Barbados, 2008

It is with great

pleasure that I associate the delegation of Barbados

with previous speakers who have congratulated the

President on his election to the presidency of the

General Assembly at its sixty-third session. We are

particularly proud to see a fellow member of the Latin

American and Caribbean group assume that high

office, and I pledge to him the full support of the

Barbadian delegation as he carries out his most

important mandate. We wish also to commend his

predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Kerim, for leading the

Assembly over the past year through complex

discussions on a range of global challenges.

I also extend the good wishes of the Barbadian

Government to the Secretary-General. We offer him

our continued support as he leads the United Nations at

this critical juncture in world affairs and seeks to

identify meaningful pathways to progress for Member

States with differing interests and national priorities.

On 15 January 2008, the citizens of Barbados, in

exercise of their democratic right, which they hold

sacred, voted in general elections to bring into office

the Government of the Democratic Labour Party, which

I have the honour to lead. It is a tribute to the good

sense of the Barbadian people and to the maturity of

our democracy that in our country free and fair

elections take place every five years and that the

transition to a new Administration is seamless, orderly

and peaceful. That exemplary process affords me the

opportunity to address the Assembly for the first time

today as Prime Minister of Barbados. I am humbled by

the confidence the Barbadian people have shown in me

and am conscious of the responsibility that now falls

upon my Government to respond to the overwhelming

call for change that brought us to office.

Barbados is a stable, progressive small State

whose high human development rating can be

attributed to the emphasis successive generations have

placed on the development of social capital. Our

country is not endowed with abundant natural

resources, and it is therefore our human resources that

are our greatest asset.

Within our well-developed social democratic

system, the new Barbadian Government will place the

greatest priority on policies that nurture the talents and

enterprise of individuals and continue to assure our

people universal access to quality education, health

care, adequate housing and decent working conditions,

all within an environment of respect for human rights

and the rule of law.

We are well aware that we are now called upon to

do that in a time of unprecedented global, economic

and social volatility, which is shaking the foundations

of societies far larger and more powerful than our own.

In these circumstances, my Government’s immediate

focus must be on policies that seek to address the high

cost of living, which is driven largely by high energy

and food prices, to reduce the levels of domestic and

international debt and to stabilize the national economy

while keeping it competitive. Barbadians are a resilient

and resourceful people. We have weathered

international storms before, and with strong and

competent leadership we will do so again.

In international affairs, Barbados cherishes the

reputation it holds as a successful small State whose

positions are based on principle and whose actions

reflect a profound respect for democratic values. In its

engagement with the rest of the world, the

Government, which I have the honour to lead, pledges

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to uphold and carry forward the proud traditions of the

father of our independence and national hero, the Right

Excellent Errol Barrow.

His address to this Assembly as we joined the

ranks of sovereign States remains as relevant today as

it was when it was first delivered 42 years ago. His

clear definition of the parameters of Barbados’ foreign

policy is the creed by which our Government and

people continue to live. It is perhaps appropriate if I

quote his words directly,

“We will support genuine efforts at world peace,

because our society is stable. We will strenuously

assist in the uprooting of vestigial imperialism,

because our institutions are free. We will press

for the rapid economic growth of all

underdeveloped countries, because we are busily

engaged in building up our own.

“We have no quarrels to pursue and we

particularly insist that we do not regard any

Member State as our natural opponent. We shall

not involve ourselves in sterile ideological

wranglings because we are exponents, not of the

diplomacy of power, but of the diplomacy of

peace and prosperity. We will not regard any

great Power as necessarily right in a given

dispute unless we are convinced of this, yet at the

same time we will not view the great Powers with

perennial suspicion merely on account of their

size, their wealth, or their nuclear potential. We

will be friends of all, satellites of none.”

(A/PV.1487, paras. 76 and 78)

The position of the new Government of Barbados

will be guided by that enduring philosophy. Because

we are a small island, we will champion the issues of

greatest concern to small island developing States. We

will argue for the need for special recognition of their

inherent vulnerabilities and for sensitive responses to

the critical challenges, such as climate change and

susceptibility to natural disasters, which constrain their

sustainable development.

Because a one-size-fits-all mentality threatens to

further marginalize us in the new international trading

arrangements, we will continue to show leadership

within the group of small vulnerable economies in

advocacy efforts to create a regime of special and

differential treatment to cater to our unique

circumstances.

Because we are a middle-income developing

country deemed too successful to qualify for

concessionary financing but too high-risk for

favourable terms on the capital markets, we will join

with like-minded colleagues to lobby for adequate

support mechanisms to ensure that our development

process is not derailed. Because we are a Caribbean

country, we will partner with our fellow Caribbean

States to protect our shared patrimony — the

Caribbean Sea — from over-exploitation and

environmental degradation and to secure our borders

from the threats of drug and arms trafficking, money-

laundering and terrorism. We are fervent advocates of

the notion of the Caribbean as a zone of peace, and we

view with great concern any action, from whatever

quarter, that seeks to reintroduce the anachronism of

cold-war rivalry into our peaceful regional community

of nations.

