Federated States of Micronesia, 1993

On

behalf of the Federated States of Micronesia, I am honoured

this morning to address the General Assembly at its forty-

eighth session, and I bring the warm greetings of our

President and our people.

Given the many challenges facing the Organization and

the entire world in the coming year, we are pleased by your

election, Mr. President. You have our confidence and

support as you assume this high office, so ably discharged

by your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Stoyan Ganev, who

enjoyed our respect and gratitude.

Special recognition must also be given to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, under whose

leadership the United Nations has taken difficult steps in a

process of redefinition and reorganization, which is

necessary if we are to take advantage of the opportunities

presented by the new world order and work together in the

interests of all mankind.

During the past year we have seen the membership of

the United Nations draw ever closer to the goal of

universality. We thus congratulate the Czech Republic, the

Slovak Republic, The Former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia, Eritrea, Monaco and Andorra, and to each of

them we extend a welcome and pledge cooperation and

friendship.

Our people are deeply saddened by the loss of life and

the suffering caused by the earthquake in India last month,

and we express to the Indian people our sincere sympathy

and pledge to them that we will participate in any effort

undertaken by this Organization.

Not many years ago, the appropriate role of the

"micro-States" within the world community was to be seen

but seldom heard, and even to be excluded from many

forums. In our own small island developing State, we, as

the body politic of a classic "micro-State", hesitated to assert

our views on international affairs, thinking that a small

nation could not make a difference in or have an impact

upon the resolution of global issues.

Today I draw attention to a significant but less

noticeable feature of the new order. Throughout history,

international relations have been conducted on a competitive

basis, where power and size made a difference. But I am

happy to note that things have changed for the better, that a

change has begun to take place; and I think it is one that has

gathered increased momentum even within the past few

years. Nations large and small, in the process of working

together under the Charter, have begun to focus their

attention and direct their efforts along the lines of

commonality of interests and problems - and not merely to

pay lip-service. Indeed there is a growing, genuine

phenomenon, which is seen partly in the unfolding of events

in New York, but even more clearly in the impressive

outcomes of the Rio Conference on Environment and

Development and the recent World Conference on Human

Rights. Another sign is the entire world community’s keen

anticipation of the upcoming Conference on Population and

Development and the World Summit for Social

Development.

I do not mean to suggest a disappearance of national

interests; but, across a wide spectrum of social, development

and even security matters, there is a growing recognition that

common interests give strength to new alliances on an

inclusive rather than exclusive basis. Thus, there is good

reason for continued progress towards self-determination

among peoples, since they can now be confident that they

will not be alone in addressing the great difficulties of

starting out. For similar reasons, many of the "micro-States"

have concluded recently that membership in this

Organization is imperative, despite the burdens and

responsibilities involved.

As this session of the General Assembly proceeds, we

are becoming aware of the changes in the Organization in

terms of organization, administration and policy. There may

be some who doubt that Members have the will or

commitment to achieve consensus on these changes and to

re-establish the proper financial basis for a United Nations

that can be responsive to the present. I submit, however,

that any such doubts must be dispelled during our work here

in the coming months, for we simply cannot afford to fail.

The United Nations is no longer an optional feature of the

international community. The common concerns of mankind

in the great issues to which I alluded earlier cannot be

addressed from behind national fences. And so, I appeal to

all Members to commit themselves fully to reaching at this

session the goal of preparing the United Nations to become

the central instrument through which we can work to secure

the future well-being of our peoples.

I believe that the direct experience of my country

within our brief time as a Member provides unmistakable

evidence of the strength of concerted, international action.

Only a few years ago, having emerged from colonialism, our

best hopes for development lay in dependence for an

indefinite period on the generosity of a few friends, chief

among them the United States. Moreover, as inhabitants of

small, low-lying islands, we were helpless in the face of the

looming threat of sea-level rise and other natural disasters

caused by human-induced climate change.

Today, through the work of this body and with our

participation, the special development needs and

environmental concerns of all small island developing States

are being carefully addressed in a number of settings,

including the Conventions on climate change and

biodiversity and the follow-up activities of the United

Nations Conference on Environment and Development

(UNCED). The early work of the Commission on

Sustainable Development promises attention to our problems,

as can be seen in the upcoming first Global Conference on

the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing

States.

