Palau, 2011

It is an honour and a

privilege to address the General Assembly once again

on behalf of the people of Palau.

For thousands of years, Palau was blessed by a

natural bounty that sustained our livelihood and bound

us together as a people. We lived in remoteness and

isolation by respecting the environment and managing

our natural resources for the benefit of every

generation.

Today, however, we find ourselves to be innocent

victims of transboundary harm. Forces beyond Palau’s

control, and not of our own making, are ravaging the

oceans, damaging the land and reefs, threatening our

way of life and, in the worst-case scenario, our very

existence. Although we do our best to act responsibly

and sustainably, there is only so much my country can

do on its own to protect itself. We therefore rely on our

partners, the international system and on the

international rule of law to provide a remedy.

I would like to speak today about three pernicious

types of transboundary harm.

First, I point to the state of global fisheries.

Palau’s fish are among the most valuable in the world,

but they are in danger. Distant water boats do not

respect our borders, laws or traditions. These boats

come in great numbers for tuna in the Western and

Central Pacific region, where Palau is located. At

present, our region’s tuna is being taken for pennies on

the dollar. These boats also hunt, fin and sell sharks for

a tiny fraction of what tourists will pay to see those

sharks alive in our waters.

Like the ocean’s currents, efforts to protect the

marine environment must flow across boundary lines.

It takes international cooperation to protect our marine

resources and environment.

Palau and other Pacific small island developing

States have undertaken innovative measures to ensure

the continued viability of our stocks. We have limited

purse seine fishing, agreed to close the “donut holes”

between our jurisdictions and implemented a Vessel

Day Scheme.

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Two years ago, from this very rostrum, I

announced the creation of the world’s first shark

sanctuary. Since that time, countries and territories

across the globe have joined Palau in this effort. Today,

more than 2.7 million square kilometres of ocean are

safe for sharks. Our ocean’s health depends on sharks,

so I am delighted that earlier today several

representatives of States in different parts of the world

joined me to declare our shared commitment to

conserving the ocean’s vast biodiversity and nurturing

and protecting shark sanctuaries. But that is just the

first step.

Global fisheries should be sustainable. Reckless

practices that harm our fisheries and threaten our food

security should stop. That means that shark finning

should stop. Bottom trawling, which destroys the base

of the marine food web, should also stop.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the

United Nations reports that 85 per cent of global fish

stocks are now fully or overexploited. These are the

worst numbers on record. The international community

must find a way to make regional fisheries

management organizations more accountable, so that

the world can see whether countries are living up to

their commitments. And global fisheries should be fair.

If distant water vessels want to come to fish for our

resources, they must respect our laws and those of our

region. They should fish within our prescribed limits

and share the mutual benefits with us in a fair and

equitable manner.

Fishing is not a right. It is a privilege. For too

long, the exploitation of tuna has overridden efforts to

conserve it. This imbalance is not sustainable and must

be reversed. This should be done by creating a tuna

conservation zone to make the conservation of this

valuable resource paramount and to maximize the

benefits to the nations in our region where tuna is

harvested. We who live in the Pacific see the ocean as

our farm, the source of our sustenance and livelihood.

At the biggest-ever Pacific Tuna Conference, to be held

in Palau in early December, that concept of a tuna

conservation zone will be considered and applied to

our region of the world. We should continue our efforts

to maximize the benefits to our islands of sustainable

tuna fishing in our waters.

Secondly, we fear that this year undetectable

amounts of nuclear radiation may have entered our

territory. This is a particularly insidious form of

transboundary harm. I was involved in writing Palau’s

Constitution, which bans the presence of any nuclear

material in our territory. We are proud to have been the

first in the world to institute such a prohibition. But the

supreme law of our land cannot protect us from

potential radiation coming from outside our borders.

We fear the possibility that someday our fish may not

be safe to eat and our water may not be safe to drink.

And so we ask the world to redouble its efforts to

eliminate the threat of nuclear radiation.

Thirdly, as I speak, people are suffering from the

effects of climate change. As our corals die, shores

erode and waters rise, people feel helpless and

hopeless. Traditionally, we would appeal for divine

intervention. But this is not a problem from above; it is

manmade. It poses an existential threat that exemplifies

the issue of transboundary harm. Today, I regret to say

that we are nowhere close to a solution. Next year will

mark the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change. But have we made progress? While sea levels

have risen, emissions continue unabated. We are still

without a binding agreement.

This past July, the Pacific small island developing

States banded together to put before the Security

Council modest, achievable and prudent proposals for

addressing the security threats of climate change. But

our voices were drowned out by other States’ priorities.

I can only agree with the views expressed in the

Council by the United States: the failure of some States

to acknowledge the clear-cut security implications of

climate change is pathetic.

However, we will not be deterred. Leaders of the

Pacific States have declared that the urgent social,

economic and security threats posed by climate change

require action in every international forum. The

General Assembly, in its consensus resolution 63/281,

invited the relevant bodies of the United Nations to

intensify their efforts in considering and addressing

climate change, including its possible security

implications.

