Samoa, 2012

Samoa commemorated

the fiftieth anniversary of its independence this year,

at home and abroad. The Headquarters of the United

Nations was one of the venues, and for good reason.

Our aspirations to be a sovereign State founded on

democratic principles, Christian beliefs and our cultural

values were ably facilitated by the United Nations. New

Zealand, as the administering Power, was sympathetic

and supportive, which hastened the attainment of our

independence. Our people were given the choice to

decide the future of our country. The United Nations

and the administering Power supported the process and

paved the way. As we also heard from the President of

the United States, people everywhere must ultimately

long for the freedom to determine their destiny.

Half a century later, there still remain territories

today, even in our Pacific region, where people have not been able to exercise their right to self-determination.

In the case of French Polynesia, we encourage the

metropolitan Power and the territory’s leadership, with

the support of the United Nations, to find an amicable

way to exercise the right of the people of the territory to

determine their future.

The outcome document of the United

Nations Conference on Sustainable Development

(resolution 66/288, annex) provides a blueprint for the

future we want. It is a future we all signed on to, a

partnership of shared responsibilities, commitments

and undertakings among all Members, big and small.

For all the goals to be achieved, every country must

deliver on its pledges in good faith and not try to

negotiate a way out.

For Samoa, the gains include the reaffirmation

that small island developing States (SIDS) are a special

case in the area of sustainable development, owing

to their unique and particular vulnerabilities. But

acknowledging the vulnerabilities of SIDS without the

attendant resources for strengthening their resilience

makes that achievement only a hollow victory. The

oceans and seas are resources that most members of

our group have access to. The call to conserve and

harness the marine biodiversity beyond national

jurisdictions, including taking a decision on developing

an international instrument under the Convention on

the Law of the Sea, is a major achievement, worthy of

support.

The decision to hold a SIDS review meeting in

2014 is important and timely. Samoa’s offer to host

that meeting is a matter of record. Coincidentally, 2014

holds special significance for our country. Barring

any natural catastrophes, we will graduate from the

category of least-developed countries (LDCs) on

1 January of that year. That was one of the motives for

our bid to host the SIDS review meeting. We want to

underscore that, through genuine partnerships with

development partners, our small island developing

State, which is also an LDC, has been able to markedly

raise our country’s socioeconomic situation and our

people’s standard of living. It is important that every

Member State be afforded the opportunity to host

United Nations meetings, and the success of meetings

should be measured on the quality of the decisions and

commitments agreed to, not merely on considerations

of costs and numbers of participants.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are

not merely aspirations of what might be, but tangible outcomes of what should be. By their very nature, they

are a restatement of our peoples’ development needs

and hopes. Thus for us, the achievement of the MDGs

by 2015 is not just a matter of pride but one of necessity,

and we will continue to do everything possible to bring

about the desired result. Success would also mean that

we would start the post-2015 sustainable development

goals framework at higher thresholds, which would

help spur greater effort to improve the lives of more

and more of our people.

The sustainable development goals that will succeed

the MDGs are already a major focus of attention in some

quarters. From Samoa’s perspective, clear, time-bound,

targeted and measurable global benchmarks are critical.

We must ensure that the post-2015 development agenda

builds on the important progress made in the MDG

process and is expanded to cover broader sustainable

development issues, as agreed on in Rio. We must

also ensure that the important priorities identified in

the outcomes of the 2014 SIDS meeting are integrated

into the post-2015 global development frameworks and

comprehensively addressed in order to respond to the

needs of SIDS.

Climate change is the world’s most urgent problem,

requiring a decisive global response. It is a challenge

that should unite and not divide us. Entrenched

positions that ignore today’s realities and pursue

unrelated agendas have no role in our collective effort.

All countries are affected to varying degrees by climate

change. No one should be detached or unconcerned

about our common plight. We must work together, with

a sense of urgency and commitment, to address climate

change — today, not tomorrow. It should not be only

science that recommends what we should do, but also

our consciences and the political will to follow through.

We clearly want leaders who view the world as a single

constituency where everyone works together within the

limits of their capacity and capability to be part of the

total solution.

The climate change negotiating process has been a

long and frustrating journey, especially for small island

developing States, which contribute the least to the

causes of climate change yet stand to suffer the most,

and are least able to effectively adapt to its adverse

impacts. Climate change cannot be wished away. Even

those countries that have been in denial to date must

surely now accept the weight of scientific evidence.

Climate change, facilitated largely through human

activity, poses one of the gravest threats to humankind

and to the continuation of life in our world as we know

it today.

Samoa’s unwavering support for United Nations

peacekeeping work is underscored by its 12 years of

uninterrupted police deployment in service of missions

in Liberia, the Sudan, Timor-Leste and South Sudan.

Our commitment is rooted in our firm belief in the role

that United Nations peacekeeping plays in helping to

eliminate the causes of conflict and in bringing about

peace and stability. A peaceful environment helps to

improve the lives of those who have been affected by

conflict and, ultimately, to achieve our common goal of

peaceful coexistence for our peoples and nations.

We are determined to gradually increase over time

the level and number of our officers in peacekeeping

duties. Regionally owned and coordinated solutions to

regional upheavals can be quite effective and successful.

