1. Madam President, on behalf of the Government and the people
of Jamaica I extend to you warmest congratulations on your unanimous
election to the Presidency of the General Assembly at its
twenty-fourth session. It is seldom that a woman is
appointed to this high post and it is the first time that a
distinguished and gracious daughter of Africa has become
President of the General Assembly. We who over the years
have been associated with you, as a member of your
country’s delegation to the United Nations, have become
aware of your generosity and sincerity, and we are sure that
you will bring these qualities to bear in the execution of
your duties. We have no doubt that with you as president
this twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly, already
made historic by your presence at its head, will be a
memorable one.
2. I should now like to pay tribute to the late President of
the General Assembly at its twenty-third session, His
Excellency Mr. Emilio Arenales, whose untimely passing
has deprived us and his country of his valuable services.
3. His Excellency Mr. Luis Alvarado, Chairman of the
delegation of Peru, also deserves our tribute for the manner
in which he assumed the functions of the Presidency.
4. On this the eve of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the
United Nations, we the Member States may properly ask
ourselves what we have done to make this Organization
effective in establishing and preserving peace and security in
this world. We may also ask ourselves to what extent the
Organization has been the real stimulus for international
co-operation in solving problems of an economic, social,
cultural and humanitarian character. We find that the high
hopes with which this Organization was born have not
begun to show satisfactory levels of fulfillment in all areas.
5. The traditional actions and policies of some Member
States — and more particularly those of the major
Powers — have not always been evidence of a genuine
endeavour to live within the ideals of the Charter and to make our
Organization the force it ought to be in the world
community. Today, the consequences of those actions are
clear to us. Vast numbers of men, women and children die
in major wars which are called limited wars. Devastation,
hunger and malnutrition, the dread concomitants of civil
strife, leave us cold and impotent. Troops move across
frontiers to a chorus of fruitless denunciations and
stereotyped ritual exchanges. A number of major issues confronting
today’s world and endangering the peace we seek are
not even being discussed at the United Nations.
6. It is time for us to make a reassessment of our
Organization. Indeed, it is high time for the United Nations
to be not only an instrument of national policy but, more
particularly, a beneficiary of such policy. Surely, specific
elements in the policies of Member States should be
directed to the strengthening of the Organization, It is to be
hoped that during the twenty-fifth anniversary year of the
Organization this thorough assessment will take place.
7. Since the twenty-third session of the General Assembly,
man has successfully probed the environment of the moon
and landed thereon. By that act man has demonstrated his
capacity to build a machine of immense and exacting
complexity, to co-ordinate its technology with the human
will and judgement, and to employ that combination in
most spectacular ways.
8. The need is indeed urgent for parallel performance in
the machine fashioned by the world community in 1945.
and known as the United Nations. It was hoped that with
the goodwill and commitment of its members the United
Nations would bring man into an environment of peace and
security. Some powerful Member States charged with the
responsibility for the proper functioning of the equipment
on our planet have given only token support in this regard,
thus delaying the smooth “lift-off” from the “launching
pad”. Some Members of the world community continue to
tinker with parts of the equipment in a spirit of
self-interest, oblivious of the harm being perpetrated on the
whole. If the moon landing could bring home to mankind
the folly and futility of its short-sighted selfishness in
disabling its greatest machine — the United Nations - then, in
the view of my delegation, another great cause would be
well served.
9. I should now like to review some of the issues that are
of immediate interest to the world community. On Viet-Nam,
following the announcement of talks, my Government
shared the hopes for an early settlement of the
conflict. We regret that this has not yet materialized. We
urge. all parties involved to exercise the necessary will and
courage to secure a settlement through those negotiations
and simultaneously to hasten the end of the fighting so that
the work of reconstruction and rehabilitation may begin, in
the interest of the peoples of Viet-Nam — North and
South — and in the interest of the entire world community.
10. Within the recent past my Government was favoured
with a visit from the personal representative of Major-General
Gowon, President of the Federal Government of
Nigeria. A visit was also received from representatives of
General Ojukwu. We were heartened by those visits, as they
reflected a deep interest in bringing an end to the conflict.
