Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 2014

We gather this week to reaffirm our commitment to

peace, justice and development. Saint Vincent and the

Grenadines proudly recognizes Mr. John Ashe, son

of our Caribbean soil and President of the General

Assembly at the sixty-eighth session, and commends

him for his invaluable contribution in advancing the

international agenda during his superlative tenure. We

joyously welcome the current President as our new

standard-bearer. As part of the African diaspora, we

celebrate with the continent of Africa in claiming him

as one of our own, and in investing the same faith and

confidence in him in this role as do the people of his

native Uganda.

Fifteen years into the twenty-first century, the

challenges of our times have caused some nations

to question the value or role of sovereignty in an

increasingly borderless world. Globalization and

modernity have unleashed a number of forces that

operate independently of national Governments or

borders. They include the ills of climate change;

communicable diseases such as Ebola; and economic

contagion that spreads like wildfire as external shocks

that pose serious developmental and existential threats

beyond the scope of individual States to address.

Groups have emerged — from terrorists to drug cartels

to certain rapacious multinationals — that span the

globe and exploit systemic weaknesses to further their

own nefarious self-interest.

The pressures of keeping pace in an interconnected

world have prompted suggestions that we can no longer

rely on a traditional rulebook that does not specifically

contemplate our modern challenges. Saint Vincent and

the Grenadines emphatically rejects this suggestion.

The rulebook that governs our international cooperation

is the Charter of the United Nations, and its principal

golden rule is that of respect for the sovereign equality

of all States.

To be sure, certain administrative aspects of our

rulebook — for example, the composition and working

methods of our fossilized and increasingly irrelevant

Security Council — are clearly long overdue for

meaningful reform. However, the principles that inform

our Charter and undergird the Assembly are timeless.

Any attempt to deviate from the Charter in word, deed

or spirit would constitute an assault on sovereignty, a

departure from diplomacy, and the improvisation of

international law on the fly.

The loss of sovereignty has never benefited the

weak or powerless. The erosion of sovereignty has

never restrained the interests of the powerful. The list

of nations whose sovereignty has been violated in the

interest of great Power convenience grows inexorably

longer, while the tally of those whose populations are

demonstrably better off for such violations remains

tragically short. Accordingly, Saint Vincent and

the Grenadines rejects the choice between modern

interconnectivity and traditional sovereignty as false

and intended to accelerate a global slide into lawless

unilateralism.

As upholders of and adherents to international law,

we continue to struggle in search of common themes

to help us understand which coup d’état is legal and

which is not; which foreign intervention is just and

which is criminal; which particular sovereignty or

territorial integrity is worth fighting for, and which

should be conveniently disregarded and swept under

the rug of endless, impotent debate; which national

border constitutes a barrier, and which represents an

invitation; which World Trade Organization decision

will be enforced to the detriment of the weak, and

which, as in the case of our Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) neighbour Antigua and Barbuda, will be

ignored by the guilty but powerful party. As a small,

open, vulnerable State, we cannot accept the suggestion

that our existence rests on the whim, generosity or

benign neglect of powerful States. International law

and sovereign equality are the bulwarks against the

type of naked aggression and unilateralism that have

too often led our nations to the precipice of war.

The cancer of terrorism continues to spread. The

world has witnessed the celebration of savagery and

the multiplication of misery by those who sow death

and hatred in the name of religion. Saint Vincent and

the Grenadines, like every other civilized nation,

is outraged at the global rise of militant groups that

commit unspeakable acts of mass violence in their

quest to enforce a brutal and indefensible social order.

