Vanuatu, 2011

Vanuatu joins other

delegations in congratulating you, Mr. President, on

your election to preside over the General Assembly at

its sixty-sixth session. My delegation vows our full

cooperation, and believes that, with your leadership,

we will conclude a successful session.

9 11-51372

Allow me to also acknowledge the leadership of

your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss, for

his exceptional guidance and for the considerable and

important achievements of the previous Assembly

session.

In the same spirit, on behalf of my Government, I

take this opportunity to congratulate His Excellency

Ban Ki-moon on his re-election to the post of

Secretary-General and to commend him on his vision,

leadership and tireless efforts in moving towards

achieving the common interests of all humanity.

I would also like to take this opportunity to

congratulate the Government and the people of the

Republic of South Sudan on the birth of their new

nation on 9 July. Vanuatu recognizes the sovereignty of

South Sudan, and offers the young nation our full

support.

The theme of this year’s General Assembly

session, “The role of mediation in the settlement of

disputes by peaceful means”, calls for more creative

and feasible peaceful multilateral solutions to many of

our long-standing disputes that, unless resolved

peacefully, will have far more extensive global

consequences. The settlement of disputes by peaceful

means is central to the United Nations system, as

enshrined in the United Nations Charter and in

numerous international conventions and treaties. In that

context, we, like many others, encourage our brothers

and sisters in Israel and Palestine to continue the

peaceful negotiations that will ensure regional and

global stability. We also call upon the United Nations

to visit the framework with which it fulfils its

mediation mandates and to develop closer partnerships

with mediation actors within regional groups. To

succeed as responsible nations of this global village,

we must continue to cultivate an environment that

thwarts the seeds of bitterness, hatred and vengeance.

In establishing the United Nations in 1945, many

nations, great and small, entrusted it with the

responsibility to assist in maintaining international

peace and security, developing friendly relations

among nations, and promoting social progress, better

living standards and human rights. However, 66 years

after the founding of this multilateral Organization, the

world that we live in is far from the ideals for which its

inception was intended. Across the globe, people from

all walks of life continue to be subject to colonial rule,

death threats, arbitrary detention, torture and worse,

and are killed for exercising their rights to freedom of

expression. Untold crimes against humanity and other

human rights atrocities still continue.

While we reaffirm our faith in multilateralism,

with the conviction that bilateral diplomacy cannot

substitute for multilateralism, we also believe that our

nations have a greater need of a more robust

multilateral system that is swift and efficient in

responding to the multitude of challenges that members

of this highly esteemed system, acting unilaterally,

would be hard done to defeat. We are delighted to note

that one of the four priorities of the President of the

General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session is to

continue the work on the reforms within the United

Nations.

In that context, this year’s establishment of the

Change Management Team within the Organization, in

particular, is a step in the right direction. That initiative

comes at a time when members of this body are calling

on the United Nations to play a more prominent role in

a period of rapid change and financial restraint in

building a culture of transparency, accountability, good

governance and enhanced democratic participation, and

to achieve efficiency and results.

As regards the Security Council, Vanuatu is

steadfast in its belief that reform measures must

provide for democratic and geographically strategic

representation in both the permanent and the

non-permanent membership to reflect the realities of

this century. We continue to lend our invaluable

support to the candidacies of the many countries vying

for membership within the non-permanent seat

category of the Security Council. We hope that

sustained reforms will help to boost the Security

Council’s peacekeeping role and to increase efficiency

and transparency in promoting the universal standards

and common values and customs that form the basis of

global security and development. At this juncture, let

me acknowledge the work of the peacekeeping and

nation-building missions of the United Nations in

supporting new countries, such as Timor-Leste, South

Sudan and others, in their nation-building.

On 9 September 2011, we marked the tenth

anniversary of the twin towers bombing that wreaked

havoc in the city of New York and claimed more than

3,000 lives. Such acts of terrorism can never be

justified, whatever the causes they claim to be

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advancing and to whatever grievances they claim to

respond.

Despite international efforts to counter terrorism,

major threats remain. Indeed, the world cannot sit idly

by, watching the forces of evil threaten humanity’s

right to peace and security. Terrorism cannot and must

not be allowed to flourish. Vanuatu condemns, in the

strongest possible terms, all forms and manifestations

of terrorism, and calls on all countries to join forces to

fight against its evil ideologies, activities and financing

in order to make the world of tomorrow a safer place.

All countries must work closely in eliminating that

scourge.

