Trinidad and Tobago, 2002

Please allow

me to preface my indication by indicating to this

Assembly the regret of my Head of Government and of

my Foreign Minister, who could not join us on this

occasion due to pressing domestic electoral

commitments.

I would wish, on behalf of the Government and

people of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, to

extend to Mr. Kavan our most sincere congratulations

on his election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its fifty-seventh session. We are convinced

that, under his enlightened guidance, we will address

with determination and courage the issues that confront

the international community.

We would also wish to express at this time our

deep appreciation to his predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-

soo, President of the Assembly at its fifty-sixth session,

for the courageous leadership which he displayed in

bringing that session to a successful conclusion under

difficult and trying circumstances.

To the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, we

wish to place on record our appreciation for his

relentless commitment to the cause of peace, security

and development and for his tireless efforts in

achieving the goals of this world body.

The delegation of Trinidad and Tobago extends a

warm welcome to Switzerland on its becoming the

190th State Member of the United Nations and looks

forward in the not-too-distant future to the admission

of Timor-Leste into our United Nations family.

The maintenance of international peace and

security, together with the promotion of economic

progress and the achievement of social justice for

peoples all over the globe, are the pillars on which this

Organization was founded more than half a century

ago. These goals remain as valid today, and even more

so, as when our founding fathers created this

Organization.

As Governments, therefore, and as Member

States of the United Nations, it is incumbent upon us,

the international community as a whole, to reaffirm

constantly, by word and deed, our faith in and

commitment to the fundamental purposes and

principles of the United Nations, particularly in the

area of international peace and security. In this field,

the Security Council, charged as it is with primary

responsibility under the Charter for the maintenance of

international peace and security, must be allowed to

fully play its fundamental role, as it did in confronting

the challenge posed to the international community by

the terrorist acts committed in this very city on 11

September 2001.

Trinidad and Tobago remains committed to

working with the Counter-Terrorism Committee

established by Security Council resolution 1373 (2001)

in order to do our part to eradicate the scourge of

terrorism from our world.

On 31 August 1962, some 40 years ago, Trinidad

and Tobago became an independent State and

immediately thereafter joined this universal body. We

in Trinidad and Tobago recognize and appreciate the

role that the United Nations has played in promoting

fundamental human rights and freedoms, the

international rule of law, the peaceful settlement of

disputes, the right to self-determination and the

sovereign equality of States. Without proper

observance by all States, large and small, of these basic

principles, the world would most certainly have been a

more challenging place for us all.

It is in that context that Trinidad and Tobago

views with increasing concern the continued absence of

a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. It is clear

that peace will continue to elude that region unless all

parties concerned demonstrate unequivocally the will

to collaborate with a view to achieving the vision set

out in Security Council resolution 1397 (2002).

The maintenance of international peace and

security is a sine qua non for the achievement of our

economic and social development goals. It is against

this background that Trinidad and Tobago, as a small

State and as a developing country, supports all efforts

made through the international conferences and special

sessions held within the framework of the United

Nations to address the international social agenda in

pursuit of integral human development worldwide.

Some of those include the special session on HIV/

AIDS, the International Conference on Financing for

Development, the Second World Assembly on Ageing,

the special session on children and the just concluded

World Summit on Sustainable Development, all of

which have not only recognized the concerns of the

more vulnerable groups within our societies, but have

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also identified various policy alternatives through

which those concerns can be addressed.

There can, in fact, be no meaningful development

if significant segments of our populations are allowed

to remain in a state of increasing vulnerability. As a

result, Trinidad and Tobago participated fully in the

work of the Second World Assembly on Ageing, the

special session on children and the special session on

HIV/AIDS.

It is our hope that the adoption of the Political

Declaration and the Madrid International Plan of

Action on Ageing, as well as the Declaration and Plan

of Action emerging from this year's special session on

children, will serve as the basis for the development of

policies at the national level to deal with the problems

faced by these two vulnerable groups in our societies.

