Samoa, 2011

Samoa joined the

United Nations 35 years ago, a decision rooted firmly

in our belief in the principle of the sovereign equality

of all Member States, each with the same rights and

responsibilities. That sentiment underpins our

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relationship with our Organization as it evolves into a

global family of interdependent nations.

The Organization remains one of the last, if not

the greatest, bastion against the serious challenges and

uncertainties that beset our world — financial and

economic crises, climate change, environmental

degradation, land desertification, ocean acidification,

destruction of fishery resources, endemic poverty and

dangerous threats to peace and security. That is why we

continue to support the United Nations and look to its

timely interventions and leadership in addressing the

challenges the world faces and finding collective

solutions to them.

It is in the context of the leadership role of the

United Nations that the visit of Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon earlier this month to the Pacific region as a

special guest of the Pacific Leaders Forum in New

Zealand was particularly significant. The visit enabled

the Secretary-General to see first-hand the scale of the

challenges facing vulnerable Pacific small island

countries. The visit, the first ever to the Pacific by an

incumbent Secretary-General in the 66 years of

existence of the United Nations, was a historical

milestone in the relationship between the Pacific region

and the United Nations. The fact that the Secretary-

General is from the Asia-Pacific region and that the

visit took place before the start of his second term, not

at the end of it, are positive aspects that were not lost

on the Pacific leaders. Mr. Ban Ki-moon’s advocacy

and support of Pacific issues in the different

international forums dealing with sustainable

development, climate change and peace and security, as

we witnessed on Wednesday when he presented his

report to the General Assembly, will be invaluable in

placing Pacific concerns at centre stage for attention

and support where needed.

The United Nations is the world’s premier

Organization. Its role in the various areas of

development and in improving the human condition

must be exemplary and unequivocal. The work and

influence of the United Nations to encourage

Governments to respect and uphold fundamental

human rights is sorely needed in parts of our Pacific

region and across the world.

In our region as well, the work of the United

Nations to facilitate the choices of Pacific peoples to

exercise their right to self-determination continues to

form an important part of our Pacific region’s

association with the United Nations. In this respect, we

strongly urge the United Nations to play a more

proactive role towards the achievement of this goal.

Development, security and human rights are

mutually reinforcing pillars of the United Nations.

Equal progress on all three fronts should be the norm,

not the exception. A decade into the new millennium,

we find the Assembly meeting against the backdrop of

a world teetering on many fronts and replete with

uncertainties.

A full recovery of the global economy to

pre-2008 levels continues to be an elusive goal. The

immediate to medium-term outlook is not promising

and does not instil confidence. While some

Governments are being assisted with their budgetary

difficulties, others, in contrast, are struggling on their

own to provide the basic necessities for their people.

Achieving the time-bound Millennium Development

Goals in their totality is becoming difficult by the day.

In terms of crises, be it economic, climate change

or food-related, the most and worst affected by any one

of these are, without exception, some of the United

Nations — recognized vulnerable groups — the least

developed countries and the small island developing

States. Samoa belongs to both categories. Though the

United Nations has committed, through internationally

agreed development frameworks such as the Brussels

Programme of Action, the Barbados Programme of

Action and others, to help vulnerable economies attain

economic growth, sustainable development and the

resilience to endure external shocks, the reality is that

the needs of these groups always outstrip the resources

available to them. This mismatch is due in part to

undercapitalized frameworks with no dedicated

funding.

Earlier this week, the United Nations focused

long-overdue attention on the insidious health threat

posed by non-communicable diseases (NCDs). If left

unchecked, NCDs will not only devastate the health of

our people but also have the potential to wreak havoc

in our economies, with the incidence of these so-called

lifestyle diseases having a heavy impact on the

productive population. Samoa therefore adds its voice

to the call to include the reduction of non-communicable

diseases in the Millennium Development Goals and

which sufficient resources and donor partnership

actions should also prioritize.

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These are real concerns. Sustainable economic

development is a priority issue for Samoa and the

Pacific island countries. This is why we are hopeful

that the United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development (Rio+20), to be held next June in Brazil,

will allow for a serious discussion and reorientation of

the whole United Nations community on the

importance of identifying and providing the necessary

resources for the implementation of the agreed

programmes of action and other global arrangements

that the United Nations underwrites.

The theme of this year’s Pacific Forum was

“Converting potential into prosperity”. In line with this

is the advocacy led by the Pacific countries to raise the

profile of the oceans agenda towards a strong “blue

economy” outcome, to ensure that the importance of

the oceans to our islands is captured as an integral

component of the Rio+20 outcome. The ocean provides

the Pacific region with opportunities and challenges,

best reflected in the four-pronged focus on

conservation, sustainable management, balanced

harvesting and greater economic return from the

utilization of fishery and marine resources.

The emphasis of efforts on maximizing economic

benefits from fisheries is a recognition of its vital

contribution in supporting sustainable economic

development and attempts to address the long-held

concern of Pacific islands that they have been for far

too long short-changed and unfairly compensated for

the fishery resources found within our waters, which

are worth many billions of dollars, with less than 1 per

cent received by the island countries.

