Trinidad and Tobago, 2010

First, I offer my congratulations on your election,

Mr. President. I also take this opportunity to recognize

the leadership of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,

whose influence brought to this sixty-fifth session of

the General Assembly 139 heads of State or

Government to rededicate efforts to achieve the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

It is with a sense of hope for a better world that I

address this Assembly of leaders and decision makers.

I join the Assembly and the international community in

echoing the call for a world where people are again

placed at the centre of our actions, where the care of

children is given greater priority, where poverty is seen

as an enemy of human dignity, where peace can be

achieved without bloodshed, where conversations

resulting in greater tolerance, mutual respect and

understanding would motivate cooperation and unity,

and where selflessly sacrificing one’s best skills and

resources for the benefit of fellow human beings would

be the primary purpose of our actions. I believe that all

of this is possible if we recommit ourselves to the

founding principles upon which the United Nations

was built.

The United Nations must continue to provide a

voice to all States whether small or large, developed or

developing, industrialized or agrarian. The Charter of

the United Nations provides for the sovereign equality

of all States. It must be at the centre of all discussions

and decisions geared towards meeting the demands of

its membership in this third millennium. For that

reason, we welcome the theme of this year’s debate:

“Reaffirming the central role of the United Nations in

global governance”.

We are of the view, as are many of you, that no

nation will be safe and no democracy will prevail if

there is no mutual cooperation towards global stability,

fashioned by opportunity for all, equity and the ability

to feed, provide health care, clothing, housing and

education for people everywhere. We are all in this

together. We shall rise or fall together.

Let us not take for granted the significance of our

presence here. That we can sit in one Hall means that

we can also work together to achieve those noble

objectives, which foster and promote global peace and

stability.

To realize those goals, our debate of this topic

must not be reduced to empty rhetoric and nice

language. We must reaffirm the essential role of the

United Nations in resolving global issues and make the

United Nations more accountable. So we must look at a

wider definition of global governance.

It is our respectful view that global governance

must not only mean agreement on a body of rules, laws

or practices that place the United Nations at the centre

of all matters which confront the international

community; it must also mean that we hold our leaders

and institutions more accountable for their actions,

delivering a better quality of life for all our peoples.

No nation large or small must be exempted.

Global governance cannot be limited to the

crafting of instruments related to the promotion of

democracy. A key component must be the creation of

fair and equitable rules to enhance the development

prospects of developing countries as well. We

recognize the rules governing membership of groups

such as the Group of 20 (G20), but a mechanism must,

we believe, be established to insert the voice of the

United Nations in the activities of those groups, such

that the concerns and needs of all Members are actively

considered. Trinidad and Tobago therefore calls for the

establishment of predictable and regular channels to

facilitate dialogue between the G20 nations and

Members of the United Nations, which constitute the

“Group of 192” or the “G192”. It is our hope that some

of those issues will be examined at the next G20

Summit, scheduled in November of this year.

At the same time, Trinidad and Tobago, as Chair-

in-Office of the Commonwealth, calls on the General

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Assembly to recognize the important work being done

by the Commonwealth, especially as it relates to small

and vulnerable economies. The international

community must do more to deal with the economic

plight of its most vulnerable Members, which depend

heavily on the flow of international capital and trade to

ensure that their development needs are met. Trinidad

and Tobago intends to use its position as Chair of the

Commonwealth to promote enhanced cooperation

between the United Nations and the Commonwealth so

as to facilitate measures aimed at providing

development financing in a predictable manner to

developing countries. This would mean a willingness

on the part of international financial institutions to

re-examine whether some of their policies have been

creating a perpetual cycle of poverty for small nations.

Such a cycle must not be allowed to continue.

A few days ago I participated here in the High-

level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development

Goals. Since then, the question that keeps lingering in

my mind is whether we would have to convene another

meeting in the future — shortly — to restate the urgent

need to provide the necessary assistance to developing

countries, so that they can meet the MDGs. While I

applaud the noble efforts of the United Nations in

providing an enabling environment for leaders to

exchange ideas and to formulate solutions on the

subject, I must confess that over the years we have had

ample rhetoric but insufficient action on this matter.

