Barbados, 2012

On behalf of my

delegation, I have the honour to congratulate His

Excellency Mr. Vuk Jeremić, President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, on his election.

I assure him of the full support and cooperation of

the delegation of Barbados during his presidency. Let

me also convey my appreciation to his predecessor,

Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, President of the

General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session, for his able

leadership during that session.

The theme of this year’s session, “Bringing about

adjustment or settlement of international disputes

or situations by peaceful means”, underscores a core

principle of the Charter of the United Nations. In

the current global environment, where challenges to

international peace and security are widespread, it is

important to reaffirm the validity of that principle as

one of the cornerstones on which the Organization is

founded.

As a small island developing State, Barbados

is severely challenged by the global financial and

economic crisis and the recession that has resulted from

it. Moreover, climate change and other environmental

challenges continue to pose significant threats to the

achievements of Barbados since its independence,

in November 1966. As a relatively young nation, our

independence was achieved by negotiation rather

than by war. We have enjoyed the benefits of stability

for more than 370 years of unbroken parliamentary

Government. We are a peace-loving, democratic nation,

extremely proud of our political and economic stability.

Our relatively peaceful situation does not mean that

we are insulated or isolated from the prevailing global

instability that is very evident today. Our political

and social stability have facilitated the achievement of a standard of living that has led Barbados to be

consistently ranked among the top 50 nations in the

United Nations Development Programme’s annual

Human Development Index.

Such a status has been achieved as a result of the

commitment of successive Governments to invest

heavily in our people, particularly in education, health

and other social safety nets. As a nation poor in natural

resources, we have placed priority on our greatest

resource, our people. A significant factor in our ability

to overcome our constraints at the national level has

been the tripartite social partnership comprising

Government, workers’ unions and employers. The

partnership grew out of an economic crisis during

the early 1990s and continues to function effectively

today. Those strategies have been reinforced by our

commitment to observing the rule of law. We are a

principled country that firmly adheres to the core

values enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations,

including respect for the rule of the law, respect for

human rights and the principle of sovereign equality.

We have been classified as a middle-income

developing country. In reality, we are a small island

developing State, characterized by high debt, high

vulnerability to external shocks, and susceptibility to

the impacts of climate change and natural disasters.

The global economic and environmental situation has

had a disproportionate effect on our successful, but

nevertheless vulnerable, economy. We bear the burden

of rising food and fuel prices and a decline in foreign

investment. Our efforts to address those threats have

been severely undermined by international financial

and cooperation mechanisms that fail to take account of

the vulnerability and capacity constraints that we face

Barbados and similar vulnerable countries have been

graduated from grant and concessionary financing by

multilateral institutions, such as the Inter-American

Development Bank and the World Bank, without regard

for our unique situation. There is a clear need for greater

equity, fairness and transparency in the process used to

determine classifications and resource allocation. The

persistent use of international classification and ratings

systems that are solely based on gross domestic product

per capita and other narrow criteria must be expanded

in scope to take into account meaningful variables such

as vulnerability.

In this context, we welcome the assertion by the

Secretary-General that the use of per capita income to classify countries as a means of guiding development

cooperation disregards the nature and multidimensional

nature of development. Barbados endorses the need

for the adoption of new indices and measures of

development and applauds the ongoing work of bodies

such as the Commonwealth and the United Nations

Statistical Commission to develop new indices.

There is no greater threat to the survival, viability

and indeed the security of my country and other small

island developing States (SIDS) than the threat posed

by climate change. Science continues to warn that we

are on the threshold of irreversible and potentially

catastrophic changes to the global climate system.

Global emissions, the main cause of human-induced

climate change, are rising at their fastest rate in history,

even as we bear witness to massive and accelerating ice

loss from the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica

and a doubling of the rate of sea-level rise.

We are at a major turning point in the history

of mankind. Are we willing to sacrifice the most

vulnerable members of the international community?

That is the stark choice we face. But after the islands

disappear, who will be next? Inaction or inadequate

action is inexcusable and morally indefensible, given

the level of certainty of the scientific evidence before us

and the technological and financial tools at our disposal

to effect the necessary change.

While some useful progress was made at the

Durban Climate Change Conference in December

last year, we are not close to finding a solution to

the problem. Barbados welcomes the decision taken

in Durban to launch negotiations on a new legally

binding agreement that would take effect after 2020.

However, for us a post-2020 agreement is meaningless

if ambitious actions are not taken now to reduce

global emissions and provide finance and technology

to vulnerable developing countries. That is essential

if we are to adapt to the ever-worsening impacts of

climate change. The upcoming United Nations Climate

Change Conference in Doha must therefore prioritize

the pre-2020 actions necessary to ensure that the

world is on track in 2020 to meet the below 2 degree

or 1.5 degree globally agreed goals. Such actions will

require clarity from developed countries on the scale of

climate finance after the end of the fast-start finance

period this year and a greater sense of urgency and

ambition in reducing global emissions before 2020 to

minimize and avoid potentially catastrophic impacts of

climate change. Barbados and other small island developing States

have thrown their full support behind the Secretary-

General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. In May

this year, the Government of Barbados, in collaboration

with the United Nations Development Programme,

hosted a High-level Conference of the small island

developing States on achieving sustainable energy for

all in SIDS, focused on challenges, opportunities and

commitments. At that meeting the Barbados Declaration

was adopted, outlining an ambitious and action-oriented

agenda for achieving the goal of sustainable energy

for all in SIDS. As a concrete expression of our solid

determination, some 22 SIDS agreed to inscribe, in

an annex to the Declaration, a spectrum of ambitious

voluntary commitments to promote transformational

activities in the areas of renewable energy, energy

efficiency, energy access and low-carbon development.

