I am
honoured to be afforded the opportunity to address the
General Assembly at its sixty-third session. I also wish
to extend my sincere congratulations to Mr. D’Escoto
Brockmann on his election to the presidency. I am
convinced that his wealth of experience, garnered over
the years in the different capacities in which he has
served and his strong conviction of the importance of
multilateralism and respect for international law, will
be brought to bear in a most positive and productive
way on the proceedings of the session. Further,
Trinidad and Tobago is gratified that Nicaragua and, by
extension, Central America, has been graced with the
distinct honour of guiding the work of the sixty-third
session.
At the same time, my delegation wishes to
express our heartfelt appreciation and admiration for
the way in which His Excellency Srgjan Kerim of the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia conducted the
affairs of the General Assembly during the last session.
The Secretary-General must be commended,
particularly for his untiring efforts in ensuring that
humanitarian relief is brought to thousands of victims
of natural disasters, including in the Caribbean. Given
the increasing frequency and ferocity of hurricanes and
other similar climatic phenomena, there is dire need for
the provision of early warning systems and capacity-
building programmes in vulnerable regions like the
Caribbean, aimed at enhancing planning and
preparedness and at mitigating the effects of such
disasters. We applaud all efforts to bring relief to those
affected.
The President returned to the Chair.
The recent disasters bring into sharp focus the
imperative of purposeful action on the problems of
climate change at the national, regional and
international levels. Trinidad and Tobago is committed
to adopting concrete measures aimed at reducing its
levels of greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same
time promoting balanced industrialization and
environmental sustainability.
Notwithstanding its current healthy endowment
of hydrocarbon resources, Trinidad and Tobago
recognizes the need to promote clean energy
alternatives, the development of new and renewable
energy options and the proper protection and
management of the nation’s forests. Indeed, the
Government is putting into effect appropriate policies
for substantial results in that area. We hope to achieve
meaningful progress, in cooperation with development
partners within the public and private sectors, both
locally and internationally, and with civil society.
Cooperation at the international level is also
indispensable to efforts aimed at addressing the current
energy crisis. Trinidad and Tobago is seeking to partner
with its African friends in order to, among other things,
identify ways of developing long-term strategies for
the sustainable development and utilization of their
energy resources. That is in keeping with the pledge
made by The Honourable Patrick Manning, Prime
Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, in
2007, when he addressed the eighth Summit of the
African Union, in Ethiopia. Since then, discussions
have ensued with individual African States and with
the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS), to advance the initiative. The Government
of Trinidad and Tobago is eager to work assiduously
towards the attainment of our common objectives.
Trinidad and Tobago firmly believes that the
United Nations must take the lead in the management
of the global food crisis, in which we are confronted
with a situation of losing thousands to hunger on an
almost daily basis. We embrace the various multilateral
initiatives to address that grave challenge, including
the establishment by the Secretary-General of the
High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security
Crisis in April 2008 and the adoption of its
Comprehensive Framework for Action.
The eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is
one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to
be achieved by 2015. We cannot allow the threat posed
by the global food crisis to reverse the strides made so
far by many developing countries to achieve that Goal.
We must utilize all the resources at our disposal,
including a recommitment to the Food and Agriculture
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Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which was
established to help developing countries and countries
in transition modernize and improve agriculture and
fisheries practices and to ensure good nutrition for
their citizens. We must work in concert to provide that
institution with the resources necessary to discharge
effectively its mandates. If we fail to win the war
against that common enemy, we will be compromising
the right to food and by extension the right to life of
millions of people.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has
embraced a number of key policy initiatives that are
designed to guarantee our citizens access to food of
sufficient quality and quantity and to reduce the impact
of the food crisis. Thousands of acres have been made
available for diversified agricultural production. In
addition, capital is accessible to farmers through our
national Agricultural Development Bank.
Trinidad and Tobago recognizes that food
security must also be pursued in the context of the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and
Economy, which provides the opportunity for the
integration of production and cross-border investment
in agricultural production in those countries which
have greater agricultural potential and resources. The
Government of Trinidad and Tobago therefore hosted,
jointly with the CARICOM secretariat and the Food
and Agriculture Organization, a regional agriculture
donor conference in June 2007.
Similarly, like poverty and hunger, terrorism
remains a major scourge on our societies and poses a
direct threat to democratic institutions. It undermines
the rule of law, infringes human rights and generally
affects the well-being of its victims. Trinidad and
Tobago is convinced that members of the international
community must embrace multilateral solutions in the
fight against terrorism. We remain committed to the
United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy,
which is complementary to our own efforts to combat
terrorism.
Trinidad and Tobago views the reform of the
Security Council as indispensable to the transformation
and further democratization of the United Nations. As a
small island developing State, Trinidad and Tobago
wishes to reiterate its position on Security Council
reform, which emphasizes the need for, among other
things, equity of access for small States to the Security
Council and the need for representation of all regions
of the world in its permanent membership. Failure to
reform the Security Council could serve to undermine
that organ’s authority as the body with the primary
responsibility for the maintenance of international
peace and security, as well as its ability to discharge its
other obligations under Chapter VII of the Charter of
the United Nations.
Trinidad and Tobago is convinced that the United
Nations remains the principal vehicle for meaningful
exchanges between members of the international
community on matters of international concern. Such
deliberations, in our view, constitute the bedrock of the
democratization of the United Nations system and are
for us a priority consideration. We recognize therefore
the great value of the informal consultations on
system-wide coherence aimed at making the
Organization deliver as one.
