Fiji

My country and my delegation wish to take this opportunity to extend to Mr. Didier Opertti our warmest congratulations on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-third session. His election to the high office is a tribute to both him and his great country. My delegation also wishes to convey our deep gratitude and appreciation to the outgoing President at the fifty-second session of the Assembly, His Excellency Hennadiy Udovenko of Ukraine, who presided with boundless energy, vision and competence. Change is a fact of life in our world. Change covers new paradigms, new systems, new technologies, new patterns in international relations and new initiatives aimed at lasting peace and international security. Thus we welcomed the wind of change in the area of nuclear disarmament when we adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) two years ago. My country was the first to ratify the Treaty. But the more things change, the more they remain the same. Some months ago, India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests. My delegation calls on India and Pakistan to reconsider their nuclear pretensions and to become parties to the CTBT. We call on all countries to become parties to this Treaty and to fully implement the provisions of the Treaty. My delegation would like to see the CTBT improved to set a clear time-frame for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. As an imperative for meaningful change, my 24 delegation urges all nuclear-weapon States to destroy all stockpiles and arsenals of nuclear weapons, and in so doing rid our world, once and for all, of nuclear weapons. My delegation also calls for meaningful change regarding the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction. Let us rid our world of chemical weapons and biological weapons. We call on all nations to become parties to the landmines Convention so that we can all act collaboratively and meaningfully to rid our world of landmines as well. Over the past three decades, the developing countries of the world have waged a desperate struggle for fundamental change in international economic relations in order to attain economic justice and facilitate economic development and sustained economic growth — thereby laying the foundation for eradicating the problems of high unemployment, hunger, disease and poverty, which ravage the least developed and developing countries. The establishment of the World Trade Organization was supposed to have laid the foundation for a new system of international trade relations which would contribute to the development of developing and least developed countries. As a developing island State, we seek Members? support and indulgence in understanding the special needs and the vulnerability of small island States. They should be differentiated further, as a separate group of disadvantaged States. The work has already started on the determination of criteria for such differentiation based on a vulnerability index. Among the members of the United Nations organizations, development is measured through the human development index, which takes into account the expansion of gross domestic product, real gross domestic product per capita, life expectancy of the population and other yardsticks. However, the hurricane that recently struck a number of islands in the Caribbean, the devastating tidal wave in northern Papua New Guinea and extreme drought conditions in many countries, including mine, demonstrate the vulnerability of small island States to natural disasters. We also sympathize with China and Bangladesh, which have suffered from extensive and prolonged flooding. In Fiji, the Government right now is providing special food and water relief assistance to more than 54,000 households, or more than a quarter of Fiji?s total population. Because of the drought, we are expecting this year a 50 per cent reduction in our production of sugar, which is our main export, and there is no guarantee for an improvement for next year. Also, because of the drought, we do not have seeds of sufficient quality to allow for a quick recovery in the foreseeable future. Such is our vulnerability, and no part of the aforementioned index has any real relevance to our calamity. Things may have changed, with new names and new systems, but, alas, it is the same old story. I appeal to the United Nations development support system to consider special schemes of assistance covering natural disaster situations. There are already examples of such schemes in the Lomé Convention between the European Union member countries and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States. The creation of the World Trade Organization was intended to lay the foundation for changes in international trade by ensuring an open, secure, equitable, transparent and predictable multilateral trading system. Yet developing countries continue to be paid paltry prices for their primary products; they continue to be denied access, under one pretext or another, to the markets of the developed countries; and even the little export trade we have is being taken away, as in the case of Saint Lucia and its banana exports to the European Union. Export trade is vital to economic development and sustained economic growth in developing countries. My delegation calls for remedial change in international trade — facilitating better prices for primary products, greater access to the markets of developed countries and the retention of special trade arrangements for the essential exports of developing countries. We in the developing countries require substantial foreign investment capital flows to promote economic development, sustained economic growth and social and human development. Regrettably, there has been little change in the volume of international capital flows, the pace of such flows and the direction of such flows. Where flows have taken place, they have been directed to a handful of developing countries. My delegation calls for strategic change in the area of foreign investment through substantial, increased and continuous capital flows to developing countries. 