Jamaica, 2006

It is an honour for me to

address the General Assembly at its sixty-first session

on behalf of my country, Jamaica.

I would like to congratulate Ms. Haya Rashed

Al-Khalifa on her election as President of the

Assembly. It is a particular pleasure for me today to

acknowledge that achievement, as she is one of only

three women in the history of the General Assembly to

have occupied that post, and — significantly — the

first since 1969, nearly 40 years ago.

I would also take this opportunity to express deep

appreciation for the work carried out during the sixtieth

session of the Assembly by Mr. Jan Eliasson, under

whose leadership so much was accomplished in an

extraordinarily challenging year, notably the adoption

of the World Summit Outcome Document.

As we begin this new United Nations year, we

ask ourselves, “What is the state of our world?” We ask

this particularly in the context of the determination and

resolution of our leaders in 2005 to urgently address

the issue of the storm clouds which were threatening

the vast majority of humankind, particularly in the

developing world. We see a continued challenging time

ahead for development, for peace and security, for

democracy and social institutions and for

multilateralism. We see an environment in which the

credibility of the international system to deliver fairly

and equitably is being increasingly questioned.

These were the very issues and circumstances

which world leaders sought to address at the beginning

of the sixtieth session in 2005. Their Summit Outcome

Document contained a raft of resolutions, commitments

and recommendations to deal with fundamental issues

and constraints, and was intended to give political

momentum to achieving the commonly agreed

development goals, including the Millennium

Development Goals. The leaders, while recognizing

that development, peace and security and human rights

are interlinked and mutually reinforcing, reaffirmed

that development is a central goal in and of itself.

Jamaica remains deeply committed to the three

pillars of the United Nations, but considers

development to be at the very core. For this reason,

Jamaica is concerned about the fact that we have not

discerned any significant focus on implementation in

the area of development over the past year — a year

dedicated to implementation. The implementation gap

has been greater in this area than in either of the other

two areas.

Increased, albeit still insufficient, attention is

being accorded to those who live in extreme poverty —

those living on less than $1 per day. The Secretary-

General cited some startling statistics in his report on

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the work of the Organization. I would like to refer to

two examples: 10 million children die before their fifth

birthday, and women in developing countries are 45

times more likely to die during pregnancy than women

in developed countries. That is irrefutable evidence

that the situation remains in absolute and comparative

terms, deeply unsatisfactory and unsustainable in an

interdependent world.

Jamaica and other developing countries

consistently argued in all the debates leading up to and

during the 2005 Summit that, in addition to the poorest

countries, the situation of vulnerable middle- and

lower- middle-income countries, especially small

island and highly externally dependent economies,

needed to be addressed. A number of potentially very

useful provisions were incorporated into the Summit

Outcome document to address their particular

circumstances. But, frankly, Jamaica has seen little

resolve on the part of the international community to

implement those commitments. We have seen no work,

for example, to implement the commitment to support

the development efforts of middle-income developing

countries to help them meet, among other things, their

financial, technical and technological requirements.

Nor have we seen any effort to develop a framework

for providing significant debt relief or restructuring for

middle-income developing countries with

unsustainable debt burdens that are not part of the

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative, or to

comprehensively address the debt problems of those

countries. Thirdly, there has been no effort to

implement the development dimension of the Doha

Work Programme, in particular the World Trade

Organization’s Work Programme on Small Economies.

We recognize that there was a welcome increase

in official development assistance from $69 million in

2003 to $106 million in 2005. Much of the additional

funding was targeted to a small number of admittedly

very deserving countries — mainly for debt relief —

and to peacekeeping. There was little new money for

investment in development projects, even in the

poorest countries.

It has always been recognized that many of the

resources for financing development must come from

trade. That was clearly stated in the Monterrey

Consensus (A/CONF.198/11) and repeated in the 2005

Summit Outcome Document (resolution 60/1). In the

Outcome Document, leaders of developed and

developing countries committed to work expeditiously

towards implementing the development dimensions of

the Doha Work Programme. They also emphasized the

need to address weak and volatile commodity prices

and to support the efforts of commodity-dependent

countries to restructure, diversify and strengthen the

competitiveness of their commodity sectors.

Instead of expedition and facilitation, we have

seen stalemate and breakdown in the Doha round of

negotiations. Perhaps even more significant is the fact

that, in the negotiations that did take place, the

development dimension — especially as it relates to

small and vulnerable economies such as that of

Jamaica — was conspicuously absent from the debate.

These issues must be addressed in any effort to restart

the negotiations.

Jamaica strongly supports the view that

fundamental to a viable and equitable trade regime is

the need to take account of the wide disparity in

structural characteristics and approaches to economic

policy among the many members of the World Trade

Organization, and the consequent need for flexibility.

