Fiji, 1994

On behalf of the Government and

the people of Fiji, I warmly congratulate His Excellency

Mr. Amara Essy of Côte d’Ivoire on his election as

President of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session.

Given his vast experience and his knowledge of the United

Nations system, I have every confidence that the current

session of the Assembly will complete its work

successfully.

I also wish to pay a special tribute to the outgoing

President, His Excellency Mr. Samuel Insanally, for the

excellent and efficient manner in which he conducted the

business of the Assembly at its forty-eighth session.

Most of the problems afflicting the world community

that have been discussed in this Assembly in previous years

continue unchanged. A survey of the world scene readily

discloses that no region of the world is free from tension;

that the economic divide between the rich and the poor

continues to widen; that political and social upheavals in

many parts of the world are getting extremely difficult

and expensive to contain; and that poverty and despair

remain the lot of a substantial part of the world’s

population. There is an urgent need to address these

problems in a comprehensive and timely manner. The

piecemeal approach that we have adopted so far only

tends to plug the hole and does not eliminate the causes.

Moreover, our efforts are invariably made after an event

has occurred, and often when our conscience cannot bear

to see the misery on our television screens. We must

devise ways for a more preventive approach to the

problems.

Political problems are often a consequence of

economic and social problems. The General Assembly’s

decision at its forty-seventh session to convene a World

Summit for Social Development at Copenhagen early in

1995 was very timely. While we have seen some

significant advances in human rights and democracy in

many parts of the world, and positive developments

towards reducing the potential for regional conflicts in

other areas, the fact remains that in both developed and

developing countries new challenges to international

peace and security are manifesting themselves under a

broad plethora of social development problems. We can

no longer turn a blind eye to the increasing growth of

poverty and unemployment and the attendant

marginalization of peoples.

Annually, between 13 to 18 million people die from

starvation, disease and famine. It has been estimated that

world wide one out of every five people live below the

poverty line. While Governments, in many cases,

equivocate on how to solve this problem, the poor

increasingly look to the United Nations to find effective,

immediate and practical solutions. To ignore this reality

is to deny that it constitutes a real source of political

instability.

Indeed, the Security council has expressed the view

that

“peace and prosperity are indivisible and that lasting

peace and stability require effective international

cooperation for the eradication of poverty and the

promotion of a better life for all in larger freedom.”

(S/23500, p. 5)

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These views are buttressed by the prophetic words of

the Nobel laureate Ralph Bunche who, as long ago as 1950,

said:

“Peace is no mere matter of men fighting or not

fighting. Peace, to have meaning for many who have

known only suffering in both peace and war, must be

translated into bread or rice, shelter, health and

education, as well as freedom and human dignity —

a steadily better life. If peace is to be secure, long-

suffering and long-starved peoples of the world, the

underprivileged and the undernourished, must begin to

realize without delay the promise of a new day and a

new life.”

While these words were uttered in a different context,

I would suggest that they encapsulate the whole reason for

the social Summit. My Government will actively support

and work in cooperation with other countries to achieve the

objectives of the World Summit for Social Development.

My Government looks forward to playing an active

role in the forthcoming World Conference on Women, to be

held in Beijing next September. Fiji has always recognized

the important contribution of women to society and to the

development process in general.

In 1987, the Fiji Government established a Ministry of

Women. A Department on Women and Culture, which

operates under the purview of this Ministry, carries the

responsibility of monitoring improvements in the status of

women. It seeks to encourage the private and public

sectors to address the needs of women in their policies and

programmes. It is also the Government’s policy to assign

50 per cent of representation in training, appointments and

promotions at all levels of the civil service to women, on

the basis of preference and merit. The Government

encourages the same in the private sector. I might also

mention that all three women members of the House of

Representatives in Fiji are Ministers in the Cabinet.

