Barbados, 2003

I take special pleasure in

congratulating you, Sir, on your assumption of the

presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth

session. The unanimous election of the smallest State

ever to hold that post speaks not only of the confidence

which Member States place in your own ability, but

also of their recognition of the critical role which small

States play in the multilateral process. We are delighted

at your elevation to this high office, and we wish to

assure you that, in carrying out your responsibilities,

you will be able to count on the unequivocal support

not only of Saint Lucia, but also of the entire

Caribbean fraternity. I wish also to thank your

predecessor, Mr. Jan Kavan, who very ably guided the

work of the fifty-seventh session of the General

Assembly during a most trying and tumultuous year.

On 19 August, the world was again plunged into

shock and despair as we witnessed the heinous attack

on the United Nations Office in Baghdad and the loss

of life of United Nations personnel stationed there. A

second attempt this week added to the toll of casualties.

I extend to the United Nations family, as well as the

delegations represented here, whose compatriots were the

victims of that violent attack, the deepest condolences of

the Government and people of Barbados.

We pause especially to pay tribute to Mr. Sergio

Vieira de Mello, an international civil servant and

diplomat of the highest calibre. His death comes at a

time when the world can least afford it. We join with

Members in mourning his passing as we mourn all

those who perished at his side in the service of the

people of Iraq.

Amidst the turmoil and carnage that has become a

dismal feature of the daily life of so many millions in

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our global society, this assault on the United Nations

was particularly startling in its cruelty and distressing

in its intention. As our Secretary-General has affirmed:

“This was the most deliberate and vicious attack

against the United Nations in its history.” It is the

cruellest of ironies that such an attack could have been

conceived and carried out against an Organization in

which we all have a stake, and one which epitomizes

the principles and ideals to which we all ascribe, and

whose primary purpose is peace.

The global environment, over the past year, has

teetered on the brink of chaos. We have witnessed

increased instances of the pursuit of violence and

retribution as first responses to the resolution of

conflict, and we have experienced the relegation of

diplomacy and multilateralism to afterthoughts.

Some of the most intractable problems facing the

international community, in the year 2003 and beyond,

are the divisions, uncertainties and doubts that have

emerged since the United States-led invasion of Iraq.

Our duty as members of this family of nations is to

ensure that we remain committed to the United

Nations, as the only organization that can move us past

the current cycle of retribution to a path of sustainable

peace. As we search for adequate collective responses

to the non-traditional threats to human security, the

task ahead will be to bring to bear a comprehensive,

multidimensional approach to security, in all its

aspects, and to reiterate the continued relevance of this

concept to the global agenda.

The challenges to small States in such an

uncertain environment are numerous and at times

overwhelming. We lack the financial dexterity to

respond to economic crises as swiftly and decisively as

is necessary. We have no military might and so our

only avenue for handling traditional threats to security

rests squarely within a multilateral framework, which

resorts to military action only when, despite our best

efforts, peace cannot be achieved through diplomacy.

Since the end of the conflicts of European

empire-building, our region, the Caribbean, has had a

history of peace and stability, which is sustained

through a simple but sure formula: celebration of our

commonalities; tolerance of our differences; mutual

respect for each other’s sovereignty; and adherence to

the principles of democracy, good governance and the

rule of law. We would wish to commend this formula to

those who find the key to peaceful co-existence elusive.

Barbados remains unwavering in its commitment

to the precepts of multilateralism, and to the belief that

no other international institution is better suited or

equipped to meet the diverse demands for global peace,

security and development than the United Nations. As

members of this Organization, we are assured that our

voice will be heard regardless of our size or economic

power. Therefore, while we may not have the capacity

to influence situations by way of exerting military,

economic or even political power, we do cherish our

right to express our opinions about any issue of

concern to us, without let or hindrance.

The United Nations is not a third party separate

from the Member Governments but is rather the sum of

its Members; it belongs to them and they share all the

benefits, problems and collective responsibilities of

ownership. Barbados shares the view so eloquently

expressed by the Secretary-General that: “The United

Nations exists, not as a static memorial to the aspirations

of an earlier age, but as a work in progress — imperfect,

as all human endeavours must be, but capable of

adaptation and improvement.” We are all accountable for

its shortcomings and must all strive for its improvement.

To the extent that the United Nations represents

our collective effort at a mechanism for global

governance, it is amenable to the benefits of good

governance practices. For we believe that good

governance is as important at the international level as

it is at the national level. It is perhaps the single most

important factor in promoting development, reducing

inequalities and advancing the cause of peace.

We should therefore seize this moment in time to

recommit ourselves to making the United Nations more

effective and efficient. Bold and serious reorganization

initiatives, including the revitalization of the General

Assembly, and the reform of the Security Council are

urgently needed. We must also find effective coordination

modalities to give new impetus to the follow-up to the

major conferences and summits of the last decade,

which, in most instances, have simply been reduced to

standing items on the annual agenda of this body and

rhetoric-filled resolutions reaffirming the status quo.

We must resolve, during this session and

henceforth, to take concrete actions towards making the

Security Council more representative and transparent and

towards ensuring that the General Assembly moves

beyond the symbolic politics of passing resolutions to

the hard work of negotiating change.

