Maldives, 1997

First of all, Sir, let me

congratulate you on your election to the presidency of the

fifty-second session of the General Assembly. Your election

is a reflection of the confidence and the hope that this body

has in your abilities to guide this session to a successful

conclusion.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express

my delegation’s profound gratitude and appreciation to your

predecessor, Ambassador Razali Ismail, for the exemplary

manner in which he carried out his responsibilities and

steered the work of the General Assembly during his term

as President.

It is also my privilege to take this opportunity to

extend, on behalf of my delegation and on my own behalf,

a very warm welcome to the new Secretary-General,

Mr. Kofi Annan. We have no doubt that his long

experience as an international civil servant and his vast

knowledge of the United Nations system will give him all

the insights he requires for carrying out his responsibilities

fairly and firmly. He deserves every assistance and support

from all Member States of the Organization.

With great enthusiasm for capitalizing on the

opportunities created by the end of the cold war, we

embarked on a journey to revitalize the United Nations and

to reform the way it functions, making it more effective and

capable of playing the central role it is entitled to in

maintaining the world order, and perhaps shaping a new

world order for the future.

However, as the discussions continue, the views

remain far from consensus, even on the single issue of

restructuring the Security Council, which I agree is

important and pivotal. But at this point we should remind

ourselves that in our approach to reform we should be

covering the whole spectrum of political, social, economic

and legal activities of the United Nations and its

specialized agencies.

It is rather disappointing that the focus is at present

mainly on the restructuring of the Security Council.

Furthermore, the proposals made so far on this issue are

sadly inadequate, and many suggest the creation of a new

form of idiosyncrasy.

In the absence of a formula which is comprehensive

and just, we may as well suggest the following.

First, increase the number of non-permanent

members in the Council to an appropriate level, reflecting

the growth of the membership and its present diversity.

Secondly, amend paragraph 2 of Article 23 of the

Charter to enable the non-permanent member States to be

re-elected for any number of consecutive terms, so that

those who seek to occupy a seat in this important body on

a continuing basis can do so as long as they enjoy the

confidence and support of the Member States.

Thirdly, encourage the permanent members of the

Security Council to agree among themselves on an accord

which will remove or at least minimize the common

apprehension arising from the fear of their misusing the

veto power.

My delegation applauds the efforts of the Secretary-

General to bring much needed reforms to the

administrative and financial functioning of the

Organization. The proposals that he submitted to the

Assembly on 16 July 1997 deserve our careful

consideration, as they contain far-reaching and

constructive arrangements which will at least help the

United Nations emerge from its present difficulties.

The enthusiasm which followed the end of the cold

war also provided us the opportunity to meet in several

international conferences to deal with some of the issues

of true concern to all of us. These issues include the

environment, social development, population, women,

human settlements and food security. At those meetings

we adopted ambitious action plans, reaching the

conclusion that sustainable development should be the

core of the achievement of our objectives. Yet without the

genuine and sincere will of the international community

to honour their commitments, the action plans, which bear

enormous price tags, cannot be implemented effectively.

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This stark truth dominated the special session of the

General Assembly in June this year, when we noted the

lack of progress in the international action called for in the

historic Agenda 21 of the 1992 Earth Summit.

The emission of greenhouse gases is continuing

unabated, polluting the environment and warming the global

atmosphere more and more. If the latest predictions of the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on

greenhouse-gas emissions and global warming were to

come true, then by the year 2100 almost 80 per cent of the

low-lying island countries, including my own, would be

submerged in the sea.

For the Maldives and other small island developing

States, which are most affected by the degradation of the

world’s environment, the lack of progress in international

action is most lamentable. We are not only fearful of an

impending danger, we are also anxious that unless the

world acts now and swiftly, it may be too late for us to

avoid environmental catastrophe.

If we care to halt and reverse this lurking threat, we

need the unwavering commitment and cooperation of the

entire international community. And there is nothing we can

do on our own.

Ever since my President, Mr. Maumoon Abdul

Gayoom, apprised this Assembly in 1987 of the impending

environmental disaster that rising sea levels posed to our

country, the Maldives has been warning vigorously, at

national, regional and international levels, of this problem.

Today I am happy to state that at the national level we

are continuing successfully to create environmental

awareness by involving non-governmental organizations and

the private sector. We have also successfully implemented

a few projects to protect and preserve the environment. For

instance, under the two-million-tree national programme the

people of the Maldives have planted eight trees per person

in the last two years. I wonder what a spectacular impact

we could have on our planet if we could plant eight trees

per person in the entire world over the next two years.

