JAM

Mr. President, it is my pleasure to associate my delegation with the warm congratulations addressed to you by other representatives upon your election to the Presidency of this eighteenth session of the General Assembly. Your unanimous election is particularly satisfying to us in Jamaica, your friends and neighbours in the Caribbean, because it expresses a universally high regard for your own personal qualities. It is satisfying also because it is in part a special mark of respect for your great country, whose unfaltering determination to protect its restored democracy we admire and applaud. 2. This session of the Assembly, as others have pointed out, opens under most favourable auspices. Less than a year ago one of the gravest crises since the Second World War hung over us. It was a crisis of particular gravity for my country, which was so close to the area of potential conflagration. Nothing more eloquently expounds the interdependence of nations in this modern world than our position in that confrontation between the two great nuclear Powers. At peace with all the countries directly concerned, having no interest in imposing our way of life on anyone, yet against our will we would have been as heavily involved as Cuba itself had that crisis exploded into atomic hostilities. Fortunately for us, the concern for peaceful coexistence and the will to resist combined to remove the crisis which hung over the proceedings of our previous session. The experience of those days reinforces the desire of Jamaica's people to keep the whole Caribbean area free from nuclear arms. Indeed, we should wish to see all Latin America so kept free. We noted with complete satisfaction the decision of the United Nations two Assemblies ago that the continent of Africa should be recognized as a denuclearized zone [resolution 1652 (XVI)]; we should wish to see as large a part of the globe as possible kept free of these dangerous weapons. So Jamaica welcomes the proposal for a denuclearized Latin America, and we will co-operate with the other Member States in our region in working out the details of the proposed weapon-free zone —the limits of the zone, the categories of weapons to be excluded and appropriate methods of verification. If the other Governments wish to take the first steps to this end within the Latin American regional organization, Jamaica will await the results of their efforts. We will not disguise, however, our preference for action on this subject to be taken within the United Nations system and our belief that final binding arrangements will be most effectively secured through the United Nations. 3. Since last we met in this Assembly, the Moscow Treaty on nuclear tests has been signed. Many Members of the United Nations were long ago convinced that no real technical difficulties stood in the way of an agreement to ban nuclear tests in the three environments to which this Treaty applies, Our country hastened to sign the Treaty, although we have neither means nor pretensions to become a nuclear Power. We made haste to sign as an affirmation of our support for the principle of the test ban and as an expression of hope that countries with genuine capacity to become nuclear Powers would be encouraged to do the same. 4. Seldom have the nations spoken so unanimously as they have since the Moscow Treaty was announced that the present agreement should be only a beginning and that the nuclear Powers must seize the opportunity to reach a wider area of agreement on disarmament. The stage is now set for negotiations to ban testing in the fourth region, underground. I trust that the Foreign Minister of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics will already have received encouraging responses to his proposal that disarmament should be examined anew within the framework of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament. We wish to see the Ministers and Plenipotentiaries set to work immediately to prepare the way for a conference at the highest level. 5. At this moment it behoves us all to welcome every gesture which represents a reaching out towards the other side, and to grasp every hand that is extended, and to let no opportunity pass which might serve to diminish the influence of suspicion in the relations between great Powers. 6. Often in the history of nations and civilizations a whole generation lives out its little life by the rules and standards of a bygone age, oblivious of the fact that the current of history and the march of ideas have passed it by. Let it not be said that in this generation one nation continued to dispute with the other about areas of national sovereignty, about means of protecting national security, ignorant of the fact that the hydrogen bomb has eliminated the resort to force as a means of settling international disagreements. 7. We, the developing nations, need some of the resources which the great military nations now devote to armaments. We need them to enable us to develop our resources, to increase the outlets for our products, to pay our workers fair wages and our farmers fair prices, to improve the educational opportunities for our children and, by increasing the general demand for goods and services, to raise the standards of living for our people. Without failing to appreciate the benefits of bilateral economic aid, Jamaica continues to prefer that international financial capital for developing countries should be provided on a multilateral basis. We want to see the United Nations Capital Development Fund established and we remain convinced that the advanced countries can most easily and immediately find the means to contribute towards the establishment of this Fund by diverting resources from armaments. The simplest and yet very possible method of providing funds for international development is for the great nations to agree upon a standstill in their budgetary appropriations for armaments. 