Barbados, 2007

It is my pleasure to join

with the preceding speakers in congratulating you on

your election to preside over the sixty-second session

of the United Nations General Assembly. The Barbados

delegation extends its appreciation to your predecessor,

Her Excellency Ms. Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for her

leadership of the sixty-first session and also takes the

opportunity to offer its formal welcome to Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon.

Since its independence in 1966, Barbados has

been actively participating in the formulation of

international policy on a number of issues of universal

concern and promoting the centrality of the United

Nations in the global development debate. We are

proud to have made our contribution to the critical

negotiating processes on the development agenda.

Much work, however, needs to be done.

Permit me to use this occasion to identify those

outstanding areas to which Barbados accords

outstanding importance and where we consider that

urgent results-oriented action must be taken by the

international community. I refer specifically to the

effective and comprehensive implementation of the

global partnership for development as set out in the

Millennium Declaration, the Monterrey Consensus, the

Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the Barbados

Programme of Action and the Mauritius International

Strategy; the provision of stable, predictable and

adequate financial resources for the implementation of

development commitments; the creation of a more

enabling international environment that would

facilitate the achievement of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) by a majority of

developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable

among them; the recognition by the international

community of the importance of providing continued

support for the needs of middle-income developing

countries; the implementation of existing global

agreements on climate change as well as the early

adoption of an ambitious and comprehensive post-

Kyoto agreement; the protection and sustainable

management of the Caribbean Sea; the successful

conclusion of the Doha round of trade negotiations,

with development as a central component of its

outcome; the promotion of international cooperation on

tax matters; the need for United Nations reinforcement

of its commitment to assist all Member States in their

efforts to combat the problems associated with the

trafficking in and trans-shipment of illegal drugs, as

well as the consequent increase in violent crime; and,

finally, the need for progress on Security Council

reform and for sustained emphasis on revitalizing the

Economic and Social Council.

The gap between promises and implementation

continues to frustrate our achievement of the full range

of internationally agreed development goals. The level

of international cooperation and resources committed

by development partners has been woefully inadequate.

Small island developing States, for example, have had,

to date, to assume the majority portion of the

implementation burden of the Barbados Programme of

Action and the Mauritius Strategy, despite the fact that

these goals were determined by the consensus of the

entire international community. Similarly, the needs of

middle-income developing countries were not

adequately addressed through the Monterrey

Consensus on Financing for Development, and they

continue to be deprived of the vital development

support they require to complete the transition. Next

year’s Follow-up International Conference on

Financing for Development must seek to redress this

situation.

There remain only eight years before we reach

our target date of 2015 for the achievement of the

MDGs. We must identify effective strategies to

transform Member States’ political commitment to the

MDGs into results-oriented, concrete action. We must

forge strategic partnerships, not only within and across

national borders that encompass varying levels of

development and economic prosperity, but also among

the private sector, the public sector and civil society.

It can no longer be denied that climate change is

an alarming phenomenon that requires focused

attention and urgent and decisive global action by the

international community. I warmly commend the

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his initiative to

convene the high-level event on climate change on

24 September. The presence of so large a number of

heads of State and Government at that important

session is a clear indication that the grave dimensions

of the problem have been recognized and the need for

bold political leadership fully understood.

If we continue to delay action, we will be judged

harshly, and deservedly so, for callously placing the

inheritance of future generations in greater jeopardy.

For today, we may have choices; tomorrow, they will

not.

Barbados is a small, low-lying island State,

highly dependent on its coastal and marine

environment for its economic activity. For its people,

the stakes could not be higher. Climate change not only

represents the most serious challenge to our sustainable

development, it also threatens our very survival. Prime

Minister Arthur of Barbados said at the 24 September

meeting that there exists no reason scientific nor

political for delaying an immediate response to this

global crisis.

Barbados and other members of the Caribbean

Community have taken steps, at the national and

regional levels, to develop and implement climate

change mitigation and adaptation strategies and plans,

largely from our own resources. However, the most

effective unilateral adaptation strategies will be futile

in the absence of decisive global action to reduce

harmful greenhouse gases emissions and to address

climate change in a comprehensive manner. Our

leaders have underscored the imperative of collective

action to address climate change, with the United

Nations at the centre of the search for lasting solutions

to that problem. In December, our negotiators in Bali

must seize this moment in time.

The international community has yet to complete

the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, with

an outcome that has development at its core. While

trade liberalization can assist in that process, much

more is required if sustainable economic development

is to be achieved in the developing world. We firmly

believe in a multilateral process, which will not only

cater to the aspirations of the more developed

countries, but will also address the needs of developing

countries, especially those with small, vulnerable

economies such as ours. I urge the international

community to proceed with the multilateral trade

negotiations with a view to reaching a successful and

mutually beneficial outcome.

Barbados and the other countries of the

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are neither major

suppliers of nor demand markets for illicit drugs. Yet,

because of our geographical position and external

factors that are largely beyond our control, we find

ourselves affected by the illicit trafficking in drugs,

small arms and light weapons and their constant

companion, transnational organized crime. As small

countries with limited resources and severe

vulnerabilities, we depend on international cooperation

to counter those threats. The presence of the Caribbean

Regional Office of the United Nations Office on Drugs

and Crime (UNODC) in Barbados, which served a total

of 29 States and territories and provided significant

technical assistance, was extremely important to the

Caribbean region.