However, the fact that terrorists disregard national

borders and sovereignty is no excuse for us to do the

same. We must not stoop to their level by neglecting

the bedrock principles of the peaceful coexistence

of nations. Nor must we ever repeat the mistake of

believing that terrorism is a force that can be harnessed

or supported to further some greater political objective.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines cannot accept that

the difference between noble rebel and evil terrorist

can hinge on something as arbitrary as on which side of

a border they decide to perform their rapes, beheadings

and bombings. We unequivocally support genuine

efforts targeted at eliminating this scourge, and we

call for global solidarity and international cooperation

in this urgent cause. Politics may make for strange

bedfellows, but in a civilized world, humanity must

always trump ideology in the fight against murderous

barbarism.

The political manipulation of the term “terrorist”

threatens our shared resolve to eliminate its growing

menace. Nowhere is this manipulation more glaringly

objectionable than in the false designation by the United

States of the Republic of Cuba as a State sponsor of

terrorism. Cuba has been a victim of State terrorism, a

condemner of State terrorism and a collaborator in the

fight against State terrorism. Meanwhile, other actors

nakedly support and lavishly fund the most despicable

terrorist groups, without so much as a hint of public

reproach. It is hard to imagine why the United States,

a firm, honourable and unquestioned global leader

in the fight against terrorism, and the target of the

most heinous attacks, would want to distract itself,

or its allies, from the fight at hand by maintaining its

unfounded characterization of Cuba.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines reiterates the

call of the overwhelming majority of States for an

immediate end to the illegal economic, commercial

and financial embargo against Cuba. The external

projection of political self-interest is not a sovereign

exercise, but a retrograde and anachronistic attack on

the very principles that undergird the Organization.

The United States is a far greater nation than this petty,

punitive and illegal embargo suggests. We encourage it

to demonstrate the courage to cast aside this Cold War

relic.

We are one month removed from the disastrous

consequences of yet another violent conflict between

combatants in Israel and the State of Palestine.

Thousands are dead and thousands more were

wounded — the overwhelming majority of whom

were Palestinian civilians. Whatever the motivations

for that particular conflict, no one can doubt that

the underlying problem remains unaddressed and

unresolved. At its root is the invasion, occupation and

economic strangulation of Palestine, and the steady,

illegal erosion of its internationally established borders.

Despite regrettable actions on both sides of this

dispute, no amount of political relativism can apportion

blame equally between occupier and occupied. The

unquestionable right of Israel to exist in peace and

defend itself does not and cannot give it unfettered

licence to occupy, oppress and suppress the sovereign

rights of the Palestinian people. Israel is a powerful,

accomplished, democratic nation with powerful

friends. It diminishes itself and the status of its allies

by its unchallenged actions in Palestine. Once again,

the absence of borders and the disregard of sovereignty

threaten to make the concept of a two-State solution

nothing more than feel-good rhetoric with limited

applicability on the ground.

A great Caribbean artist, Peter Tosh, once lamented

in song that while “everyone is crying out for peace,

none are crying out for justice”. Peace cannot be

assumed in the absence of war, nor can it be established

in the absence of justice. This Assembly owes the

people of Palestine its attention and action in the long-

overdue quest for real peace and statehood.

Climate change does not respect national

borders — a fact known all too well in Saint Vincent

and the Grenadines. Despite a tiny carbon footprint and

minuscule emissions, our country has nonetheless been

repeatedly victimized by weather anomalies partially

caused by the historical and continued environmental

abuse of major emitters. In the past four years,

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has experienced

a hurricane, a drought and two floods. The loss and

damage caused by each of those events has resulted

in annual double-digit hits to our gross domestic

product (GDP). Last December, in a mere three hours

of unseasonal rainfall, 17 per cent of our GDP was

washed away in flash flooding. Our sister islands of

Grenada and Dominica were similarly affected. Lives

and livelihoods were lost, homes and infrastructure

were destroyed, and a developmental hole was dug from

which it will take years to emerge.

Yet, despite the gathering and intensifying global

threat of climate change, with its real and ruinous

present-day impacts, historical and major emitters

continue to act as if the planet had time on its side.