All this is not happening because of an outburst of

charitable sympathy by the developed countries, but rather

in the context of addressing a complex of issues in which

peoples everywhere have a stake. Herein, I think, lies the

real strength and value of the United Nations - to us and to

all.

During the past year, my Government has found

encouragement in the ways in which this Organization as a

whole recognizes the difficulties that small States encounter

as they try to participate fully in its work. We deeply

appreciate the opportunities afforded to us through the

contribution of Members to voluntary funds that have

enabled our participation in important functions. We also

acknowledge the instances where calls by small States for

the holding of meetings here in New York to make our

presence possible have been heard. Furthermore, we

appreciate that, whenever possible, special measures for our

benefit - such as limiting the number of simultaneous

meetings - are being taken.

For our part, small States are now more often coming

together on common issues to speak with one voice for

greater effectiveness and efficiency. Here, I cite the

Alliance of Small Island States as a successful example on

the issue of climate change and other UNCED-related

matters. In a more general sense, the regional groups

operate to the benefit of small States, affording us

opportunities of access to elected positions by virtue of

allocations and the principle of rotation. I am sure there are

other factors favourable to us that I have failed to mention

here.

Yet, even with all this, I must state that we are very

hard pressed to participate in the broad range of United

Nations activities, both financially and owing to the sheer

volume and complexity of those activities. For this reason,

and because so many other Members are in similar

situations, I propose that the United Nations, as part of its

reorganization efforts, undertake a comprehensive

examination of the obstacles that exist to the full

participation of small States with a view towards identifying

institutional rather than ad hoc solutions. After all,

achieving universality in the United Nations would be a

hollow accomplishment so long as a significant number of

Forty-eighth session - 13 October l993 3

Members remain incapable of reaching their effective

potential within the Organization. We look forward to

addressing this issue during the course of the forty-eighth

session of the General Assembly.

My country is a member of the South Pacific Forum,

an organization of Governments of Pacific island countries

which, each year prior to this date, meets to address matters

of concern to our region and to provide an expression of our

joint views on many issues before this body. I wish to state

our complete solidarity with that expression, contained in the

communiqué from our recent meeting in the Republic of

Nauru, which will be presented for incorporation in the

records of this Assembly.

The Forum members have been outspoken in opposing

the testing of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass

destruction. Our optimism ran very high at the Nauru

meeting because it seemed that at last the nuclear Powers

had found the resolve to bring this dangerous chapter of

history to an end. Now, with reports of a recent test by one

of them, the Federated States of Micronesia is deeply

concerned that the great progress made towards achieving a

comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty will be reversed. We

call on all nuclear Powers not to treat this recent aberration

as an incentive to turn backwards, but rather to restore and

hold to their collective discipline.

The issue of fundamental human rights is interwoven

into every aspect of the activities undertaken by this body.

For too long many Governments have been content to avoid

confronting it directly as a matter of multilateral

responsibility. I am glad to say that we sense some

improvement in the situation despite continuing occurrences

of the most repugnant kinds of human rights violations.

In this decade, we have witnessed unprecedented

changes in world conditions, brought about in part by a

growing unanimity of resolve among peoples to express and

exercise their fundamental human rights. Recently,

prominent States have been dismantled, leading to the

formation of other States that afford broader opportunities

for the expression of these rights. Sadly, at the same time,

other States continue to go to great lengths to suppress them.

The world finds itself rejoicing in newly established

freedoms but also feeling deep revulsion over atrocities and

repression of shocking magnitude. If any lesson emerges

from this dichotomy, it must be that isolated progress is not

enough and that fundamental human rights issues can no

longer be relegated to the background in a set of supposedly

higher multilateral priorities. Rather, human rights must be

the cornerstone of our work, which must be guided by the

principles of the United Nations Charter and the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights.

Accordingly, my Government expresses its support for

the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action agreed

upon at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna

in June this year. We support the adoption of that

Declaration by the General Assembly at its forty-eighth

session.