The Pacific States have long been committed to

efforts to conserve and manage fisheries resources in

the region. It has therefore also been a point of long-

standing frustration that vessels of major fishing

nations continue to fish illegally in Pacific waters.

Even when they are caught carrying out illegal fishing

activities, it is by no means a certainty that prosecution

and enforcement of penalties will be successful, when

infringing fishing vessels have heavy financial

resources backing their defences.

We therefore again urge cooperation from all

nations with fishing fleets in the Pacific to work

together with our Pacific countries to stop illegal,

unreported and unregulated fishing practices in the

Pacific. The Pacific carries the last major stocks of

some key fish species that in other oceans have already

been depleted, contaminated and devastated.

Successful conservation and the effective management

of harvest levels in the long term is absolutely critical,

not just for Pacific countries and distant-water fishing

nations, but, ultimately, the availability of fish supplies

to the rest of the world in the years ahead. The

successful conservation and management of fish stocks

in the Pacific is, pure and simple, good business for

everyone.

Climate change was again singled out by Pacific

leaders during their just-concluded summit as the

single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and

well-being of the peoples of the Pacific. Natural

catastrophes are capable of destruction that devastates

entire communities. From the tragic experiences that

our country has endured, we know of the great pain

from the loss of lives, the destruction of property and

the setback to the national economy that disasters are

capable of inflicting.

It is therefore imperative that adequate resources

be available and that they may, indeed, be accessed

with ease through different direct modalities in order to

assist countries in meeting their mitigation and

adaptation programmes. The Copenhagen Green

Climate Fund is now in the design phase. The

representatives of Governments and experts involved

would do well to pay attention to the existing climate

change funding architecture so that the shortcomings of

other funding mechanisms are not repeated.

Without the necessary financial resources and

technical support, Samoa’s ability to adapt to and

mitigate climate change will be severely curtailed.

Thankfully, Samoa continues to benefit under the fast

start finance window, both bilaterally and through

regional projects made available by the generous

support of our traditional and new development

partners, such as Australia, China, the European Union,

Japan, New Zealand, Italy, the Asian Development

Bank, the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank

and the United Nations, to name but a few. We are,

indeed, very, very grateful.

Countries in different parts of the world look to

the United Nations and its stronger members for

peacekeeping arrangements to give those communities

in strife time to re-establish and to find lasting

solutions. Samoa continues to lend its unwavering

support to that aspect of the United Nations mandate. I

reaffirm that support, which is underpinned by my

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country’s contribution and the involvement of our

police officers in the United Nations peacekeeping

operations in the Sudan, Liberia and Timor-Leste.

Additionally, Samoa continues to be an integral part of

the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands

under the umbrella of the Pacific Forum.

Samoa warmly welcomes the admission of South

Sudan as the United Nation’s newest member in July

this year.

Samoa joins the international community’s

support for the courage of the people of Tunisia, Egypt,

Libya and now Syria in seeking relief from oppression

and in gaining the freedoms and human rights to which

they are rightly entitled.

At this rostrum a year ago, I did not expect the

Arab spring, and spoke in earnest of the hope that

progress would come in the then historic process to

bring permanent peace to the peoples of Israel and

Palestine (see A/65/PV.19). It is our long-held

conviction that an independent Palestinian nation,

taking its rightful place in our global family and living

side by side with a secure Israel, is the only road to

permanent peace. However, while we all know that that

is the sensible outcome that must be achieved, it will

sadly remain elusive without a clear sense of

commitment and willingness by both sides to negotiate

in good faith.

For genuine and permanent peace between

Palestine and the State of Israel, there must be direct

negotiations between the two countries. Addressing the

symptoms, but not the root causes of the conflict is

short-sighted and the result unsustainable. Solutions

must be decided by the two parties, not imposed from

outside. Without that strong buy-in from the Israelis

and Palestinians themselves, any solutions will, at best,

be short-lived. More than ever, visionary leadership, on

both sides, that sees beyond the immediate dictates of

short-sighted interests and that is, instead, willing to

seize the opportunity to fashion a just and durable

peace settlement, is critically needed at this point.

Terrorism, in its various forms and

manifestations, is responsible for the horror and fear

that have continued to grip the world’s attention. No

country is immune from the reaches of terrorism, and

we are all affected to varying degrees. Terrorist acts

committed under whatever pretext or purpose can

never be justified as morally acceptable. Equally,

countering terrorism does not confer immunity from

the rule of law, nor the abandonment of the principles

of a civilized society.

No country can win the war against terrorism on

its own. Only by pooling our resources and working

collaboratively with each other can we stand a chance

of defeating that senseless menace. Samoa, despite the

heavy cost, is doing its best to meet our obligations in

that collective effort.

Modest progress has been achieved in the efforts

to reform the Security Council. Samoa remains

convinced that an expanded Security Council that

mirrors present-day realities is essential for

multilateralism and for the Council’s integrity and

credibility. Increases in both the permanent and the

non-permanent categories should be part and parcel of

the reform package.