The prolongation of strife on the west coast of Africa can
only serve to impede Africa’s progress and to increase its
problems. My Government takes cognizance of the efforts
being made by the Organization of African Unity to put an
end to the conflict, and reiterates its call made at the
twenty-third session of the General Assembly [1679th
meeting] for a cease-fire, an arms embargo and meaningful
negotiations to halt the human suffering and slaughter.
11. The conflict in the Middle East continues to escalate
and to consume the time, energies and negotiating talents
of Member States. Continued hostilities are most unlikely
to hold the answer, and yet the multiplicity of activities
taking-place in the Middle East are tending in the futile
direction of a full-scale war. Resolutions and condemnations,
warnings and pleadings, appear to dwarf the will to
arrest the growing seeds of hate. Security Council resolution
242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 remains the best
foundation for a just and lasting settlement. Jamaica once
again repeats its call to all parties to accept that resolution
and to seek a solution within its terms. In the final analysis,
it appears that the chief participants in that continuing
struggle will need to demonstrate more directly their
determination to bring peace to the Middle East, thus
releasing needed energy and resources for development.
12. In view of the major handicaps to advancement
imposed by the conflicts which I have mentioned, I would
suggest that this Organization set out to find the true
solution that the world body needs and that the Middle
East itself is crying out for. In addition to those handicaps,
we notice that racism is still spreading in Africa. Rhodesia is
well on the road to apartheid; sanctions have proved
ineffective so far, and optimism regarding their success is
undoubtedly at a very low point. Because of the intransigence
of the Government of South Africa, the United Nations, charged
with direct responsibility for Namibia, still
awaits an opportunity to fulfil its mandate vis-a-vis the
people of that country. Thus, instead of being able to work
towards self-determination and independence with the aid
of the United Nations Council for Namibia, the Namibians
find themselves under the loathsome yoke of South Africa.
They are confronted with the unhappy prospect of the
establishment in Namibia of so-called homelands, which
aims at the division of Namibia on a basis that would
reserve the best lands for the use of the white population.
13. The Security Council has spent many man-hours on
Rhodesia and on Namibia. Its resolutions have gone
unheeded through non-compliance in one form or another.
It has also devoted much time to South Africa’s apartheid
policies and to Portugal’s continuing presence and performance
in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea (Bissau). The
United Nations efforts to rectify these issues have not been
effective because some nations are flouting and disregarding
the Organization’s decisions and resolutions against
Rhodesia and South Africa, including the calls for trade
embargoes. By so doing those nations are sabotaging the
United Nations and the objectives of the Charter. They are
guilty of attempting to make this world body impotent on
these issues. They are establishing precedents that will have
serious repercussions on other areas of the world. Jamaica
reiterates its call upon those States, which are supporting
defiance of the United Nations, to respect and implement
its resolutions so that we can achieve the objectives to
which we as Members are committed.
14. It should come as no surprise to find that where the
Security Council is ineffective on South Africa and where
the 30 million black inhabitants of that region continue as
virtual slaves in their homeland, liberation movements gain
and develop strength and daring for the purpose of
achieving self-determination and independence. Indeed,
peace is the common goal which we are all seeking and to
which we are all committed as a matter of policy — global
peace with the threat of nuclear war removed from us,
peace in those several areas of the world where the conflict
involves major Powers directly, indirectly, or perhaps not at
all. Peace, after all, is not only global but regional and local
as well, and we all have an obligation to work for its
maintenance everywhere.
15. My Government has followed with interest the recent
sessions of the United Nations Conference of the Committee
on Disarmament. The draft conventions on the
prohibition of weapons from the sea-bed and the ocean
floor and on biological and chemical warfare are hopeful
signs. We accept them as bases for further work, and it is
our sincere hope that this session of the General Assembly
will give some added stimulus to these endeavours.
We accept them as planks for peace in the work programme
now being advanced in connexion with the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the United Nations and with the Second
United Nations Development Decade.
