Saint Kitts and Nevis, 2007

I have the honour to address the General Assembly at its sixty-

second session on behalf of the Government and

people of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

I extend heartfelt congratulations to Mr. Kerim

and his country, the former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia, on his assumption of the presidency of the

General Assembly at its sixty-second session. I assure

him of my delegation’s full cooperation as he

endeavours to chart the course of positive interaction

and coordination in this international arena.

I would also like to welcome the new Secretary-

General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who is assisting at his first

general debate of the General Assembly as Secretary-

General. My delegation supports him in his all-too-

important task of managing the affairs of the United

Nations.

Small island developing States such as Saint Kitts

and Nevis rely on the United Nations to level the

playing field in international discourse so that we can

interact, contribute and benefit on an equal footing

with other members of the international community.

Twenty-four years ago, Saint Kitts and Nevis

took the bold step of joining this body. We pledged

then to do all in our power to pursue peace, security,

human rights and development. Twenty-four years

later, my beautiful country can boast that it has kept

faith with our people and the international community.

It has achieved much, and the pace and nature of its

development set an example for other small island

developing States.

Today, the human development index of the

United Nations Development Programme ranks us

fifty-first out of 177 countries evaluated in the world.

Saint Kitts and Nevis has indices on per capita gross

domestic product, health and educational enrolment

comparable to those of many in the developed world.

Pleased as we are with our progress, we are all too

aware that the journey is not yet ended. Much work

needs to be done. Poverty in our Federation and in the

Caribbean is still at an unacceptable level, and the

turbulence of the global climate vitiates our continuing

development.

We are almost at the mid-point of the

implementation of the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs). If we were to evaluate ourselves as a whole,

we would have to acknowledge that many of the

commitments have not been met. Aid has fallen off,

official development assistance has been limited, and

we have seen competing initiatives divert the drive of

fulfilling the MDGs. Today, Saint Kitts and Nevis calls

upon all States, be they in the North, South, East or

West, developed or developing, to do all in their power

to ensure the realization of the fruits of our united

vision that proposed the Millennium Development

Goals.

United Nations Member States are not all equal in

endowments. Those that have more resources must

allocate more to the global development agenda. The

developed world must meet its financing commitments,

as agreed at the Monterrey International Conference on

Financing for Development. That Conference

represents a landmark because, for the first time, the

developed world agreed that we were jointly

responsible for development and that it had a special

role in financing for development. That commitment,

regrettably, has not been matched by real resources.

The United Nations will hold a follow-up to the

International Conference on Financing for

Development. The State of Qatar has generously

offered to host that meeting. We applaud that country

for its commitment to the cause and we again call upon

all countries to implement the commitments they made

at Monterrey.

Saint Kitts and Nevis acknowledges that the

HIV/AIDS pandemic constitutes a threat to our

development and, indeed, our security. Prime Minister

Denzil Douglas, in his capacity as Caribbean lead

spokesman for health and human and social

development has often stated that this matter requires

serious and dedicated monitoring and action.

The fight to eradicate the scourge of HIV/AIDS

must continue, and we must dedicate ourselves to that

task. No matter the merits and demerits of the debate

concerning issues in relation to intellectual property

rights, the evidence has shown that only with cheaper

antiretroviral drugs can the HIV/AIDS pandemic at the

minimum be managed and its threat to humankind

reduced. Therefore, there is a need to address the issues

related to the cost of these drugs so that they can be

available to all who need them.

The book of Genesis reminds us that man was

made to coexist peacefully with his environment. The

planet Earth is not an inheritance; rather, it is a loan

from our children and grandchildren, who hope that

one day we will return to them a clean and wholesome

Earth. We must be careful, then, that our production

and consumption patterns and behaviours do not

surpass the environment’s capacity to sustain them.

The matter of climate change is of continuing and

great interest to my Government. Indeed, we view the

associated problems of the high frequency of abnormal

weather, sea level rise, global warming and coastal

degradation as matters affecting the economic and

environmental security of small States such as Saint

Kitts and Nevis. We are indeed heartened by the

priority being accorded to this matter by the new

Secretary-General.