8. In addition to the main international issues of disarmament and political affairs, I wish to deal with certain other questions before the Assembly on which my Government is most concerned that positive decisions should be made early. I would mention first among these matters the proposal for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. We have seen the reports of the first two sessions of the Preparatory Committee for this Conference. We have studied the recommendations of the Economic and Social Council on these reports. Jamaica regrets to have to record our deep disappointment with the results of the Preparatory Committee's efforts up to now. Some progress has been made in the second session, and it is clear that the great nations of the East and West are preparing to take the Conference very seriously, but something is still missing. In the last session too much time was devoted by the advanced countries to competitive pronouncements about what they regard as the wonderful expansion which has already taken place in their trade with developing countries. We do not consider it enough for the great economic Powers in each trading bloc simply to continue their present programmes for expansion of trade or simply to increase by some small percentage their volume of imports from developing countries. 9. Last year, when the date of the Conference was a subject of intense disagreement and Jamaica's representative, speaking from this rostrum (1145th meeting), urged our colleagues amongst the developing nations to give in to the great Powers in their insistence on a date in 1964, it was not to enable the advanced countries to attend a world conference merely to tell us how well they had done up to now. We expected the big Powers to arrive at the Conference table genuinely determined to make real concessions in the sphere of international trade, we expected them to recognize that the widening gap between the high income and low income countries combined with rising populations in these poorer countries was a serious problem, a problem which required completely new and revolutionary solutions. 10. We are expecting, for example, the developed countries to withdraw their subsidies to beet sugar and to leave the developing countries to supply the world market for this commodity since we can produce it efficiently and cheaply. It is this sort of deliberate self-denial that we expected to emerge from the Trade Conference. Let me express the hope that before the third session of the Conference convenes some such view of the necessities of the moment will have gained acceptance amongst the economically advanced countries, 11. I now turn to the problem of colonialism. Jamaica reaffirms its unswerving opposition to colonialism in all its forms. We are concerned to see the continent of Africa rid of it. We join our colleagues, the indigenous people of Africa, in their determination that the people of Angola and Mozambique should be liberated from European domination as quickly as possible. 12. On the subject of apartheid and the policies of the Government of South Africa our stand is well known. Jamaica was among the first of the countries to impose an embargo on South African trade. We make it known once more that we abhor the reprehensible policy which has become the religion of the Government of that country. We deeply regret that the policy of the Opposition Party does not differ appreciably from that of Dr. Verwoerd. 13. My Government has taken all measures necessary internally and externally to comply in the fullest terms possible with the provisions of General Assembly resolution 1761 (XVII) of 6 November 1962, and will co-operate with our friends in Africa to the best of our ability to see the shame of apartheid removed from the continent which gave us the majority of our ancestors. 14. Nevertheless, we believe that South Africa's future must be redemption, not destruction, not even self-destruction, and we doubt whether the nation can be redeemed from outside. So I appeal to the liberal elements within that country to abandon their support of the suicidal policies of their Government, and to show to the world that a group exists which is willing to accord the native African his just rights and is, therefore, a group whose efforts well-intentioned outsiders can support. 15. We, the United Nations, cannot allow ourselves to confess that the problem of apartheid defeats us. If a solution through one approach is delayed, then other avenues must be tried. I appeal to those nations without whose support the South African Government could not long continue its suicidal policy to abandon their support, and so bring the Government and its followers to their senses. 