It is my great honour and privilege to speak for the first time as the President of the Republic of Vanuatu in this important body, the United Nations General Assembly.
Let me start by congratulating His Excellency Mr. Csaba Korosi on assuming the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session. I assure him that during his term of office, my delegation will work closely with him to implement the agendas he has set out for this session. The President’s vision for the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session is fitting for addressing the myriad of global issues that confront us today.
I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid for his stellar leadership as the General Assembly’s President of Hope at its seventy-sixth session, during an unprecedented and tumultuous year. His inspiring work for humankind has left a strong impression at the United Nations and around the world.
Today the world is facing a profusion of mounting challenges, many of which are inextricably linked. We are slowly recovering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, but recovery is becoming ever more difficult with rising debt levels and looming inflation caused by supply-chain disruptions and the increase in fuel and food prices as a result of the Russia- Ukraine crisis. Those challenges pose a major risk of global recession and add to the rising humanitarian crisis that we are already facing. As we gather here, more families around the world are finding it extremely difficult to put food on the table, pay their bills and rent and meet other basic expenses. Such hardships can be avoided by deploying smarter diplomacy and appropriate macroeconomic policies.
Those challenges are compounded by an existential climate crisis that is already devastating our economies and ecosystems. In the past few years we have witnessed record heat, wildfires, severe hurricanes, coral bleaching, rising sea levels, prolonged droughts and record flooding. The global challenges that we are facing have the greatest impact on the poor and vulnerable. Without basic social safety nets and fundamental human rights protections, their future is uncertain. We are experiencing the debilitating consequences of the climate crisis every day, and the world is now demanding more ambitious action on climate at every level. That emergency, one of our own making, is now affecting everyone, from the poorest nations to the richest. No one is immune to the extreme weather events ravaging our islands, cities and States. No one can escape the rising tides. Our young people are terrified of the future world we are handing to them through expanded fossil-fuel dependency, and we are compromising intergenerational trust and equity.
Fundamental human rights are being violated, as we begin measuring climate change not in degrees Celsius or tons of carbon but in human lives. The time is up. Action is required now. And that is why the nations of the blue Pacific continent are leading a global initiative to bring climate change to the International Court of Justice, the only principal organ of the United Nations that has not yet been given an opportunity to weigh in on the climate crisis. We believe that bringing climate change to the Court is a global public good that will further support the progressive development of international law. In this very Hall, working in solidarity with Member States, we will ask the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on existing obligations under international law to protect the rights of present and future generations against the adverse effects of climate change. We believe that legal clarity from the world’s highest court will help to spur even greater climate action and strengthen the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We believe in the norms and rules of international law, and we firmly believe that our existing international laws and conventions already contain critical protections for human rights and for the environment.
Taking climate change to the International Court of Justice via the General Assembly is not a silver bullet for increasing climate action, but just one tool to get us
closer to the end goal of a safe planet for humankind. The leaders of the Pacific islands continue to show that they are seeking higher levels of climate ambition and collective action. That is why apart from the International Court of Justice, we are supporting several other tools to battle the existential threat of climate change. We are calling on States to join the group of nations proposing to include the crime of ecocide in the Rome Statute. Pursuing actions in the knowledge that they have the potential to inflict severe and widespread or long-term damage on the environment can no longer be tolerated. We are guardians of the future of tomorrow.
I acknowledge and commend the work of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, led by Antigua and Barbuda, Tuvalu and Palau, to bring to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the issue of climate change as it relates to the law of the sea. We call for the development of a fossil-fuel non-proliferation treaty to phase down coal, oil and gas production in line with the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C and enable a just global transition for every worker, community and nation with fossil-fuel dependence. It will be critical to ensure that States revise and enhance their nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement, as Vanuatu did last month according to its agreement in the Glasgow Climate Pact at the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. As is clear, we are leaving no stone unturned as we seek solutions to the climate crisis, and I particularly call on Member States to support Vanuatu and our global coalition as we bring an International Court of Justice climate change draft resolution before the General Assembly this session.
The nuclear risk still remains and presents an existential threat to the human species and all forms of life that inhabit the Earth. The nuclear risk is becoming even greater, given the Ukraine-Russian war and the intense geopolitical tensions rapidly evolving before us. The lack of consensus at the recent Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has made it harder to achieve nuclear disarmament. That division reveals that the NPT, a central pillar of the international rules-based order, is not seen as a priority by certain nuclear Powers, and that is a major cause of concern for our planet.