My Government will continue to enhance and uplift

the status of women. It is in the process of ratifying the

United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms

of Discrimination against Women. Fiji will also explore

membership of the Commission on the Status of Women,

in keeping with its policy of strengthening the role of

women in the country’s national development plans. On

the issue of gender equity, it is my belief that in order that

the principles enshrined in the first Article of the Charter of

the United Nations to be achieved, the equal participation

of women in the Secretariat of this Organization, on an

equitable regional basis, must continue to be implemented

and be given urgent priority.

My country was pleased to have participated in the

Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of

Small Island Developing States in Barbados earlier this

year. In short, the Conference was convened because of

a universal recognition of the problems faced by small

island developing States in achieving sustainable

development goals. While the Barbados Conference was

important in re-emphasizing the special environmental and

economic circumstances of small island States, my

delegation wishes to reiterate that the Conference was

only the beginning of a process. We must now act to

implement the Barbados Programme of Action and

Declaration.

In this connection, we would urge the international

community, and particularly those countries with

developed and industrialized economies, to respond to the

invitation to enhance and promote human resource

development programmes in small island developing

countries. Increased technical assistance will enhance the

institutional and administrative capacity of small island

countries to implement the Programme of Action. One of

the ways in which this can be brought about is by the

provision of new and additional financial resources in

accordance with Chapter 33 of Agenda 21. Unless

creative and supportive international responses to the

special challenges faced by small island developing

countries in planning for sustainable development are

urgently stimulated, I fear that their continuing

vulnerability to both physical and socio-economic forces

will increase. In this context it is opportune to remind

the global community to fulfil the commitments it made

at Rio some two years ago.

We are on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the

establishment of the United Nations. My country strongly

supports the principles contained in the Charter and I

would like to reaffirm our support for the Organization.

Over the past 50 years, the Organization has seen many

changes. Its membership has increased from 51 to the

present 184. With the end of the cold war, it has

assumed a more central role in world affairs. There is an

ever-increasing demand on the limited resources of the

Organization and, in particular, on its Secretariat. We

support the Secretariat and commend the adjustments it is

making in order to respond to the changing needs of the

international community. We urge the Secretariat to

continue to pursue the goals of efficiency and

cost-effectiveness. In this regard, my Government

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welcomes the creation of the Office of Internal Oversight

Services. We believe this to be an important innovation that

will contribute to greater efficiency within the United

Nations system. We fully support the continuing efforts to

bring about greater transparency and accountability on the

part of the United Nations management and institutional

structures.

In the same vein, Mr. President, my Government

supports the view that it is now time that the current

structure and the membership of the Security Council were

reviewed. With the very large increase in the membership

of the United Nations since it was founded, with the

changes that have occurred on the global political scene in

recent years, and with the nature of problems that must be

resolved by the United Nations, including the diverse facets

of economic, environmental and peace-keeping and

peace-monitoring issues, we agree that there is now a need

to consider an enlarged Security Council with more

equitable representation of membership to look at these

issues more comprehensively.

In this regard, we welcome the report of the

Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable

Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the

Security Council (A/48/47) in response to General

Assembly resolution 48/26 of 3 December 1993, and the

recommendation that the Open-Ended Working Group

should continue its work. In the event that membership of

the Security Council is expanded, Fiji fully supports the

membership of Japan, recognizing its important role not

only as a valued neighbour in the Asia-Pacific region, but

also as a key player in the global economy.

My Government has followed with close and keen

interest, meetings of the Ad Hoc Committee on the

Elaboration of an International Convention dealing with the

Safety and Security of United Nations and Associated

Personnel. We consider the United Nations staff and

associated personnel who participate in various missions

sponsored by the United Nations as an integral and essential

part of those missions. We have seen their courage in

Cambodia, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and other places

around the world. If the United Nations is to continue to

rely on individual men and women to assist in carrying out

the mandates of its various organs, it is only fair and fitting

that we should provide them with an adequate level of

safety and security. At its last session, the Ad Hoc

Committee worked very constructively and made significant

progress. However, it is important for the Ad Hoc

Committee to conclude its work as soon as possible and we

urge that this be done. We have a very real interest in the

conclusion of this convention since in as much as Fiji has

lost some of its nationals in various peace-keeping

operations, and many others have been injured. For us,

therefore, peace-keeping has come at a high price. It

involves the sacrifices, not only of individuals, but also of

the families left behind. But my Government remains

unshaken in its belief that the price we have paid and are

continuing to pay for our involvement in United Nations

peace-keeping operations would have been worthwhile if

we have contributed towards making the world a safer

place. We owe this to our children and to our children’s

children.

