Saint Kitts and Nevis, 1998

It is indeed my

privilege, on behalf of the Government and people of Saint

Kitts and Nevis, to have this opportunity once again to

address the General Assembly.

I feel especially pleased to participate this year, which

coincides with the commemoration of the fiftieth

anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

an instrument that has sought for the last 50 years to

protect and advance the political, social and cultural human

rights of peoples around the world.

Throughout this half-century, the debate on human

rights has focused critical attention on cultural, social and

political rights. Regrettably, we have failed to develop an

international agenda which includes economic rights as an

integral part of fundamental human rights.

Conceptually, political human rights, now a critical

component of some foreign policy positions, have been

fused imperceptibly with democracy, hence politics and

human rights have become synonymous. I too am an

advocate of human rights protection, and I believe strongly

that if we insist on politics in human rights, the politics

should be to enhance human dignity and the human

condition by including all rights. The corpus of human

rights demands innovative approaches whereby an

individual?s human rights are not measured only by the

freedom to vote but also by the right to self-development in

a holistic sense.

On the eve of the new millennium, I am still quite

dissatisfied with the level of attention the world community

is paying to the severe economic, environmental and

potential political problems that threaten small island

developing States. These problems are not new to this

forum; they are well established and documented facts.

Only last year, I spoke about the vulnerability of small

island States and the need to establish practical, viable

programmes to help us in our own development process. I

lamented also last year the serious and ill-conceived notion

of graduating small States like Saint Kitts and Nevis into

artificial categories based on gross national product per

capita.

Today, I stand before the Assembly having

witnessed firsthand the effects of hurricane Georges,

which brought all sectors of the economy of Saint Kitts

and Nevis to a standstill and increased the possibility of

suffering. In a matter of a few hours, the growth and

progress of the last few years have been literally wiped

from the landscape of our lives. Large sectors of our rural

communities in particular now appear to be reverting to

a state of abject poverty.

This is the stark reality — the reality of small island

developing States. We have no tolerance for bureaucrats

or financial houses telling us which levels of development

are acceptable. Our reality after a hurricane is about

people living without the basic necessities that we all take

for granted. It is about families displaced, having to watch

their dreams in ruins. It is about women and children

made homeless. This is about real life, not just figures

arbitrarily concocted for dubious purposes.

It seems that we have become a community that

relies heavily on figures. Therefore, let me share some of

these figures here. Initial estimates of the damage and

loss in productivity caused by only one hurricane have

been placed at over $400 million, far exceeding the gross

domestic product of Saint Kitts and Nevis. An estimated

85 per cent of the residential housing stock suffered slight

to major damage; of that 85 per cent, approximately 25

per cent was destroyed. The agricultural sector, one of the

major pillars on which the Saint Kitts and Nevis economy

stands, has been devastated.

Agricultural output — sugar and non-sugar alike —

is expected to be reduced by as much as 50 per cent next

year. The health sector and our ability to provide high-

quality care have been seriously compromised. Not only

did the smaller rural hospitals suffer damage to property

and equipment, but also the Federation?s main hospital,

the Joseph N. France General, lost a significant portion of

its roof, and damage to equipment and stocks is

considerable.

The scene of devastation is equally mind-boggling

and severe in other neighbouring islands, such as Haiti,

the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba and

St. Maarten. The suffering in my country is therefore not

unique. However, the fact that we suffer the same fate

year after year and rebuild only to watch our progress

washed and blown away so easily speaks to the need to

look seriously at the vulnerability of small island States.

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I make an urgent appeal for the international

community to come to the aid of our countries and our

peoples. A draft resolution will shortly be introduced to the

Assembly on countries of the north-eastern Caribbean

affected by this year?s storm, and I urge countries to

support this effort by co-sponsoring the draft. Also, I wish

to express the gratitude of my Government to those

agencies, persons and Governments which have responded

so readily in lending assistance.

I would hasten to add that the task of rebuilding will

not finish as soon as the eyes of the camera shift their

focus, nor will normalcy in its true sense return in a matter

of weeks. We need material, technical and financial support

on an ongoing basis as we rebuild our country.