In my country we have put in place a Ministry of

the People to deal with poverty eradication and hunger

as a priority. This is just one vehicle aimed at placing

us in a position to honour our commitments to reduce

poverty. However, we are of the firm view that

international cooperation is also essential. Good

governance requires that developed countries fulfil

their commitments made at the Millennium Summit to

provide assistance to developing countries, so that

those countries can achieve the MDGs by the deadline

set. The deficit in commitment has to be addressed if

real advances are to be made. We all have a duty to the

future. It will be measured by how we fulfil our

responsibilities today.

My Government has created the Children’s Life

Fund to provide funding and critical support for children

needing life-saving surgery. It is our belief that children

must not die in our country — or in any other country —

because they cannot afford health care — not in the year

2010. There must be new arrangements and

relationships between countries that have advanced

medical technology and those without, so that children

of the poorest nations can grow as healthy human

beings and achieve their full potential. It is only when

this is done that the world will progress.

My colleague from Grenada spoke about

non-communicable diseases. Trinidad and Tobago,

joined by other members of the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM), has reiterated that call for international

attention on the issue of the prevention and control of

non-communicable diseases. We have agreed that in

September 2011 a high-level meeting of the General

Assembly on non-communicable diseases will be

convened (resolution 64/265). Much work remains to

be done, if we are to have a successful meeting next

year. In order to achieve the desired results, the United

Nations will have put in place a common set of

principles to tackle this important concern of global

public health.

On the issue of climate change, we say that

Trinidad and Tobago, as a small island developing

State, seeks to promote and safeguard the welfare of

our planet from the harmful effects of climate change

and supports measures aimed at mitigating the effects

of climate change, which threaten our environment,

economic livelihood, territorial integrity and the very

survival of many States. Although the United Nations

continues to be at the forefront of discussions to

confront this formidable challenge, progress has been

much too slow. In making our contribution to the

process, we wish to reiterate the position of the

Alliance of Small Island States, namely, that there

should be deep and ambitious cuts in greenhouse gas

emissions by developed countries amounting to about

40 to 50 per cent by the year 2020 and 85 to 90 per

cent by 2050.

In order for there to be meaningful advancement

at the sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties

to the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change, to be held in Mexico, we must utilize

the coming United Nations Climate Change

Conference, to be held in China, to agree on the

identification of additional and predictable sources of

finance, institutional issues related to finance and the

form of the final agreement. It is our respectful view

that urgent and concerted action is the only viable

option to bring about results at the upcoming

negotiations.

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I turn now to the issue of natural disasters. One of

the first problems I encountered, almost immediately

after taking the oath of office four months ago, was the

issue of unprecedented and widespread flooding that

resulted in tremendous financial and other losses to

victims and placed a strain on the resources of the local

emergency management services. My Government

continues to provide assistance to the affected

communities, while we devise long-term strategies to

reduce the incidence of this type of flooding.

Nevertheless, I recognize that we are not alone to have

been faced with this grave problem. Recent events in

Haiti, Pakistan and Russia have demonstrated that

greater international action is needed to provide relief

to those affected by flooding and other natural

disasters.

In the Caribbean the case of a devastated Haiti

provides the international community with the

opportunity not only to be compassionate, but to also

learn major lessons on disaster preparedness and

management. Respectfully I say that —

notwithstanding the valuable work being done by the

Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), to which

Trinidad and Tobago has made annual contributions —

more action is required to provide the agency with the

requisite resources in the face of ever increasing

natural disasters. In this regard, I respectfully call upon

those States that are in a position to do so to make

financial contributions to CERF, so that it can respond

more efficiently and effectively to humanitarian crises

due to floods and other natural disasters.

There is another persistent matter receiving the

attention of my Government and others of the

CARICOM region, which is the illegal proliferation of

small arms and light weapons and their ammunition. In

our attempts to address this problem, we have had to

divert financial resources that we could have used

otherwise for economic and social development. We

have observed an increase in gang-related violence,

homicides, the illegal narcotics trade and organized

crime. The origin of the illicit trade in those weapons is

beyond our national borders. It is of international

dimension and therefore requires a global response. We

are encouraged by the attempts of the United Nations

to conclude a legally binding agreement to regulate the

trade in conventional weapons. It is our view that this

instrument must also make provision for regulating the

trade in small arms and light weapons, thereby

preventing their illegal diversion.

