Trinidad and Tobago, 2013

This

evening, as the Chairperson of the Conference of Heads

of State and Government of the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM), I am very delighted and honoured to

extend to President Ashe our congratulations on his

assumption of the position of President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. His elevation to

preside over this central organ of the United Nations

is testimony to the contribution that CARICOM, as

a grouping of small States, continues to make to the

advancement of the global agenda for peace, security

and development. Indeed, it is evidence of the principle

of the sovereign equality of all States enshrined in

the Charter of the United Nations. Nowhere else is

that principle more recognizable than in the General

Assembly. Trinidad and Tobago is confident that the

President will discharge his mandate with distinction

and in an impartial manner for the benefit of all States.

In 2000, world leaders gathered at the General

Assembly and launched the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs), which were aimed at achieving specific

targets on poverty alleviation, universal education,

gender equality, child and maternal health, combating

HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, environmental

sustainability, and partnership for development by

2015. At that time, there was renewed faith in the United

Nations as the vehicle to assist developing countries,

especially the most vulnerable, in their efforts to help

reduce poverty and hunger and to provide an enabling

environment to assist States, working as partners, to

develop their economies so that their peoples may live

in conditions free of persistent poverty, inadequate

health care and other developmental ills. At that time,

it was felt that a new chapter was beginning for the

United Nations. It was now being seen as proactive and

not reactive.

When we look back on the period between

2000 and the present, what is the reality? What has

the international community witnessed since the

commitments were made at the Millennium Summit

in 2000? The evidence shows that progress towards

achieving the MDGs has been uneven. For us in

Trinidad and Tobago, we have made some strides in

achieving the Goals and, indeed, in some cases, we

have surpassed them. For example, with respect to the

MDG related to education, not only have we achieved

universal primary education, we have also achieved

universal secondary education, and we are working

towards achieving universal early childhood education.

We are well aware that a number of countries

are not on track to realize any of the targets set. By

2005, and again in 2010, it was evident that greater

efforts were needed if developing countries as a whole

were to meet their MDG targets by the deadline.

However, despite numerous constraints in the difficult

international economic and financial environment,

developing countries have done much to finance their

own development. In contrast, many commentators

have asserted that developed countries have not done

enough to honour their commitments or to provide

development assistance to their partners, consistent

with the agreement reached at the Millennium Summit.

Arguably, some developed countries have not done

enough to reform their trade, tax and transparency

policies. Moreover, insufficient attention has been paid

to appropriate regulation of the global financial and

commodity markets. What has happened is that those

in turn have negatively impacted the ability of many

developing countries to achieve the MDGs.

Since the 2000 Summit, there has been some

progress in the achievement of the internationally

agreed goals including the MDGs, but there have

also been many pitfalls. It has become apparent that

business-as-usual approaches will not suffice to address

and eradicate poverty on a global scale; to ensure food,

nutrition and energy security; to reverse environmental

degradation and to deal with climate change.

Current approaches will not advance the MDG

agenda by 2015 or ensure sustainable development in

the post-2015 context, as agreed at the June 2012 Rio

de Janeiro United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development (Rio+20). Transformative change at the

national, regional and international levels is what is

required.

In reflecting on the role of the United Nations in

addressing the issue of development so that all peoples

of the world may live in larger freedom, we welcome

the outcome document adopted on 23 September for

a renewed commitment to the MDG agenda and the

intensification of the efforts towards its achievement

by 2015. We also welcome the decision to launch the

intergovernmental process that will lead to an agreement

on the post-2015 development agenda, which should

provide a new and more inclusive architecture to assist

us in achieving our global sustainable development

objectives.

We therefore applaud the President for focusing on

those efforts. We agree with him that it is an opportune

moment to begin the discourse on setting the stage

for the post-2015 development agenda. Some of the

preparatory work has already been done. At the Rio+20

Conference, world leaders pledged action on sustainable

development. We recognized the shortcomings of the

MDG process and the need to embrace a new partnership

involving Governments, the private sector, civil society

and multilateral banks, inter alia, to advance action on

sustainable development.

As leaders, we agreed to an outcome document to

chart “The future we want” (resolution 66/288, annex),

that is, a more sustainable future for the benefit of

present and future generations. “The future we want”

addresses many facets of what is required to stimulate

sustainable development for all countries. Trinidad and

Tobago was an active partner at that Conference.

Today we say we will continue to support the

emphasis placed on poverty eradication as the

greatest global challenge facing the world today and

an indispensable requirement for the achievement of

sustainable development. We are also committed to

the work already under way on the establishment of

the following sustainable development goals: first, the

development of the green economy as a tool for achieving

sustainable development; secondly, the development

of measures that go beyond gross domestic product

in assessing development; thirdly, the adoption of a

framework for tackling sustainable consumption and

production; and, fourthly, a focus on gender equality

and the need for greater engagement by civil society in

national efforts for sustainable development.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remarked that

“The [Rio+20] outcome document provides

a firm foundation for social, economic and

environmental well-being. It is now our

responsibility to build on it. Now the work begins.”

