Barbados, 2005

I join with other

delegations in congratulating you, Mr. President, on

your election to preside over the sixtieth session of the

United Nations General Assembly. The Barbados

delegation’s appreciation is also extended to the

outgoing President, His Excellency Mr. Jean Ping,

Foreign Minister of Gabon, for the outstanding work

he has done in guiding the Assembly during the

previous session and particularly in the preparations

for the High-level Plenary Meeting.

Last week, heads of State and Government, in an

attempt to define and articulate a global consensus,

adopted an outcome document representing the

determination of the vast majority to make progress

towards full achievement of the goals and targets

inspired by the Millennium Declaration, as well as a

number of decisions on United Nations reform.

Barbados, as part of the tremendous efforts made by

many, had hoped for bolder and more ambitious

commitments, particularly regarding development.

In all of the circumstances, we accept that the

outcome of the High-level Plenary Meeting provides

the platform for coordinated international action in

response to the complex and interconnected global

challenges confronting this and future generations.

The Millennium Development Goals are now

recognized as the world’s time-bound, quantifiable

targets for addressing poverty in its many dimensions

of hunger, disease, lack of access to health care and

education, gender inequality and environmental

degradation. Progress on their achievement has been

far from uniform across the world, or for that matter

across the Goals. Unless action is taken on a much

broader front and a much faster pace, the eminently

laudable words of the Declaration will serve only as

grim reminders of human needs neglected and of

numerous promises unfulfilled.

The Secretary-General has stated that our

generation, with the combination of resources and

technology at its disposal, must be the first to make the

right of development a reality for everyone and to free

the entire human race from war.

Progress towards the achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals in Barbados is

encouraging. Although the regional report of the

United Nations Development Programme presents an

optimistic outlook for most Caribbean countries in

respect of the first five Goals, the region faces severe

challenges and constraints to their achievement.

Foremost among them, and beyond our control, is our

vulnerability to economic shocks and to every natural

disaster known to mankind — be it hurricane, volcanic

eruption, mudslide, earthquake or flood.

Equally challenging is the fuller and more

effective integration of Barbados in the globalized

economy, for which a successful outcome of the next

Doha development round of talks on trade

liberalization is crucial.

Permit me to refer to an outstanding omission

from the Millennium Development Goals, that of

sexual and reproductive health and rights. Indeed, the

exclusion was so stark that the Secretary-General

himself stated:

“The Millennium Development Goals,

particularly the eradication of extreme poverty

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and hunger, cannot be achieved if questions of

population and reproductive health are not

squarely addressed. And that means stronger

efforts to promote women’s rights and greater

investment in education and health, including

reproductive health and family planning.”

We must seize the opportunity presented by this

current review of the implementation of the

Millennium Development Goals to mainstream sexual

and reproductive health and rights by adopting a

universal access target or indicator that can be used to

facilitate the monitoring of progress in this area and to

hold Governments accountable.

Barbados takes the position that women are

central to the successful implementation of the

Millennium Development Goals. After all, women of

childbearing age constitute one billion of the world’s

poorest people, and for this group sexual and

reproductive health issues are at the fore of problems

of ill health and loss of productivity. Women living in

poverty are not usually aware of their sexual and

reproductive rights and are often ignorant about the

services to which they have a right of access. Similarly,

poor women, and in particular poor young women, are

highly susceptible to contracting HIV/AIDS despite the

prevalence of preventive measures.

I feel compelled to support the call for mobilizing

new resources for improved sexual and reproductive

health services for women and for men worldwide.

Individuals, non-governmental organizations and

Governments in developing countries are already

contributing more than 75 per cent to current

expenditures in this field. It is certainly time for

developed countries to live up to the pledges they made

at the 1994 International Conference on Population and

Development.

Central to the global partnership for development,

which is embodied in the eighth Millennium

Development Goal, are the commitments by

developing countries to pursue sound macroeconomic

policies, to make the most creative use of our limited

endowments, to respect human rights and to ensure that

our material development takes place within the

context of social justice, commitments that Barbados

has proudly upheld since becoming independent in

1966.

By the same token, developed countries must

fulfil their obligations made at numerous United

Nations summits and conferences on trade, debt and

finance, and in particular their pledge to honour the

outstanding target of 0.7 per cent of gross domestic

product for official development assistance (ODA).

Increases in ODA will not be sufficient to achieve the

sustained economic growth and development that we

all seek. It will also be necessary for the international

community to address the indebtedness of poor and

middle-income developing countries; promote foreign

direct investment flows to a broader range of

developing countries; confront serious global

environmental problems such as climate change;

combat HIV/AIDS; and reform multilateral trading

arrangements as well as systemic deficiencies in the

global economic and financial system. These are the

real threats to our human security as we see it in the

Caribbean.

The Doha development round, launched by the

World Trade Organization in 2001, is so called

precisely because trade ministers deliberately sought to

place development at the centre of multilateral trade

negotiations. This decision inspired new hope in

developing countries that we would be afforded the

opportunity to participate more effectively and

beneficially in the new global economic system.

