My statement today is
made on behalf of the President of the Republic of
Suriname, His Excellency Mr. Desiré Delano Bouterse.
We want you, Mr. President, to be assured of
our support in these turbulent times of international
politics. Your task will not be easy. We pay tribute
to your predecessor, Ambassador John Ashe, for his
excellent leadership during the sixty-eighth session of
the General Assembly.
We also want to express our support to Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon in his endeavour to steer the
United Nations vessel through the rough waters
of shifting economic forces and rapidly changing
political arenas, in an environment where violence
and intolerance, whatever the root causes, seem to
prevail. Although interdependence, self-determination
and non-interference should be the guiding principles
of the international community, we are faced with
an incredible desire for domination in the name of
undefined, so-called national interests.
We have examined some of the arguments used to
invade Grenada and compared those to the arguments
used to justify the military involvement in Ukraine.
What striking similarity! We have tried hard to
understand the value of a referendum in the case of the
Malvinas and the value given to the referendum held in
Crimea.
States with media, military and economic
vulnerabilities such as ours cannot but feel extremely
uncomfortable with the custom-made slogans, devoid
of any genuine moral value, that are imposed on our
minds as precooked recipes.
We express our sincere wish that the United Nations
should develop the muscles needed to restructure and
democratize itself and move away from restrictive
veto powers towards inclusive legal institutions that
can effectively apply and monitor adherence to the
provisions of the Charter of the United Nations. We see
that as the only way forward to achieve the ultimate
goal of sustainable development, even for the smallest
members of the international community. The real
proof of civilization is total respect for the seemingly
insignificant members of any social entity. Let us, then,
become truly civilized.
In sharp contradiction to the turbulence and
challenges mentioned, we want to draw the attention of
this body to the Latin America and Caribbean region,
which is, relatively speaking, a unique area of peace
and tranquillity. It is important to answer the question:
how is that region showing us the way forward? From a
military point of view, it is an area of the world that is
nuclear-free. The Treaty of Tlatelolco has proved to be
an effective instrument to monitor and maintain Latin
America and the Caribbean free from nuclear threat.
Furthermore, it is important to note that, at the
political level, interdependence has become the driving
force of both multilateral and bilateral relations.
Small and large States alike interact on the basis of
established treaties and principles of mutual respect,
mutual concern and mutual benefit. The Union of South
American Nations, the Community of Latin American
and Caribbean States and the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) in particular have played an important
role so far in furthering that cause.
The third, and certainly the most important,
factor that ensures durable peace in our region is the
implementation of people-oriented socioeconomic
policies. We have seen such programmes developed in
Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and my own country, Suriname,
to mention a few. The emphasis on policies and
programmes related to health care, education, youth and
sports is rapidly changing the image of Latin America
and the Caribbean. We invite the world community to
take note of those positive realities in our functioning
democracies, as they translate into regional integration
processes with nothing less than a bright future.
Looking at the positive picture at the national
level, we must also address the challenges of dealing
with all forms of transnational organized crime in
the Latin American and Caribbean region. Suriname
fully supports all initiatives deployed to face those
challenges.
Having said that, we must assess two areas of
concern that our nation faces today. Economically
speaking, the latest International Monetary Fund
report indicates that Suriname has reached an average
per capita income of approximately $10,000. Our gross
domestic product (GDP) is primarily based on the
mining sector, where gold mining and the production
of crude oil and derivatives represent 33 per cent of our
national output. That sector is responsible for 90 per
cent of our total export revenue.
We are aware of the fact that the nature of that
sector is extractive and, as such, is subject to depletion.
In order to ensure the sustainability of the economy,
the Government has developed a policy to ensure that
the revenue from the non-renewable sectors is invested
in developing human capital to ensure the full fruition
of the capacities of the Surinamese people in their own
interest and the interest of the entire nation.
To ensure that that policy will materialize,
President Bouterse announced, at the outset of his term,
a social contract that has been given substance in the
following programme: a legal framework guaranteeing
a minimum wage, health-care coverage for every
citizen and pensions for the elderly.
