20. Mr. president, my delegation congratulates you on your election to the Presidency of the General Assembly at its twenty-second session. It is an honour to you, Sir, personally and to your country, and we are particularly happy that it has been bestowed on you at this time. May your tenure in office be rewarded with a lessening of world tensions. You may be assured of the full support of my Government in all efforts to reduce conflict and to further the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
21. On behalf of my Government, I take this opportunity to pay tribute to your distinguished predecessor, Ambassador Abdul Rahman Pazhwak of Afghanistan. During his term of office as President of the twenty-first session of the General Assembly, of the fifth special session and of the fifth emergency special session, his tact, wisdom and guidance helped all of us and contributed greatly to such measure of success as our efforts achieved. May I also express the gratitude of my Government to the Secretary-General, U Thant, for his untiring endeavours in the quest for peace.
22. In reviewing the world situation, my Government notes that there are a number of issues with which the United Nations has not been able to cope, either effectively or at all. The division of territories and peoples, the undeclared war in South-East Asia, the headlong race to acquire more modern and destructive armaments, the poverty of the developing countries, are but a few of the subjects that are of grave concern to my Government.
23. A major aspect of contemporary society is the discrepancy between the clamour by each and every nation for peace and the failure to achieve this goal — a goal so urgent, so essential and yet so elusive. Is peace a mirage? It surely is not. Yet those Member nations that are today all powerful seem deadlocked in a game which, as long as it lasts, can only bring death and destruction. Without co-operation and accommodation there can be no peace — either in a family or a nation or in the society of nations.
24. There is need for co-operation and accommodation in Viet-Nam. My country is gravely concerned about the implications and possible consequences of the situation there, and about the plight of the unfortunate people of the North and the South. The representative of the United States, at the beginning of this general debate [1562nd meeting], stated that there could be no military settlement of this conflict. Our esteemed Secretary-General has more than once stated that a halt in the bombing of North Viet-Nam might lead to discussions and negotiations. My Government is convinced that the problem of Viet-Nam can be solved through negotiations based on the Geneva Agreements of 1954 rather than by force by arms. We believe that all the parties involved should pay the greatest heed to the Secretary-General's advice. We believe, of course, that both sides in the conflict are entitled to appropriate safeguards and assurances, so that a cease-fire enabling the start of negotiations could be put into effect without the fear that such a cessation would be exploited to the advantage of either side, leading to an early resumption of hostilities.
25. There is need for accommodation and co-operation in the Middle East. After very careful study, my Government co-sponsored the Latin American draft resolution voted on at the fifth emergency special session of the General Assembly. My Government wishes to suggest to the parties directly concerned and to the appropriate organs of the United Nations that they might do well to ponder again the terms of that draft resolution and to be guided to action by its spirit.
26. Jamaica is committed to a strong and effective United Nations. During the general debate in the twenty-first regular session we called attention to the growing enfeeblement of the Organization, particularly in its peace-keeping capacity. Recent events have underscored both the urgency of our concern and the need to seek new avenues for the peaceful and effective settlement of disputes.
27. My Government is aware of the current opinion that United Nations peace-keeping operations may no longer have full relevance. We do not share this opinion. We continue to believe that full use should be made of the available procedures for the peaceful settlement of disputes, whether by enquiry, conciliation, mediation, arbitration or adjudication, or any feasible combination of them. We wish to suggest that more should be done, for example, in the area of fact finding. The facilities offered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the United Nations Panel for Inquiry and Conciliation are not being used. Yet no one will deny that in every dispute which might threaten international peace the first need is to establish the facts.
28. We believe that adequate machinery for fact finding can and should be devised. Hence we continue to support the initiative of the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in proposing a new organ for this task. My Government believes that, acting in a spirit of goodwill and compromise, the desired objective can be achieved without impinging either on the competence of the present organs of the United Nations or on the principle of the sovereign equality of States.
29. I come now to the important subject of decolonization. This year for the first time in many years the General Assembly will not welcome any new Members into the Organization. Yet the process of decolonization must go on. There are two categories of colonial Territories which present particularly difficult problems.
30. The first category includes the Territories of southern Africa. Rhodesia remains outside the law, and no effective action has yet been taken against the Ian Smith régime. South West Africa, to which we devoted the fifth special session of the General Assembly, remains as it was before that session began. In that session the major Powers of the world displayed an irresponsible and unexpected capacity for gross indifference and expediency. Although by resolution 2248 (S-V) the Assembly established a United Nations Council for South West Africa, the Council appears to be doomed to futility and frustration, while the racist régime of South Africa continues its policy with no regard to the opinion, sincere or not, of the rest of the world. Portugal refuses to grant the people of its colonies the right to self-determination and independence and persists in its policy of exploitation. This situation of frustration and indecisiveness should not be allowed to continue.
31. The decolonization of small and very small Territories presents its own peculiar difficulties. My Government fully supports the principle of self-determination and independence for all peoples. However, we recognize that account has to be taken of specific economic and geographic circumstances.
