegation is pleased that at this session we will

be reviewing the progress made towards achieving the

MDGs as the target date of 2015 fast approaches. In that

regard, the Secretary-General must be commended for

his initiative. I am pleased to indicate that Saint Kitts

and Nevis has taken tremendous strides in achieving the

MDG 1, concerning the eradication of extreme poverty.

Our Government has invested heavily in creating a

very solid and expansive social safety infrastructure

that has helped the less fortunate to lead dignified

lives. We provide subsidized health care for children

and the elderly. We assist vulnerable families with the

resources to pursue education and provide them with

hot, nourishing meals each day. We also provide living

facilities for the aged and the indigent.

My delegation hopes that every effort will be

made globally to ensure that all targets are met by the

indicative 2015 deadline. The Millennium Development

Goals Report 2013 provides a clear indication of exactly

where the international community should be directing

its focus. The world as a whole has to pay a great deal of

attention to the MDGs that are most off track, and those

where progress has stalled, including those relating to

hunger, universal access to primary education, child

mortality, maternal health and access to sanitation. All

nations must therefore redouble their efforts to exercise

the requisite political will to implement programmes

designed especially to meet the established targets

and to improve the lives of millions of people in a

meaningful way.

We must never lose sight of the intrinsic linkages

that exist between the Millennium Development Goals

and the sustainable development goals, particularly in

the post-2015 development agenda. Both processes,

though running in parallel, are mutually reinforcing in

the sense that the latter will accelerate programmes to

meet target indicators in the former, while the former

will provide valuable lessons for achieving a higher

degree of overall success.

Cognizant of the fact that poverty eradication

is intrinsically linked to attaining sustainable

development, we must strive to ensure that a balanced

approach is taken to blending economic growth, equity,

social inclusion and environmental sustainability as we

craft and implement policies to achieve development

that is both meaningful and truly sustainable. The

post-2015 development agenda must be arrived at

through transparent and inclusive intergovernmental

negotiations under the United Nations. In that regard,

my delegation appreciates the decision taken at the

special event on the follow-up to achieving the MDGs

that was convened earlier this week.

The post-2015 development agenda should also

address other challenges faced by developing countries,

such as universal access to modern energy services,

ensuring food security and nutrition, providing full and

productive employment and decent work for all, job

skills and training, agricultural development, building

productive capacity, and infrastructure development.

My Government has seen the positive impact of its own

national initiative, which is geared towards providing

young people in particular with the skills they need to

integrate themselves into the world of work through the

People Empowerment Programme. To date, over 2,000

young men and women have reaped the benefits of this

particular initiative.

It is very important for all States Members of

this great Organization to play an active role in

ensuring that the targets identified in the post-2015 era

adequately address the remaining gaps by the indicative

deadline for achieving the MDGs. My delegation

would therefore wish to reaffirm its commitment to

ensuring that small island developing States remain

a special case for ensuring sustainable development,

recognizing our unique characteristics, our challenges

and vulnerabilities, and their ongoing impact on our

ability to achieve and build resilience. Small island

developing States remain constrained in meeting the

economic, environmental and social challenges they

face. While we recognize our own responsibility for

overcoming some of these setbacks, we wish to stress

that in the absence of cooperation and assistance from

the international community, success will definitely

remain difficult.

At this juncture, allow me to place on record our

appreciation to some of our development partners

that have offered us tangible assistance in stabilizing

our national economy and in generally diversifying

the national economy, in particular in the field

of agricultural diversification, information and

communications technologies, development and energy

diversification in an economy that relies on fossil-fuel

consumption. This phenomenon will have a positive

impact on our energy cost-reduction efforts as we

advance towards realizing our goal of a fully green

economy as we endeavour to bring much-needed relief

to our people by 2015.

The contributions of the Governments of the

Republic of China, Japan, the United States of America,

Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Canada and Cuba, and

of the Organization of American States, the European

Union, the International Monetary Fund and the World

Bank in particular, have assisted greatly in that regard.

The Assembly will agree that no discussion of the

issue of development can progress without reference

to the area of health, and in particular the chronic

illnesses that continue to plague our societies resulting

in the loss of lives, thus retarding our developmental

thrust. It was just a few days ago, in the margins of

the sixty-eighth session, that I had the privilege of

addressing a forum on non-communicable diseases and

disability, held in collaboration with several permanent

missions, the Caribbean Community secretariat, the

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World

Health Organization and the Non-Communicable

Disease Alliance. The forum was designed to bring

focused attention to creating synergies between

non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and disabilities

and to examine how health systems can be reoriented

and reinforced to ensure equitable access to high-

quality care and thereby advance development.