At the regional level, the Delhi Declaration of the

Environment Ministers of the South Asian Association for

Regional Cooperation (SAARC) stands as testimony to our

regional efforts. The Declaration, which reflected the

common position of our region on global environmental

issues, was presented to this Assembly by President

Gayoom at its nineteenth special session. Another important

meeting of SAARC environment ministers is scheduled to

be held this month in the Maldives.

At the international level, we are working closely

with the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) to

pursue our cause. We attach the utmost importance to the

swift and steady implementation of the Barbados

Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of

Small Island Developing States, and once again we call

upon the developed countries to fulfil their commitments

and pledges of support.

In this connection, we call upon the industrialized

countries to follow the examples set by the United

Kingdom and the European Union during the nineteenth

special session of the General Assembly and to commit

themselves to legally binding and meaningful targets to

reduce their greenhouse-gas emission levels.

For the Maldives, a country that will be affected

severely, if not fatally, by climate change, it is hard to

accept a target below the 20 per cent reduction level by

the year 2005, as contained in the AOSIS protocol, as a

meaningful reduction.

Last month the Maldives hosted the thirteenth

session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic

Change, which was regarded not only as a very important

meeting on the subject, but also a very timely one, as the

world is looking forward eagerly and with great optimism

to the forthcoming third session of the Conference of the

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change in Kyoto.

My country and many other small States in the

developing world, especially those among the least

developed countries, have placed our trust in the United

Nations to help us face and overcome the inherent

constraints we have as we continue our quest towards

progress and prosperity. We also look to the United

Nations to develop policies and take effective measures to

protect us from threats, whether economic or political,

and alleviate our sufferings from environmental

calamities. The fact is that we cannot on our own face the

odds and that our economies are more vulnerable than

those of larger and more prosperous States. Protection of

the weaker should not be seen as a burden, but rather as

a shared responsibility of all, recognizing the realities of

our diversified membership in this Organization.

While liberalization of the world economy may have

boosted the prospects for some of the developing

12

countries to successfully integrate themselves into the new

international trading arrangements, those with little access

to the world market, capital and new technologies find

themselves becoming marginalized, away from the

mainstream of the world economy.

The gap between the rich and the poor is continuing

to grow unabated. Several developing countries, and

particularly the least developed of them, still continue to

suffer from endemic poverty, which is compounded by the

severe debt burden and leads to political and economic

dislocation.

The overall decline in official development assistance

over the years has aggravated the conditions of the least

developed countries. Unless the developed countries fulfil

their commitment to reach the United Nations accepted

target of dedicating 0.7 per cent of gross national product

to official development assistance and intensify their efforts

to reverse the present downward trend, hopes for the least

developed countries will remain as grim as ever.

The Committee for Development Planning, at its

thirty-first session, held in May this year, proposed in its

report that the Maldives be graduated from the least

developed countries list at the time of the next review in

the year 2000, if we continue to prosper at the present rate.

We are overwhelmed to see our development efforts

being rewarded with a decision of expulsion. Over the

years, my country has successfully cleared numerous

hurdles in the path of socio-economic development, despite

its limited resources. We were able to improve the per

capita income, raise the standard of living of the people and

provide basic services to the community and individuals at

higher levels than many others in the least developed

country category.

This success was in large measure due to the stable

political climate that we enjoyed, which in turn provided us

the opportunity to implement carefully planned, action-

oriented policies and strategies. At the same time, we could

not have achieved these happy results without the support

we received from friendly countries and multilateral

organizations.

However, if one were to consider these few

achievements against the background of an extremely

fragile economy deprived of natural resources, and a high

dependency on tourism and fisheries — both of which are

susceptible to global economic change and environmental

and other external factors — the whole scenario could

easily change from a happy and promising one to an

obscure and insecure one. The vulnerability of our

economy compels us to continue to depend on external

resources, to build infrastructures that we cannot build on

our own and to develop our own needed human resources

for further development.

Furthermore, the smallness of our countries has also

made us vulnerable to the activities of drug-trafficking,

money-laundering, terrorism and other forms of organized

crime carried out by criminals who are looking for new

territories to operate from. We therefore need to remain

close to our development partners in a relationship of

trust, which is far beyond kindness and charity. Therefore,

my delegation would like to stress the importance of

developing and applying a vulnerability index for the

small island developing States as a basic and meaningful

criterion for determining the status of least developed

countries, recalling the content and the spirit of resolution

51/183.