16. An item of considerable importance on our agenda is
the report of the Preparatory Committee [A/7525 and
addenda], which has been submitted through the Economic
and Social Council in accordance with General Assembly
resolution 2411 (XXIII). My Government appreciates the
efforts of the Preparatory Committee and the contributions
made by the various organizations of the United Nations
system towards the formulation of the strategy for the
forthcoming Decade. My delegation, however, anxiously
awaits agreement by the Trade and Development Board on
the role to be played by the United Nations Conference for
Trade and Development in the forthcoming Development
Decade. There are several unresolved matters of vital
importance to developing countries that fall within the
competence of UNCTAD, such as the commodity agreement
for primary products in order to ensure reasonable
remuneration to producers; the problem of competition
from synthetics produced by developed countries; and in
the field of the transfer of operative technology to
developing countries, the question of patents. It is the hope
of my delegation that matters of such importance as those
mentioned will be resolved early in the forthcoming
Decade.
17. The Development Decade of the 1960s has fallen far
short of the expectations of the international community.
Developing countries are still at a serious disadvantage in
trade with. the developed countries, and are faced with
ever-increasing prices for imports essential to their economic
growth on the one hand, and depressed prices for
their exports on the other. This pattern of trade must be
changed if in contrast to the First, we are to gain positive
results for the Second Development Decade.
18. Today we approach the start of the Second Development
Decade with a deeper conviction based on the
accepted principle that there must be integration of social
and economic planning and that there must also be
integrated programmes of assistance on the part of institutions
whose objective is to help overcome the problems of
development. We recognize that certain areas of development
activities, traditionally regarded as social, are in fact
essential investments in economic progress — that education,
to take the most obvious example, is as vital a prerequisite
to progress as the possession of raw materials or of
potential markets. In my Government’s view, it is applicable
to other so-called social sectors such as health and
housing. It is time that this is recognized so that we can do
away with many of the artificial distinctions between the
social and economic fields in applying for assistance.
19. Recently, this Organization has turned its attention to
an important sector of our population — I refer to youth. It
seems ironic that an Organization dedicated to saving
succeeding generations from the scourge of war has made
very little provision for the active participation of that
generation in its programmes. Indeed, youth’s vision of the
world is almost identical to that envisaged by the Charter.
Young people abhor war because it threatens their future,
They deplore the destruction of the environment because it
impairs the quality of the life on earth they expect to
inherit. They resent racism because it limits the range of
human association and contact and, finally, they oppose
poverty as unnecessary and cruel. They are, in fact, our
natural allies and we take hope in the belief that this
Organization seriously and meaningfully intends to respond
to their desire to help shape the future.
20. My delegation will be prepared to discuss in greater
detail the elements that we believe are essential in any
activity related to young people which the United Nations
may undertake. In the urge to create new programmes we
cannot afford to forget that a number of our traditional
concerns are of vital and immediate relevance to youth, and
that we have a great responsibility for strengthening and
expanding certain existing programmes and also devising
new ones.
21. I should now like to comment briefly on a few aspects
of the proposed international strategy within the limits so
far determined. My Government well understands that the
success of the Second Development Decade will largely
depend on the effort of each Member State. There can be
no substitute for the national effort charted by wise
leadership and fully supported by the citizens in their
determination to achieve economic and social development
within the individual State and, consequently, within the
larger community.
22. Regarding the agricultural sector of the strategy, due
note has been taken of the targets set and the comments
made by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, particularly in connexion with production.
My Government has embarked on a programme designed to
increase productivity of the land by the creation of
nation-wide institutions under which farmers are encouraged
to cultivate specific crops in specific areas, taking into
account ecological conditions. There are farm holdings
which are too small to be economic to the individual
owner. An effort is being made to rationalize productivity
on those holdings by Government subsidy to those who
farm these lands. Jamaica’s effort at rationalization
operates within the framework of the Government
machinery which provides assistance and undertakes the
marketing of produce at guaranteed minimum prices.