For its part, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago

has recently completed a draft national policy on

ageing that will address the principal concerns of our

ageing population.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to hamper the

economic and social development of our Caribbean

region, affecting as it does the most economically

active and productive segments of our societies. My

Government has sought to incorporate this issue as a

matter of priority into its national strategic planning

process. It is virtually impossible, however, for any one

country unilaterally to deal effectively with this public

health issue. For that reason, Trinidad and Tobago is

committed to participating fully in all relevant regional

and international initiatives.

In that regard, member States of the Caribbean

Community (CARICOM) were among the first to

translate the global commitments undertaken at the

special session on HIV/AIDS into regional targets

when, in 2001, our Governments adopted the Nassau

Declaration on Health, which identified priorities for

action and partnership in addressing this global health

issue. However, assistance is urgently needed to boost

these national and regional initiatives. We consider

timely the launching of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/

AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We hope that through

this Fund, Governments will be further empowered in

their efforts to implement measures aimed at the

eventual eradication of these diseases.

As a country which falls within the category of

small island developing States, Trinidad and Tobago

feels obliged to make reference to the tendency in the

international community to underestimate the

phenomenon of vulnerability, both as a condition of

size and stage of development. Small island developing

economies are by definition vulnerable, and in a global

village, where negative occurrences in one sphere can

have a ripple effect in others, the implications for us all

are as real as they are apparent. The lack of inherent

capacity, technology and technical know-how limits the

adaptive capacity of small island developing States to

cope with the challenges that they face, including

global environmental problems such as climate change,

biodiversity and land degradation.

As we engage in efforts at the international level

to achieve environmentally sound economic

development, Trinidad and Tobago remains cautious in

the light of the dismal record regarding the

implementation of commitments made at the Rio

Summit, 10 years ago. That Summit concluded with the

signing of two conventions, one on climate change and

the other on biodiversity, together with the adoption of

Agenda 21.

It continues to concern us that emissions of

greenhouse gases have increased worldwide and that

climate change is occurring at a faster rate than

previously estimated, especially since small island

developing States are disproportionately vulnerable to

the impact of climate change, while being responsible

for a minuscule proportion of such emissions. Trinidad

and Tobago therefore urges that decisive action be

taken to ensure that the Kyoto Protocol comes into

force as early as possible, as that is the only existing

international instrument that addresses these problems.

We therefore welcome the political commitment given

by the leaders of some key industrialized countries to

ratify this Protocol in the near future.

It would seem, however, that progress under

Agenda 21 has been limited primarily by lack of

funding and capacity, which has resulted in the

widening of the gap between the attainment of

sustainable development and the alleviation of poverty.

Trinidad and Tobago is therefore pleased that the

recently concluded World Summit on Sustainable

Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa,

agreed to specific targets in areas such as water and

sanitation, health, biodiversity loss, restoration of

depleted fish stocks and chemicals.

The fact that the Johannesburg Summit achieved

a greater synthesis and integration of the three pillars

31

of sustainable development, namely, the social,

economic and environmental, is also a welcome

development. The enormous challenges that these

issues collectively pose provide a profound insight into

the magnitude of the task faced by developing

countries in their quest for sustainable development.

The real test of whether Johannesburg was a success

will, however, come in the months and years ahead as

we seek to implement the commitments made by

Member States.

We must build on the momentum of the World

Summit on Sustainable Development and ensure that

our future course of action guarantees the outcomes

envisaged in the Plan of Implementation and the

Political Declaration emanating from that Summit. It is

in this respect that Trinidad and Tobago would

therefore expect that a priority of this Assembly would

be a decision to convene an international conference in

2004 to review the implementation of the Barbados

Plan of Action for the Sustainable Development of

Small Island Developing States, and more so in view of

the growing recognition by the international

community of the special and vulnerable situation of

these countries.