The excuses offered for continued inaction, whether

political, historical, scientific or economic, grow

increasingly indefensible. The prospects of genuine

progress against climate change become increasingly

remote with each passing day of diplomatic dithering,

buck-passing and finger-pointing.

Last week, the Secretary-General convened a

high-level Climate Summit here at United Nations

Headquarters in an admirable attempt to galvanize

political will for an ambitious and legally binding climate

treaty by 2015. However, the tangible results were less

than encouraging. Despite some welcome new pledges,

the numbers simply do not add up to anything close to

what is required to cap global warming at 1.5°C above

pre-industrial levels. Furthermore, the new resources

raised and pledged for the financing of adaptation to

climate change were a drop in the bucket — akin to

having a bake sale to settle the national debt.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is fearful that

the legally binding agreement, which we are scheduled

to enact next year, will be insufficiently ambitious to

solve our looming climate crisis, and that adaptation

financing will be woefully short of what is truly required.

If narrow interests and local electoral cowardice force

us to retreat behind our national borders and bury our

heads in the sand, we may squander a decade of effort

and our only real chance to save the planet on which we

live. The stakes are that high. We cannot afford to fail.

It is appropriate that the President of the General

Assembly will preside over the launch of the

International Decade of People of African Descent,

which runs from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2024.

The theme of that Decade will be “People of African

descent: recognition, justice and development”. The

meaningful and action-oriented implementation of

this theme can have far-reaching positive effects on

the African continent and among its far-flung diaspora

alike.

One element of recognition, justice and development

that will be of central importance to Saint Vincent and

the Grenadines and the wider Caribbean Community

is the advancement of our claims for reparatory justice

from the European colonizing Powers that engaged in

native genocide, the transatlantic slave trade and the

prolonged system of chattel slavery itself. Over the past

year, CARICOM Heads of State and Government have

unanimously approved a series of policies, structures

and initiatives aimed at educating our populations

and engaging former slave-holding and slave-trading

nations in a conversation about reparatory justice. The

level of priority that CARICOM Governments accord to

the issue of reparatory justice cannot be overstated. At

the historical root of our region’s many developmental

impediments is an enduring legacy of slavery, which

is the unchanging millstone that we have been forced

to carry uphill for generations. We seek the support of

the international community in furthering our just and

timely cause.

Similarly, in a region still grappling with the

aftereffects of systematic discrimination, victimization

and human rights violations under the cover of unjust

law, we cannot countenance the re-emergence of

judicially sanctioned bigotry within our Caribbean

civilization. The application of the year-old decision

of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic

continues to retroactively deny thousands of Dominican-

born citizens of their rights to nationality, identity

and equal protection. The unanimous international

condemnation of the decision has led to welcome and

increased political interaction between Haiti and the

Dominican Republic on a host of bilateral issues. We

hold out every hope that those discussions between

neighbours will benefit both countries.

However, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the

wider CARICOM remain outraged at the core human

rights violations that have not been corrected and cannot

be resolved by bilateral tête-à-tête. We are beyond the

point where continuing human rights violations can

be masked behind seemingly benign bureaucracy.

We call on the international community to assist our

brothers in the Dominican Republic in reinstating the

constitutional and human rights of those Dominicans

who have been so wrongly stripped of their citizenship

and dignity.

Last year, from this rostrum, Saint Vincent and the

Grenadines called on the United Nations to accept its

role and offer recompense to the victims of the cholera

outbreak in Haiti, it having been established that United

Nations peacekeepers brought the cholera with them to

Haiti (see A/68/PV.16). A year later, the United Nations

continues to dodge its moral and ethical responsibility.

The legitimacy of the Organization to conduct future

peacekeeping missions and the legacy of its leadership

at the highest levels will be irreparably damaged by any

failure to immediately redress this glaring wrong.

The prestige and legitimacy of the United Nations

can be further enhanced through further acceptance

of the reasonable calls for Taiwan’s meaningful

participation in the specialized agencies of the United

Nations. Taiwan already participates actively and

constructively in many critical international bodies.

