Vanuatu, 2007

I bring to this Assembly

warm greetings from the people of Vanuatu.

Today is an important day in the histories of four

of our Members of the United Nations family, and my

Government and the people of Vanuatu congratulate

the people of Tuvalu, Nigeria and Cyprus on their

independence anniversaries, and the people of the

People’s Republic of China on the anniversary of the

founding of that great nation.

Let me also join others in extending our

felicitations to you, Sir. You take up your high position

at a time when the United Nations is confronted by

some enormous challenges. The uncertainty shrouding

the horizon will severely test our common resolve to

address global problems.

The escalating tension and animosity in the world

today are an affront to the principles and values of the

Organization and ultimately challenge international

order. What the world needs right now is a hand of

friendship to rebuild trust and faith among and between

Members. The resounding war of words must not be

accepted with complacency.

As one of the smallest members of the United

Nations family of nations, Vanuatu would like to

reaffirm its commitment to building global peace and

security. We will also continue to participate in United

Nations peacekeeping missions.

May I also take this opportunity to acknowledge

the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade some

200 years ago. My country also suffered tremendously

from those horrendous acts executed by the great

champions of deception and iniquity, who were

responsible for enslaving thousands of men, women

and children and shipping them to foreign shores under

inhumane conditions using malicious torture. The days

of blackbirding are long gone, but the bitter memories

and injurious social consequences are entrenched in the

history of my country and people. I honour all the

descendants of slaves for their courage and their

determination to live on. They deserve a special place

in the countries in which their forefathers were forced

to live. There also remains a huge debt owed to the

countries that suffered large human losses from those

heinous crimes against humanity. We cannot exonerate

the past, but we can all hope for a just and better

future. All countries must work together to prevent

other insidious contemporary forms of slavery that

have established themselves in our societies.

I welcome and support the decision to make

climate change the theme of this session of the General

Assembly. In the same vein, my Government highly

commends the Secretary-General for convening last

week’s high-level meeting, which should provide an

important catalyst for the conference to be held later

this year in Bali.

I should now like to take this opportunity to

recognize and commend the work done under the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change to address the effects of climate change and to

promote mitigation and adaptation strategies. But the

point must be made that rapidly reducing the emission

of greenhouse gases by all major emitters must be

ensured within the next 10 to 15 years.

We followed with great interest the recent debate

about the criteria and rules that the United Nations uses

to decide whether a country should or should not be

removed from its list of least developed countries.

Graduation is desirable and fair if, and only if, it is the

culmination of a process of structural progress over

time that is to say, progress based on irreversible

improvements in the structure of the economy or in the

basic indicators of development. It is only fair and

logical, therefore, that the criteria used as a basis for

identifying a country for graduation should be

structural criteria.

The United Nations currently uses three criteria

to identify cases for graduation. Admittedly, only two

of the three are structural in nature. One relates to

human capital essentially as regards health and

education and the other to economic vulnerability.

The proponents of reform of the graduation rule rightly

postulate that those two criteria together should form

the basis for identifying a country for graduation. The

current graduation rule allows the United Nations to

declare a country ready for graduation even if only one

of those two paramount thresholds has been met. We

consider the current practice to be conceptually flawed

and fraught with serious implications. We believe this

anomaly can easily be remedied.

My Government is of the view that the General

Assembly should invite the Economic and Social

Council to revisit the graduation rule in the light of the

ongoing debate, and that the experts who advise the

Council should be mandated to explore reform of the

rule with a view to making human assets and economic

vulnerability paramount. Such a reform would do

justice to countries that have not achieved the implied

structural progress. The Government of Vanuatu will

do its utmost to cooperate with the relevant United

Nations bodies and other like-minded nations and

friends in forging consensus on this matter. I am

convinced that such consensus implicitly exists, and

needs only to be formalized.

Experts and members of the Committee for

Development Policy should also be encouraged to

undertake in-country consultations and to experience

first-hand the development conditions of countries that

are on the verge of graduation. We are talking about the

livelihoods of peoples who may be seriously affected

by decisions that are made at the United Nations.

We must continue to work together in shaping the

architecture of the United Nations so that it is more

resourceful and relevant to our times and to the peoples

whom we represent.

I would like to commend the United Nations for

increasing its presence in the Pacific region though its

country-based offices. We will encourage more

decentralization of functions to regional offices, which

are better suited to responding to the needs of

Members.

The situation in the Middle East is of grave

concern to all peace-loving Members of the United

Nations. We earnestly pray and hope for an early end to

the conflict and to the suffering of all innocent

children, women and men. Both Israel and Palestine

have the right to live in peaceful coexistence as

independent and sovereign States. The international

community must be realistic about the future. Let us

allow justice, security and long-lasting peace to prevail

for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

My Government very much welcomes the

adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples. It is our hope that the Declaration

will provide a framework for addressing the grievances

of indigenous peoples, who remain suppressed,

alienated and disadvantaged in the land of their

forefathers. We can only hope that this instrument will

provide an enabling mechanism to allow indigenous

peoples the freedom to fully participate, without fear of

reprisals, in the affairs and development of their

countries. The Declaration should also serve to restore

dignity to those who have remained second-class

citizens in the land of their fathers. We cannot turn

back the clock, but we can create a better future for

them.

The Charter of the United Nations espouses the

principles that continue to guide the Organization’s

efforts in the process of self-determination. The

Charter calls for recognition of, and respect for, the

fundamental and inalienable rights of people and

territories still under colonial rule to determine their

own future. We cannot champion democracy while

turning a blind eye to those who have cried out for

peace and freedom for many years, as have our

brothers in West Papua. It is the moral responsibility of

the Organization to act with diligence and to work

towards promoting better conditions in larger freedom.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support

of Vanuatu’s major development partners in

particular Australia, New Zealand, France, Japan, the

People’s Republic of China, the United States of

America and the European Union. I would also like to

express my Government’s gratitude to India, Thailand,

Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Turkey and various

United Nations agencies for their ongoing

contributions to the development of Vanuatu.

In conclusion, the world we live in today can

only become a better place if all countries big and

small, powerful and weak recognize, understand,

value and respect each other as equals. The pride of the

human person is the essence of building equality

between all persons. Respect also means accepting the

national sovereignty of each individual country and

refraining from interfering in the internal affairs of any

State. If we are to work towards building a future that

will provide security, peace, hope and prosperity for all

future generations, those important values must be

upheld at all times.

May I remind the Assembly that our personal

aims should not be paramount. We must work with all

the diligence and wisdom that God the Almighty has

given us to serve His people.