32. Since the nineteenth session of the General Assembly, Jamaica has been calling attention to the need for the United Nations to have some residual role to play In the future of those Territories which, having exercised their right of self-determination in accordance with resolution 1514 (XV), have chosen association with another State.
33. There are also those small States, economically not viable, which would choose full independence if they could. It should not be beyond the capacity of the United Nations to devise means of linking them to this Organization in order to ensure that the exercise of their right does not lead them to continuing or eventual poverty. Specifically, It would not be amiss for the General Assembly to recommend that a section of the Secretariat should devote itself exclusively to the interests of small Territories which might elect to exercise that right. This special section could provide technical and administrative assistance where needed.
34. The right of self-determination is but one aspect of human rights. As this is the last general debate before the International Year for Human Rights begins, Jamaica could not let the occasion pass without stating what we hope and expect to see emerge from 1968.
35. Individual and collective action to promote and protect human rights is the clear and unquestioned responsibility of Member States under Article 55 of the Charter. The International Year should not only provide an opportunity to focus worldwide attention on this critical field of United Nations activity; it should also be an occasion to assess the work that we in the United Nations have done so far, and to decide on a future programme of what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948 [resolution 217 (III)] calls "progressive measures, national and International" to achieve one of the fundamental objectives for which our Organization was founded.
36. My Government attaches very great importance to the word "progressive". To us it means that it is not enough simply to consolidate a position, but that we must accept the challenge to move forward, and keep on moving forward, however many the problems may be. There are before the United Nations at this time proposals in the field of human rights which Jamaica believes are significantly progressive. My Government will support those measures with our vote and with all the powers of persuasion that we can employ. While on the subject of human rights, my delegation would like to say a brief word about human welfare and the growing awareness in the United Nations of the importance of effective social welfare programmes.
37. We welcome with a great deal of satisfaction the decision of the United Nations to convene an international conference of ministers responsible for social welfare next year, particularly since this will be in keeping with the spirit of the International Year for Human Rights. We in Jamaica have reason to be encouraged by this important step. We have evolved major programmes of social welfare, and while there are difficulties still to be overcome, we feel that we can point with justifiable pride to many areas in which our social welfare programmes have been successful. It is therefore our hope that the growing international concern with these problems of social welfare, planning and administration will serve to accelerate national programmes in this field. Jamaica is prepared to place at the disposal of the United Nations any information based on its own experience and programmes which might be of use to the Organization, and we pledge our support to all efforts designed to make the forthcoming Conference a genuine success.
38. But the desire of the United Nations for peace and the effective realization of human rights cannot be fulfilled without the liberation of the world's masses from hunger and poverty. Developing countries such as mine realize their responsibilities in this regard and are endeavouring to solve the social and economic problems that beset them, problems of unemployment and underemployment, and of low and slowly growing income levels. However, in this interdependent world we are all too aware that no developing country can solve all its economic problems without some cooperation and assistance from its more developed neighbours.
39. That was clear when the United Nations proclaimed the 1960s to be the United Nations Development Decade. In so doing, the United Nations appealed to the developed countries to make 1 per cent of their national incomes available for investment in developing countries. The Development Decade is now coming to a close, and yet the harsh fact is that many of the poorest economies have continued to grow most slowly. According to the annual report of the Secretary-General, last year the rate of over-all growth for developing countries was less than 4 per cent; in that same year the developed market economies and the centrally planned economies raised their output in real terms by 5 and 7 per cent respectively [A/6701, p. 95], These differences in the over-all growth have led to a further widening of the gap between per capita Incomes in the developed and developing countries.
40. It now appears that the assumption that there was genuine international concern for the prevalence of poverty amongst two thirds of mankind was ill founded. For at a time when the ability of the developed countries to offer financial aid has been increasing, their willingness to assist appears to be diminishing. We are approaching the point where there threatens to be a net outflow of capital from the developing to the developed countries.
41. We recognize that there has been a problem of general illiquidity. The control of liquidity exercised by the fluctuations in gold reserves and the balance- of-payments position of countries with reserve currencies have not been sufficiently flexible or effective. There has been a purposeful endeavour to find a better system. My Government recognizes the problems involved. We hope that proposals agreed upon at the recently concluded Conference in R lode Janeiro will be fully worked out and put into operation. The solution of this problem is urgently needed, because the records show that in 1966 the flow of capital to developing countries fell by $1,000 million.
42. Then we have a situation where concurrent with the slowing down of capital transfers for economic development there is an increasing reluctance to take practical steps to develop and expand trade. Developing countries are being constantly urged to diversify their economies, but when we try to shift agricultural workers to industry we discover that the developed countries place unjustified limitations upon the entry of our light manufactures into their markets. They say that these products from relatively small plants are too competitive. The result is that the efforts of our countries to industrialize are hampered. So we must continue to rely mainly on the production of primary commodities. Yet our efforts to obtain stable marketing arrangements for these primary commodities have had little success. In the absence of agreements, the low prices of primary commodities hardly move upwards while the prices of imported capital goods and their spare parts have been rising at an average annually of 7.5 per cent since 1962.
