Maldives, 2008

I am delivering this

statement on behalf of His Excellency Mr. Abdulla

Shahid, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Maldives,

who, unfortunately, had to cancel his trip to New York

at the last minute owing to various pressing

engagements at home.

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Permit me to begin by expressing my delegation’s

warmest congratulations to Mr. Miguel d’Escoto

Brockmann on his election to preside over the General

Assembly at its sixty-third session. I assure him of the

full support and cooperation of my delegation in his

work. I should also like to take this opportunity to

express our profound appreciation to his predecessor,

Mr. Srgjan Kerim, for the exemplary manner in which

he guided the work of the Assembly at its sixty-second

session. In addition, I should like to offer my

delegation’s heartfelt gratitude to Secretary-General

Ban Ki-moon for his inspiring leadership and

dedication in promoting the noble principles and ideals

of this Organization.

Four years ago, the people of the Maldives

embarked on a comprehensive reform programme

aimed at strengthening and modernizing democratic

governance in the country. Within that short period of

time, unprecedented reforms have been adopted and

the political landscape of the country has been

completely transformed.

A new Constitution that fully guarantees the civil

liberties and fundamental freedoms of our people was

adopted on 7 August 2008. To safeguard the

foundations of democracy on our islands, several

oversight bodies — a National Human Rights

Commission that complies with the Paris Principles, a

Judicial Service Commission and an independent

Elections Commission — have been established and

are now operational. Significant progress is also being

made in reforming and restructuring the legal and

judicial system of the country to align it with

internationally accepted norms and standards.

In accordance with the new Constitution, the

Maldives will hold its first multiparty presidential

election early next week. Parliamentary elections will

be held before the end of February and local municipal

elections will be completed by July next year.

Those gains were made with the help of the

international community, particularly the Commonwealth,

the European Union and the United Nations. I thank them

for their invaluable support, encouragement and

assistance in implementing the reform programme. My

Government is also extremely grateful to those

organizations for accepting our request for election

monitoring and assistance in the electoral process. We

are firm in our resolve that the elections shall be held

in a free and fair manner in full conformity with

internationally recognized standards and best practice.

When the Maldives joined the United Nations in

1965, we were one of the smallest and poorest States

Members of this Organization. We lacked even the

most basic political, legal and economic infrastructure

and institutions necessary for self-governance. Our

ability to provide for the welfare of our people was

extremely limited. The economy was based largely on

subsistence fishery, and the health and education

sectors were severely underdeveloped. However, since

then, the Maldives has achieved remarkable levels of

socio-economic progress. Thirty years of strong and

unwavering political leadership, complemented by the

hard work of our people and the generous assistance of

our development partners, have enabled the country

successfully to pursue a people-centred path of

sustainable development, based on social equity and

justice.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are

now fully incorporated into our national development

priorities, and I am happy to note that we are among

those countries that are on track to achieve most of the

MDGs by 2015. We believe that the ongoing political,

legal and human rights reform agenda will further

strengthen our progress and propel us to new heights of

socio-economic development, with the support of our

partners.

As a result of our rapid development progress,

four years ago the Assembly decided to graduate the

Maldives from the list of least developed countries.

The Maldives is also being hailed by the international

community as a major success story of the multilateral

development assistance framework.

And yet those hard-won achievements will be

rendered meaningless if MDG 7 — environmental

sustainability — cannot be guaranteed. It is now

accepted beyond any doubt that climate change poses

the most immediate and far-reaching threat to human

security, directly compromising the most fundamental

rights, including the right to self-determination and the

right to life itself, for millions of people around the

world.

From the highest Himalayan peaks to the low-

lying coastal areas and small islands a metre or so

above sea level, global warming and changing weather

patterns are undermining the lives and livelihoods of

millions of people around the planet, with the poor

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being especially vulnerable. The recent hurricanes that

left such a trail of destruction across the Caribbean

once again brought into sharp relief the acute

vulnerabilities of small island States, such as the

Maldives, to global warming and climate change.

For the Maldives, climate change is not a distant

possibility. It is happening now and is a reality that we

are experiencing on a daily basis. The continuing

degradation of the global environment is not only

undermining our development process, but also

seriously threatening the very survival of our people

and the existence of our tiny country.

We are all aware of the grim predictions in the

fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change. If those predictions were to

come true, the Maldives and many other small island

developing States and low-lying coastal areas would

cease to exist within a relatively short period of time.

Hence, the Maldives and many other small island

developing States do not have the luxury of hesitation

and inaction, nor can we afford to pick and choose

where and when that important issue needs to be

addressed. For us, it is not solely a development issue,

but also a moral, ethical, political, legal and human

rights issue, as well as a grave security issue.