I feel compelled to reiterate the problems of small

States, especially in the light of continuous attempts to

undermine our economies. My Government does not take

lightly the complaints brought before the World Trade

Organization, which are tantamount to the devastating

hurricane winds on the small, vulnerable banana-producing

economies in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.

I also fear that, as such initiatives continue, the sugar

industry in my own country will suffer a similar fate. Our

negligible exports, in percentage terms, cannot pose any

credible threat to any transnational corporation or large

producer of bananas and sugar. However, the removal of

this fragile access, which we must fight to maintain, could

wreak untold havoc in social and economic terms on the

lives of so many poor families in the eastern Caribbean

region.

The insidious tentacles of injustice have such

tremendous reach that international institutions such as the

United Nations will be expected to devise ways to arrest its

corrosive character by lending considerable support to the

efforts of small island developing countries.

I say all this against the backdrop that most decisively,

the twentieth century has etched in our consciousness

evidence of the power of the human mind in its infinite

creativity and potential. Now we are able to cure illnesses

once thought incurable, and we create technological feats

that boggle the mind. I therefore salute the men and women

who have made this century great.

It becomes critically important, therefore, that as

nations we utilize these landmark developments and shared

experiences as the blueprints for the enormous challenges

of poverty eradication, illicit drug trafficking, nuclear

proliferation, warmongering, economic inequity, and

disaster prevention and mitigation.

Inasmuch as this century has brought exceptional

technological advances, economic initiative and growth,

the new millennium will demand greater moral strength

and public leadership. It will require its leaders to develop

similar courage and statesmanship against powerful

challenges. It will dare us all to harness the moral energy

to transcend partisan agendas in favour of a common

global imperative.

It is impractical to alienate an individual?s human

rights from the right to development. These are

inseparable and paramount. My Government regards the

growth of human rights in its entirety as a genuine step

towards strengthening democracy itself. In order for

democracy to take root and the democratic process to

develop in its sincerest sense, we must nurture the

complete range of fundamental human rights. Then and

only then will the human person flourish.

When we hold ourselves up as standard bearers of

democracy and bastions of human rights protection, it

becomes essential to preserve human dignity worldwide.

It has been said,

“when the empire of man over nature can no longer

be easily extended, then the only way for a people

to increase its standard of living is by redistributing

the sources or fruits of industry from others to

themselves”.

Any real hope for a more peaceful and equitable

twenty-first century lies in the evolution of our thinking

on human rights and other issues critical to small island

States. One of the most crucial challenges in the coming

century will be to address the quicksand of uneven

economic development within the current economic

system. These have direct consequences for the disparities

in wealth and resource distribution. I raise the issue of

vulnerability not to crave preferential treatment for our

region, but because the international community must be

mindful of our peculiar circumstances.

It is being said that the structure and growth of the

world investment climate are being shaped by current

events such as the Asian crisis, the European monetary

union, along with the creation of the euro, advances in

technology, liberalization of national financial markets

and their integration into a global market. Where does this

situation leave small island developing States like Saint

22

Kitts and Nevis, especially when so many critical factors

militate against our development priorities?

Foreign direct investment is considered one of the

main vehicles of the liberalization process. Small

developing economies are being forced to liberalize and

integrate into the centre of a global economic system which

has always relegated us to the periphery. International

capital is steadfastly in search of new markets, yet has

continued to overlook our region. Consequently, the vast

majority of the $4 trillion in foreign direct investment spent

in 1997 bypassed our countries in the Caribbean region. At

the centre of international integrated investment flows,

“are large international and transnational corporations

and their affiliates whose global sales volume was

estimated to have reached some $7 trillion in 1995”.

This poses the question of how our agri-based and

export-oriented economies cope with or even attempt to

compete against giant transnational institutions in an era in

which international production has now become more

important than exports in terms of the delivery of goods

and services to foreign markets.

Foreign direct investment, as I have come to

understand it, integrates markets through intra-business

activities and the production systems of countries.

Therefore, our economies cannot participate in this huge

and rapidly growing production system because we have

not been given necessary technical, technological and

material support to move into the centre of the global

market place through its main vehicle — that is,

production.

To make matters worse, we have not been allowed

opportunities to gain appropriate access to those critical

markets, whereas foreign businesses based in those

countries have the access and capability to dominate and

flood our markets with their cheap products.