25 We in the developing countries require new, environmentally sound technologies to facilitate and sustain economic development and social and human development. There is a dire need for us to participate in and benefit from appropriate, environmentally sound technologies. Yet despite our pleas for the cooperation and assistance of the industrialized countries for reciprocal change — by the transfer of appropriate technologies at an affordable price, by assisting us in institutional development and capacity- building to accommodate the transfer of such technologies and by assisting us with funding, education and training programmes to facilitate the transfer and stimulate increased cooperation at a business-to-business level — the situation has remained virtually the same. Sustainable development is critical to small island developing States such as mine, for which the paramount challenge is to balance economic and social development with environmental protection. Six years have passed since the first Earth Summit in Rio, and the second summit has come and gone. Little progress has been made in securing new sources of financing for making the transition to sustainable development. My delegation calls for stimulating change on the issue of sustainable development through the prompt and full implementation of the commitments and recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The reform of the United Nations to make it more relevant to today?s world and more responsive to the needs, aspirations and hopes of the international community in all aspects of international relations has engaged our attention over the years, and more so last year with the presentation of the Secretary-General?s reform programme. If the reform of the United Nations is to bring about purposeful change, then the Charter of the United Nations should be revised to remove the anachronisms contained in it and to make it more relevant to our world today and tomorrow. A geographical reconstruction of regional groups adapted to the geopolitical dimensions of today?s world ought to be implemented. We submit that the current set of regional groups should be increased numerically and reconfigured. My delegation further submits that the membership of all United Nations organs and organizations should be governed by the principle of geographic rotation, so that each country can enjoy its right as a Member to serve on all United Nations bodies. The current system of rotation has resulted in some countries becoming de facto permanent members of the United Nations organs and organizations. The Security Council is a classic example of things remaining the same. Membership on the Council, permanent and non-permanent, continues to be geographically inequitable. The system of rotation does not provide all Member countries the opportunity to serve on the Council, and the system is further aggravated by the number of regional groups and their geographical configuration. My delegation continues to call for a review of the membership and operations of the Council. International peace and security has been one of the main pillars of the United Nations. This year marks 50 years of United Nations peacekeeping as an instrument for maintaining international peace and security. Yet we all are still beset by conflicts of one kind or another, and lasting peace and security in our world continues to elude us. My country is fully committed to the international peacekeeping missions of the United Nations. In fact, this year also marks 20 years of participation by my country in United Nations peacekeeping. I should like to take this opportunity to pay homage to our brave sons who have made the supreme sacrifice in the service of international peace and security. Because of the eminent contribution of international peacekeeping to permanent and lasting peace and security in our world, we call on all Member countries to settle their assessments for peacekeeping operations promptly and fully. My delegation would like to take this opportunity to express to the Secretary-General our sincere and deep appreciation for citing Fiji, among other countries, as consistently among the stalwart nations ready to contribute troops, police and observers and to take other steps to improve overall readiness. My delegation deeply appreciates the meaningful change that has taken place in the scale of assessments of Member countries. My country welcomes the new assessment rates. But while such a beneficial measure has taken place, the arrears in the annual contributions of some Member countries continue to plague our coffers and to place the finances of our organizations and our many and varied international programmes in jeopardy. My delegation calls on all Member countries which are in arrears in payment to pay those arrears promptly, fully and without conditions. At a time when so many changes have taken place in our world in the areas of human development and human rights, the bleak future of the world?s indigenous people has remained the same. My delegation calls on the 26 international community to be more responsive to the need for a better future for our indigenous people. In the interest of meaningful change, my delegation calls for the speedy adoption