Trinidad and Tobago, 2007

I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate you most sincerely on

your election as President of the General Assembly at

its sixty-second session. My delegation is confident

that your in-depth knowledge of international

economic and political issues, complemented by your

extensive diplomatic experience, will serve you in

good stead to guide our deliberations effectively in the

coming months.

I also wish to take this opportunity to express

Trinidad and Tobago’s deep appreciation for the

leadership of your predecessor, Her Excellency

Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, the first Arab woman

to hold that lofty position. As President of the General

Assembly, her efforts contributed to focusing the

attention of the international community on the

pressing challenges of climate change, inter alia,

thereby facilitating, in the process, global awareness

and increased support for internationally agreed action

on this issue given its impact on our planet and,

especially, on the very survival of several small island

developing States.

I consider this occasion opportune, as well, to

convey Trinidad and Tobago's unequivocal support for

our current Secretary-General His Excellency Mr. Ban

Ki-moon. We commend his leadership role in the

troubling humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of

the Sudan and applaud his initiative to convene the

High-Level Event on Climate Change. These are

indeed apt demonstrations of his willingness to

confront forcefully and resolutely issues of

transcendental importance to the present and future

well-being of peoples everywhere.

Though small in size and population, Trinidad

and Tobago, through visionary leadership, transparency

and public accountability and prudent management of

our natural resources, is continuing along a path of

sustainable development. Our development strategy

seeks to go beyond the achievement of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) and to ensure that by the

year 2020 all sectors of our multi-ethnic and

multicultural society will enjoy a standard of living

comparable to that of the developed world.

The performance of our economy draws its

strength from vertically integrated and well-developed

energy and petrochemical industries, which are

complemented by buoyant and competitive

manufacturing and service sectors, including financial

services and tourism, as well as by the ongoing

transformation of the agricultural sector. All these

factors provide the basis for economic growth levels

off 8.6 per cent over the last five years and a recorded

rate of 12 per cent in 2006. We have also been able to

achieve a 7 per cent reduction in poverty from a high

of 24 per cent in 1998 and are currently experiencing a

low unemployment rate of 5.9 per cent.

It is on the basis of this strong economic

performance that Trinidad and Tobago has continued

its commitment to the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM), as we seek to advance the integration

process, moving from the current stage of the single

market to that of a single economy. Effective

participation in this process of furthering strengthening

and deepening the regional integration movement

remains a major foreign policy goal of the Government

of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is for this

reason and given the fact that our economic fortunes

are inextricably linked, that Trinidad and Tobago

continues to provide economic and humanitarian

assistance to several CARICOM countries adversely

affected by natural disasters.

Our further economic development and that of

the global community as a whole, is dependent on the

existence of global peace and security. In this regard,

the Security Council has continued to take timely

decisions on global crises in different parts of the

globe, on terrorism and on nuclear non-proliferation.

The reform of that principal organ of the United

Nations, charged with maintaining international peace

and security, continues, however, to elude us. It is time

to engage in bona fide negotiations on this matter. The

status quo is unacceptable. The Security Council must

be reformed to reflect the current geopolitical realities

of the twenty-first century and no longer the world as it

was in the aftermath of World War II. New and

important actors from Africa, Asia and Latin America

and the Caribbean are a part of today’s global reality.

An expanded and enhanced Security Council would

provide the Council with even greater legitimacy and

support in the carrying out of its Charter

responsibilities. Trinidad and Tobago is of the view

that much progress was made during the sixty-first

session and the political momentum which was

generated there should not be lost.

A reinvigorated Security Council is needed to

address the major issues that continue to bedevil

contemporary international relations. In the Middle

East, the failure to move forward on the peace process

has set back global efforts to achieve a just, lasting and

comprehensive peace in the Middle East. The

Palestinian people have yet to exercise their legitimate

rights to self-determination and to the establishment of

an independent Palestinian State in an undivided

homeland.

We call on the Quartet to resume the Road Map

process for peace in the Middle East, so that the world

can, in the foreseeable future, see two States, Israel and

Palestine, living side by side in peace, within

internationally recognized and secure borders.

Additionally, internationally acceptable solutions must

be found to address the fate of the Palestinian refugees,

the status of Jerusalem and the issue of Israeli

settlements in the West Bank. All these matters have

remained pending for far too long and the Palestinians

should no longer be denied the realization of their

statehood.