One only needs to pay casual attention to the media to

appreciate the tendency towards national and transnational

mega-mergers and strategic economic business alliances

that are taking place around the world. Our region is fast

developing a competitive disadvantage.

Earlier I spoke of injustice. I consider it an injustice

when capital can be mobilized and deployed in such ways

that could easily destroy the welfare of entire nations with

impunity or stifle competition completely. Globalization has

been touted as a great vehicle of opportunity and promise;

but I ask, for whom? Globalization, it is said, offers a

huge reservoir of resources for investment growth,

economic equity and social advancement. However, in my

region we are yet to see these promises. In the Caribbean,

we are much more familiar with the risks of globalization.

In anticipation of the changes taking place, our

countries have made significant reforms. Regrettably,

however, the international community, including

prominent international financial institutions, has not

always rallied in support of our efforts. Each year we

build and we rebuild, but we are susceptible to external

forces such as hurricanes. Our efforts, however, seem to

go unnoticed.

Today, the wide rift between expectation and

achievements continues to grow. Saint Kitts and Nevis

looks forward to the convening of a special session to

review the implementation of the Barbados Programme of

Action, and the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme

of Action.

We urge the United Nations and the international

financial institutions to take a fresh look at ways to help

small developing countries integrate into this emerging

system. However, the rules of this system will have to be

informed by the special situation of vulnerable small

island States.

We welcome initiatives on resource mobilization, on

external debt relief, on trade and financing for

development and on good governance of the international

monetary and financial systems. Good governance should

refer not only to developing countries; it ought to be

extended to include better management of the

international economic system. Failure to do so would

lead only to instability, uncivil societies and an

ungovernable global market place.

The socio-economic and political dilemma facing

small island developing States must be addressed now;

otherwise, the human and political cost would be too high

for us to bear.

Many small nations pay our assessed contributions

regularly to the United Nations system despite our meagre

resources and the challenges to our national survival. We

therefore expect more. We expect tangible benefits from

our membership. It is incumbent on the United Nations to

work with small island States to ensure that they reap the

rewards of the changing political market economy.

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In my address last June to the United Nations special

session on drugs, I assured this community of my

Government?s commitment to fighting the illicit drug trade.

The Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis remains resolute

in its commitment to cooperate in the eradication of the

narcotics trade and associated vices.

This noble fight against a most nefarious and well-

financed enemy carries a high financial cost. It is important

to recognize that the role of consumption is just as

important as that of supply. Therefore, we have a shared

responsibility and must focus on joint approaches informed

by cooperation and by mutual respect and understanding.

Saint Kitts and Nevis remains undaunted and relentless in

its approach to the interdiction of illicit drugs, as we work

together with all nations in the name of justice, equity and

advancing the human condition.

In the spirit of advancing the human condition, my

Government urges restraint, patience and dialogue on the

critical issues that separate the Chinese people in both

geographic and political terms. It is our sincerest hope that

the common aspirations and expectations of the Chinese

people will be fulfilled in the near future in an environment

of peace and mutual respect. We believe that the family

bonds and historical tradition that have made the Chinese

people a great nation ought to be preserved. We believe

that the time has come for the voice of the millions of

Chinese people in the Republic of China on Taiwan to be

heard and factored into the international agenda. We believe

that adequate, urgent and practical mechanisms must be

developed to allow them to participate in the work of all

nations.

In a world bedeviled by so many challenges, and in

need of collective action and new resources, we alienate

people and Governments at our own peril. We have an

obligation to work with and encourage the Chinese people

on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to support the progress

made to date, so that the advancement of the human

condition transcends politics. I urge negotiation and the

development of confidence-building measures as a way to

move towards improving cross-Strait relations.

We also call on the Government of Iraq to abide by all

United Nations resolutions and to release all Kuwaiti

prisoners of war and detainees, as well as those from other

countries.

In conclusion, as we continue this debate I trust that

we will be able to move beyond the constraints of the

developed/developing country paradigm of us against them.

To advance the human condition for all humankind will

require meaningful partnership. Instead of apportioning

blame, I urge Member States to join with me as we

rededicate our energies to the search for lasting solutions.

By working together, it becomes easier to find ways of

attaining our national aspirations without trampling on the

legitimate dreams of others.