Maldives, 1998

Allow me first of all to

congratulate Mr. Didier Opertti on his election to the

presidency of the General Assembly. His election to that

high office demonstrates not only the support that

Uruguay enjoys in the international arena, but also the

confidence and trust that the members of the Assembly

have in his ability to guide the work of this session to a

successful conclusion. Allow me also to record my

delegation’s profound gratitude and appreciation to his

predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko,

former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, for the

exemplary manner in which he steered the work of the

General Assembly throughout the past year.

I would also like to take this opportunity, on behalf

of my delegation, to express our sincere thanks and

admiration to the Secretary-General, His Excellency

Mr. Kofi Annan, for his untiring work and dedication in

promoting the cause of this Organization. The Secretary-

General deserves every assistance and cooperation from

all the States Members of the Organization in his

endeavours to fulfil the enormous responsibilities that we

have placed upon his shoulders in achieving the goals of

the United Nations in a world full of political unrest,

ethnic conflicts and natural disasters.

From the forest fires in South-East Asia, Europe and

North America to the horrendous floods and droughts in

Asia, Africa and the Americas, we have been witnessing

a drastic increase in the number of natural disasters

occurring in various regions of the world with immense

loss to human life and property. The excessive effects of

the environmental phenomena known as El Niño and La

Niña are sweeping across four continents with deadly

consequences. Record-breaking temperatures around the

globe have spared no country. My country also

experienced record high temperatures early this year,

bleaching and killing coral reefs and causing enormous

6

imbalance in the ever so fragile ecosystem that surrounds

our tiny islands.

The Maldives may be situated outside the cyclone belt;

we may have no rivers to flood, volcanoes to erupt or large

forests to burn. But my country is as vulnerable to natural

disasters as any other. Indeed, for the past decade we have

lived with the fear of being slowly engulfed by the rising

waters of the mighty Indian Ocean that surrounds us. Our

fears have become more alarming since we have seen the

death and destruction caused by the tsunami in Papua New

Guinea and the devastating floods in Bangladesh. We have

been forced to wonder what would happen if such a

disaster struck our tiny, low-lying country.

When my President addressed this Assembly on the

impending dangers of global warming and sea level rise

over a decade ago, the extent of the threat posed by climate

change was not yet widely known or accepted. Today we

note that the realities of global warming are being

acknowledged by scientists and politicians all over the

world. However, mere acknowledgement of the danger is

not enough. As we have stated repeatedly over the years, if

we are to arrest and reverse this lurking threat, we need the

unwavering commitment and cooperation of the entire

international community. It is important that we fully and

urgently implement the commitments that we ourselves

have undertaken at various international conferences. In this

regard, I urge the international community, and especially

the industrialized countries, to honour their commitments

without any further delay. My delegation believes that full

and unconditional implementation of the Barbados

Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of

Small Island Developing States is essential for the

continued development of those countries. My country, for

its part, has done and will continue to do everything that is

required of it to contribute to this goal, and we hope that

the other Members of this Organization will fulfil their

commitments.

Although we were happy with some of the agreements

reached at the Kyoto Conference of the Parties to the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

last year, I regret to say that we were not fully satisfied

with the achievements there. We accepted the Kyoto

Protocol because we felt that it contained some important

elements that deserved recognition and implementation, and

because it is the best negotiated agreement available at

present. In order to demonstrate our firm commitment to

the climate change negotiations, we went one step further

and signed the Kyoto Protocol as the first signatory State.

We call upon all States to become parties to the Protocol

and implement the targets specified in it.

In our small island States, the environment and the

economy are intertwined very closely. Tourism and

fishing are the two dominant economic sectors in the

Maldives, and in a number of other small island States as

well. For the Maldives, the tourism sector has been the

main source of foreign exchange earnings and has

accounted for more than 40 per cent of gross domestic

product. Effects of global warming such as sea level rise,

beach erosion, coral bleaching, increasing stress on

coastal ecosystems, salinization of freshwater aquifers and

damage to infrastructure from tropical storms are,

however, threatening to jeopardize the viability and the

long-term sustainability of our tourist industry. Given the

limited availability of resources, many small island

developing States, including the Maldives, are not in a

position to carry the burden of the high cost of

environmental protection on their own. Therefore, we are

fully convinced that without adequate, new and additional

financial resources, transfer of environmentally sound

technology on concessional and preferential terms, and

provision for human resources development, even the

mere survival of our countries will be impossible.

The vulnerability to external factors of the

economies of small island developing States, especially

the least developed countries among them, is a well-

known fact. Globalization, coupled with the ecological

fragility of small island developing States, has

marginalized those countries from the present multilateral

trading system. Exports from least developed countries

have grown far more slowly than world trade over the

past two decades, resulting in a continued decline in their

share of world trade. Market access for least developed

countries is becoming narrower. Poverty still remains a

stumbling-block in their quest for achieving sustainable

social and economic development. Therefore, we would

like to take this opportunity to call upon the major players

in the world economy and upon our development partners

to pay special attention to assisting small island States

and other least developed countries in their efforts to

become integrated into the world economy.

When gross domestic product is used as an indicator

to determine the developmental status of a country, the

small island developing States may appear to be more

prosperous than they really are. We believe that the

criteria now used by the Committee for Development

Policy in identifying least developed countries do not take

7

into consideration the special circumstances of the small

island developing States and their vulnerability.

