Saint Lucia, 2006

At the outset permit

me to congratulate you, Madam President, on your

election to the presidency of the General Assembly at

its sixty-first session, and to express Saint Lucia’s

appreciation to your predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson of

Sweden, for the excellent manner in which he

spearheaded the work of the sixtieth session. We wish

also to express our profound respect and gratitude to

Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his great vision,

committed leadership and tireless efforts in promoting

the noble ideals and values of our United Nations

under the most difficult circumstances. We wish him

and his family well in their future endeavours.

When in September 2000 we took the

unprecedented step of pledging to meet eight

Millennium Development Goals by 2015, it

represented a belated admission that the development

of every nation is a collective responsibility.

At that Summit we recognized that it was an

affront to our basic humanity that so many people on

our planet continued to live in conditions of abject

poverty and deprivation; that so many continued to

suffer the ravages of disease and war; and that basic

necessities of life, taken for granted by most of us,

remained unattainable by so many. We also recognized

that unless we developed appropriate partnerships to

deal with these problems they would persist, to our

collective shame.

At this, our sixty-first session, we reaffirm our

commitment to this notion of partnership as a

significant modality for the attainment of our common

goals. Saint Lucia is satisfied that the idea of

partnership accommodates the spirit of multilateralism,

which is the defining principle of our relationship

within the United Nations. This multilateralist spirit

must constantly be safeguarded and fortified, and that

can only be accomplished by a strong and confident

United Nations.

Saint Lucia takes this opportunity to once again

express its determined support for the programmes of

reform of the United Nations, designed as these are to

create the capacity and conditions for the exercise of a

strong central role by the United Nations within the

international community. We salute the achievements

to date, namely, the replacement of the moribund

Human Rights Commission with the new Human

Rights Council and the establishment of the

Peacebuilding Commission. We recognize that these

bodies are far from perfect and will require continued

attention by Member States. However, they reflect our

determination to translate talk into action. Saint Lucia

looks forward to continuing the discussions on the

remaining items on our reform agenda — in particular,

Security Council reform, strengthening and refocusing

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the General Assembly, the empowerment of the

Economic and Social Council and management reform.

Saint Lucia continues to believe in the wisdom of

the words of our Secretary-General, who, in his March

2005 report “In Larger Freedom”, opined:

“we will not enjoy development without security,

we will not enjoy security without development,

and we will not enjoy either without respect for

human rights. Unless all these causes are

advanced, none will succeed.” (A/59/2005,

para. 17)

As we seek to develop partnerships for

development, utilizing the Millennium Development

Goals as the benchmark, Saint Lucia has been moving

steadily towards the attainment of some of the goals.

Universal primary education has been largely attained,

and we have gone further to introduce a programme of

universal access to free secondary education for our

young citizens. Saint Lucia is in the process of

establishing a universal programme of free health care,

and it has made significant progress in the area of

maternal and child health. We are also working

steadfastly in the battle against HIV/AIDS through

education, early detection and treatment programmes,

and also through the provision of free or subsidized

antiretroviral drugs.

All these efforts have been bolstered in a

practical demonstration of South-South cooperation

through generous support and assistance from a

number of developing countries in the areas of human

resource development in the health sector and the

construction of new health facilities. South-South

partnerships are workable. We need to continue to

develop and widen them for the betterment of

developing countries.

Saint Lucia applauds the return of Haiti to

democratic governance. This long-awaited

development has led to the readmission of that country

to the councils of the Caribbean Community. We

recognize that the road to normalcy in Haiti will be a

long and tortuous one, requiring a sustained political

focus by the international community. Saint Lucia calls

for the speedy release of development resources

promised to that country in order that its Government

and people may tackle in a meaningful way the

numerous obstacles standing in its development path.

Saint Lucia also welcomes the Final Document of

the Fourteenth Summit Conference of Heads of State

or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in

Havana. This historic meeting addressed a wide range

of regional and international issues, including the

sanctity of international law, the promotion and

preservation of multilateralism, the peaceful settlement

of disputes, the right to self-determination and

decolonization. The Final Document provides the

international community with a workable road map for

the development agenda far into this new century, with

achievable solutions to many of the issues facing us

today.