Regrettably, some of our developed country

counterparts seem to have reneged on their

commitment. We are still locked in a fierce struggle at

the World Trade Organization to persuade these

countries to rise above their narrow self-interests and

embrace positions that would allow for the creation of

a more just global economic order.

Barbados fears that we could squander yet

another opportunity genuinely to involve developing

countries in the multilateral trading system. We do not

believe that the international community can continue

to ignore this fact. Furthermore, we are far from

convinced that the High-level Plenary Meeting of last

week fully refocused global attention on matters of

development and rescued from obscurity the global

development agenda, which has unfortunately been

overtaken by a narrowly defined anti-terrorism agenda.

“It is time to put the global development agenda,

including that for the world’s smallest and most

vulnerable countries and societies, back on track”.

Those are the words of the Prime Minister of Barbados,

The Right Honourable Owen Arthur.

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Barbados considers that peace and collective

security, human rights and the rule of law represent, in

addition to development, a strong foundation on which

the United Nations can assist the international

community in building a stronger world. Issues of

terrorism, responsibility to protect, disarmament and

non-proliferation need also to be addressed.

Terrorism affects all countries, both large and

small, and all countries have an obligation to the

international community to ensure that the perpetrators

of acts of terrorism do not find safe haven and succour

within their borders. While we believe that the United

Nations should strongly and unequivocally issue a

condemnation of terrorism in all of its forms, care must

be taken to formulate an unambiguous definition that

would provide a basis for a comprehensive convention.

This would rightly place the United Nations at the very

heart of the fight against terrorism, signalling a

multilateral approach to this scourge.

Closely linked to the issue of terrorism is that of

disarmament and non-proliferation. Action taken by

the United Nations must be clear and firm, and efforts

must be redoubled to find compromises that would

facilitate progress. The Caribbean remains a major

route for international narco-traffickers and suffers

from the destabilizing effects of the parallel illegal

trade in small arms, promoted by the same

transnational criminal elements. The absence of

concerted international action against small arms

trafficking places the peace-loving societies of the

small Caribbean States at great risk. Small arms

proliferation and the violence that accompanies it

impact negatively on our development, our security

and human rights, and pose a severe threat to the

peaceful, stable and sustainable development of

Caribbean democracies.

Barbados supports the call for the negotiation of a

new international instrument on the marking and

tracing of weapons. This is an urgent priority which

will provide the international community with an

effective means of monitoring the movement and

proliferation of small arms and taking comprehensive

interdiction and enforcement action against illegal

traders.

Barbados remains resolute in its rejection of the

continued use of the Caribbean Sea for the trans-

shipment of nuclear and radioactive waste. This high-

risk practice poses grave danger to our region in the

event that there is an accident, a natural disaster or a

terrorist attack.

The Secretary-General has emphasized that if the

United Nations is to be a useful instrument for its

members and is to successfully address the challenges

facing humanity, then it must be fully adapted to the

needs and circumstances not only of today, but

tomorrow as well. Barbados shares this view. Reform

should not be seen as an end in and of itself, but as a

means towards achieving the goals we have set

ourselves in 2000 in the Millennium Declaration, to

make the United Nations a more effective instrument

for pursuing the priorities of the world’s peoples.

Reform should also seek to enhance the role of the

United Nations in global affairs to create the conditions

for more democratic and transparent decision-making

and to provide a forum for the full and equal

participation of small States.

Barbados believes that the main organs of the

United Nations should be strengthened. This will

require the revitalization of the General Assembly to

make it the chief deliberative and policy-making body

of the Organization, as envisaged by the United

Nations Charter. It will further require the reform of

the Security Council to make it more representative of

current global geopolitical realities. Small States

should be represented continuously in the membership

of the Council, and any arrangements for the selection

of the non-permanent members of a reformed Council

should be so formulated.

We are convinced that the Economic and Social

Council should play a larger role in policy-making on

international economic and social matters and the

promotion of improved global economic governance. A

restructured Economic and Social Council should find

its voice again as a vibrant forum for economic policy

dialogue, for promoting increased guidance and

coordination to the United Nations funds, programmes

and agencies and for monitoring the implementation

and follow-up of the Millennium Development Goals

and other major elements of the global development

order.

If the United Nations is to undertake fully and

effectively the demanding responsibilities with which

it has been charged, then it must be provided with the

required level of resources, and the Secretary-General

must be given appropriate managerial authority. The

Barbados delegation intends to participate actively in

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the delineation of these issues during this sixtieth

session.

As a small State, Barbados believes that a strong

multilateral system, with the United Nations at its core,

is our greatest protection from the unilateral pursuits of

the powerful. We are unwavering in our 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 this Organization. As a

member of the United Nations, Barbados must be

assured that its voice will continue to be heard

regardless of size or economic power. This is a struggle

from which we are not at liberty to abstain.