Barbados, 2024

Mr. President, Colleagues, Friends,

Those of us here today, representing our brothers and sisters

the world over, have endured four years of poly-crises. As the

children of Mother Earth, we continue to wrestle with the

Climate Crisis. As a human family, we grapple with the legacy

of the pandemic. As a digitally connected people, we are now

daily confronted by multiple theaters of war and armed

conflict. Citizens of every country struggle to contain the rising

cost of living. And we are all now threatened by the second, but

silent pandemic of Anti-Microbial Resistance together with a

growling incidence of death and disability from chronic non-

communicable diseases.

If ever there was a time to pause and reset, it is now.

Collectively, as an international community and individually, as

leaders in each of our countries, we must now deliver new

opportunities and solutions to these crises which dampen

economic growth, restrict the ambitions of our peoples and

numb our sense of the beauty and goodness the world has to

offer.

The reset for which I am calling and indeed, all our citizens are

demanding, must see an end to all forms of discrimination. That

rules and institutions today exist, which create first and second

class citizens depending on your nation of origin, militate

against trust, credibility and hope and fosters a crisis of

confidence in the existing international order which must

become inclusive and responsive for all.

Neo-colonialist structures which reflect and perpetuate an old

world order characterized by racism, classism and misogyny,

while ignoring the legitimate aspirations of billions, will not

help to foster hope or trust.

We must ensure that global institutions give developing

countries, especially small vulnerable ones like my own, seats

at the tables of decision-making where we can be seen, heard,

become active agents in our own cause and lead our own

development paradigms.

We are reminded that 2024 is the final year of the UN’s Decade

for people of African Descent. Much has been achieved, but the

“recognition, justice and development for people of African

Descent,” promised by the Decade has, to say the least, not yet

been fully realized.

It is for this reason that Barbados and the Caribbean

Community join the growing chorus for the immediate

proclamation of a second decade, to complete the unfinished

work and address the matter of reparations for slavery and

colonialism. This is a complex but necessary conversation. And

the Caribbean Community is resolute that it must happen. Its

resolution lies in a multi-generational approach in the same way

that the 20 million pounds sterling debt incurred for the

compensation of slave in the nineteenth century was only repaid

in twenty first century - almost 200 years later.

My. President,

Of necessity, the reset must be characterized by institutional

reform which has to start in this United Nations. Councils

which suggest that some are full members and others are only

part-members, part-time, or occasional members, have no place

in the twenty first century. The anger and mistrust of our

citizens in institutions, in leaders, and in multilateralism and

its processes which exclude, while yielding much talk and little

action, 1s very real.

And nowhere is reform, and consequentially, trust and hope,

more important than in relation to the global financial

architecture. Restricted access to capital, its disproportionately

high cost, it’s inadequate scale and the overwhelming burden of

debt, are now combining to force governments in the world’s

poorest countries and frankly, across many vulnerable middle

income countries, to devote more resources to debt service than

to health, education, and infrastructure combined.

For far too many members of the human family, to paraphrase

Bob Marley, “cold ground is their bed and rock is their pillow.”

Too many millions go to bed with their bellies hungry. And too

many have no bed. Our reset must therefore collectively build a

common agenda that reflects and reinforces our shared

humanity. It is that shared humanity which binds us together.

Mr. President,

Our African brothers and sisters got it right with their principle

of Ubuntu, “I am because you are; I am because we are.” My

wellbeing is tied to yours and our collective wellbeing is

connected to Mother Earth’s. This best voices the approach

needed to give expression to the reset.

There are however, glimpses of hope.

We have, for example, on Monday agreed on a Pact of the

Future. We have agreed on a Global Digital Compact. We have

agreed on a Declaration for Future Generations. All of this rests

on the Common Agenda that the Secretary General had set out.

We have also yesterday agreed in a High Level Meeting on a

political Declaration on Antimicrobial Resistance. Following on

the intervention of the Bridgetown Initiative, and the Paris Pact

for People and the efforts of many, hope is also evident in the

beginnings of reform of the international financial architecture.