Trinidad and Tobago also calls for a strong and

effective implementation regime to ensure proper

compliance with the provisions of the treaty to be

drafted. It must also include a proper verification

mechanism and a sanctions regime for breach of its

terms. Such safeguards would assist in preserving the

object and purpose of the agreement.

We have partnered with other members of the

international community to establish rules governing

the non-proliferation of nuclear, chemical and other

types of weapons, which could create untold suffering

for humanity. However, in the Caribbean, our weapons

of mass destruction, are, ironically, small arms and

light weapons. Therefore I implore all those States that

have been reticent about the need for an arms trade

treaty to join us in this undertaking. I pledge the

commitment of my Government to work with other

like-minded States to ensure a successful outcome of

the Preparatory Committee for the United Nations

Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty and ultimately

the Conference itself, scheduled to take place in 2012.

Tied together with the issue of small arms and

ammunition is drug trafficking. Regulating the trade in

small arms and light weapons is not an end in itself.

Urgent international action must also be taken to deal

with the issue of international drug trafficking. We

cannot allow our young people to continue to fall

victim to this monster, which has fuelled transnational

organized crime and resulted in cross-border armed

violence, threatening the political and social stability

of many nations. National Governments alone cannot

solve this problem because of its global dimension.

Governments are forced to divert scarce resources,

which should be used for social programmes, in order

to confront the challenge posed by narco-trafficking.

We need urgent action to address this problem.

In 1989, the Honourable Arthur Robinson, former

Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and

Tobago, took the political initiative to reintroduce on

the agenda of the General Assembly the need for the

establishment of a permanent International Criminal

Court (ICC). The Court has since been established.

However, his call for international drug trafficking to

be included as a crime within the jurisdiction of the

ICC has not yet been realized. Today, I say that it is

even more critical for this to be done. I therefore

respectfully call upon States Members of the United

Nations which are States parties to the Rome Statute of

the ICC to include international drug trafficking as a

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crime within the jurisdiction of the ICC. The ICC is the

only credible international judicial organ with the

competence to prosecute those who perpetrate this

crime.

In closing, I wish to raise one area of reform that

I hold very dearly. That is the establishment of

UN Women, an entity which consolidates four previous

agencies. I am confident that this venture, which will

become fully operational by January 2011, will provide

a coherent approach in attending to issues affecting

women internationally. It is my hope that UN Women

will receive the support of all States.

Finally, 10 years ago the Security Council

adopted resolution 1325 (2000) on women and peace

and security, acknowledging that there can be no

sustainable peace and security without the involvement

and contribution of women. Trinidad and Tobago is

committed to advancing the peace and security agenda

of the United Nations, and my country’s attachment to

the promotion of women is equally strong. That is why

I wish to state that Trinidad and Tobago will introduce

in the First Committee of the General Assembly,

devoted to disarmament, international peace and

security, a resolution on women, disarmament, arms

control and non-proliferation. I pledge the support of

the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for this

initiative.

We have spent a decade in this third millennium.

In retrospect, have we advanced as a world community

in ways that will create a sustainable environment and

secure the lives of people everywhere? Yes, we have

made tremendous strides in communications

technology; yes, we are a global village as a result of

improvements; but, regrettably, we cannot say that we

are our neighbours’ keepers. There are still too many

fences between us — fences of politics, ideology,

religion, ethnicity, culture and traditions. As human

beings, we have the unique capacity to reason and on

the basis of that reasoning to develop deeper

understandings. Today, I respectfully say: Let us

pledge to use this understanding gained from reasoning

to promote conversations between nations and peoples;

conversations to replace aggression and threats;

conversations geared towards finding peaceful ways to

deal with differences; conversations borne out of

mutual respect for each other as people and nations;

conversations founded upon respect for diversity;

conversations that ensure the survival of the human

race and the planet as their purpose.

As I end my contribution to this debate, I wish to

compliment the United Nations for all of the work

designed to revitalize this unique global body. I also

affirm our support for efforts and policies aimed at

revitalizing the central role of the United Nations in

global governance.