Seychelles, 1998

eychelles is pleased to see

Mr. Opertti at the helm of this session of the General

Assembly. We welcome the experience, expertise and skills

which he brings to our deliberations. Likewise, we wish to

express our appreciation to his predecessor for his

outstanding contribution and leadership during the fiftysecond session.

Our felicitations also go to the Secretary-General for

spearheading courageous and innovative reforms aimed at

revitalizing the United Nations at the threshold of the new

millennium.

We support the measures being undertaken to make

the United Nations more efficient and effective, capable

of making optimal use of its resources. My delegation

believes that development ought to be central to the

renewed United Nations agenda. For this reason, we hold

that a larger proportion of United Nations resources

should be allocated to development, particularly to meet

the growing and imperious needs of the developing

countries. It is only in so doing that the objective of

attaining a “dividend for development” can be attained.

Reform of the United Nations cannot be complete

without the reform of its main organ responsible for peace

and security: the Security Council. We are all agreed on

this, but we differ on how to go about it. Yet there is no

doubt that the Security Council should be transformed

into a democratic and representative organ, reflecting both

its universal character and present-day realities, and

taking into consideration the need for balanced

representation in its membership.

Many options have been mooted. But there are still

major obstacles to overcome if we are to agree on the

composition of the enlarged Council, the creation of new

permanent seats and the question of the veto right for

both current and prospective members. We need to move

and harmonize positions in order to arrive at a generally

acceptable solution. And in so doing we must reckon with

the fact that the developing countries of Africa, Asia and

Latin America are and will be major stakeholders in the

formulation of the international power structure of the

twenty-first century.

Equally important for my delegation is that the reform

package should encompass the enhancement of the General

Assembly as the supreme policy-making organ of the

United Nations. It is only through the reinforcement of the

Assembly’s role and mandate that we can successfully

tackle some of the most pressing issues facing humanity,

not least the process of globalization. Globalization has

brought prosperity to some. However, in this new global

village, many of its inhabitants — especially those in its

slums — face the prospect of further impoverishment and

marginalization. For them, the spectre of poverty, hunger,

malnutrition, inadequate shelter and disease is a constant

reality. It is their daily lot. It flouts human dignity. No one

should have to live and die in poverty. This is not how we

envisage the destiny of the greater part of humankind in the

twenty-first century.

So the greatest challenge facing us, the United

Nations, is the eradication of the slums of our global

village. If we want to get rid of the scourge of poverty, we

need to redress the present imbalances. We need to ensure

that all countries of the world benefit from the effects of

globalization.

Our basic contention — and I do not think that it is

too much to ask for — is that we should be able to increase

our share in the global economy, be it through trade or

through the mobilization of foreign direct investment. As

small developing economies, we face the enormous

challenge of building our export and institutional capacities

to allow us to assume our place in this fiercely competitive

global environment.

If we are to attract investments, improve product

quality, meet standards — in short, compete effectively and

grasp the opportunities presented by the World Trade

Organization (WTO) agreements — then it is imperative

that the international community recognize the need to grant

us adequate transitional support.

It is in this context that my delegation appeals to the

European Union to accept the African, Caribbean and

Pacific group of States’ request for an extension of trade

preferences under a WTO waiver for a protracted period of

time, within the framework of the successor agreement to

the Lomé IV Convention. Genuine cooperation should take

cognizance of the special development need of weaker and

vulnerable partners to adjust to the demands of

competitiveness. We need time to allow a transitional

period of preparation and adjustment. And we need to do

so under fair conditions.

We small island developing States are the weaker

and more vulnerable members of the international

community. It is a well-established fact. But whilst

momentum has been created for the recognition of our

special characteristics and constraints, it is somewhat

disappointing to note that avowed intentions have yet to

be translated into action. How are we to interpret this

apparent inertia in the application of the so-called

vulnerability index? How are we to interpret this apparent

indifference to the problems we face, especially in

relation to security, sustainable development and

environmental protection?

Vulnerability has taught us in the Seychelles a few

lessons, though. Whilst our voice is little heard in this

forum, whenever we are asked about our role on the

world stage our response generally reveals an impressive

scoresheet in such areas as conservation of the

environment and an equally ambitious vision of our place

in the world. We continue to work very hard to ensure

that the development necessary to give our people a high

degree of social well-being does not affect the “last

sanctuary on Earth”, as we call ourselves.