In that forum, we were able to confirm that NCDs

are driven not only by ageing but increasingly and

alarmingly by the growing number of cases of juvenile

diabetes and the growing number of youth incapacitated

by accident injury. The high incidence of NCDs within

the Caribbean also places an increased burden on our

open economies, which are highly vulnerable to external

shocks and natural disasters, diverting resources that

could be allocated to building quality infrastructure

and our precious human capital. Indeed, we accept

the recommendation of the report of the Caribbean

Commission on Health and Development that urgent

steps must be taken to reverse those particular trends.

Therefore, as we focus strategically on the

Millennium Development Goals and the post-

2015 development agenda, we cannot lose sight of

non-communicable diseases and the real threat that

they pose to societies across the globe. We are therefore

grateful for the attention that was given at the United

Nations High-level Meeting on the Prevention and

Control of Non-communicable Diseases two years ago

to the need for a global response to that problem. We

recognize that much work has been undertaken by the

World Health Organization, the Pan American Health

Organization and other regional bodies to reverse the

high incidence of NCDs in our region. There is now

a strong emphasis on testing, since the collection of

empirical data is key for proper tracking and analysis.

The preparation of strategic plans and budgets and

the incorporation of families and communities into

education, prevention and detection programmes are

all pivotal in this regard.

My delegation is convinced that the combat against

the high incidence of non-communicable diseases must

receive greater prominence in the post-2015 sustainable

development agenda. It is evident that there is a strong

nexus between a nation’s health status and its levels

of productivity. My delegation therefore subscribes to

the notion that a nation’s wealth lies in the health of its

people. Our High-level Meeting of two years ago was

an important first step in that regard, and it is one on

which we must continue to build on an ongoing basis.

It is clear that we need to adopt a strategy similar to

the global response to HIV/AIDS in order to achieve

the levels of success in fighting the incidence of NCDs.

Today, I respectfully submit that there are practical

lessons to be learned from the experience developed by

agencies such as the Joint United Nations Programme

on HIV/AIDS and PAHO that have touched the lives of

millions in a positive way. It is therefore important for

the Assembly to keep on the front burner a practical

strategy to address the high incidence of NCDs within

our region and the nations of the world.

As we usher in a dispensation of sustainment,

we remain cognizant of the inextricable link between

development and an environment of peace and security.

Crime in any society is an unwelcome and destabilizing

threat that must be dealt with promptly. Indeed, the

ways in which societies are affected at both the micro

and the macro levels are known to us all. Entire

societies are forced to bear the myriad costs associated

with personal injury, psychological insecurity and the

related health-care repercussions.

That is why we in Saint Kitts and Nevis have placed

great emphasis on effective leadership, clear lines

of authority and responsibility, targeted equipment

upgrades, expanded and ongoing training, community

policing, strengthened relations between the police and

the public, and full cooperation at all levels between

our national police force and our national defence force.

As a result, Saint Kitts and Nevis has made tremendous

strides in confronting the challenge of crime. Indeed,

in the space of just over one year, we were able to see

crime plummet by some 53 per cent, convincing us of

the importance of the United Nations providing a forum

via which Member States might share best practices

in this era of globalized criminality. If the challenge

is becoming international in scope, so too must our

response.

In that regard, we are equally aware that the

socioeconomic and political gains that we are trying

to achieve in the global community will be elusive if

the environment of peace is interrupted by warfare

and threats to the peaceful coexistence of the world’s

peoples. Saint Kitts and Nevis therefore joins in

condemning the atrocities that have recently been

perpetrated in Syria and Kenya, which have resulted in

wanton loss of human lives. Such use of chemical and

conventional weapons, resort to acts of violence and

terrorism, and their spiralling inhumane effects will

ultimately have a far-reaching deleterious impact on

global safety and security, which must continue to be a

concern for all of the world’s leaders and their peoples.

More than any other time in its history, the United

Nations must be more assertive in executing its mandate

as a leading actor in securing world peace. Saint Kitts

and Nevis appreciates the strides that we have made with

the Arms Trade Treaty, and would urge that we move

with alacrity to ensure its entry into force. However,

as a small island State with open borders, we see the

relevance of establishing international standards and

controls that will govern the illicit flow of small arms

and light weapons through our Caribbean ports.

We commend the United States of America for the

partnership that has been forged with Saint Kitts and

Nevis and the other States Members of the Caribbean

that form part of the United States Caribbean Basin

Security Initiative, which, among other things, will be

pivotal to our efforts to stop the illicit flow of foreign-

made small arms into our peaceful Caribbean region.