I commend the Governments of Australia, Denmark,

New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom for

pledging, in the Barbados Declaration, to support SIDS

in the implementation of our ambitious commitments.

We urge other development partners to join us on

this journey to ensure our energy independence. For

us, sustainable development is not possible without

sustainable energy.

Barbados shares the view of the Secretary-General

that the United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development (Rio +20) in Brazil this year reached a

number of important milestones. In the words of the

Prime Minister of Barbados,

“Rio +20 will be remembered as that unique moment

in time when we decided not to yield to our fears,

but rather to transform this present period of global

uncertainty and volatility into a major opportunity

to set new agendas, which can then be developed

more fully over the next few years”.

Barbados welcomes the agreement at Rio to

convene the third Global Conference on SIDS in 2014,

some two decades after the convening of the first SIDS

Conference in Barbados. The international community

can be assured that Barbados will do its part to ensure

the success of the Conference.

During this session, the Assembly will consider

a draft resolution on the sustainable development of

the Caribbean Sea. Within the Caribbean we have

recognized that an integrated management approach

that involves all stakeholders provides us with the

best option for protecting the Caribbean Sea, our most effort in the Association of Caribbean States to create

the Caribbean Sea Commission. The Commission

represents an oceans governance framework to promote

cooperation towards effective management of the

Caribbean Sea area. Barbados calls on the international

community to support this initiative, including

through the designation by the General Assembly of

the Caribbean Sea as a special area in the context of

sustainable development.

Citizen security remains a major concern for

Barbados. The Caribbean Community subregion

has become a major transit and destination point

for the trafficking of illicit drugs and firearms. As a

consequence, the incidence of crime and violence

continues to escalate in the region and threatens

to reverse many of our economic and social gains.

Developing countries like ours have been compelled

to divert financial and other resources earmarked for

social and economic development for use in combating

this transnational scourge.

The heavy toll that that takes on the populations of

our region brings into sharp focus the importance of

the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent,

Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms

and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. It also emphasizes

the need for a strong, legally binding arms trade treaty,

which sets the highest possible international standards

for the transfer of conventional arms. We share the

profound disappointment of many Member States at

the failure of the Arms Trade Treaty Conference to

reach agreement on a treaty text before its conclusion.

Barbados cannot envisage an arms trade treaty that

does not include small arms and light weapons, their

components and ammunition. Barbados expects that,

despite the setback, negotiations on the arms trade

treaty will resume during this session.

At the national level, we are appreciative of

continuing cooperation with bilateral partners and

regional and international bodies like the United Nations

Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). These include

programmes aimed at preventing and reducing levels

of violence and crime in our society. We look forward

to the imminent reopening of the UNODC Office for

the Caribbean subregion, which my Government has

offered once again to host.

It is well recognized that peace, security and

development are inextricably linked and mutually reinforcing. Barbados is therefore heartened that in

dealing with conflict prevention, the United Nations

has moved beyond traditional preventive diplomacy.

We support the pursuit of comprehensive strategies

that address deep-rooted structural causes of conflict,

poverty eradication and development, human rights and

the rule of law, elections and the building of democratic

institutions.

As a family of nations, we continue to strive for

the achievement of the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs). Success has been mixed, and made

more difficult by the current global financial crisis. The

target implementation date of 2015 looms large, and

we share international concerns that the MDGs may

become casualties of the current environment. As we

articulate the post-2015 development agenda, we must

not lose sight of the urgency of fulfilling these goals.

Let me reiterate my country’s commitment to

the rule of law and our unwavering commitment to

the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United

Nations. I take this opportunity to speak out against

the continued unilateral imposition of the economic,

commercial and financial embargo against Cuba by

the United States. Barbados joins the overwhelming

majority of Member States in opposing this action,

which has persisted for too long. This situation merits

immediate resolution if the unnecessary hardship and

suffering it has wrought on the Cuban people is to

end. We therefore encourage constructive engagement

between the two sides.

Strong, functioning democracies are the foundation

on which international peace, security and prosperity

are built. As a democratic State with a longstanding and

firm commitment to effective multilateralism, Barbados

reiterates the crucial nexus between development,

peace, security and human rights. The United Nations

is the only global body with the unquestionable

legitimacy to lead a global response to the challenges

facing humanity. Recognizing this, Barbados remains

steadfast in its commitment to the United Nations and

all it stands for.