Samoa, 2001

Samoa is very pleased

that we are meeting under the presidency of Mr. Han.

On behalf of my Government, I extend warm

congratulations to the President of the General

Assembly and express to him our full confidence and

cooperation.

Allow me also a moment to pay tribute to his

predecessor, President Harri Holkeri, for his

8

outstanding service and leadership during the fifty-fifth

session of the General Assembly, and for the

significant achievements of that session.

We are delighted with the award of the Nobel

Peace Prize to our Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan,

and to our Organization. I want, in particular, to

congratulate the Secretary-General and to wish him

every success in his new term of office. His personal

qualities and extraordinary leadership give shape to the

modern face of the United Nations in ways that give

force and credibility to the Organization and its

performance.

The terrorist attacks of 11 September marked a

turning point in the history of our era. These terrible

events give special significance to this session of the

Assembly. We need to send out from this house an

unambiguous message.

The clear view of my Government is that there is

no room for moral equivocation. The deliberate taking

of innocent civilian life, regardless of cause or

grievance, is without justification in law and is morally

unacceptable. My Government has declared its strong

condemnation of the attacks in New York, Washington,

D.C., and Pennsylvania, and I want today to underscore

that condemnation in unequivocal terms.

On behalf of my country and its citizens, I want

to renew to the Government and the people of the

United States our profound feelings of sorrow and

sympathy and our committed solidarity and support. I

also want to say that the leadership, magnificent

example and courage shown by the United States

demonstrate beyond doubt the extraordinary strengths

of that great democracy and the indomitable spirit of its

people.

This was a most monstrous crime, evil in

premeditation and merciless in execution. Thousands

of innocent lives were taken, thousands of people

murdered without warning. To the families and friends

of the victims — which included citizens of many other

countries represented in this Hall — we extend our

warm and heartfelt condolences.

Terrorism is an offence against the core values of

the United Nations. It is a direct and most serious

threat to democracy, to the free exercise of human

rights and to economic and social development. It has

no respect for social order, human life and property.

This has never been clearer than in the aftermath

of these terrible attacks against the United States.

Furthermore, these horrific events not only have served

to highlight the need for a concerted and effective

international response but have also drawn attention to

the inadequacy of the traditional forms of judicial and

law enforcement in combating it.

There cannot be any question as to the need for

an effective response from the international

community. Indeed, the Security Council’s unanimous

and momentous resolution 1373 (2001), together with

resolution 1368 (2001), gives the clearest signal of the

international community’s determination to take

concrete action against the financing, training and

movement of terrorists and the need for all States to

cooperate in any campaign against them. We believe

they provide the necessary basis for securing the

broadest possible international support and cooperation

for the global campaign against terrorism, in particular

through the work of the Counter-Terrorism Committee.

I am pleased to announce that as part of its own

response in this collective effort, Samoa is taking steps

to adhere to additional United Nations conventions on

international terrorism.

We believe, however, that we need to bear in

mind that fighting terrorism cannot be separated from

the task of preventing organized crime and the spread

of small arms and other weapons, and of containing

and ending conflict. We also need to ensure that the

conditions of poverty and despair, which breed

ignorance, hatred, violence and extremism, are

properly and effectively addressed.

We need, above all, to remain resolute in

upholding the rule of law and the principles that

underpin the rule of law. The clear affirmation of these

principles and of the norms of humanitarian and

international law will help deny to the perpetrators of

these crimes whatever they seek to gain from violence.

We consider it essential to renew efforts to

promote the rapid entry into force of the Rome Statute

of the International Criminal Court. A functioning

international criminal court for the prosecution of

terrorist acts amounting to crimes against humanity —

as we consider the attacks on the United States to be —

would provide a vital component in the international

armoury against terrorism.

9

This fifty-sixth session of the Assembly is the

first to follow last year’s Millennium Summit. It will

be the ideal occasion to take up the critical issues and

strategies for implementing the Millennium

Declaration. May I say in this connection that we

warmly welcome and find most useful the road map

report of the Secretary-General, setting out in some

detail how the Summit commitments could be fulfilled.

We note that most of the targets set by the

Millennium Declaration are not really new. They are

the determined results of global conferences of the

1990s or are derived from the body of international

norms and laws that have been codified over the past

50 years. It follows that the plans of action needed for

reaching the targets have, for the most part, already

been developed and formally adopted by Member

States.