This year, Saint Kitts and Nevis signed the Kyoto

Protocol, which signalled my country’s commitment to

doing all that it can to reduce its carbon emissions. We

urge other States to sign the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change and the

Kyoto Protocol.

Indeed, Saint Kitts and Nevis will never shirk its

responsibilities as a global citizen. We believe that

global environmental management and multinational

efforts could resolve many issues particularly at this

time, when all of us have experienced environmental

deterioration. We call on developed countries to

provide greater support to small island developing

States in combating the adverse effects of climate

change. In addition, we urge far greater South-South

cooperation on the important matter of climate change.

We live at a time when disasters are occurring

with a rapidity not previously felt. Within CARICOM,

we felt the impact of the passage of Hurricane Dean,

during which lives were lost, livelihoods were

threatened and, in the case of Jamaica, an election was

postponed. That same hurricane moved on to wreak

havoc in Mexico and was followed very closely by

other, equally destructive hurricanes.

Over the past year, nearly every region of the

world has endured some form of natural or man-made

disaster. My delegation believes, therefore, that we

need an increase in humanitarian and disaster relief

assistance. No country escapes the need for such

assistance. In addition to supporting the existence and

the role of the Central Emergency Response Fund, we

encourage Member States to commit to that and similar

initiatives.

I now turn to United Nations reform. During the

course of the sixty-first session of the General

Assembly, the issue of reform of the United Nations

and, in particular, system-wide coherence received

extensive attention. Saint Kitts and Nevis believes that

reform is necessary. My delegation’s position,

therefore, is that the time has come for agreement on

the issue and on the way forward. We need continued

dialogue, of course. But, most important, Member

States need to agree on a plan of action and its

implementation, as well as on the need to get on with

the job. If we do not agree, or if we remain inflexible

regarding one another’s concerns, we will all be at a

disadvantage. Therefore, the dialogue among

civilizations must continue, and implementation must

occur, if true reform of all aspects of the United

Nations is to come to fruition.

The United Nations must remain open to

membership for all States. In that regard, experience

has shown that United Nations membership is not a

deterrent to unification; consider, for example, the

former East Germany and West Germany. Nor is it a

panacea for fragmentation, as some have argued, citing

the deconstruction of the former Soviet Union. What

has always been clear is that the United Nations has

extended a warm welcome to all States and respected

the equality of all States.

In the context of the principle of universality, my

country renews its call for Taiwan to become a

Member of the United Nations. It is of grave concern

that the 23 million people of Taiwan have been denied

the right to participate in the United Nations and its

related bodies. During the sixty-first session, that

exclusion and isolation were pursued even more

aggressively.

We, the friends of Taiwan, implore the United

Nations family to recognize that the people of Taiwan

are a disenfranchised people. Many of us were once

also disenfranchised and unrepresented; but, through

international recognition of our inalienable right to

participate, we are here today. My delegation wishes to

see the same right enjoyed by the people of Taiwan.

Taiwan has shown that it can be a true partner in

development. In our view, the international community

has been deprived of the gift of that partnership at a

time when Taiwan’s assistance could have been so

useful to many States in meeting the Millennium

Development Goals.

In March of this year, the United Nations

observed the bicentenary of the abolition of the trans-

Atlantic slave trade. My Prime Minister, the

Honourable Mr. Denzil Douglas, had the distinct

honour of addressing this body on behalf of

CARICOM. One of the significant results of the

commemoration exercise has been an

acknowledgement that the injustice of slavery still

exists in one form or another and that there is a need to

address that problem. Child slavery and economic

slavery impact the societies of the international

community, and we need to mobilize our collective

resources to combat those scourges. Only when that

has been accomplished will we be able to feel that the

battle waged more than 200 years ago to abolish the

trans-Atlantic slave trade and all elements associated

with it has been won.

Finally, as we look ahead to the rest of the sixty-

second session, I wish to reiterate my country’s pledge

of cooperation, commitment and dialogue to address

the many challenges that we will encounter in ensuring

that the United Nations remains the relevant forum for

international relations. The United Nations must

continue to be a beacon of hope for countries in search

of peace, self-determination, respect for human rights,

progress, development and, very important, justice. It

is not too late for this body to go and enchant the

world.