On behalf of the Government and people of Solomon Islands, I extend
warm congratulations to you, Sir, the Minister for
Foreign Affairs of Uganda, on your election as
President of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth
session. My delegation reaffirms the core function of
the General Assembly as the chief deliberative body on
all global issues. We look forward to working with you
in “Delivering on and implementing a transformative
post-2015 development agenda”, which is the theme that
you have chosen for this session.
My delegation pays tribute to your predecessor,
Mr. John Ashe, who has done a sterling job in setting
the stage for a post-2015 development agenda. Under
his watch, he convened four high-level events and
two thematic debates in shaping the new development
paradigm. President Ashe also guided the work of
the Open Working Group of the General Assembly
on Sustainable Development Goals in developing
universal sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Today, we have 17 carefully crafted and delicately
balanced SDGs, accompanied by 169 targets. A means
of implementation is attached to each goal, which, if
honoured, will trigger a seismic shift in the way that
we do business.
We look forward to the Secretary-General’s post-
2015 synthesis report later this year. That report will
provide a structure for our post-2015 negotiations. My
delegation is mindful of the fact that the outcome of
the third International Conference on Financing for
Development, scheduled for mid-2015, will feed into
the negotiation process. Solomon Islands commits itself
to ensuring that our people own and buy into the post-
2015 development agenda.
The Solomon Islands’ scorecard on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) remains mixed across all
eight Goals. We are on track for achieving some of them,
off track for others and in the process for three Goals.
However, we remain committed to consolidating our
MDG gains and are beginning to build the foundation
for integrating a new development agenda nationally at
all levels.
If sustainable development is to grow roots in any
country, it needs to be nurtured in a politically stable
environment. The Solomon Islands National Parliament
passed the Political Party Integrity Bill in May. The act
allows political parties to develop and to operate in a
regulated and systematic manner, thereby instilling a
predictable and stable political atmosphere, which is an
essential condition for development.
I am pleased to inform the Assembly that, under the
leadership of the Prime Minister, the Honourable Gordon
Darcy Lilo, the ninth Solomon Islands Parliament
concluded its four-year term early this month. As the
people anxiously look forward to exercising their right
to vote in the forthcoming national general election, we
will do so using the biometric voter system for the first
time. As a young democratic State, we are constantly
improving our governance system and correcting past
election irregularities. We could not have achieved that
without international support and partnership. To our
partners, I convey once again the deep appreciation and
gratitude of Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands would also like to take this
opportunity to congratulate both Fiji and New Zealand
on their newly elected Governments and Parliaments.
We stand ready to strengthen our bilateral relations
with our two neighbours and to address issues of
mutual concern. We also convey our best wishes to the
Kingdom of Tonga for its November national general
elections.
Solomon Islands has continued to serve on the
Executive Board of UN-Women. Gender-based
violence is a major economic leakage in any country’s
development. It reduces women’s productivity in all
three dimensions of sustainable development. Gender-
based violence also imposes a cost on the wider society.
Last month, the Solomon Islands National Parliament
met its international obligation under the Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
and adopted family protection legislation. The act
protects families from domestic violence, deals with
perpetrators and provides practical support to victims
of violence. The legislation has received strong national
visibility and promotes gender equality. Solomon
Islands wishes to acknowledge UN-Women’s Markets
for Change project in the country. The project aims to
improve market governance and on-site services for
women. It recognizes and addresses our rural women’s
challenges and will, hopefully, encourage more women
to engage in economic activities.
The year 2015 marks the twentieth anniversary
of the Platform for Action of the Fourth World
Conference on Women. Solomon Islands conducted a
national review on its implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action and has identified three areas of
achievements: recognition of gender equality, the
economic empowerment of women and awareness of
gender-based violence. We believe in the notion that
progress for women is progress for all. We remain
committed to implementing the Platform for Action.
The third International Conference on Small
Islands Developing States (SIDS), convened in Samoa,
reaffirmed SIDS as a special case for sustainable
development given their unique and particular
vulnerability. The once-in-a-decade Conference
adopted the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action
Pathway, which outlines 19 priority areas. The
outcome document (A/CONF.223/3, annex) calls for
a comprehensive review of United Nations support to
SIDS.
In that connection, Solomon Islands seeks closer
relations with the United Nations. We would like
to see the United Nations Development Programme
Subregional Office in Solomon Islands upgraded to
the status of country office. After more than three
decades of the United Nations managing Solomon
Islands relations from abroad, it is time to invest in
such relations in my capital.
With regard to a related matter, Solomon Islands
continues to be underrepresented in the composition of
United Nations staff. However, we are grateful for and
welcome the United Nations annual recruitment drive
in Solomon Islands and hope to fill our employment
quota soon, with Solomon islanders joining the diverse
United Nations staff.
