Nauru, 2005

The outcome document

adopted at the High-level Plenary Meeting (resolution

60/1) serves as a map by which we navigate in seeking

to improve the lives of the many peoples of the world;

it may be imperfect, but it is our task as leaders to

provide a vision of a better world and to lead our

peoples towards the achievement of that vision. The

outcome document spells out this vision, and we

should use it much as one uses a map when navigating

the destiny of our respective nations.

In this respect, Nauru looks to the United Nations

as the global leader in reaching this vision of a better

world: a world in which human rights are collectively

recognized and defended, terrorism in any form is

eliminated, peace and security is promoted and

maintained, and poverty is eradicated. We therefore

applaud the effort to strengthen the work of the United

Nations through management reform. This should

improve the delivery of the global services that this

Organization is expected to provide.

Equally important is the need to reform the

Security Council, to recognize that international

developments since the establishment of that body

many decades ago now demand a more democratic

representation of the global family in an expanded

Security Council. The earlier these reforms are

implemented, the earlier the work of the United

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Nations can be further improved, with commensurate

benefit to the people whose interests we all serve.

Nauru is in the unenviable position of having lost

its earlier status as a donor country, with much of its

wealth lost through mismanagement and, in particular,

corrupt leadership. We therefore speak with some

experience when we note with encouragement the

decision by the United Nations to implement

management and structural reforms to improve,

amongst other things, transparency and accountability

for the greater good of Member countries and the

peoples we represent.

Nauru itself is undertaking significant economic

and political reforms as it recommences the nation-

building process. These include the design of a national

development strategy, the public consultative phase of

which has just been concluded; it will be presented to

the donor community in November this year. We hope

that the international community can participate, not by

driving the development agenda for the people of

Nauru, but by accepting the vision of our people as that

to be implemented by Nauru with the support of its

development partners. The development agenda for

developing countries, particularly those with fragile

and vulnerable economies, must be designed by those

on whose lives that agenda will have an impact and not

by external parties that have a different agenda.

We believe that the thorough consultative process

within which the national development strategy is

being designed is in itself an exercise in democracy.

The views expressed by government and non-

government agencies and by community, faith and

other leaders, is testament to the strength of democracy

in Nauru. To turn a blind eye to this process by driving

a development agenda not envisioned by the people is

not only dangerous to the development needs of the

people it should serve, but a threat to democracy itself.

We hope that the United Nations itself will have a

leading role in assisting the rebuilding of Nauru and in

achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

We reiterate our call for a United Nations presence in

Nauru for this purpose.

Nauru also calls upon the developed world to

match its rhetoric with action when it comes to meeting

the development needs of the developing world,

through development financing and/or debt relief. It is

simply not good enough to be targeting the

achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by

2015 without making available the resources to fund

that effort. The developed world has an obligation to

share its resources with the developing world by

ensuring it meets its own target of official development

assistance expenditure of 0.7 per cent of gross

domestic product, and to achieve it promptly, if the

developing world is to achieve the Millennium

Development Goals within 10 years.

The decision not to consider the question of the

people of Taiwan is a gross dereliction of duty by this

Assembly. There are 23 million people on Taiwan who

are being denied the right to be recognized and

protected by this Organization. The United Nations has

a role in assisting and facilitating constructive dialogue

to ensure a future of peace for the people of Taiwan

and the rest of that region. Peace and security in the

Taiwan Strait is peace and security in the Asia-Pacific

region. I am very hopeful that Member States will

recognize and accept the appeal by the good people of

Taiwan at the sixtieth session of the General Assembly.

God bless the Republic of Nauru and God bless

the United Nations and the peoples of the world. We

shall proceed with God’s will first.