Barbados, 2011

I am pleased to convey

my greetings to the President and to offer him the

congratulations of my Government and the delegation

of Barbados on his election as President of the General

Assembly at this sixty-sixth session. Those of us who

are familiar with the very high standards to which he

routinely subscribes confidently expect him to steer the

deliberations of this session with his accustomed calm

and skill. It is appropriate that I also commend his

predecessor in office, Mr. Joseph Deiss, for the aplomb

with which he guided the deliberations of the sixty-

fifth session of this Assembly.

I am also pleased to congratulate Mr. Ban

Ki-moon on his reappointment as Secretary-General. I

acknowledge the sterling work that he has done over

the past five years, and wish him a successful second

term.

I am especially delighted to extend

congratulations to the Government and people of the

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Republic of South Sudan on their achievement of

independence. On behalf of the Government and

people of Barbados, I reiterate our support and

solidarity on South Sudan’s admission to the United

Nations as its 193rd Member.

It is with genuine pleasure that I address the

Assembly today in my capacity as Prime Minister of

Barbados. The untimely death 11 months ago of my

predecessor in office placed on my shoulders the

primary responsibility of pursuing the ideals to which

Barbados is committed both at home and abroad.

Some 45 years ago, our first Prime Minister, in

his maiden address to this Assembly, articulated our

position in the following terms:

“The people of Barbados do not draw a dividing

line between their internal affairs and their

foreign policy. They strive in their domestic

arrangements to create a just society for

themselves. In their Constitution they affirm

respect for the rule of law; they also declare their

intention to establish and maintain the kind of

society which enables each citizen, to the full

extent of his capacity, to play his part in national

life … In thus charting our domestic course, we

can have no interest in a foreign policy that

contradicts our national goals … [W]e are

exponents, not of the diplomacy of power, but of

the diplomacy of peace and prosperity.”

(A/PV.1487, paras. 75-78)

Much, of course, has changed since then. The

world we know today is vastly different from the world

of 1966, yet we continue to keep faith with the vision

of the father of our independence. My task in

addressing the General Assembly on matters of foreign

policy is therefore, paradoxically, at once easy and

difficult. It is easy because we still adhere to our

foundational principles; it is difficult because we now

have to apply them in a world that has grown much

more complex, much more volatile and much more

dangerous.

If we need further proof that we live in an

interconnected world, the present economic downturn

provides a painful reminder. When large economies

such as those of the United States and Europe are

reeling, one may well imagine the toll that the worst

crisis since the Great Depression is taking on small

vulnerable societies like those that populate the

Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

We in Barbados have chosen to withstand the

economic storms that assail us by relying on the good

judgment of our people to come together in times of

peril. My Government has partnered with the business

community and the trade union movement to ensure

that layoffs and wage demands alike are kept to an

absolute minimum so that the gain and the pain are

shared equitably. We are committed to protecting the

most vulnerable among us because it is our settled

conviction that a nation is more than just an economy;

it is also a society.

The cruel irony of the current downturn is that it

might have been avoided if corporations had restrained

their greed and Government oversight and regulation at

the international, regional and national levels had been

more vigorous and rigorous. This highlights the urgent

need for a new architecture of global finance that will

render unlikely the prospect of our lurching from one

crisis to another, and lay the groundwork for a smooth

and balanced economic recovery that avoids the

massive social dislocations we are now witnessing.

Recovery that comes at the expense of the poorest and

most vulnerable in our societies is not only

unenlightened economics, but also very dangerous

politics.

We in Barbados have welcomed the rise of the

global economy in the past two decades, since it has

the potential for creating prosperity for all nations. But

it will realize its potential only if the increasingly

volatile flows of international capital are governed by

fair and transparent rules. In laying down an orderly

framework for global financial and economic

transactions, we urge that the international community

apply the principle enunciated by Aristotle upwards of

2,000 years ago that there should be equality between

equals and proportionality between unequals.

Barbados believes that the path to prosperity lies

in open economies, open societies and open

Governments, and is constantly positioning itself to

compete as a fully compliant, transparent, rules-

governed global entrepreneurial and financial centre.

Yet, to our dismay, we find that the rich and

powerful keep changing the rules to their advantage

and to our disadvantage. It is a violation both of fair

play and of common sense to move the goalposts while

the game is in progress. Let it be clearly understood

that, on this issue, it is not charity we seek; it is justice

we demand.

45 11-51360

However, none of the nations represented in this

Assembly will enjoy sustainable prosperity if we

continue to abuse the environment which we hold in

sacred trust for future generations. It is an inconvenient

truth that the success of humankind’s development

goals will depend on the ability of our planet to sustain

our consumption and production activities. We must be

cautious, therefore, about how we use fossil fuels,

about carbon emission levels and about the unregulated

treatment of waste. The planet has now begun to

protest through dramatic changes in climate and the

prospect of sea-level rise. The very existence of small

island States like those in the Caribbean and the Pacific

could be imperilled if current trends are not halted or

reversed.