In keeping with the principles of that Declaration, I

wish to affirm my Government’s strong and unconditional

support for the universality of human rights and for the

effective multilateral instruments that give meaning and

definition to the concept.

As an early priority, our new nation has undertaken a

close examination of the existing instruments with a view to

freely assuming obligations under them, as is consistent with

our Constitution. As a first step, we have acceded to the

Convention on the Rights of the Child, and we anticipate

further action on other instruments as well.

One of the very important concerns that is interlinked

with all our Government’s hopes for a better future is the

rights of women. We fully support the development of

effective new instruments in the cause of women’s rights in

order to secure their protection against discrimination and

abuse.

As a nation comprised entirely of indigenous peoples,

my Government also expresses its solidarity with all

indigenous peoples of the world and particularly those

subjected to deprivation of their fundamental human rights

within their own homelands.

In this the International Decade for the Eradication of

Colonialism it is important that this body redouble its efforts

to ensure that the peoples of the remaining Non-Self-

Governing Territories are given every opportunity to exercise

their right to self-determination and self-government. While

the obstacles to self-determination for the remaining

Territories are minor compared to those that are being

confronted so dramatically in Eastern Europe and in

Palestine, it remains our moral responsibility to support the

right to self-determination for all peoples under colonial

administration.

Today, the enlarged membership of the United Nations

is in itself strong testimony to the success of decolonization;

let us hark back to our own earlier struggles and recommit

ourselves to the complete elimination of colonialism.

4 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

My Government welcomes the establishment of the

International Tribunal, and the recent election of its

members, to try perpetrators of war crimes in the former

Republic of Yugoslavia. Still, we would support the

establishment of a permanent international human rights

tribunal. The independent, juridical composition of any such

body should place it above concerns regarding political

intervention while denying human rights violators any refuge

from defined international responsibility.

The Government of the Federated States of Micronesia

attaches great importance to the issue of fundamental human

rights, and will continue to participate in the work of this

body towards a world community in which all peoples live

without threat of encroachment upon these fundamental

rights.

It has been well established by actions of this body that

the right to development is itself a fundamental human right.

But to recognize a right is one thing: to secure the exercise

of that right is much more difficult. A great deal is said and

done here at the United Nations every year to address the

needs of developing countries and peoples, not to mention

the considerable resources that are mobilized bilaterally

towards that end. Yet we continue to see wide variations in

the degree of effectiveness of that assistance and in the

results of efforts by developing countries themselves.

This has led an increasing number of us to question

whether there might not exist a number of identifiable

factors that prevent development efforts from achieving

success. If those factors could be defined with precision and

recognized where they are present, it might well be possible

to attain significant increases in economies and outcomes.

On Papua New Guinea’s welcome suggestion, and with its

welcome leadership - and after considerable discussion and

extensive exchanges of views between eminent leaders in the

developing world - this matter has been placed before the

Assembly as agenda item 151, entitled "United Nations

initiative on opportunity and participation". We shall join

others in sponsoring a draft resolution to be presented under

this item and calling for a comprehensive, systematic and

thorough study of the encumbrances to full opportunity and

participation in development, with particular reference to the

economies of developing countries. If properly supported

and carried out, this initiative would make possible

significant breakthroughs in the effort to secure this

important and fundamental human right, with equality and

equity for all.

The Federated States of Micronesia pays a tribute to the

enlightened men and women who gave life to the United

Nations Conference on Environment and Development

(UNCED) process and focused the world’s attention on the

need to begin replacing wasteful and polluting practices with

sustainable development. This movement is especially

well-timed for my country, since our development planning

is still in the early stages and, as a consequence, and with

the encouragement and support of the world community, we

now have in place a national environmental management

strategy that provides an essential complement to our

development-planning efforts.

We intend for our country to become a model of

effective partnership with other nations, and with this body,

demonstrating the application of new, clean technologies in

order to accommodate sustainable development within a

small, pristine environment.

Of course, as a nation of remote and widely dispersed

small islands, many of which are low-lying atolls, we

experience all the difficulties recognized in section G of

chapter 17 of Agenda 21 as inhibiting the development of

small island countries. Thus, we are thankful for the

opportunity now before us to enhance general understanding

of those difficulties through the Global Conference on the

Sustainable Development of Small Island States.