What is needed, therefore, is not more technical

or feasibility studies. Rather, as the Secretary-General’s

report points out, States need to demonstrate the

political will to carry out commitments already made

and to implement strategies already worked out. In

other words, as we move from an era of commitment to

an era of implementation, the international community

must mobilize the will and the resources needed to

fulfil the promises made.

Samoa was honoured recently to host a Pacific

regional meeting as part of the preparatory work for the

World Summit on Sustainable Development in

Johannesburg next September. It is important to seek

further progress in these preparations, especially in the

completion of national assessment reports. We believe

the Summit will be a unique opportunity to re-establish

international commitment to sustainable development.

Our own view is that there is a need to accelerate the

comprehensive and targeted implementation of Agenda

21. Efforts to this end should aim to minimize and

remove obstacles that impede the implementation of

the Rio commitments, especially in capacity-building

needs and in the provision of adequate financial and

technological support.

We place particular importance on the

International Conference on Financing for

Development. The agenda of the Conference allows for

a full range of substantive issues to be addressed. It

would be important to forge broad-based consensus on

all these issues, and even more so on the reform of the

international financial and trade architecture in a way

that would be supportive of the long-term development

of developing countries. There should be enhanced

opportunities for the representation and participation of

developing countries, including small island States, in

the major decision-making institutions on global

financing, monetary and trade issues.

It is impossible today to visualize progress and

development without access to modern information

systems. The remarkable growth of information and

communication technologies (ICT) is opening up

boundless new possibilities for accelerated economic

and social development. But the ability to translate the

full potential of ICT differs from country to country. I

know my country needs to develop its own capacity to

do so. Yet we know that, for a developing country like

my own, there is no real option but to take full

advantage of the digital revolution. We will therefore

be supporting every global effort to call attention to the

need for bridging the digital divide.

The turn of the millennium has brought new

challenges, and with it changes to the character and

complexity of the United Nations role in maintaining

international peace and security. Samoa is proud to

have been able to contribute to the civilian police

operations in East Timor. From this experience it is

clear to us that if the United Nations is to do its job of

maintaining international peace and security, it needs to

be given the necessary tools and resources.

We have learned a great deal from the report of

the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, and we

know that the United Nations needs to improve its

capacity to respond to conflicts more effectively. And

we need to move forward with the peacekeeping

reform process.

The recognition implicit in the awarding of the

Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations means that

more than ever, we need to modernize and strengthen

our Organization. We fully support the current efforts

to review and revitalize the working methods of the

General Assembly.

We commend most highly the work of the

General Assembly’s Open-ended Working Group on

reform of the Security Council and its Bureau. Difficult

and critical issues remain. But we need to maintain the

political momentum provided in the Millennium

Summit for comprehensive reform of the Security

Council. Membership of the Council, both permanent

and non-permanent, needs to be enlarged to reflect the

10

realities of the present time and to enhance its role and

effectiveness.

Finally, let me refer to the twenty-second special

session of the General Assembly, in 1999, that

reviewed the Barbados Programme of Action for the

Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing

States. Since that time, a number of global events, such

as the tenth session of the United Nations Conference

on Trade and Development and the Third United

Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries

have recalled the fragility of small island States in the

globalizing economy. We, of course, are grateful for

this acknowledgement. However, I believe I reflect the

aspiration of all small island States in saying that we

need to do much more in terms of concrete actions -

actions that will only be meaningful if we are assured

of the committed support of the whole international

community.

Overcoming the well-recognized vulnerability of

small island States like my own, and the exposure of

island communities to the effects of global climate

change, natural disasters, environmental damage and

global economic shocks will be an essential element of

sustainable development in all small island regions.

May I say, in this connection, that Samoa very

much welcomes the successful conclusion yesterday in

Marrakech of the seventh session of the Conference of

the Parties to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change. The completion of the

operational details of the Kyoto Protocol will, we hope,

open the way to widespread ratification by

Governments and the Protocol’ s early entry into force,

perhaps by the time of the Johannesburg World Summit

next year.

The struggle against climate change is not just an

environmental issue. It is also a matter of fundamental

development. It is so because the adverse impact of

climate change endangers economic and social

progress. This is most certainly the case for small

island States, which are widely acknowledged to be

among the most vulnerable and the least able to adapt.

The world community’s response to climate change

therefore requires significant, long-term changes in

economic and social behaviour. The United Nations has

an urgent and vital responsibility in this task as well.