“Environment” for us is not a fashion statement. We

do not intend to give any lessons, but we certainly intend

to be the conscience of the world. Whilst others, infinitely

more powerful and developed than we are, pollute and

spoil, we preserve and protect. We have set aside some

45 per cent of our national territory for the protection of

nature. And we have offered to the international

community two of its most precious natural treasures as

World Heritage Sites.

But all this has a cost. We bear the brunt of it,

conscious of our responsibility to future generations,

conscious that planet Earth is our common heritage. Ours,

though, is a shared responsibility, requiring global

solutions to a global problem. And the solution is to be

found not in rhetoric, but in action. Therefore, we expect

the industrialized nations to pay less lip service to

environmental protection. We expect them to be

accountable and to meet their Kyoto commitments. Above

all, we expect them to get their act together and clean up

the mess we are all in.

Vulnerability has also taught us to live in racial

harmony, to make ours the ideals for which the United

Nations stands for. The force of our social cohesion lies

in our racial diversity. Africans, Asians and Europeans

have forged our nation, resulting in a happy marriage of

races that has led to an eclectic population of 79,000

2

people living in harmony and tolerance. When we see what

goes on around us — wars, acts of wanton terrorism and

destruction, savagery and barbarism — all in the name of

some insane ideology, religious, racial or political, we fail

to comprehend. We fail to understand, perhaps because we

have learned to live together as one nation, regardless of

racial origin or political or religious conviction.

We try very hard to mitigate the effects of our

vulnerability. If we have achieved some degree of success,

it is through the prudent and often painstaking management

of our natural resources. It is also through the judicious use

of international aid and grants that we have received over

the years. We have not wasted a cent of what has been

awarded to us. We have managed overseas development

assistance by creating a beneficial multiplier effect that has

trickled down into all spheres and levels of our national

development. Unfortunately, the logic and unwritten laws

of international cooperation will have it that we have

become victims of this very prudent use of aid. We seem

to have worked ourselves off the list of nations that qualify

for such help.

In this interdependent world of ours, the ramifications

of globalization have proved that the world order has no

frontiers. Solutions to the challenges of the new

international order are to be sought through international

solidarity and cooperation, through the vehicle of

multilateralism. This presupposes that every member of the

international community should enjoy peace and security.

Unfortunately, too many conflict situations persist, negating

economic growth and social progress. The African continent

has been disproportionately afflicted by intra-State and

inter-State conflicts.

At the special meeting of the Security Council on

Africa in April this year, we urged the international

community to put its full weight behind African peace

initiatives, but also to reinforce the institutional and

operational capacity of the Organization of African Unity

(OAU) in the prevention, management and resolution of

conflicts in Africa. Finding durable solutions to our

problems in Africa requires a concerted and integrated

approach by the international community if we want to

make the African renaissance a reality in an era of global

solidarity and partnership.

Speaking of peace and security, we cannot but

empathize with a fellow small island State — Cyprus —

with which we are sentimentally bound in a common

destiny. The division of the island has persisted for too

long. We cannot allow it to continue as a fait accompli. Nor

can we condone the presence of foreign troops there.

Cyprus is a unitary, sovereign State whose intercommunal

problems can only be resolved on the basis of Security

Council resolutions.

In a separate but related context, we note with regret

the continuing tension in Greek-Turkish relations. My

country, like all peace-loving nations, would like to see

Greece and Turkey establish good-neighbourly relations

based on international law and treaties, as well as on the

basis of the principles enshrined in the United Nations

Charter. Differences are bound to remain, but these can

be resolved within mechanisms available in international

law, in particular, through the jurisdiction of the

International Court of Justice. We urge Turkey to accept

the Court’s jurisdiction.

We are conscious of the inequalities and double

standards which prevail throughout the world. The rules

of the game, more often than not, are not tipped in favour

of the smallest among us. Indeed, relations between

nations give the lie to the statement that we are all equal.

This is the reality of things. We do not say that we

necessarily accept the status quo. But we have learned to

live with it. Neither do we accept that squalor, injustice

and poverty should be the norms guiding relations

between human beings in the next millennium.

So, in recognizing our own shortcomings and

failures, we also recognize that humankind is presented

with a unique opportunity to right the wrongs and

injustices that it has perpetrated.

We are also presented with a unique opportunity to

make our planet, our only home, a better, cleaner and

safer place to live. We can do so through a proactive

United Nations. It is not a perfect institution. But it is the

only institution which represents the collective conscience

of humanity. It represents the unique, indispensable forum

for shared international responsibilities and global issues

which affect the entire community of nations.

The United Nations remains our greatest hope for

justice, peace, security and development. It remains our

only hope for a more compassionate world.