Vanuatu, 2004

I bring to this

gathering a warm greeting from the people of the

Republic of Vanuatu.

Mr. President, at the outset, I take this

opportunity to congratulate you on your assumption of

the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-

ninth session. I also take this occasion to acknowledge

with deep gratitude the contributions of your

predecessor, who so competently steered the work of

the fifty-eighth session to its conclusion.

Here, I must also acknowledge the outstanding

role of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has been

resolute in his efforts to revitalize the Organization’s

ability to address global concerns. My delegation

reaffirms its support for Mr. Annan’s profound and

meticulous leadership of the United Nations.

I also take this opportunity to convey the

condolences of my Government and the people of

Vanuatu to the people of the Caribbean nations, in

particular Haiti, for the loss of so many lives and for

the extensive damage caused by the destructive forces

of nature that recently swept through the region. We

offer them our moral support and pray that the affected

peoples will soon recover and that the devastated areas

of their nations will be swiftly rehabilitated and rebuilt.

Those inevitable natural calamities demonstrate once

more the extreme and particular vulnerability of island

States, which seriously affects national economies.

Every year, from this rostrum, we reaffirm our

faith and confidence in upholding the purposes and

principles of the Charter. We entered the new

millennium with much anticipation and hope of

creating a just and better world for all our citizens.

However, global insecurity and the varying dimensions

of serious conflict have created a frightening situation.

It is to be expected that the world will plunge into

further turmoil unless the role of the United Nations —

the only truly global body — is reinvigorated and

recovers its legitimate responsibility of addressing the

causes of conflict and maintaining peace and security. I

come to the Assembly with some trepidation, as I see

our world spiralling out of control unless its Members

uphold the universality of the United Nations decision-

making process in addressing global concerns.

The world is at a crossroads and we meet here at

a critical juncture. Around us, civil strife, wars,

poverty, disease, famine, drought, natural disasters,

terrorism, environmental degradation, depletion of land

and marine resources and other phenomena are

ravaging the world. The displacement of peoples from

their natural habitats and the sacrilege of human

suffering in many parts of the world demonstrate that

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unless immediate remedial strategies are implemented,

the global situation will continue to deteriorate.

Moreover, the emergence of conflict in areas we

once believed stable, the deterioration of law and order

and the senseless killing of innocent peoples are

painful reminders that we need to rethink our policies

and decisions. Globalization has brought with it both

opportunities and challenges, but for the small island

States the challenges are much more ominous. Those

are the realities.

Those negative developments lead me to

conclude that the United Nations is indispensable and

that we all need to work as friends and equal partners.

Globalization has brought nations together. We are

interlinked and interdependent. That demands global

cooperation and governance from all responsible

Members of the Organization. Understandably, there

are the vested interests of the powerful, but that only

necessitates genuine cooperation and goodwill to

achieve convergence of those interests. The United

Nations role in that regard must remain fundamental in

order to ensure compatibility with the international

legal framework. Maverick policies and decisions will

only create further divisions and hostility.

With that in mind, I believe there is now

consensus on introducing far-reaching reforms that

make the United Nations relevant for all its Members,

with the fundamental objective of preserving

international peace, security and stability.

My Government fully supports efforts to reform

the United Nations system in order to ensure a stronger

and more effective Organization. On that note, my

delegation endorses the view of other delegations on

the need to review the membership of the Security

Council so that it will better reflect geographical

distribution and the underrepresented groups of

Member countries of the United Nations, without

affecting the authority of the Council.

I hope all the rhetoric that has come before the

Assembly can be translated into concrete and practical

action. We must be resolute in our collective desire to

work together as sovereign nations in addressing the

world’s problems through multilateral institutions. The

blueprint for international cooperation has been

established, but reforming certain structures in the

United Nations system must be seen as a prerequisite if

we are serious about moving forward. The Achilles

heel of the current structure is the imbalance of power

in the United Nations system. It has become so chronic

that it has weakened the multilateral focus,

cohesiveness and internationalism of the United

Nations.

The principles of democratization and good

governance so actively advocated and championed by

some Members must be reflected in the reorganization

and decision-making process of the United Nations

system.

It is in this regard that Vanuatu supports the

review of the permanent membership of the Security

Council in order to include Japan and one

representative each from the African continent, the

Middle East and the group of small developing

countries. A more representative Council will bring

about openness and transparency, create confidence

and ameliorate understanding and cooperation. A

restructuring of the membership of the Security

Council is long overdue. Diversity is essential there.

My Government looks forward to the report of

the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Threats,

Challenges and Threats.

Although the fight against terrorism takes centre

stage, it must not overshadow the socio-economic

development agenda and other serious security

concerns affecting the developing world, and in

particular small island States. Resources will inevitably

be diverted towards combating terrorism in all its

facets, but judicious decisions need to be taken. It is

against that background that our delegation wishes to

associate itself with statements made by other

delegations on the imperativeness of supporting the

development constraints of developing nations, and in

particular the concerns of the small island States on

vulnerability.

At the Millennium Summit leaders adopted the

eight Millennium Development Goals, with targets to

be achieved by 2015. Although commitments have

been made, the lethargic performance of many

countries, including Vanuatu, demonstrate the need for

more international support in assisting countries to

meet those targets.

The global economic situation today

discriminates against many developing economies.