We would add, for clarity, the need to include the

differences in levels of development among economies

and the asymmetries existing between developed and

developing countries.

As a small country with a debt burden of more

than 125 per cent of its gross domestic product; a

country whose exports have been falling in value and

whose markets are threatened by the current uncritical

approach to globalization and trade liberalization; a

country dependent on imported petroleum for more

than 90 per cent of its commercial energy and whose

energy bill was more than $1 billion in 2005; an island

vulnerable to a range of natural hazards and still

working to recover from major hurricanes and droughts

in 2004 and 2005; and a country whose skilled

professionals — doctors, nurses, teachers and scientists

in particular — are targeted by some major developed

countries, Jamaica understands the need for a

collaborative and facilitative international environment

and for coherence in policies. Successful

implementation of the Millennium Development Goals

cannot be assured in the face of those challenges.

Jamaica recognizes that there can be no sustained

development, no poverty eradication and no lasting

peace without the advancement, equality and

empowerment of women. Women’s advancement is a

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priority of our national policy, and we support all

international initiatives to that end.

We are encouraged by action aimed at

implementing some of the mandates agreed at the 2005

Summit. In the area of international peace and security,

the Peacebuilding Commission has been established,

with an emphasis on addressing post-conflict

situations. Jamaica has the honour to be a founding

member of that body and will be actively involved in

the achievement of its objectives. With regard to

human rights, the Human Rights Council has been

established. In the field of humanitarian affairs, the

Central Emergency Response Fund has been

established, and an agreement has been reached on the

protection of humanitarian personnel. We welcome the

finalization of the draft Comprehensive and Integral

International Convention on Protection and Promotion

of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities

and look forward to its formal adoption later this year.

We welcome also the 2006 Political Declaration on

HIV/AIDS (resolution 60/262), adopted at the High-

level Meeting on HIV/AIDS. We urge the full

implementation of those decisions to comprehensively

tackle this scourge in the most seriously affected

countries and regions. For the Caribbean region,

HIV/AIDS is a major human, social and economic

challenge.

The recent High-level Dialogue on International

Migration and Development, convened in keeping with

the mandate of the 2005 World Summit, and the

publication of the United Nations Population Fund’s

2006 State of World Population report have been very

timely. They highlighted, among other things, the

multidimensional nature of international migration, its

importance in the globalization process and the

potential for further widening of the development gap

between rich and poor countries. They raised a number

of critical issues for the attention of the international

community.

Jamaica is particularly concerned about the

selectivity in the policies of developed countries, their

deliberate targeting of critical skilled professionals of

developing countries, accompanied by the tightening of

their general immigration laws against the unskilled

and the young, and their systematic and wholesale

repatriation of those who run into difficulty with their

laws — especially hardened criminals, many of whom

have little or no connection, if they ever did, with the

receiving developing country. Those policies are

inconsistent, counterproductive and, with all due

respect, frankly wrong. They demand the urgent

attention of the international community. We look

forward to these issues being studied and given the

required attention at the follow-up meeting to be held

in Belgium in March 2007.

We note the continued emphasis on the

strengthening of the United Nations and the adoption

of reform measures aimed at improving accountability

and transparency and at enhancing the effectiveness

and efficiency of the work of the Secretariat in

implementing the programmes mandated by Member

States. We stress that reform should ensure the

strengthening of the United Nations. That should be

our motivation. We should never allow reform to erode

the fundamental institutional framework of the United

Nations or the right of each Member State to be fully

involved in the Organization’s decision-making

processes and to contribute to advancing its goals and

ideals. That right has been the fundamental strength of

the United Nations and what sets it apart from many

other multilateral institutions. It is and should remain

the standard.

Geopolitical realities have changed significantly

since the establishment of the United Nations. It is

therefore logical that the Security Council should be

reflective of the contemporary international community

as a whole, on the basis of equitable geographical

representation and greater representation of developing

countries. How can it be that less than 5 per cent of the

membership of the Organization continues to wield

inordinate power over the rest of us? That is

undemocratic and, ultimately, unsustainable. It is on

that basis that Jamaica supports expansion in both

categories of Council membership, with increased

representation for all regional groups.

Jamaica underscores the vital importance of

coherence in policy action and advice among the

United Nations and other international institutions,

including the international financial institutions, as

well as regional organizations, in the effort to facilitate

and encourage development, especially that of the

small, vulnerable and otherwise disadvantaged

countries.

Over the years, Jamaica has experienced more

than its fair share in terms of the adverse impact of

incoherent international policies and advice. I will

provide just three examples. First, Jamaica has been

06-53615 24

forced to hold a large fund of international reserves in

developed countries. At the end of August 2006,

Jamaica’s net international reserves stood at

approximately $2.2 billion, or 18 weeks of imported

goods and services, while the country needs foreign

exchange to facilitate investment projects.

