Jamaica

May I, on behalf of the Government and the people of Jamaica, convey warmest congratulations to Mr. Amara Essy on his election as President of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session. I wish to assure him of the full support and cooperation of the Jamaican delegation in the deliberations on the many important issues before the Assembly. Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate Ambassador Insanally of Guyana on the skilful and innovative manner in which he presided over the forty- eighth session. We in the Caribbean are justifiably proud of his contributions to the Assembly’s deliberations. Last year I emphasized that the international community was at a crossroads where we were faced not only with matters of economic progress but also with an environment full of conflicts and strife. My outlook was, and still is, one of optimism, an optimism rooted in the recognition that the old political and military order has passed and that history has, for the second time in less than two generations, provided us with the opportunity to embark on a process of international consensus-building. This is an exciting and daunting task, particularly for a small island State like Jamaica, whose faith and commitment to multilateralism and the United Nations remain unwavering. Our most pressing collective challenge is to make this Organization a more effective instrument for peace and development. The United Nations is being called upon to respond to a host of new challenges, including emergency humanitarian assistance, peace-keeping, peacemaking, development and post-conflict rebuilding. The past year has seen human misery and dislocation of fearful proportions in Haiti, on the high seas of the Caribbean, in Rwanda, in the refugee camps of Zaire and Tanzania, in Bosnia and in Afghanistan. Their underlying causes are political, social and economic. The United Nations can and should bring to these and other situations a broadly encompassing view of the indivisibility of political, economic and social processes. The Organization and its resources and the will and vision of its Members must be mobilized to address the imperatives of social and economic development. We must seek to promote a new era of international cooperation for global human security. The global nature of this challenge is inescapable. It has become evident that no State by itself can control the spread of environmental degradation and pollution, transnational migrations and diseases such the AIDS epidemic. Economic globalization and the accompanying liberalization of trade and financial flows, now link developed and developing economies, North and South, East and West. Global solutions and coordinated strategies must consequently form the basis of our actions. 10 General Assembly 22nd meeting Globalization brings new opportunities, but it also brings new dangers. Despite the general trend towards improved economic management, economic disparities are widening. Developing countries are being marginalized from the growth trends in the international economy. This is a matter of concern to Jamaica as we, like a large number of other developing countries, have placed high developmental priority on export-led growth and on attracting investment flows. Structural adjustment programmes have also been undertaken at great social cost. The contributions of the United Nations and its specialized agencies in areas such as institution-building, poverty alleviation, productivity enhancement, small enterprise development and financing, and the strengthening of human resources, continue to be vital elements in enhancing the productive potential of developing countries. This will, in turn, enable our countries to benefit more fully from and to participate more effectively in a liberal and increasingly organic global economy. The United Nations must now work vigorously towards the implementation of an agenda for development. A meaningful agenda for development must set priorities in programmes and resources that respond to the challenges posed by the international environment for developing countries. These priorities must address all issues to which adequate multilateral solutions have yet to be found. These include the burden of debt; inadequate flows of official development assistance; the debilitating brain drain; the reverse transfer of resources to multilateral financial institutions; the social costs of structural adjustment and the non-transparent trade barriers and protectionist measures that remain in place in industrialized countries against the products of developing countries even as the general trend towards liberalization and trade in goods and services is accelerating. The agenda must strengthen the role of the United Nations in the area of international economic policy- making and coordination. It must seek to enhance the relationship of the United Nations with the Bretton Woods institutions. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the two Bretton Woods institutions established under the umbrella of the United Nations. I wish to emphasize that we should continue to examine the roles and policies of these institutions. We must make the changes that five decades of experience indicate are necessary so as to improve the prospects for growth and development of developing countries — change which can be carried out without undermining the health and vitality of the international economy or the fiscal integrity of these institutions. Major developed countries should re-examine their opposition to the sound proposals for change that have been put forward repeatedly by developing countries — proposals that range from increasing international liquidity to longer adjustment periods. Over the years, the International Monetary Fund has moved from the supervision of a fixed exchange rate system to assisting developing countries through financial crises, while the World Bank has made the transition from post- war reconstruction to funding development in the third world. Now is an opportune time to reassess their respective roles, given new global dynamics and changing patterns of trade and investment. The Fund and the Bank need to quickly adapt to the current global economic system if they are to remain relevant to contemporary realities. Two important conferences were held this year which offered opportunities for international attention and action. In Barbados, the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States adopted a programme of action which now requires the support and assistance of the United Nations system and the donor community for its speedy and effective implementation. The recently concluded International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo produced a landmark document highlighting the inextricable linkage between population, sustained economic growth and sustained development. Next year in Copenhagen, the World Summit for Social Development will endeavour to adopt a global approach to the eradication of poverty, the generation of productive employment and the enhancement of social integration. We will also meet in Beijing at the Fourth World Conference on Women to continue to put in place measures which will create an enabling environment for women. Jamaica will actively participate in these important processes. I have chosen to focus at the outset on what Jamaica sees as the development imperative and priorities of the United Nations because we are convinced that the path to development and the path to peace are one and the same. Jamaica fully supports an open, non-discriminatory trading system governed by transparent rules and with an effective mechanism for settling disputes. We therefore await the implementation of the conclusions of the Uruguay Round and the establishment of the World Trade Organization. We will work actively within the new organization to ensure the promotion of development through trade, placing special importance on those 11 General Assembly 22nd meeting provisions in the conclusions of the Uruguay Round which seek to ensure a regime of fairness and equity in the overall context of a programme of free trade. The international community and its institutions are dynamic. The choice is whether we actively shape the change that inevitably comes with the passing of time and with new circumstances, or whether we merely react to events. The