At the present time, there are at least l,000 troops

from Fiji serving in various peace-keeping operations - in

Lebanon, Sinai, Iraq, Kuwait and Rwanda. Only recently

we agreed to participate in the regional peace-keeping

force in Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. This was in

direct response to a request we received from the

Government of Papua New Guinea, with the support of

the relevant parties in Bougainville. Our participation in

the South Pacific regional peace-keeping force for

Bougainville is in concert with our other neighbours in

the South Pacific, namely Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon

Islands, Australia and New Zealand. Our participation is

also for a specific purpose, and that is to assist the

Government of Papua New Guinea and the relevant

parties on Bougainville in facilitating a secure

environment in which they will be able to hold a peace

conference and, through dialogue, achieve a consensus on

the future of Bougainville. Let me say that our

commitment to peace-keeping is a continuing affirmation

of our belief that the purposes and principles set forth in

the United Nations Charter must be given practical

expression. Fiji, as a responsible member of the

international community, will continue to play its role in

the enhancement of global peace and security.

On the subject of peace-keeping, I want at this time

to express my Government’s satisfaction at the

strengthening of the Department of Peace-keeping

Operations. I believe that continued innovations in the

institutional structure of this Department will be necessary

if it is to play a meaningful and effective role in support

of United Nations peace-keeping activities.

This year marks an important milestone in the

development of the international law of the sea. Fiji was

the first State to ratify the 1982 United Nations

Convention on the Law of the Sea. We are therefore

pleased that, 12 years after its adoption, the Convention

will enter into force on 16 November 1994. The

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Convention represents a historic achievement by the

international community. It will establish the rule of law

over more than two-thirds of the Earth’s surface, and

promote its peaceful use. Like many other States, Fiji has

already been implementing the provisions of the

Convention, through its Marine Spaces Act. Entry into

force of the Convention would thus consolidate our claims

to the archipelagic waters, the territorial sea and the

exclusive economic zone. Fiji has always supported

universal participation in the Convention. We therefore

welcome the conclusion of the Agreement to resolve the

outstanding issues relating to the deep seabed mining part

of the Convention, part XI. As at the Conference on the

Law of the Sea, our delegation, together with other

delegations, was pleased to play an active and constructive

role in bringing about that important agreement. We have

signed the agreement and will become a party to it. We

urge all States that have not done so to become parties to

the Convention and to the new Agreement in order to

achieve the goal of universal participation.

Associated with the law of the sea is the important

Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory

Fish Stocks. Fish is an invaluable gift of nature to man.

However, man’s unregulated and indiscriminate exploitation

of this vital resource is rapidly depleting or destroying it.

Fish is an important national and regional resource and it is

a staple in our diet. In addition to other species, some 40

per cent of the world’s tuna is to be found in the south-

west Pacific region. We are therefore concerned at the

long-term impact on these resources and on the marine eco-

system as a whole, if the current practice of uncontrolled

fishing, especially on the high seas, continues. The

Conference has been organized to address the urgent

problems facing us with regard to the conservation and

management of fisheries around the world. These problems

must be addressed from the perspective of both present and

future generations. Fiji therefore strongly supports an

effective outcome from the Conference, an outcome that

would ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable

use of the fish resources of the seas and oceans. Our

delegation, in cooperation with other delegations to the

Conference, will spare no effort in working towards this

goal. We are grateful for the confidence shown in our

country by our election as Chairman of the Conference.