As a member of the Alliance of Small Island States, we

are participating fully in that process. It was most

encouraging to note, at the recent preparatory conference, the

strong participation by developed countries and also the solid

support from our colleagues in the Group of 77. We shall

fully reciprocate that support in all appropriate settings

because, despite our awareness of our own problems, we

know that virtually all developing countries exhibit one or

more disabling characteristics that distinguish them from the

others. While we are part of a relatively large grouping of

countries that share similar characteristics and disabilities, all

developing countries deserve to have attention paid to their

particular obstacles to development.

In that light, we perceive the Barbados Conference next

year as an important early milestone in the post-Rio process,

not only for small island developing States but for all

nations, developed and developing, that believe as we do in

the Rio Declaration and in Agenda 21. The Barbados

Conference is, in our view, the first real test of Agenda 21.

It may seem at times that we of the region of the

Pacific islands are overly-preoccupied about our

environment, and that we take too broad a view of the

potential impact resulting from the actions of others. We

raise our voices loudly and often on the subject of

Forty-eighth session - 13 October l993 5

human-induced climate change and sea-level rise, but many

say that it may not happen. We speak out against nuclear

testing, especially in and among our islands, but those who

are more powerful say that it probably is not harmful. We

strongly urge that lethal toxic substances such as plutonium

and chemical weapons not be transported through or stored

within our region, but even some of our closest friends do so

regardless, insisting that in all likelihood there is no danger.

Are we too concerned? Are we naive? I believe that we are

not, because the Pacific region appears to be a vast, thinly

populated ocean area and thus a prime location for the dirty

business of others - but that region is our home and our

responsibility.

Not only must we provide for ourselves from its

bounty, but we are also stewards of what is coming to be

recognized in scientific circles as the last remaining great

unspoiled natural resource of the planet. Our fisheries are

plentiful, but they could be threatened if experiences

elsewhere in the world are repeated. Our air is still clean,

but we now know we are vulnerable to occurrences

elsewhere. Our water is still pure, but we have seen other

seas contaminated by unsustainable practices. We must, and

will continue to, speak out.

Our region is not simply the victim of the callous

disregard of the powerful for the consequences visited upon

the poor or the weak. Rather, we recognize that for

centuries mankind has regarded the vast oceans as free

space, open to all passage and exploitation. Although

exclusive economic zones and multilateral treaties have had

major impact, the fact remains that the Pacific Ocean is

today the world’s ultimate "back yard".

My country’s plea, then, is quite simple and

straightforward. We call on all members of the world

community to join us, in the spirit of Rio, in a true

partnership for the sustainable development, not just of one

or more Pacific island countries, but of our ocean and all

that is in it. One important focus must, of course, be upon

the land and coastal areas within our region, in order to

accommodate appropriate development without degrading

either the land or its surrounding marine space. But another,

broader, focus must be on the ocean itself - to respect and

build upon the growing scientific knowledge of its complex

ecological systems.

It is well known that the Federated States of

Micronesia, along with other low-lying island countries of

the World, is literally frightened that its scarce land space

may be made uninhabitable and ultimately disappear if even

the moderate predictions of global warming and sea-level

rise come to pass. But if this were the only concern with

regard to human-induced climate change, loss of biodiversity

and unsustainable development, we would be hard put to call

upon the world at large to make fundamental changes in the

way it lives. Ours, however, is by no means an isolated

concern. As the South Pacific Forum Heads of Government

have stressed for some years, the fate of the islands is an

advance warning of things to come, as we have predicted.

Thanks to the trends that I discussed earlier in respect

of the modern realignment of motivations for international

cooperation, I have tremendous confidence that we, and our

children and their children, will succeed not only in

preserving the environment but also in maintaining the pace

towards the ultimate goals of peace, enjoyment of human

rights and social enrichment, as enshrined in the Charter.

My country pledges its efforts within this great Organization,

during this forty-eighth session of the General Assembly and

afterwards, towards the attainment of these ends.