My country and several others in the Caribbean and

Central America bear testimony to Taiwan’s principled

conduct of its intergovernmental relations. Surely the

time has now come for this exemplar of the magnificent

Chinese civilization to be permitted to participate in

the work of various agencies of this world body.

The chosen theme for this general debate — “Delivering

on and implementing a transformative post-2015

development agenda” — reflects a wise focus on a

central priority and core strength of this institution. The

exercise and advancement of the right to development is

an overarching priority for the overwhelming majority

of the world’s peoples, and it is the absence of sufficient

developmental progress that is often the root cause of a

great deal of global violence and unrest.

The post-2015 development agenda must coalesce

around a series of goals and targets that offer a

people-centred path of progress for developing

countries. In elaborating that agenda, and in this,

the International Year of Small Island Developing

States (SIDS), it is critical that the vulnerabilities and

unique characteristics of SIDS inform that document.

The recently agreed Small Island Developing States

Accelerated Modalities of Action (A/CONF.223/3,

annex), which emerged from the historic Third

International Conference on Small Island Developing

States, must constitute a foundational input in shaping

the development agenda in areas such as concessional

financing for development, inequality, poverty

alleviation, debt relief, disaster-risk reduction, oceans

management and education.

In that regard, we consider it vital that the post-

2015 goals and indicators focus equally on targets

within developing countries and measurable, timely

commitments from development partners. A major

shortcoming of the Millennium Development Goals

has been the nebulous nature of the so-called global

partnership for development. Let us anchor our

shared future ambitions in concrete, measurable and

predictable action.

Civilized Governments and peoples must respect

borders and sovereignty even if some of the forces

unleashed by globalization and modernity do not. Let

us build on what is right, good and proper in our new

interconnected world and cast away not the rulebook

but the excuses for disregarding its time-honoured

rules.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines celebrates the

good of a world in which every student of Saint Vincent

and the Grenadines can browse the stacks of an American

library using his or her own Taiwanese computer

that was assembled in China. It welcomes a business

environment where we can rely on the support of an

American non-governmental organization in engaging

an Icelandic company and its Canadian counterpart

in harnessing our national geothermal resources and

propelling us towards 100 per cent renewable energy. We

celebrate an international solidarity in which brotherly

nations offer support in our time of need after a natural

disaster, and engineers and architects convene on our

shores to help us rebuild. We welcome technology that

allows us the opportunity to communicate, celebrate

or commiserate with our migrant diaspora in real time

and affords them the opportunity to send remittances

to their families at home from every corner of the

globe. We value an international order that allows

a tiny State to disagree respectfully with a large one

without fear of unjust repercussions. We revel in

regional integration arrangements, like the Caribbean

Community, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas

and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean

States, where sovereignty is respected and often pooled,

in furthering a cooperative, people-centred vision for

growth and development.

Those are not dreams but modern realities in our

country today. They demonstrate the paths of peaceful

coexistence and development that are possible when

sovereignty is enhanced, not eroded. Any nation can

like or dislike another nation, approve or disapprove of

its decisions, admonish or praise its actions, befriend

or avoid its Governments. Those are sovereign rights.

But every nation is obliged to respect its counterpart’s

equal and unfettered right to exist, act and determine

its own political destiny and development path.

The challenge of the twenty-first century is the

obsolescence, not of the rulebook, but of the outmoded

playbook of cynical strategies, tactics and inconsistent

application of international law by those who see it as

a tool to further their goals, rather than a restraint on

hegemonic geopolitical ambition. Sovereignty is not the

right to erect a wall of repression or injustice around

national borders. Nor is it the right to protect and

project national interests to the detriment of another. It

is neither sword nor shield. It is, instead, a responsibility

to adhere to an ethic of reciprocity — to do unto other

nations only what one’s own nation would accept being

done unto itself.