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For it is a source of the greatest continuing concern

to us that too many of the premier multilateral institutions

— which are charged with the fundamental responsibility

of shaping the rules by which global society is

governed, whether in the area of peace and security, or

trade, or finance and development — are constrained

by structure and tradition to carry out their mandate in

a manner that is patently devoid of democracy or

transparency. Reform must therefore extend beyond the

confines of New York to reach deep into the operations

of the international financial institutions, the World

Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development, the Financial Action

Task Force on Money-Laundering and all other bodies

that seek to prescribe the norms of behaviour for the

international community without the full participation

of that community in the decision-making process.

If the International Conference on Financing for

Development had one failing, it was its inability to

conceive of a new system for financial governance to

redress the deficiencies and imbalances of the past — a

system that is durable enough to serve for generations

to come. In this regard, I wish to reiterate the call made

at Monterrey by the Prime Minister of Barbados, The

Right Honourable Owen Arthur, for the creation of a

rules-based world financial authority to supervise

today’s complex global financial and capital markets

better than the Bretton Woods institutions can, and for

an international tax organization to oversee global

cooperation in cross-border tax matters.

Despite a commitment made by all States at

Monterrey towards the development of a universal

framework to facilitate all-inclusive dialogue on

matters pertaining to international tax cooperation,

sufficient progress has not been forthcoming. While we

are encouraged by and supportive of recent proposals

to strengthen the United Nations Ad Hoc Group of

Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters,

these efforts are insufficient to provide for a truly

universal, transparent and legitimate intergovernmental

framework to promote cooperation among all States on

tax matters.

Equally, Barbados believes that the all-important

fight against money-laundering must now be waged by

the international community as a whole, led by a

genuinely representative international body, drawing its

membership from all the countries of the world, within

the family of the United Nations. While we are most

appreciative of the vital work that has been done in this

regard by the Financial Action Task Force, that body

remains what it has always been, a task force with a

limited role, and an even more limited membership of

only 31 countries.

An important step would be the adoption of an

international convention against money-laundering,

under the auspices of the United Nations. Such a

convention would establish a genuine international

consensus on the issue of money-laundering within the

universal ambit of the United Nations, where the

interests and concerns of all Member States would be

fairly and equally served in a common endeavour

against international crime. The proposed convention

would complement the work of the United Nations

under the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in

Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, as well

as the more recent Convention Against Transnational

Organized Crime.

In this connection, we believe that the greatest

lesson to emerge from the experience of Cancun is the

clear understanding that strategies and solutions that

ignore the concerns and needs of the developing world,

or that fail to analyse the implications of those

solutions for the most fragile and vulnerable, are

doomed to failure. The special needs of small States

that have no capacity whatsoever to distort world trade

must be taken fully into account in fashioning the new

rules of trade liberalization. To do otherwise would be

to condemn the most vulnerable groups of our global

family to the real threat of marginalization by a

multilateral system that is supposed to provide benefits

for all. It is vital that focus be restored to the Doha

Development Agenda and its work programme on

small economies.

Next year marks the tenth anniversary of the

Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of

Small Island Developing States. Out of that conference

emerged the Barbados Programme of Action, which

today still remains the essential blueprint for the

sustainable development aspirations of all small island

developing States (SIDS). As de facto custodian of the

name attached to the SIDS process, Barbados accords

great importance to the convening of an international

meeting next year in Mauritius to review the

implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action.

We are convinced that the vulnerability and

sustainable development challenges of SIDS, as

expressed in the Barbados Programme of Action, in

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Agenda 21, the Millennium Declaration and the

Johannesburg Plan of Implementation are now better

understood by the international community. According

to estimates, since 1994 small island developing States

themselves have carried out approximately 70 per cent

of the required actions and measures contained in the

Barbados Programme of Action. The Mauritius review

will present an important opportunity for us to take

stock of new and emerging challenges and identify

additional resources to advance implementation.

The World Summit on the Information Society is

conceived as a high-level dialogue leading to achieving

a new kind of society, characterized by universal access to

and use of information for the creation, accumulation and

dissemination of knowledge. It implies the use of

traditional and new technologies, especially information

and communication technologies, as an essential tool

for the enhancement of services and the promotion of

dialogue among diverse cultures towards the attainment

of a more peaceful, prosperous and just world. We

support the principle that the new information society

must serve the best interests of all nations and peoples.

It must seek through the available technology to

empower the most vulnerable sectors of society and

eradicate existing disparities within and among States.

The issue relating to the passage through the

Caribbean Sea of ships bearing nuclear material is still

unresolved. We are, from time to time, presented with

studies and analyses that seek to assure us of the safety

of the ships and their cargo. Despite these assurances,

we all know that there is no guarantee that international

terrorism will continue to ignore such a significant

target or that an unthinkable accident would not occur.

A major explosion on board one of these ships

traversing our region would threaten the survival of

surrounding States. The most acceptable solution to the

problem is cessation of the trans-shipment of nuclear

material through the Caribbean Sea, since, on this

issue, any risk is too high.

In your address, Mr. President, upon the opening

of the General Assembly, you called for action rather

than inaction. This moment in global affairs will

require courage and determination as we face the

enormous challenges awaiting us. We may not be

expected to complete the task, but then, neither are we

at liberty to abstain from it.