Antigua and Barbuda, 1996

It is with profound

pleasure that I salute the President, a diplomat of

experience and stature and one worthy to preside over the

functions of the fifty-first session of the General Assembly.

I wish to recall that it was his country and mine that

brought the question of Antarctica to the United Nations,

and our countries have worked closely together for a

number of years. We have made progress as countries from

various parts of the world have joined us in an effort to

preserve Antarctica as the last natural heritage of mankind.

His country’s efforts in regard to the betterment of the

global community are deeply admired by my countrymen,

and it is with a sense of genuine cordiality that we refer to

Malaysia as a friendly and brotherly country. Permit me

also to extend sincere thanks to the outgoing President,

Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral of Portugal, who so ably led

the historic fiftieth session of the General Assembly.

On 7 July of this year Hurricane Bertha passed

perilously close to Antigua and Barbuda, and our twin-

island State sustained some damage. Small island

developing States like ours are subject to various natural

disasters — earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes.

In 1974, we experienced an earthquake that measured 7.8

on the Richter scale and caused considerable destruction. A

volcano on the island of Montserrat, some 50 kilometres

from our shores, has been active for the past 15 months.

Our people live in constant fear of fall-out and tidal waves

from a major eruption.

The natural phenomenon presently plaguing Montserrat

could be a prelude to a disaster that can destroy small

islands globally. Evidence of the warming of the planet has

clearly emerged, and extreme weather events have become

more frequent and intense. Last year, Hurricane Luis

unleashed its fury on our country for 48 hours and was

declared to have been the worst storm of the century.

Hurricane Marilyn followed in its wake, intensifying the

damage. Indeed, we remain grateful to the countries and

institutions that provided various forms of assistance to

help in the reconstruction.

In addressing the General Assembly of the

Organization of American States this year, our envoy

noted that development is not sustainable if a score of

storms and hurricanes are to trample through our region

each year. Carbon dioxide emissions caused by the

burning of petroleum, coal, wood and gas since the start

of the Industrial Revolution in western Europe 200 years

ago have begun to place the survival of small islands in

jeopardy. Harmful production, wasteful consumption and

dangerous disposal patterns continue to characterize the

behaviour of the largest industrialized States. We must

therefore reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the agreed

Toronto targets. Together, let us address the challenge so

that we may bequeath to future generations a better and

a safer world than we inherited. Our demise will only

signal the beginning of the end of a marvellous

civilization, more creative and more inventive than any

that has gone before.

Between 1 and 15 July Antigua and Barbuda played

its part at the human settlement Conference, Habitat II, at

Istanbul, and we urge that the Istanbul Declaration and

Plan of Action be adhered to. It must be recognized that

it is in the cities and towns of the new urban world,

where most of us will ultimately live and work, that most

economic activity will take place and goods be produced.

It is where most pollution will be generated and national

resources consumed, with an impact felt far beyond city

limits. Moreover, it will be in the cities and towns of this

urban world that growing social tensions and conflict,

rooted in poverty and the maldistribution of resources,

will be resolved, and where the key to true human

security will be found.

The problems of urbanization are not limited to the

more endowed countries. We too, despite our small size,

have to cope with the varying patterns and outcomes that

demand responses that have at times threatened to

overwhelm us. Nevertheless, I am happy to report that in

Antigua and Barbuda we have made considerable progress

towards control and adequate regulation.

1

Under the guidance of the Development Control

Authority and the Central Housing and Planning Authority

major initiatives have been undertaken, with assistance from

the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements and the

United Nations Development Programme. The Government,

in partnership with other sectors of society, is playing a

multiple role in improving living and working conditions on

an equitable basis to enable all its citizens to enjoy

adequate shelter, affordable basic services and sustainable

human settlements.

The Government of Antigua and Barbuda not only

performs the functions of a national policy-maker and

housing administrator, but also serves in the capacity of

lender and developer. In those roles, it has ensured that

interest rates are kept at reasonable levels and that

repayment periods for loans are as long as 20 years. In its

regulatory role, the Government of the Labour Party has put

forward development standards, stipulated building

procedures and integrated land and shelter policies with

programmes for reducing poverty and assuring employment,

for environmental protection, for improvement in education

and health, and for providing clean water and sanitation

facilities.

This is indeed a strange and puzzling world. With

reference to sustainable development, a myth has gathered

momentum that maintains that the developing world is

making significant forward strides. World Bank data,

however, demonstrate that over 60 per cent of the countries

in which the United Nations and other bodies have

development assistance operations have witnessed declines

in real per capita income over the decade ending in 1994.

James Gustave Speth, the Special Coordinator for

Economic and Social Development, in a forceful and

moving presentation at the opening of the 1996 substantive

session of the Economic and Social Council, noted two

major ironies of the current situation. He declared that now

that the world is freed from distorting effects on

development cooperation, just when the development

assistance community has learned so much more about how

to succeed and do its job well, just when the needs of the

developing world are growing rapidly and dramatically —

just at this precise time, the resources that are needed for

development cooperation are shrinking rapidly and

dramatically. In the past four years, real development

assistance has declined by 20 to 25 per cent.