16. The next urgent problem is support for United Nations peace-keeping activities. I welcome the generous initiative which the Scandinavian countries have taken in placing national forces at the disposal of the Secretary-General, and I welcome the evidence which we have received since this debate began that other nations are prepared to do the same. A means must, however, be found of financing peace-keeping activities whenever the United Nations should decide to embark upon them, and it is important in my Government's view that the method of financing should not be left to be determined ad hoc as each new assignment is undertaken. In the appropriate committee, my delegation will submit for consideration by our colleagues a formula for a scale of assessments based upon the eminently fair and reasonable principles which were adopted in resolution 1874 (S-IV) at the fourth special session. 17. The next issue on which we look forward to a settlement within this session is the holding of a conference for the purpose of reviewing the Charter. Most Member States have expressed their views on this question and there appears to be a wide measure of agreement that the time is not ripe for a conference on general revision of the Charter. However, with notable and few exceptions, there is further agreement that action should be taken under Article 108 of the Charter to provide for increased membership of two of the main organs of the United Nations. I will not weary the Assembly with a repetition of the arguments. It is sufficient to say that, in my opinion, a Security Council with fifteen members would not be an unwieldy instrument and would discharge its responsibilities as effectively, if not more so, than the present Council of eleven members. 18. In regard to the Economic and Social Council, great emphasis has been placed on the need to ensure that the various continents and regions are adequately represented. I should like to press the claim of the small countries who axe parts of no large continent and of no large regional groups. I would, stress the importance, moreover, of ensuring that in any enlargement of this Council provision is made for countries in all stages of economic development to be represented. It is not enough simply to have the under-developed countries "en bloc". Those in the earliest stages, those on the verge of the start to self-sustaining growth, and the large and potentially wealthy developing countries should all be represented. 19. I come now to item 79 on the agenda of this session. Representatives were good enough to agree some days ago that the proposal to designate the year 1968 as International Year for Human Rights should form part of the agenda and should be referred to the Third Committee [1210th meeting]. The year 1968 will be the twentieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That historic document has immeasurably influenced political and social thought during its fifteen years of existence. One after another, the new nations have enshrined its principles in their constitutions. But we must move on from declarations of principle, which are binding on no one, to conventions and binding agreements. 20. In proposing that a year should be set aside for the twentieth anniversary celebrations, Jamaica has two thoughts in mind: first, that the year should be an event and, secondly, that it should be a target. We contend that the community of nations should, in 1968, call at least one, perhaps two, international conferences at which progress in the field of human rights will be reviewed and that progress celebrated with appropriate ceremonies. Delegations to that conference would report on the advances made in their own countries in eliminating particular denials of human rights in whatever form and by whatever name- apartheid, segregation, Jim Crow, or colour prejudice. We hope that all nations will be able to report that the grosser denials of fundamental freedoms like slavery and institutions bordering on slavery, will everywhere have disappeared. We hope also that international practice on the condition of refugees and the right of asylum will be reported as settled and agreed. But the year should also serve as a target towards which the United Nations and the Member States would work in their efforts to give effect to the principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and the United Nations and the specialized agencies should prepare a schedule of goals to be achieved by that time. 21. We contend, too, that Governments whose efforts to give effect to particular freedoms and rights are being delayed or opposed by reactionary elements within their own borders, should be able to use the observance of the international year and the need to report to the world on their internal measures, as a means of bringing pressure to bear on recalcitrants. 22. I trust that those delegations which, in the Commission on Human Rights, have advocated an international year for freedom from discrimination, and other celebrations, will join in supporting our draft resolution on the International Year for Human Rights. 23. Finally, let me emphasize, in the name of the Government and people of Jamaica, our conviction of the incalculable benefits of this Organization for the promotion of peace and progress for mankind. It is imperative that all Member States give the fullest support to the maintenance of this Organization and the expansion of its influence and use, and maintain confidence in the staff at all times. The Government and people of Jamaica are pledged to play their part fully in this respect.