Saint Lucia notes and welcomes the report of the

Secretary-General on the follow-up to and

implementation of the outcome of the 2005

International Conference on Financing for

Development (A/61/253). We call upon the developed

countries represented at that forum to honour the

commitments made there and at previous United

Nations summits and conferences on trade, debt and

finance, especially their promise to fulfil the goal of

0.7 per cent of gross domestic product going to official

development assistance. We believe it is imperative

that the international community increase its efforts to

address the indebtedness of poor developing countries.

It is also important that these countries address the

systemic deficiencies in the global economic and

financial system. These deficiencies all constitute

serious threats to the survival of developing countries

like Saint Lucia.

Small island developing States, such as those in

the Caribbean, the Pacific and Indian oceans and the

Mediterranean, are extremely vulnerable to the impact

of climate change. We have already reached a

dangerous level of greenhouse gas concentrations in

the atmosphere, and urgent action is required to reverse

this situation.

In this connection, the international community,

in particular our developed partners, needs to take

more aggressive action to promote the development

and distribution of renewable energy and energy

efficiency technologies in developed and developing

countries alike. To assist developing countries to play

their part in this connection there is a need to establish

a global renewable energy and energy efficiency fund.

Saint Lucia joins with its colleague members of the

Alliance of Small Island States, and with other affected

States, in calling for the international community to

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address the issues of sea-level rise and climate change

as a matter of urgency.

The international community must honour its

responsibility for, and commitment to, the full

implementation of the Mauritius Strategy for the

Further Implementation of the Programme of Action

for the Sustainable Development of Small Island

Developing States. We insist on the urgent and proper

mainstreaming of the Strategy into the respective work

programmes of the United Nations agencies and other

bodies. Those who are the largest producers of

greenhouse gases must bear responsibility for the

damage they are causing to the global environment.

From our own regional perspective, Saint Lucia

welcomes the adoption of measures for the promotion

of an integrated management approach to the

Caribbean Sea area in the context of sustainable

development. We welcome initiatives taken to this end

by the Association of Caribbean States and the

Caribbean Community.

Half a decade into the twenty-first century there

are still some 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories under

the review of the General Assembly. Most are small

island territories in the Caribbean and Pacific regions.

Their decolonization through a genuine process of self-

determination is the unfinished agenda of the United

Nations. In this connection, Article 73b of the Charter,

on the necessity of promoting genuine self-

government, should be respected. We call on the

administering Powers to increase their level of

cooperation with the Special Committee on

Decolonization, and call on the relevant bodies of the

United Nations system to assist the Non-Self-

Governing Territories in the development of their

capacity for self-government and in furtherance of their

process of self-determination.

The year 2007 will mark the 200th anniversary of

the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, which

began the process of the abolition of slavery in the

British Empire. A number of international events are

planned throughout the globe to honour the memory of

the millions who died during the middle passage, and

those who subsequently perished under the horrors of

chattel slavery in the Caribbean and the Americas.

Saint Lucia joins with the countries of the African

diaspora in the Caribbean, and with other like-minded

countries, in supporting a United Nations

commemoration in 2007 of the abolition of the

transatlantic slave trade.

I could not end without referring to the serious

impact of the rulings of the World Trade Organization

(WTO) in respect of banana exports to our preferential

markets in Europe. Few in the developed world can

appreciate the mass social dislocation that this decision

has caused, with thousands of independent farmers,

employers in their own right, left without a livelihood

through no fault of their own.

Consider that for every banana farmer in Saint

Lucia who has lost his or her livelihood at least six

persons have also been excised from direct

participation in the economic system. The WTO has

become synonymous with pain and suffering for

farmers in Saint Lucia. In many instances the

implementation of some of the obligations has created

more hardship and poverty than previously existed.

Accordingly, while economic and trade policy reform

in principle holds much promise for small developing

countries, the international community must come to

grips with the fact that the one-size-fits-all approach is

inappropriate and impractical. In this connection, a set

of trading rules flexible enough to take into account the

concerns of small States must be enacted. The principle

of special and differential treatment must infuse all

aspects of the new trade rules that we seek to create.

There is much unfinished business ahead of us. It

is our expectation that the members of the Assembly

will focus even more intently on the development of

appropriate strategies for its resolution. We are

confident that under your guidance and leadership,

Madam President, the development agenda of the

Organization will be advanced further. For its part,

Saint Lucia remains committed to the ideals of

multilateralism, and reaffirms its view that the United

Nations offers the best opportunity for the achievement

of peace, security and sustainable development for all.