of the draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the setting up in our Organization of a unit for indigenous peoples? affairs, the granting to the indigenous people of the right of self-determination, and the establishment of an international fund to promote and facilitate their survival, development and progress. My delegation is aware that the most pervasive violation of human rights is violence against women, which cuts across all boundaries of culture, economic status and geography. In this connection, the Government of the Republic of the Fiji Islands has maintained the commitments entered into at Beijing through the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and met its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In promoting greater participation by women in economic and social development, a major initiative by the Government will be the launch by our Prime Minister, in the next few days, of its National Plan of Action. Addressed in the Plan will be areas such as the development and strengthening of women?s enterprises, gender parity at decision-making levels, training, promotion and appointments, domestic violence, sexual abuse and child abuse, and review of laws which disadvantage women. One area of meaningful change in our world has been the Convention on the Law of the Sea. It enjoys universal support and almost universal participation, and all States benefit from the stability and certainty that has been achieved by the Convention. The work being done with respect to the oceans requires the support of the international community if the achievements of the Convention are to be consolidated and its promise of benefits to the peoples of the world realized. Sadly, the more things have changed in the Middle East, the more they seem to have remained the same. Peace in the Middle East remains as elusive and perpetually shifting as the Negev desert. The international community must play a stronger and more decisive role in getting the peace process on track, keeping it there and ensuring that it moves at a faster rate. We call on all the parties to the crisis to pursue positive and genuine negotiations to effect meaningful change through compromise and achieve a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. My delegation calls for conciliatory change in Lebanon with the full implementation of resolution 425 (1978) in order that Lebanon may fully enjoy its territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence. Similarly, my delegation believes that a concessional change is necessary to find a solution to the situation in Kosovo. My delegation calls on the parties to the internecine conflict to enter into constructive dialogue on a political solution that should include a substantially greater degree of autonomy and meaningful self- administration in the territory. The issue of Taiwan has remained unchanged. China and Taiwan contribute significantly to the development of the South Pacific region. My country is committed to a one-China policy and enjoys very good relations with both China and Taiwan. We therefore warmly welcome the renewed talks between China and Taiwan and hope that they will lead to profitable change on the Taiwan issue. Likewise, on the Korean peninsula, we urge South Korea and North Korea to continue their dialogue to amicably resolve their common future. The removal of tension and the resolution of remaining international disputes in East Asia are vitally important to the maintenance of peace and security in the entire Asia and Pacific region. For the Fiji Islands and other small island countries in the South Pacific, permanent peace in the wider Asia-Pacific region has a direct bearing on our economic future. Given my country?s commitment to global peace, the Government of the Republic of the Fiji Islands strongly condemns international terrorism in all its violent forms. It is a scourge, and all States should treat it as such. My delegation urges universal condemnation of such indiscriminate acts of violence, and we pledge to cooperate with all other members of the General Assembly in preventing such acts and in bringing those responsible to justice. We welcome the recent adoption at Rome of the statute of the International Criminal Court, and we express our gratitude to the Italian Government for hosting the conference at which this took place. Last but not least, my delegation wishes to inform the Assembly that a new Constitution of Fiji was 27 promulgated on 27 July 1998. Pursuant to the coming into force of the new Constitution, the name of our country has been changed to the Republic of the Fiji Islands. An innovative feature of the new Constitution is that it makes provision for the formation of a multi-party system of Government through representation in the Cabinet of all political parties that secure a certain number of seats in Parliament. The new Constitution also makes provision for the appointment of a Human Rights Commission and a Constitutional Offices Commission. The Government of the Republic of the Fiji Islands considers the promulgation of the new Constitution as laying the foundation for meaningful change in our multiracial country. General elections under the new Constitution are due to be held next year. Change is a paradox in international relations. If we are to fashion a new and better international community in which international democracy is to prevail and in which the development and progress of all nations is to be engendered, we, collectively and in collaboration, have to inculcate change in the many issues which my delegation has enumerated. We must make meaningful change in our world an international imperative.