Like most countries in the world, my country, Vanuatu, was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our economy is heavily dependent on tourism, and that was halted when borders were closed. Our economic activity declined significantly, and our households’ livelihoods were severely affected. We have been fortunate that the labour mobility programmes that we enjoy with Australia and New Zealand have allowed Vanuatu to export those services, enabling remittance flows that have helped household income and boosted our economy. Furthermore, since most of our population resides in rural areas, the subsistence economy has been able to sustain their livelihoods. In order to avert economic decline and social hardship, the Government responded by implementing stimulus packages that targeted household incomes and provided finance to the commercial sector to keep businesses afloat. We were able to do that thanks to an accumulation of budget surpluses over the past few years.
Our Government launched a nation-wide COVID-19 pandemic programme enabling essential supplies to be distributed before the disease reached Vanuatu, and as a result we experienced only a few deaths. As soon as the vaccination rate had reached 70 per cent of our total population, we reopened our borders. On that note, and on behalf of the people and the Government of Vanuatu, I would like to convey my gratitude to all the bilateral and multilateral partners that assisted Vanuatu during that very difficult time. COVID-19 taught us a few lessons, one of which was about the need to ensure that digital inclusion is prioritized in all our economies. When the schools in Vanuatu closed, it was difficult for many students to participate in online classes owing to a lack of connectivity. I am sure that this is something that other developing countries experienced as well, and that is why I believe that digitalization requires a concerted global response and action. Without it, the many goals spelled out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development may not be realized.
Vanuatu is gradually recovering from COVID-19 and Tropical Cyclone Harold. Our borders are open and tourism is starting to bounce back. As it stands, we are poised for economic growth of 3 per cent in 2022. The recovery, however, has been undermined by the inflationary pressures posed by rising prices of fuel and food. The recovery is also threatened by climate change and severe weather patterns, as we are about to enter the cyclone season. For Vanuatu, category 5 cyclones are becoming a new normal.
Vanuatu’s fragile economic recovery is a story that I am sure is not unique to Vanuatu but is familiar to most small island developing States (SIDS) and other developing countries. Our economic recovery requires not only domestic policies that spur growth and build resilience but also complementary bilateral support measures. One way to do that is to ensure that SIDS have access to concessional financing. As we all know, the current international financial architecture and criteria for financing are inconsistent with the economic realities that SIDS are facing. However, I am delighted to see that the Alliance of Small Island States is working with other United Nations members to craft a multidimensional vulnerability index with a view to accessing concessional financing. I join other leaders in calling on all Member States, and in particular our development partners, to support that important initiative.
Our large blue ocean space will continue to present more complex issues that will affect the way we manage our people’s livelihoods. The 2050 Strategy of the Blue Pacific Continent sets out our region’s long-term vision and aspirations — our North Star and guide to sustaining a healthy, wealthy and prosperous future for the generations to come. At this juncture, one issue that has remained gratuitously complex since the birth of our nation is the unjustified and continuing colonial claim over our traditional sovereign waters. The rights of the indigenous people and their entire territorial waters within our region must be restored and affirmed in order to enable our sovereign States to take on and manage the ever-increasing complexity that the blue ocean space presents. In that context, the major security and political issue for my country, Vanuatu, remains the illegal claim on the Matthew and Hunter Islands.
Even with human rights principles so well embedded in the Charter of the United Nations and despite countless pleas here in the Assembly, human rights violations continue globally across sovereign and disputed spaces. It is no different in the wider blue Pacific. Drawing inspiration from the Secretary- General’s opening statement on Tuesday (see A/77/ PV.4), global report cards will continue to remind our community that more remains to be done.
In conclusion, the challenges before us, which are exacerbated by the deterioration in law and order in many areas around the world, are a sombre reminder that we are still falling short of achieving the ideals envisioned in the Charter. The United Nations, as the heartbeat of multilateralism and global cooperation, remains well placed to address those challenges. It can be done, but only if we trust one another and work together for the betterment of our common humanity. Our children are watching; their future is in our hands. The time to act and lead is now.