Saint Kitts and Nevis, 2002

Allow me

first to salute fellow leaders, whose tireless work and

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timeless commitment within and beyond the halls of

the United Nations help shape a more secure world for

our peoples. Improving the human condition is a

charge to which we must remain resolutely committed.

This we can achieve only through meaningful

partnership.

Last year's efforts and the promise of

community-building should not be excluded from this

year's agenda. To build community partnership is

crucial; but, more importantly, we need equity. To fulfil

expectations of a better world, and to extract the lauded

benefits of globalization, much harder work is required

to reduce the gap between rich and poor nations and

the haves and have-nots in our societies.

How can we explain the excruciating truths of a

global marketplace where countries which are

technologically deficient and heavily dependent on

agriculture for their survival are encouraged, and even

coerced, into opening their economies and embracing

free trade, while larger and richer economies

systematically subsidize their domestic agricultural

output, mostly for political reasons, at a rate of

between 22 to 60 percent annually.

Mr. President, your mandate this year — a very

critical one — will be to ensure that the peoples of the

world who suffer as a result of this inequity can truly

renew their faith in us and believe again in the values

of the United Nations.

My delegation has said repeatedly that

globalization is not a bad thing. However, it continues

to be managed badly. We insist that the current

structure of the global economy is inherently flawed. It

serves to reward the powerful and to punish the weak.

While we appreciate that our world is undergoing

profound and necessary changes, we cannot

countenance abandoning the principles and values that

bind us within the human family and the family of

nations.

Globalization, in our view, must include true

universal equity in its application of shared

responsibility and good governance. The selective

processes by which the agendas of the powerful few

are advanced to the exclusion of the small, poor and

economically vulnerable States must be addressed with

a willingness to correct it. My delegation believes that

the United Nations is uniquely positioned to respond to

this challenge. Hence, my Government questions

attempts to transform certain United Nations organs

such as the United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP) into advisory bodies, and away from

development assistance, which poor developing

countries need now more than ever.

The United Nations must evolve as a dynamic,

receptive and representative body to stem the tides that

threaten us. It must build or strengthen social safety

nets in many developing nations, not oversee processes

geared at dismantling them. We must recommit to

improving lives and to re-energizing our fight against

poverty, hunger and ignorance. The United Nations has

a significant role to play in this endeavour. Improved

coordination of United Nations agencies is critical in

achieving these objectives.

My delegation urges Member States to pledge

their support, and hopes that they will, to ensure that

the three conferences sponsored by the United Nations

this year — the International Conference on Financing

for Development, the special session on children and

the World Summit on Sustainable Development — bear

fruit. We remain hopeful that continued dialogue,

partnership and the instrumentality of the United

Nations will enable us to make meaningful progress.

A year has passed since the barbaric acts of

11 September. The foundations of our world views

have changed dramatically, as has the way we look at

ourselves and at our commitment to personal, national

and international security. Again, Saint Kitts and Nevis

unreservedly denounces any act of terrorism, anywhere

in the world. We do not believe that the indiscriminate

killing of innocent people as an expression of despair

or oppression is an acceptable means of redress. We

value highly the sanctity of life, and my Government is

committed to its protection. We will work together in

the United Nations to find international solutions to

address this outrage. Let us ensure that the continuing

war against terrorism is waged within the structures of

international institutions such as the United Nations.

Year after year, we call on the international

community to join our noble campaign to halt the

trans-shipment of nuclear wastes through our

Caribbean region, but this call goes unheeded. I

reiterate our appeal today. Saint Kitts and Nevis urges

sustained follow-up action to give meaning and life to

the United Nations resolution adopted in 2000

declaring the Caribbean Sea a special area in the

context of sustainable development.

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Representation is crucial to the peoples of the

world, and, as my delegation has done in the past, I

wish to re-emphasize the status of the people of the

Republic of China on Taiwan. Membership in this

Organization is in itself a validation and celebration of

a people's fundamental human rights. We therefore

lament the continued stalemate that results in the

exclusion of the people of the Republic of China on

Taiwan from the United Nations family.

The contribution of the 23 million people of the

Republic of China on Taiwan to the global market, to

the international community in the areas of technology,

technical assistance and development assistance is

unmistakably significant. Its participation in

international activities can rival, and in many instances

surpasses, that of many developed countries who are

full Members of the United Nations. It is unfortunate

and most regrettable, therefore, that the United Nations

has been unable to create a meaningful and practical

formula that would allow the Chinese people on both

sides of the Taiwan Straits to resolve this impasse,

which stymies the genuine hopes and desires of

millions of people who adhere to the principles of the

United Nations Charter and whose nation is a model

international citizen.

We have witnessed how involvement by the

international community can facilitate positive

developments, such as the emergence of nationhood.

On behalf of my Government and in my own name, I

welcome East Timor to the United Nations family. I

salute it and its great leaders and pledge my

Government's support in working with it in the years

ahead on issues of mutual interest and, of course, of

interest to the international fraternity of nations. I also

extend a hand of welcome and friendship to the

Government and the people of Switzerland. It has

observed the United Nations for many years, so it is no

stranger to its proceedings. The Organization will

benefit greatly from its participation, and Saint Kitts

and Nevis looks forward to collaborating with it in the

future.

The incidence of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean

region is a real and growing threat to our security at a

number of levels. In human terms, it threatens to

devastate families and to create a generation of

orphans. At the economic level, it places a tremendous

burden on the health resources of our countries and has

already begun to undermine the economic

infrastructure of our countries. The most productive

and able-bodied are at risk, and those infected with the

disease are less and less able to contribute to the

economic activity and growth of their countries.

Instead, they require medical and financial support.

Resources earmarked for other areas have to be

redeployed to address the new pandemic.

It is clear that pharmaceutical companies and

Governments that support them can do much more to

reduce the cost of antiretroviral drugs. Private-sector

companies must also do more to assist employees and

families suffering from HIV/AIDS. It is regrettable that

the $10 billion in resources required by the Global

Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are

yet to be realized.

Saint Kitts and Nevis repeats its call for new

paradigms to redress the inequities of globalization. We

urge the international community to develop

appropriate frameworks to promote fundamental

freedoms as a comprehensive whole, not only in terms

of political rights, such as the right to self-expression

and the right to vote, but also the human right to

economic development. Only when we respond to the

genuine needs of humankind — only when the hungry

are fed, the vulnerable made strong, the weak,

dispossessed, disenfranchised and oppressed

empowered and made to feel a sense of belonging, and

when they are free to participate fully in issues relating

to their future — can we have a world where anarchy,

terrorism, inter-State conflicts and war recede.

What we ask for is certainly attainable. We

simply call on the United Nations to facilitate systems

where partnership, collective responsibility and respect

for each other are allowed to flourish. This is possible

once States realize that national policies in a global

economy have international consequences. Politics may

still be local, but when we take action locally we must

remember that we are also global citizens. Thus, a

principal goal of globalization should be to level the

playing field to provide equal opportunity. Strategies,

as a consequence, should reflect confidence-building

measures for free trade and sustainable development.

In conclusion, let me say that the United Nations

has stood firm for peace, prosperity and security for all

peoples. It has done much to ensure peace and justice

throughout the world, consistent with the principles of

international law. It has set itself lofty goals for this

millennium: basic education for all, eradicating

poverty, reducing HIV/AIDS, and ensuring sustainable

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development for all. Our people and, indeed, all

citizens of the global community pray that the political

will will be found to translate those lofty goals into

reality on the ground. Positive action, rather than

eloquent speech, must become the defining quality of

the United Nations in the third millennium.