I cannot overemphasize the important role that the

regional organizations are playing in international

relations: fostering mutual trust and understanding and

opening up greater prospects for the promotion of peace,

stability and socio-economic cooperation within the

region.

The activities of the South Asian Association for

Regional Cooperation (SAARC), to which my country

proudly belongs, are no exception. In fact, I am happy to

state that the ninth SAARC summit, held in the Maldives

in May this year, has adopted far-reaching and bold

initiatives that will bring the countries of South Asia

closer to each other and enhance further cooperation

between them in the economic and technical fields.

Among other important decisions, we have pledged to

eradicate poverty from our region as early as possible,

preferably by the year 2002. We have joined hands to

accelerate our efforts to achieve trade liberalization and

establish a free-trade area by the year 2001. We have

also, for the first time, decided to begin informal political

consultations in order to enhance and foster good-

neighbourly relations, relieve tension and build trust and

confidence between and among Member States.

The alarming level of tension that exists on the

international political scene is of utmost concern to us. In

the recent past, we have witnessed in various regions of

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the world the reigniting of old conflicts the emergence of

new and serious ones that possess the intensity to stretch

the United Nations to its limits.

The dangerous developments unfolding in the region

of the Middle East have brought into question once again

the credibility and effectiveness of the United Nations. The

present Israeli Government’s arrogance towards and utter

disregard for United Nations resolutions and the agreements

that they themselves reached with the Palestinians under the

Oslo accords have shattered the little hope that the people

of Israel, Palestine and the international community at large

had for a lasting solution to this age-old conflict. Recent

events have drastically diminished the confidence that is so

essential for the success of the process, leaving us to

wonder if peace will ever come to this region.

The General Assembly met twice in emergency

session this year to consider the issue. At those sessions,

the international community almost unanimously rallied

behind the Middle East peace process and demonstrated its

genuine and unwavering support. While my delegation fully

shares the view that continued negotiations in good faith

between the two parties is essential for a permanent

solution to the conflict, we strongly believe that the United

Nations also has an important and crucial role to play in the

peace process. The decisions of the General Assembly and

the Security Council must be respected and fully

implemented without any preconditions. We call on both

parties to respect the agreements reached so far and to

exercise maximum restraint in resorting to activities that

may undermine the peace process.

The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina may have

faded a little from the headlines of the international press,

but we must realize that our job will not be complete unless

and until the perpetrators of genocide and other brutal

crimes in that country are brought to justice.

In the field of disarmament and arms control, the

international community has achieved considerable success.

The indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the adoption of

the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and

the entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention

are testimony to this. The Maldives attaches utmost

importance to the efforts of global and regional

disarmament and arms control, and vehemently supports

them. It was in this spirit that we signed the CTBT two

days ago.

Contrary to our expectations, the era of peace and

economic prosperity of the post-cold-war era has so far

proved elusive. Outbreaks of violence and ethnic strife in

several parts of the world have precipitated unbelievable

levels of human suffering. Conflicts within States have

crossed national boundaries and ignited conflicts of

international proportions. Unless the United Nations is

equipped to act swiftly on such symptoms of rupture,

large numbers of people will remain in the shadow of

conflicts. We should redouble our efforts to deliver on the

promise of peace, human rights, fundamental freedoms

and economic prosperity contained in the Charter of this

Organization.

The United Nations should not be solely a political

forum. It was meant to cover the wide spectrum of all

human activities with institutions for social as well as

economic matters. The disparities vividly observed around

the world, a half century after the creation of the United

Nations, prove that none of the institutions has diminished

in importance. They were created to remedy these

imbalances among States and to contribute to justice,

equality and peace. They were established to build and

consolidate a climate of cooperation, to help each other

on the basis of moral and ethical obligations and not

merely of charity. They were erected to help the poor —

not just some of them, while neglecting others; to help

children — not just some of them, while neglecting

others; to consolidate human rights — not just some

aspects of it, while neglecting others; and to further peace

and prosperity for all mankind — not just for certain

segments of humanity.

If we want the United Nations to perform the duties

that we have entrusted to it, then we should ensure that

we honour our financial obligations to it. My delegation

is convinced that without a firm and sound financial

footing, even our reform efforts will be totally

meaningless.