These are all important steps, but we cannot take our eyes off

the prize.

Barbados’ call for a fundamental reset, includes attitudes as

much as actions or reforms.

Heads of Government are in agreement that we must trigger

national development agendas of transformation with both

speed and scale. However, a failure to act with clarity of purpose

and political will retards progress on the front of much needed

reform within International Financial Institutions if they are to

be equal to the current challenges of Member States and if we

are not to perpetuate the discriminatory practices that result in

undermining the transformational opportunities.

Friends, this, is precisely why we are launching a third iteration

of the Bridgetown Initiative, which identifies three key

principles.

First, we must change the rules of the international financial

system and reform its governance and instruments.

Secondly, we must shockproof vulnerable economies by dealing

with debt and liquidity in a comprehensive, development

focused manner.

Thirdly, we must augment financing by boosting country

capacity to invest in resilience by several means, including the

rechanneling of Special Drawing Rights through our

multilateral development partners. Indeed we must address the

challenge of how we secure the global public commons and how

we fund it. It is not only the climate crisis and loss of biodiversity

but all of the other global challenges that we face. Mr.

President, these considerations are of fundamental importance

to the sustainable existence of future generations.

My. President,

The SIDS Agenda is another story of promises made but not

kept. Thirty years ago, the international community gathered

in Barbados to take action - for the first time — on the unique

challenges faced by small island developing states (SIDS). We

birthed in my home country, the first ever global agenda for

SIDS which became known as the Barbados Programme of

Action.

I thank Mauritius for its Strategy of Implementation, Samoa for

its Pathway, as carriers of the baton of a development agenda

for small island developing states. In the intervening years, in

the face of multiple global crises from health to climate to

finance, the vulnerabilities of SIDS have become more

pronounced. In May of this year, we gathered in Antigua and

Barbuda for the fourth international conference on SIDS. I call

on the international community and multilateral system to let

us work together to ensure that the promise created in

Bridgetown in 1994, is realized through delivery on the ABAS,

the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS 2024.

Let me use this opportunity to inform that, two days ago,

Barbados took over the presidency of the Climate Vulnerable

Forum (CVF) (the V20 countries) from Ghana, whose President

we thank for the excellent stewardship of the Group over the

past two years. The priorities of my term will be the multiple

dimensions of climate change, the impact of climate change on

human health, and the issue of debt and climate. I invite all

climate vulnerable United Nations Member States, that have

not yet done so, to join the other 70 countries that are in the

CVF in order to strengthen our collective voice, enhance our

efforts at advocacy and address the climate crisis with urgency.

I commend to you the Declaration of the Leaders of the Climate

Vulnerable Forum, adopted on September 25, Wednesday of this

week.

Mr. President,

Above all else, a reset is needed to secure a global peace.

There are few areas where the world is more in need of the

United Nations and our collective action than in the areas of

peace and security.

The conflicts that have engulfed Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar,

Israel and Gaza and now Lebanon are but the tip of an iceberg

of death, violence and instability. Even the longest war in

history came to an end. These too will come to an end but the

question is at what costs and with how much loss of life.

Innocent people are paying the price with their lives.

Unless we address the root causes of these wars and the manner

in which they are sustained we will know more than we ever

needed to know of war and the rumors of war.

The transmittal of these scenes of horror in real time into

people’s bedrooms and living rooms will trigger 2 extreme

reactions, neither of which are acceptable - the desensitizing of

ordinary people to the loss of lives, especially of innocent

children and women on the one hand and the anger and

inclination for vengeance that it spawns. We need peace. We

must work for peace.

In the midst of this maelstrom, Barbados took the step this year,

of recognizing and establishing diplomatic relations with the

State of Palestine. We did this because it is clear to us that the

State and people of Palestine are entitled to full recognition by,

integration into, and support from the _ international

community. We join with others in congratulating the State of

Palestine on taking a seat among UN member states on September 10, 2024.

We condemn the actions of Hamas. We also strongly deplore the

humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza which is the result of the

disproportionate use of force by Israel. There is no justification

for it. That is why treaties exist governing the rules of

engagement for war.