Finally, because we are a responsible member of

the international community, and because we believe in

the positive role that small States can play in advancing

the cause of international peace and equitable social

and economic development, we rededicate ourselves to

the building of an international system that operates on

the principle of multilateralism and that respects the

sovereign equality of States and the tenets of genuine

non-alignment.

Whatever semantics are used, there is little doubt

that we have entered an international economic crisis

of grave proportions which threatens to derail the

progress of many States and to worsen the already

desperate circumstances of the most vulnerable among

us. The volatility of oil prices makes managing the

economic affairs of our countries a daily challenge, and

the escalating cost of basic foods has had immense

political and social consequences throughout the world.

The signals could not be clearer. Investment in

renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar,

geothermal and biofuels is imperative. National efforts

will certainly not be sufficient, and we will therefore

need to forge global partnerships, with increased

investment in research and development and

meaningful incentives to reverse our excessive

dependence on fossil fuels.

The issue of food security is now at the centre of

our national and international policy agenda. The

measures proposed by United Nations agencies and

those agreed upon at the High-level Conference on

World Food Security, held in Rome, must now find

21 08-52265

expression in specific programmes and projects. In

addition to immediate humanitarian relief for the most

severely affected countries, policies must be put in

place urgently to boost production and productivity in

agriculture and to correct distortions of the market that

jeopardize the global supply of food. Crisis situations

are often catalysts for creative national action. But the

enormity of the current crisis means that for many

developing countries national action will have a limited

impact unless it is accompanied by a supportive

framework of international cooperation and the

honouring by the donor community of past

commitments for increased resources for development.

A successful outcome to November’s Doha Review

Conference on Financing for Development must

include a genuine global partnership to provide the

required financial resources for the achievement of

internationally agreed development goals, including

the Millennium Development Goals.

The availability of additional financial resources

is not, however, the only requirement. Meaningful

changes must also be made that will allow for a greater

voice, representation and effective participation of

developing countries in international decision-making

within the international financial institutions. The

causes of the present global financial crisis are firmly

rooted in the failure of the international community to

reform an undemocratic and antiquated system of

international economic governance that has not kept

pace with the rapid growth of global interdependence.

Barbados believes that those responsible for the crisis,

and who also created, controlled and manipulated the

global financial system for their own advantage, cannot

now be trusted to heal it. Developing countries must

demonstrate leadership in the search for a lasting

solution to the global financial crisis and insist that any

exercise to institute reforms must strictly adhere to the

principles of openness, transparency and inclusiveness,

with the United Nations taking the lead.

The Economic and Social Council must be

empowered to play a more meaningful role in global

economic decision-making, consistent with the

mandate entrusted to it by the United Nations Charter.

Even with the recent strengthening of the Council, its

current responsibilities fall short of the role envisaged

for it by the founders of this Organization. As a

member of the Economic and Social Council, Barbados

is ready to work with other member States to end the

marginalization of the Council from the global economic

policy-setting and decision-making processes.

The Economic and Social Council is by no means

the only principal organ of the United Nations that is in

urgent need of reform. The Security Council as it exists

is not representative of the current realities and

dynamics of international politics and must be

reformed to reflect the situation today. We join those

who have called for the start of intergovernmental

negotiations on Security Council reform during the

sixty-third session.

As Prime Minister of a small island developing

State in a region at the epicentre of the global climate

crisis, it is my hope that the current international

efforts within the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to respond

to the scientific evidence on climate change prioritize

the concerns and needs of these vulnerable developing

countries, which are already being affected by the

dangerous impacts of climate change. Failure to take

urgent, ambitious and decisive action would be nothing

short of reckless indifference.

In the wake of the destruction and devastation of

the 2008 hurricane season, we in the Caribbean are

acutely aware of the precarious nature of our very

survival, as well as the urgency attached to action to

mitigate the causes of climate change. At the

Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009 we

must deliver an agreement that is comprehensive,

ambitious and inclusive, which adopts a package of

mitigation-related activities that will ensure that long-

term temperature increases are stabilized well below

2 Celsius degrees above pre-industrial levels, and also

provides small island developing States and other

vulnerable developing countries with new, additional,

predictable and easily accessible sources of funding for

adaptation. Time is not on our side.

During the sixty-third session the Assembly will

consider a draft resolution entitled “Towards the

sustainable development of the Caribbean Sea for

present and future generations”, which will again seek

to gain international support for the initiative of States

members of the Association of Caribbean States to

have the Caribbean Sea recognized as a special area

within the context of sustainable development. Since

the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution

61/197 two years ago, the States members of the

Association of Caribbean States have made significant

08-52265 22

strides in developing the institutional and legal

framework for Caribbean Sea governance and have

collaborated with various civil society stakeholders on

measures to ensure sustainable management and

conservation of our most precious natural resource. We

look forward to continued assistance from the

international community in helping us to achieve the

objectives of that initiative.

The Government of Barbados looks forward to

maintaining the excellent relations that we have

enjoyed over these many years with the United

Nations. We pledge to continue to uphold the principles

of its Charter and will do everything to assist in

maintaining an international system and community in

which all nations can make their own contribution to

the betterment of mankind.