That is why the President of the Maldives took

the initiative in 1987 to raise that issue before the

Assembly. That is also why the Maldives participated

in the Security Council debate on the issue last year,

and why the Maldives decided to raise the issue before

the Human Rights Council in 2008.

The inverse relationship between responsibility

for climate change and vulnerability to its

consequences is often overlooked. The Maldives and

other small island developing States contribute the

least to global warming, and yet their development

and, indeed, their very existence are fundamentally

threatened by global warming and its consequences.

Addressing the injustices of climate change is

therefore the moral and ethical responsibility of the

entire international community. It is time that we put

people back in the climate change debate. We believe

that a comprehensive rights-based approach to

sustainable and just development, anchored in the

concept of common but differentiated responsibility, is

now an imperative.

In that regard, we are happy that, at the initiative

of the Maldives and 80 other like-minded countries, the

United Nations Human Rights Council for the first

time, earlier this year, recognized the link between

human rights and climate change. The Council will

formally debate the issue at its tenth session in March

2009, and we hope that due consideration will be given

to the outcome of the debate by our colleagues in the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change as they work to ensure an effective and

equitable successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

The Maldives is encouraged by the renewed

international impetus towards a more sustained and

robust approach to achieving the MDGs. Indeed, the

high-level event on the MDGs held last week clearly

illustrates the collective commitment and interest of

the international community to work towards achieving

those Goals. The interrelationship between climate

change, food security and the attainment of the MDGs

cannot be overemphasized. It is now believed that the

global food and energy crisis will drive more than

100 million more people into poverty.

While short-term measures may ease the

immediate pressures, we believe that a sustainable

solution to the problem lies in a fair and equitable

trading regime and a shared vision of partnership and

cooperation. The early and successful completion of

the Doha Development Round and the successful

outcome of the post-Bali negotiations, as well as the

Follow-up International Conference on Financing for

Development to be held in Qatar at the end of this year

will prove critical in that regard.

As a country that depends on importing most of

its food and all of its energy resources, the Maldives is

extremely concerned about the rise in global food and

energy prices. Although the situation in the Maldives at

present is relatively stable, the potential of a severe

blow to our economy is alarmingly high. The

Government is fully aware of the risks involved and is

taking all necessary precautionary measures to ensure

that the crisis does not adversely affect the daily lives

and well-being of our people.

Organized crime and terrorism are continuing to

threaten the maintenance of international peace and

security. The recent bombings in India and Pakistan are

yet another tragic reminder of the evil and insidious

nature of terrorism. It is therefore important for the

international community to ensure that the war against

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terrorism remains a main priority on the international

agenda.

The continued scourge of terrorism is particularly

alarming when seen in the context of the spread of

nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction.

The threat of a terrorist organization gaining access to

such weapons is extremely alarming.

I am happy to note that the Maldives is now party

to almost all the international conventions on counter-

terrorism. Despite its limited resource and expertise,

the Maldives has been actively working towards

implementing its various regional and multilateral

obligations under the international counter-terrorism

regime. I would therefore like to take this opportunity

to reiterate our commitment to combating global

terrorism and to Security Council resolutions 1373

(2001) and 1540 (2004) in particular.

A permanent and lasting resolution to the

question of Palestine remains elusive. The Maldives

reiterates its support for the right of the Palestinian

people to self-determination and to an independent and

sovereign homeland. We believe that the two-State

solution remains the only viable option and needs to be

pursued with greater vigour and vitality.

The United Nations in the twenty-first century

must have the ability to take on emerging challenges in

an expeditious and efficient manner. While we applaud

the present efforts to reform and revitalize the

Organization, we believe that such reforms cannot be

successfully achieved without the much-anticipated

reform of the Security Council. In that regard, we are

happy that the Assembly has decided to proceed to

intergovernmental negotiations in early 2009. We look

forward to participating in those negotiations.

Despite the criticisms levelled against the United

Nations, my country remains convinced that the

Organization is the most potent and credible universal

institution today. For the past six decades, the United

Nations has been a beacon of hope for peoples around

the world. Its universal character and the

multilateralism that it embodies hold true to the ideals

and virtues upon which it was founded and, without a

doubt, provide the only viable framework for solving

the world’s great challenges, including climate change,

sustainable development, human rights and global

terrorism.

I therefore reaffirm the Maldives’ commitment to

the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter.

I offer our full support to the United Nations in its

resolute efforts to maintain international peace and

security and to work towards the betterment of all

humanity.