Secondly, Jamaica has entered into international

commitments under the Millennium Development

Goals, inter alia to expand education and health care,

to enhance environmental protection, to strengthen

rural development and to improve housing and

sanitation. These are all labour-intensive activities. The

International Monetary Fund, without providing any

analysis, is giving advice and insisting that Jamaica

reduce its public service drastically.

Thirdly, Jamaica is forced to compete with the

salaries being offered by developed countries such as

Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States to

large categories of employees, including teachers and

nurses, while seeking to reduce its fiscal deficit. This is

one of the major difficulties that the Government is

facing in its current wage negotiations with the

members of some of these categories, with a view to

completing its second memorandum of understanding

with public sector workers.

The United Nations has a major responsibility to

lead in the quest for coherence in international

economic programmes and policies. Jamaica believes

that a fortified United Nations, in particular a

strengthened Economic and Social Council, is vital if

that role is to be effective.

We continue to live in very turbulent times.

Global peace, security and stability continue to be

elusive. All the multilateral gains that we have made in

recent years will come to little if existing conflict

situations are not resolved and if new military

interventions, acts of terrorism and other debilitating

threats to peace, security and development arise.

We must continue to emphasize the critical

importance of multilateral diplomacy, even-handedness

and maximum restraint. We must reinforce the

mutually beneficial relationships among us as a

community of nations. We must equip the United

Nations to act, and act decisively, when necessary. In

that regard, we welcome Security Council resolution

1701 (2006) and look forward to every effort being

made to build on this new platform to secure a lasting

peace in the Middle East.

We cannot remain indifferent to the tragic plight

of the people of Darfur, the Sudan. History has

repeatedly demonstrated that indifference emboldens

those who seek to act with impunity, resulting in even

greater atrocities and humanitarian crises. The

international community must act urgently to promote

human security and to protect the lives of innocent

civilians.

Disarmament and non-proliferation go hand in

hand. It is only through the total elimination of nuclear

weapons and other weapons of mass destruction that

international peace and security can be assured.

Jamaica is therefore disheartened that the international

community failed to seize the opportunities provided

by the 2005 Review Conference of the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and by the

World Summit to make significant progress on this

issue.

Jamaica and other countries in the Caribbean

region have to confront major security concerns as a

result of the ease of access to illicit small arms and

ammunition and the linkages to transnational organized

crime, including drug trafficking. Jamaica feels a deep

sense of disappointment that the 2006 Conference to

Review Progress Made in the Implementation of the

Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and

Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light

Weapons in All Its Aspects failed to conclude an

outcome document which would have introduced

improvements in the implementation of the Programme

of Action. Jamaica will continue to advocate for the

creation of a legally binding instrument which more

strictly controls the illegal trade in small arms and light

weapons and ammunition.

The recent adoption of the United Nations Global

Counter-Terrorism Strategy (resolution 60/288) is a

very clear demonstration that the international

community can come together to confront major threats

to civility, the rule of law and international peace and

security. This should be our modus operandi.

We have been particularly encouraged by

developments in Haiti, which have led to the

democratic election of the Government of President

René Préval. In July, Haiti was able to again take its

rightful place in CARICOM. Coupled with the renewal

of the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization

Mission in Haiti until February 2007, attention can

now be focused on institution- and capacity-building,

25 06-53615

as well as on reconstruction and other initiatives for

economic and social development in that country.

The bicentenary of the abolition of the trans-

Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire will be

marked in 2007. For all CARICOM countries this is a

special anniversary based on shared history. To

symbolize the occasion, CARICOM members will be

introducing a draft resolution at this session of the

General Assembly with the expectation that the

Assembly will appropriately recognize the event. We

look forward to the support of all delegations.

Jamaica strongly reaffirms its commitment to the

United Nations and the multilateral process. Our

continued commitment at all levels, including our

support for the work of the International Seabed

Authority, remains firm.

Before closing, I would like to take this

opportunity to pay special tribute to the Secretary-

General for his outstanding leadership in guiding the

work of the Organization over the past 10 years. He

has faced the challenges of our times. He has re-

engineered the position of Secretary-General to

become the face, voice and conscience of the

international community. He has brought civil society,

non-governmental organizations and the private sector

into the United Nations. He has leveraged and brought

into international service high achievers in a range of

disciplines. And he has increased opportunities for

consultation and dialogue. We wish him the very best.

Jamaica looks forward to a transparent and

inclusive process to provide our Organization with a

new Secretary-General who enjoys the confidence of

the full membership.