At the outset permit
me to congratulate you, Madam President, on your
election to the presidency of the General Assembly at
its sixty-first session, and to express Saint Lucia’s
appreciation to your predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson of
Sweden, for the excellent manner in which he
spearheaded the work of the sixtieth session. We wish
also to express our profound respect and gratitude to
Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his great vision,
committed leadership and tireless efforts in promoting
the noble ideals and values of our United Nations
under the most difficult circumstances. We wish him
and his family well in their future endeavours.
When in September 2000 we took the
unprecedented step of pledging to meet eight
Millennium Development Goals by 2015, it
represented a belated admission that the development
of every nation is a collective responsibility.
At that Summit we recognized that it was an
affront to our basic humanity that so many people on
our planet continued to live in conditions of abject
poverty and deprivation; that so many continued to
suffer the ravages of disease and war; and that basic
necessities of life, taken for granted by most of us,
remained unattainable by so many. We also recognized
that unless we developed appropriate partnerships to
deal with these problems they would persist, to our
collective shame.
At this, our sixty-first session, we reaffirm our
commitment to this notion of partnership as a
significant modality for the attainment of our common
goals. Saint Lucia is satisfied that the idea of
partnership accommodates the spirit of multilateralism,
which is the defining principle of our relationship
within the United Nations. This multilateralist spirit
must constantly be safeguarded and fortified, and that
can only be accomplished by a strong and confident
United Nations.
Saint Lucia takes this opportunity to once again
express its determined support for the programmes of
reform of the United Nations, designed as these are to
create the capacity and conditions for the exercise of a
strong central role by the United Nations within the
international community. We salute the achievements
to date, namely, the replacement of the moribund
Human Rights Commission with the new Human
Rights Council and the establishment of the
Peacebuilding Commission. We recognize that these
bodies are far from perfect and will require continued
attention by Member States. However, they reflect our
determination to translate talk into action. Saint Lucia
looks forward to continuing the discussions on the
remaining items on our reform agenda — in particular,
Security Council reform, strengthening and refocusing
06-53609 12
the General Assembly, the empowerment of the
Economic and Social Council and management reform.
Saint Lucia continues to believe in the wisdom of
the words of our Secretary-General, who, in his March
2005 report “In Larger Freedom”, opined:
“we will not enjoy development without security,
we will not enjoy security without development,
and we will not enjoy either without respect for
human rights. Unless all these causes are
advanced, none will succeed.” (A/59/2005,
para. 17)
As we seek to develop partnerships for
development, utilizing the Millennium Development
Goals as the benchmark, Saint Lucia has been moving
steadily towards the attainment of some of the goals.
Universal primary education has been largely attained,
and we have gone further to introduce a programme of
universal access to free secondary education for our
young citizens. Saint Lucia is in the process of
establishing a universal programme of free health care,
and it has made significant progress in the area of
maternal and child health. We are also working
steadfastly in the battle against HIV/AIDS through
education, early detection and treatment programmes,
and also through the provision of free or subsidized
antiretroviral drugs.
All these efforts have been bolstered in a
practical demonstration of South-South cooperation
through generous support and assistance from a
number of developing countries in the areas of human
resource development in the health sector and the
construction of new health facilities. South-South
partnerships are workable. We need to continue to
develop and widen them for the betterment of
developing countries.
Saint Lucia applauds the return of Haiti to
democratic governance. This long-awaited
development has led to the readmission of that country
to the councils of the Caribbean Community. We
recognize that the road to normalcy in Haiti will be a
long and tortuous one, requiring a sustained political
focus by the international community. Saint Lucia calls
for the speedy release of development resources
promised to that country in order that its Government
and people may tackle in a meaningful way the
numerous obstacles standing in its development path.
Saint Lucia also welcomes the Final Document of
the Fourteenth Summit Conference of Heads of State
or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in
Havana. This historic meeting addressed a wide range
of regional and international issues, including the
sanctity of international law, the promotion and
preservation of multilateralism, the peaceful settlement
of disputes, the right to self-determination and
decolonization. The Final Document provides the
international community with a workable road map for
the development agenda far into this new century, with
achievable solutions to many of the issues facing us
today.