With this in mind, Palau and the Republic of the

Marshall Islands will call on the Assembly to seek, on

an urgent basis and pursuant to Article 96 of the

Charter of the United Nations, an advisory opinion

from the International Court of Justice on the

responsibilities of States under international law to

ensure that activities emitting greenhouse gases that

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are carried out under their jurisdiction or control do not

damage other States.

The case should be clear. The International Court

of Justice has already confirmed that customary

international law obliges States to ensure that activities

within their jurisdiction or under their control respect

the environment of other States. Similarly, Article 194,

paragraph 2, of the United Nations Convention on the

Law of the Sea provides that States shall take all

measures necessary to ensure that activities under their

jurisdiction or control do not spread or cause damage

by pollution to other States. It is time we determined

what the international rule of law means in the context

of climate change. The International Court of Justice is

mandated to do just that.

At the opening of last year’s General Assembly,

His Excellency Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated

that “At the United Nations, we find the proper path in

community, global cause … and mutual responsibility

for a destiny we share” (A/65/PV.11, p. 1). That

sentiment means, first and foremost, that countries

must do no harm, particularly to the most fragile

among us. We should find guidance in the international

rule of law. Nations must respect fellow nations.

Whether the issue is destructive fishing practices,

nuclear radiation or excessive emissions, nations must

work together and cease to cause transboundary harm.

I would like to share with the Assembly a number

of important initiatives that Palau is undertaking to

connect with the international community, literally and

in spirit.

Palau is currently connected to the Internet by

satellite. However, the service is poor and the cost

unaffordable for most of our people. Last year’s report

of the International Telecommunication Union’s

Broadband Commission confirms that broadband

access is a prerequisite to achieving the Millennium

Development Goals. According to the report, a 10 per

cent increase in broadband penetration in developing

countries increases GDP by 1.4 per cent. Imagine what

a 100 per cent increase could do.

In light of that report, I have signed Executive

Order No. 297 establishing a presidential task force to

acquire a submarine fibre optic cable so that Palau will

be better equipped to meet its Millennium

Development Goals. I hope that others will cooperate

to help Palau connect to the world, and that leaders

will answer the Commission’s clarion call to ensure

that all people have access to broadband networks by

2015.

Palau is also reaching out to the world on human

rights. In February, we began our Human Rights

Council Universal Periodic Review. As a former

practicing attorney and human rights advocate, I have

been an ardent supporter of this process from the

outset, and so I have committed Palau’s limited

resources to ensuring a complete and meaningful

outcome. As evidence of that commitment, I

established a task force chaired by our Minister of

State and comprised of officials from across a broad

spectrum of our Government. Stakeholders from

non-governmental organizations and civil society were

also invited to become involved in the operations of the

task force and contributed significantly to Palau’s

national report.

By all accounts, Palau’s response was a great

success. The Human Rights Council unanimously

adopted our report. The most repeated recommendation

from Human Rights Council members was that Palau

should establish a National Human Rights Institution. I

have taken this recommendation to heart and am

pleased to announce that Palau will establish a

National Human Rights Institution. I am also pleased

to announce that, as of this week, Palau is now a

signatory to all core international human rights

conventions. I hope others will assist Palau as we build

our institution and work to fulfil our obligations under

those conventions.

Once again, I wish to bring to the world’s

attention the fact that the fierce battles fought by

foreign armies over Palau’s islands during the Second

World War left explosives scattered across our land and

in our waters. Some of those explosives, which number

in the thousands, are still live. I appeal to the

conscience of the world and, especially, of those

responsible, to help us remove this danger from our

midst.

I would like to thank the Secretary-General for

attending the recent meeting of the Pacific Islands

Forum, held earlier this month in Auckland, New

Zealand. That meeting was the Forum’s fortieth

anniversary and was the first time that a United

Nations Secretary-General has attended our regional

meeting and the first time that a United Nations

Secretary-General has visited a Pacific small island

developing State. I would like to thank His Excellency

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Mr. Ban Ki-moon for his visit. It is a testament to the

fact that the countries of our region, even the smallest

and most vulnerable among us, have something

important to say and to contribute to our world.

I would also like to express Palau’s gratitude for

the strong support and friendship of all of our partners,

new and old. In particular, I would like to thank the

United States of America, Japan and the Taiwan

province of China.

In order to further promote the efficacy, goals and

ideals of the United Nations, we recommend that

Taiwan be invited to participate meaningfully in the

United Nations system. I believe that the United

Nations cannot fully and properly address the issues of

health, aviation safety and climate change unless

Taiwan is allowed to participate in the activities of the

World Health Organization, the International Civil

Aviation Organization and the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change. Once

again, I appeal to the world to allow Taiwan to

participate in these important United Nations entities.

Finally, Palau is a relatively new State, having

joined the world community in 1994. Thus, we

remember well the jubilation of our new-found

freedom and independence. I take this opportunity to

congratulate the people of South Sudan on attaining

their independence and taking their rightful place here,

in United Nations.