In the past four years, Suriname has implemented
new programmes to promote advanced education at
all levels, including after-school care programmes
for primary and secondary students and scholarship
programmes for higher education. Furthermore, legal
instruments are being prepared as part of a full safety
net to prevent dropouts.
In the same vein, various programmes have been
developed in close cooperation with other CARICOM
States to combat the incidence of non-communicable
diseases. Our ultimate goal is for those initiatives to
become part and parcel of future programmes of the
Pan American Health Organization and the World
Health Organization.
With regard to the imminent threat of the spread
of the Ebola virus, the Government has entered into
close consultations with neighbouring countries, the
subregion and the global community to design and
implement programmes to coordinate and cooperate
effectively so as to prevent the spread of the deadly
virus.
As a matter of course, we can sustain those
initiatives only within appropriate fiscal discipline.
We are forced to strike the right balance between
economic growth, socioeconomic concerns and respect
for our natural environment. In doing so, Suriname has
been classified as an upper-middle-income country
with an improved ranking in the 2013 United Nations
Development Programme Human Development Report.
However, that classification limits our access to
concessional financing, which hampers our aspirations
and endeavours to sustain the achievements I have
mentioned. Honestly speaking, we are experiencing
that decision as a punishment for doing well. A
classification solely based on statistics, and not on our
socioeconomic reality, will never serve the objective of
sustainable development based on human development.
We call upon the multilateral and bilateral funding
institutions to adapt their policies to that approach.
There is another area of prime interest to which we
want to draw attention. Suriname’s territory is more
than 90 per cent covered with forest, which annually
absorbs 8.8 million tons of carbon, while our annual
emissions are 7 million tons of carbon. Suriname
thus absorbs 1.8 million tons of carbon more than it
emits on a yearly basis. While many countries work
towards becoming carbon-neutral, Suriname already
qualifies as a carbon-negative country. With an annual
deforestation rate of 0.02 per cent and having dedicated
13 per cent of the national territory to preserving and
protecting vulnerable ecosystems, we are generating a
national and global asset.
In stark contrast to those positive realities,
Suriname has, paradoxically, become one of the most
vulnerable countries in the world as a result of climate
change. At the recently held 2014 Climate Summit,
Suriname indicated that sea-level rise will, inter alia,
severely damage or destroy our coastal ecosystems,
including most of our arable land; damage or destroy
over 40 per cent of our GDP; damage or destroy the
homes of over 80 per cent of our population; damage
or destroy our world heritage-designated capital; and
endanger the way of life of most of the people, who
represent our cultural heritage and live along the coastal
and river shores. Changes in rainfall patterns and rising
temperatures are already leading to increased health
risks and associated costs, decreased hydropower
production and reduced access to river pathways.
The serious absence of international commitment
to supporting us so that we can take the proper measures
to avoid the impending disasters is disturbing, and
we have therefore been obliged to join with similar,
vulnerable countries with strong environmentally active
frameworks and a history of respect for ecosystems.
We call on the rest of the world both to become more
proactive in support of the measures that we are
compelled to take, and to ensure that the relevant issues
have a place on the international agenda.
Suriname would like to emphasize the need for a
fundamental restructuring of the United Nations, with
the aim of making our Organization better equipped to
deal effectively with the international issues at hand.
We would like once again to point to the experience of
Latin America and the Caribbean as a shining example
of how durable peace can be achieved. In that context,
the economic blockade of the Cuban people should be
considered to be a regional anomaly that must end now.
The role of women in achieving sustainable
development, at the level of both civil society and
political leadership, has proved an important factor in
creating an atmosphere of tolerance in which we choose
to use dialogue rather than resort to violence. We must
continue to encourage our women — who make up more
than half of the world’s population — to persist in their
struggle for participation and inclusion and to share
the burden of responsibility for peace and sustainable
development.
In conclusion, Suriname is ready and willing
to play its humble part in helping to find workable
solutions to the global issues at hand. We reiterate our
commitment to all human rights and to a policy of
interacting responsibly with the natural environment in
our quest for sustained economic growth, as well as our
commitment to peace through dialogue.