Since the forty-eighth session of the General

Assembly, we have witnessed positive and constructive

developments in the Middle East peace process. It is

almost a year now since the Declaration of Principles was

signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation

Organization (PLO). This was followed by the agreement

on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho area signed at Cairo in

May this year. The recent peace accord between Israel

and Jordan, which was signed at Washington last July,

was another very positive development. My Government

lends its support to the Middle East peace process. In

particular, we express the hope that the ongoing bilateral

negotiations between Israel and Jordan and between Israel

and the Palestinians will continue. We are also hopeful

that the present dialogue between Syria, Lebanon and

Israel will eventually lead to further agreements.

I would now like to mention a number of issues in

my own region, the South Pacific. One is New

Caledonia. While some positive developments have been

taking place in New Caledonia in relation to the

continued implementation of the Matignon Accords, I

believe that there is still a need to accelerate the process

of redressing social and economic imbalances in the

territory. In this connection, my Government will

continue to observe developments in New Caledonia with

keen interest in the build-up to the referendum to be held

in 1998.

Nuclear issues and transboundary movements of

hazardous and radioactive wastes are also of considerable

concern to us in the South Pacific region. Fiji has long

been a consistent opponent of nuclear testing anywhere

and in any environment. Our opposition to such testing

is by no means based only on environmental concerns.

For hundreds of years, the livelihood of our people has

depended on their limited land and on the resources in the

marine environment. Fundamentally, our abhorrence of

nuclear arms and nuclear testing is based on the belief

that there is simply no place for nuclear weapons in our

region, or indeed in any other part of the world. In this

connection, we have been pleased to note the temporary

cessation of nuclear testing in the Pacific region by

France, and would urge the French Government to agree

to a permanent moratorium on testing in the South

Pacific.

Fiji is a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation

of Nuclear Weapons. We believe that the Treaty

represents a unique achievement in the promotion of

global peace and security and in the reduction of the

threat of nuclear warfare. The Pacific region has long

recognized and embraced the principles enshrined in the

Treaty, and these principles are now reflected in the

Treaty of Rarotonga, which establishes the South Pacific

as a nuclear-free zone. We would, in this regard,

encourage the United States, the United Kingdom and

France to accede to the Protocols to the Treaty of

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Rarotonga as a demonstration of their commitment to

nuclear non-proliferation and to a ban on testing in the

South Pacific.

We are equally concerned about the transboundary

movements — and, in particular, about the sea transit

through the region — of consignments of plutonium from

Europe to Japan. For obvious reasons, we object very

strongly to this development and earnestly hope that there

will be no more such shipments through the region.

The countries of the South Pacific region are also

currently in the process of negotiating a regional convention

to ban the importation into the island States of the South

Pacific Forum of hazardous wastes and to control their

transboundary movement and management within the South

Pacific region. My country fully supports this initiative and

is actively engaged in the negotiation process. The

convention is expected to be adopted in mid-1995. This

will further strengthen our resolve to keep the South Pacific

region free of radioactive and hazardous wastes.

At the national level, the Government of Fiji has

commenced work on the review of the country’s 1990

Constitution. The members of the Parliamentary Select

Committee on the Review of the Constitution have already

been announced. They have been drawn from both sides of

the House of Representatives and from the Senate, and

represent all the racial groups in our population. As

Chairman of that Committee, the Minister for Foreign

Affairs with Special Responsibilities on Constitutional

Review, Senator Filipe N. Bole, had a fruitful meeting of

the Committee only a few days ago. Last November, the

Cabinet agreed to the timetable for the review of the

Constitution, following the approval, by Parliament, of the

terms of reference of the Constitution Review Commission.

Because of the general elections that were held in Fiji in

February of this year, the review process has been slightly

delayed, but it is expected that the substantive work of the

Commission will begin soon after the Commission has been

appointed, which will be done shortly.

Fiji has a very small, export-oriented economy that

cannot isolate itself from the vagaries of the global

economy. We are less able to absorb adverse trends in

external economic conditions than are larger and more

diversified economies; equally, an improvement in the

global economy is slow to be reflected in our own small

economy. Like many small developing countries, we are

still in the process of gradual recovery following a

prolonged downturn that afflicted the world as a whole.