Trinidad and Tobago and many developing countries

also shared the sentiments of Her Excellency

Ms. Dilma Rousseff, who said: “I am convinced that

this Conference will have the effect of bringing about

sweeping change.” Therefore, as we begin to set the

stage for the post-2015 development agenda, Trinidad

and Tobago respectfully submits that the General

Assembly must provide the platform for achieving that

sweeping change, so as to ensure that we realize the

objective of integrating sustainable development at all

levels for a better world for all of humankind.

In keeping with that renewed commitment, we

applaud the launch of the High-Level Political Forum

on Sustainable Development to provide an appropriate

level of involvement and high-level political oversight

for the implementation of our collective sustainable

development aspirations. Trinidad and Tobago

therefore also supports the President’s announcement

to commence in a robust manner, during the current

session of the General Assembly, deliberations aimed

at arriving at a development agenda for the post-2015

period. We support his plans to convene high-level

events aimed at addressing women, youth and civil

society; human rights and the rule of law; South-South

cooperation; and information and communication

technology development. In our view, the topics

he has selected to guide the three thematic debates

scheduled for this session of the Assembly are well

chosen, namely, the role of partnerships, how stable and

peaceful societies can contribute to development, and

the way water, sanitation and sustainable energy can

contribute to the post-2015 development agenda.

The areas to be tackled at those events demonstrate

that the President has a clear vision of the elements needed

to give effect to the outcome of the Rio+20 Conference,

which embodies the hopes and dreams of the most

vulnerable members of the international community.

That grouping called for the new development agenda

to embrace the spirit of the Millennium Declaration and

to maintain the best of the MDGs, but also to go beyond

them.

In my view, it is imperative that those high-level

meetings underscore that we must go beyond business

as usual. There must a coordinated effort to use those

events to formulate a development agenda that builds on

and further accelerates the reduction of poverty levels,

which, since the launch of the MDGs, has already been

the fastest reduction in history.

The discourse must also be people-centred or, as

some commentators have postulated, it must be based

on our common humanity. We also find merit in the

comments of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons

on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, appointed by

the Secretary-General, which indicated that the targets

to be agreed for the post-2015 development agenda

should be monitored closely and

“the indicators that track them should be

disaggregated to ensure no one is left behind and

targets should only be considered ‘achieved’ if they

are met for all relevant income and social groups”.

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago recognizes

the importance of having people at the centre of our

development goals. Consequently, upon our election to

office in 2010, we embarked on a national development

policy which is built on the premise of prosperity for

all. An examination of our national policy will show

that in Trinidad and Tobago, we have also observed

the importance of an integrated approach to not just

development, but development that is sustainable, that

integrates the social, economic and environment pillars

and which is similar to the plan outlined by President

Ashe, to set the stage for the post-2015 development

agenda.

My Government has implemented, with varying

measures of success, seven pillars that are intended

to propel our country’s development in order to

achieve prosperity for all. I will quickly itemize them:

people-centred development, poverty eradication

and social justice, national and personal security,

information and communications technology, a more

diversified, knowledge-intensive economy, good

governance, and foreign policy.

Trinidad and Tobago will continue to do its part in

assisting the community of nations to craft a post-2015

development agenda to integrate the social, economic

and environmental dimensions of sustainability.

We join other small island developing States

(SIDS) in outlining our many development successes,

achieved through SIDS leadership, as well as with the

assistance of the international community. In addition,

and in keeping with the recognition of SIDS as a special

case for sustainable development as a result of our

unique characteristics, challenges and vulnerabilities,

we must also highlight the fact that SIDS have made

significantly less progress in the area of development

than other vulnerable groups of countries.

In some cases, SIDS are on the front lines of

experiencing a reversal of many of the gains that

have been achieved. In that regard, as Chair of the

Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean

Community, I wish to bring to the attention of this body

a matter of significant concern to the States members

of CARICOM: the situation of small, highly indebted

middle-income countries. Almost as if we were being

penalized for our relative success in getting ourselves

out of the morass of poverty, the States members of

CARICOM that are categorized as middle-income

countries have been graduated out of the economic

space where they were previously afforded access to

concessional financing.

The use of per capita income to determine a

country’s level of development and its need for grant

and concessional financing does not provide a true

picture. Per capita income is, at best, an arithmetic ratio

that does not address levels of poverty, distribution of

income, levels of indebtedness, vulnerability and the

capacity to self-generate sustainable economic and

social development. If one were to add to that the impact

of natural disasters and the effects of sea-level rise

and climate change, the fallacy of the middle-income

categorization would be wiped out in an instant.

This issue must be considered within the context of

SIDS and the post-2015 development agenda. Indeed, in

the preparations for our participation in that upcoming

discourse, the recognition of the vulnerabilities of

small island developing States is one of the guidelines

that CARICOM will apply when considering its

commitments to the overall agenda.