Further progress on that issue during the current
session is imperative for the United Nations
development system to be able to provide Member
States, particularly developing countries, with the
assistance required to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals and the other internationally
agreed development goals.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has
charted a development policy to achieve the MDGs
within the stipulated period, as well as to transform the
country to developed status by the year 2020. The pace
of economic growth over the past decade has
fortunately enabled us to surpass MDG targets in
achieving universal primary education, promoting
gender equality, empowering women and significantly
reducing the level of poverty.
Trinidad and Tobago’s development strategy
exceeds the MDG targets in some respects. The
Government of Trinidad and Tobago has been able to
provide free secondary and tertiary education to its
citizens. In addition, 30 per cent of our cabinet
ministers and members of parliament are women.
Regrettably, for many developing States, the
achievement of the MDGs within the stipulated period
appears to be elusive. We therefore urge all
development partners to honour their commitments and
pledges already agreed upon.
Another important international process to which
Trinidad and Tobago attaches great importance is the
review of the implementation of the Monterrey
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Consensus on Financing for Development, which will
be addressed at a follow-up international conference in
Doha, Qatar, in November. The Monterrey Consensus,
adopted by heads of State or Government in 2002,
called for the mobilization of resources to assist
developing countries in meeting the MDGs and
recognized the importance of coherence and
consistency within and among the international
monetary, financial and trading systems in support of
overall development. While there have been some
advances under the key pillars of financing for
development, they have not been sufficiently
far-reaching. In the light of the current financial crisis,
the timing for the convening of the follow-up
conference is most timely and presents an opportunity
for the forging of global partnerships in a spirit of
solidarity. A key component for success will be an
ongoing engagement between Governments and all
stakeholders, including the private sector and civil
society.
Trinidad and Tobago is committed to the regional
integration movement of CARICOM and has continued
to provide economic assistance to our CARICOM
partners within the ambit of that multilateral
framework and other bilateral arrangements. One such
arrangement is Trinidad and Tobago’s Petroleum
Development Fund, a facility that only recently was
drawn upon to provide substantial assistance to some
of our Caribbean neighbours in the aftermath of recent
hurricanes. Another is the CARICOM Trade Support
Programme, a comprehensive loan facility of $16.5
million that is aimed at improving the trade capacity of
CARICOM States by providing assistance in the
diversification of their economies and in improving
trade capacity.
The Caribbean also falls prey to the nefarious
trade in narcotics, to which the illegal proliferation of
small arms and light weapons is linked. In an effort to
confront these challenges, we have concluded with our
neighbours the CARICOM Maritime and Air Space
Security Cooperation Agreement to protect our borders
from illegal activities. We recognize, however, the
important role of the United Nations as the premier
multilateral forum in providing assistance in areas such
as capacity-building to augment our own resources. For
the States of the Caribbean, a critical aspect of
disarmament is the eradication of the illegal trade in
small arms. Trinidad and Tobago therefore calls for
urgent action to complete the work on the elaboration
of an arms trade treaty.
In the context of our efforts to address the
challenge, we also wish to call again for consideration
to be given to the inclusion of international drug
trafficking as one of the crimes within the jurisdiction
of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It is of great significance to us that the very year
we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the adoption of
the Rome Statute of the ICC, we also commemorate the
sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Since its establishment,
the ICC has been able to attract 100 States parties,
issue arrest warrants and begin trials of persons
accused of committing crimes of major concern to the
international community. The perpetrators of genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes show flagrant
disregard for the human rights of their victims, as well
as for human rights law and humanitarian law, none of
which should go unpunished.
The United Nations has played a seminal role in
the promotion and development of international law,
which has contributed to the maintenance of
international peace and security and friendly relations
among States. As a small State, Trinidad and Tobago
views adherence to and respect for the rule of law as a
bulwark against intrusions that could affect our
territorial integrity, independence and economic
development and the general well-being of our
citizens. However, we are conscious of the need for
international cooperation in the implementation of
international legal obligations under various
conventions that provide mutual benefits to Member
States.
One area of which the United Nations can be
justly proud is the conclusion of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Convention has
worked well since its adoption and entry into force,
and it has provided legal certainty to activities carried
out by States in different maritime zones. In keeping
with our obligations under the Convention, Trinidad
and Tobago is in the process of completing work on its
submission to the Commission on the Limits of the
Continental Shelf by May 2009 to extend its
continental shelf jurisdiction beyond 200 nautical miles
from the baselines from which the breadth of the
territorial sea is measured. We do so with full respect
29 08-53129
for the sovereign right of other coastal States to make
similar submissions to the Commission.
Our region is home to the International Seabed
Authority, which is located in Jamaica. The Authority’s
mandate is derived from the Convention, and it is
entrusted with the responsibility to administer the
resources of the International Seabed Area, which is
the common heritage of mankind. As in previous years,
we again call on all members of the Authority to make
every effort to attend its meetings.
In conclusion, Trinidad and Tobago wishes to
reaffirm its faith in and commitment to multilateralism
at the regional, hemispheric and international levels.
Dialogue among States must always be the preferred
option for solving the myriad problems that we face in
an increasingly complex international environment. It
is in recognition of this importance that Trinidad and
Tobago has taken the bold decision to host in 2009
both the Summit of the Americas and the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Dialogue in those two bodies, which are microcosms of
the United Nations, could also influence discussions at
the United Nations, an institution that we must
continue to transform, guard and protect, in order to be
able to bequeath it to future generations.