The Committee has already recommended the

graduation of four small island developing States from the

list of least developed countries. The Maldives is,

unfortunately, one of them. The irony of this is that the

economies of these countries are heavily dependent on one

or two industries, which may be extremely vulnerable to

global economic and environmental changes and other

external factors. Moreover, while the Committee itself has

identified the obstacles to integration into the global

economy and has called for continued official development

assistance for least developed countries for at least another

10 years, some of the countries most in need of such

assistance have been earmarked for graduation by the year

2000. My delegation feels that it would be grossly unfair to

graduate countries from least developed country status

unless they are able to sustain the momentum of growth

that they have been able to achieve. Furthermore, the

criteria which were adopted in 1991 need to be reviewed in

the context of the increased pace of globalization during the

1990s. Until such time as a vulnerability index is

developed, it would be very imprudent to graduate any

small island States.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a major milestone

in the promotion and protection of human rights, providing

an essential basis for democracy, freedom and justice.

Human rights apply without regard to race, gender, creed,

age, colour or economic status. But everywhere we look —

north, south, east or west — the reality often falls short of

the ideal. Therefore, we must redouble our efforts to

promote and protect human rights the world over.

The Maldives remains firmly committed to the cause

of promotion and protection of human rights. I am happy

to report that this year a new Constitution has come into

force in the Maldives, providing stronger safeguards for

civil liberties and the fundamental rights of the people, and

strengthening the foundations and processes of our

democracy. We have also been able to achieve remarkable

progress in the realization of social, economic and cultural

rights of the people through continued economic

development and social progress. We believe that

democracy, development and peace are essential for the

realization of human rights.

The question of reform of the Organization has been

on the agenda of the General Assembly for quite some

time. Although the process of reform has proved to be a

difficult one, my delegation does not wish to see it

prolonged, for we believe that its momentum cannot be

maintained indefinitely. However, it is important that we

remain focused on the central issue of making this

Organization ready and capable of delivering the promise

of peace, justice and prosperity for all human beings,

irrespective of their colour, race, gender or belief, and the

promise of providing the means to protect our

environment and enjoy our fundamental freedoms. This

means that reform should cover the United Nations

system in its entirety.

On the specific question of the reform of the

Security Council, my delegation appreciates the efforts of

the Open-ended Working Group on the Question of

Equitable Representation on and Increase in the

Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters

Related to the Security Council. However, we remain

concerned about the lack of progress in its proceedings,

and are worried about the prevailing difficulties which are

preventing an early agreement on this important issue. We

remain convinced of the importance of the early and

successful conclusion of the efforts to make the Security

Council more responsive to and representative of the

current world realities in order to make it more effective.

The commitment of the Maldives to arms control,

disarmament and international peace and security remains

unwavering. We are parties to all major multilateral

instruments relating to arms control and disarmament.

Since its inception, we have been faithfully and regularly

contributing to the international Register of Conventional

Arms. We signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

Treaty (CTBT) last year and are presently going through

the process of ratifying it. This morning we have signed

the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,

Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on

Their Destruction.

My delegation is happy to note the considerable

progress the international community has made in the

field of arms control and disarmament, and commends the

bilateral initiatives that have been proved to be so

successful. We believe that both bilateral and multilateral

approaches must reinforce and complement each other if

we are to successfully achieve complete disarmament.

In my delegation’s view, the establishment of

nuclear-weapon-free zones and zones of peace in various

regions of the world is a positive step towards achieving

nuclear disarmament. At this juncture, we particularly

stress the importance of the establishment of the proposed

8

nuclear-weapon-free zone in South Asia, and take this

opportunity to call upon all countries in South Asia to

exercise maximum restraint and contribute to the realization

of this noble objective.

In our quest to make the world a safer place we must

not think only of the big Powers and the big bangs.

Security is indivisible, whether in terms of geography or

range of threat. The continuing scourge of terrorism, which

rears its ugly and murderous head all too frequently, is as

much the bane of international security today as is the

spread of nuclear and other dangerous weapons. That

terrorist groups may gain access to such weapons is an

alarming thought. For small States the threats posed by

terrorists are allied with and magnified by the activities of

drug-traffickers, money-launderers and other manifestations

of organized crime. That is why we have acceded to many

international conventions against terrorism and are actively

considering acceding to the remaining conventions.

I would also like to take this opportunity to repeat the

appeal made by my President at the historic fiftieth

anniversary commemorative session of this body for the

signature and early ratification of the International

Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and

Training of Mercenaries in order to expedite its entry in to

force. My delegation believes that in the face of these

threats it is in the interest of the international community to

provide adequate safeguards for small States, which are in

reality the front-line States against most of these evil deeds.

We are happy to see the establishment of the

International Criminal Court. Those who perpetrate war

crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity must

not be allowed to cross a border to safety or anonymity.

This is why an international court that can systematically

prosecute major war criminals wherever they are has to be

established. This need has become more urgent in this post-

cold-war period, which is characterized by the proliferation

of conflicts of unprecedented ferocity. The horrifying

crimes against humanity committed in Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and elsewhere cannot

be allowed to recur at any time or at any place. The

perpetrators of those crimes should be brought to justice.

My delegation strongly believes that the ultimate legal

guarantee of peace and justice in the world lies in the

strength and resolve of the international community and not

in the strength and resolve of a single country.

In conclusion, I once again would like to stress the

vulnerability of small island developing States. My

delegation believes that urgent and immediate action is

absolutely necessary to alleviate the difficulties faced by

these countries due to environmental degradation. If the

present-day predictions for climate change were to come

true, the Maldives and many other small island countries

would have to face the frightful reality of extinction.

Time is running out. Let us do something immediately.

Otherwise, we will be no more.