Saint Lucia notes and welcomes the report of the
Secretary-General on the follow-up to and
implementation of the outcome of the 2005
International Conference on Financing for
Development (A/61/253). We call upon the developed
countries represented at that forum to honour the
commitments made there and at previous United
Nations summits and conferences on trade, debt and
finance, especially their promise to fulfil the goal of
0.7 per cent of gross domestic product going to official
development assistance. We believe it is imperative
that the international community increase its efforts to
address the indebtedness of poor developing countries.
It is also important that these countries address the
systemic deficiencies in the global economic and
financial system. These deficiencies all constitute
serious threats to the survival of developing countries
like Saint Lucia.
Small island developing States, such as those in
the Caribbean, the Pacific and Indian oceans and the
Mediterranean, are extremely vulnerable to the impact
of climate change. We have already reached a
dangerous level of greenhouse gas concentrations in
the atmosphere, and urgent action is required to reverse
this situation.
In this connection, the international community,
in particular our developed partners, needs to take
more aggressive action to promote the development
and distribution of renewable energy and energy
efficiency technologies in developed and developing
countries alike. To assist developing countries to play
their part in this connection there is a need to establish
a global renewable energy and energy efficiency fund.
Saint Lucia joins with its colleague members of the
Alliance of Small Island States, and with other affected
States, in calling for the international community to
13 06-53609
address the issues of sea-level rise and climate change
as a matter of urgency.
The international community must honour its
responsibility for, and commitment to, the full
implementation of the Mauritius Strategy for the
Further Implementation of the Programme of Action
for the Sustainable Development of Small Island
Developing States. We insist on the urgent and proper
mainstreaming of the Strategy into the respective work
programmes of the United Nations agencies and other
bodies. Those who are the largest producers of
greenhouse gases must bear responsibility for the
damage they are causing to the global environment.
From our own regional perspective, Saint Lucia
welcomes the adoption of measures for the promotion
of an integrated management approach to the
Caribbean Sea area in the context of sustainable
development. We welcome initiatives taken to this end
by the Association of Caribbean States and the
Caribbean Community.
Half a decade into the twenty-first century there
are still some 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories under
the review of the General Assembly. Most are small
island territories in the Caribbean and Pacific regions.
Their decolonization through a genuine process of self-
determination is the unfinished agenda of the United
Nations. In this connection, Article 73b of the Charter,
on the necessity of promoting genuine self-
government, should be respected. We call on the
administering Powers to increase their level of
cooperation with the Special Committee on
Decolonization, and call on the relevant bodies of the
United Nations system to assist the Non-Self-
Governing Territories in the development of their
capacity for self-government and in furtherance of their
process of self-determination.
The year 2007 will mark the 200th anniversary of
the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, which
began the process of the abolition of slavery in the
British Empire. A number of international events are
planned throughout the globe to honour the memory of
the millions who died during the middle passage, and
those who subsequently perished under the horrors of
chattel slavery in the Caribbean and the Americas.
Saint Lucia joins with the countries of the African
diaspora in the Caribbean, and with other like-minded
countries, in supporting a United Nations
commemoration in 2007 of the abolition of the
transatlantic slave trade.
I could not end without referring to the serious
impact of the rulings of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) in respect of banana exports to our preferential
markets in Europe. Few in the developed world can
appreciate the mass social dislocation that this decision
has caused, with thousands of independent farmers,
employers in their own right, left without a livelihood
through no fault of their own.
Consider that for every banana farmer in Saint
Lucia who has lost his or her livelihood at least six
persons have also been excised from direct
participation in the economic system. The WTO has
become synonymous with pain and suffering for
farmers in Saint Lucia. In many instances the
implementation of some of the obligations has created
more hardship and poverty than previously existed.
Accordingly, while economic and trade policy reform
in principle holds much promise for small developing
countries, the international community must come to
grips with the fact that the one-size-fits-all approach is
inappropriate and impractical. In this connection, a set
of trading rules flexible enough to take into account the
concerns of small States must be enacted. The principle
of special and differential treatment must infuse all
aspects of the new trade rules that we seek to create.
There is much unfinished business ahead of us. It
is our expectation that the members of the Assembly
will focus even more intently on the development of
appropriate strategies for its resolution. We are
confident that under your guidance and leadership,
Madam President, the development agenda of the
Organization will be advanced further. For its part,
Saint Lucia remains committed to the ideals of
multilateralism, and reaffirms its view that the United
Nations offers the best opportunity for the achievement
of peace, security and sustainable development for all.