Barbados has been an active participant in the

environmental movement since the 1992 United

Nations Conference on Environment and Development

in Rio. We are proud to have hosted the first Global

Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small

Island States in 1994 and continue to work with other

small island developing States to update and improve

the Barbados Programme of Action and the Mauritius

Strategy for its further implementation. We continue to

work also towards the success of the 2012 United

Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

I am deeply honoured to have been asked to serve

on the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global

Sustainability. That our task is challenging no one will

deny, required as we are to formulate a blueprint for

economic growth and prosperity that focuses on the

eradication of poverty, while ensuring greater equality

and inclusion and reducing the devastating impact of

human activities on ecosystems and the environment.

The work of the Panel is progressing smoothly, and I

assure the Assembly that my colleagues and I have

readily accepted the challenge.

Without peace and security, it is difficult to create

and maintain the social conditions that constitute a

prerequisite for economic progress and prosperity. The

protracted conflict in the Middle East between Israel

and the Palestinians has become a disturbing anomaly

in a world where so many other disputes have been

peacefully resolved. It is an anomaly because everyone

knows what the solution is. It is disturbing because the

only thing preventing a resolution of the issue is an

unhappy convergence of dysfunctional political

currents at the domestic level.

The State of Israel has a right to exist, and the

people of Israel have a right to live in security and to

do so with the full and undisputed recognition of the

rest of the world. On the other hand, the Palestinians

are entitled also to enjoy the fruits of prosperity within

their own sovereign State. Much else in this conflict

may be negotiable. Surely, those two postulates are not.

The Holy Land has for centuries been the locus of

humanity’s hopes. It is high time that it now become a

symbol, not of humanity’s divisions, but of humanity’s

unity. This state of affairs will ensue only when the

disgracefully long wait of the Palestinians for a

homeland is brought to an end.

In a similar vein, the Government and the people

of Barbados fully embrace Cuba as an important

partner in the Caribbean region and, since 1972, have

committed themselves to a policy of constructive

engagement with its Government and people. Barbados

respects the sovereign rights of Cuba and supports

unequivocally its full integration into our hemisphere.

Barbados does not believe that actions such as the

decades-long economic embargo aimed at isolating

Cuba, or any other measures that create greater

hardship for the Cuban people, will facilitate the full

integration which we consider to be both desirable and

necessary. My delegation thinks, therefore, that the

economic embargo against Cuba has long outlived its

usefulness and should be lifted.

Barbados remains committed also to supporting

the development and the advancement of the people of

Haiti. For my delegation, the reconstruction of Haiti,

including the rebuilding of its democratic institutions,

continues to be a high priority. We fully support the

call made in July by the Heads of State and

Government of the Caribbean Community for the

international community to fulfil its pledges to finance

the reconstruction of Haiti following the devastation of

the earthquake that occurred in January 2010.

Terrorism, whether emanating from States or

from non-State actors, is an attack on what we have

always known to be the core values of the

Organization. I speak of the rule of law; the protection

of civilians; mutual respect between people of different

faiths and cultures; and the peaceful resolution of

conflict.

It is the view of my delegation that the United

Nations must be the foremost form of collective

security against terrorism, convinced as we are that

11-51360 46

while terrorism may arise out of conditions of

insecurity and deprivation, it should never be accepted

or justified in the pursuit of any cause whatsoever.

Barbados therefore continues to be an active and

committed partner in global efforts to combat terrorism

and other transnational criminal activities. We have

experienced first-hand the deleterious effects on our

societies of the illicit trade in small arms and light

weapons. At their Summit in July 2011, CARICOM

Heads of Government committed themselves to accord

the highest national and regional priority to combating

and eradicating the illicit trade in small arms and light

weapons and their ammunition.

We have a vested interest, therefore, in the

success of the United Nations Conference on the Arms

Trade Treaty, to be held in 2012. We will continue to

work with other Member States to achieve the ultimate

objective of a legally binding, robust and

comprehensive Arms Trade Treaty which imposes the

highest possible standards for the transfer of

conventional arms, including small arms, light

weapons and ammunition.

Much has changed since the formation of the

United Nations in 1945. Some of the global challenges

we face today, such as the pandemics of HIV/AIDS and

non-communicable diseases, climate change, the

growth of the illicit drug trade, transnational crime and

the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, are

new. Others, including extreme poverty, genocide,

terrorism and civil conflict, are old. Yet the need for

the United Nations remains as pressing today as it was

at the time of its formation. While the United Nations

is an organization of sovereign States, it exists to serve

the needs of all the peoples of the world.

We need to be constantly reminded, therefore,

that even if he can vote to choose his Government, a

young man living with AIDS who faces daily

discrimination is not truly free. Even if she earns a

comfortable living, a woman who lives in fear of daily

violence and has no say in how her country is run is

not truly free. Even if he enjoys freedom of speech and

assembly, a young man dying of hunger is not truly

free. Freedom to live in dignity, freedom from fear and

freedom from want are inextricably connected. Indeed,

all people, wherever they can be found, have the right

to security and to development.

As Member States, we must recommit ourselves,

therefore, to realizing the ideals of the Organization,

bearing in mind that commitment to the pragmatic and

the possible must sometimes be our steppingstone to

the realization of the ideal. That approach, Barbados is

convinced, is an infallible way of giving effect to the

determination of the founders of the United Nations “to

save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”

and “to promote social progress and better standards of

life in larger freedom”.