Unfair trading practices and the imposition of intrusive

policies on national economies — including that of

Vanuatu — affect those economies by opening them up

to unfavourable conditions that only favour stronger

nations. The post-Cancún period poses extreme

challenges to the economic survival and socio-

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economic stability of many small developing nations

like Vanuatu.

My Government’s initial focus is on the social

sector, namely, on health and education. The

Government’s prioritized action agenda, which was

launched last year in consultation with our

development partners, is the catalyst for Vanuatu’s

medium- to long-term strategic planning. This

development policy framework is consistent with

achieving the targets of the Millennium Development

Goals and emphasizes the need to empower our rural

population through infrastructure- and capacity-

building initiatives. We appeal to our development

partners to adequately assist us in its implementation.

On that note, my delegation wishes to express its

gratitude to the United States of America for granting

Vanuatu eligibility to access development funding from

the Millennium Challenge Account.

The primary responsibility for development lies

with a State itself. Yet, external influences and

conditional aid have not adequately corresponded with

Vanuatu’s development priorities and achievements.

The pretext for meting out foreign advice conditioned

with development assistance has been to improve

governance and other sectors considered vital in

establishing a strong economy. In Vanuatu’s case that

line of argument has not produced tangible results,

with restricted progress being reflected in our

continuous struggle with reforms that are more or less

dictated by external forces.

Both the recipient and the external assistance

must be balanced and sensitive to national interests.

Too often, that normal reaction is misunderstood by

some of our development partners. From Vanuatu’s

perspective, externally driven reforms must be

buttressed by an equal partnership that respects local

tradition, culture and the rights of all citizens without

disturbing the essential uniting mechanisms of society

that have successfully held us together over time. An

exploitative agenda can only erode and dismantle those

ingrained mechanisms, leaving us vulnerable to the

rapid changes affecting all of us today. Vanuatu

embraces democracy and the concepts of governance

and transparency, but they must be tailored to suit the

traditional system without affecting the relevance and

significance of those far-reaching principles.

In recent times, the history of the Organization

has been characterized by indecision, which blemishes

the record of the United Nations. I speak about the

longstanding issue of self-determination, and in

particular the case of West Papua, and I do so while

being cognizant of the Charter and while espousing the

principles that continue to guide the Organization’s

efforts in the process of self-determination. The United

Nations must be consistent in its decisions for the

recognition and respect of the fundamental rights to

self-determination for the people of West Papua. The

truth surrounding the so-called Act of Free Choice

must be exposed to the Melanesian sisters and brothers

of West Papua and the rest of the international

community. Saddest of all is General Assembly

resolution 2504 (XXIV) of 1969, concerning West

Papua. How can the United Nations continue to ignore

the cries of over 3 million people demanding justice?

As world leaders, we have time and again expressed

serious concerns and dissatisfaction about the fact that

certain decisions and actions by the United Nations or

its bodies were not consistent with the purposes and

intentions of the Charter. However, in the case of West

Papua, absolutely nothing has been done to rectify the

gross violation of internationally accepted practice. It

is therefore our joint responsibility to address this grey

area of history.

The continuing disputes and concerns raised with

regard to the legality of United Nations-endorsed

instruments that have been concluded throughout the

years — such as the New York Agreement of 1962, to

govern the United Nations administration of the so-

called Act of Free Choice in West Papua — is a clear

example challenging the integrity and validity of

United Nations resolutions at that time. In our opinion,

the United Nations-conducted exercises were a total

farce conditioned only to suit the geopolitical climate

of that period. The United Nations cannot, and must

not, continue to turn a blind eye to its own past

failures. It is morally, politically and legally wrong to

do so. The Netherlands in particular, which was the

former colonial authority, should also recognize that it

should shoulder some responsibility in helping to

resolve the unfortunate situation of West Papua in a

peaceful and transparent manner. Why is no one

accountable for those unjust decisions affecting the

lives of millions of people today?

Vanuatu therefore calls for the establishment of a

special commission of inquiry to review the United

Nations conduct in relation to the 1969 Act. We also

call for the United Nations to send a fact-finding

mission to examine the situation in West Papua with

regard to human rights abuses and other related issues.

And we call for the reinscription of West Papua on the

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list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. Those are

critically challenging responsibilities.

On a final matter, my delegation strongly

reaffirms its support for resolution 2758 (XXVI),

which was adopted during the twenty-sixth session, in

1971, and which recognized the legal and political

representation of the People’s Republic of China as a

Member of the United Nations. Vanuatu again

reiterates its unwavering support for one China and

urges all members of the United Nations to work in the

interests of world peace and stability in the Asia-

Pacific region.

In conclusion, I must bring to the attention of the

Assembly another priority issue that is of grave

importance to my Government and nation. I would

once again like to raise the matter of the relocation of

the Pacific Operations Centre of the Economic and

Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

from Vanuatu to another location. My Government was

not properly consulted in that regard, and requests that

the decision to relocate the Centre from Vanuatu be

reconsidered. If the Centre’s relevance in the region is

being questioned, then my Government would propose

that a proper review be carried out with a view to

restructuring the ESCAP office in order to relocate the

Pacific Operations Centre to Bangkok. Programmes

and activities under ESCAP responsibility may be

better coordinated through the United Nations

Development Programme activities in the region.

I hope that wisdom will prevail as the debate

continues on our future destiny. Despite all our

differences and diversity, human security for all is our

main goal. That should remain the focus of the United

Nations agenda. The cardinal question is whether

Members will allow the United Nations to undertake

serious reforms in meeting the challenges ahead. The

future remains in our hands.