The economic vulnerability and ability of the

States members of CARICOM to build resilience

are exacerbated by a debilitating debt overhang,

which continues to bedevil the region’s growth and

development prospects. Similarly, CARICOM takes

the view that the embargo applied to Cuba constitutes

a drag on the sustainable development prospects of that

country and, as such, should be lifted sooner rather

than later.

CARICOM’s debt stock currently stands at

approximately $19 billion, while the debt-to-GDP ratio

ranges from 60 to 144 per cent for many States. Many

CARICOM States have been recording lower-than-

satisfactory growth rates in comparison with other

developing countries in Latin America and the world

in general. In the aftermath of the global financial

and economic crisis, CARICOM States continue

to experience considerable difficulty in accessing

reasonably priced development finance, as several of

those States have been categorized at middle-income

status and graduated away from access to concessional

resources from the multilateral financial institutions.

I would therefore respectfully say that it must be

acknowledged that the debt overhang did not result

from profligate spending by CARICOM Governments;

instead, it resulted from the makeup of our countries, the

geography and history of our countries; our proneness

to natural catastrophes; and our very small physical

size, which does not lessen the per capita cost of

development expenditures for the necessary economic

infrastructure and the necessary social development

projects.

CARICOM States therefore appeal to the

international community to support our call for the

immediate review of the very narrow criteria used

by multilateral financial institutions and even some

development partners, which graduate small highly

indebted middle-income countries away from access

to concessional resources; and for an early review of

the economic and financial situation of graduated small

highly indebted middle-income countries with a view

to developing programmes for the orderly resolution of

their debt overhang, without compromising the future

prospects of those States.

We look forward to our participation in the Third

International Conference on Small island Developing

States, to be held in Samoa in September 2014, and to

the observance of the International Year of Small Island

Developing States, also in 2014. I am of the view that

both the Third SIDS Conference and the International

Year of SIDS come at an opportune time and will

ensure not only the full implementation of the Barbados

Programme of Action and its Mauritius Strategy for

the sustainable development of SIDS but also that the

concerns of SIDS are well articulated and adequately

taken into account in the development of the post-2015

development agenda.

The Assembly may recall that during the general

debate in 2011, both The Honourable Winston Baldwin

Spencer, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of

Antigua and Barbuda, and The Honourable Ralph

Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the

Grenadines, put forward the case for reparations for

the injustices suffered by African slaves and their

descendants, stating that segregation and violence

against people of African descent in the region had

impaired their capacity for advancement as peoples

and nations (see A/66/PV.22). They posited that former

slave-owning States should begin a reconciliation

process by formally acknowledging the cruelties

committed over the 400 years of the African slave trade.

At the Thirty-Fourth Regular Meeting of the

Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM,

held in Port of Spain in July this year, consideration

was given to the issue of reparations for Caribbean

slavery and native genocide. Heads of Government

unanimously agreed to support action on this issue.

CARICOM States therefore urge those Member

States that have not yet done so to contribute to the

United Nations trust fund to ensure the erection of

a permanent memorial in honour of the victims of

slavery and the transatlantic slave trade in a place

of prominence at United Nations Headquarters. We

were very heartened when the winning design for the

memorial was unveiled Monday right here at the United

Nations.

We recognize that peace, security and stability

provide an enabling environment for sustainable

development. Indeed, national and personal security is

one of the seven pillars of our own national sustainable

development strategy. At the international level, we are

stalwart supporters of the Arms Trade Treaty, agreed to

in March of this year and which we have already signed.

Today we deposited our instrument of ratification.

In the light of our experiences and challenges

in connection the impact of crime, violence and the

illicit trade in small arms and light weapons on our

development efforts, we would encourage all States

which have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Arms

Trade Treaty, so that it may come into force at the

earliest opportunity.

Indeed, I want to note with sadness an incident

that occurred only recently. One of our brilliant young

citizens, Mr. Ravindra Ramrattan, a former President’s

gold medalist for academic excellence in Trinidad and

Tobago, was killed last Saturday in the terrorist attack

on the Westgate mall in Nairobi. He no doubt fell

victim to illegal guns and other weapons in the hands

of murderous terrorists. His death is merely one more

example of the consequences of illicit cross-border

flows of arms.

On the Syrian crisis, it must not be forgotten that

good governance, respect for human rights and the rule of

law at the national and international levels are essential

for the achievement of sustainable development. In

that context, we wish to underscore our grave concern

about the escalating humanitarian crisis in Syria, and

repeat our call for the situation to be resolved through

dialogue and not the use of any measures that would

violate international law. We submit that if there is

prima facie evidence that individuals committed war

crimes during this protracted conflict that fall within

the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court,

steps should be taken to bring them to justice.

As we move forward with the work of the Open

Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals,

of which Trinidad and Tobago is a member, we have

already seen certain areas in which consensus is

emerging. I wish to assure the Assembly that the

Government of Trinidad and Tobago will continue to

be actively engaged in advancing the President’s efforts

to utilize the General Assembly as a primary vehicle

for engaging in dialogue on the formulation of the post-

2015 development agenda.