The other irony is that just when there is a better

understanding of the essential links between peace and

development cooperation, just when the United Nations is

called upon to assume much greater responsibilities in the

follow-up to conferences and in post-conflict peace-

building and other areas, just when the United Nations is

reforming and strengthening itself to do these things, the

Organization finds itself threatened by a financial crisis

that afflicts both its assessed and its voluntary

contributions. Indeed, Speth sees the above as not only

ironies, but as tragedies of our era.

This, the major international Organization, is

restructuring itself and endeavouring to undertake

meaningful reform. While it may be true that the existing

financial crisis is primarily a crisis of payment, there is

no denying the fact that there is unnecessary waste being

generated here, whether in regard to the duplication of

work detail, the excessive copying of documents, the

scheduling of numerous meetings destined to accomplish

nothing or to a myriad of other undesirables. Financial

concerns are not, however, the only issue of which the

world body is seized. Reform is being undertaken in a

multi-pronged manner, which in itself will be a long

process that can be justified in a Benthamite way by

emphasizing the greatest good for the greatest number.

At present, even though the discussions have been

considered to have made progress, there is not even the

glimmer of a discernible outcome in regard to the

“Question of equitable representation on and increase in

the membership of the Security Council and related

matters”. Although consensus exists on expanding the

Council, the manner in which that can be achieved

equitably remains to be resolved. Antigua and Barbuda is

firm in its declared position that any expansion should

include developing countries and that both the African

and the Latin American and Caribbean Groups should be

represented. Similarly, Antigua and Barbuda would like

to see certain restrictions placed on the use of the veto.

We understand that all efforts at restructuring and reform

in the United Nations, however, should be focused on

economic growth and development.

In this whole process of misunderstandings, the

regional commissions are being placed under attack

through cut-backs and in some instances calls for their

dissolution. This is particularly hard on those of us who

are being served by the Economic Commission for Latin

America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). We see ECLAC as

a regional organization that has already reformed itself

and should not be penalized by calls for further reforms.

ECLAC has rendered valuable service through

subprogrammes on economic development, social

development, international trade, development financing and

transport, industrial, agricultural, and technological

modernization, environment, natural resources and human

settlements, statistics and economic projections, the

integration of women into development, regional integration

and cooperation, economic and social planning and

population. In all of these fields, ECLAC collaborates with

the Governments of the Americas in the investigation and

analysis of public policy, provides technical assistance and

training, and promotes regional cooperation.

For those of us in the Caribbean it is imperative that

ECLAC be fully sustained to continue to assist us in these

and other areas. This is set against the backdrop of the

pressures that are being brought to bear on the Caribbean

region, which Prime Minister Lester Bird described at the

meeting of Heads of Government of the Caribbean

Community (CARICOM) on 6 July. He spoke of the right-

wing voices that are ready to impose upon the States of the

Caribbean Community a new colonialism under a variety of

guises, such as those of limited sovereignty and

extraterritoriality. Indeed, the very economic survival of

some Caribbean States is threatened as a result of pressures

brought against countries whose sustenance depends almost

entirely upon the production of a yellow fruit.

Most of the countries affected by the banana dispute

are former European colonies, and the continuation of their

historic access to European markets is crucial to their

economic survival. Without some form of protection, the

banana industry in the CARICOM States would collapse,

leading to severe social dislocation that would ultimately

manifest itself in political catastrophe.

Recognizing the significance of banana production to

some of our economies, the European Union has a

programme in which a small portion of its market is

reserved for Caribbean producers, a portion that is less than

10 per cent. This has certainly not been a major problem

for the big companies, for a handful of multinational

concerns still controls 60 per cent of the European market

and 70 per cent of the overall market. However, it appears

that Bob Herbert, in an editorial of 13 May, was correct

when he asserted:

“for the multinationals, enough is never enough”. (The

New York Times, 13 May 1996, Section A, p. 15)

Indeed, for countries where literacy rates are in the

ninetieth percentile and where political prisoners are

unheard of, it would be disastrous if the economies of

their societies were to be destroyed through the

destruction of the banana industry.

The bleakness of the aforementioned situation is,

however, offset by the ideas expressed at the Tokyo

Conference on Development Strategy in March of this

year, where it was posited that there is the will to sustain

a new global partnership and make it effective. There was

consensus that the issues that stretched beyond

mathematical economics, that is, issues such as those

incorporating poverty, the environment, the advancement

of women and food security, had to be tackled at both the

national and international levels.

It was nonetheless brought out that many developed

countries are experiencing harsh financial difficulties that

are imposing severe limits on their capacity to contribute

to the international organizations. Thus, the nations of the

world had first to respond to the challenge of poverty by

striving for its eradication. Secondly, the key to success

clearly lies in nations working together to build and

implement a development strategy to meet the challenges

of the twenty-first century. Thirdly, in the process of

working out and implementing a new development

strategy, it is crucially important to reinvigorate the roles

of the international organizations, and in particular that of

the United Nations.