Today, the lack of progress on disarmament and

non-proliferation, cornerstones of global security, is

disturbing. The world’s nuclear Powers must fulfil

their vows to meet their obligations under the Treaty on

the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to take

decisive and practical steps towards irreversible

disarmament. Only then will the proliferation of arms

reverse.

My people welcome the strenuous efforts of

President Obama and other world leaders, working

together at the vanguard to advance negotiations on

denuclearization. The very recent events in Japan’s

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster clearly show that

whatever safeguards are in place, there can be no

absolute guarantee that those can withstand the

unforgivable ferocity of Mother Nature. They are

important lessons for us.

Four years after the global financial crisis began,

in 2007, the economies of many developed countries

continue to struggle, stirring financial markets

worldwide with fresh fears of impediments, default and

possible recession. For small developing countries,

such as Vanuatu, the rise in food prices, high fuel costs,

soaring commodity prices, fears of a global recession,

as well as the other unforeseen effects of the global

financial instability and uncertainty that remain in

many developed countries, are having multifaceted

consequences.

Such developments, coupled with the ongoing

effects of climate change and natural disasters,

continue to threaten the economies of small island

nations, and to undermine all efforts towards the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to ensure that

sustainable development is achieved.

Vanuatu has made some progress towards

achieving the MDGs, but much more needs to be done

by pooling our own resources at the national level and

by engaging the international community in

coordinating efforts so as to achieve our MDGs.

The convening of this year’s thematic group on

non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is indeed timely.

In my country, it is estimated that approximately 75 per

cent of deaths each year are related to NCDs.

Furthermore, the immediate causes of the NCD

epidemic — tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical

inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol — are

becoming increasingly widespread in our society,

especially in urban areas. Those self-inflicted diseases

are, therefore, becoming a major barrier to our socio-

economic development and to achieving healthy

islands and the MDGs.

At this point in time, my country is undertaking,

for the first time, a national NCD STEPS survey to

determine and to better understand the burden and the

extent of NCDs and their determinants in our

communities so that we can better target our

intervention efforts in future. Early this year, Vanuatu

launched its revised NCD strategy and policy for the

period 2011 to 2016 to guide our implementation

efforts in the coming years. We have also implemented,

over the years, many key NCD strategies to empower

our people to increase control over their health and its

determinants, with the assistance of our development

partners, such as the World Health Organization, the

Australian Agency for International Development and

the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

In terms of economic performance, Vanuatu’s

economy grew at an unprecedented average rate of

6 per cent between 2003 and 2008. Economic growth

has since weakened, mainly as a result of exogenous

shocks felt during the ongoing global financial crisis.

That has had a negative impact on Government revenue

in the past few years, adding further strain on the

economy. That said, the need for significant increases

in financial support from development partners remains

pressing. The announcement of a considerable increase

in credit facilities at the Group of Twenty London

summit in 2009 was welcome news. However, the

reassertion of those financial commitments and swift

action need to be rigorously followed up by the donor

community.

11 11-51372

The previous assessment by the United Nations

Committee for Development Policy of Vanuatu’s

development status as a least developed country has

showed a progressive pace in development. While

graduation may be imminent, I must underscore, before

the Assembly, that most challenges of the small island

developing States are permanent. The challenges of

smallness, the distance to major metropolitan markets,

extreme vulnerability to natural disasters and climate

change, the sea-level rise and vulnerability to tsunamis

all constitute permanent characteristics of our island

nations. It is therefore important for the United Nations

to ensure that multilateral mechanisms for graduation

and a transition package must not be detached from

those permanent realities. We are delighted that the

President of the General Assembly has vowed to pay

special attention to vulnerable States such as ours.

Climate change and ocean acidification remain

the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security

and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific,

particularly for small low-lying Pacific islands. High

greenhouse gas emitting industrialized countries must

start to embrace and to accept the common but

differentiated responsibilities in historic contributions

to climate change.

As the former Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum,

I, along with my fellow leaders of the Pacific Island

nations, particularly welcome the historic visit of

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the Pacific. I call

on the United Nations to undertake more senior

missions to the Pacific region so as to establish a more

comprehensive understanding of how susceptible the

people of the Pacific are to the adverse impacts of

climate change and sea-level rise, as embodied by the

case of Kiribati.

I call on leaders of advanced nations to renew and

honour their pledges to finance, in particular, efforts to

help the most vulnerable communities to address their

adaptation needs in order to ensure that island nations

survive the impending global disaster that climate

change may afford. An increased global fund to

strengthen the capacity-building efforts of vulnerable

communities, in particular, to integrate climate change

into economic policies and actions, is pressing.