Health remains a precondition for sustainable
development. Solomon Islands has continued to
demonstrate its commitment to improving the health of
its people. In July, the first 20 Solomon Islands doctors
graduated from medical schools in Cuba. Solomon
Islands would like to thank Cuba for the scholarships
awarded to the doctors, as well as to the remaining 80
Solomon Islands medical students. This year alone,
we will witness more than 30 new doctors joining our
health services. It is the vision of the Government to
double the number of doctors in the country in the
next two years, to continue to strengthen our health-
care infrastructure, putting in place health and social
protection systems, and to work towards making health-
care coverage in Solomon Islands universal.
Solomon Islands joins the international community
in calling for the lifting of the economic and financial
blockade imposed on Cuba by our friend and partner,
the United States of America. After more than five
decades of sanctions on Cuba, it is time to reset
relations between the two neighbours on the basis of
good-neighbourly relations and respect for territorial
integrity and political sovereignty.
One of the principles of the SDGs is that we
must not leave anyone behind. There are States
knocking at the door of the United Nations, ready to
take on multilateral responsibilities. The Republic of
China on Taiwan continues to seek full and effective
participation with three United Nations specialized
bodies, namely, the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Those United Nations bodies deal with urgent
global issues in which we all have an interest — from
climate change to the evolving health challenges. ICAO
works to keep our travelling public and air services
safe. I wish to note that 45 million passengers passed
through the Republic of China, Taiwan, in 2012. We
do not have the luxury of time to turn a blind eye to
the required cooperation. The global challenges before
us are too great for narrow interests to adopt a wait-
and-see approach and to keep postponing action that
is needed.
The Republic of China, Taiwan, is a country that
has transformed itself from a developing country into
an industrialized one. It is the twenty-seventh-largest
economy in the world and has experience, technology
and capability from which our shared agenda can
benefit. We have all to gain and nothing to lose by
inviting the Republic of China, Taiwan, to become the
195th member of the UNFCCC, the 192nd member of
ICAO and the 195th member of the WHO.
The Solomon Islands partnership with the Pacific
Islands Forum, under the Regional Assistance Mission
to the Solomon Islands, continues to create positive
conditions, allowing the country to begin a limited
rearmament of its police force. The private sector
and the international community have responded to
the changing environment, with the European Union
upgrading its representation in my capital, Honiara,
and more and more non-traditional partners accrediting
their envoys to Solomon Islands. A new commercial
bank was incorporated and entered the Solomon
Islands market, making it the fourth commercial bank
to provide financial services to our vibrant population.
Sustainable development for Solomon Islands, as
a coastal State, includes its seabed resources beyond
its 1.3-million-square-kilometre exclusive economic
zone. The Solomon Islands has registered a number
of continental shelf claims with the United Nations
Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
(CLCS). My delegation is pleased to see that one of the
claims is now being examined by the Subcommission of
the CLCS. We look forward to further engagement with
the Subcommission during the course of this session.
The world is facing a series of crisis and conflicts
in Africa, the Middle East and now in Europe. In
dealing with conflicts, we must exert greater effort in
seeking the peaceful settlement of disputes. We must
collectively counter extremism, terrorism and crimes
against humanity, and protect civilians, operating
within the letter and spirit of the Charter of the United
Nations.
As the principal organ of the United Nations for
the maintenance of international peace and security,
the Security Council must be part of that solution.
Despite the call of world leaders for the speedy reform
of the Security Council in 2005, nine years on we
are still working at it. At the tenth intergovernmental
negotiations on Security Council reform in July, there
was overwhelming support for the expansion of Security
Council membership and for making the Council more
representative and accountable in terms of improving
its working methods. An advisory group mandated by
your predecessor, Mr. President, produced a non-paper.
It provided structure to the last session’s discussions
and can be used as a basis for negotiations during this
session. We look to you for leadership on that.
Turning now to the recent outbreak of Ebola,
the gravity, scale and spread of the Ebola virus in
West Africa is unprecedented and demands urgent
international cooperation. The Ebola disease has halted
services and disrupted the lives of many people in
the affected countries. The Solomon Islands supports
our Secretary-General’s action to establish the United
Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response,
and acknowledges global efforts in mobilization of
resources to combat the disease as a matter of urgency.
As stated by other delegations, decolonization
remains an unfinished business of the United Nations.