A two-state solution, no matter how elusive it may appear to be

now, is the only answer.

We insist that the killing in Ukraine must stop. The people of

the Ukraine must be allowed to live within the internationally

recognized boundaries of their state, in peace and free from the

threat or use of force.

There must be a singular commitment to building the peace.

Mr. President,

My own region has not escaped the scourge of instability and

violence. The Americas do not constitute a theater of war, but

we are today witnessing an unprecedented escalation in the

number and caliber of assault weapons which are finding

themselves in the hands of criminals who are wreaking havoc

on the legal systems and societies of the small island states of

the Caribbean and the countries of Central and Latin America.

This scourge, caused by guns manufactured in the United

States, also requires a fundamental reset. The right of persons

to bear arms in countries not engaged in military conflict should

not be an opening to accept assault weapons.

The fate of the people of Haiti continues to be at the center of

the concerns of the Caribbean region.

The global community now has an opportunity for an esssential

reset with how it addresses its relationship with Haiti and

support a transformational change in that sister Caribbean

nation, by providing the people and government of Haiti with

the full support of the international community in the short and

long term.

That starts by extending the mandate of the Multinational

Security Support force, escalating the work of the UN, and

deploying all the tools of bilateral, regional and global

cooperation, including by meeting, and then significantly

increasing, the pledged funds to assist with the stabilization and

restoration of Haiti.

The Caribbean Community has been working hard to support

our largest member state; including through the efforts of the

Eminent Persons Group of former CARICOM Prime Ministers

which has been deeply involved in the search for political

consensus in Haiti.

Please let me pause to salute the remarkable leadership of

Kenya. After many delays, and in what represents a historical

precedent, an African country has taken the lead in helping to

tackle a peace and security challenge beyond its own continent.

Mr President,

I must also observe that the continued embargo on Cuba, and

the unjust designation of that country as a State sponsor of

terrorism, flies in the face of everything we know about Cuba.

Around the world and especially in the Caribbean, including in

Barbados, Cuba has been a valuable partner across a range of

areas of common interest, none more so than in the field of

public health. It is time to lift the cruel and unjust embargo,

condemned every year by this very Assembly. We pray that the

people of Cuba and the people of Florida will recover from the

devastation of Hurricane Helene as we have held the people of

Nigeria in our prayers after the deadly floods. We have had to

work assiduously with our own people in Grenada and Cariacou

and Petit St Vincent, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica

and my own country.

The Season of Superlatives with its floods and droughts, its

hurricanes and fires will take the lives and livelihoods of so

many. The Climate Crisis is hitting us almost weekly across the

globe. The deniers need a reset - a reset that will admit of the

absolute necessity of collective action from us all to save our way

of life and our planet.

My. President,

At the start of this week the skies were dark. They no longer

are.

We leave New York, noting that the clouds are lifting, conscious

that the sun is peeping through, filling us with a sense of

renewed hope that a reset is not only possible but necessary.

That hope springs from the Pact for the Future and the many

declarations that we have made, the terms in which my fellow

leaders spoke, in essence capturing the concept of reset, even if

they did not so call it.

It is as if we all truly understand and accept the challenge of

rising to solve the major difficulties and redress the wrongs that

have plagued our generation and our planet.

Recognition of the need for the reset is the first step; eternal

vigilance must be a companion as we take the steps to to

transform our attitudes, our institutions, our rules to be fit for

purpose to the needs of our people and countries in this the 3rd

decade of the 21st century.

My. President,

I can think of no better way to conclude than with a song by

Barbadian calypsonian, Edwin Yearwood, which I find truly

appropriate:

“A voice in my head keep talk to me

It tells me the road 1s long

It tells me we must be strong

Roll with the pain and strife

Today is the start of the rest of your life.”

May the new hope fostered here this week, signal the start of a

New Deal for the people and countries of the world whose voices

and presence have been recognized too often as mere statistics

and not with the human dignity that is their birth right and

their conferred right from these United Nations.

Mr. President, I thank you.