World Trade Organization is an example of purposeful design by the international community. Yet another — a truly historic one — is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As is widely known, the Convention, which establishes a regulatory mechanism for the oceans, the seas and their resources, will enter into force on 16 November of this year. The inaugural meeting of the International Seabed Authority will be held in Kingston on that date. This will be both an end and a beginning. The event will mark the end of a process that began nearly twenty years ago and the opening of a new and historic chapter in international juridical and economic relations. The inaugural meeting will see the establishment of the International Seabed Authority. We are extremely proud that Jamaica will host this important organization, which has responsibility for regulating and exploiting the world’s vastest resource base. It must be emphasized, however, that the success of the Authority will require the cooperation of all parties concerned, in order to ensure that the goal of universality is achieved. It is important that the Authority receive the necessary resources to enable it to operate effectively, in a way consistent with principles and practices applied to institutions within the United Nations system. I wish again to pay tribute to those who have contributed to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to its ratification and to the establishment of the International Seabed Authority. We invite all States to join in the momentous first meeting of the Authority in Kingston from 16 to 18 November. We look forward to welcoming the Secretary- General of this Organization, His Excellency Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who has graciously accepted the invitation of the Government of Jamaica to be at the inaugural meeting. Since I spoke to this body last year, the Republic of South Africa has resumed its seat in the General Assembly. The installation of a majority government in that country, under the leadership of President Nelson Mandela, is a historic development of which the entire international community is justifiably proud. The dismantling of apartheid was a consequence of the long and valiant struggle waged by the South African people. It was also a victory for multilateralism and an important reminder of the critical role that multilateral organizations such as the United Nations can play in resolving difficult international issues. The Government and the people of Jamaica welcome a non-racial, democratic South Africa into the international community of nations. In our own region, the situation in Haiti has been of great concern to Jamaica and our Caribbean Community (CARICOM) partners. The wanton abuse of human rights that led to the death of Haitians within Haiti and of many of those who fled in unsafe vessels simply had to stop. We welcome the most recent developments in Haiti and the reaffirmation by the international community of its commitment to the Governors Island Accord. There can be no deviation from the critical elements to which we subscribed. The recent Security Council resolution sends a strong signal to the military authorities that the international community will accept no less than the prompt return of the legitimately elected President, the restoration of the constitutional authority of the Government of Haiti, the reform of the army and the police force, and the building of lasting democratic institutions. Jamaica, along with several of our CARICOM partners, is playing its part in this process by participating in the multinational force and in the United Nations Mission in Haiti. Developments in Haiti have underscored the wisdom of the philosophy of the countries of the Caribbean that maintaining peace and stability, within the context of democratic institutions and practices, must be the fundamental basis for the development of our region. Within the wider Latin American and Caribbean region, we are actively strengthening and widening cooperation among our countries. The establishment of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in July of this year was a historic development that provides for even stronger collaboration and cooperation. We hope that in the interest of the entire region, a process of sustained dialogue and accommodation between Cuba and the United States can be initiated, and that this will lead to conditions that permit the eventual full reintegration of Cuba into the region and into the hemispheric community. Jamaica welcomes the call 12 General Assembly 22nd meeting made by the Rio Group at its recent Eighth Summit meeting for the lifting of the trade embargo against Cuba. The trade and economic prospects of countries in the region can be strengthened only by the priority now being accorded to regional and hemispheric relations and by the growing role, actual wand envisioned, for regional and subregional organizations, such as CARICOM and the newly established ACS, as well as by arrangements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In the case of NAFTA, which we support strongly, Jamaica and other participants in the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) programme continue to press for the adoption, by the United States Congress of the Interim Trade programme, which would significantly offset adverse consequences on existing conditions of access under the CBI. I feel compelled to return in these final comments to the mission of this Organization — peace and development. There can be little cause for comfort when, since 1945, 20 million people have died in wars and other conflicts. It is disturbing and instructive to learn that some 80 million persons now live in foreign lands, and that a million persons immigrate permanently each year, while another million seek political asylum as they flee both poverty and internal strife. The increasing flows of refugees and displaced persons worldwide threaten peace and stability and exacerbate tensions and conflicts between countries and in entire regions. We must strengthen international cooperation in this area and streamline national and international procedures for dealing with this grave problem. To be true to its mission, the United Nations must be an Organization that reduces both want and war. This is why I underscored earlier my delegation’s strong belief that this Organization must become increasingly active in the promotion of long-term development, which is the necessary underpinning of a genuine and lasting peace. The United Nations must not shrink from this aspect of its mission. The military and ideological realignment of recent years has created new opportunities for peace. But these unprecedented developments must be supported by institutional reforms and by new approaches on our part. These institutional reforms must inevitably include the reform of the Security Council, the principal organ charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. In this regard, Jamaica fully supports the call for its enlargement. We believe that the Security Council must be truly representative in order to be fully effective. Expenditure on armaments continues to consume resources and to divert spending away from human development needs in both developed and developing countries. Military downsizing, particularly by developing countries, has yet to gather the momentum that was expected at the end of the cold war. The United Nations has a legitimate role to play in providing technical and other assistance to help developing and other countries shift human and material resources from military to civilian use. We note that the permanent members of the Security Council are also the world’s leading exporters of conventional weapons. This is an issue that should be addressed both in terms of reducing arms exports, as well as in terms of converting the resources to the requirements of peace and development. It would be remiss of me if I concluded my contribution to this debate without referring to the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, to be celebrated next year. As we all prepare for this historic occasion, we must reflect on the fact that this achievement is in itself a vindication of the principles on which the Organization was founded. If we are to survive beyond that milestone we must remain steadfast to these principles.