Of significant concern to developing countries was

the statement that in efforts to secure sufficient resources

it is important to take steps in other policy areas such as

trade or technological transfer. In addition, the

globalization of the world economy makes it important to

promote the development of human resources and the

capacity for institution-building in developing countries.

In its Human Development Report 1996, the United

Nations Development Programme acknowledged that,

although some countries are experiencing unprecedented

economic growth, the quality of human development does

not always reflect that progress. While many countries of

the developing world are struggling with the implications

of trade liberalization and globalization, individuals within

these societies are faced with a complementary struggle.

The sad fact is that as long as selective liberalization

between countries remains, individuals within countries

will find it more difficult to escape the downward spiral

into the depths of poverty. It hardly takes a stretch of the

imagination to recognize, therefore, that an early

investment in building human capacity is incumbent upon

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any society wishing to achieve economic and social

development that is both equitable and sustainable.

While it can truly be said that the 1990s signalled the

end of the cold war and witnessed the dissolution of a

bipolar world, the conflicts we are witnessing today are

localized and appear to be gathering momentum as a result

of ethnic, religious and civil considerations. There is clearly

an upsurge of micronationalism, which fosters separatist

considerations. There is much social disruption, mass

starvation and the spread of contagious diseases. Of an

extremely frightening nature is the fact that access to

victims is often rendered difficult or impossible. There is

clearly a deepening lack of security for relief personnel and

supplies. Clearly, there is a need for the demobilization of

paramilitary groups, for demining and for an intensification

of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace-building.

It must be recalled that the United Nations came into

existence to ensure peace among nations. With that in mind,

we should be prepared to take steps beyond a Non-

Proliferation Treaty and a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

Treaty and move towards the elimination of weapons of

mass destruction within a time-bound framework.

Responses to the myriad of desperate problems have

to be interdisciplinary in nature, for there is no single

United Nations agency that can control, pacify, and

rehabilitate effectively.

Recognizing the dangers of increased international

criminal activity in the region, Antigua and Barbuda is

working with its neighbours and expects to receive

additional assistance from bilateral and multilateral sources

to initiate a national drug and money-laundering control

policy. Priorities of the policy include legislative and

regulatory reform, increased interdiction activities, technical

training, preventive health and public education and

training. Given its multidimensional nature, the drug

problem is one that the United Nations system is

particularly well equipped to address.

However, working alone, the Organization is helpless

to tackle this scourge that cuts across all sectors of society,

impacting on families, health and economic activity. There

needs to be greater coordination among nations if the blight

of narcotics is to be tackled in a meaningful way. Strong

and determined efforts within certain countries will be

seriously undermined if there is not a united global

approach to manifestations and practices that will destroy

not only the fabric of our societies but the lives of

countless individuals.

The plague of terrorism must be controlled. The

appeals of two South Asian nations to have an

international convention against terrorism must be heeded.

Often, terrorism is linked to narcotics. Not only do the

States of the eastern Caribbean have fears of subversion,

they are also concerned by the intense violations of ports

and harbours and the corresponding graft as their

countries serve as transit points.

In concluding, I would like to say that as the

representatives of the global community we have to live

up to the trust placed in us by our constituencies.

Multilateralism must be paramount as we strive toward

ways and means for better management of our planet. We

must agree on common values for common survival. Our

constituents are calling for an end to senseless violence

and for the re-emergence of concepts of compassion and

equity. They are asking for our dialogue to be creative

and forward-looking.

The peoples of different regions must be prepared to

make sacrifices and to suppress the barriers that divide —

barriers such as hatred, selfishness and bitterness. Let us

not forget the words of Philip Vundla, an executive of the

African National Congress, who said:

“What you achieve by violence, you will need

greater violence to maintain. Those who say the

answer is bloodshed have other people’s blood in

mind, not their own.”

However, the fundamental need in regard to

advancement remains that of economic reality. Michel

Camdessus of the International Monetary Fund reminded

the leaders of the G-7 countries on 24 June that:

“Too many refusals to grant development assistance

have the alibi that such funds are wasted. This

slippage, as well as the so-called donor fatigue, must

be vigorously combated if the international

community wishes to be in a position to keep the

poorest countries from marginalization and to steer

the world away from the tensions and crises that

extreme poverty cannot but engender whenever it

occurs. Marginalization is not inevitable, and every

country has its opportunity in this globalized world.”

4

My country recognizes the fact that we are in an era

of unprecedented change and opportunity, a period in which

scientific developments and technological achievements

seem almost miraculous and offer an improved quality of

life. The United Nations should become embedded in

reality and push the critical issues involving destitution and

social injustice to the centre of both national and public

debate.

Antigua and Barbuda takes pride in and cherishes the

United Nations and we believe that it has been judged,

unjustly, more by its failures than by its successes. But the

work done in regard to health, human rights, peacekeeping

activities, disaster mitigation and assistance to developing

countries presents an enviable record.

The United Nations has the capacity for achievements

in areas beyond the reach of national or regional authorities.

Subsequently, the nations that comprise this body must

redouble their collective commitment to translating vision

into reality. In this way, we will thrust the United Nations

manfully forward into the dawning twenty-first century.