23. On the question of trade, the problems of developing
countries are well known. The need for international
commodity agreements and arrangements which would take
into account the particular trading patterns of various
groups of developing countries is or vital importance.
Another important aspect relates to the need for the access
of exports of manufactured and semi-manufactared goods
from developing countries to the markets of the developed
world. It is the general recommendation of experts, both
from countries with which there are bilateral arrangements
and from the agencies of this body itself, that developing
countries should continue their policy of industrialization.
Too frequently, this advice is given without due consideration,
by the developed countries, of the concomitant
factors of marketing and advantageous trading arrangements.
24. My Government wishes to emphasize that development
is an international responsibility equal in scope to the
responsibility for the maintenance of international peace.
Against this background, on the eve of the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the United Nations, we propose for consideration
by this body: first, the formulation of a strategy for
international development for the forthcoming decade — a
strategy which should be regarded as a supplement to the
Charter of the United Nations.
25. Second, the establishment of a world resources data
centre which would undertake an inventory of world
resources requirements for their equitable exploitation and
would reflect the size of their reserves. In this context I
should like to recall the proposal by my delegation at the
twenty-third session of the General Assembly that documentation
centres on a programme basis be established in
developing countries by the United Nations [see 1679th
meeting, para. 208].
26. Third, developed countries should be invited to
examine, within the context of an over-all strategy for the
Development Decade, ways and means by which resources
now being transferred to developing countries by both.their
public and private sectors can make a more meaningful
contribution to rapid economic growth. In the public sector
there is an increasing need for untying aid in order to
facilitate the more efficient use of these resources. In the
private sector, on the other hand, there are many instances
in which investments should be more closely linked with
national development plans.
27. Before I close, I should like to make some observations
contingent on what may be called the qualitative
dimension of development in the Second Development
Decade. At the twenty-third session of the General
Assembly a comprehensive resolution [2398 (XXIII)] drew
attention to the necessity of preserving the human environment.
The resolution authorized the Secretary-General to
begin preparations for a United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment to be held in 1972. This question
involves nearly every institution in the United Nations
family. It touches many of the already established items on
the agenda of the General Assembly. We welcome this
effort to co-ordinate national and international activity in a
sphere which affects the very existence of man on earth. We
congratulate the delegation of Sweden for its enlightened
conduct of the co-ordinated efforts which led to the
adoption of this resolution at the twenty-third session.
28. I should also like to express my country’s appreciation
of the thoroughness of the work which the Secretariat put
into the report on the problems of the human environment
which was laid before the forty-seventh session of
the Economic and Social Council. This is a most useful
basis for the commencement of preparatory work for the
1972 conference. My Government was pleased to be
associated with the resolution [1448 (XLVII)] adopted by
the Economic and Social Council.
29. One result of the 1972 conference that we should like
to anticipate is that United Nations offices should give
careful consideration to preparing manuals of environmental
science, using the material available to the conference.
These manuals should be of value in the educational
process at the primary, secondary and university levels, as
well as in the necessary process of mobilizing public opinion.
30. Finally, the year ahead, 1970, stands out in its
particular importance to our world Organization. This is the
year in which we celebrate our silver anniversary — 25 years
spent in trying to improve the lot of man and the world he
inhabits. This is the year that will mark the tenth
anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence
to Colonial Countries and Peoples. This is the
year which will see the start of the Second Development
Decade. This is the year chosen to highlight the need for
greater educational efforts — International Education Year.
31. The present twenty-fourth session of the General
Assembly is a prologue to this important year. The success
of the projects and observances to be undertaken in 1970,
the ability of this Organization to move forward constructively
into the second quarter-century of its existence,
will be influenced in large measure by the quality of work
that is done at this session. The Jamaican delegation hopes
that this will be a true working session, bringing into sharp
focus the changing problems and priorities of the world and
devising more effective means whereby the United Nations
can give them its attention. This, then, is a period of
hope — hope that all Member nations will work together
more fully to realize the goals of our Charter. To this end
Jamaica remains committed.