Nauru, 2004

It gives me great

pleasure to deliver this statement on behalf of His

Excellency Ludwig Scotty, President of the Republic of

Nauru, who had to cancel his trip to New York at the

last minute due to pressing matters at home. President

Scotty has asked that I convey to the Assembly the

warm greetings and good wishes of the people and the

Government of Nauru, and his warmest congratulations

to you, Sir, on your assumption of the stewardship of

the Assembly. We assure you of Nauru’s fullest

cooperation in the deliberations that are ahead of us.

Through you, Mr. President, my delegation joins

previous speakers in congratulating Foreign Minister

Julian Hunte of Saint Lucia for a productive fifty-

eighth session of the General Assembly and for his

exemplary performance. As a member of the Alliance

of Small Island States (AOSIS), Nauru is extremely

proud to be associated with Saint Lucia and the

Caribbean Community, and it just goes to show that, as

is the case of our coconut trees, our potential is great.

However, a lack of resources has limited the capacity

to flourish of many more people like Julian Hunte from

the AOSIS region who are serving or have served in

international office.

We congratulate the Secretary-General for his

continued commitment to multilateralism as a means of

resolving our common problems and for his report on

the work of the Organization (A/59/1) over the past 12

months. However, it is discouraging to note that

peacekeeping activities have had to increase rather than

decrease. Human rights and humanitarian norms

continue to be violated as a result of armed conflict and

terrorism. Atrocious acts of terrorism against innocent

civilians, particularly women and children, continue to

tear the fabric of civility and the moral values on which

each and every society on this planet is founded.

Nauru sympathizes with those countries and

peoples who have suffered loss as a result of conflict

and terrorist acts. Nauru encourages peace in its Asia-

Pacific neighbourhood, and expresses the hope that,

whatever their differences, China and Taiwan can

resolve them peacefully for the sake of the region’s

continued peace, stability and prosperity.

We support the Secretary-General’s bold

statement of position with respect to the mitigation of

armed conflicts generally, and those on the African

continent and in the Middle East in particular. We are

pleased to hear that, for the remainder of his term in

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office, he will be focusing mainly on strengthening the

rule of law and transitional justice. Nauru supports the

position the Secretary-General set out in his statement

last week at the 3rd meeting, when he said

“It is by reintroducing the rule of law, and

confidence in its impartial application, that we

can hope to resuscitate societies shattered by

conflict. It is the law, including Security Council

resolutions, which offers the best foundation for

resolving prolonged conflicts — in the Middle

East, in Iraq and around the world.”

The democratization of governance, the

application of accountability and transparency and the

protection of minorities and the vulnerable are

complementary elements of ruling under law.

Nauru, like other Member States, looks forward

with anticipation to the report of the Secretary-General

on the findings of the High-level Panel on Threats,

Challenges and Change to be finalized later this year.

The Panel has been charged with the task of reviewing

threats to peace and security, as well as other global

challenges, insofar as they may influence or connect

with those threats. Nauru continues to believe that

multilateralism is the key to resolving contemporary

problems in all of their complexity. Hence, it is

important that the recommendations of the High-level

Panel reinforce that point and that the proposals are

doable and add value to the reform programmes that

are already in the pipeline, including the revitalization

of the General Assembly.

My delegation has stated in previous debates that

it agrees fully with the reform of the Security Council.

The fresh approach initiated by the President of the

General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session has, to

some extent, injected life back into the debate by

focusing on key elements of the reform. It is our hope

that the Bureau will continue the push for the further

convergence of views by refining the choices that we

made during the fifty-eighth session. The formation of

an informal group of countries with aspirations to

permanent seats in an expanded Security Council is

interesting, and could prove to be a catalyst, expediting

the debate on expansion. Nauru can and will support

the aspirations of Germany, Japan and India to a

permanent seat in an expanded Security Council.

It is my delegation’s firm view, however, that

progress is being held hostage by those countries that

insist that the expansion should not be done without

either eliminating or modifying the veto power

accorded to permanent members of the Security

Council. Unless this difference in approach is

reconciled, time and energy spent on other elements of

the reform will be futile.

The revitalization of the General Assembly must

have at its heart the maximization of opportunity for

equitable representation by all Member States in the

major organs of the United Nations and its committees

and to ensure that their programme of work allows for

the full participation of members, particularly the small

States. In that regard, the proposal to split the work of

the Main Committees of the General Assembly into

two segments over a six-month period would allow

small States like Nauru, which has only two diplomatic

staff, to increase its participation. Nauru would

therefore support such a proposal when further

deliberations take place later in the session.

Nauru would note that its position is consistent

with the United Nations core principle of universality,

which calls on us all to be ever-mindful of the views of

those countries seeking expanded responsibilities in

international affairs. Countries that have sterling

records in democracy, human rights, peace and the

principle of freedom should have their achievements,

as well as their capacities, appropriately recognized.