Like many countries, we have had to adjust our economic

policies in such a way as to give them a more

market-oriented approach. This has involved the

following fundamentals: less interference with the market;

recognition that the Government cannot do everything and

that the private sector is the engine for development,

which the Government must complement rather than

compete with; and the encouragement of, and reward for,

entrepreneurship, skills, abilities and hard work. In this

manner we are proceeding with the deregulation of the

economy to bring domestic prices more closely into line

with world prices; restraining the growth of Government

expenditure to ensure availability of resources for growth

in the private sector; reforming the system of direct and

indirect taxation to minimize market distortions and

improve incentives for risk-taking and effort;

implementing wage policies that recognize the paramount

importance of maintaining international competitiveness;

and mobilizing all sectors of the community in support of

economic expansion. These constitute a package of

mutually self-reinforcing policies.

In a world that is economically interlinked and in

which we are all economically interdependent, no country,

however well-intentioned its national efforts might be, can

sustain itself without support and interaction from outside.

This is true of large, diversified economies, and it is

certainly true for small, isolated economies such as ours.

Our internal efforts to create a better economic climate,

if not supported by external investments, will not succeed.

Nor will they succeed if we are denied or prevented from

getting access to markets of more developed countries.

Our efforts, therefore, depend considerably on investment

from outside and on access for our products to traditional

and new markets. In this regard, we express our gratitude

to our developed neighbouring countries for the

consideration they have given to some of our exports.

We believe, however, that in the spirit of regional

cooperation and better balance in trade the present

arrangements must be further improved.

In our efforts to develop our economy, we also

count on the support and understanding of our good

friends and partners in our neighbouring region of Asia.

We value our increasing contacts and economic relations,

particularly with the countries of the Association of

South-East Asian Nations, Malaysia, the People’s

Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan,

and we are confident that these relations will continue to

be strengthened in the future.

Our Prime Minister, the Honourable Major-General

Sitiveni Rabuka, greatly appreciated the warm welcome

30

that he received during his recent visit to the People’s

Republic of China and Taiwan. Fiji remains committed to

its official relations with the People’s Republic of China but

also greatly values its trade and economic cooperation with

Taiwan. It is our sincere hope that the People’s Republic

of China and Taiwan, in continued direct talks and

negotiations, will be able to reach agreement on a

practicable basis on which to strengthen and expand

cooperation between them, including cooperation in the

international arena.

The establishment of the South Pacific Forum in 1971

was an early initiative taken by Fiji following its

independence, together with Australia, the Cook Islands,

Nauru, New Zealand, Tonga and Western Samoa. The

Forum now has 15 members, and it meets at the level of

Heads of Government. The Forum originated from the

desire of our leaders to develop collective responses on a

wide range of regional issues, including trade, economic

development, civil aviation, maritime, telecommunications,

energy, environmental, and political and security matters.

One significant recent development is the post-Forum

dialogue: immediately after a Forum meeting, the Forum

island countries meet separately with their more developed

trade and economic partners to discuss development

priorities and constraints in the region. The post-Forum

dialogue partners include Canada, the People’s Republic of

China, France, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the

United States. From our perspective as small island nations

whose economies, to remain viable, depend to a very large

extent on economic ties with these larger and more

vigorous economies, we value these discussions and are

confident that they will continue.

In a wider context, we of the South Pacific Forum

believe that it is important and indeed mutually beneficial

for the Forum Secretariat to be more closely associated

with the United Nations. For this reason, the Forum

members have decided to seek Observer status in this

Organization for the South Pacific Forum Secretariat. We

urge the General Assembly to give favourable consideration

to this request.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to

express, from this rostrum, the appreciation and profound

thanks of my Government and people to the Secretary-

General, the staff of the United Nations and its various

organizations and agencies for their continued support for,

and technical assistance to, our national development, and

indeed, for the numerous development projects in our

region as a whole. In these times, when valuable resources

for development purposes are becoming more and more

scarce and difficult to come by, I wish to assure the

donors and agencies that my Government will manage

and utilize these scarce resources carefully and

effectively.