We are deeply concerned about the decision taken

unilaterally in Vienna to close that Office, and we are

not at all convinced that it will make our region safer

from these very real threats. On the contrary, the

studies published earlier this year by the UNODC and

the World Bank, on drugs, crime and development in

Central America and the Caribbean, clearly

demonstrate the need for an enhanced international

effort in the region. It is our sincere hope that this

unfortunate decision will be reversed as a matter of

urgency and that the United Nations will once again

engage the Caribbean region, through the reopening of

the Regional Office in Barbados.

The issue of reform of the Security Council has

been under consideration by the General Assembly for

several years. Member States have expressed their

views, and group positions have been formulated, but

firm decisions have eluded us. It is now time for

political compromise in the negotiation of an

acceptable solution. Barbados will continue to

participate actively in this process.

Gender equity and the empowerment of women

are critical to development at both the national and

international levels. There is a need to improve the way

in which gender is treated within the context of the

United Nations. It is crucial that the proposal to

establish a new gender architecture be further

discussed at the intergovernmental level and that all

concerns be addressed and taken into consideration

before a final decision is made. Any new structure

must give due prominence not only to normative and

advocacy issues, but also to issues of development,

operational activities and adequate resources.

The deepening of the regional integration process

is critical to the ability of CARICOM countries to

respond to the challenges and opportunities presented

by changes in the global community. Having

established the Single Market in 2006, our efforts are

now focused on mechanisms to bring the Single

Economy into effect through a process of phased

implementation. The Single Economy will facilitate

further integration of our production and financial

sectors, the coordination of our economic sectoral

policies, the convergence of macroeconomic policies,

the building of a regional capital market and the

harmonization of monetary and fiscal policies.

Functional cooperation has been a central theme

of the Caribbean Community since its inception. We

believe that, as small nations with so much in common,

our best means of advancement lies in sharing our

resources, experience and expertise to address mutual

concerns. Health, education and, more recently,

security are our foremost areas of resource pooling and

research. Our region has the distinction of being one of

the first to have eradicated polio and smallpox. A

fortnight ago, the region convened its first summit to

specifically address chronic non-communicable

diseases, which have become the major causes of

morbidity and mortality.

A stable, peaceful and prosperous Haiti is

essential for the effective functioning of the Caribbean

Community to which it belongs. There is a continuing

urgent need for substantial support from the

international community to assist Haiti in consolidating

and strengthening the commendable progress that it has

made to date. A prime requirement is the further

extension by the Security Council of the mandate of

the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti to

include a focus on peacebuilding, judicial reform,

institutional support for the provision of basic services,

and border management. We must directly address the

humanitarian and socio-economic needs of Haiti if the

majority of the population is to be lifted out of poverty

and if the underlying preconditions for threats to peace

and security in the country are to be removed.

This year, many countries around the world,

including Barbados, commemorated the two-hundredth

anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave

trade. The horrors of the slave trade particularly the

notorious middle passage were of such huge scale

and intensity that it can truly be considered one of the

earliest crimes against humanity. That experience must

never be repeated.

To bring closure to the criminal activity that was

racial slavery, we also need to bring equity to the

emancipation process. Addressing the controversial

issue of reparations is essential to the attainment of

those objectives. This is not the first time that a

discussion on reparations has taken place and that

decisions have been made. During the nineteenth

century, Europeans accepted and enforced multiple

forms of reparations.

Delivering the Wilberforce Lecture in the United

Kingdom earlier this year, Prime Minister Arthur

proposed the establishment of a William Wilberforce

educational fund. Barbados encourages all those

countries that participated in and benefited from this

iniquitous practice to support that important initiative.

In so doing, they will be paying tribute to the courage

and the moral convictions of all those who campaigned

tirelessly for the end of the slave trade and of slavery,

and at the same time they will be supporting the

continuous evolutionary experiment in human relations

represented by the ethnic pluralism of Caribbean

societies.

In international affairs, a multilateral approach is

the best means for countries to fully and effectively

address the world’s most pressing problems. It is our

collective responsibility to make sure that this

Organization, the epicentre of multilateralism, is

reformed and revitalized to make it more accountable

a transparent and effective instrument in the service of

the development efforts of all its Members.

Development is the key to sustainable

international peace and security. In our quest to

guarantee the primacy of development on the global

agenda, we must make certain that the United Nations

is sufficiently well funded to meet the needs of the

poorest and most vulnerable among us, to support the

aspirations of middle-income developing countries and

to facilitate the transition to developed-country status

of those who are poised to make that transition. The

disproportionate allocation of regular budget resources

away from the development agenda must be reversed

without further delay.

There can no longer be a deficit in the world’s

development performance. We must all demonstrate the

political will necessary to ensure that. It is a task from

which we are not at liberty to abstain.