If we are to deliver on the Third International Decade
for the Eradication of Colonialism, we will need the
cooperation of all parties — including the administering
Powers, the Non-Self-Governing Territories, and
regional and subregional organizations — to honour
their commitments under the Charter of the United
Nations and the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), made
up of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon
Islands and the Front de libération nationale kanak
socialiste, continues to follow the question of New
Caledonia in the United Nations Special Committee
on Decolonization (Committee of 24). The Group
welcomed the Committee’s visit to New Caledonia
in March, and noted its concerns relating to the
Territory’s electoral process and needed legislation in
keeping within the spirit of the Nouméa Accord. Those
issues have implications in preparing for a credible
referendum process, consistent and in conformity with
the universally accepted principles and practices of
self-determination, as defined by resolution 1514 (XV)
and other relevant resolutions of the Assembly.
My delegation would also like to acknowledge the
diligent work of the Committee of 24 in examining the
question of French Polynesia. Solomon Islands continues
to reaffirm its support for the inalienable rights of the
people of French Polynesia to self-determination, in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. It is
our hope that the Decolonization Committee will soon
visit the Non-Self-Governing Territory, in cooperation
with the administering Power.
Solomon Islands, as a member of the MSG, is
working in collaboration with Indonesia on human
rights concerns in Papua and West Papua, the two
easternmost provinces of the Republic of Indonesia.
On 21 May, Solomon Islands established its Embassy
in Jakarta with the genuine intention of continuing to
cooperate with Indonesia on many important issues of
mutual concern, including those taken up together by
MSG members.
Solomon Islands welcomes the World Conference
on Indigenous People. More than 90 per cent of our
population are indigenous Melanesians and Polynesians
speaking more than 87 different languages. Our diverse
cultures are under threat due to forced relocation from
ancestral lands as a result of sea-level rise. Their right
to live in harmony with nature is being threatened by
the declining health of the planet.
Climate change remains the greatest challenge of
our time. It calls for the widest possible international
cooperation on the part of all. This month, Solomon
Islands ratified the second commitment period under
the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We
encourage parties to the Protocol that have not ratified
the amendment to do so as soon as possible. It is in
our collective interest to see the Protocol enforced.
We remain deeply concerned on the slow progress of
climate-change negotiations, and hope that the General
Assembly will invite the UNFCCC to conduct its
negotiations in New York, where diplomats from all
parties to the Convention are located all year round. We
need to accelerate the pace of negotiations. This must
be done while working with our technical experts in
the process.
In looking at the 2015 Climate Change agreement,
Solomon Islands would like to see a credible agreement
that will guarantee the survival of the SIDS and the
least developed countries (LDCs). The agreement must
be comprehensive in scope, addressing mitigation,
adaptation, finance and technology transfer. It must be
inclusive, and respect and respond to the special needs
of SIDS and LDCs. The agreement must be flexible
enough to respond to the changing science and be
adequately resourced.
Climate-change risk remains at the forefront of
our sustainable development path. The flash floods of
great magnitude and intensity that occurred in Solomon
Islands in April claimed lives and destroyed homes and
infrastructure. Damages and losses are equivalent to
9.2 per cent of Solomon Islands’ gross domestic product.
This has created pressure in the form of new expenses,
prompting the Government to borrow and secure
grants externally. Solomon Islands remains grateful
to its neighbours — Australia, New Zealand, Nauru,
Tuvalu, Samoa and Papua New Guinea — as well as
Turkey, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Botswana,
Sri Lanka and the Republic of China on Taiwan, among
others, that have supported our national rehabilitation
and recovery efforts.
Despite the disaster challenges, Solomon Islands
remains determined to build a resilient society. We
are on track in building two hydro-projects in two
provinces, in partnership with the World Bank and the
Asian Development Bank. In partnership with Japan,
we are expanding our port facilities to promote and
enable domestic, regional and international trade. I am
pleased to say that, since the sixty-eighth session, a
number of domestic airports and 18 bridges have been
constructed, further uniting our scattered population.
This would not have been possible without the support
of Australia, New Zealand and the European Union,
and we express our gratitude to our traditional partners.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) confirms that, without additional mitigation
actions, we are heading towards a 3.7-4.8°C world. The
fifth IPCC assessment report indicates that by 2030,
89 per cent of coral reefs are projected to experience
severe coral bleaching, with the temperature increasing
by 1.5°C. By 2050, at 2°C we are looking at 100 per
cent coral reef bleaching. These developments will
occur in our generation and will have an impact on
tourism industries and fish stocks, potentially driving
households in the SIDS and LDCs into poverty traps.
We call on the international community to respect
the principles of fairness and justice and to put SIDS
and LDCs at the heart of international cooperation. In
that connection, my delegation welcomes the Secretary-
General’s Climate Summit, held last week. We also
support your proposal, Mr. President, of convening a
high-level debate on climate change during the course
of this session. We do so because our lives depend on it.
Let me conclude by reaffirming the commitment
of the Solomon Islands to striving for a just, equitable
and inclusive world. Implementing the post-2015
development agenda provides us with our first and last
line of defence in guaranteeing a sustainable future for
our current and future generations.