While there has been little or no progress in the

matter of peace in the Middle East, the Government of

the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is pleased to note

that, with respect to the humanitarian crisis in the

Darfur region of the Sudan, agreement has finally been

reached, which has resulted in the deployment of a

hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping

force for Darfur. We welcome this positive

development. While we hope that the hybrid United

Nations-African Union peacekeeping force will bring

peace and stability to the region and enable

humanitarian relief to flow once again to where it is

most urgently required, all our efforts must now be

turned towards putting a cease-fire in place and

striving to have all the rebels groups fighting in Darfur

move towards a peace arrangement with the Sudanese

Government. Peace and justice are, however,

inextricably linked and there can be no lasting peace in

Darfur without accountability for the heinous crimes

committed against the people of Darfur during the

conflict.

While international political and security

developments continue to pose major difficulties for

the international community, developments in the area

of international trade give rise to even greater concern.

We are mindful of the reality that the steadfast efforts

of Trinidad and Tobago, of the subregion and of other

developing countries to confront effectively the

challenges of globalization and liberalization would be

rendered futile in the absence of a fair, transparent and

equitable international economic trading system. The

Government of Trinidad and Tobago therefore remains

deeply concerned that, after many years of protracted

negotiations characterized by many missed deadlines,

the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations has

yet to reach a compromise that would pave the way for

an agreed outcome, particularly in the areas of

agriculture and industrial products, and that

incorporates the development dimension. We

underscore the importance of ensuring that the

principle of special and differential treatment is truly

reflected throughout the negotiating modalities, and we

call upon all parties in the negotiations to take fully

into account the special needs of small and vulnerable

economies.

The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and

Tobago fully expects that the negotiations will resume

in good faith and that there will be commensurate

progress in agriculture, industrial products and all

other areas of the negotiations, in keeping with the

mandate of a single undertaking. That will ensure the

successful conclusion of the Round and an outcome

that fully reflects the commitment undertaken at Doha

to put development at the heart of the multilateral

trading system.

While those trade negotiations seem to have

stalled and will require the injection of a high degree

of political will to bring them to a successful

conclusion, the international community is faced with

yet another global concern in the form of climate

change. As a result of greenhouse gas emissions from

fossil fuel use and land-use changes through

deforestation, the world is already destined to an

increase of 1.14 degrees Celsius by the end of the next

two decades.

There therefore needs to be a clearly defined

global mitigation strategy that keeps the long-term

temperature increase at less than 2 degrees Celsius

above pre-industrial levels. Increases over 2 degrees

Celsius are very likely to have an increased adverse

impact on small island developing States, such as

Trinidad and Tobago. In order to avoid a global climate

disaster, the Government of the Republic of Trinidad

and Tobago calls for urgent and ambitious action by all

States in accordance with their common but

differentiated responsibilities, respective capabilities

and social and economic conditions.

As a State party to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the

Kyoto Protocol, we call on all States parties to

UNFCCC, particularly major emitters of greenhouse

gases, to agree at Bali to launch negotiations on a

post-2012 regime. In those negotiations, the

Government of Trinidad and Tobago and other

like-minded Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

member States will seek to achieve substantial and

legally binding emission reductions in the shortest

timeframe possible and significant increases in the

level of resources available to developing countries, in

particular small island developing States, to assist them

in adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. To

this end, the Government of the Republic of Trinidad

and Tobago has already made a voluntary contribution

of $1 million to the trust fund for the Caribbean

Community Climate Change Centre in Belize to

strengthen that institution, so that it can assist

CARICOM member States in implementing their

adaptation strategies to deal with the adverse effects of

climate change.

But we in the Caribbean are not only concerned

about global warming and its adverse effects on

Caribbean States. We are also deeply interested in

preserving the marine environment of the Caribbean

Sea, which is an important natural resource for all its

littoral island and continental States, given their

varying degrees of dependence on tourism. The

passage through the Caribbean Sea of ships carrying

radioactive waste is an issue to which all CARICOM

Governments attach the highest importance. Allow me

to take this opportunity to reiterate the continued

objection of Caribbean countries against the use of the

Caribbean Sea for the trans-shipment of radioactive

waste. The repeated scientific and safety reports may

offer some reassurance, but they do very little to

appease our concern.

Our Prime Minister, Mr. Patrick Manning, in his

2008 budget statement, brought into sharp focus the

vision of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad

and Tobago for our cosmopolitan society. He

emphasized that the mission in which we as a nation

are engaged collectively is a transformation process

aimed at bringing sustained prosperity and the requisite

higher quality of life to every individual, family and

community across the country. The Government has

therefore sought to give concrete expression to the

national quest for a highly competitive, productive,

innovative and caring society, in which all are

encouraged to attain their highest potential and are

facilitated in doing so.

