Nauru, 2006

The Republic of Nauru

congratulates the President of the General Assembly on

her election. Nauru commends her pledge to work with

Member States to achieve the objectives of the United

Nations Charter with transparency and with respect for

all views and positions. She has our support and

cooperation as she leads this Assembly in the days

ahead.

Nauru congratulates the outgoing President, Jan

Eliasson, on his appointment as Foreign Minister of

Sweden and commends him for implementing the

World Summit Outcome Document. His significant

contribution has been crucial to the United Nations

reform process.

We pay tribute to Secretary-General Kofi Annan

and thank him for his leadership, courage and vision

over the past 10 years.

While we aim to reform this great Organization,

in line with the realities of the world, we continue to

witness major upheavals, conflicts, explosions of

violence, natural disasters, terrorism and the giants we

have yet to conquer — that is, poverty, disease and

human and environmental degradation. We must assure

the people of the world that we are committed to

finding lasting solutions to global problems, while

upholding the principles of the United Nations with

full respect for human rights.

But Nauru is concerned that much has been said,

but very little has been done. We must, therefore, focus

on doing more, as opposed to talking more. And, of

equal importance, we must be seen to be doing more,

not seen to be talking more.

As a small island developing State, Nauru’s

concerns relate primarily to development. Yet we have

seen little, if any, action to implement the outcome of

the Mauritius summit meeting on the sustainable

development of small island developing States held last

year. There have been no substantial reductions in

global emissions since the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. The

Monterrey Consensus, whereby the wealthier countries

would increase official development assistance to

0.7 per cent of their gross national product, is still far

from being translated into reality.

Despite private and public pledges by the United

Nations, we in the Pacific have yet to see the

establishment of United Nations offices in the smaller

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Pacific member countries of the United Nations, such

as Nauru.

Despite this Organization’s pledge for

universality and the protection of human rights for all,

we still deny the 23 million people of Taiwan their

right to peace and to development without threat of

attack, including through the denial of their right to

representation at the United Nations.

Mr. Romulo (Philippines), Vice-President, took

the Chair.

We support the inclusivity of the United Nations,

and we reject threats to human dignity, including the

denial that the Holocaust ever occurred, together with

any call for the elimination of any responsible Member

State of this Organization.

That is why Nauru will join other Member

countries in protesting and seeking legal redress to the

violations of the rules of procedure of the General

Assembly that occurred during the meeting of the

General Committee last week. Two questions were to

be debated: a proactive role for the United Nations in

maintaining peace and security in East Asia, and the

question of the representation and participation of the

23 million people of Taiwan in the United Nations.

The employment of procedural tricks to deny

member countries their right to take part in the debate

calls into question the universality of the United

Nations, for such tricks only serve to deprive Nauru

and like-minded countries of their right to be heard.

Even more important, it underlines the need for reform

of the United Nations.

There must be a greater voice of the many

peoples of the globe, including those of the developing

world and those countries that can better represent the

interests of the developing world. Nauru, therefore,

echoes the words of the Secretary-General when he

says:

“I believe very strongly in the need for

Security Council reform, and I have said time and

time again that no reform of the UN will be

complete without Security Council reform. ...

They should pursue Security Council reform

because it is part of the reason why we have

tensions in the Organization today. Because quite

a lot of Members feel that our governance

structure is anachronistic and we cannot continue

to have a situation where the power base is

perceived to be controlled by a limited number of

five Member States.”

We believe we must move quickly to reform the

Council and also to include Japan, Brazil, India and

Germany in the permanent membership.

We encourage the United Nations, as part of the

reform package, to consider a more binding framework

by which the many declarations arising from the

Organization and its many meetings can be

implemented and measured. Clearly, our moral

obligations are not producing the desired results. It is

time to build a global partnership within a binding

framework in order to facilitate the implementation of

resolutions.

We believe that each developing country has

primary responsibility for its own development. The

year 2005 marked a significant chapter in the

development of my country when we presented our

first national development strategy at our first donor

roundtable meeting. Our national development strategy

calls for a partnership. It was drafted by community

leaders, civil society, the private sector and the

Government of Nauru, based on a national vision. It

outlines our priorities and the steps required to reach

those goals within a 20-year framework. We gratefully

acknowledge our development partners. They have

given us tangible assistance that has improved our

lives.

However, we still receive offers of development

assistance that come with unrealistic conditions

attached. In some cases, such assistance is used as a

tool of interventionist foreign policy, without giving

priority to the human aspect of the development

agenda.

For any fragile developing State, delayed

assistance creates a perception of failure and

incompetence and leads to political and social

instability. My delegation is disappointed that the

intention of the United Nations to expand its presence

in Nauru and other Pacific countries continues

unfulfilled. The purpose of an expanded presence

would be to achieve the MDGs and other development

objectives. We call on the United Nations to recognize

our urgent needs and to act with certainty, following a

realistic timetable.

My delegation believes that good governance

yields good returns for all people. Nauru is emerging

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from governance problems caused by shortcomings in

the Constitution adopted at our independence. We are

grateful for the assistance from the United Nations

Democracy Fund that will facilitate the consultative

process for a review of our Constitution. That process

is critical to the political stability and accountability of

future Governments.

In the Summit Outcome, we agreed on measures

aimed at protecting our common environment,

including a call for a more coherent institutional

framework to address the environmental challenges of

today. We encourage revisiting the climate change

agenda to give more urgency to action as opposed to

pledges.

In this regard, we also welcome the Secretary-

General’s establishment of a High-level Panel on

United Nations System-wide Coherence. Nauru aligns

itself with the interventions made by the leaders of

Pacific nations who have taken the floor before me

regarding the concerns and challenges facing the

Pacific Island States. As island States, we are

vulnerable to the forces of nature because of our

remoteness and small populations. As island States, we

are affected by factors such as shortage of manpower

and technical capacity, weak institutional capacity,

limited financial resources and too little foreign direct

investment. We lack information and access to

environmentally friendly and affordable technologies,

including new and sustainable energy sources. Our

challenges are intensified by a lack of commitment

from the United Nations to support our development

aspirations. We hope that the High-level Panel’s report

will recognize these special challenges and propose

realistic solutions.

Sustainable development and basic human rights

cannot thrive in a world without peace and security. We

must continue to strengthen our collective efforts in

resolving conflicts and threats of terrorism through

prevention and effective political solutions.

The proliferation of small arms continues to pose

a threat to peace and security in our region. My

delegation shares the view of the Secretary-General in

his report that, “These weapons may be small, but they

cause massive destruction” (A/61/1, para. 102). Nauru

is deeply concerned that the 2006 Small Arms Review

Conference ended without agreement on further

measures to combat this problem. If it is true that

whoever is faithful in the small things will also be

faithful in the bigger things, then how can we progress

towards the elimination of weapons adaptable to mass

destruction while failing to agree on the issue of small

arms and light weapons?

Finally, “Can two walk together, except they be

agreed?” Let us reflect on this passage from the Book

of Amos as we renew our partnership of commitment

to spare no effort.