As a small island developing State in the Pacific

Ocean, Nauru aligns itself with the interventions

already made by the leaders of countries of the

Alliance of Small Island States who have spoken

before me on the concerns and challenges that we, the

small-island big-ocean developing States, are facing.

Nauru bears all the unique characteristics of a small

island State: smallness in both land area and

population, lack of resources, remoteness and

vulnerability to exogenous forces, whether man-made

or natural.

The devastation of Niue by Cyclone Heta and the

disastrous hurricane destruction in Caribbean countries

this year are stark reminders of the vulnerability of

island States. Nauru joins others in expressing its

deepest sympathy for the loss of life and property in

the affected countries of the Caribbean and the

southern coastal states of the United States of America.

Against that background, my delegation would

like to focus on what it considers to be a spanner in the

wheel of negotiations on an outcome strategy paper for

the International Meeting to Review the

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Implementation of the Programme of Action for the

Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing

States, to be held in Mauritius. It appears to us that the

programme for political recognition of the special case

of small island developing States (SIDS), as outlined at

the Barbados Conference in 1994, and reinforced in

New York during the five-year review held in 1999, as

well as in chapter VII of the Johannesburg Plan of

Implementation, has taken a backseat in the

negotiations to generic undertakings made at other

international conferences on development since

1999 — in particular, the Millennium Development

Goals of 2000 and the Monterrey Consensus of 2002.

Benchmarking the SIDS outcome strategy paper to the

latter agreed texts would be hypocrisy of a high order

insofar as political acceptance of SIDS as a special

case is concerned. Indeed, the slow progress in the

implementation by many small island developing

States of the measures called for in those texts is but a

true reflection that our problems are SIDS-specific and

go deeper than the generic issues of development.

Nauru is also concerned that some of the

development partners would skew the review into one

addressing SIDS-Millennium Development Goal

performance instead of SIDS performance on the

Barbados Programme of Action. I believe that our

concern has to an extent been warranted and therefore

my delegation would like to use this opportunity to

remind our partners that the review is about identifying

and solving the failure of small island developing

States to accomplish agreed development programmes

under the Barbados Plan of 1994; and it’s about how

you, our development partners, can help SIDS to attain

those goals. It is therefore our sincere hope that the

third and critical round of negotiations scheduled in

early October will be conducted in the right spirit and

with better understanding.

The Pacific Islands Forum continues to be the

vehicle for regional cooperation and collaboration

among the 16 Pacific Island countries of the Central

and Western Pacific. It approved the terms of reference

for the Pacific plan at the Apia Forum last month to

revitalize the Forum and to make it more effective in

its response to the needs of the peoples of the region.

Issues such as climate change, peace and security, the

economic and social development of our peoples and

the protection and sustainable use of the environment

and our natural resources are still the priorities of the

Forum.

Nauru welcomes the admission of the Kingdom

of Thailand as the thirteenth member of the Forum’s

dialogue partners. That group of countries, along with

the European Union, individual member countries of

the EU and the United Nations specialized agencies

and programmes, are critical to the development of the

region as they provide the necessary financial backing.

During the session, cooperation between the United

Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum will be

considered under item 56 (q) of the General

Assembly’s agenda. The Pacific Island Forum group at

the United Nations looks forward to working closely

with Member States to develop and expand the areas of

its cooperation with them, pursuant to a draft

resolution that will be presented to the Assembly in

due course.

Nauru, like the other low-lying small island

States, sees the Kyoto Protocol as its means of

salvation from the sea-level rise and climate change

that threaten to devastate its already fragile ecosystem,

so essential to the livelihood and culture of its people.

My delegation understands that the Russian Federation

stands between the Kyoto Protocol’s coming into force

and its continuing to linger in the wilderness. Nauru

welcomes the statement by the Foreign Minister of the

Russian Federation that President Putin has ordered

serious consideration of Russia’s ratification of the

Protocol. That is a step forward from last year.

A healthy Pacific Ocean and the sustainable use

of its natural resources, including the highly migratory

fish stocks, are also critical to our livelihood. We in the

Pacific have “walked the walk” on those issues by the

development of an ocean policy to guide us in the

management of our part of the Pacific Ocean and to

form the framework for future regional ocean-related

initiatives. The Convention on the Conservation and

Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the

Western and Central Pacific Ocean, which provides a

comprehensive regime for the management of the

region’s highly migratory fish stock both in our

exclusive economic zone and on the high seas, has

come into force. In addition, the trans-shipment of

nuclear waste through our waters is of great concern to

many of the island countries because of the damage it

could cause.