This initiative has provided avenues of collaboration in

crime prevention and detection as we work together in

building the capacity of our security forces. This, we

are convinced, will contribute significantly to creating

an enabling environment for sustainable development

through the prevalence of peace and security in our

communities.

Our focus is not only on the international

dimensions of crime. Indeed, we are mindful of the fact

that all over the world, women and children are among

the most vulnerable in our societies, and so we have

instituted a clear and assertive zero-tolerance policy in

this regard. Violence against women and children must

be seen not as a personal or family matter, but instead

as a socially destructive behaviour demanding judicial

intervention. If and where this zero-tolerance policy

does not yet exist, we strongly urge its embrace today

and its immediate implementation.

Thirty years ago, Saint Kitts and Nevis established

diplomatic relations with several countries, including

the Republic of China on Taiwan. In the intervening

years, this relationship has been mutually beneficial.

As the debate on sustainable development unfolds,

Saint Kitts and Nevis is eminently qualified to speak

on the myriad contributions that the Republic of China

is capable of making to the international community.

While the international community is preoccupied with

ensuring peace and security globally, we can applaud

the Government of the Republic of China for promoting

peace across the Taiwan Strait and proposing the East

China Sea Peace Initiative, thereby demonstrating a

commitment to peace and stability.

Taiwan is one of the top 18 economies globally. In

addition, Taiwan has worked assiduously to advance

the economic interests of countries such as ours. In

this regard, we have collaborated on a large number

of key projects, such as the multisectoral agritourism

demonstration farm, our high-priority solar energy farm

and an information and communications technology

centre, which are all designed to advance the social and

economic interests of my small nation.

I wish to place on record my delegation’s

appreciation to the World Health Organization for

having invited Taiwan, for five consecutive years,

to attend the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an

observer. We are of the view that Taiwan has adopted a

very pragmatic approach to its meaningful participation

in United Nations specialized agencies and functional

organizations that are critical to the current global

efforts to address many issues of mutual concern. My

delegation is convinced that the arrangements made

for Taiwan’s presence in the World Health Assembly,

which have been referred to as the WHA model, serve

as a useful point of reference for Taiwan’s meaningful

participation in other international agencies, such as

the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

and the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change. While on that note, permit me to

commend Mr. Roberto Kobeh González, President of

the ICAO Council, on the decision to invite Taiwan to

attend this month’s thirty-eighth ICAO Assembly as a

special guest.

Germane to the concept of exclusion from the

international trading arrangement is the trade embargo

imposed on Cuba at the height of the Cold War, which

today remains a matter of concern for Saint Kitts

and Nevis, as it does to the vast majority of nations

represented in this important institution. Our own

position is based on our commitment to international

law, the principles of the Charter of the United Nations

and our obligations under the same. We therefore,

like so many in this Hall, are concerned about the

extraterritorial application and effects of national

legislation on the sovereignty of States. Therefore,

the Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis reiterates its

support for resolution 67/4 on the necessity of ending

the economic, commercial and financial embargo

imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,

and once again calls for an immediate end to that

unilateral action.

As we move to open a chapter that will usher in a

more enlightened era of human existence, Saint Kitts and

Nevis joins with the States members of the Caribbean

Community in supporting the very important case for

reparations associated with the atrocities of slavery.

Although the repercussions of slavery on the lives of our

ancestors cannot be quantified, we are convinced that

the deleterious effects, which even now are translated

into much hardship and poverty for the descendants of

our ancestors, must be resolved. Therefore, the time has

come.

The world has seen more than its share of conflicts

in recent years. In addition, natural disasters, sometimes

caused by climate change, continue to wreak havoc

in many corners of the globe. All of this speaks to

the importance of us marshalling and managing very

carefully those resources that have been placed under

our respective control for the benefit of the people we

represent. It speaks to the importance of us being far

more responsible stewards of this planet than we have

been in the past. It speaks to our working assiduously,

whenever we can, to abate tensions and promote peace.

There can be change in 2015 only as long as we

do not fail to take a bold and definitive stance in

addressing the ills that stymie our efforts to move

forward in achieving our goals. There will be change in

2015 if we do not fail to pursue the priorities that will

eradicate poverty, enhance global peace and security,

find alternative means of reducing the impact of climate

change and saving our planet from destruction, and

reduce elevated incidences of HIV/AIDS and NCDs.

There must be change in 2015 if the agencies of the

Organization adopt a policy of equity and the strong

determination to execute their mandate to enable the

institutionalization of a culture of peace and security,

respect for human lives and justice for all.

Let us therefore, today and forever, commit to rising

to the challenge and moving forward, imbued with a

renewed sense of focus, determination and urgency to

fulfil our goals. May all that we say here bring us closer

to that most vital and crucial of ends.