43. The situation in which developing countries must purchase machinery and equipment at high and rising prices while their own goods are subject to fluctuating low prices cannot continue indefinitely. The absence of stable marketing arrangements is felt most keenly in the case of sugar, for example. This is one finished product which the developing countries can produce and sell more cheaply than the developed countries can. Many developing countries depend heavily on this labour intensive crop to earn foreign exchange, to maintain rural employment and generally to avoid internal instability.
44. No one denies that an international agreement for the orderly marketing of the world's exports of sugar is an urgent need. Yet for many years now, a new international agreement on sugar has eluded us. Why is that so? The answer is: largely because the developed countries persist in striving for self-sufficiency in sugar and they keep steadily reducing the share of their market which the developing countries are allowed to supply.
45. My Government renews the proposal that the sugar producers of North America and Europe should maintain a standstill — not a cutback — in the production of sugar until effective demand has caught up with supply. It is our earnest hope that this proposal for the benefit of the people in the developing countries will not fall on deaf ears.
46. In the spirit of the Development Decade, I urge the representatives of the developed countries to allow a new international sugar agreement providing for reasonable prices and quantities to come into effect as from 1968. The thousands of workers and farmers who are engaged in agriculture in my country and in other developing countries have as strong a claim to fair living standards as any worker anywhere else, and they will not be satisfied with a situation where hard work does not bring its sufficient and due reward.
47. On the subject of the work of the economic agencies of the United Nations — and here I wish to refer specifically to the United Nations Development Programme — the record of those agencies is a recognition that it is in the interest of all countries to co-operate in seeking practice' solutions to remove the external constraints on the growth and welfare of developing nations. We are pleased to note that in the United Nations the developing countries are attempting to meet some of their common problems through a joint approach, as is illustrated by resolution 2186 (XXI) of the twenty-first session of the General Assembly, establishing the Capital Development Fund. The spirit in which the Kennedy Bound negotiations were conducted and the agreements reached, though far from satisfying our aspirations, point to a more hopeful future. We prefer to consider the concessions made as the first in a series of steps towards the general lowering of barriers to trade.
48. The second session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development will provide an opportunity to carry on where the Kennedy Bound negotiations left off. In our view, the second session should concern itself primarily not with statements of the ideal but rather with working out the practical steps that must be taken to give effect to the general and special principles of the Final Act of the first session. Among these principles, general principle seven reads in part:
"The expansion and diversification of international trade depends upon increasing access to markets, and upon remunerative prices for the exports of primary products. Developed countries shall progressively reduce and eliminate barriers and other restrictions that hinder trade and consumption of products from developing countries and take positive measures such as will create and increase markets for the exports of developing countries."
We are particularly concerned that this should be so because we continue to believe firmly that the more opportunities there are for trade the less urgent will be the need for aid.
49. Although my country is in no sense a military Power, I could not refrain from some reference to the crucial problems of disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. We have followed with interest bordering on anxiety the negotiations at the Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament at Geneva. We welcome the submission by the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of identical draft texts of a treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. But there is still much work to he done. We are, frankly, deeply concerned by the failure so far of the nuclear Powers to offer to the non-nuclear-weapon States satisfactory guarantees against nuclear attack or threat of attack. Our concern was also reflected in Jamaica's co-sponsorship of resolution 2153 B (XXI) at the twenty-first session of the General Assembly, convening a conference of non-nuclear-weapon States.
50. Jamaica also participated in the efforts leading to the conclusion at Mexico City in February last of a Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America [see A/6663], Yet, as many of the representatives here will know, Jamaica is at present the only participating State which has not yet signed the Treaty. We have hesitated to do so because, for reasons which seem irrelevant to the purposes of the instrument, the Treaty has been so drafted as to exclude the participation of such peace-loving countries as Guyana and British Honduras, which logically and geographically form part of the designated area to he kept free of nuclear weapons.
51. Whilst, therefore, Jamaica intends in due course to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America as proof of our belief in the Treaty's objectives, I take this opportunity to record my country's strong objection to the exclusion of those two sister territories from participation in the Treaty.
52. Before closing, let me say that at a time when the relations among States are marked by tension and distrust, when the outlook for world peace is discouraging, and when often the efforts of the Organization to achieve meaningful objectives are frustrated, we take new heart and encouragement from multilateral achievements such as that of the International Law Commission in producing its agreed draft articles on the law of treaties. The forthcoming international conference of plenipotentiaries on the law of treaties [resolution 2166 (XXI)] is therefore of more than legal significance. In practical terms, it means that the Members of the Organization are essentially committed to the cause of peace based on international legal order. If this conclusion is correct then there is yet hope for the greater fulfilment of the objectives of the Organization; indeed, there is much hope for the future.
53. Finally, let us not forget that all efforts to remedy our economic, social and political ills require courage, vision and good faith. The plea that my nation makes to all the major Powers in and outside of this Assembly is that they should cease paying mere lip service to the principles of the Charter and that they should abandon the practice of pursuing their narrow national interests through the United Nations. We all share the responsibility to work towards the achievement of the peace and prosperity which were envisaged in the Charter of the United Nations. None of us can afford to shirk that responsibility.