The outcome document
adopted at the High-level Plenary Meeting (resolution
60/1) serves as a map by which we navigate in seeking
to improve the lives of the many peoples of the world;
it may be imperfect, but it is our task as leaders to
provide a vision of a better world and to lead our
peoples towards the achievement of that vision. The
outcome document spells out this vision, and we
should use it much as one uses a map when navigating
the destiny of our respective nations.
In this respect, Nauru looks to the United Nations
as the global leader in reaching this vision of a better
world: a world in which human rights are collectively
recognized and defended, terrorism in any form is
eliminated, peace and security is promoted and
maintained, and poverty is eradicated. We therefore
applaud the effort to strengthen the work of the United
Nations through management reform. This should
improve the delivery of the global services that this
Organization is expected to provide.
Equally important is the need to reform the
Security Council, to recognize that international
developments since the establishment of that body
many decades ago now demand a more democratic
representation of the global family in an expanded
Security Council. The earlier these reforms are
implemented, the earlier the work of the United
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Nations can be further improved, with commensurate
benefit to the people whose interests we all serve.
Nauru is in the unenviable position of having lost
its earlier status as a donor country, with much of its
wealth lost through mismanagement and, in particular,
corrupt leadership. We therefore speak with some
experience when we note with encouragement the
decision by the United Nations to implement
management and structural reforms to improve,
amongst other things, transparency and accountability
for the greater good of Member countries and the
peoples we represent.
Nauru itself is undertaking significant economic
and political reforms as it recommences the nation-
building process. These include the design of a national
development strategy, the public consultative phase of
which has just been concluded; it will be presented to
the donor community in November this year. We hope
that the international community can participate, not by
driving the development agenda for the people of
Nauru, but by accepting the vision of our people as that
to be implemented by Nauru with the support of its
development partners. The development agenda for
developing countries, particularly those with fragile
and vulnerable economies, must be designed by those
on whose lives that agenda will have an impact and not
by external parties that have a different agenda.
We believe that the thorough consultative process
within which the national development strategy is
being designed is in itself an exercise in democracy.
The views expressed by government and non-
government agencies and by community, faith and
other leaders, is testament to the strength of democracy
in Nauru. To turn a blind eye to this process by driving
a development agenda not envisioned by the people is
not only dangerous to the development needs of the
people it should serve, but a threat to democracy itself.
We hope that the United Nations itself will have a
leading role in assisting the rebuilding of Nauru and in
achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
We reiterate our call for a United Nations presence in
Nauru for this purpose.
Nauru also calls upon the developed world to
match its rhetoric with action when it comes to meeting
the development needs of the developing world,
through development financing and/or debt relief. It is
simply not good enough to be targeting the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by
2015 without making available the resources to fund
that effort. The developed world has an obligation to
share its resources with the developing world by
ensuring it meets its own target of official development
assistance expenditure of 0.7 per cent of gross
domestic product, and to achieve it promptly, if the
developing world is to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals within 10 years.
The decision not to consider the question of the
people of Taiwan is a gross dereliction of duty by this
Assembly. There are 23 million people on Taiwan who
are being denied the right to be recognized and
protected by this Organization. The United Nations has
a role in assisting and facilitating constructive dialogue
to ensure a future of peace for the people of Taiwan
and the rest of that region. Peace and security in the
Taiwan Strait is peace and security in the Asia-Pacific
region. I am very hopeful that Member States will
recognize and accept the appeal by the good people of
Taiwan at the sixtieth session of the General Assembly.
God bless the Republic of Nauru and God bless
the United Nations and the peoples of the world. We
shall proceed with God’s will first.