One of the positive outcomes of the Pacific

Islands Forum meeting last month was the decision of

the Forum leaders to intervene in the internal economic

crisis in Nauru at the request of our Government and

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consistent with the terms of reference of the Forum’s

Biketawa Declaration of 2000. Our crisis lies largely in

the fact that two thirds of our workforce are in the

employ of the Government and its agencies. Those

employees have not been paid a regular salary for over

a year now. At irregular intervals either A$ 100 in food

vouchers or A$ 30 to A$ 50 in cash to purchase food

has been paid out, compared with the basic wage of

A$ 350 — or about US$ 250 — per fortnight. The

average family size on Nauru is around six people. A$

50 cash fortnightly is equivalent to US$ 0.42 per

family member per day and is well below the United

Nations-defined abject poverty level of US$ 1 a day.

The fact that many Nauruans can harvest food

from the sea and the land, however limited, coupled

with our culture and tradition of sharing, has meant

that despite the lack of cash our people eat at least once

a day. The real problem concerns the level of daily

nutritional intake, particularly for children, as one

cannot buy imported commodities such as fruits and

vegetables and hygienic supplies. The situation is

exacerbated by the fact that Nauru imports 90 per cent

of all food and other essential items. Accordingly, food

security in the medium to long term is a serious

concern as there is no form of agricultural activity on

Nauru.

Nauru’s recovery cannot be possible without the

establishment of reputable financial institutions on

Nauru and the lifting of the restrictions on financial

transactions between the international community and

Nauru. That will not happen if Nauru continues to be

subjected to countermeasures and blacklisting by the

Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Despite the

outlawing of the registration of foreign banks some 12

months ago, Nauru has not been successful in its

appeal no longer to be the subject of countermeasures

as a first step, although there has been incremental

progress towards that goal over the same period.

Following the visit by the International Monetary Fund

early this year, Nauru has, for the fourth time, passed

an anti-money-laundering law that now supersedes

previous laws. We have participated in FATF regional

reviews but, despite strong support provided by actions

taken on advice, we seem to have failed at the plenary

review.

As I speak, the Parliament of Nauru is

considering the passage of three bills addressing issues

raised by the FATF: the counter-terrorism and

transnational organized crime bill, the proceeds of

crime bill and the mutual assistance in criminal matters

bill. We are confident that the passage of those bills,

the prioritizing of related issues through the

appointment of an anti-money-laundering national

coordinating committee — which also comprises the

Australian official appointed as secretary for

finance — and the coordinating committee’s face-to-

face meeting with FATF’s Asia-Pacific Working Group

in Brunei next week will bring us closer to our

objective of being de-listed. We will persevere, as we

know that, in the end, we will prevail.

The intervention by the Pacific Islands Forum is

seen as pre-empting the possibility of the economic

crisis escalating into a security and safety issue for the

Nauruan people and for the region. Teams of regional

experts representing the Forum and Australia have

visited Nauru on a fact-finding mission, and we will be

reporting to the leaders in due course, which will

include recommendations on the type of assistance and

the manner in which it should be rendered. While the

proposal, which is to be formally known as Pacific

Regional Assistance to Nauru, is being finalized, the

Forum has agreed to provide, in the immediate future,

capacity-building assistance in the justice, judicial,

financial audit and national planning sectors, as well as

transportation for the health and education sectors and

a small cash grant to assist with public-sector wages.

That assistance is complementing the aid

provided separately by Australia, which has deployed

Australian finance and treasury officials to head the

Nauru Department of Finance, and the deployment,

next month, of Australian police to take command of

the Nauru Police Force. Indeed, as I speak, the

Parliament of Nauru is also considering a reform

budget designed with the assistance of Australian

finance and treasury officials. That budget includes

harsh but realistic measures as a preliminary but

decisive step towards stabilizing, and eventually

rebuilding, the economy and society of Nauru.

For the same reasons, the Government of Nauru

wrote to the Secretary-General in August of this year to

alert him of the looming crisis in Nauru and to request

assistance from the United Nations system to help to

alleviate the plight of the Nauruan people. President

Ludwig Scotty and Foreign Minister David Adeang

may be visiting New York in the latter part of October

to meet with the Secretary-General and relevant United

Nations bodies on this matter. My Government looks

forward to receiving a positive response from the

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United Nations system, in the same manner as it did

from the Pacific Islands Forum.

In conclusion, the fifty-ninth session has critical

work ahead of it, such as the International Meeting for

the 10-year Review of the Barbados Programme of

Action, the introduction and deliberation on the

findings of the High-Level Panel constituted by the

Secretary-General, the review of the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the

preparations for the 5-year review of the Millennium

Declaration and its Goals and the continuation of our

deliberations on the revitalization of the General

Assembly and of the reform of the Security Council, to

name but a few items.

As the Secretary-General has stated, the United

Nations is at a fork in the road in terms of its relevance

as an organization of nations seeking common

solutions to common problems. The next 12 months

will determine whether we, the united nations of the

world, continue on the road where “business as usual”

is the mode of operation or whether we follow the road

of multilateralism as the principal rule of our

engagement. The statements thus far indicate the latter,

but we have heard that before.