It is, accordingly, in this spirit that we have just

signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with

Disabilities, which was adopted and opened for

signature during the sixty-first session of the General

Assembly, and we will take steps to ratify the

Convention once the necessary implementing

legislation is put in place to complement what is

already provided for in our domestic policy with regard

to persons with disabilities.

It is this confidence in and respect for the

international rule of law that has encouraged Trinidad

and Tobago to campaign, since the late 1980s and at

the highest political levels, for the establishment of an

International Criminal Court (ICC). We are keenly

aware of the important strides being made by ICC, as it

devotes its attention to the prosecution of individuals

accused of committing the crimes within its

jurisdiction, namely, genocide, war crimes and crimes

against humanity.

Trinidad and Tobago recalls in this connection the

adoption at the Rome Diplomatic Conference of a

resolution recommending that a conference to review

the Court’s Statute also consider the inclusion of

trafficking in illegal drugs on an international scale as

being within the Court’s jurisdiction. We must seize the

opportunity now forced upon us by international trends

to fully engage ICC in efforts to stem the tide of that

scourge, and similarly, to consider the inclusion of acts

of terrorism, once that term is clearly defined by the

international community.

Our approach will be grounded in the recognition

of the continued deleterious effects that the

international trade in illegal drugs is having on the

social fabric of societies the world over, including in

the Caribbean. The time has come for the international

community to recognize the illicit trafficking of drugs

as an international crime subject to the jurisdiction of

ICC.

Another area of public international law to which

Trinidad and Tobago attaches the utmost importance is

the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the

Sea. This year’s meeting of the United Nations

Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans

and the Law of the Sea addressed the important issue

of marine genetic resources. Part XI of the Convention

explicitly provides that the area beyond national

jurisdiction and its resources are the common heritage

of mankind. Trinidad and Tobago is accordingly of the

view that any legal regime developed to regulate the

marine genetic resources of the Area must be guided by

the common heritage principle. Adherence to such a

principle would ensure that the resources of the Area

are exploited for the benefit of all members of the

international community, and not just for the benefit of

those with the financial wherewithal and the technical

know-how.

Similarly, we recognize that all States parties to

the Convention are ipso facto members of the

International Seabed Authority. Despite the importance

of the current work of the Authority on polymetallic

sulphides and cobalt crusts, many States parties fail to

attend the annual sessions of the Authority held in

Jamaica. The continued absence of States undermines

the common heritage principle laid down in Part XI of

the Convention and threatens the very legitimacy of the

work of the Authority. We accordingly call on all

members of the Authority to attend regularly the

sessions of the Authority and thus assist it in adopting

regulations governing the exploration and exploitation

of the mineral resources in the Area, which are of

benefit to all mankind.

Trinidad and Tobago, like its Caribbean

neighbours, acknowledges its maternal links to Africa

and notes that 2007 was an important year for the

peoples of that continent and for the African diaspora

worldwide. Earlier this year, we observed here at

Headquarters and in the capitals of all CARICOM

States a programme of activities intended to raise the

consciousness of peoples the world over regarding the

horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and the

deleterious effects it had on Africa, depriving that

continent of millions of its inhabitants, and on people

of African descent in the Americas. We in Trinidad and

Tobago have used the opportunity to educate all of our

citizens on the degrading treatment to which those

human beings were subjected and to demonstrate that,

notwithstanding our history of slavery, followed by the

indentureship of other segments of our population, the

people of Trinidad and Tobago have developed a

harmonious cosmopolitan society, which is an

accomplishment worthy of emulation in other parts of

the globe that are fractured by fratricidal ethnic and

religious struggles.

In order for the suffering of millions of enslaved

Africans not to have been in vain, the Government of

the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago intends to make a

financial contribution to the CARICOM initiative for a

permanent memorial to be erected within these

hallowed walls of the United Nations in remembrance

of all those who perished in the Middle Passage and on

the plantations in the New World in their struggle for

freedom and liberation from the yoke of slavery. We

call upon the international community to contribute

generously to such a worthwhile and historic venture.

In conclusion, the United Nations remains a

centre for harmonizing the goals and aspirations of all

mankind. There is no other universal forum with

greater legitimacy or a more suitable mandate to bring

about an improvement in the human condition. We

must address all these global issues with firmness of

purpose and in a resolute manner if we are to save

coming generations from the adverse consequences of

war, underdevelopment and poverty, as well as the

deleterious effects of climate change, and to ensure that

all humanity can enjoy improved standards of living in

freedom and in dignity on a habitable planet.