The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands,

under the umbrella of the Pacific Islands Forum,

demonstrates the effectiveness of that approach very

well, and Samoa will continue to provide strong support

to regionally owned solutions when required.

Samoa reaffirms its unequivocal condemnation of

terrorism in all its forms. Our continuing determination

to work with other Member States to fight terrorism

using all possible means is consistent with human rights

and the rule of law. The horror of terrorist atrocities

is a common and almost daily occurrence. Terrorist

acts committed under whatever pretext or purpose are

deplorable and morally unjustified. In its various forms

and manifestations, terrorism is responsible for the

permanent scars of horror and fear that have gripped

international attention in recent years. Those attacks

have underlined the fact that when terrorists are able to

infiltrate national borders, no peoples or countries will

ever be immune to the threat of terrorist violence.

So many innocent lives have been lost

indiscriminately and unceremoniously. More than ever,

terrorism is a major threat that must be confronted

by a collective international response at the national,

regional and international levels. It must be condemned

in the strongest terms possible in order to send out

an unequivocal message that it is neither accepted

nor condoned and that perpetrators should not expect

any sympathy for their actions. The tragic events in

Benghazi recall and underscore the importance of all nations working together, including through the United

Nations, to implement practical and effective measures

to provide for the protection, security and safety of

diplomatic and consular missions and representatives

worldwide. Samoa will continue to work with

like-minded countries towards that goal.

Samoa’s membership of the United Nations is

grounded on the promise of the hope, equality and

justice that the United Nations offers its Member States,

irrespective of their economic, political or military

strength. States in leadership positions and those

aspiring to that status must lead responsibly and by

example. Every Member State, irrespective of its size

or strength, should be able to contribute appropriately

to decisions and actions of the United Nations in order

to make our Organization an agent of change during

challenging times. The United Nations continues to play

an important role in our collective effort to achieve its

objectives, whether in the areas of peace and security,

the environment, poverty alleviation, the fight against

terrorism and many other challenges that threaten our

world.

This week, at the treaty event, I deposited Samoa’s

instrument of ratification for the Kampala amendments

to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal

Court. We ratified those amendments because we place

great faith in the rule of law and the vital protection

that the law offers to all States, especially to the weak

and small.

Lately, serious disputes have arisen among

bordering States, with the potential to escalate into

confrontation with far-reaching consequences. We

would encourage the parties concerned to resolve their

differences through appropriate peaceful settlement

arrangements.

Clearly, Member States can do only so much.

We need a committed Secretariat that is aware and

sensitive to the needs of the peoples it exists to serve.

That is why Samoa supports the Secretary-General’s

vision to create a flexible and mobile professional

career service to allow for quick and positive responses

to the diverse demands of Member States. The need

for the United Nations to deliver as one entity cannot

be overemphasized. It adds value and quality to the

process, eliminates waste, minimizes duplication, and

ensures that the scarce resources entrusted to its care

are used optimally to supplement Member States’ hard-

earned contributions.

The United Nations remains the only viable

institution that draws all the nations of our world

together. The need to revitalize the General Assembly

and reform the Security Council has been obvious for

many years. In the case of the Security Council, as

long as its composition and rules ignore today’s global

realities, it will continue to struggle for legitimacy and

strain to effectively carry out its intended tasks, as has

been witnessed over many years.

Samoa remains firm in its position that the

permanent and non-permanent membership categories

of the Security Council should be expanded. Member

States with appropriate credentials and the disposition

to contribute to the Council’s work and resources

should be encouraged to apply for membership of that

important organ of our Organization. Importantly, the

intergovernmental process should continue in earnest

during the current session to bring finality to an issue

that has taxed Member States’ patience and endurance

for over a decade and a half.

If the United Nations is to be truly reformed, we also

need a strengthened and revitalized General Assembly

as the primary policy and decision-making organ of

the Organization. Moreover, we encourage the efforts

under way to streamline the work of the different United

Nations agencies to eliminate the wasting of resources

and unnecessary duplication of time and effort.

We often congregate around points of commonality,

finding legitimacy and safety in numbers. It is

diversity, however, that has historically ensured human

adaptability, resilience and true dynamism. Our own

Pacific region is going through a process of maturity,

where subregionalism is evolving and the uniqueness

of capacity and comparative advantages are coming to

the fore. The same can be said of our United Nations

family and its dynamic leadership. Diversity can create

a platform for collective progress if, in the words of

President Obama, “we ensure that we are strengthened

by our differences, not defined by them”.

As we heard from other leaders, including the

Secretary-General and the President of the United

States, it is of critical importance that the Palestinians

be allowed to realize their right to a viable State of

their own, existing alongside a secure and safe Jewish

State of Israel. That has also been and continues to

be Samoa’s long-standing position on the issue. We

remain hopeful that current efforts to secure a peaceful,

durable and fair settlement in the Middle East will be successful. All efforts towards that goal rekindle hope

and should be supported. A peace deal is central to

providing conditions conducive to the achievement of

a two-State solution.

We wish the President well as he leads the work of

our General Assembly. We also wish to place on record

our appreciation to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for

the leadership he brings to the work of our Organization,

and to wish him success in the discharge of his key

responsibilities in the challenging times ahead.