Additionally, the Assembly may wish to note that

some of these smaller economies continue to be faced

by circumstances such as onerous debt-servicing

schedules, lack of access to new finance and obstacles

in penetrating non-traditional markets, which negate all

their efforts aimed at economic advancement.

It is for this reason that Trinidad and Tobago

looks forward to the early implementation of the

enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt

Initiative and other United Nations initiatives aimed at

alleviating the economic burdens faced by many low-

and middle-income countries. These countries are

being asked to service debts and at the same time to

fulfil their commitments to the Millennium

development agenda. In this regard, we welcome the

recent appointment by the Secretary-General of a High

Representative for the Least Developed Countries,

Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island

Developing States. Trinidad and Tobago looks forward

to working with the High Representative to ensure the

effective discharge of his mandate, particularly as it

relates to small island developing States.

Another noble attempt conceptualized within the

United Nations framework was the International

Conference on Financing for Development, held in

Monterrey earlier this year. Trinidad and Tobago is

heartened by the outcome of that Conference that

defined the necessary actions for addressing some of

the more pressing problems faced by developing

countries in the areas of mobilizing domestic and

international resources for development, international

trade, financial and technical cooperation for

development and external debt. My delegation

therefore urges this Assembly to endorse the Monterrey

Consensus as adopted by that Conference.

At the regional level, Trinidad and Tobago is

engaged in joint efforts with its Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) partners to assume responsibility for the

management of our developing economies. At a

Special CARICOM Summit held last month,

CARICOM leaders mandated that a regional

stabilization fund should be created within the

framework of a long-term economic transformation

programme. The purpose of the fund will be to provide

regional economies with the necessary financial

resources to respond to current and long-term

economic difficulties. This regional financial

cooperation programme is intended to augment

budgetary resources available to member States of the

Community from both domestic sources and

multilateral institutions.

Trinidad and Tobago remains committed to the

international rule of law and to justice for all. Our role

in the reintroduction into the international agenda of

the idea of the creation of a permanent International

Criminal Court in 1989 is well known. And, since that

time, Trinidad and Tobago has not ceased to promote

support for that Court, both regionally and

internationally. It continues to be the hope of my

Government that at the Review Conference of 2009,

the crimes of drug-trafficking and terrorism will also

be included within the jurisdiction of the Court.

It is noteworthy that many States regard the

Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as the

single most important international instrument since

the adoption of the United Nations Charter. The

successful conclusion of the first meeting of the

Assembly of States Parties to the Statute last week was

a positive step towards the operational phase of the

Court, which now stands as a permanent warning to

would-be perpetrators of the crimes within its

jurisdiction that impunity will no longer be tolerated by

the international community and that justice will be

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assured to their victims. In the election of judges to

that Court, Trinidad and Tobago would, as a small

State, consider it an honour to have one of its nationals

elected in order to continue its contribution to the cause

of international criminal justice.

But justice for all victims of the most heinous

crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against

humanity will only be assured when this most recently

created International Criminal Tribunal gains the

widest possible acceptance. We therefore encourage

those States that have not yet done so to ratify or

accede to the Statute.

In order to ensure that the Court will truly

achieve the goals for which it was established, the

States Parties must stand together in their efforts to

preserve the integrity of the Statute to which they have

committed themselves and must, with one accord,

resist any attempts to undermine the effectiveness and

independence of the Court.

In conclusion, the issues which I have raised in

this forum today point to the need for the globalization

of genuine commitment to the resolution of the

problems that currently confront our international

community. What is required therefore is a greater

sense of shared commitment to the fundamental

purposes and principles of the United Nations in the

face of new and ominous threats to global peace and

security; to the vision of a world free from poverty,

hunger and disease; and to an international

organization fully charged by its Member States with

the political will to tackle frontally all the challenges

that pose threats to the very survival of mankind.

Trinidad and Tobago, forty years after joining the

United Nations, renews before the Assembly its firm

commitment to abide fully by the purposes and

principles of the United Nations Charter and to make

its contribution to the economic and social progress of

peoples the world over.