As we prepare for the Conference of the Parties

to the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change (COP 17) talks in Durban, my

Government urges all delegations to work tirelessly to

pledge to a second commitment period of the Kyoto

Protocol. Durban must advance all aspects of the

climate change negotiations and devise strategies to

operationalize the COP 16 decisions if any concrete,

balanced and ambitious outcomes are to yield results.

Colonialism and all forms of imperialism must be

addressed by the United Nations, for one of the reasons

why the United Nations system was created was to

develop friendly relations among nations, based on

respect for the principles of equal rights and the self-

determination of peoples. Therefore, colonial rule is

obsolete and must be addressed with new drive and

vision. The United Nations, as well as the international

community, must continue in their efforts to address

issues of decolonization in those Non-Self-Governing

Territories that still yearn for freedom.

The mandate of the Special Committee on

Decolonization must be strengthened. All means should

be accorded to the Committee to allow it to magnify

the suppressed voices of the peoples in all Non-Self-

Governing Territories that are still under the control of

administrative Powers, especially where serious human

rights violations are reported.

My country, Vanuatu, was the last in the Pacific

region to be decolonized. Since our independence in

1980, we have continued to speak out for the

inalienable rights of the colonized indigenous peoples

of Oceania and in certain parts of the Asian region,

where either administrative or colonial Powers still

retain authority.

My Government also calls upon the United

Nations to ensure that the demands for French

Polynesia’s right to self-determination are not rejected.

We, along with many other Pacific island nations,

support calls for the reinstatement of the French-

administered Territory with the United Nations Special

Committee on Decolonization. That would be the first

major step in the process of their self-determination.

Vanuatu encourages the French-administered Territory

of French Polynesia and, in the same spirit, that of

New Caledonia to continue to seek meaningful

dialogue with France in order to find ways to ensure

that the freedom of the colonized peoples of Oceania is

fully realized.

Enshrined in the core principles of the United

Nations Charter, the Organization must guarantee

universal respect for the human rights and fundamental

freedoms of all the oppressed. The universal pursuit of

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democratic reform, good governance and adherence to

human rights conventions have often concealed the

suffering of many people, denying them their right to

decide their destiny without fear or reprisal. The

United Nations must step up its efforts to exercise their

freedom from the tentacles of foreign rule, so

troublesome a misgiving in these modern times.

One day, all the indigenous peoples of Oceania

and beyond must reach their goal of freedom, a

destination promised to all humanity and a right that

the Creator endowed upon all peoples and that no

earthly Power can deny, to determine where they live

and to be self-ruled in free association with the

international community of nations.

Let me take this opportunity once again to

reiterate to this eminent Assembly our serious concerns

over the infringement by foreign forces on the political

freedom of many of our nations today, a right denied to

the people of the land to exercise their freedom to

control their lands, a freedom denied by the injustices

of the global world order that demarcated many of our

lands, dividing peoples, families and cultures and

disconnecting us from the traditions of our ancestors.

Denying the right of a country to exercise its political

freedom over its maritime territorial boundaries and

preventing the indigenous people of a country from

exercising their culture and traditional linkages with

integral part of its lands, sovereign since time

immemorial, remain one of the greatest crimes of our

times. We are therefore calling on the United Nations

to ensure that our fundamental rights can be exercised

in all parts of our territory.

As the world unites in addressing some of the

major challenges of our times, the lifting of the

economic embargo on Cuba is long overdue. Denying

the good people of Cuba from fully participating in the

global economy is inhumane. T is high time that the

Cuban people be allowed to enjoy their rights and

freedom as an independent and sovereign nation.

It is time that we all revisit the aspirations and the

ideals with which the United Nations system was

created and join forces to weed out injustice,

colonialism, poverty, hunger, war crimes, terrorism and

the like in the hope of creating a peaceful and secure

world for generations to come. All nations, great and

small, must respect each other’s sovereignty, for that is

the way to achieve trust and to ensure a dignified

confidence among all friends gathered around the table

of the United Nations.

I also welcome Fiji’s commitment to full and

democratic elections by September 2014. As a Pacific

neighbour, such as announcement is timely.

In conclusion, I wish to take this final

opportunity to express my gratitude to Vanuatu’s

development partners for the support that they provide

in building our economy. I believe that more can be

done to help small vulnerable island countries like

Vanuatu to address the rising challenges confronting

them.

Leaders of the world, the resounding echoes of

history drum in our ears and remind us of what must be

done tomorrow. The global forces driving the changes

that will shape our future must beckon towards a world

where people of all races, ethnicities, creeds, beliefs,

faiths, cultures, traditions and origins can live in

harmony and peace, as brothers and sisters.